The Soloist
Hero
The problem for Hasbro is that young families have moved away from the type of games they sell. All the young couples I know buy modern euro games. They won't even consider the traditional Hasbro games like Risk and Monopoly.
WotC Hasbro CFO Sharpens Focus on Cost Savings As Toy Shoppers Pull Back
- Thread starter Henadic Theologian
- Start date
bedir than
Full Moon Storyteller
Monopoly is one of the most profitable portions of Hasbro's balance sheet. It's also a franchise brand, considered by them to be a core to their success.
Hasbro is also the #1 board game company in the world.
They lost tens of millions on inventory of toys that didn't sell. Once the supply chain issues were mostly resolved the overages in inventory got worse, not better.
Willie the Duck
Hero
IMO:
Yes, kids are just like everyone else in that an ever growing portion of their activities are dominated by screen time. That said, they absolutely still play with Legos and jump ropes and rock collections and Little Mermaid costumes and what-have-you. They simply aren't going to do so in quantities to support shareholders expecting an ever-growing market when the population of children is down (we are not in a baby boom), houses that have had kids (or kids at heart) for 4+ years are saturated with epidemic-spending $20 action figures and $50 board games, and many major toy-adjacent properties like Marvel characters and Harry Potter and Disney Princesses and so on are also at nadir.
Hasbro just acted like the goose was going to keep laying golden eggs when 100+ years of boom-bust cycles in children-focused products should have told them otherwise (and the pandemic had very predictable results on top of that).
Yes, kids are just like everyone else in that an ever growing portion of their activities are dominated by screen time. That said, they absolutely still play with Legos and jump ropes and rock collections and Little Mermaid costumes and what-have-you. They simply aren't going to do so in quantities to support shareholders expecting an ever-growing market when the population of children is down (we are not in a baby boom), houses that have had kids (or kids at heart) for 4+ years are saturated with epidemic-spending $20 action figures and $50 board games, and many major toy-adjacent properties like Marvel characters and Harry Potter and Disney Princesses and so on are also at nadir.
Hasbro just acted like the goose was going to keep laying golden eggs when 100+ years of boom-bust cycles in children-focused products should have told them otherwise (and the pandemic had very predictable results on top of that).
MockingBird
Hero
Is it just me or did toys (at least action figures) use to be way cooler than they have been? I have a daughter and she liked getting a doll here and there but she never really latched on to them like my cousins did when we were little. I mean we had Ninja Turtles, Terminator, Aliens, Predator, Jurassic Park, G.I.Joe, Power Rangers the list goes on.
MarkB
Legend
With the exception of the movie franchises, those classic toy lines were from a time when it was the toys that drove the media, with most kids' TV being dominated by cartoon shows specifically built upon toy lines and designed to drive sales of the associated toys. That doesn't much happen anymore for a variety of reasons - proliferation and dilution of viewing channels, the move to streaming, lack of advertisements during shows - so the self-perpetuating franchises just can't get the traction they once could.
Jefe Bergenstein
Legend
I can assure you, we still have those exact same brands I say while hoping to find a SDCC Dr. Mindbender at a reasonable price.
Zardnaar
Legend
Monopoly deal online is what's selling apparently. Monopoly deal is fun offline with the cards.
Monopoly itself not sure about.
Azzy
ᚳᚣᚾᛖᚹᚢᛚᚠ (He/Him)
It's hard to say from an objective position without a lot more data. But, yeah, I think the 80's (which, not coincidentally, was when I was growing up) toys were the peak coolness. Star Wars toys showed up in the late 70s and exploded through the 80s. G.I. Joe and Transformers popped up in the early 80s, there were also Masters of the Universe, Thundercats, Sectaurs, etc.
One of the things that I feel has happened is that the toys being produced these days seem more like collectors items than actual toys that kids would want to play with.
bedir than
Full Moon Storyteller
It's quite clearly called out as a Franchise Brand. Stores are stocked with dozens of collector's editions that sell.
Henadic Theologian
Legend
I think they will keep the board games and video games, but yeah I coupd see them spinning off WotC and then selling Hasbro.
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