Barbie Queen of the Prom is a children's board game first published by Mattel in 1960, based on the popular Barbie doll franchise. The game has been revised and republished several times.
Barbie Queen of the Prom is a children's board game first published by Mattel in 1960, based on the popular Barbie doll franchise. The game has been revised and republished several times.
Barbie Queen of the Prom is a children's board game for 2 to 4 players. The game includes 4 character pieces, a board, a die, fake money, and "Surprise!" cards.
Players take on the role of Barbie and travel around the board by rolling the die. The aim of the game is to reach the center of the board to be crowned prom queen. Each player must complete various tasks in order to achieve the criteria needed: [1]
The quick success of the Barbie doll in the late 1950s encouraged Mattel to produce toys and games related to the franchise. In 1960, this included the games Barbie's Keys to Fame and Barbie Queen of the Prom. [3] The latter game proved popular and it was published until the 1970s.
The game was republished in 1991 as Barbie Queen of the Prom - 1990s Edition. In 1994, a replica of the original game was released to coincide with the game's 35th anniversary. [1] Another version was released in 2006 titled The Barbie Game Queen of the Prom. [4]
Mary Kay Verhoff recalled this as her favorite game when she was a child, writing, "The problem was that all my little girlfriends and I wanted the same dates for the prom, either Tom or Ken. Bob was okay, but no one ever wanted to get stuck with the nerdy Pointdexter! Furthermore, when you were just about to become queen, you had to return home to wash your hair or because you had a headache. No wonder girls learned from a young age all about headaches! We played that game over and over until the board and pieces all wore out." [5]
Rick Polizzi, writing in Spin Again: Board Games from the Fifties and Sixties, sarcastically pointed out, "Mattel promoted this as a game with real-life appeal. What could be more realistic? All you had to do was become president of a school club, buy the right evening dress with your meager allowance and the baby-sitting money you'd saved, get a steady boyfriend, and, that's it, you win!" [6]
In Barbie's Queer Accessories, Erica Rand noted that, despite Mattel's commitment to greater diversity, even by 1991 the game was clearly not in keeping with that since "a blond, white Barbie graced the cover of the new Barbie Queen of the Prom." [7]
A copy of Barbie Queen of the Prom is held in the collection of the Strong National Museum of Play (object 92.1396). [8]
Mattel, Inc. is an American multinational toy manufacturing and entertainment company founded in Los Angeles by Harold Matson and the husband-and-wife duo of Ruth and Elliot Handler in January 1945 and headquartered in El Segundo, California. Mattel has a presence in 35 countries and territories; its products are sold in more than 150 countries. Mattel consists of three business segments: North America, International and American Girl.
Barbie is a fashion doll created by American businesswoman Ruth Handler, manufactured by American toy company Mattel and launched in 1959. The toy is the figurehead of the Barbie brand that includes a range of fashion dolls and accessories. Barbie has been an important part of the toy fashion doll market for over six decades. Mattel has sold over a billion Barbie dolls, making it the company's largest and most profitable line. The brand has expanded into a multimedia franchise since the late 1980s, including video games, computer-animated films, and a live-action film.
Kenneth Sean "Ken" Carson is a fashion doll introduced by American toy company Mattel in 1961 as the counterpart of Barbie, who had been introduced two years earlier.
Margaret "Midge" Hadley Sherwood is a doll character in the Barbie line of toys by Mattel that was first released in 1963. She was marketed as Barbie's best friend.
Ruth Marianna Handler was an American businesswoman and inventor. She is best known for inventing the Barbie doll in 1959, and being co-founder of toy manufacturer Mattel with her husband Elliot, as well as serving as the company's first president from 1945 to 1975.
Skipper Roberts is a doll created by Mattel in 1964 to be Barbie's younger sister.
Since Barbie's introduction as a teenage fashion model in 1959, the doll has been portrayed with many careers. Dolls are sold with sets of clothes and accessories that fit the career being portrayed. For example, the Lifeguard Barbie playset includes a Barbie, an outfit with shoes, a lifeguard chair, a dolphin, and a life preserver, while the Spanish Teacher Barbie includes a Barbie, an outfit with shoes, flashcards, a Spanish quiz, an easel, a notebook, a key chain, and a hairbrush.
Chatty Cathy is a pull-string "talking" doll originally created by Ruth and Elliot Handler and manufactured by the Mattel toy company from 1959 to 1965. The doll was first released in stores and appeared in television commercials beginning in 1960, with a suggested retail price of $18.00, though usually priced under $10.00 in catalog advertisements. Chatty Cathy was on the market for six years and was the second most popular doll of the 1960s after Barbie.
Fashion dolls are dolls primarily designed to be dressed to reflect fashion trends. They are manufactured both as toys for children to play with and as collectibles for adults. The dolls are usually modeled after teen girls or adult women, though child, male, and even some non-human variants exist. Contemporary fashion dolls are typically made of vinyl or another plastic.
MGA Entertainment Inc. is a manufacturer of children's toys and entertainment products founded in 1979. Its products include Bratz, L.O.L. Surprise!, Num Noms, and Rainbow High. MGA also owns Little Tikes and animation studio MGA Studios.
Charmin' Chatty was a doll produced by the toy company Mattel in 1963 and 1964. The doll, introduced at the American Toy Fair in New York City in March 1963, belonged to a line of highly successful talking dolls introduced in 1960. Other chatty dolls in the line were Chatty Baby (1962), Tiny Chatty Baby (1963), Tiny Chatty Brother (1963) and Singin' Chatty (1965). Mattel trademarked the word chatty in the 1960s, and some of the packaging for its talking toys carried the tag line, "A Chatty doll by Mattel" or "A Chatty toy by Mattel". Mattel dolls such as Drowsy, Baby Cheryl, and Tatters had the tag line on their boxes that said, "A Chatty Doll by Mattel."
Tammy was a 12" fashion doll created by the Ideal Toy Company that debuted at the 1962 International Toy Fair. Advertised as "The Doll You Love to Dress", Tammy was portrayed as a young American teenager, more "girl next door" than the cosmopolitan image of Mattel's Barbie, or American Character's Tressy.
The Bild Lilli doll was a West German line of fashion doll launched by Greiner & Hausser GmbH on August 12, 1955, and produced until 1964. Its design was based on the comic-strip character Lilli, created by Reinhard Beuthien for the tabloid newspaper Bild. The doll was made of polystyrene, came in two sizes, and had an available wardrobe of 1950s fashion. The Lilli doll was copied, and altered to some degree, for Mattel upon the direction of that company's co-founder, Ruth Handler. Mattel acquired the rights to Bild Lilli in 1964, and production of the German doll ceased, in favor of Mattel's new vinyl doll, which they called Barbie.
Sindy is a British fashion doll created by Pedigree Dolls & Toys in 1963. A rival to Barbie, Sindy's look and range of fashions and accessories made her the best-selling toy in the United Kingdom in 1968 and 1970. After Marx Toys' unsuccessful attempt to introduce Sindy in the United States in the late 1970s, Hasbro bought the rights to Sindy and remodelled the doll to look more American. As a result, the doll's popularity declined; in addition Barbie manufacturer Mattel filed a lawsuit for copyright infringement, which was settled when Hasbro agreed to remodel Sindy's face. During the 1990s, Barbie's share of the doll market continued to grow while Sindy's diminished, which led to Sindy being delisted from major retailers in 1997. Hasbro returned the doll's licence to Pedigree, and the doll was relaunched in 1999, manufactured by Vivid Imaginations. Sindy's 40th anniversary in 2003 saw a new manufacturer, New Moons, and another relaunch and redesign. There was a further relaunch in 2023.
Maxie's World is an American animated children's television program produced by DIC Animation City. Distributed by Claster Television and Saban International and originally aired in first-run syndication in the United States from September 14, 1987 through October 27, 1987. It consists of one season, comprising a total of 32 episodes, each 15 minutes long. In the series' original run, Maxie's World alternated on weekdays with Beverly Hills Teens and It's Punky Brewster. The series was briefly rerun on USA Network in 1994.
Earring Magic Ken, also known as "Gay Ken" and "Fey Ken", is a model of the Ken doll introduced by Mattel in 1993 as a companion to its Earring Magic Barbie figure, one of five dolls in the Earring Magic Barbie line.
Beginning with the release of an eponymous video game in 1984, Barbie, a fashion doll manufactured by American toy and entertainment company Mattel and debuted on March 9, 1959, has been featured in a media franchise predominantly consisting of a film series and media formats across technologies like television and the Internet. Since then, it has become one of the highest-grossing media franchises of all time and has been referred to among fans as the "Barbie Cinematic Universe".
Teresa is a Mattel fashion doll who is marketed as one of Barbie's fictional friends. Teresa debuted in the "California Dream Teresa" doll in 1988 and since then, she has been Barbie's most frequently featured female companion in the toy line. As of 2006, Teresa has been one of Barbie's core friends in the Barbie brand along with Summer, Nikki and Raquelle.
Monster High is an American multimedia-supported fashion doll franchise created by toy designer Garrett Sander and launched by Mattel in 2010. The show is aimed at children ages 7-14, the franchise features characters inspired by monster movies, sci-fi horror, thriller fiction, folklore, myths and popular culture, centering around the adventures of the teenage children of monsters and other mythical creatures attending a high school of the same name.
