Hasbro is a popular American multinational toy company that is known for their toys, board games, etc and they have an close connection with the Transformers franchise and they create Transformers toys.
Founded in late 1923 by three Polish-Jewish brothers, Herman, Hillel and Henry Hassenfeld in Providence, Rhode Island as Hassenfeld Brothers as a textile remnant company then sold pencil boxes and school supplies. Becomes a toy company in 1942. The name was shortened to Hasbro Industries on July 12, 1968 then changed again to Hasbro Inc. on June 6, 1985. In 1969, Hasbro bought the Baltimore, Maryland-based Burt Claster Enterprises that produced the long-running children's educational program, Romper Room that ran from February 10, 1953 to December 20, 1994 on syndicate and Romper Room toy line with Hasbro begins. Claster Television folded in 2000.
Hasbro opened Hasbro Studios on March 6, 2009 in Burbank, California for TV development, production and distribution, with Stephen J. Davis as president. On October 10, 2010, Hasbro Studios and Discovery Communications relaunched the channel formerly known as Discovery Kids as The Hub (Now known as Discovery Family since October 13, 2014). On March 26, 2019, Hasbro Studios was rebranded as "Allspark" named after the fictional artifact featured in the Transformers franchise. On December 30, 2019, Hasbro acquired the Canadian multinational entertainment company, Entertainment One. On October 9, 2020, Entertainment One absorbed Allspark and took over as Hasbro's production of arm. On August 3, 2023, Lionsgate acquired Entertainment One (expect for its family brands division) from Hasbro for $500 million and the deal officially closed on December 27, 2023. On August 16, 2023, Hasbro established Hasbro Entertainment as the successor to both Allspark and Entertainment One. The new studio is headquartered in Burbank, California likes its predecessor.
Hasbro Children's Hospital, the pediatric division of Rhode Island Hospital was named after Hasbro because Hasbro start the campaign to raise the money for the hospital to be established in 1989. Hasbro Children's Hospital was officially opened on February 14, 1994 (Valentine's Day). Despite, the name, Hasbro doesn't owns Hasbro Children's Hospital, but some old Hasbro toys are seen around in the hospital. Hasbro Children's Hospital is the largest of the two children's hospital in Rhode Island and provides to Rhode Island and all of southern New England.
On December 12, 2023 in Los Angeles, California, Hasbro and McFarlane Toys announced a multi-brand licensing deal and they shall release Transformers, Power Rangers, G.I. Joe, Dungeons and Dragons toys and they will kick off with the Transformers and G.I. Joe toyline and each Page Puncher will include a full comic book and two figurines. The deal will begins around early 2024.
Hasbro is one of the world's largest toy company and one of largest Rhode Island-based businesses.
Hasbro is very iconic in Rhode Island.
Hasbro's chief competitor is Mattel.
TakaraTomy often acts like Hasbro's Japanese counterpart, especially that Hasbro did have a strong relationship with the both "Takara" and "Tomy", even before their eventual merger as "TakaraTomy" on March 1, 2006. Hasbro distributed and marketed about every TakaraTomy toys, including Transformers in the USA and about other countries and TakaraTomy distributed and marketed every Hasbro toys in Japan.