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From Wondry, I'm David Brown and this is Business Wars.

Today we wrap our series on the battle between toy giants Hasbro and Mattel.

We've gone back almost 70 years to the 1950s to a time when both of these companies were just

fresh-faced newbies, nothing like the multi-billion dollar businesses they are today.

And although Hasbro and Mattel sell toys, the money they rake in, well it's definitely not

child's play. In fact, $80 billion now spent on toys every year.

Sean McGowan has been following the toy industry for 30 years. He's currently managing director

at Loyolas. We're bringing him in on the show to bring us up to date on all things toys today.

Sean McGowan, thanks so much for taking a few minutes out to talk with us on Business Wars.

Thank you, my pleasure. You know, this is one of the more fun aspects of doing this

Business Wars podcast is getting to talk to people who are passionate about their industries.

And you're certainly that. How did you get such a cool gig basically staying on top of the toy

business? It's kind of funny how I fell into doing toys. I was a French major or double major,

French in English and college. And my first job out was with an accounting firm doing basic

research on companies that they either had a relationship with or wanted a relationship with.

One of the clients of the firm was Coleco toys of Cabbage Patch fame. Yeah. And they were

involved in trying to buy Milton Bradley. So the partner in the Hartford Connecticut office called

up and said, I need to know everything there is to know about the US toy industry so I can sound smart

to my client. And so we spent two weeks on that. You know, and it moved on. The next project was

probably something completely unrelated. But getting out of business school in 1986, I put that down

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