Figures In Action! Barbie Adding MAD MEN In July

Wondering if you're a Pop Icon? Check the toy aisle. Find a Barbie  or Ken doll in your likeness, and you'll know that not only have you arrived, but your place in the pantheon of pop culture is assured, reserved, and complete with stocked wet bar. Yes, when it comes to Mattel's infamous Barbie, there comes a point when the doll is no longer a doll, but a status symbol.

After just three seasons, Lionsgate /AMC's multiple Emmy and Golden Globe Award-winning  series about Madison Avenue advertising in the 1960s, Mad Men, has attained that laudable level of popular-culture popularity.  This July, Mattel's premium-price collectors’ series for adults - the Barbie Fashion Model Collection - will add four new  versions of Barbie and Ken styled after Mad Men characters - from left:  Joan Holloway, Roger Sterling, Don Draper and Betty Draper.

In top form, the  Mad Men Barbies and Kens will be attired and accessorized in iconic costumes fans of the series will immediately recognize  as spot-on to their televised counterparts, the key players from the Sterling Cooper Advertising Agency.  Our fave: Barbie Joan Holloway, who's looking mighty chic in that purple skirt suit she tops off perfectly with the styled red coif and her staple accessory - a pen necklace. 

The Mad Men  dolls are the latest additions to Mattel's high-end collectibles line that's also been responsible for immortalizing The X-Files Mulder and Scully, the cast of Twilight,  Star Trek, Wonder Woman, and I Love Lucy in Barbie fashion.   But the Mad quartet are unique in that they're the first licensed dolls to ever join Barbie's esteemed signature silkstone collection. They'll also be in limited supply; the toy manufacturer's only making 7,ooo to 10,000 of each, and the dolls will be available only in specialty stores and on the web at either
amctv.com or barbiecollector.com.   Each of the four dolls will carry the mad price of $74.95.

For an even more elaborate run down of the new Barbie and Kens, we suggest you check out AMC's Mad Men blog and their interview with Robert Best, a former Project Runway contender and the Mattel fellow who designed the dolls in question. Check it out at the [link]. 

Otherwise, we'll send you home with the news that Mad Men's fourth season is gearing up for the big debut on Sunday 25 July.  Mad Men info is [here] and [here].