Mattel CEO Resigns
 

To big to Succeed.

Don't know much about Mattel's operations, but if the handling of the DCUC line was any indication... not surprised.

Probably better for him to step down then to be publicly fired.
I'm sure his compensation package will still be ridiculous.

They've basically doubled down on Barbie and Hot Wheels, even as markets for both brands were growing stagnant. They've kind of half-assed most of everything else, never seeming to commit to kids or collectors. They've done nothing with Mega Bloks since buying them (that could change at Toy Fair) and just seem to generally expect customers to be there.

Hopefully, whoever is put in charge can give them direction and decide what they want to do with the properties and licenses they own.

Is being a CEO harder than I think? Make products better, keep prices reasonable and pimp out movie stuff.

Shame he will get a million dollar parachute. They killed their biggest collector line, the line that gets people talking in DCUC because it sucked...it sucked!

I still don't understand how Mattel is the biggest toy company when Hasbro has all the best stuff. Hasbro has it all, every Marvel character & movie, Transformers, GI Joe, Star Wars & now the Gobots. Doesn't Hasbro also own M.A.S.K., Micronauts & Visionaries (even though they're not actually doing anything with them?). How is it possible that Hasbro isn't the biggest & best toy company?

I haven't bought anything from Mattel since they botched up the 2002 MOTU line. HASBRO RULES!!! Transformers rule! IMO lol

Hot Wheels and Barbie (and their secondary supplements like Matchbox and Monster High) are MASSIVE properties, each likely worth as much as a dozen GI Joes combined.

Mattel maintains their number one status by pure volume of sales and a significant international presence (which is why Hasbro has talked up its international expansion so much these past few years).
Remember, you walk into any retail venue that sells mass retail toys, or any place that sells toys at Christmas, you are GUARANTEED to find hundreds of Hot Wheels. From Dollar General to TRU, everybody sells Hot Wheels. That's a degree of saturation worth billions.

That said, the bulk of their sales ARE built on those two segments, so weakness in them will ripple severely (especially in the girl section, where Hasbro and MGA have taken big bites out of Mattel's supremacy).

Making products better and keeping the price reasonable can often be contradictory goals, especially once you start talking about collector centric stuff (also, Mattel really didn't have a big movie from WB to support this year)

The collector bases for Hot Wheels and Barbie utterly overshadow the collector base for DCUC.

Like the article said, "executives became entangled in a culture that valued endless meetings and long PowerPoint presentations".
It's difficult to be productive & creative when the boss forces you to sit through his daily autofellatio sessions.

One man stepping down does not address problems of the business or the marketplace. It's a glib Band-Aid intended to placate shareholders and the media, having the sensible effect of drawing more attention.

I pay little attention to Mattel as a collector. They don't produce collector-grade stuff generally, even as that niche continues to grow. What is the condition of the organization and its culture? Where is middle management? Where is R&D? There are creative opportunities that have proven very profitable for smaller, more aggressive outfits in recent years. There is a perception that change has been needed for some time. Middle managers cannot be said to have "just followed orders" even in the worst top-down, control-freakish, dysfunctional organization.

There are broader socio-economic issues that should be well known to product developers. 'Barbie' is a product from a different time, representing a feminine ideal marketed to girls by a more comparatively patriarchal (man-oriented) society during a time of general prosperity, with a strong productive economy, and when it was fashionable for people with considerable disposable income to surround themselves with 'accessories' like motorhomes, sports cars, big houses, et cetera. Nowadays, Barbie's 'accessorization' seems out of touch. A population that has a debt-to-income of 110% (worse in Canada, ~164%) is struggling to pay bills and groceries. So one understands why Barbie has undergone changes and upgrades in an attempt to make her seem less stereotypically feminine and more in touch with modern culture in troubled times, as Forbes reports, but it also seems clear why any move was likely to fall short of straight-line sales projections.

I wonder if Mattel faces legacy pension issues. I haven't looked up their financials, but know that a lot of companies have that sword hanging over their heads.
Tough. That's exactly what they need to do. But look at the shares of MAT on the NASDAQ. The technicals (tea leaves) are ugly. The market is not smelling success. If I still traded American symbols, I'd short it.

Does this mean since they bought Mega Bloks they will take them down with them?

Yes.

"This comes as a surprise." Said nobody. The Toy Guru must have jumped on the first rescue raft he could find. This CEO should take Digital River with him.

@Skoob Great post.

…the reward of hubris and incompetence? Likely, but I don't work there and can't say exactly what took place. Despite my patronage of some of their products, I'm not exactly shedding tears over here. My interest waned significantly once it was official that the DCUC & DCU Signature Collection would be ending. If they want that brass ring, then they will have to go back to the drawing board, in a big way...

@Skoob Ditto on the sentiments regarding your business acumen and strikingly 'on point' post...there really isn't much more that can be added.

My caveat there is that when collectors say "make products better and keep prices reasonable", they tend to mean "keep everything superarticulated and never raise prices", despite clear and present changes in industry that make such things impossible.

From what I saw he didn't resign, He was removed. His replacement is Christopher Sinclair of PepsiCo (AKA PEPSI) at least for now. A lot of why Mr. Stockton is gone is due to a Multi sided issue 1: Barbie has progressively lost money. 2: The hopes that Monster/Ever After High and American Girl dolls would surpass Barbie (they didn't). 3: The Loss of Disney Princess Brand. 4: Continual Losses of sales in Boys Brand to Competition (Lego and Hasbro).

Trust me this is the beginning unless they stop relying on Online sales for Impulse Items Mattel could end up in Chapter 11. Start getting stuff to the stores. I had a feeling Mr. Stockton's days were numbered.

You are spot on Blue Marvel they need to go back to what worked and start there.. If 4 Horsemen DC and Ghostbusters Items sold well then bring them back the only thing that could it could hurt is taking a chance or regaining customers that Toy Guru tossed out as unneeded And Hell put them in stores. Get back to the Basic Supply and demand curve and away from Demand and Buy then maybe we will supply

@ Steevy:

I suspect you and I agree on this point, but in the interest of clarity, permit me to point out that some of the most tasteless, butt-ugly figures in recent memory are hyper-articulated. Can we agree that overall appearance of a figure is more important as a basis for valuation than simply being able to make it scratch its crotch or point its toes? To my mind, the Star Wars Black Series stands out as a recent example of a good balance in that regard, prioritizing appreciation for detail and overall appearance over lifelike movement, with all the yucky joint cuts and gashes and little pieces that would necessitate.

Another point comes to mind in relation to the Mattel situation, that being the advent of smartphones, which I call "trinkets" or "touch-screen cowbells." Nowadays, a fortune is being spent getting children "connected." That money would have gone to toys previously. Speaking for myself, I spent nearly $500/month at one point before I got angry at the expense and scrapped the contract and the phone entirely. Amazingly, I still live and breathe and function without it!

I agree with you Skoob recent Marvel Legends have had Visible joint connectors in the Hips and this is in part due to Hyper Articulation, Give me Mattel's style any day at least they are solid

@CMIII!!!

Where have you been, man?!?! lol I knew you were lurking somewhere in the shadows!;)

Yeah. Should Mattel decide to revisit the DCUC or DCU Sig. lines, it would be a mistake not to utilize Four Horsemen Design. However, with the Horsemen's success of late (Gothitropolis - damn, I want Scarabus: Horos, Thothos, and Anubos....but at $200 a pop on eBay, I just can't do it...SMH they are my latest, most coveted toys...), I imagine that they will draw quite a bit more money than they did in their original partnership...we can only hope.

Good riddance. Maybe Mattel can become a respectable company again.

Quoted for truth. Their ability to do nothing with their brands is shocking.

Number two. LEGO is number one. As Mattel slips further and further as LEGO expands, that's an ever increasing gap.


Years ago I stated I wanted them to go out of business (Comparing them to both Sony and Harmony Gold). I stand by that statement. They are and have been the most incompetent toy company in the business. MattyCollector issues aside, their ability to acquire and squander licenses and IP is second to none and is completely baffling to me.

IMO their sales on their big barbie and hot wheels are dwindling because, quite frankly, they invested wayyy too much money in them. And with the changing generations a lot of younger kids steering away from such brands especially when they're no longer in existence in pop culture or popularity it was a skyrocket down. Dedicated fan bases like MOTU and DCUC are there but in their mind it could have been "yes there's income, but let's risk it on the bigger lines for bigger and better profits instead of the steady stream.." therefore they were doomed, I've seen them do crossover work like DCUC and Barbie for collector's but many of the items mattel owns are shelf stuffers. Every target, toysrus, kmart etc has LOADS and LOADS of these toys just sitting there for the longest time, all the time. This is saying something as I live in a very tourist visited and populated place (NY) and all the tie they would be filled to the brim on the shelves for weeks/months to be certain and in bigger retailers most of the time they don't even have these lines of toys by mattel and if they do, they're in some abandoned corner in the dark reaches of retailers in the smallest space possible. Everything else in BIG sections are hasbro related items, electronics, etc. For examples, Times Sq TRU, there's half a floor dedicated to Hasbro stuff and the barbie line there is big don't get me wrong, but compared to the sales they make compared to the rest of the lines, it seems to dwindle a bit. Just my opinions.

It'll be interesting to see if Hasbro overtakes Mattel as the second-biggest toy retailer in a couple or three years.

For all the hate Hasbro gets, they at least TRY to keep their properties vital (and before you G.I. Joe fans get your knickers in a knot, G.I. Joe will undoubtedly get relaunched in a year or two). The attempts they make may not always be to collectors' (or the general public's) liking, but they try. Then again, the two are often exclusive: You know what sold like crazy this Christmas and are now almost impossible to find in the post-Christmas doldrums? Those Titan figures that collectors can't stand.

With the exception of MotUC (and even it has its' moments) pretty much everything Mattel does just feels...half-assed.

I pretty much expect Hasbro to surpass Mattel in 2016.

It's really not Hasbro keeping their properties out there it's the Properties themselves that do this.. E.G. Marvel, G.I Joe, and Star Wars Keeps making movies (be they Fox, Universal, Sony, or Disney) the movies being out there keep the Properties Vital more then anything else. What properties Does Mattel have that has a movie coming? Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice and the Ghostbuster Reboot (Female team). The MOTU Script keeps moving Forward and Back like the Fantastic Four Script.

As for everything being Halfassed that's all on the line manager not Mr. Stockton. Now that Scott Neitlich is at Jaxxs Pacific we'll watch them sink like Titanic.