Hasbro in the context of "My Little Pony"

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⭐ Core Definition: Hasbro

Hasbro, Inc. (/ˈhæzbr/; a syllabic abbreviation of its original name, Hassenfeld Brothers) is an American multinational toy manufacturing and entertainment holding company founded on December 6, 1923 by Henry, Hillel and Herman Hassenfeld and is incorporated and headquartered in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. Hasbro owns the trademarks and products of Kenner, Milton Bradley, Parker Brothers, and Wizards of the Coast, among others. As of August 2020, over 81.5% of its shares were held by large financial institutions.

Among Hasbro's products are Transformers, G.I. Joe, Power Rangers, Rom the Space Knight, Micronauts, M.A.S.K., Monopoly, Furby, Nerf, Potato Head, Bop It!, Play-Doh, Twister, and My Little Pony, and with the Entertainment One (now Lionsgate Canada) acquisition on December 30, 2019, franchises like Peppa Pig and PJ Masks. Hasbro also spawned TV shows to promote its products, such as Family Game Night on Discovery Family, which has been co-owned by Hasbro since 2010. The company sold Entertainment One to Lionsgate (now Starz Entertainment) on December 27, 2023, however, it kept eOne's family brands and eOne's stake in Astley Baker Davies, placing them into a new division known as Hasbro Entertainment, formed on August 16, 2023. The company celebrated their 100th anniversary on December 6, 2023. Hasbro primarily competes with Mattel.

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In this Dossier

Hasbro in the context of Action figure

An action figure is a poseable character model figure made most commonly of plastic, and often based upon characters from a film, comic book, military, video game, television program, or sport; fictional or historical. These figures are usually marketed toward boys and adult collectors. The term was coined by Hasbro in 1964 to market G.I. Joe to boys (while competitors called similar offerings boy's dolls).

According to a 2005 study in Sweden, action figures which display traditional masculine traits primarily target boys. While most commonly marketed as a child's toy, the action figure has gained widespread acceptance as collector item for adults. In such a case, the item may be produced and designed on the assumption it will be bought solely for display as a collectible and not played with like a child's toy.

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Hasbro in the context of Ouija

The Ouija (/ˈwə/ WEE-jə, /-i/ -⁠jee), also known as a Ouija board, spirit board, talking board, or witch board, is a flat board marked with the letters of the Latin alphabet, the numbers 0–9, the words "yes", "no", and occasionally "hello" and "goodbye", along with various symbols and graphics. It uses a planchette (a small heart-shaped piece of wood or plastic) as a movable indicator to spell out messages during a séance. Participants place their fingers on the planchette, which is moved about the board to spell words. The name "Ouija" is a trademark of Hasbro (inherited from Parker Brothers), but is often used generically to refer to any talking board.

Spiritualists in the United States believed that the dead were able to contact the living, and reportedly used a talking board very similar to the modern Ouija board at their camps in Ohio during 1886 with the intent of enabling faster communication with spirits. Following its commercial patent by businessman Elijah Bond being passed on 10 February 1891, the Ouija board was regarded as an innocent parlor game unrelated to the occult until American spiritualist Pearl Curran popularized its use as a divining tool during World War I.

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Hasbro in the context of G.I. Joe

G.I. Joe is an American media franchise and a line of action figures owned and produced by the toy company Hasbro. The initial product offering represented four of the branches of the U.S. armed forces with the Action Soldier (U.S. Army), Action Sailor (U.S. Navy), Action Pilot (U.S. Air Force), Action Marine (U.S. Marine Corps), Action lifeline (U.S. Coast Guard) and later on, the Action Nurse. The name is derived from the usage of "G.I. Joe" for the generic U.S. soldier, itself derived from the more general term "G.I.". The development of G.I. Joe led to the coining of the term "action figure". G.I. Joe's appeal to children has made it an American icon among toys.

The G.I. Joe trademark has been used by Hasbro for several different toy lines, although only two have been successful. The original 12-inch (30 cm) line introduced on February 1, 1964, centered on realistic action figures. In the United Kingdom, this line was licensed to Palitoy and known as Action Force. In 1982 the line was relaunched in a 3.75-inch (9.5 cm) scale complete with vehicles, playsets, and a complex background story involving an ongoing struggle between the G.I. Joe Team and the evil Cobra organization which seeks to take over the Free World through terrorism. As the American line evolved into the Real American Hero series, Action Man also changed, by using the same molds and being renamed as Action Force. Although the members of the G.I. Joe team are not superheroes, they all had expertise in areas such as martial arts, weapons, and explosives.

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Hasbro in the context of Dungeons & Dragons

Dungeons & Dragons (commonly abbreviated as D&D or DnD) is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG) originally created and designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. The game was first published in 1974 by Tactical Studies Rules (TSR). It has been published by Wizards of the Coast, later a subsidiary of Hasbro, since 1997. The game was derived from miniature wargames, with a variation of the 1971 game Chainmail serving as the initial rule system. D&D's publication is commonly recognized as the beginning of modern role-playing games and the role-playing game industry, which also deeply influenced video games, especially the role-playing video game genre.

D&D departs from traditional wargaming by allowing each player to create their own character to play instead of a military formation. These characters embark upon adventures within a fantasy setting. A Dungeon Master (DM) serves as referee and storyteller for the game, while maintaining the setting in which the adventures occur, and playing the role of the inhabitants of the game world, known as non-player characters (NPCs). The characters form a party and they interact with the setting's inhabitants and each other. Together they solve problems, engage in battles, explore, and gather treasure and knowledge. In the process, player characters earn experience points (XP) to level up, and become increasingly powerful over a series of separate gaming sessions. Players choose a class when they create their character, which gives them special perks and abilities every few levels.

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Hasbro in the context of Yahtzee

Yahtzee is a dice game made by Milton Bradley (a company that has since been acquired and assimilated by Hasbro). It was first marketed under the name of Yahtzee by game entrepreneur Edwin S. Lowe in 1956. The game is a development of earlier dice games such as Poker Dice, Yacht and Generala. It is also similar to Yatzy, which is popular in Scandinavia.

The objective of the game is to score points by rolling five dice to make certain combinations. The dice can be rolled up to three times in a turn to try to make various scoring combinations and dice must remain in the box. A game consists of thirteen rounds. After each round, the player chooses which scoring category is to be used for that round. Once a category has been used in the game, it cannot be used again. The scoring categories have varying point values, some of which are fixed values and others for which the score depends on the value of the dice. A Yahtzee is five-of-a-kind and scores 50 points, the highest of any category. The winner is the player who scores the most points.

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Hasbro in the context of Parker Brothers

Parker Brothers (known as Parker outside of North America) was an American toy and game manufacturer which in 1991 became a brand of Hasbro. More than 1,800 games were published under the Parker Brothers name since 1883. It remained family owned until bought in 1968, and branched into Nerf toys and media. Among its products were Monopoly, Clue (licensed from the British publisher and known as Cluedo outside of North America), Sorry!, Risk, Trivial Pursuit, Ouija, Aggravation, Bop It, Scrabble (under a joint partnership with Milton Bradley in the United States and Canada), and Probe. In the 21st century, the trade name ceased use, with former products being marketed under the "Hasbro Gaming" label, with the logo shown on Monopoly games.

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Hasbro in the context of Milton Bradley Company

Milton Bradley Company, simply known as Milton Bradley (MB), was an American board game manufacturer that was established by Milton Bradley (1836–1911) in Springfield, Massachusetts in 1860. In 1920, it absorbed the game production of McLoughlin Brothers, formerly the largest game manufacturer in the United States. It was acquired by Hasbro in 1984 and merged, with Hasbro subsidiary Parker Brothers in 1998. The brand name continued to be used by Hasbro until 2009.

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Hasbro in the context of Kenner Products

Kenner Products, known simply as Kenner, is an American toy brand owned by Hasbro. Kenner Products began as a toy company founded in 1946, going on to produce several highly recognizable toys and merchandise lines including action figures for the original series of Star Wars, Jurassic Park and Batman as well as die cast models.

The company underwent numerous acquisitions and mergers throughout its lifetime, starting with by General Mills in 1967, which eventually spun it off alongside Parker Brothers in 1985 as Kenner Parker Toys, Inc. In 1987, Kenner Parker was acquired by Tonka, which in turn was purchased by Hasbro in 1991. Hasbro closed and merged Kenner's offices and products in 2000. The brand was reintroduced by Hasbro in 2010 with the release of Star Wars: The Vintage Collection.

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Hasbro in the context of Wizards of the Coast

Wizards of the Coast LLC (WotC /ˈwɒtˌs/; or, Wizards) is an American game publisher, mostly of fantasy and science-fiction games, and formerly an operator of retail game stores. In 1999, toy manufacturer Hasbro acquired the company and currently operates it as a subsidiary. During a February 2021 reorganization of Hasbro, WotC became the lead part of a new division called "Wizards & Digital".

WotC was originally a role-playing game (RPG) publisher that in the mid-1990s originated and popularized collectible card games with Magic: The Gathering. It later acquired TSR, publisher of the RPG Dungeons & Dragons, and published the licensed Pokémon Trading Card Game from 1999 to 2003. WotC's corporate headquarters is located in Renton, Washington, which is part of the Seattle metropolitan area.

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