The Real Toy Story by Eric Clark

Author:Eric Clark
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: 2007-10-06T04:00:00+00:00

Toy companies have gone back to what they call their core brands, ones that have been around for some time with their own history and familiarity, and turned these into lines and licensed properties. Hasbro’s chairman, Alan Hassenfeld, says, “We spent more time on Star Wars and on X, Y, and Z. We weren’t taking care of our children, so they were withering.” He volunteers an example: Play-Doh, that wonderful nontoxic reusable modeling compound first introduced in the mid-1950s. “How do you expand Play-Doh?” he asks. “You bring a group of people together and you basically say, ‘Okay, what is the Play-Doh story?’ Play-Doh, it seems, is no longer just a creative plaything. It began in Doh-Doh Island. “And who lives on Doh-Doh Island?” he continues. “It’s inhabited by Doh-Dohs, and now you have the chance to create books, maybe entertainment, because you’ve opened up a universe. You basically haven’t been linear. You’ve just opened up that imagination.” What it actually opens in hard terms is a chance to produce and sell scores more products on the back of Play-Doh—a staggering 67 products by Christmas 2005. They included the Play Doh-Doh Island, a farm, a pet parlor, an ice cream truck, a fridge, a magic hat, a tractor, farm animals—and McDonald’s fries and a George Foreman grill. It’s a long way from Play-Doh’s 1956 beginning as an off-white compound in a one-and-a-half-pound can.

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