Hasbro, Inc. (HAS) “We clearly have seen that streaming has become more of a force in making connections with consumers and driving merchandising,” Hasbro (HAS) CEO Brian Goldner told Yahoo Finance on Tuesday. “That’s always been a question: Could streamed content drive merchandising? And clearly Baby Yoda has done that. We saw that in the fourth quarter with some of our products directly related to ‘The Mandalorian.’ Our pre-sales around Baby Yoda have been incredibly robust and we’re very excited to ship Baby Yoda late spring.”
The company offers its products under the MAGIC: THE GATHERING, MY LITTLE PONY, NERF, TRANSFORMERS, PLAY-DOH, MONOPOLY, BABY ALIVE, POWER RANGERS, FURREAL FRIENDS, PEPPA PIG, and PJ MASKS brands, as well as through premier partner brands. The company sells its products to wholesalers, distributors, chain stores, discount stores, drug stores, mail-order houses, catalog stores, department stores, and other traditional retailers, as well as Internet-based e-retailers. Hasbro, Inc. was founded in 1923 and is headquartered in Pawtucket, Rhode Island.
The Disney+ boost is also boosting Hasbro’s licensed toy sales, thanks in particular to the rabid popularity of the “Baby Yoda” character from the Disney+ original Star Wars show “The Mandalorian.”
That was already the case before coronavirus, but the current increase in stay-at-home streaming has continued to stoke the trend.
Indeed, Hasbro’s Baby Yoda products won’t come out until spring, but they have been available for pre-order for months. And one extremely popular animatronic Baby Yoda toy won’t come until the 2020 holiday season, but sold out in pre-order on the Disney website after a single preview in February on “Good Morning America.”
The company’s U.S. and Canada segment markets and sells action figures, arts and crafts, and creative play products; electronic toys and related electronic interactive products; fashion and other dolls, infant products, play sets, preschool toys, plush products, and sports action blasters and accessories; and vehicles and toy-related specialty products, as well as traditional board games, and trading card and role-playing games primarily in the United States and Canada.
Its International segment markets and sells toy and game products primarily in Europe, the Asia Pacific, and Latin and South American regions. The company’s Entertainment and Licensing segment engages in consumer products licensing, digital gaming, and television and movie entertainment operations. It also acquires, finances, develops, produces, distributes, and sells entertainment content.
