The couple that will later found Mattel, were on a vacation on Germany when they saw a doll (forgot the name ). At home they literally copied it and it became a huge success, selling worldwide. The CEO of the German toy company didn’t know about it until he saw it being sold on a toy shop. The company was dying, partially due to the barbie doll and so they sold the company to mattel. Watched a vid about it like two days ago.