Hasbro

Founded as Hassenfeld Brothers, Hasbro grew into one of the world's largest toy corporations. The company introduced the first toy advertised on television (Mr. Potato Head, 1952) and the world's first action figure (G.I. Joe, 1964). A run of acquisitions — Milton Bradley, and Playskool with it, in 1984, then Tonka with Parker Brothers and Kenner in 1991 — made it a true entertainment conglomerate.

The brothers Henry, Hillel and Herman Hassenfeld, who began in Providence, Rhode Island in 1923 selling textile remnants — the name is a contraction of Hassenfeld Brothers.

Hasbro reached toys sideways. Textile remnants led to pencil boxes and school supplies, school supplies led to pencils, and pencils led to the realisation that the company's real business was inexpensive consumer goods for children. Mr. Potato Head in 1952 was the turning point in more ways than one: it sold in millions, and it was the first toy advertised directly to children on television, which changed how the entire industry marketed itself.

G.I. Joe in 1964 was the second transformation. Hasbro created the term "action figure" specifically to avoid calling it a doll, and in doing so created the dominant boys' toy category of the next half-century. Transformers in 1984 — licensed from Takara's Diaclone and Microman lines and given an American fiction — established the modern pattern of toy, cartoon and comic launching together as a single property.

Acquisitions turned Hasbro into one of the two dominant global toy companies: Milton Bradley in 1984, Tonka and Parker Brothers in 1991, Galoob and Wizards of the Coast at the end of the decade, Entertainment One in 2019. That means Monopoly, Play-Doh, Nerf, My Little Pony, Furby and Easy-Bake all sit under one name, and the histories of several other makers in this encyclopedia end with "acquired by Hasbro".