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Toy Monster: The Big, Bad World Of Mattel (2009)

by Jerry Oppenheimer(Favorite Author)

3.11 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

0470371269 (ISBN13: 9780470371268)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

John Wiley & Sons

review 1: I was looking forward to this book as an expose of the inner workings of a massive toy company, and the fight over who really created "Barbie". Instead, I got a book in which the author's bias is terribly clear: he hates Ruth Handler and worships Jack Ryan. The bias shows up in the language used to describe the various players: someone that the author likes simply "tells" a story, while someone that he doesn't like is "boasting" when he details his resume. And boy, does the author hate Ruth Handler and Jill Barad, uppity females that they were.Also, if Jack Ryan had been referred to as "the Father of Barbie" instead of by his name ONE MORE TIME I was going to throw the book out the window. It became a joke: The Father of Barbie went outside. The Father of Barbie sat down t... moreo dinner. The Father of Barbie answered the phone. It was late, so the Father of Barbie went to bed.The book is also sloppy and repetitive: we're told more than once that Demi Moore MAY have based her portrayal of a businesswoman on Jill Barad! Wow! That's fascinating! Of course, there's no documentation for the reality of this, other than the fact that Moore toured Mattel once. But this writer doesn't seem to feel the need to actually back up any of his claims: this is just one example of his use of gossip, maybes and perhapses.Almost unreadable; too bad. I'd love to read a serious book on the subject rather than this gossipy mess.
review 2: If you are interested in what Mattel is really like as a company and a place to work or if you are truly interested in how the toy business operates, do not bother reading this piece of high-priced trash.I was an employee of Mattel for eight plus years in the late 70's to the mid 80's and was eventually laid off (a euphemism for being fired). I was in the wrong place at the wrong time but I still value the years I worked there and do not share Oppenheimer's opinions about what a cruel environment it was to work in.I started out to mark every error and unsubstantiated allegation I saw in the book in light blue pencil but I was making so many marks, I was ruining the book. I also realized that if I was to point out all of Oppenheimer's mis-information in detail that my review would be longer then the book itself.He spends the first hundred or so pages trashing Ruth Handler and describing, in awe-struck terms, the sexual prowess of Jack Ryan, a gifted inventor but not the "Father of Barbie" as Oppenheimer claims. That is unless Ryan has an illegitimate daughter somewhere named Barbie.Many of his major sources are suspect in that they were fired by Mattel and in some cases spent years suing the Company for improper termination, which cases they all lost.He totally skips over the Ray Wagner, Glenn Hastings and John Ammerman years except in passing comments showing how callous they were. He never discusses how Mattel came back from the dead when the Electronics Division went bust and Glenn Hastings convinced the bankers that Mattel Toy Company was a viable business giving Art Spears, the Chairman, the time he needed to bring in new investors.On the other hand, he spends almost a third of the book on Jill Barad someone who was President for less than five years.A lot of his accusations are by implication and insinuation, hardly good journalism but then this book isn't journalism but a mostly unsubstantiated attack on Mattel.I can't imagine why anyone who wasn't personally acquainted with the people in the book would want to plow through Oppenheimer's turgid and tired prose. His constant refrain of "more about that later" and his whining about people who would not talk to him while implying they had something to hide grew very tiresome.Has Mattel and its leaders screwed up from time to time? Of course. But as I watch major financial institutions and automobile companies crash taking the entire U.S. economy with them, I wonder why Oppenheimer is spending his time on a relatively small company that manufactures playthings. The answer, I suspect, is because of the fact that toys, particularly Barbie, resonate culturally. After all, what this author is interested in is selling books, not presenting a balanced picture of the good and the bad in the organization. He is in a word, salacious, rather than reasonable or objective because that will sell his product. I think it's instructive that the only positive blurbs on the dust cover are from C. David Heymann and Kitty Kelley, two other authors who would rather tear down than be objective. If you do want to read this book, save your money and wait a short time until you will be able to buy it at a much reduced price out of the remainder bins at your neighborhood bookstore. less

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