Which table won the poll?

[Captain B. Zarre]

I use to like Disney...until they started buying everything and everyone.

And I used to like Disney World until I realized that it took them 3 years to build 7 Dwarfs Mine Train; instead of focusing on that they were instead focusing on refurbishments like a pond and expanded bus area in Magic Kingdom. Stop focusing on promoting your latest films and update your attractions!

Also they bought Maker Studios. Pewdiepie.

/thread

 

[Zombie Aladdin]

I did not like Disney much when Michael Eisner ran the company. I liked it a lot better when Roy Disney Jr. replaced him, and Roy has real passion for his movies whereas Eisner is simply a businessman.

I do not think Disney has much intention of buying Hasbro, considering Hasbro's television department is already tied to Discovery Communications, and Disney has no problem with manufacture of toys. In addition, if The Disney Company is smart, it will stop buyouts for a while after Marvel and LucasFilm (and those two companies were already on good terms with Disney before the buyout whereas Hasbro is not), as rapid buyouts wear a company thin and will threaten to drive it out of business. For instance, look at what happened to Maytag. Its strategy was to buy as many washing machine companies as it could that's smaller than it, and it did that so rapidly that it was hemorhagging money. Ultimately, the biggest name in washing machines got bought by the once-smaller Whirlpool. Same thing happened with Johnson & Johnson, whose aggressiveness and arrogance brought its market share of surgical items from 95% down to 8% within a year. (This is not a typo. Johnson & Johnson became one-twelfth the company it was over that timespan.) I believe The Disney Company is smarter than that. It nearly went out of business before in the 1950s and was in danger again in the late 1990s eand arly 2000s.

Disney is likely still trying to integrate Marvel and LucasFilm, and this is a time-consuming and expensive process, especially for two companies at once. The price of the company is not even close to all of the expenses needed, as it also has to convert bought companies into branches of itself and change the business strategies into the parent company's. (This makes it very unlikely to happen, as LucasFilm and Marvel already have movie divisions whereas Hasbro has not, and Hasbro is a much stabler company than Disney, meaning it won't yield so easily should a buyout happen.)

 

[Bowflex]

Yeah, it's a rumor that has been going on for almost a decade and keeps resurfacing. They've had a great relationship for a long time. Hasbro has it's products in the parks and a store at downtown Disney. It would make sense and unify one more aspect of their interests as well as give the additional intellectual properties. However they don't need to and with the way toys sell anymore, it probably isn't the wisest long term investment.

 

[Zombie Aladdin]

There are two things that would work severely against Disney if it wants Hasbro. The first is that Hasbro relies on synergy with other companies, which is diametrically opposed to Disney's we'll-do-it-ourselves mentality. You can see this in all the different versions of Monopoly that's come out and the variety of production companies that have made Transformers TV shows and movies. Basically, Hasbro performs well as a company because it gets along well with other companies, and this is central to its success.

The second is that Hasbro relies on devoted fanbases to keep its biggest franchises going. There isn't that big of a hardcore fanbase for Monopoly (though there are official Monopoly tournaments sanctioned by Hasbro), but there are for Transformers and My Little Pony, to the extent that there are several conventions dedicated to each of the latter two that Hasbro people will visit. Hasbro also fosters these fanbases, allowing them to produce fan-works of their own and for small companies like WeLoveFine to produce merchandise that Hasbro will then make official. (This goes for its second-tier and third-tier franchises too, like Littlest Pet Shop and Clue/Cluedo.) This, too, is diametrically opposed to Disney's notorious stinginess with licensing and its adult fans (outside of Disney as a company, the theme parks, and Pixar). The only recent Disney franchise to have a large fanbase where Disney lets it create a lot of its own fan-material is Kim Possible, and Disney treats that franchise and its fans like an unwanted daughter.

There is also a Transformers ride at Universal Studios. That seems to be a litmus to Disney's interest in a company: If it has rides in its own theme parks, it's interested (as is the case with LucasFilm). If the company has rides in another theme park, then that's a no-go.

 

[Bowflex]

I agree with your first section. As a fan of gi joe, the only thing keeping that brand alive is the fans. They haveonimal retail release. Most of their brands have become very fan base driven as toys have declined.

The second part is completely incorrect. Disney has purchased companies with rides at other parks. Marvel characters are just down the road in Florida in, not just a ride, but a whole section of a park. Not to mention a ride and character in japan at universal and numerous regional parks over the years. An interesting side note is Disney came very close to buying universal but it was ultimately NBC that purchased it.

 

[Zombie Aladdin]

From what I can see regarding Transformers as a franchise, the strong fan base has always been there, if the huge amounts of GenOne-ers is any indication. For My Little Pony, it was not quite as large until Friendship Is Magic happened and then exploded, overtaking the Transformers fanbase in visibility if nothing else. Hasbro does not like to disappoint fanbases as it knows how important they are.

Have toy sales declined? I thought it was simply toy companies that were struggling as an increasing percentage of sales have gone online as companies like FAO Schwartz and Kay•Bee Toys failed to put their foot in the door online and Toys R Us managed to save itself at the last minute by doing so. There are more children now than there were before, so I wouldn't see a reason why there'd be fewer toys sold, especially as parenting styles have shifted towards spoiled-rotten.

I didn't know about Marvel-based rides, as most of what I know are theme parks located in Orange County, as that's where I can easily visit. Here, the only superhero-based rides are DC ones at Six Flags.

 

[Kratos3]

So......Diner won the poll.

 

[DokkenRokken]

So......Diner won the poll.

Indeed it did.

 

[David T. Melnick]

They usually just give a flat out "No", "Not at this time", "Maybe" to questions like these.

I think this response is a pretty good sign. [/QUOTE
--------------likewise...the non-no answer gets my spirits up.