Alan G. Hassenfeld, former CEO of Hasbro, has died

abcnews.go.com

20 points·Bluestein··8 comments

For those unaware Hasbro was a family business that made some of the most iconic American toys like Mr. Potato Head, G.I. Joe, Lite-Brite, My Little Pony, and Transfomers.

Alan (misspelled in the title for some reason) was the third president of the company and shifted it's focus from original products to licensing deals and aquisitions.

He's the reason Hasbro bought Milton Bradley, Coleco, Tonka, Parker Brothers, Avalon Hill, and Wizards of the Coast.

He licensed Cabbage Patch Kids, Furby, and Beyblade from other toymakers and brought them to market.

He also focused heavily on licensing IP for things like WWF, Star Wars, Jurrasic Park, Pokemon, and Animorphs.

The company has arguably been in a steady decline since his departure.

Following Magic the Gathering and DnD is always fun, because the dynamics are they are the two products that Hasbro make a profit on and keep the company afloat while they repeatedly lose money on every other toy line...while everyone is also alarmed about how they're running MTG and DnD into the group in favor of short-term profit.

Man as a kid growing up in the 80s in RI, having friends whose parents worked at Hasbro was gold. Let me play with that GI Joe aircraft carrier while also realizing I really didn’t have space for it even as a ten year old.

Interestingly, I emailed and got response from him about 25 years ago when I sent an email in protest about working conditions in Hasbro's factories in China.

I appreciated the response at least, even if disagreed with the assessment.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_G._Hassenfeld

Hasbro allegedly used slave labor at Magdalene laundries in Ireland.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com