Toys Sold to Louisiana and Texas Parents by Mattel has Adult Link on Box

Kids in Louisiana and Texas could find a shocking surprise with their holiday toys this year thanks to a massive error by Mattel. The packing for their line of toys tied to the new film "Wicked" features a link to an adult website.

The company has admitted to this error, but has only issues suggestions on how purchasers of the toys can "correct" the issue. While they say that they "deeply regret" the error, they have yet to announce any plans to correct the issue from the company's side.

What Has Mattel Said for Louisiana and Texas Parents Who Bought These?

So far Mattel has issued a statement apologizing, and telling parents to "discard the packaging" or "obscure" it from children. They say you can also contact their Customer Service for more info. Literally, that's it.

The toys in question appear to have been pulled from retail sites, like those belonging to Target, Walmart, Macy's, Kohl's, and Amazon. But it does not appear that this is due to a "recall" by Mattel, but rather a move by the retailers to limit their damage due to the issue.

What is the Error?

This error surrounds the Mattel "Wicked" collection dolls which printed the link to Wicked.com instead of WickedMovie.com, which are two drastically different websites.

In the wake of this error, some collectors have started rushing to buy as many of these dolls as possible. On sites like eBay, some of the dolls have sold for as much as $250 to collectors. With two sets of the error dolls selling for over $1,000 in two different sales.

How Could This Happen?

In an interesting and possibly connected story, Mattel was just celebrated a month ago for utilizing artificial intelligence (AI) to replace human employees to create the packaging for their toys. The company AdAge published a piece on October 11th, 2024 about the company's efforts to "streamline" the package design with generative AI for their 2024 holiday season.

Its currently unknown if this error on the "Wicked" toys was due to this issue or not. Could just be odd timing.