A new four-part series on the History Channel, “The Toys that Built America,” takes a deep dive into the history of the Hasbro company, including the early days of Mr. Potato Head. The second episode, “Clash of the Toy Titans,” details the ongoing battle between Hasbro and Mattel for primacy in the toy market. And …
It doesn’t get much more nonbinary than this. Cast your mind back to the olden days for a moment . . . picture mom and dad excitedly wrapping presents on Christmas Eve only to realize in a panic . . . we’re out of potatoes! (Trust me, there was nothing more useless than a Mr. …
I don’t have too much to add to this news, but it seems like we should mention it. I think most people just enjoy the weirdness of saying Hasbro and Death Row in the same sentence. According to Rolling Stone magazine: The cross-branding opportunities here basically write themselves, but there is no word on whether …
Hasbro Acquires Death Row Records — 40 Million Benjamins Read More »
The NBC series ‘Community’ aired this season’s alternate-medium episode and it was a beaut. “G.I. Jeff” was an animated parody of the old G.I. Joe cartoons interspersed with live-action faux vintage TV spots for a new product line (see above) and a few scenes back in the show’s reality. Meta doesn’t begin to describe it. …
I can not stop staring at this . . . I want to go to there. Depicted here is the interior of Nautilus Hall (love the mussel motif of the throne). There is only one week left of the 2013 RISD Faculty Biennial, and while there is much to see, I urge you to find …
‘My Little Pony’ Dazzles At RISD Faculty Biennial Read More »
For 46 years the Pawtucket-based Hasbro Company has been cranking out this much beloved line of action figures, starting with the original 12″ model; and this year the 2010 International G.I. Joe Collectors Convention is meeting here in Providence. See thousands of vintage action figures on display and for sale; diorama contests; meet toy designers; …
Okay, this is completely out of my wheelhouse so I won’t even pretend to understand this music but I know that this is a much anticipated event in some circles, and in need of a special mention here. This will be a compelling production to be sure — musicians Dean & Britta will perform something …
At first, Michael Bay thought that a Transformers movie sounded like “a dumb idea”. Then he had an epiphany . . . in Pawtucket. What helped persuade Mr. Bay to take the first “Transformers” movie — which in 2007 took in more than $700 million worldwide at the box office, and whose sequel, “Transformers: Revenge …
What are the odds that two Dosers would need to write about Scrabble on exactly the same day? This is a little vexing since I actually have some news to report and the other guy just wanted to say ‘Butts’. In the future, Matthew, why don’t you stick to reviewing your clinically-depressed techno-vikings and leave …
I got to thinking we should support the Rhode Island economy this Christmas by shopping locally, so I checked out the Hasbro toy catalog. Here’s some of what I found. First, suitable for children ages 3 and up, is a doll with the horrifying name, ‘Baby Alive Go Bye-Bye’ (matching dumpster sold separately.) Yay, let’s …
The demand for Scrabble articles has been tremendous — people can’t seem to get enough. I’m doing my best to keep up but I’m only one person and the phone won’t stop ringing. We have new developments in this fascinating battle. Writing for Business Week, Catherine Holahan reports that heartbroken, jonesing and angry Scrabulous nuts …
Oh no! Scrabulous has been taken down from Facebook at the request of the Agarwalla brothers who can apparently see the writing on the wall and might be hoping to mitigate their damages. (The battle between Scrabble copyright owners Hasbro and the creators of Scrabulous started about a year ago when it was first launched …
Now that Hasbro has launched its own online Scrabble game, the company has filed suit in federal court against Rajat and Jayant Agarwalla, the Indian brothers who created Scrabulous on Facebook in 2005. The suit claims that Scrabulous has violated Hasbro’s intellectual property rights. Facebook is not named as a defendant, but has been notified …
Attention everybody here it is — the thing no one was waiting for because they are perfectly happy with the thing they got already. Rhode Island game and toy colossus, Hasbro, is launching its answer to Scrabulous — Scrabble at Club Pogo. I’m not big on this online stuff. I prefer the click of the …
Rhode Island toymaker Hasbro Inc. will be launching its own online Scrabble game later this month in the hopes of scooping up all those Scrabulous players (according to today’s ProJo that’s nearly 3 million registered users). It is unclear what they have to offer that will tempt these people away. According to the Chicago Tribune, …
A front page story in today’s New York Times examines the weird legal jousting between the creators of Scrabulous, the Agarwalla brothers (may I suggest they shorten it to Agarbro?) and the owners of Hasbro, the Hassenfeld Brothers. It’s a squirrely sort of problem given the tension between protecting the property rights and some significant …
forget the tiles, there’s real money on the table Read More »