Are you ready, kids?
Aye, aye, Hasbro (NYSE:HAS)!
The country's No. 2 toy maker is teaming up with Viacom's (NYSE:VIA) popular Nickelodeon cast of animated characters to help pick up its sluggish ways. After watching domestic toy sales dip by 17% during this past holiday quarter, the company behind the Parker Brothers, Playskool, and Milton Bradley brands clearly had to do something to remain relevant.
Licensing is one way. Putting the kid-friendly faces of hot Nick and Nick Jr. characters like SpongeBob SquarePants and Dora the Explorer on the company's classic board games is a good way for it to move more items when it's failing on the proprietary front.
It doesn't take much of a tweak to turn its time-tested Ants in My Pants game into Ants in the Square Pants. The company has let Disney (NYSE:DIS) and Pixar (NASDAQ:PIXR) characters doll up their classics in the past, so why not cash in on Nickelodeon's popularity, too?
It's a good move that will help drive sales higher. Will profits follow suit? Well, that's the downside to licensing, as the character creators get to skim a little off the top. Just ask George Lucas, who has always commanded a generous cut from Hasbro's Star Wars toys. The move also finds Hasbro furthering the promotional efforts of characters it doesn't own, but if the sales stack up just right, everybody wins.
So, in the spirit of guiding Hasbro along the way to greater heights -- it has been a past recommendation in our Motley Fool Stock Advisor and Motley Fool Hidden Gems newsletters -- here are the five games that I would not like to see come out of this relationship.
- Hi-Ho! The Wild Thornberrys-O!
- The Fairly Odd Monopoly -- sorry, it has shades of Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT).
- CatDog Mousetrap
- SpongeBob ScrabblePants -- it just won't be fun if all of the tiles are under the C.
- G.I. Jimmy Neutron
Still want to play? Roll a die and let gravity decide your next adventure.
- Roll a one? Read about Hasbro's disappointing holiday quarter.
- Roll a two? Check out some of the other stock picks in Motley Fool Stock Advisor.
- Roll a three? Yes, holiday sales were rough, but Hasbro did see it coming.
- Roll a four? Hidden Gems, baby, Hidden Gems.
- Roll a five? Two words to lighten up the dark side -- Darth Tater.
- Roll a six? Check out Hasbro's trivial pursuits.
- Roll a seven? Check your funny die.
Longtime Fool contributor Rick Munarriz finds himself watching too much Nickelodeon with his kids, yet he sees it as at least spending time with them. He owns shares in Disney and Pixar. The Fool has a disclosure policy. He is also part of the Rule Breakers newsletter research team, seeking out tomorrow's ultimate growth stocks a day early.
