Top toy makers Hasbro and Mattel have teamed up for multi-year licensing agreements to create co-branded toys and games for their major theatrical releases this summer.
As the toy makers ramp up their Hollywood ambitions, Hasbro will create Barbie-branded Monopoly games to launch in fall 2023, while Mattel will produce Transformers-branded UNO games, set to release later this year. And Transformers-branded Hot Wheels vehicles will debut in early 2024.
The toy makers are pacting against the backdrop of major theatrical releases this summer for Hasbro’s Transformers: Rise of the Beasts from Paramount on June 9, 2023, and Mattel’s Barbie from Warner Bros. on July 21, 2023.
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“We are excited to pair some of the most popular brands together for the first time. This collaboration features world-class IP, celebrates the timeless appeal of these brands, and creates unique play opportunities for fans,” Nick Karamanos, senior vp entertainment partnerships at Mattel, said in a statement.
The live-action Barbie movie will see Margot Robbie take on the role of Mattel’s iconic fashion doll. And Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, the seventh installment of the Paramount Pictures franchise, inspired by the ’90s Beast Wars cartoon, will unveil bots that, instead of cars, are machines that convert to animal-like forms.
Both Mattel and Hasbro will look to box office success at the multiplex this summer to rev up merchandise and licensing sales as they pursue product-to-movie pipelines for their iconic toy brands. Their joint licensing deals also comes as the toy industry overall looks to rebound from challenges like pandemic quarantines and supply-chain issues for product manufactured in China that followed.
“With the major theatrical releases of the Transformers and Barbie movies in summer 2023, we’re excited to bring brand-new play experiences to fans, families, and movie and toy lovers all around the world,” said Casey Collins, president of global licensed consumer products and business development, in his own statement.
Barbie, Hot Wheels, UNO and Monopoly are top-selling brands for the toy makers when it comes to dolls, vehicles and board games, among other ancillary business streams.
