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Hasbro banking on Transformers movie

Hasbro banking on Transformers movie to transform its business

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- PROVIDENCE, R.I. Hasbro Inc. struggled when the toy company tied its fortunes too closely to toys based on movies. But a movie based on its toys? That could be a different story.

Hasbro is banking that the July 4 release of the DreamWorks/Paramount movie Transformers — based on Hasbro's "robots in disguise" toys introduced in the 1980s — will herald a new era for the company that in the past few years has been remaking itself from a toy maker to an entertainment company.

"Transformers sort of opens another chapter for us," said Brian Goldner, Hasbro's chief operating officer, listed as an executive producer. "In the past, I think that the company may have thought too narrowly about its brands as forms of entertainment."

In 2000, the Pawtucket, R.I.-based company was struggling. The toy maker lost $144 million after fads for Pokémon trading cards and the electronic pet Furby faltered. It cut hundreds of jobs. Then-Chief Executive Alan Hassenfeld called it "a very painful year."

Part of the problem was an overreliance on movie-related toys, like tie-ins to the Star Wars franchise, said Sean McGowan, an analyst with Wedbush Morgan Securities. "They would be hot for a while, then not hot," McGowan said.

Hasbro Transfomer Timeline

When Hasbro, Inc. introduced the TRANSFORMERS brand to the U.S. in 1984, it revolutionized a category it had itself invented some 20 years earlier -- action figures.

TRANSFORMERS – originally dubbed “The Transformers” -- heralded an entirely new way to interact with action figures, giving kids the power to literally change the toys from one form into another (initially, from robots to vehicles). As the iconic theme song went, there was “more than meets the eye.”

But that was only the beginning. With intriguing personalities, captivating story lines and great battle action, Hasbro firmly entrenched the TRANSFORMERS brand into the pantheons of modern pop culture. Over the past two decades, the TRANSFORMERS brand has emerged as one of the most successful properties in action figure history, spawning numerous television series, comic books, and even a feature length animated film.

Today, the TRANSFORMERS brand has a devoted following of fans of all ages, with OPTIMUS PRIME and MEGATRON captivating a whole new generation of fans. The franchise is about to be taken to a new level with the July 4th premiere of the first-ever live-action feature film, TRANSFORMERS, from DreamWorks Pictures and Paramount Pictures, directed by Michael Bay and executive produced by Steven Spielberg.

A timeline of key TRANSFORMERS brand milestones follows

Read More www.hasbro.com