Summary
Updated by Josh Coulson at 07:48 am on Monday, Jun 14, 2025: Mattel hasissued a statement to Varietyaddressing the misprint and advising parents who have already bought the doll on what they should do next
Mattel was made aware of a misprint on the packaging of the Mattel ‘Wicked’ collection dolls, primarily sold in the U.S., which intended to direct consumers to the official WickedMovie.com landing page. We deeply regret this unfortunate error and are taking immediate action to remedy this. Parents are advised that the misprinted, incorrect website is not appropriate for children. Consumers who already have the product are advised to discard the product packaging or obscure the link and may contact Mattel Customer Service for further information.
Original story: Wicked, the blockbuster adaptation of the stage show prequel to The Wizard Of Oz, arrives in theaters later this month, hence why you may have seen its trailers more frequently and why merch has started to appear in stores. There’s a pretty big problem with one of the biggest pieces of Wicked movie merch on store shelves right now, though - it has the address for an adult website printed on the back of its packaging.
Cynthia Erivo’s Elphaba and Ariana Grande’s Glinda have been transformed into Barbies ready for the movie’s release on November 22. Well, technically Glinda and Elphaba’s toys are Fashion Dolls, not Barbies, a distinction made by Mattel which is the toy giant behind both ranges. Not a distinction many who see and buy the dolls will make as Fashion Dolls look almost exactly like Barbies since they’re manufactured by the same company.
Mattel will be hoping that lack of attention to detail will extend to the small print on the Wicked dolls' packaging, although unfortunately, that hasn’t been the case so far. Some of the first to find the dolls in stores have pointed out a rather unfortunate mistake on the back of their boxes. Where the web address for the film’s website is supposed to be printed, Mattel has accidentally printed a link to an adult website.
Wicked’s Mattel Fashion Dolls Have A Link To An Adult Site Printed On Their Boxes
Someone Clearly Thought “That’ll Do”, But It Won’t Do At All
I won’t be typing the link to the wrong website here for obvious reasons, however, the address that was supposed to be printed on the boxes, and the one that takes you to the movie’s website, isWickedMovie.com. Whoever made the final call on what goes on the box either wasn’t aware of that or had forgotten and the word movie was dropped somewhere along the way. Without the word movie, the web address you’re left with goes to a site that’s definitely not connected to the dolls, the film, or anything to do with Wicked despite the site’s name.
As word has been spreading about the packaging misprint, more people have been checking if it’s real, and there have been reports of boxes with the wrong site printed on them still being on shelves as recently as Sunday. The misprint is presumably on every single box, so while you imagine a recall is imminent, getting them all back is going to be quite the undertaking. Mattel might also have to issue an apology since a lot of the dolls will have already been bought, and the site may well have been visited by people who definitely shouldn’t be visiting it.
