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Comment by slimsag | Hacker News Reader

Hasbro needed to, and failed to (imo), transition into selling higher-end luxury toys for adults with nostalgia - and focus less on kids.

With the exception of DnD, everything else Hasbro-owned has failed to capture such an audience I think.

Their toys are generally priced ~$25 or less. Higher-end variants of their toys are not by Hasbro, but rather by other companies. Want a high-end nerf gun? You're going to Dart Zone, not Hasbro.

On Amazon their toys are competing on the same footing with the cheaper (often better) knock-off brands.

Their board games are dated and haven't really evolved. Monopoly is $15 while Catan is $100, /r/HotWheels collectors want old cars not the cheap new ones, etc.

By comparison, brands like Lego have evolved, are insanely expensive (>$100) and I constantly see adults with disposable income purchasing them en-mass while they're not really affordable as kids toys anymore.

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Lego is a fascinating case study. They've gone entirely corporate - so many of their expensive new products are branded partnerships. I guess it had to be done. There must be an HBS case study, or several, about this.

I wouldn't be surprised if branded partnerships have minimal profit and are mostly intended to keep a premium market perception.

Lego was pretty famous for doing branded partnerships and still struggling [1]. This lead them to come up with more of their own IP like Bionicle and Ninjago.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bionicle#Concept

Brick by Brick is a great book about the history of Lego and how it came back from near bankruptcy. It reads like a business case study—turns out they were saved by a McKinsey consultant.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jørgen_Vig_Knudstorp

> brands like Lego have evolved, are insanely expensive (>$100)

I thought that Lego prices had remained pretty steady over time.

https://realityprose.com/what-happened-with-lego/

OK, that study was published 10 years ago, but I haven't noticed any huge price hikes in the last decade for comparable sets. Yes, there are some bigger sets now than there used to be, but the small sets haven't gone away and are still there too, at what seem like reasonable (to me) prices. And while sets based on licensing deals (e.g. Marvel/Disney) are a bit more pricey than their own in-house ranges (City, Creator, Friends, Ninjago, etc...), again it doesn't seem like a huge gap?

While price per piece may have remained relatively constant, Lego has been pushing out more and more expensive sets. I remember when the most expensive set was the 400 dollar death star, and that was the only 400 dollar set. Now, there are 26 sets that are 400 dollars or more, with 7 of those sets being 600 dollars or more, and the most expensive set being 850 dollars. All of this to target more adult fans of lego.

Note that the $400 death star (set 10188) was released in 2008, and $400 in 2008 dollars is worth $570 in 2023 dollars.

https://brickipedia.fandom.com/wiki/10188_Death_Star

https://www.in2013dollars.com/us/inflation/2008?amount=400

> Hasbro needed to, and failed to (imo), transition into selling higher-end luxury toys for adults with nostalgia - and focus less on kids.

Isn't Pulse/HasLab that? For example they have a $300 Ghost Trap and P.K.E. Meter.

[1] https://hasbropulse.com/collections/haslab/products/ghostbus...

> By comparison, brands like Lego have evolved, are insanely expensive (>$100)

They have expanded their product range upwards, but they still have tons of inexpensive, non-3rd-party-brand Lego sets.

I remember seeing the Hasbro Interactive logo when starting up MechWarrior 3. It seems they were a victim of the dotcom crash.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MechWarrior_3

When I buy a 200€ Lego set I still build it up for a few hours.

I can't come up with something I would buy from Hasbro in that range and having something to do with it though.

And there is Lego master tv show which also makes a lot of sense.

I don't get it. Merchandising is still huge business. Just look at Disney toy sales. Why don't Hasbro invest in new IP?

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