Barbie is about to reunite with some old friends. Mattel, a maker of popular fashion dolls, has abandoned three dormant lines: Major Matt Mason, Big Jim and Pulsar.
The re-emergence of the three action heroes is part of Mattel’s CEO Ynon Kreiz’s strategy to harness the company’s intellectual property by bringing the old brand back to a new generation.
Mattel will reintroduce the toy line under the umbrella label Back in Action at Comic-Con International, San Diego’s pop culture fanfest this week.
PJ Lewis, Mattel’s Vice President of Global Marketing, said: “Back in Action helps keep the IP valid and decides what to do next.”
Kreiz’s strategy has helped turn a depressed fate since Mattel’s acquisition in 2018.The company expects 2021 sales to grow 19% to $ 5.5 billion, a growth of 8% to 10% this year, despite supply chain bottlenecks and rising raw material costs (). Report Second quarter results On Thursday).
Part of the recent success of toy makers comes from the expansion of legacy brands.Barbie will appear in a live-action film starring Margot Robbie, one of 12 films of various Mattel brand works, including live-action films. Hot wheels movie With JJ Abrams’ Bad Robot Productions Company Masters of the Universe, Partnership with Netflix. Other brands heading to the big screen include Thomas the Tank Engine, Magic Eight Ball, and Polly Pocket.
“When you enter the store and get off the toy aisle, almost everything is tied to movies, TV shows, and video games,” said Danny Eardley, lead author of The Toys of He-Man and the Masters of He-Man. increase. The universe. “
But how does Mattel create interest in brands that have been off the toy shelves for decades?
Major Matt Mason, an astronaut action figure, was introduced in 1967 and was successful until children began to lose interest in space exploration. He reappeared in pop culture in 2019 when Tom Hanks signed the production and starring of the next movie about Astronauts. Big Jim arrived in 1971, followed by Pulsar in 1976, but they too hadn’t received public attention for decades.
Jerrick Johnson, an analyst at BMO Capital Markets in charge of the toy industry, said Mattel wasn’t making money from closed real estate, so reintroducing the trio would make economic sense.
“Because you own an IP, you have the opportunity to capture merchandising,” he said. “One of the big advantages is to raise the line of toys that performed poorly or had no performance at all.”
Mattel’s strategy to revive a dormant brand is to attract enthusiastic fans first, said Richard Dickson, president and chief operating officer of the company. Once they get to it, the next step is to come up with tie-up content and create a line of toys for kids.
This formula can be seen in the Masters of the Universe, which was introduced in the 1980s and soon became a $ 2 billion franchise. After the line led by Heeman petaled, Mattel pushed it away and revived it as a collector’s product a few years later. Then last year, two Netflix animated series (one for adults and one for kids) followed, with a line of toys at retail stores.
“We test and see if the brand should be revived in a meaningful way,” Dixon said.
Driven by the success of the Masters of the Universe, Mattel uses the same formula for Monster High, a line of eerie fashion dolls that was introduced in 2010 and became one of the company’s top sellers. The dolls have been off the shelves since 2018, but last year they came back with the “Skullector” series. Mattel also plans to showcase Frankie Stain’s superhero alter ego, Voltageous, this week for Monster High’s live action musical, aired on Nickelodeon in October and streamed on Paramount +. Announced.
Mattel is testing the body of water with Major Matt Mason, Big Jim and Pulsar using Comic Con, which has become an important marketing venue for toy companies. Hasbro will also participate to promote brands such as Nerf and Transformers, as well as the first toy line of the fantasy franchise Dungeons & Dragons and Dr. Mindbender, GI Joe’s exclusive action figure. (Last week, the New York Times publication Partnership with Hasbro to develop board games based on Wordle. )
Reintroducing a brand like Major Matt Mason into a new generation presents a challenge. For starters, the BackinAction trio toys have been off the shelves for a long time.
“No father of a seven-year-old boy knows what Major Matt Mason is,” Johnson said.
To fill the gap between generations, Mattel introduces small-sized toys that appeal to toy collectors in the 1980s.
“The shape of the figure is loved by collectors,” said Brian Heiler, publisher of Toy-Ventures magazine, which studies the history of vintage toys. “They may not care much about big gyms and pulsars, but they may buy this format.”
If so, it may indicate that the BackinAction brand is not ashamed of its name.
