Company reorganization and production partnerships
In January 2015, board member Christopher Sinclair replaced CEO Bryan Stockton, which was followed by two-thirds of senior executives resigning or receiving layoffs.
On April 19, 2018, Mattel named former Maker Studios CEO Ynon Kreiz as chairman and replacement CEO for outgoing CEO Georgiadis, who proceeded to lead Ancestry.com (effective April 26, 2018). Two months later, the company laid off 2,200 employees partly because of the liquidation of Toys "R" Us in the U.S. Kreiz started a reorganization of Mattel, which included a new board of directors; in addition, a global franchise management group and executives having entertainment backgrounds were charged with finding new opportunities in existing markets.
On 30 August 2018, Mattel announced the formation of a global franchise management division, to be led by Janet Hsu as chief franchise management officer. The division's mandate was to seek new commercial opportunities, as well as bring together consumer products, content development and distribution, digital gaming, live events, and partnerships. Hsu had previously been the CEO of Saban Brands, where Frederic Soulie last worked before being appointed as senior vice president of content distribution and business development in Mattel's franchise division on September 28, 2018. Hot Wheels celebrated its 50th anniversary the same year by recreating and selling the original 16 Hot Wheels die-cast cars as a set. In September of the same year, the Thomas & Friends franchise announced an alliance with the United Nations to introduce some of the organization's Sustainable Development Goals into the show's content; these goals included quality education, gender equality, clean water and sanitation, sustainable cities and communities, responsible consumption and production, and life on land.
On December 24, 2018, Mattel announced the loss of the DC Comics toy license to Spin Master, starting in the spring of 2020. Mattel's share price hit an 18-year low, closing at $9.25 per share.
Mattel reorganized the Mattel Creations division and renamed it Mattel Television on February 5, 2019; it would be headed by former Disney Branded Television programming executive Adam Bonnett. On June 30, 2020, Fred Soulie was "role-tripled" to general manager and senior vice president of the new division.
On March 9, 2019, Mattel celebrated the Barbie doll's 60th anniversary. As part of the anniversary celebrations, Mattel released 20 new role-model dolls in its Shero line to recognize influential women around the world. Mattel donated $1 from each doll sale to its Dream Gap Project Fund, which aimed to collaborate with other organizations on ending the problem of girls seeing themselves as less capable than boys.
In June 2019, Mattel released a new Hot Wheels ID line of cars, which contained embedded near-field communication (NFC) chips, so that customers could scan the cars and then build tracks, race cars, and view race statistics in combined digital and physical play. On December 16, Mattel released an update that allowed children to scan their cars into an app and then access different coding exercises. On August 19, 2019, Mattel announced a reboot of the He-Man and the Masters of the Universe brand, including new toy lines and brand extensions, a new comic book series, and a Netflix series.
In October 2019, Mattel released the toy line Hot Wheels Monster Trucks, which included a full line of die-cast vehicles and a national live-event tour, Hot Wheels Monster Trucks Live. The company also released a line of gender-neutral dolls called the "Creatable World". Mattel Children's Foundation announced and organized its second annual "Global Day of Play"—a company-wide community service initiative that focused on working with nonprofits and organizations globally to provide children a day that was focused on the impact of play.
Warner Music Group's Arts Music division arranged to become the distributor of Mattel's music catalog on May 1, 2020. Arts Music planned to make available hundreds of previously unreleased songs and new songs for existing brands, starting with the May 8th digital launch of the Thomas & Friends birthday album; this was managed by ADA Worldwide under the pseudonym label "Mattel–Arts Music". Also in May 2020, Mattel announced an initiative known as "Play it Forward" that focused on using Mattel brands to give back to the community. The first Play it Forward program was #ThankYouHeroes, which included a collection of action figures and Little People characters who represented people who worked essential jobs during the COVID-19 pandemic—such as doctors, nurses, emergency medical technicians (EMTs), and delivery drivers. On October 15, 2020, Mattel celebrated Fisher-Price's 90th anniversary by creating the virtual Toy Museum, which featured more than 90 different exhibits created by artist, set designer, and photographer Leila Fakouri. Mattel Creations was also launched that month: it is an e-commerce and content platform. It features limited-edition, curated items made in collaboration with pop-culture artists. The site's inaugural collection included the Artist Collaboration Collection, featuring the brands Barbie, Masters of the Universe, Hot Wheels, and Magic 8 Ball, as well as artists Gianni Lee, Cristina Martinez, Travis Ragsdale, and Distortedd.
On October 12, 2020, Mattel greenlit more than 140 new episodes and two specials for the Thomas & Friends franchise, in partnership with Corus Entertainment's Nelvana Studios. However, Mattel retooled the project into a traditionally animated reboot titled Thomas & Friends: All Engines Go, which began on September 13, 2021. That reboot ended the show after 24 series/seasons over 37 years.
On November 20, 2021, Mattel launched a non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace to allow fans to purchase digital collectibles for its flagship brands Barbie and Hot Wheels.
Mattel again became the licensed doll maker for Disney Princess in January 2022, replacing Hasbro. The newest collection of dolls was available for purchase in January 2023.
On April 5, 2022, the Mattel board of directors, led by its CEO, Ynon Kreiz, named the company's chief commercial officer, Steven Totzke, as company co-president with Richard L. Dickson, alongside Totzke's original post; he would continue to report to Kreiz as before.
On May 25, 2022, Mattel launched the first transgender Barbie doll, inspired by Laverne Cox. In the same year, MINISO Group Holding Limited began its partnership with Mattel to produce Barbie-themed products, as well as become their official merchandise partner and official accessories supplier for Barbie globally. More than 120 variants of MINISO-Mattel collaboration products were officially launched by July 21, 2023, in China and the U.S., coinciding with the theatrical release of the film Barbie. The products were launched in several locations, including the following: MINISO headquarters in Guangzhou; MINISO's flagship stores in Changsha and Hanoi, Vietnam; the Chinese Mattel branch offices in Shanghai and Foshan; MINISO's flagship stores in Irvine Spectrum and Times Square; and Mattel's headquarters in El Segundo, California.
In April 2023, Mattel introduced a Barbie doll with Down syndrome in collaboration with the National Down Syndrome Society (NDSS); the company continued to expand its Barbie line to include more dolls representing people with Down syndrome and vision impairments in 2024. This initiative was part of Mattel's efforts to promote diversity and inclusivity, representing a wider range of children in its toy lines. In the same year, MINISO Group Holding Ltd. acquired a percentage of Mattel's shares, after successfully releasing the Barbie-themed collaboration products starting in 2023, as part of the Mattel-MINISO intellectual property (IP) partnership. The acquisition was officially announced at the Barbie 65th-anniversary celebration in April 2024, after the opening of the company's largest Barbie-themed store in Malaysia on March 30, 2024 (located at Berjaya Times Square in Kuala Lumpur).
In July 2024, Mattel was approached by the private equity firm L Catterton with an offer for a total buyout acquisition. This offer was ultimately declined. Also in July 2024, Mattel released a Sue Bird doll as part of the Barbie 65th-anniversary celebration, coinciding with the launch of the new "Give Limitless Possibilities" campaign for Barbie.
In November 2024, it was discovered on the social network X (formerly Twitter) that a brand of Wicked-themed dolls produced by the company inadvertently linked to an adult website instead of the website for the Wicked movie. Mattel apologized for the error, and it asked parents who had bought products with the incorrect website to destroy the packaging. Earlier the same year, one of the film's songs—Ariana Grande's version of "Popular"—was leaked via Mattel-produced singing dolls, causing a minor backlash.
In December 2024, Mattel released the Barbie Deluxe Style line, which focused heavily on the Barbiecore trend and Glam aesthetics. This line was released on the Mattel Creations website.
In May 2025, Mattel released the first Mattel Brick Shop building set, in collaboration with the Hot Wheels brand.
On June 2, 2025, Mattel announced the combining of its audiovisual production divisions, Mattel Films and Mattel Television (internally known as Mattel Television Studios), into a successor division named Mattel Studios, which would perform both functions; these divisions were discontinued as separate units within the company. This combination could be seen as a revival of the brand (and banner) that Mattel used occasionally between 2011 and 2013, in place of the main corporate logo in the closing credits of media products for the Monster High, Ever After High, and Polly Pocket franchises. Consequently, productions in development at both Mattel Films and Mattel Television would be absorbed into (or transferred to) the new division. Along with the announcement, Mattel promoted and transferred the head of its filming division (Mattel Films), Robbie Brenner, to the new division as president and chief content officer. Mattel Studios also named former Legendary Entertainment executive vice president of television and digital media, Jennifer Breslow, as the head of its television section; Mattel also named Darian Lanzetta, a former motion picture literary agent at the Creative Artists Agency (CAA), and Tom McNulty, former principal/president at MC Squared Media, as co-heads of its filming section. All three were expected to report to Brenner on Mattel's future media decisions.
On July 8, 2025, Mattel launched the first Barbie doll with type-1 diabetes, along with two new dolls: Peloton fitness instructor Robin Arzon from the U.S., and model Lila Moss from the UK.
In February 2025, Mattel reacquired the global license to produce DC Comics-themed toys, including action figures and play sets, through a multi-year agreement with Warner Bros. Discovery that begins during the second half of 2026. On August 14, Mattel launched a One-of-a-Kind Barbie Doll to celebrate its 80th anniversary, coinciding with the 80th anniversary of the Independence of Indonesia.
In 2025, Mattel announced that it was adding a Ken doll modeled after LeBron James to its Barbie toy line. The doll was an inch taller than a standard Ken doll.
In February 2026, Paramount named Mattel as its master toy licensee for Paramount's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise, thereby replacing the company Playmates Toys. That same month, Mattel announced the acquisition of NetEase's stake in the Mattel163 game development company for $159 million. This acquisition granted Mattel full ownership of the business following previous collaboration with NetEase on the development studio. The transaction was expected by the end of the first quarter in 2026.
