Word: hasbro
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Pets don't have the benefit of a television show or movie providing free promotion for the brand. Nor do they have access to the cash that one of the big toy companies, like Mattel or Hasbro, can provide. The Zhu Zhu Pets are a small-business success story. The toys are made by Cepia, a seven-year-old St. Louis, Mo., company with only 16 employees. "It's fascinating, as you talk to executives from other toy companies," says Storch. "They are thumping themselves on the side of the head, wondering, 'How did I miss this...
...maturing is knowing when to shift from entrepreneurial mode, in which creativity and development trump all else, to business mode, in which adult supervision becomes mandatory. For Bossa Nova, that meant hiring a toy-industry gun, in the form of new CEO Martin Hitch, a veteran of Mattel and Hasbro. Penbo and Prime-8 were introduced in Europe this year, using local distributors. But the company, whose revenues are approaching $4 million, wants to crack the U.S. market and its big retailers. With the selling season for next year under way, Hitch will help Bossa Nova get six products into...
...initially a massive success and Hasbro expanded the line throughout the '60s, reimagining Joe as an astronaut, a deep-sea diver and a Green Beret. But outcry over American involvement in Vietnam dampened enthusiasm for a camo-clad action figure, so Hasbro gave Joe an honorable discharge. It redesigned the toys and relaunched them in 1970 as Adventures of G.I. Joe: the figure received lifelike hair, moveable eyes and a "kung-fu" grip, enabling him to hold onto objects for the first time. But the changes proved to be a gimmick, taken even further by Hasbro with the development...
...unlikely savior in Star Wars. The sci-fi flick and the collectables it spawned rekindled America's appetite for action figures, so Hasbro reintroduced a scaled-down line of G.I. Joes to try and capitalize on the trend. Instead of a single character, there was an entire battalion of G.I. Joes, each given signature weapons, backstories and code names like Scarlett and Snake Eyes. Joe also got a new enemy, Cobra -"a ruthless terrorist organization determined to rule the world," as described in the intro to the 1980s TV cartoon G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero. (Cobra operatives got action...
Though the action figure's popularity peaked in the late 1980s, Joe has been around in some form ever since. In the early 1990s, Hasbro reintroduced a line of larger, 12-in. G.I. Joes, and in 2004, the classic 1964 figures were rereleased to capitalize on Baby Boomer nostalgia. Some of the original, '60s-vintage G.I. Joes have fetched sizable prices. A rare and ill-fated G.I. Nurse from 1967 - the earliest and least successful female G.I. Joe produced - went for more than $6,000 at auction. Some of the earliest, rarest figures attract a similar price...