Hasbro AUS - TFs and GIJoe in 2009.

Recently got the latest issue of the AUS Toy Retailer magazine, and there is a nice article about Hasbro, Transformers and GI Joe in it. I'm breaking up the big news items from the article into 3 different postings - the AUS TFs release dates, the AUS GIJoe release dates, and general overview of the article itself.

The article focusses on the two big events for Hasbro AUS in 2009 - the release of the Live movies for Transformers and GI Joe, both in the middle of the year.

They mention that Hasbro AUS have just recently had a presentation at Paramount Pictures Australia (Sydney perhaps), Melbourne and Auckland, discussing the focus of next year's key products and licensing - Transformers, GIJoe, while not forgetting the importance of their Star Wars license.

Apparently, even though Mattel is the number 1 toy company in the world, Hasbro is 'the market leader in the Boys category'. (must be all those Barbie dolls they make...)

Transformers is worth about $2 Billion (probably AU$) globally (annually?).

They talk up the franchise a fair bit, as being big, great, successful, worldwide phenomenon, etc, which is all pretty obvious. It also mentions that in 2009, the licensing will cover a variety of categories in addition to toys - but didn't mention anything that hasn't already been licensed before (games, clothing, etc).