How an outside idea reaches a company, in its own words · checked 2026-10-29
How to sell a toy idea to Mattel
Has a submission portal
Mattel considers no unsolicited ideas. Ideas sent through mymattelideas.com are not held in confidence and earn nothing without a Mattel Royalty Agreement. It has bought American Girl, UNO and Mega Bloks.
“Because of this, in your communications with Mattel, please keep in mind that Mattel does not accept or consider any unsolicited ideas or materials for products or services, or even improvements to products or services, such as ideas, concepts, inventions, or designs for toys, games, videogames, books, scripts, screenplays, motion pictures, television shows, theatrical productions, music productions, or webisodes…”
What you agree to by sending something
“In other words, no confidential relationship is established by Your submission or implied from consideration of the submitted materials, and the materials are not submitted “in confidence.””
“Unless You enter into a specific Mattel Royalty Agreement, You will not receive any monetary payments, whether based on a royalty or otherwise.”
What it says it looks for
“If offered and agreed to, such Royalty Agreement would provide, among other things, for Mattel to pay You a royalty (in the manner described in Section 5(C)) of up to 1.5% of Mattel’s sales of the royalty earning products that use Your Product provided that all of the following conditions are satisfied: (1) Mattel intentionally incorporated Your Product into a Mattel product; (2) Your Product is actually novel…”
“Please share a simple video briefly showing and describing how your product works.”
“The term “Product” means an idea, concept, invention, design, or mechanism for a physical product that Mattel can manufacture and sell to its retail partners or through Mattel’s ecommerce website (e.g., a board or card game, vehicle, playset, doll, action figure, baby gear item).”
What it has bought from outside
1992
Hot Wheels Criss Cross Crash track set from an outside inventor
“No doubt, it’s one of our longest running and most memorable inventor-contributed toys.” mymattelideas.com
1998
American Girl (Pleasant Company) from Pleasant Company (Pleasant Rowland) $700 million
“In 1998, Mattel purchased the company for $700 million. [ 3 ] The company has been awarded the Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Award eight times [ 4 ] and was inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame in 2021. [ 5 ] [ 6 ]” en.wikipedia.org
1992
UNO (International Games) from International Games
“In 1992, International Games became part of the Mattel family of companies. [ 4 ]” en.wikipedia.org
2012
HIT Entertainment (Thomas & Friends) from HIT Entertainment
“On 1 February 2012, HIT Entertainment was acquired by Mattel, as Mattel was initially only interested in the Thomas & Friends brand in its acquisition, according to Deadline Hollywood. [ 6 ] Mattel absorbed the company on 31 March 2016 into its then newly created division, Mattel Creations. [ 7 ]” en.wikipedia.org
2014
Mega Brands (Mega Bloks) from Mega Brands Inc. approximately US$450 million
“On February 28, 2014, it was announced that Mattel, Inc. would acquire Mega Brands Inc. for approximately US$450 million.…” en.wikipedia.org
