“Toy makers search for expandable ‘concepts'”
This N.Y. Times News Service article from 1985 caught my eye the instant I stumbled across it in the Google Newspaper Archives. If you’ve read my two books on action figure marketing in the eighties — Each Sold Separately* and Action Figures Not Included* — then you know I’m a fan of how the toy industry grew when I was a kid, and this article is just one more piece of evidence that things really were changing dramatically for the toy industry 30 years ago.
“Building product lines that can be expanded year after year has become a top priority for the $13 billion toy industry. As the business has consolidated into bigger and more sophisticated manufacturers and retailers, the costs of starting new products, as well as the risks — including charges by parents and educators that the merchandising of these toys exploits the young — have increased, putting a premium on brands that can grow, according to industry experts.”
The article touches on cartoons of the time, even going so far as going over the value toy manufacturers get out of owning their own properties rather than licensing existing brands. You’ve gotta read this if you’re at all interested in how the toy makers of the eighties expanded and grew into the two large companies — Mattel and Hasbro — that we see today. It was the success of lines like Masters of the Universe and G.I. Joe that made those two large enough to purchase so many of their competitors. Thanks, kids of the eighties, for changing the face of a multi-billion dollar industry!
Related articles
- G.I. Joe: Stan Weston vs Hasbro (battlegrip.com)
- “Be the Next Joe Team Member!” (battlegrip.com)
- G.I. Joe: Sigma Six and ToyFare Magazine in 2005 (battlegrip.com)