User:Amelia/hasbro

Hasbro is an American toy company, founded in Rhode Island and are the owners of the My Little Pony franchise. Needless to say, their influence over the worlds of toys, cartoons and comics are rather vast.

History

Hasbro logo, c. 1980s

"Hasbro" as a name is shortened from Hassenfield Brothers, three Jewish brothers named Henry, Hillel and Herman Hassenfeld. Beginning in the 1930s as a humble textile remnants seller, later manufacturer and seller of children's school supplies such as pencils. Sadly, in 1944, Hillel Hassenfeld died. The following year, the remaining brothers filed a trademark for the name Hasbro.

In 1952, Hasbro released Mr. Potato Head, originally created by George Lerner but purchased by Hasbro. So confident Hasbro was in this product that they purchased advertising time for it on a thing called 'television', a rather new concept at the time.

By 1964, the remaining two Hassenfield brothers, Henry and Herman, had passed away. Henry's son, Merrill, was left in charge of the company. Merill saw amazing success when he bought a toy concept created by an inventor named Stanley Weston, a type of doll, or doll-like figure, of a U.S. Military soldier called an "action figure". After their then head of research and development, Donald Levine, named the figure G.I. Joe, after a 1945 film, The Story of G.I Joe. This little toy would cause Hasbro to grow into the largest toy company in the U.S. by 1968, rebranding the company under the name Hasbro Industries.

My Pretty Pony

In 1981, the three person team of Bonnie Zacherle, Charles Muenchinger and Steve D'Aguanno would patent the invention that would soon become My Pretty Pony later that year. The following year, the first wave of 'true' My Little Pony toys were produced, known to by collectors as "Year One". Hasbro would continue to launch new toylines on a roughly yearly basis until 1992, the 'end' of the franchises first generation, thus beginning the generational cycle that has gone on to define the brand ever since. Oh yeah, in 1983, a little known franchise known as The Transformers would launch and would have the occasional crossover with My Little Pony.

Also in the 1980s, Hasbro would begin a strong relationship with Marvel, who would publish their comics, most notably G.I. Joe and The Transformers and produce their animated series, including My Little Pony. This would begin Hasbro's strong emphasis on comic publication, which continues to this very day. Interestingly, the first My Little Pony comics were not published by Marvel, but instead by Fleetway as a European comic series, with art done by Selecciones Ilustradas, a talent agency that employed artists from all over the Spanish speaking world.

Fandom relationship

Unlike with other franchises, Hasbro's relationship with the My Little Pony fandom has been noticeably silent, if not mostly negative.

References

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