Encore: Hasbro vs Mattel | Dream Doll | 1

Business Wars

Wondery

History, Business, David Brown, Management

4.6 • 13.2K Ratings

🗓️ 21 December 2020

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

It’s the late 1940s and two small toymakers are taking their first uneasy steps. The names of these young hopefuls are Hasbro and Mattel. One’s an offshoot of a pencil manufacturer. The other a husband-and-wife garage start-up.

But toy-making, they soon discover, is an unexpectedly cutthroat business. If either of these companies hopes to survive--let alone succeed--they’re going to need to get creative. Disrupting the embedded and experienced kingpins of Toyland, will require them to take chances on TV, potatoes, Mickey Mouse and one particularly risqué novelty doll from Germany.

This episode originally aired on March 20, 2019.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, prime members, you can listen to Business Wars Add Free on Amazon Music.
0:04.6	Download the app today.
0:07.0	During this pandemic, parents have resorted to all kinds of strategies to survive.
0:18.2	I'm sure you've built your share of cushion castles, perhaps invited your kids to help prepare
0:23.1	meals, and then of course there's the puppy with those unnervingly large paws.
0:27.7	But if all else fails, there's always the surefire kitty pleaser.
0:30.8	You know what we're talking about, new toys.
0:33.9	And this Christmas season, parents are buying more toys than ever.
0:37.4	It's a toofer.
0:38.4	They boost kid spirits and distract them while parents work.
0:42.2	So for this special, you-all-tied moment, we are bringing you once more Hasbro vs.
0:47.7	Mattel to take you back to a major rivalry.
0:51.4	We hope you enjoy and happy holidays.
0:56.2	This March, 1947, and everyone who's anyone in the world of toys is in New York City at
1:02.2	the annual Toy Fair Conference.
1:04.5	Thousands of retail buyers and the nation's toy makers are showcasing their latest play
1:08.7	things, hoping one will take off.
1:12.2	Toymaker Elliott Handler is one of them.
1:15.0	He's a Lanky 30-year-old with curly black hair.
1:18.2	Two years ago, he and his wife Ruth started a toy company called Mattel in a converted
1:23.8	Los Angeles garage.
1:26.0	Elliott's never been to Toy Fair before, but he's hoping to make a splash with his latest
	...

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