What the heck is going on with Hasbro?
A famous maxim that the folks here at TPP like to throw around is that “Politics is downstream from Culture.”
I’d like to think that what we expose our children to also reflects our culture. In the 80’s and 90’s, it was a boom of capitalist-fueled creativity, of cartoons and the toys they were made to sell.
Transformers Legacy Evolution Core Class Optimus Prime Converting Action Figure – Hasbro
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Now? Not so much apparently. People have been commenting on the decline in the toy industry for a while now, but Hasbro Inc., one of the largest and most prolific toy makers in the world, made it official earlier this year.
Per Hasbro’s CEO Chris Cocks, they have announced that as of 2025 they will be moving away from physical toys while focusing more on digital play (i.e. video games). Since that time we’ve paradoxically seen one of the largest toymakers in the world begin to license out their properties to other toymakers to produce.
I’m not the CEO of a multi-million dollar company, so it may not be my place to say, but as a toy collector I feel that this is a mis-step on the part of Hasbro and its CEO. At the same time, unfortunately I can understand why they feel forced to go this route, and it has to do with both the mistakes they have made as well as those of their partners.
Rows of Rainbow Pride Star Wars toys at Disney’s Cast Connection
Regarding partners, it has not been lost on me that many of the once-lucrative brands Hasbro produces toys for have….dropped in popularity of late. I’m talking specifically about the once powerful Star Wars and Marvel franchises, which Hasbro licenses from Disney.
Both were once toy-selling powerhouses, and both have been reduced to pale shadows of their former selves. To be clear, this is no fault of Hasbro’s. Rather, the blame can be squarely laid at the feet of Lucasfilm, Marvel, and Disney for taking these once-beloved franchises and driving them straight into the ground. The reasons why have been amply covered, but as a toymaker, it becomes a losing proposition to invest hundreds of thousands to million of dollars into toys based on properties that no one actually likes or watches.
Zack the Black Ranger morphs in Mighty Morphin Power Rangers – YouTube, Power Rangers Official
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Now for some speculation on my part — it seems that Hasbro can’t just come out and say that what used to be their golden geese have now become albatrosses around their necks, for fear of forever burning their bridges with a company that has been extremely sensitive to even the mildest forms of criticism.
So what do you do in that sort of situation? You tell everybody you’re getting out of the toy business, and when the license renewals come around you have all the cover you need to politely decline in order to stop the financial haemorrhaging you’ve been experiencing for the past few years.
Now, before you accuse me of suggesting that the folks over at Hasbro are some sort of 4D chess-playing geniuses, please rest assured they have their own potentially fatal screw-ups to own up to as well — namely that they have messed up the handling of their own proprietary franchises almost as badly as Disney.
A screenshot from Transformers One (2024), Paramount Pictures
Sure, what toys they still make are solid, no arguments there. However the medium through which they generate excitement about those toys, particularly in younger audiences, has either been woefully pathetic, abominably unwatchable, or utterly non-existent.
They have done this to such an extent that when they do actually produce something fun and engaging (such as the most recent Transformers One movie), no one cares anymore.
Dungeons & Dragons Dicelings Green Dragon Collectible Action Figure
Much like Disney, Hasbro has also failed in its attempts at generational capture for nearly all of its proprietary brands. Young kids don’t care about Optimus Prime, Cobra Commander, or Tommy the Green Ranger. Nothing drove this point home to me more than when I tried to get my younger son to play with some of my own Transformers. I gave up when I realized he was doing his best to humor instead of actually being interested in the Megatron he was holding.
And who can blame him?
I’m not exactly beating down doors to show him the latest episode of Transformers: Earthspark (yuck). And down that road lies franchise death.
The Original Power Rangers Team Reunited in Power Rangers Once and Always on Netflix – YouTube, Netflix
Can things be pulled around? Maybe.
Hasbro seems to have belatedly realized that they need to produce content that appeals not only to younger kids but to the remaining generation of old fans they still have left in order to motivate them to get their own kids involved in these franchises once more. The rumors are that Hasbro will be going ‘back to basics’ and doing a complete live-action reboot of the original dinosaur Power Rangers, for example.
They are also planning a their own Hail Mary in the form of a Transformers/GI Joe live-action crossover film, with Shia Labeouf, Megan Fox, Channing Tatum and others rumoured to return. If you had asked me even two years ago I would have said these projects would be woke messes and doomed to failure. But with the recent cultural turn-around in the U.S., there may be cause for hope. That is, if they absolutely stick to basics, respect their source material, and focus on making entertaining stories instead of preaching to their audiences. Time will tell.
Do you think Hasbro can produce toys kids actually want? Sound off in the comments and let us know!
