Hasbro and Mattel Possible Merger Talks

[LadyMoondancer]

One perk i can see is mlp benefiting from the creativity of Mattel.  imho Mattel rocks at coming up with characters and themes, sort of going wild with them.  i don't collect MH but I love seeing what new things they come up with.  I'd love to see that creativity put back into the MLP lines.

That's true.  I noticed this during G3 . . . Mattel would come out with a theme (usually for their Barbie line) and Hasbro would copy it the next year!  Like 2005 Barbie's theme was "Fairytopia" and in 2006 Hasbro produced the breezies, which are basically fairy ponies. 

Mattel does seem more daring, while Hasbro likes to play it safe to the extreme.  Here is another G3 example:  I went to the SDCC the year Star Catcher first came out. Hasbro had a booth there, so I chatted with the reps.  (This was when SDCC was small enough you could actually talk to people without being trampled, LOL.)  I asked them if there would be more pegasus ponies, since Star Catcher was the only one at the time.  They said Star Catcher was meant to "test the waters" so they could see if little girls wanted pegasus ponies.

Let me repeat: Hasbro WASN'T SURE if LITTLE GIRLS liked PEGASUS PONIES.

And then they did it AGAIN with unicorns, with G3 Rarity!  "Hmm, I wonder if little girls like unicorns? Gee . . . we're just not sure . . ."

Hasbro is a huge company, but sometimes they act like one "wrong" move will be their downfall.  I want to tell them "Put down the demographic reports, take some risks, and live a little!"

[Al-1701]

It would be interesting to see what the turnover in the marketing departments have been.  Has Mattel recently had an influx of new talent with new ideas and Hasbro maintains the old guard who are spent?  Or is it Hasbro who got a bunch of new people who really don't know what they're doing.  Whatever the case, it seems like Hasbro's marketing and design departments are suffering from a serious case of brain drain.

[Wardah]

Hasbro seems to be doing a better job with Disney tho. Hasbro's biggest fault is that they try to tie every new idea into an already successful brand or license instead of trying to create a totally new separate IP. Meanwhile Mattel likes to build these amazing IPs and ignore any licenses they have.

Tbh both companies have their faults and the idea of them combining their faults scares me.