they bought out Matchbox
and I believe those small cars suffered a quality downgrade afterwards

Also true, and also another reason why I would be concerned about a decline in the quality of both companies' product lines should this happen.

Well, Star Wars had GREAT success with the size, too.
And G.I.Joe Extreme was in the style of the time, like the 80's Joes, and Super Joe before that.

Reading (partly) the posted article reminded me of the potential buy-out from 20 years ago, when Mattel wanted to buy Hasbro and Hasbro said no. Seems Hasbro has come back and said "still interested?".
Last I heard, and I think it's still true because of the article, Lego is the number one toy company, followed by Mattel then Hasbro. And I don't see Lego slowing down.

Hasbro has to be hurting. Walking through the toy isles, they've got next to nothing out there. G.I.Joe and Star Wars are getting the clearance treatment, what little is out there.

I think they really are talking. I think Mattel wants Hasbro, and Hasbro hasn't said no......yet. In a few days Hasbro will report full-year earnings. In a few more days, we'll see Toy Fair and who has what.

If it happens, it could be good for G.I.Joe, as Mattel might not want to let such a big and (if done right) profitable name die like Hasbro does.
We'll just have to wait and see....

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I was in target tonight: Lego has a full aisle and a half just for their product. In this day to get that much space for a single product is impressive. Mattel and Hasbro combined barely had two and a half. I think this merger is a thing of necessity to be able to compete in any fashion.

Yes, they were chasing what they thought was popular at the time, and ended up with a toy that lasted one series. I don't think you can say the 1982 Joe launch was chasing a fad in the same way.

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My point is, they didn't really recognize good product to greenlight. They greenlit all sorts of bad product as well. The more obvious interpretation is they greenlit a product and got really lucky. And one massive lucky hit like GI Joe provides enough cash to cover all kinds of other failures.

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BUT -- as has been pointed out, Lego has one whopping big niche market -- building block toys. They don't do action figures, they don't do die-cast cars, they don't do fashion dolls.



I haven't seen any Star Wars stuff getting the clearance treatment, and since when has there been any G.I. Joe merchandise outside of a smattering at Toys "R" Us? I don't think Hasbro is hurting that badly. Consider two considerable properties they have -- Star Wars and Marvel. Disney is dedicated to getting as much out of both of these concepts as possible, and Hasbro is along for the ride.

I have a hunch that when Hasbro reports its earnings, they'll have a huge jump in the fourth quarter due to Star Wars.

Hasbro also seems more interested in becoming an entertainment merchandising company than strictly a toy company. Consider the recent article where they claimed that a lot of their properties would share a cinematic universe.

I still maintain that any sort of merger, or even buy-out, would be a disaster in the toy aisles, because we would be looking at either a lessening of quality, or conceptual overhauls of toy lines that don't need them. Granted, I'm not fond of the current state of G.I. Joe, but I don't have a problem with Transformers or Star Wars (especially the 6" Black Series) as they currently stand.

One of the criteria that I think is a factor in Lego's success that's being ignored by Has/Mat is that they've got all these licenses that are instantly inter-compatible and inter-mixable. Any kid can play crazy-ass stories where Jedi and Ghostbusters team up to fight dinosaurs and ninja.

It's the factor we 18th guys have been screaming to get for the scale's entire existence on toy shelves, yet which is resisted by both competing companies and competing departments within a company for whatever stupid-ass reason. How much more successful could Mattel's Green Lantern aliens have been if they could sit in an X-Wing (or sit down at all, really)?

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LEGO also has movies, shows, video games with the actual toys on screen. That's big for kids having what they see in motion on screen in their hands. My son has taken the bait hook, line, and sinker.

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That, too; which drives me up the wall since Lego minifigures are useless for actually doing any of the stuff those shows demonstrate them doing; whereas you could do a stop-motion cartoon with MBs easily.

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True, but they do have a line for every age, boys and girls.

Maybe it's just locally, but I saw some Star Wars items at Target with red tags. And you're right; only TRU has had G.I.Joe for the last couple years, but they are on clearance right now. I thought it was funny that Hasbro and TRU made a big deal about "G.I.Joe, exclusively at Toys R Us!", when we know in reality it was because NOBODY else wanted to carry the line. For my opinion on the reason, read my reply to AdrienVeidt.

Yes, I imagine Disney wants merchandise out there, but it's still thin on the front lines. And look at the prices.
I'll hold further comment for the earnings report. And I think we can all agree (hope?) Toy Fare will answer some questions.

Exactly!
IMHO, one of the biggest mistakes Hasbro made with G.I.Joe was, when the movies came out, they canceled every other G.I.Joe product. They made G.I.Joe a movie toy line......that turns out only one retailer wanted to carry when there is no movie. They should have maintained what they had, and then add the movie items....maybe even at cheaper prices to get money from kids/parents.

When the Lego movie came out, they ADDED the movie line to all their other lines! If you didn't want something from the movie, you could keep buying Legos.
Retailers don't really want to carry products they have to blow out every time.......but that's just a guess.

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You're blinded by your own interests. GI Joe isn't even a drop in the bucket. Action figures aren't really anything even. Still see Monopoly? See a Monopoly for pretty much any theme and license you can imagine? Monopoly alone was a 401 million dollar property for Hasbro in 2014. That's 24 million dollars more than Star Wars brought in that non-movie year. See Playskool toys? 629 million. See NERF? 621 million. Play-Doh? 403 million. That's not getting into girls properties like My Little Pony or Littlest Pet Shop.

Hasbro's got plenty out there if you look past what you're interested in.

My good sir how dare you bring hard numbers and logic into this discussion?! We're talking about toys here.

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Can't argue with that. Well played, sir.

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So, why was the fact they're in discussions made public?

I wonder if Hasbro, by initiating the talks and possibly slipping their existence to the media, isn't pushing Disney to hurry up with their long-rumored buy-out. Hasbro may want to no longer have to pay licensing fees and want the cash infusion. If we assume the execs that would adminstrate the transfer would retire shortly thereafter, they wouldn't have to deal with the constriction of choices in what to make or license in becoming a subsidiary of Disney.

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