Ruth Handler Club children's television show, Mattel invested heavily in television advertising. The TV commercials for the Barbie doll paid off and Barbie rocketed Mattel and the Handlers to fame and fortune. Subsequently, they would add a boyfriend for Barbie named Ken, after the Handlers' son, and many other "friends and family" to Barbie's world. Handler was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1970. She had a modified radical mastectomy, which was often used at the time to combat the disease, and because of difficulties in finding a good breast prosthesis, she decided to make her own. Handler went on to found a
Clover (toy company) but Clovers toys were still not a hit. Instead it was Bandai who capitalized on the show by selling model-kits that became extremely popular. Gundam had started the Real Robot trend which changed the focus to "realistic" robots instead of the "super robots" which Clover were used to making. They tried to adapt to the new market by sponsoring shows such as "Xabungle", "Dunbine", and "Srungle" (the first 2 being directed by Gundam creator Yoshiyuki Tomino) but folded in 1983. Clover (toy company) Clover was a Japanese toy company founded in 1973. It closed in 1983. Today it is mainly