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Hasbro is an American toy and game company. It is one of the largest toy makers in the world, second only to the toy giant Mattel. Founded in 1923 as textile remnant company Hassenfeld Brothers, the firm moved into toy production in the late 1940s. Its first success as a toy company came in 1952, with the production of the Mr. Potato Head toy. In 1964, the company created the term "action figure" to market its new line of G.I. Joe toys. The company shortened its name to Hasbro in 1968. Other Hasbro hits include My Little Pony (1983), Transformers (1984), Furby (1998) and Pokémon (1999).

Hasbro has acquired a number of other toy companies, including the Milton Bradley Company and its Playskool label in 1984, CBS Toys and its Child Guidance label in 1985, Kenner and Parker Brothers in 1991, and Tiger Electronics in 1998. Child Dimension and Kid Dimension are also Hasbro labels.

One of Hasbro's best known toy lines was the Weebles, which wobbled but did not fall down. Hasbro produced a set of Sesame Street Weebles in 1982.

In 2009, Sesame Workshop signed a 10-year deal with Hasbro to produce Sesame Street toys, after their contract with Fisher-Price expired. New Sesame products under their Playskool brand became available starting in 2011.

Hasbro Children's Hospital 2011 gala was titled "Elmo's Red Tie Ball", and featured the character as a guest.

In 2019, Hasbro's crowdfunding initiative "Haslab" announced a campaign to launch a full-size poser replica of Cookie Monster. The fully poseable replica was to include a cookie prop and two Sesame Street lithographs. Unfortunately, the project did reach its targeted amount of backers and the project was cancelled. 

Just Play replaced Hasbro as Sesame Street’s main toy licensee in 2022.[1]

Sources[]

  1. Ryan Tuchow, "Just Play Takes Over Sesame Workshop Toy Licensing," kidscreen, March 4, 2022

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