M Is For Mattel, Monopoly, MGA, Marvel & My Little Pony – A To Z Of The Toy Business

M Is For Mattel, Monopoly, MGA, Marvel & My Little Pony – A To Z Of The Toy Business

M is one of the most important of all letters when it comes to the toy business. We have some real behemoths in this instalment.

MATTEL

Mattel was founded way back in 1945 by husband-and-wife team Ruth & Elliot Handler, along with Harold “Matt” Manson (who soon exited the business due to ill health). The company’s iconic toy brand Barbie came to market in 1959, quickly becoming the best-selling toy for the company. Barbie today is still a global market leader in the toy Doll category and is a massive profit generator for Mattel. In recent times Barbie has been adapted to meet the times we with a broader array of looks, shapes and other variations.

Mattel launched Hot Wheels in 1968, originally the product line was designed by a bonafide rocket scientist and a real-life car designer. Fisher Price makes up the third side of Mattel’s triangle of iconic brands, having been acquired by Mattel back in 1993. Mattel today remains one of the biggest toy companies in the world, and after a few rocky years looks set to be on an upward trajectory again.

MONOPOLY

THE iconic board game has sold more than 275 million copies since Parker Brothers released their version of the game back in the dark days of the great depression in 1935. Parker Brothers originally rejected the game because it was “too complicated, too technical, [and it] took too long to play”. The game is famous for causing (mostly good natured) family arguments and for games that last for hours and hours, or even days. Generation after generation has enjoyed teaching the game to their children. Today there are many, many versions of Monopoly, with numerous companies who produce local and niche versions around the world. A DVD game version and multiple video game versions have been launched. The Monopoly world championships event seeks to crown the world champion player, and there is also a variety of successful fruit and quiz machines.

MGA ENTERTAINMENT

MGA has been one of the most disruptive toy companies of all time. The company shot to the forefront of the toy business with the launch of Bratz dolls in 2001, which took significant market share from Mattel’s flagship Barbie at the time. But MGA wasn’t done disrupting, in more recent years, L.O.L. Surprise! Has been a phenomenally successful product line which appears to have all the hallmarks of a long-term brand. Aside from the Dolls category, MGA Entertainment also owns iconic U.S. toy manufacturer Little Tikes, having acquired the company from Newell Rubbermaid in 2006. Little Tikes iconic Cosy Coupe product has sold millions and millions of units over time, and is itself considered an iconic toy in the U.S.

MARVEL

In the last decade or so, Marvel has played a massive role in the toy business, with the ongoing cinematic universe being the highest grossing ever with box office takings in the region of $23 billion usd. Superheroes and villains have long since played their part in the toy business. Marvel is in many ways the modern-day cinematic representation of this. Since being acquired by Disney for $bn usd back in 2009, Marvel has been a blockbuster movie making machine, and has significantly boosted the toy business overall, especially Hasbro who have produced many iterations of Marvel toys to mush commercial success.

MY LITTLE PONY

This super cutesy line of ponies first came to market in 1981 as My Pretty Pony before becoming My Little Pony in 1982. There are have been several phases in the story of M.L.P., with numerous relaunches over the decades. The brand has sold well in excess of 100m toys over time, and spawned numerous TV series and movies.

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L Is For Lego, Leapfrog, L.O.L. Surprise! & Lincoln Logs – A To Z Of The Toy Business

L Is For Lego, Leapfrog, L.O.L. Surprise! & Lincoln Logs – A To Z Of The Toy Business

LEGO

Lego is arguably the most iconic toy brand, played with and enjoyed by many generations. Playing with Lego has been proven to advance the capabilities and skills required for STEM careers, and as such millions of engineers and scientists owe part of their success to having played with Lego when they were young. Lego is both the biggest toy company in the world (by $sales) and the biggest toy brand. The entirety of their just under $7billion USD revenues derive from the Lego brand. There is no other brand which comes close to achieving this level of revenue from one brand.

Lego as a company first began way back in 1932 when Danish carpenter Ole Kirk Christiansen started making wooden toys. The earliest forerunner of the now iconic and ubiquitous Lego brick came to market in 1949. Lego today trades around the world, dominating the Construction toy category in nearly every market. The company also has hundreds of retail stores selling their products. The latest plans from the company suggest growth to around 800 retail stores in the short term.

LEAPFROG

Leapfrog has been a market leader in electronic learning toys since back in the 1990s. when co-founder Michael Wood found it hard to teach his son to read and developed a prototype for what would become Leapfrog’s ‘Phonics Desk’ product. After battling with VTECH to lead the kids educational tablet device market, Leapfrog was eventually acquired by VTECH for a reported $72m USD.

LOL SURPRISE!

L.O.L. Surprise! Has been a sales juggernaut since launch back in December 2016. The brand was launched on the back of the massive unboxing trend but has since extended into a full Doll & consumer product licensing brand. There have been very few toys over time which have launched and hit No. 1 best selling toy and then stayed in the market with further brand extensions. We expect L.O.L. Surprise! To be a long-term perennial brand going forward.

LINCOLN LOGS

Lincoln Logs is an iconic construction toy which was first invented around 1919 and was inducted into the Toy Hall of Fame in the USA back in 1999. According to reports, the inventor, John Lloyd Wright modelled the toys based on a Japanese hotel design for which his own father was the architect. Wright was also influenced by Abraham Lincoln (hence the name!) and the frontier history of the USA.

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K Is For Kenner, Karma, Korea, KB Toys & Ken – A To Z Of The Toy Business

K Is For Kenner, Karma, Korea, KB Toys & Ken – A To Z Of The Toy Business

Kenner

Kenner is best known for being the company who introduced Star Wars toys to the market, producing more than 100 unique figures and selling more than 300 million units between 1978 and 1985. Today nearly every family movie has licensed merchandise including toys. Star Wars started all that. While it seems an obvious opportunity today, back in the 1970s Mego (the prevailing figure toy company of the time) turned down the opportunity to produce toys based on the Star Wars franchise (possibly the biggest mistake in toy business history?).

Kenner stopped producing Star Wars toys after the initial trilogy of film releases faded away, but restarted again in 1995. Kenner also brought to market other iconic toys aside from Star Wars including Easy Bake Oven and Spirograph. Kenner Parker was acquired by Tonka in 1987, which in turn was purchased by Hasbro in 1991. Star Wars figures remain a key product line for Hasbro through to this day, making Star Wars toys one of the most important, commercially successful and iconic toy ranges of all time.

Karma

The toy industry is often a surprisingly small place. If you operate by screwing people over, it tends to be quite likely that you will get some kind of karmic payback. But also, if you are good to the people you meet over the years around the toy trade shows and in between, then you will build many lasting fruitful business relationships and friendships.

Korea

Korea is not normally an area of focus for toy & game companies, but with a population about the size of England, and with an advanced economy, consumer products sales in Korea can be strong. Obviously, there are some significant language and cultural barriers to doing business there, but nevertheless, for companies looking to grow their export sales, Korea deserves consideration.

KB Toys

KB Toys was a leading U.S. specialist toy store chain, which at one point in the 1990s had more than 1,300 stores. The company originally started as a wholesale ‘candy’ store back in 1922, and the chain lasted for just under 90 years, being in business for longer than Toys R Us in the USA. As such KB Toys was a pivotal player in the growth of the toy business, and many still mourn the loss of the 2nd best known toy specialist retail chain.

Ken

Behind every great woman is a great man! Ken became part of Barbie’s world since 2 years after her own launch in the market. Although the pair separated for a spell in the noughties, Ken has been known and loved by generations of children. He also appeared in the third instalment of the Toy Story franchise playing a baddy. Not a lot of people know that Ken was named after the son of Mattel founders Ruth & Elliott Handler.

Do you need help to understand the toy & game business? We help people from all around the world to understand and successfully enter the toy business. For more information on how we do this, check out our services here: www.KidsBrandInsight.com/services

Have you listened to our Playing At Business podcast? We talk about selling toys & games, interview successful people from across the toy business & we look at key trends in the toy & game business: https://playingatbusiness.libsyn.com/