Hasbro Brings Zynga Brands to Life

October 23, 2012 By

Hasbro, Inc., in collaboration with Zynga, will bring some of the world’s most popular digital game brands to life with a new line of games based on Zynga’s Words With Friends, FarmVille, CityVille, and Draw Something brands. The line will hit store shelves this month at most major U.S. retailers and will also be available globally this fall in the U.K., Australia, and Canada.

With the new games, fans can choose from FarmVille inspired characters in the Hungry Hungry Herd game to see who can gobble up the most apples, race to build their dream cities in the CityVille Monopoly game, play their best word combinations in the Words With Friends game, and showcase their artistic abilities in the Draw Something game.

Each of Hasbro’s Zynga games takes features and game play from Zynga’s digital games and transforms them into an engaging experience for family and friends to share in person. Many of Hasbro’s Zynga games also include digital values to help enhance players’ online or mobile game play. With purchase of Hasbro’s Zynga Words With Friends or Words With Friends Luxe games, players get access to a bundle of digital features, including Word-O-Meter, The Count, and Tile Pile to boost their online or mobile Words With Friends experience. With purchase of Hasbro’s FarmVille or CityVille games, parents can redeem Farm Cash to keep their digital farms growing strong in Zynga’s FarmVille game or City Cash to continue their building adventures in Zynga’s CityVille game.

For more information, visit: www.hasbro.com/zynga.

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USAopoly Introduces Beatles Scrabble Board Game

October 22, 2012 By

The Scrabble Beatles Edition makes its debut this fall, giving Beatles fans an opportunity to interact with the Fab Four in a whole new way. The Scrabble Beatles Edition fits the bill for fans who have a way with words.

Completely customized with Anthology-informed design, the game sports black Scrabble letter tiles, a themed tile bag and specialized grey racks. And what makes this game really unique? The Scrabble game can still be played the traditional way, but fans can now infuse Beatles-inspired words into their game play for an altogether different Scrabble experience. Twenty-six HELP! cards accompany this alternative game play allowing players opportunities to impact scoring, strategy, and their opponent’s fates.

Filed Under: 9 and up, New Products Tagged With: , , ,

Hasbro Reveals New Transformers Line at New York Comic Con

October 16, 2012 By

You know the Autobots. You know the Decepticons. But now, there’s a new breed of alien robot in town: the Predacons.

Thursday afternoon, hundred of fans sat in a crowded conference room in the Jacob K. Javits Center at New York Comic Con 2012 as Hasbro rolled out the latest line of Transformers toys: The Beast Hunters.

The Beast Hunters will be the touchstone for the Transformers brand next year, driven by Transformers Prime, the animated series produced by Hasbro Studios. The show airs on The Hub television network in the U.S. and is viewed by fans in more than 170 countries around the world. [Read more...]

Filed Under: 6-8, 8 and up, 9 and up, Articles, Cartoon Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Hasbro’s Comic-Con Preview Night Party

October 12, 2012 By

Hasbro held its exclusive Preview Night Party for New York Comic-Con on Wednesday. Complete with loads of Marvel, My Little Pony, Kre-O G.I. Joe, and Angry Star Wars Angry Birds displays and presentations, and Avengers-themed cocktails, Hasbro kicked off Comic-Con with a bang.

Angry Birds Star Wars Jenga Death Star Package

The star of the event was no doubt the Star Wars edition of the wildly-popular Angry Birds line set to launch in the beginning of November. There were new toys based on the  bird-slinging, tower-toppling Angry Birds property, including the AT-AT Attack Battle Game. The line features new products based on a variety of existing Hasbro properties, including the Jenga brand and the recently relaunched Koosh brand, to introduce new play experiences featuring iconic Star Wars characters re-imagined as high-flying Angry Birds and villainous pigs.

Also highlighted was the great reveal of the Star Trek Kre-O set, a product set to release next year to coincide with the release of the new Star Trek movie. The set comes with a light-up U.S.S. Enterprise ship  and two character figures, such as Captain Kirk or Spock, pointed ears and all.

The new extensive Kre-O G.I. Joe line was also featured–including figures and play sets based on the property. The line of G.I. Joe toys will be available exclusively at Toys “R” Us starting in February. These play sets and characters play out the G.I. Joe vs. Cobra story and will feature Kreon figures based on popular characters from both the heroic G.I. Joe team like Duke and Snake Eyes as well as the villainous Cobra organization like Firefly and Storm Shadow.

Kre-O G.I. Joe Cobra Armored Assault

Hasbro also showcased the My Little Pony brand, as well as their holiday favorites, including Marvel Avengers and Star Wars action figures and, of course, Marvel role play products.

The Toy Book’s Reyne Rice and Ali Mierzejewski as Spider-Man and Captain America

The Toy Book’s Reyne Rice as The Hulk

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Laugh Out Loud With New Hasbro Plush Toy

October 11, 2012 By

Hasbro launches a new plush toy, LOL Elmo, featuring three forms of laughing action. Recommended for ages 18 months to 4 years, this toy laughs out loud when kids press his feet and tickle his tummy. The more Elmo is tickled, the more he shakes and rolls, and bursts into laughter. LOL Elmo features eight jokes when his foot is pressed for three seconds. Elmo can also laugh by squeezing Dorothy’s fishbowl squeaker. This toy comes with four AA batteries and is available at major retailers nationwide and on HasbroToyShop.com.

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Hasbro Makes Gains On The 2012 Carbon Disclosure Project Index

October 10, 2012 By

Hasbro Inc., has achieved a 29 point improvement in its Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) reporting score over the past year. Hasbro has invested more than 1.5 million dollars in emission reduction initiatives designed to reduce annual carbon dioxide emissions. It also expanded tracking of its greenhouse gas to include emissions by third-party manufacturers and transportation providers.

In 2008, Hasbro set out to reduce Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions by 10 percent by 2012. Habro exceeded the goal with reductions of 20 percent in 2011 by prioritizing energy use, streamlining product distribution models, updating lighting systems, and investing in energy-efficient equipment. Hasbro has also increased its recycled content in which they derived 75 percent of paper and board packaging from recycled material. The company plans to increase its recycled content to 90 percent by 2015. A paper sourcing policy was put in place in 2011 that provided suppliers with guidelines for sustainable paper sourcing. The policy is now part of Hasbro’s quality assurance procedures.

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Scrabble Enthusiasts Score Big With Merriam-Webster’s Scrabble Dictionary App

August 29, 2012 By

Merriam-Webster has announced the release of its new Scrabble Dictionary app—the ultimate resource for Scrabble play—as part of an agreement in principle with Hasbro, Inc.  Determining the acceptability of a word will be easier than ever with this new mobile app, now available for iPhone and iPad.

The Scrabble Dictionary app is based on the best-selling Official Scrabble Players Dictionary, and endorsed by the National Scrabble Association.

Perfect for face-to-face, online, digital, tournament, and school play, the app contains more than 100,000 playable two- to eight-letter words. It also includes variant spellings for game players in Canada. Additional features include a Word Finder that lets players discover all the words that can be created with their tiles, lists of favorites and recent lookups, and voice search, powered by Nuance Communications’ Dragon voice recognition technology.

For more details, visit the iPhone app store.

This post was originally written by Sierra McCleary-Harris and published by ToyBook.com. For more news, visit www.toybook.com, follow The Toy Book on Twitter, and like The Toy Book on Facebook. The Toy Book is a bimonthly trade magazine covering the toy industry, published by Adventure Publishing Group.

Filed Under: 9 and up, New Products Tagged With: , , , ,

Neil Patrick Harris Teams Up With Hasbro to Promote Scrabble Catch Phrase, Hasbro Game Night

August 28, 2012 By

Actor Neil Patrick Harris announced that he will be appearing in a new ad campaign from Hasbro, Inc., featuring the all new Scrabble Catch Phrase game. Harris, star of CBS’ sitcom How I Met Your Mother, is featured in the game’s television advertising campaign, set to begin airing in the U.S. this week.

Along with the commercial for Scrabble Catch Phrase, Harris will help kick off Hasbro Game Night, a new campaign that celebrates the fun and spontaneity of adding a game to any occasion. The first ad shows Harris “crashing” a gathering to liven up the action with the Scrabble Catch Phrase game, turning the friendly get-together into a Game Night. The all-new Game Night campaign will include two additional ads, featuring the Yahtzee and Jenga brands, which will not include Harris.

In Scrabble Catch Phrase, players describe words or phrases from one of five categories: fun and games, entertainment, everyday life, the world, and variety. It’s a frenzied game of grabbing, guessing, and passing that invites players to frantically try to get their teammates to guess each phrase that appears on the electronic game unit — just don’t be caught holding the game unit when the buzzer sounds. The game is recommended for four or more players, ages 12 and up. Three AAA batteries are required for the electronic game unit.

Scrabble and Hasbro Game Night fans will be able to find additional content, such as Neil Patrick Harris’ rules of Game Night and behind-the-scenes action from the television ad shoot, at www.Facebook.com/OfficialScrabble and www.Facebook.com/HasbroGameNight.

This post was originally written by Sierra McCleary-Harris and published by ToyBook.com. For more news, visit www.toybook.com, follow The Toy Book on Twitter, and like The Toy Book on Facebook. The Toy Book is a bimonthly trade magazine covering the toy industry, published by Adventure Publishing Group.

Filed Under: 9 and up, New Products, People Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Britney Spears Teams Up with Hasbro to Introduce a New Twist on a Favorite Game

August 28, 2012 By

With the help of pop icon Britney Spears, girls can show off dance moves and rock the spots with the new Twister Dance game from Hasbro. The game combines today’s dance music with the Twister spots and will give girls a new way to learn moves to today’s hot dance songs, including a custom Twister remix of “Till the World Ends” featuring Britney Spears.

Not only will a custom remix of Spears’ hit song be featured in the game, but the pop superstar will appear on game packaging and in a television ad set to begin airing next month. A behind-the-scenes web series, The Making of Britney’s Twister Dance Remix Video, launched on www.rockthespots.com on August 21. The series will be followed by the worldwide reveal of the Twister Dance commercial on September 9 and a special announcement for Britney Spears fans.

The game invites kids to rock the spots by placing Twister spots on the floor and then follow the direction of the Twister Dance console. The Twister Dance console offers bright, multi-color LED lights that show dancers on which spots they should place their feet. Arm and hand movements are up to the dancers, allowing them to show off their individual style. Players can connect any mp3 player to the console to dance to their own tunes. The built-in beat detection system turns any song into a dance routine.

The game is recommended for 1 to 2 players, ages 8 and up. Four AA batteries are required for the dance console (demo batteries are included). The game includes eight spots (4 per player).

This post was originally written by Sierra McCleary-Harris and published by ToyBook.com. For more news, visit www.toybook.com, follow The Toy Book on Twitter, and like The Toy Book on Facebook. The Toy Book is a bimonthly trade magazine covering the toy industry, published by Adventure Publishing Group.

Filed Under: 6-8, 8 and up, 9 and up, New Products, People Tagged With: , ,

Hasbro Rewarded for Efforts in Corporate Social Responsibility

August 20, 2012 By

Global toy and game maker, Hasbro Inc., has been recognized by Whole Living and named this year’s “Green Giant” for its successful drive to eliminate wire ties in its product packaging, replacing them with more environmentally-friendly ties made from bamboo and paper rattan.

This small change has eliminated approximately 34,000 miles of non-recyclable wire ties, enough to wrap around the circumference of the Earth at least once. Hasbro has taken additional steps toward protecting the planet, including reduction of product packaging material, increasing recycled content, and enacting a responsible paper sourcing policy.

This post was originally written by Lindsay Gordon and published by ToyBook.com. For more news, visit www.toybook.com, follow The Toy Book on Twitter, and like The Toy Book on Facebook. The Toy Book is a bimonthly trade magazine covering the toy industry, published by Adventure Publishing Group.

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