“The toy business is not all fun and games.”
December, 1976. From the pages of Cincinnati Magazine we get this wonderful article that discusses Kenner as a business. Toys like the Six Million Dollar Man and Easy-Bake-Over definitely get mentions in the article, but the true focus is on the design, development, playtesting, and overall costs of toys as a business.
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“From the verge of an idea to the bottom of your Christmas tree, your child’s toy has been designed and marketed as skillfully as your automobile. The toy business is not all fun and games.”
One of my favorite parts of the article has to be the discussion with Bernard Loomis, then president of Kenner, and the subject of toy guns. In the article, in reference to toy guns, Loomis states:
“The only responsible research I have ever seen on the subject of toy gun play,” Loomis comments, “was at worst inconclusive and at best suggested there was no corollary between whether a child did or didn’t play with toy guns and the incidence of violence in later life. However, a kind of personal feeling that is shared with my associates at Kenner is that we have no particular interest in making toy guns.”
Well, that disinterest in toy guns didn’t last very long after this December, 1976 article was published. If we compare the above to a passage from Sansweet’s 1992 book, Star Wars: From Concept to Screen to Collectible*, we quickly learn that Loomis changed his opinion on toy guns after making a Star Wars toy presentation to George Lucas.
This is a really fun article and I highly recommend that you take time and read it today.
Related articles
- 1966: “You Can’t Build a Business on Fads.” (battlegrip.com)
- 1984 Kenner Star Wars Imperial Shuttle Commercial (battlegrip.com)