Hasbro vs. Mattel

Taking a look at the long-time rivalry between two of the largest toy makers.

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Company Declines:
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[dupadupadoo]

Remember when Happy meals gave you the option of either getting a hot wheels car or a barbie doll for the toy?

[illegalclown]

I never believed my mom when she said that Mr. Potatohead required a real potato back then. It seemed too bizarre and just something parents would make up as a joke. I was shocked to see it was true.

[jdnelms]

I was a contractor for Mattel back in the late 90's. I designed Hot Wheels packaging and occasionally game packaging and instruction manuals. What few people know is that the Mattel Corporation's campus in El Segundo, California, was built on the old grounds of Hughes Aerospace. Mattel had acquired most of the old Hughes buildings and repurposed them for Toy production. Barbie dolls and Hot Wheels are literally created in the same building that once produced nuclear missiles! In the main design center that houses the boys, girls, and infant toy design divisions, there are large steel blast doors, covered with playful color stickers and posters, that serve as a reminder of the buildings original purpose. Ironically even in the 90's, security at in the Hot Wheels and Barbie design center was just as tight now, as it was when the building housed ICBM development in the Cold War. The reason as it was explained to me was that espionage in the toy industry was just as ferocious as it was for weapons and defense industries. Mattel was always at risk of spending several months and millions of dollars on developing a toy, only to have a pirate Chinese company steal the design and have cheap imitations for sale in stores, long before Mattel's product was ready for market.

When Mattel suffered a huge $430 million loss in 2000 from the sale of SoftKey, if affected me personally. After the profit loss debacle, Mattel had responded by firing it's then president and punishing her with a generous $35 million settlement payment. Since no company keeps $35 million in petty cash laying around, they took the money from accounts payable, IE, the hundreds of small contractors like myself. By Christmas of 2000, I was still owed close to $40K from Mattel for freelance design work I had done that year. By January of 2001, I had received my 1099 tax statements from Mattel, claiming that I had been paid those wages even though I had not received a dime for any of my year 2000 invoices. In March of 2001, I stormed the front desk of the design bureau and demanded to speak to the VP of Boy's Toys, Bob Noll (the guy who signed my checks). He refused to meet me in person, instead letting me speak to him over the phone at the front desk. After ten minutes of patronizing platitudes from him, it was clear that Mattel had no respect for the folks who did 90% of the work for no full time benefits. (Mattel was abusing gig workers long before the term was coined) Since Mattel hired it's art directors and senior staff from it's ranks of contractors, I knew that in standing up for my rights, I was ruining my chance of full time employment. I left Mattel for a startup design company that year and never looked back.

[imamoth]

Hasbro: you can’t defeat me

Mattel: i know but he can

*lego appears*

[ENDORAPTER]

company man: hasbro has had the rights to make the star wars and marvel toys while as mattel has had the warner rights such as the dc and harry potter characters
me: you gonna talk about jurassic world yet

[zojirushi]

Can we just take a minute to appreciate the fact that Company Man brings quality content every week?

[gabealexander]

If Hasbro and Mattel ever merge, they should be called HasMat, which is fitting considering you'd need a HasMat suit for how toxic it would be to the industry.

[Atem_in_the_streets]

Lol, even their acquisitions are direct competitors. DC/Harry Potter and Marvel/Star Wars

[ajlogomanthecreepysusiefan]

You picked a good time to talk about Mattel. With the abysmal Thomas reboot on its way, it’s very fitting.

[yuriberofficial]

Mattel: I’m better why am I in the down sight
Everybody: remember you made a THOMAS and friends reboot?
Mattel: <:(

[CannonKnight]

I’m surprised you skipped over the 80s cartoons era (Transformers/Hasbro, He-Man/Mattel). They both had multiple cartoon series just to sell toys! Ah, the 80s were a great time to be a kid.

[superkooper]

every time I hear Mattel all I can hear is

“Mattel Electronics presents, B17 BOMBER”

[MaxWolop]

Hasbro: “I’m the best toy company!”
Mattel: “No I’m the best toy company.”
???: “Amateurs...”
Mattel: “What was that punk?”
Lego: “Amateurs...”

[Jadethynehuman]

Hasbro has some pretty good transformers figures, I gotta say it was surprising to me that you forgot to say anything about that or Takara Tomi

[thatrandomredengine]

Let’s see
Mattel likes to abuse Thomas and kick the fan in the nuts
And Hasbro cares for My Little Pony and respects the fans and viewers watching it.

[poweroffriendship.]

*Fun Fact:* The Monopoly game helped the prisoners of war escape during WW2. British secret service officials used the games to smuggle the maps and tools to help the POWS escape captivity in Germany.

[cranklabexplosion-labcentr]

“Toys.... primarily for children”

What do you mea-

[CZsWorld]

I'd love to see a video on Frisbee vs Discraft.

[DrFeelGoood]

considering Littlest Pet Shop was my whole childhood, and the fact that I still collect LPS to this day [to a bit of an obsessive extent...] I'm going to have to go with Hasbro.

[whatcoachareyouon]

You didn't mention how Hasbro lost the lisence to Jurassic world and Mattel bought it