If Hasbro and Mattel ever merge, they should be called HasMat, which is fitting considering you'd need a HasMat suit for how toxic it would be to the industry.

Remember when Happy meals gave you the option of either getting a hot wheels car or a barbie doll for the toy?

I was a contractor for Mattel back in the late 90's. I designed Hot Wheels packaging and occasionally game packaging and instruction manuals. What few people know is that the Mattel Corporation's campus in El Segundo, California, was built on the old grounds of Hughes Aerospace. Mattel had acquired most of the old Hughes buildings and repurposed them for Toy production. Barbie dolls and Hot Wheels are literally created in the same building that once produced nuclear missiles! In the main design center that houses the boys, girls, and infant toy design divisions, there are large steel blast doors, covered with playful color stickers and posters, that serve as a reminder of the buildings original purpose. Ironically even in the 90's, security at in the Hot Wheels and Barbie design center was just as tight now, as it was when the building housed ICBM development in the Cold War. The reason as it was explained to me was that espionage in the toy industry was just as ferocious as it was for weapons and defense industries. Mattel was always at risk of spending several months and millions of dollars on developing a toy, only to have a pirate Chinese company steal the design and have cheap imitations for sale in stores, long before Mattel's product was ready for market. When Mattel suffered a huge $430 million loss in 2000 from the sale of SoftKey, if affected me personally. After the profit loss debacle, Mattel had responded by firing it's then president and punishing her with a generous $35 million settlement payment. Since no company keeps $35 million in petty cash laying around, they took the money from accounts payable, IE, the hundreds of small contractors like myself. By Christmas of 2000, I was still owed close to $40K from Mattel for freelance design work I had done that year. By January of 2001, I had received my 1099 tax statements from Mattel, claiming that I had been paid those wages even though I had not received a dime for any of my year 2000 invoices. In March of 2001, I stormed the front desk of the design bureau and demanded to speak to the VP of Boy's Toys, Bob Noll (the guy who signed my checks). He refused to meet me in person, instead letting me speak to him over the phone at the front desk. After ten minutes of patronizing platitudes from him, it was clear that Mattel had no respect for the folks who did 90% of the work for no full time benefits. (Mattel was abusing gig workers long before the term was coined) Since Mattel hired it's art directors and senior staff from it's ranks of contractors, I knew that in standing up for my rights, I was ruining my chance of full time employment. I left Mattel for a startup design company that year and never looked back.

Hasbro: you can’t defeat me Mattel: i know but he can *lego appears*

I never believed my mom when she said that Mr. Potatohead required a real potato back then. It seemed too bizarre and just something parents would make up as a joke. I was shocked to see it was true.

Lol, even their acquisitions are direct competitors. DC/Harry Potter and Marvel/Star Wars

company man: hasbro has had the rights to make the star wars and marvel toys while as mattel has had the warner rights such as the dc and harry potter characters me: ........... you gonna talk about jurassic world yet

You picked a good time to talk about Mattel. With the abysmal Thomas reboot on its way, it’s very fitting.

I’m surprised you skipped over the 80s cartoons era (Transformers/Hasbro, He-Man/Mattel). They both had multiple cartoon series just to sell toys! Ah, the 80s were a great time to be a kid.

Can we just take a minute to appreciate the fact that Company Man brings quality content every week?

Hasbro has some pretty good transformers figures, I gotta say it was surprising to me that you forgot to say anything about that or Takara Tomi

considering Littlest Pet Shop was my whole childhood, and the fact that I still collect LPS to this day [to a bit of an obsessive extent...] I'm going to have to go with Hasbro.

every time I hear Mattel all I can hear is “Mattel Electronics presents, B17 BOMBER”

Hasbro: “I’m the best toy company!” Mattel: “No I’m the best toy company.” ???: “Amateurs...” Mattel: “What was that punk?” Lego: “Amateurs...”

Mattel: I’m better why am I in the down sight Everybody: remember you made a THOMAS and friends reboot? Mattel:

You didn't mention how Hasbro lost the lisence to Jurassic world and Mattel bought it

“Toys.... primarily for children” What do you mea- *OOOOOOHHHHH*

*Fun Fact:* The Monopoly game helped the prisoners of war escape during WW2. British secret service officials used the games to smuggle the maps and tools to help the POWS escape captivity in Germany.

Let’s see Mattel likes to abuse Thomas and kick the fan in the nuts And Hasbro cares for My Little Pony and respects the fans and viewers watching it.

Going off of both of their Jurassic World toy lines, Mattel stomps this.

"The FURBY", the tight zoom on the Furby, I dunno why but this had me weak.

I'd love to see a video on Frisbee vs Discraft.

Mattel’s main problem is that they are so focused on conforming for children that they destroyed on of their biggest franchises (Thomas and Friends) to do this with the reboot coming out.

Jurassic fans: I don’t even have to watch this...

I had the confusion position of being called Matt L and doing contract work for Hasbro.

Do Fry's Electronics, they just closed all of their stores

This brought back memories of many now defunct toy brands from my childhood: Ohio Art, Parker Brothers, Wham-O, Kenner, Lakeside, Marx, Coleco, Kohner Brothers, A.C. Gilbert, Ideal and Remco.

Hasbro's expansion into the teen and adult market through the acquisition of Wizards of the Coast has given them a pretty significant advantage.

It was nice that toys from Hasbro and toys from Mattel were able to work together throughout the "Toy Story" series.

I wonder how much the explosion of My Little Pony influenced Hasbro's success.

And now they're about to collab

One of Hasbro’s most enduring successes has been the transformers. Honestly a whole video could be made about the fascinating origins of it. But the most interesting part is that the toys that spawned the franchise were made by a Japanese toy company named Takara, Hasbro created the characters and the lore that we know today. The original toys were called Diaclone and Takara had unsuccessfully tried to market them outside of Japan/Asia so hasbro offering a partnership upon a hasbro executive seeing Diaclone toys at a toy expo in the early 80s came at the perfect time. The rest is history. However there’s actually more depth to this origin story that I learned about only recently. It began in the 70s when Takara licensed GI joe from Hasbro except they branded it as a sort of cyborg character. But as the price of oil went up in the late seventies the cost of plastic went up and making those huge action figures became too expensive so Takara started making the figures smaller and made vehicles for them to pilot and the vehicles became increasingly innovative with transformations being gradually incorporated into their design until they were producing mech suit robots that transformed into fighter jets, cars and even robot insects and dinosaurs which were the Diaclone toys that were rebranded as transformers. The other interesting part is that with production of transformers toys all the expertise and heavy lifting is handled by Takara. Hasbro for all their strengths have never been able to match their Japanese partners in that regard. But it’s appears from the outside to be a highly symbiotic partnership as hasbro’s brand building has made it into a huge worldwide brand that has since become a big media franchise in its own right and has allowed hasbro to build up its media division where it now makes money off licensing Transformers for not just cartoons but also live action films and apparently they’re hoping to reboot the transformers film series as part of a larger cinematic universe that would encompass the other intellectual properties hasbro owns such as GI joe. I need to mention that like many 80s kids I loved the original generation one transformers series. And as much as I was able to form an appreciation for beast wars in the nineties almost all of what came afterwards really kinda sucked as far as I am concerned. The bumblebee movie I liked but I absolutely despised the Michael bay movies, they were absolute garbage and I don’t care how many billions those terrible movies grossed for paramount. they were absolutely vile and an insult to the source material. I just needed to make that clear.

Mattel has really messed up with the action figures in the last few years. They've lost the DC license and their stuff just doesn't look as good

Yeah, that would absolutely be a monopoly if they joined forces. I'd rather their rivalry continue until the end of time, lol.

I'm surprised the company man didnt mention Hasbro having the rights to make transformers here in the west, that's a major brand that kinda went under the radar in this video

I love your video and watch every single one of them with great pleasure! I did want to mention that keeping the same colors for hasbro and mattel on the graphs/charts would've been nice.

You never mentioned "Kenner" and how or when Hasbro bought them out..?

Hasbro V Mattel : Dawn of the Toy Aisle

mattel and hasbro always compeating: MGA in the background: 🍿👀🥤

Funny how you deliver the perfect combination of learning and entertainment!!!

Interesting that Mattel's pencil division was so successful. I always thought it was just a write-off...

It seems a lot of Hasbro's modern dominance of the two can be attributed to Wizards of the Coast properties (Dungeons and Dragons and Magic the Gathering), which seem to always report quarterly growth, even during the COVID dip.

Always look forward to a Company Man video! I would love to see a video about Coleco, the company that used to produce the Cabbage Patch Kids and the Coleco Vision. I know they've been defunct for a while but they have a pretty interesting history.

this may just be me loving dolls, but i'd love to see you talk about specifically Mattel's dolls vs MGA's dolls, especially the Barbie vs Bratz stuff i'm also quite surprised you didn't mention how disney princess dolls used to be made by mattel, but have since switched to hasbro after mattel launched Ever After High

When I think hasbro, I think transformers. When I think Mattel I think those off brand hot wheels

"GI Joe hasn't been significant for 50 years." May I introduce you to the 1980s?

This channel has grown so much

Great video - very informative.

Hasbro has been more diversified with toys and merchandising and they’ve expanded their demographics to older kids and even adults! Mattel mostly targets younger children and produces toys and cartoons for preschoolers!

We can't forget Hasbro's greatest creations Transformers, MLP, and G.I Joe

Love both of these companies!

Romper Room was my favorite as a kid awesome video. I've played with toys from both brands. Can't really choose.

There's only one toy company that matters and yes, it hurts like hell when you step on one of them.

"There's been an intense competition between them" Me: There has, bro.

I remember that about 5 years ago, maybe more, hasbro was crossovering with angry birds and made a crapload of toys called “telepods” that connected into the game to give stuff to the latest mobile titles of angry birds

I'm curious to know how Bandai compares to Hasbro and Mattel, since Bandai is third largest toy maker in world (last I knew)

Favorite products from Hasbro: My Little Pony, Littlest Pet Shop, Sorry, Monopoly, Jenga, Sorry, Simon, and Trouble

I think the one part at the end with the whole Hasbro and Mattel competing by using super hero toys was fascinating on so many levels. Hasbro competes with Mattel Disney competes with Warner Bros. Marvel competes with DC. I wouldn't be surprised if one day Disney buys Coca-Cola and Warner Bros buys Pepsi in retaliation lmao

Hasbro being co-owners of Transformers along with surge in popularity of Dnd really helped them out a lot.

I cant speak for all of Mattels toys, but their dolls seem to be constant waves of them inventing new doll lines like Monster High, Ever After High, Super Hero Girls, and then almost immediately pulling the plug once things get going. (Ever After High saw them competing with Disney and Descendants came out around that time too)

Where is the fan requested video? We want: *KZfaq - Why They're Hated*

I’m surprised you didn’t mention the transformers deal hasbro has with takara .

That list of acquisitions genuinely surprised me, I had no clue they collectively owned so much

Good video but I was so left wanting more when you started wrapping the video up I was like already? I don't know, this video should have his own hour-long documentary.

8:05 This man really typed “Pokèman” 😂😂

That Hasbro logo is nostalgic af

Great video👍🏼 I’m not sure if you would ever consider this, but MGA Entertainment and Mattel have been huge rivals for 20 years now - it would be so interesting to compare these two🙌🏼 The drama between these two companies is absolutely intense.

Ready to hear about the contributing factors.

Who remembers KB Toys?

When I think of Mattel, I think of Barbie toys. When I think of Hasbro, I think of My little pony toys.

I enjoy Mattel a lot more for Hot Wheels, Blokus, and UNO, plus, it acquired Fisher-Price. Sometimes, I also enjoy Hasbro for MONOPOLY, NERF, and JENGA.

Overall, a good video. I did want to dispute one point though. GI Joe was huge in the 1980s. I'm not sure where the "GI Joe hasn't been relevant for them (Hasbro) in 50 years" comment came from. Also Hasbro was the company that made Transformers, which are still relevant as far as I know. Mattel had He-Man and the Masters of the Universe as a hit toy line in the '80s. All of these had their own cartoon shows on TV that served as advertisements, which I think is worth noting. Those are a couple of points that probably ended up on the cutting room floor that I thought were worth mentioning

I like how you made the red line Hasbro and the blue line Mattel. That didn’t confuse anyone...

I feel like MGA would be another good company to make a video about. Heck there were a bunch of lawsuits between them and mattel.

The Company Man -- ahead of the news before they even know it's news!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This, this is fascinating

There’s a Mattel sticker on the underside of my NES. I remember as a kid I was so annoyed that it was there, because I didn’t want “that Barbie sticker” on the bottom of my game console. 😂

I'm more on Mattel's side mostly because of Hot Wheels. I still love Hasbro. My favorite brands from them are Beyblade and Nerf.

Now i totally understand when that guy in Ted 2 said "I work for Mattel" 💀💀

My aunt worked in Hasbro during the late 80s to 90s, she kept bringing us the unpackaged version of their toys. I remember cabbage kids and some building toys, which we build a tower then watched it fell with a timer demolish device.

As long has Hasbro has the lisence for Transformers they'll have me in their side

*This battle would make a good board game.*

Mattel also had the distribution rights for the first Nintendo console. I remember a big red Mattel logo on my NES box.

this video made me feel old for the first time and im 14 still i loved the video

Great video! Was interesting to learn the histories of the companies that made the products that brought me so much joy as a child!

Remember people hasbro has toys for children to summon demons/ghost whatever you prefer

i' have worked at mattel's owned factory for 4 years (2010-2014) and currently working for hasbro (since 2017).... i love both of them anyway, both are great places to work !

Oh wow...that's tough. I was a Hot Wheels kid...but also GI Joe (1980's 3.75" version) and Star Wars...which was Kenner back in those days...I also had Tyco electric slot car tracks...so thanks to all the acquisitions I'd blow a mental gasket trying to pick a favorite...

Mattel’s logo looks like it was made in a microsoft word document to cut cost

I remember when Hasbro used to make WWE (then WWF) toys, then Mattel acquired those rights later on.

I liked whomever made the GI Joe action figures that were around in the early/mid 90's. I had this pretty cool base thing, and a few smaller vehicles. The action figures came with some kind of little weapon to hold or had one attached to them that would usually be able to fire a small projectile. It was like a small missile. I had a lot of fun with those when I was a kid.

Westwood Monopoly for Windows 95 is legit. Played it recently, and it still holds up very well, especially the animations and the music.

As a girly girl back in the day, you couldn't make me choose between baby alive and Polly pocket/barbie. I liked them equally.

Fun fact - In the 1960s Mattel used to manufacture the handgrips for M16 rifles used during the Vietnam war.

Mattel also has licensing on Disney princesses dolls! At least I think they still do... Their versions are usually a lot prettier than the monstrosities Disney makes for itself

Lets be honest mattel>Hasbro when making dinosaur toys

Hasbro is also the best cuz they have fricken TRANSFORMERSS

Mattel vs Hasbro is lowkey another legendary rivalry like Nintendo vs Sony vs Microsoft Pokémon vs Digimon Micky Mouse vs Bugs Bunny Marvel vs DC Coke vs Pepsi although unlike some of these I don’t prefer one over the other I never played with Mattel or Hasbro toys as a kid I mainly played with Pokémon figurines made by Jakks Pacific. If I had to choose one though I’d pick Hasbro only because they use to manage Pokémon Cards though.

I was happy to hear you covered the WOTC acquisition- it is a pretty huge company, also: I play MTG

Watching this was interesting. It shared many of the beats with what is and was the largest toy company at the time of publishing; LEGO. Family company started long ago (1932 so LEGO is oldest of the 3), initially didn't make toys, named the company by combining two words, all three stretched thin in the late 90s/early 00s and had to figure out what to do about computers. Biggest difference is that LEGO is a behemoth with only one real brand under their belt instead of being a conglomeration of any company they can buy up.