American toy maker Mattel apologized Sunday following the mistaken mention of a pornographic website printed on the back of dolls for the upcoming “Wicked” movie, starring Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande.
The impacted dolls, which include characters such as Galinda Upland (Grande) and Elphaba Thropp (Erivo), featured a web address directing to wicked.com, a pornographic site intended only for users above the age of 18.
The correct website for the movie is wickedmovie.com.
“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,” Mattel said in a statement provided to cllct.
“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.”
The dolls were available through retailers such as Walmart, Amazon, Target, Kohl’s and Best Buy, and it’s currently unclear how many dolls were impacted. As of Sunday evening, impacted items from multiple retailers were either removed or listed as unavailable.
According to eBay research tool Terapeak, one doll, which originally retailed for about $25, sold for $225 with “URL MISPRINT” in the listing title. Additional dolls, which had yet to sell, were listed on the platform for as much as $2,000 each Sunday evening.
Mistakes made by manufacturers are far from new, though collectors have traditionally been drawn to errors and mistakes involving the toy more than the packaging.
Considered a “holy grail” by toy collectors, a 1979 rocket-firing Boba Fett prototype sold for $525,000 earlier this year at Heritage Auctions to become the most expensive toy sold publicly. One of just 100 believed to exist, that prototype was pulled from production over safety concerns and was never meant to be available to the public.
That record was topped just three months later when another 1979 rocket-firing Boba Fett prototype AFA 85+ sold for $1.34 million at Goldin Auctions.
Ben Burrows is a reporter and editor for cllct.