In a corridor deep in the headquarters of American toy giant Metal, a long timeline stretches across several sections of wall. On top of that, some seemingly unremarkable dates: 1947, when Mattel debuted the plastic Uke-A-Doodle ukulele; Or 1965, when See-n-Say came up with its meme: “The cow says … moo!”
Elsewhere, the 1959 film debut of Barbie, the world’s most famous fashion doll, and the 1961 film debut of her stunning beau, Ken, are recorded. It was 1968, when Hot Wheels were introduced to race against Britain’s matchbox cars. Or 1992, when Mattel acquired the card game UNO, created in 1971, and now one of the world’s most enduring family games.
Perhaps the most interesting history is easily overlooked. In 1955, Mattel became a major sponsor of Walt Disney’s new television series, in what was then a great marketing play. The Mickey Mouse Club. This was one of the toy company’s first TV show sponsorships, marking the beginning of a relationship that continues to this day. The latest fruit from this tree: Toy Story 5which hits theaters this week.
What’s telling about them all, from the glamorous world of Barbie to the pantheon of the beloved Toy Story Toys like Woody (Tom Hanks), Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen), Forky (Tony Hale), Combat Carl (Ernie Hudson) and Cowgirl Ragdoll Jessie (Joan Cusack), it is that they, and the countless toys that come between them, somehow tell the evolutionary journey of the children who grew up in the American Dizon.
“When Ruth Handler came up with the idea for Barbie, she came up with it because she was watching her daughter get cut. [images] trying to interact with and from a magazine in a two-dimensional way,” says Nick Karamonos, Mattel’s senior vice president of action figures and entertainment partnerships.
“Children need to be allowed to play, to use their imaginations, to have fun, to socialize with their friends and their peers, that’s fundamental,” he says. “So what we do is always try to provide tools and experiences. [that]. How we reach them, how they reach us, is definitely changing. But the fundamental nature and purpose of toys and what they create for us as human beings has been and will remain universal. That’s the beauty of this business and it’s definitely the genius of it. Toy Story“
The world toy business is dominated by just four companies: the LEGO Group, headquartered in Bland, Denmark; Tokyo-based Bandai Namco, whose brands include Gundam, Dragon Ball, Tamagotchi and video games. Hasbro, from Pawtucket, Rhode Island, owns Nerf, Monopoly, Transformers, Magic: The Gathering and Dungeons & Dragons. and Mattel, headquartered in El Segundo, California, whose brands include Barbie, Hot Wheels, Fisher-Price, UNO and Movie Tie-in, among others. Toy Story.
Bandai Namco’s revenue outpaces its competitors, but the brand profile of LEGO, Mattel and Hasbro puts it in a particularly strong position in the US, Australia, Canada and Europe. What all four companies share is a complex, data-driven relationship with their customers. But all four, in different ways, demonstrate a fairly natural approach to business. How a child consumer feels is almost as important – if not more – than how they (or their parents) spend money.
Mattel’s sprawling headquarters is a five-hectare campus that houses a central office tower, a design center and a studio operations building. It’s both a corporate headquarters, housing lawyers, accountants and executives, and a design hub, where product designers, sculptors and 3D modelers work on everything from packaging to poster design, and engineers work in large-scale 3D printing centers, making prototype toys.
In that sense, it could be the real-world equivalent of Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory, although there is no chocolate river or waterfall. However, getting in is something of a golden ticket. Like a tour of LEGO’s inner sanctum, there’s a lot you can’t see: the first part of research and development; secret testing labs But there’s a lot more that’s on display, much of it tied to upcoming, big-ticket movies.
One of Mattel’s leading design teams – product designer Baxter Crane and product design manager Kristen Sanzari – says the important thing is that children should not be underestimated. “They find new ways to play with anything so you have to challenge them in every way you can,” says Crane. And making the best Toy Story The toy, adds Sanzari, allows them to “play those stories on film and make it authentic, but then also make it their own. Toy Story And imaginative creative play in its own right.
Wandering around Mattel’s inner sanctum is a complex journey that includes many pre-built spaces to help you understand the multi-billion dollar toy business, but also many closed doors and strict rules around photography.
“It’s scary,” says Crane. “Because you don’t want to let anything get out, because these movies are precious to you, too.” And, Sanzari adds, many workplaces aim to keep details out of sight. “We often have code names for everything in the beginning,” she says. Toy Story 5For example, initially called Project Target.
The toy design also runs on an unusually long arc. With many TV and film tie-in projects, Metall is looking at pre-production designs before projects begin. In some cases, it can take two or three years before a TV series or movie is released.
“And along the way, things are changing in the script,” Sanzari says. “We [get] Moments in the movie at the beginning, and get the first rendition of the script, so we’re making changes based on that, and then we get the next rendition of the script and some characters might not be in the script, moments that we really liked that we wanted to make a toy might not exist anymore. So we adjust or we add something.
It’s also true, Crane and Sanzari say, that despite technological innovation, and the desire to integrate physical toys with tablet computers, phones and their apps, the best toys remain just toys — with an “analog shelf life” — in a toddler’s universe. “Because it’s tactile, the toy itself never goes away,” says Crane. “Technology has been around since the beginning. [the original] Toy StoryThat was the whole deal, right? Buzz was a modern toy with a lot going on.
But toys don’t always need bells and whistles, Sanzari says. “Kids will find the best part of the toy without the bells and whistles,” she says. “And without batteries, they can still have a good time with it. For us, we’re trying to make toys that inspire a child’s imagination. The best part is when you see a child making up their own stories; that’s when they’re at their most creative.”
The relationship between Mattel and Disney is complex and multifaceted. This ranges from deals that have added characters like Mickey Mouse, Minnie and Donald Duck to Mattel’s early childhood toy catalog, as well as creating mega-brands outside of legacy universes like AA Mellon’s Winnie the Pooh. This includes integrating new intellectual property (eg Cars) in established products (e.g. hot wheels). And, critically, it includes Halle Bailey’s fleet of top-shelf toy stars. The Little Mermaid and Rachel Ziegler Snow Whiteto frozen Princesses, and spinning them, and other Disney princesses, in the American Girl doll brand.
It is, in some respects, a marriage of two corporate cultures, although they are obviously still very distinct companies, with their own distinct brand identities. But these are also businesses where artistic ghosts — namely, Ruth Handler and Walt Disney, who had separate and shared visions of how children wanted to play — cast a long shadow over every aspect of the business, from visual design to research and development.
“Both companies are very strong in their legacy with amazing, inspirational leaders,” admits Disney’s Tracy Thurman, vice president of product design for physical toys. [but] Speaking primarily for Disney, what we know about Walt was that he was always looking for new and challenging things. He is not stuck in the past. He was very progressive. And that drives our culture more than anything else.
That said, Disney’s creative leaders don’t often stop to wonder if Walt agrees with an idea, but “I think they want us to keep pushing things,” Thurman says. “Give [distinct] The cultures may have helped make both companies stronger. And we always try to stay true to the characters. In the toy world, whether it’s plush or a bit collectible, we always try to think about who the character is and what they embody and what we know about them, and then reflect that.”
Toy Story 5 To be released on June 18.
