Not Merely Child’s Play

Review by Mike Gange

Toy Wars
by G. Wayne Miller
Adams Media, $ 12.95, 348 pages

Barbie is a billion dollar baby. G.I. Joe is a $15 million man. Outrageous as it may seem, those dollar figures represent revenues from just those two toys. Although the end product of the toy industry is dedicated to entertainment, amusement and play time, the real story is about a huge ongoing battle in corporate boardrooms, as toy companies fight to dominate the market that will get little kids’ attention.

Toy Wars by Rhode Island writer G. Wayne Miller is an enlightening look at the machinations behind those big name toys. Miller’s story is as engrossing as a suspense novel, with more twists and turns than a Hollywood thriller. An award winning journalist who writes for the Providence, R.I., Journal, Miller was given unprecedented access to Hasbro Toys design sessions, marketing meetings and focus groups in order to write this illuminating and lengthy story. Miller’s tale shows the "kid biz" to be no innocent play thing and certainly not for the faint of heart.

Hasbro owns and markets an amazing array of toys and games under several different corporate banners. Kenner, Tonka, Parker Brothers and Milton Bradley are all profitable divisions of the toy giant. Kenner’s well known line includes Care Bears, Strawberry Shortcake, Spirograph, Easy Bake Oven, and Star Wars licenced products; Tonka has a vast line up of nearly indestructible toy trucks. Parker Brothers games includes such notables as Monopoly, Trivial Pursuit and Scrabble, and Milton Bradley’s products include Candy Land and Canasta, Risk and Rubik’s Cube, Barrel of Monkeys and Twister. But Hasbro’s own signature line is also impressive, including long time successes such as G.I. Joe, Transformers, Mr. Potato Head, My Little Pony, Lite Brite, and Jem and the Hollograms.

Hasbro has founded in 1923 by two Hassenfeld brothers, immigrants from Poland who fled an impoverished existence to come to Rhode Island. The Hassenfeld brothers first sold textile remnants, but soon moved into manufacturing pencil boxes and school supplies. By 1940, Hasbro, as the company had become, had reached sales of $500, 000. It took another leap in income in 1951, when the brothers began to market the novelty toy, Mr. Potato Head. G.I. Joe was born in 1963, and by 1964, thanks to TV ads that pushed G.I. Joe everyday, sales of the boy toy reached $5.3 million. In 1965, with more than $2 million spent on TV ads, sales of G.I. Joe reached $23 million. In 1968, Hasbro went public, and by 1974, sales of all Hasbro Toys reached $65 million. Although publicly traded, Hasbro has been continuously run by one of the Hassenfeld family – first the original brothers, then Merrill, a son of one of the brothers, and then by Merrill’s two sons, first Stephen and then Alan.

Most of this story is about Alan Hassenfeld. Alan began as chairman and CEO in 1989, following the death of his elder brother, Stephen, who had held the similar title. While Merrill had steered the company through tough times, and Stephen had faced rougher waters, it was Alan who had the toughest job, keeping the company afloat through very difficult times and keeping the company away from sharks when they came looking. In 1996, one of those sharks was called Mattel.

Alan Hassenfeld also had the tough task of finding new markets and developing innovative tie-ins that would keep the company profitable. According to Miller, Mattel – makers of Barbie and Ken – were the first to seriously utilize television ads to promote their products, but through out the history of Hasbro, and particularly under the chairmanship of Alan Hassenfeld, the toy company was willing to be more inventive in its marketing. By 1995, as Warner Bros. were releasing Batman Forever, the movie company pledged a $100 million ad and promotional campaign. Miller writes, "The promotion had a fast food partnership (McDonald’s) video games (Sega and Acclaim), books (Warner and Little, Brown & Company) a cereal (Kellogg Co.), a theme park attraction (Six Flags), a hit song, an MTV video, a state of the art Web site...an approximately $1 billion global barrage led by toys from Hasbro, by far the largest licensee."

Miller’s tale is richly detailed and wonderfully told. It reads like a who-dunnit, although readers know Hasbro survives in the end. It is truly interesting to note just how much money gets pumped into the kiddie market. Clearly, little kids ARE paying attention.

Mike Gange teaches media studies and journalism at Fredericton High.