Toy Wars: The Epic Struggle Between G.I. Joe, Barbie, and the Companies That Make Them

Rating:
Summary: Toy Story
Review: A well written book that makes for very interesting reading. It is the story of Hasbro and the events that unfold around it. Since the author had a good access to the Hasbro team, he has been able to write up about Hasbro executives in great detail. Competitiors, esp. Mattel get seen through Hasbro eye's and hence maybe make for a one sided perspective.
The book talks well about how toy brands have evolved from simple objects to complex products involving Hollywood, comics, cereals, mega blitz promotions and the like. It offers a good understanding of how the toy business is not a childs play any longer.

Rating:
Summary: A Story Worth Telling
Review: Although "Toy Wars" is subtitled "The Epic Struggle Between G.I. Joe, Barbie, and the Companies that Make Them", Miller's tale trains its spotlight almost exclusively on Hasbro. This, however, does not make the tome any less interesting and insightful. The toys themselves take a back seat to the colorful personalities that run the industry and shape the imaginations and desires of millions of young minds.

We learn that running a toy company is not only about designing good toys. It is also about licensing, mergers and acquisitions, focus groups, `cartoons-as-subtle-advertising'--and a lot of Machiavellian wheeling and dealing.

Hasbro's story was a story worth telling-and Miller tells it well.

Rating:
Summary: fascinating insight into the toy industry
Review: having worked at toys r us for many years and living near the hasbro company- i felt that the subject would be of interest to me only - but in trying to get the book at my local bookstore i found that it was difficult to obtain. When i bought the book and read it i was pleased to find that the book was easy reading. The book is fast paced and takes you through the high stakes world of the toy industry dealing with two giants - mattel and hasbro- it was fun reading how favorite toys got started and even more fun to learn about toys that you knew were doomed to failure i went to high school with one of the people that is acknowleged as helping the author and can't wait to talk to him about his contribution.

Rating:
Summary: Good but Pro-Hasbro
Review: The book gives an excellent history of both companies - Mattel and Hasbro, but devotes more time to Hasbro and seems to favor Hasbro as the sentimental, fun bunch while Mattel is the coldly calculating toy monolith. While this may be true to some extent (I don't know), it may be a little too strong in the book.

My favorite part of this book was the description of the history behind specific brands such as GI Joe, Mr. Potato Head, Barbie, etc. It's amazing how these brands have been developed and remain strong.

Rating:
Summary: misleading title
Review: There are too many recent books about corporations with "wars" in the title -- and the title of this book would make one think it focuses on a corporate takeover, but actually it's just a recent (as of 1990's) corporate history of Hasbro. As another customer review mentions, the takeover part is just the last 20 pages of the book, and there's no tension or buildup to it at all. Rather, the story focuses on the internal restructuring of Hasbro, after they promoted a hatchet man to do the dirty work in what had been a friendly, family-run company.

Writing a book like this poses an interesting dilemma for a journalist; to get inside the doors of the corporation and get access to information, he has to propose a positive portrayal of the company. Yet the portrait of Hasbro here is just too pandering, and the author is just too enamored of CEO Alan Hassenfeld, who comes off as an affable, laid-back teddy bear who absently lets the hatchet man terminate many of the company's longest employees during the restructuring.

Joel Brenner's Emperor's of Chocolate is a much more engaging read on a similar topic, but she did not end up in the good graces of the companies who let her in the door.

Rating:
Summary: Toy Industry is changing
Review: Unbelievable how a group of businessmen have changed the way kids pretend play. The process of decision making in this industry is so elementary but yet so critical in shaping our childrens memories, desires, passions, and shaping their past time. This book brought me into a world that I no longer think is just fun and games. I like that Miller gives a broad insight to the industry. At first I felt the personalities of the key players wre being told in too much detail. Now I see that it is these personalities that rule and are changing play time forever. A great book for parents and educators. I do not feel there are many business lessons to learn here as I have seen in other profiles. I completed the book with a true feel for this important industry and that was my goal. Mostly Miller writes a story about Hasbro, family and product ups and downs.

Rating:
Summary: Dissapointing
Review: When I first saw this book and the reviews at the back of the book, I thought it would be another classic like "Barbarians At The Gate". I was dissapointed. It doesn't even read like Barbies At the Gate.

While the author mentioned that he had spent years at Hasbro and supposedly had a thorough understanding of Hasbro, he did not show this understanding in the book. As such, the characters in the book were two-dimensional at best. And some of these characters were supposedly key players.

I was most dissapointed with the part describing the takeover attempt of Hasbro by Mattel. The author has mentioned the takeover attempt several times earlier in the book. Supposedly, it was to build up tension. However, when it reaches the chapter on the takeover, he rushes through the whole event. There was no tension at all. He covered the whole thing in about 20 pages.

To compare, "Barbarians At The Gate", which was about the takeover or leveraged buyout of RJR Nabisco, spent more than half the book just exploring the events that led to the eventual buyout. There were more details and lessons to be learnt from "Barbarians" than "Toy Wars".

The saving grace is perhaps the book does reveal to the general public as to how the toy industry functions. At least, after reading the book, a reader knows how the toy industry designs and markets its product and how "Power Rangers" almost never made it big.

I recommend this book to readers who have not read real-life business stories before and would like to start reading an easy one first, just to get a taste of non-fiction, novelised. Maybe for those toy collectors, this will also be a good book as it tells them more about the toys that they enjoy collecting.

However, for serious readers who wants to learn a lesson or two from captains of industry, this book is a waste of time. I strongly recommend "Barbarians At The Gate" instead.