Mattel's Greatest(Most Infamous) Scam of 1999-The PATRIOT manufactured BARBIE & HOT WHEELS Computers

In 1999, 

MATTEL suffered one of their most crappiest fiscal years of all time.....

Sorry for the anachronistic photo but

This is the closest I could find of an EXECUTIVE having a migraine over things

not going their way.

NO!!!

Y2K hysteria was not responsible for biting them CEO's asses.

But rather it was the ill-advised decisions from them CEOS of late 90s MATTEL.

Things like the ill-fated AQUISITION of THE LEARNING COMPANY was amongst one of those things.

But the worst was yet to come:

Gentlemen, These are the infamous PATRIOT Manufactured 

HOT WHEELS & BARBIE PCs of 1999.

These machines cost around $600 USD.

And that was 1999 Dollars.

(Adjusted for inflation, these could cost around $1,204.31 USD in 2026 dollars.)

Windows PCs costing under $1000 USD is nothing new as many attempts were made many years ago and beyond to try to get the cost down that magic number of A GRAND.

But PATRIOT COMPUTERS took a very weird approach.

They just licensed an EXISTING DESIGN who's FLEXATX board design made these computers possible.

And cheapened out on things.

For one, the CPU was a MENDOCINO Intel CELERON clocked at around 500mMHz or lower,

They often came with 64MB of PC100 Ram though some came with 128MB,

Hard Drive Space can vary but 10GB seemed to be the standard for 1999-2000.

Windows 98SE was the choice because Win9X & Reliability.

The idea was to give a child their own Computer because MATTEL figured the parents would want to keep them children away from the FAMILY's PC or from the PARENT's Work PC.

Yeah, ARTHUR THE WRECKER, the 1997 episode based on the AMERICAN BOOKS by MARC BROWN made by the very CANADIAN CINAR Production company.........

Yes, I used that as an analogy of PARENTS wanting their kids off the WORK PCs.

Whether it's the DAUGHTER who's into dolls

Or the Son who's into Cars

and VICE VERSA,

The choice of either HOT WHEELS or BARBIE was to give a choice depending on the child's gender or their choice of likes and preferences.

And all of it at a low low price of less than $1000 USD.

And the price was just right for the parents to give their children.

As usual with the most PRE-BUILT Computers of the mid to late 90s,

These Computers were often bundled with peripherals and Software to make using these Computers more interesting.

The Hot Wheels PC

It's bundle came with GUY FIERI style flame jobs not just on the case but also on the ALTEC LANSING Speakers, Monitor, Keyboard, Mouse, Mouse Pad, CD Carrying Case, etc.

It also came with a USB Steering Wheel to play your racing games even though the bundle has mostly HOT WHEELS STUNT TRACK DRIVERs 1 & 2 alongside some edutainment titles as well as KIDPIX.

The BARBIE PC on the other hand, is a different story.

Unlike the Hot Wheels PC, the BARBIE PC does away with the blue combined with the GUY FIERRI flames and instead has a rather bland Chrome Grey Painted Accents combined with a Pink Handle and Pink Flowers.

And Considering the demographic, the Steering Wheel is replaced with a DIGITAL CAMERA which is as cheap as thos.......

It's actually cheaper than those VTECH TOY DIGITAL CAMERAS I see at Best Buy!!!!

anyway,

The BARBIE PHOTO DESIGNER DIGITAL CAMERA

Was included with the BARBIE PC alongside it's aforementioned software bundle.

Did I mention how CHEAP it was?

It's similar to the NICK CLICK DIGITAL CAMERA also released that year.....

Remember that too?

HOLY CRAP!!!!! THEY COULD JUST BE THE SAME PRODUCT!!!!!

Just with different Market Brandings.

Though I did read that the BARBIE CAMERA was more successful as that came out in 1998..... while the NICK CLICK languished..... 

Truly, those Computer and Software Bundles would have made both the HOT WHEELS & BARBIE PCs the top seller to end 1999 on a High Note.....

But there was a problem....

The aforementioned Specs were rather UNDERWHELMING.

If your PATRIOT PC had 333MHZ, that might not be good for your child who'd want to play a 3D Title since the PATRIOT PCs had to rely on their less than stellar BP810 Chipsets for Graphics and because these BP810 FLEXATX motherboards do not have PCI or AGP slots for expansion, upgrading the graphics was a no-go.

And Considering that the HOT WHEELS PC came with a USB Steering Wheel and had some RACING GAMES to go along with that, that might not have been a smart idea......

DOUBLY SO IF YOU WERE A YOUNGER SIBLING WANTING TO PLAY YOUR OLDER SIBLING'S COPY OF NEED FOR SPEED TITLES.........

The other problem was the design of the computers themself.

Tacky GUY FIERI flames and EXHIBIT NUMBER aside,

The MATTEL PATRIOT Computers used a variant of INTEL's BP810 FLEXATX motherboard as to make fitting it in the very small case more palpable.

But because of the interior of the case, it's very cramped to work on....

So PATRIOT made the smart decision to made the MOTHERBOARD TRAY modular as to make self-servicing much easier.

And that's not the END-ALL-BE-ALL of why these PATRIOT Computers were so bad.

The culprit is the rather CHEAP Flex-ATX......

more like a CRAPPY EARLY VARIANT of an SFX Power Supply.

Had terrible CAPACITORS which were the cause of the high failure rate of the HOT WHEELS & BARBIE PCs.

Fortunately, Replacing these PSUs are a cinch but because of how cramped these Computers are, you might have to settle for a modern SFX MODULAR PSU.

The thing about these MATTEL COMPUTERS that makes me want to PUKE, is this:

Take a close look at that label there.

Why on EARTH would MATTEL want to outsource Computer Manufacturing to my Home Country in 1999 just to manufacture these Computers?

I'm guessing it's because MATTEL was in a financial pickle 

(this was after their infamous acquisition of THE LEARNING COMPANY in 1999 after all.)

But, in a similar problem to the HYPERION Computer from 1983, Another Canadian Manufactured Computer from an American Company in HUNTSVILLE, ALABAMA,

The Hot Wheels and Barbie PCs had a laundry list of FAILURES, FAR WORSE than what the Hyperion suffered from.

Now don't get me wrong. 

I'm not against AMERICAN COMPUTER COMPANIES outsourcing to CANADA just to save several thousands of dollars.

They've done some wonderful collaborations.

For example, 

BILLY COORE's Second most favorite PACKARD BELL, THE CORNER COMPUTER

One reason he loves this particular PACKARD BELL as his second best compared to his childhood 822CDT, is the fact that it's a CANADIAN MANUFACTURED Model so for a guy living in WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA, to him, that makes it all the more unique.

But the HOT WHEELS & BARBIE PCs were definitely not of quality...

THEY'RE SHITE!!! Through and Through.....

Even the very CANADIAN MDG, though admittingly, they cheap out on motherboard mounting with less screws then usual,

They don't even manufacture their computers in CANADA..... sort of.

MDG does manufacture their Computers in CANADA but they source their components like Motherboards, Power Supplies, Cases, Graphics Cards, etc. from ASIAN Countries like TAIWAN because of the PC's off-the-shelf approach made possible by IBM circa 1981.

And it gets worse,

The High Failure Rates of the PATRIOT COMPUTERS were so bad, that the return rates were also high as well.

This led to the bankruptcy of PATRIOT because of the overload of trying to address the issues while MATTEL did nothing to help.

And what's the biggest scam?

Well... it was MATTEL having the gall to placate the unfulfilled orders with FREE GIFT PACKAGES containing a $100 Toy and a gift certificate voucher.

Whatever.

MATTEL reaped the dollars,

And PATRIOT COMPUTERS went Bankrupt due to the Crappy Manufacturing.

And them parents revolted due to all that money they spent now being lost to a company that did nothing to help solve the issue about why the HOT WHEELS & BARBIE PCs suffered PSU Failure.

Why am I going on a PETER FRAMPTON style rant about Mattel?

Well, this is why:

Or at least that's what I thought.....

I saw a listing on FACEBOOK MARKETPLACE but for some reason, I didn't take a screenshot with my iPhone 17 Pro Max, nor did I save the listing on my Facebook Account..... so......

At least this WINDOWS 11 Print Screen screenshot will have to do:

Man, that seller must have had a hell of a lot of work replacing the old CRAPPY POWER SUPPLY & the CPU Cooler before putting it up on FACEBOOK MARKETPLACE.

To give you an idea how maddening it was to even repair these machines, here's an old LGR video from 2016 where CLINT BASINGER tried to restore the BARBIE COMPUTER:

Spoiler Alert: HE SUCCEEDS!!! 

His reactions, frustrations, and later SIGHS OF RELIEF after the grueling repair work are all genuine reactions.

But I'm glad I had my COMPAQ PRESARIO

& VOBIS HIGHSCREEN during the transition to the new Millennium...

I can't imagine how pissed both my mom and dad would have been if they purchased these computers from MATTEL, only for the power supply to crap out on me....

Similar to how I'm glad I never asked my mother to buy an XBOX 360 for me during it's shelf-life, only for it to RED RING on me.

The less amount of money spent on CRAPPY HARDWARE due to rushed soldering chipsets or cheapened out manufacturing on components, 

THE BETTER.

And I haven't checked his blog yet but I have a hunch that I I beat DAVID FARQUHAR on discussing the Controversy of the MATTEL PATRIOT Computers.....

REALLY! NO LIE!

I checked his Blog, ran some searches but came up empty so I feel proud to have discussed to you my fine readers about MATTEL's biggest fumbles at the turn of the millennium.

And as usual, thank you very much for reading and keep an eye out for more tantalizing blogposts....

Starting with this SNEAK PEAK:

I'm very hard at work with this one but I swear, it's gonna be an exciting post about a Mickey Mouse short that I've actually watched many years ago on my MDG HORIZON Windows XP PC back in the day.