McFarlane is under the radar these days, but they really did bust open the toy aisles to brands that are NOT the big ones like Hasbro Mattel, Galoob, etc. Now we have more variety of brands because of them while they're all but marginalized. They deserve far more credit than the industry and toy collectors give them
@@spectorcreative1872 hahaha. Young man ur doing the going and only thing I'm doing is the watching. I guess its called working together or as we say in weightlifting, working out. Hope you all are doing good
appreciate these look back videos, like strolling down the memory lane of my childhood in the late 80s/early 90s...I always thought Matchbox was Hot Wheels competitor.. I also enjoyed those play dough ads though I didn't get into it..Miss TRU & Kbs
This sounds like these companies aren't too far from having a Monopoly on types of toys. Sounds like they do essentially have a monopoly in big box retail stores on specific types.
I heard you describe the Mattel logo as a "gear" towards the end there, and after wondering what the deal was with that logo for years (though never strongly enough to look it up, as I'd usually forget soon enough and go on with my day before I could), I can totally see it. Have you done a video explaining how that logo came to be? Maybe I could look it up, though again, see above, and if you have any insider knowledge about it, I figure that would be better to hear anyway. =)
@@spectorcreative1872 Huh, wild. I meant to say before (but forgot to) that it strikes me as an odd choice, as a gear is not something I strongly associate with any of their major brands. I'm sure some use them, but not as a major part of their identity.
Man, another weird job I had... I used to work for MGA, too. I got to see a video of a focus group of mock jurors looking over the evidence for a jury trial regarding Bratz v Barbie. Fascinating stuff.
Yup. Shared this elsewhere in the thread, but fits here too: “What this described is the definition of a Trust, which is what ‘Antitrust’ laws are supposed to address, but U$A.” Imagine if Toyota and Honda agreed one company would only sell trucks, SUVs, and compact cars in the US auto market and the other would only do sedans, motorcycles, hybrids, and electrics, so as not to compete with each other here in the U$A. I suspect folks would have something to say about that.
This was interesting. Thanks. Along this line, I was shocked to see Mattel pick up and produce figures like the old Hasbro wrestling figures. When the Retro's first came out I was shocked to see them. I would have never guessed another toy company to make the line. Seems almost disrespectful. Not that I'm complaining. I picked them up.
When I first worked at Toys r Us in 96-99 I caught on to this. But chalked it up to they were "staying in their lane" to put it in the parlance of our times.
@@spectorcreative1872 Well, there was Disney Infinity, but since it only made *some* of the money and not *all* of the money, Disney decided it wasn't worth their time and shut it down. ;P
@@spectorcreative1872 Can you elaborate on that? I was wondering how that could have worked with He-Man's massive popularity in the '80s (or TMNT after), but I don't think you said quite when this agreement took place?
Hey Scott, I would love to hear your thoughts/explanation about toy guides for lines, or lack there of. Like Mark Bellomo's action figure guides or the Toys of He-man and MOTU by Val Staples/Pixel Dan
Wasn’t the “crotchbat” gag based on an actual issue parents had reported with Nerf bats where kids were taking the nerf parts off and attacking each other with the hard part beneath? I seem to vaguely remember a news item like that many moons ago.
@@DominusTecum316 It’s a joke ad. At the time, Nerf was marketing Nerf Bats but I believe parents were reporting children removing the Nerf padding and hitting each other with the hard plastic/metal rod part of the toy.
To me that model makes a great deal of sense. Complementary products do have a much better chance of selling if they are in the same proximity. It benefits all involved, not unlike the amusement park industry, parks in the same proximity feed off of each other.
I know chances are slim, but: Do you know Tente? It was an spanish construction block brand back in the 80's and early 90's which actually managed to compete with Lego back in the day, with an style more geared toward realistic designs, and pioneering the buildable transforming robots with RoBloks (unless you count something like Blockman)
I remember Tente as space style building toy in white, blue and chrome very tight locking bricks most looked like a bug with big wheels only had small kits and their was some comercials 70s 1980s 😄
When you mention screens.... like 7 years ago Lego had $50 sets where you build with the bricks and scan it with a phone or tablet and create a virtual city...sounds cool but none of our devices between like 7 people worked with it! We never got it to work! Those parts ended up getting dumped into the big lego bin.
Scott: dividing the market between competitors by agreeing not to enter into each other's cathegories is a form of collusion and it's completely illegal. There were even meetings as you told in the video, and the fact that it is unwritten does not make it less illegal.
As someone from Europe , I still see some Majorette cars in stores ... but not so many like back in the days . Last time I was in a store with bigger model cars I have seen many Welly cars here in Germany . I personally understand why Majorette cars are no more so often in stores ... you can easy notice the difference in quality to other cars of Hot Wheels , Matchbox or Siku .
In a Walmart, a McDonalds sells a fish sandwich (as many as you want) right along a Big Mac (the object that keeps them profitable there), even though the fish sandwich isn’t and never will be a profit maker. So why cant the toy companies do the same for the action figure/preschool toys relationship?
Ironically it seemed like after After Ever High came out (the children of the fairy tales) Disney came up with the idea of Disney Descendants (the children of Disney fairy tale characters). Certainly seemed to me like Disney Stole Mattel's idea that they didn't like doesn't it? There was a rumor that the reason Ever After High was ended was because Mattel was trying to get back the Disney Princess License again, do you know if that was true? I personally loved the EAH high line, even more the MH.
Hasbro gave Mattel competition for sure with GI Joe and Transformers, both still going strong to this day. Aside from He-Man I don’t really see any other significant action figure lines from Mattel. Don’t get me wrong, I loved Bravestarr and Captain Power but those never achieved the same level of popularity. Even Secret Wars couldn’t hold a candle to Super Powers, manufactured by Kenner along with Ghostbusters, MASK, Star Wars and all the way up to Batman Returns I believe. I just don’t see them honoring this agreement of action figure exclusivity granted to Mattel.
Actually it's not a Barbie at 7:43 on the throne , it's a Poppy Parker doll made by Integrity Toys (owned by Hasbro) . ^^ I think it would be the final nail in the coffin for Mattel if Hasbro would decide to produce all the Integrity Toys dolls for the mass market .... also Integrity Toys got a very bad brand manager , lol
Was the doll thing really where the treaty was broken? This video seems to suggest that, but Mattel had been making action figures for years at that point, which were supposed to be Hasbro's territory, but Mattel had long been making DC action figures and pushed that a lot further when they got the WWE license. It's almost appropriate given how this kind of mimics the territory days of wrestling and their ultimate downfall.
So how did Mettel make He-man if Hasbro had the action figure domain? Was it because of the "doll" technicality? Having seen this I'm even more convinced that Mattel created Kevin Smith's MOTU as part of the politic wars now knowing that Hasbro, their biggest competitor gets access to the most successful toy line of all time in 2023. I'm very curious to see how the new adult collector Ghostbusters Afterlife Plasma series makes out in sales.
It seems like only Spinmaster with their Batman figures and Dollar Tree with their Final Faction brand know how to properly make toys available to the consumer.
Think you might want to update yourself a bit on the NERF product line. They havent used sticky tips in atleast 5 years. And dominating the blaster isle? Not so much.
I love Disney. Used to work at one of their parks. Right now I'm planning to move back there. But you don't efff with them. You efff with them and bad things happen.
mattel needs to push hard against lego, mega needs to get at least half the isle(realistically id like it to be a 40/40 split and 20 going to the none big dogs). im advocating for a mattel lego war, lego has taken too many licenses from mega and needs to be knocked down a peg
@@spectorcreative1872 you have really grown on me. At first I thought you were like management coming down talking to the guys on the floor. I now realize you are one of the guys.
