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MGA Entertainment: A privately-owned toy company doing billions in revenue
- TaylorAlexander 6y agoJust want to highlight the fact that manufacturing huge volumes of cheap plastic toys is not necessarily something to be celebrated.
- bluedevil2k 6y agoMoral police alert!! Care to expand on your condemnation of the company? Or is this just a random “big companies are evil” kind of negative comment?
- ireflect 6y agoFor many kids, this kind of toy has a short window of novelty and then waits in a closet until its time comes to go to the landfill. We should be extra skeptical of consumerism that targets children. I think that’s what GP was getting at.
- bluedevil2k 6y agoWell GP is wrong. I have a 10 year old girl, I’ve bought a dozen of these, and she loved them each time. Yes, she may play with them only for a few hours each, but if it brings a smile to her face & makes her happy for many hours, then I think most parents agree it’s worth it.
- deepzn 6y agoWhat ever works for you man. That stuff is meth, trash, superficial garbage.
- kgraves 6y agoThat kids can grow out of, it's harmless than actual 'meth' and other 'addictions' adults almost never 'grow out of'.
- TaylorAlexander 6y agoDo you know where our plastic ends up? Every documentary I’ve seen on the subject shows that our plastic ends up with no oversight in some poor country while children literally sift through it for pennies a day.
- drak0n1c 6y agoOnly due to the recent habit of tossing toys and all kinds of junk in recycling bins, where they don't belong. Over-recycling is worse for the planet than simply throwing away garbage responsibly. Most parts of the US have no shortage of landfill space.
- brendawalsh 6y agoMaybe your plastic. Mine is transported several miles away, where it is buried and can then leech into the river, which is used as our water supply downstream. But, yeah, who decided to put the water treatment plant next to the landfill?
- smabie 6y agoUnlike the cultured and refined stuff you like, I assume?
- kinghtown 6y agoAnd your kids are watching Godard films?
- powercf 6y agoThe amount of plastic waste around some of these toys is shocking: https://youtu.be/CZpG032TR5A https://youtu.be/CZpG032TR5A. It reminds me of the packaging around AMD Threadripper and Intel 9900k packaging - both also very wasteful. If they only make a child happy for a few hours then it's probably not worth it.
- HeWhoLurksLate 6y agoOne of my friends built a PC into his dad's Threadripper box, inspired by this: https://www.anandtech.com/show/14473/spotted-at-computex-a-ryzen-pc-in-a-threadripper-retail-box https://www.anandtech.com/show/14473/spotted-at-computex-a-r... Remember, these things are targeted at a subset of an enthusiast market (and some HEDT stuff, too) and are mainly Halo products- and for many people, if they're paying $600 for a CPU, a nice box / unboxing experience is a quite nice touch.
- anm89 6y agoShe may have only played with them for a few hours but the plastic waste will outlive her by 100x. You really can't see anything negative here?
- rdtsc 6y ago> For many kids, this kind of toy has a short window of novelty This one takes it to the next level. It "hacks" that by selling these toys in an opaque plastic container and they have "rare", "ultra-rare" etc types. So kids get hooked on wanting to collect all the dolls looking for a specific ultra-rare one, and having to buy lots of these things including duplicate ones.
- puranjay 6y agoI don't know. I had a bunch of toys growing up that I retained. They're kept in a little glass cupboard in my house. My nephews love playing with them whenever they're over. Something that lasted two generations certainly seems good value to me.
- Fricken 6y agoRegulations restricting advertising at children turned Saturday morning cartoons into unboxing videos. I'm glad I grew up in the 80s.
- TaylorAlexander 6y agoI think I made myself clear. Manufacturing huge volumes of cheap plastic is currently a very ecologically damaging thing. Since my home town is currently engulfed in flames I have been thinking a lot about human impact on the climate. And it feels increasingly shortsighted to read articles that say “wow look at all the money this person made” without addressing the ecological impact of their work. Some toy companies make long lasting toys from 100 percent post consumer recycled plastics with minimal packaging. But this guy who made billions probably did it with big shipments of virgin plastic made from who knows where. I see no reason why highlighting the effects of such businesses should be condemned here. I wanted to temper some of the euphoria that comes to us Silicon Valley types when billions in revenue comes up.
- brendawalsh 6y agoHave you read the book ‘Natural Capitalism’? There is a point made that the current costs are not adequately addressed, and instead externalized to the public. It was written in 1999.
- TaylorAlexander 6y agoI haven’t! Looks like there’s some lectures on YouTube under that title, I’ll see if any are the original author and listen to those. Don’t get in to many books lately.
- kgraves 6y agoWhy? At least they aren't yet another subscription company ever. Let the kids have their toys.
- TaylorAlexander 6y agoPlastic waste is a major ecological problem. https://youtu.be/c8aVYb-a7Uw https://youtu.be/c8aVYb-a7Uw
- zuppy 6y agoyou are right, but of all the shit we use the plastic for (like bottles of water, or beads in a shower gel), you decided to start with toys?
- kazinator 6y agoMaybe it's just chronological order. Though the absorbent plastic gel in a disposable diaper should be first, then.
- atupis 6y agoBurning plastic should be first https://cen.acs.org/environment/sustainability/Should-plastics-source-energy/96/i38 https://cen.acs.org/environment/sustainability/Should-plasti...
- mattigames 6y agoWith social issues I have noticed this trend that is always deemed that one is trying to solve the issue where someone else thinks there is "a bigger threat" one should be concerned instead, in other words if this was a conversation about bottles of water someone would chime in: "Why not start with toys? At lest bottles of water have a practical purpose to make it easier to carry water?"
- prawn 6y agoTo be fair, it is a discussion about toys, right?
- maxden 6y ago"We need to make the ultimate unboxing toy." from the article certainly makes that worse too.
- zuppy 6y agothat’s not supposed to be interesting for you, but for a kid. and belive me it is, you can see it in their eyes. how they shine after you get the first paper printed clue (that is hidden before one of the layers), how they can’t wait for you to help them remove the others and the final joy when they find a new toy (and there are many different dolls, you will find new ones pretty often). do i like it? yes and no, all i’m thinking of while unboxing is of how much plastic is wasted, but this in not for the kid to worry
- c22 6y agoI've seen a kid's eyes light up trying to find scraps of paper I made to look like pirates and hid around the house. I've watched a kid spend two solid hours throwing rocks into the ocean. There are a lot things that bring joy to children. Most kids would be thrilled to receive half a can of warm Dr Pepper and a handful of M&Ms but I think many parents would be hesitant to offer this experience routinely.
- brendawalsh 6y agoAll true, but still made me chuckle.
- bitwize 6y agoAs noted in the article, this was the company also responsible for Bratz, the 2000s (decade) fashion-doll phenomenon that served as the Sonic to Barbie's Mario: hipper, edgier, and ultimately flash-in-the-pan-ier. They're like experts at no-holds-barred marketing to kids.
- agency 6y agoYeah the focus on making the “perfect unboxing you” is a brilliant business move but it’s kind of dystopian. Just imagining all these kids watching endless algorithm-recommended unboxing videos.
- bitwize 6y agoOne need not imagine this. Round about the same time as the ElsaGate phenomenon (and often lumped in with it) was a series of unusual YouTube videos that featured adults unwrapping Kinder Surprise and other such small toys, over and over. Kids were supposedly transfixed and would stare slack-jawed at the screen, waiting for the next toy to be revealed seconds after the last one was. Presumably, LOL Surprise capitalizes on this phenomenon as well. To be honest, I don't see the appeal and find the naked attempt to capture children's eyeballs worrisome. Now if you will excuse me, I'm going to go watch LGR unpack a new-old-stock 286 and attempt to boot Commander Keen on it...
- donw 6y agoThere's a lot of great lessons here. (1) Billion-dollar companies are often built on products that consumers don't know what they want, until they see and experience it. Plenty of MP3 players pre-dated the iPod. But the iPod changed the market and put Apple back on the game board. The iPod had an experience, the form-factor, the capacity, and the horizontal integration -- being able to buy music directly on iTunes -- and once you experienced it, you realized that this was just better. (2) Find your blind spots and fix them. A wide variety of dolls, covering the full palette of skin colors, opened up a huge market for all the girls that didn't just want an Industry Standard Barbie Available In One Skin Tone. Rhianna had the same problem -- she could never find makeup that worked with her skin color. So she introduced her own makeup brand -- marketed as being for all women -- which is now valued in excess of three billion dollars. We see this a lot in Japan, by the way -- Silicon Valley companies come here, and engage in what I would say are aggressive levels of cultural ignorance. (3) Recognize the context around your customers. MGA recognized that Kids These Days spend a lot of time on YouTube, so they built a product designed to be YouTubed. Glock is a great example of this. The founder, Gaston Glock, didn't come from a gunsmithing or firearms manufacturing background. To create the first Glock pistol, Gaston put together a cross-functional working group, including metallurgists, plastic-manufacturing specialists, and members of the Austrian police and military that would actually use the design. Focusing on how the pistol would be used -- from both a tactical and logistical standpoint -- they created something which was a total departure from everything else on the market. A completely integrated safety system. Tool-less takedown and reassembly. Easy maintenance. Most companies require a unique magazine for each different type of pistol -- Glock magazines are totally interchangeable within the same feed mechanism. Today, Glock is the biggest pistol brand, and every other pistol manufacturer carries Glock-inspired design. Being able to look at problems from the outside is powerful.
- tolbish 6y agoWas Rhianna the first person to introduce makeup designed for brown and black women? I wonder if there were dozens of others before her that would have been just as or far more successful if they had the connections or name-brand recognition as Rhianna. In short, I am wondering if survivorship bias is at play.
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- ericls 6y agoIsn't this gambling?
- smabie 6y agoBuying dolls is gambling? I'm gonna go with.. no? And even if we contort the definition and say it is, does it matter?
- ericls 6y agoIt feel it might not be fair for other participants in gambling industry that are more strictly regulated. It's like selling drugs that are not yet categorized as drugs.
- theshrike79 6y agoThey’re not dolls like Barbies are. You buy them completely sight unseen, like CCG cards or Kinder eggs. They literally come in eggs you open and collect.
- bmn__ 6y agoGP refers to the collecting aspect mentioned in the article. Whether it's gambling or not depends on how it's implemented precisely. When a consumer cannot know the probability of obtaining a rare item with a purchase, and must spend an unknown quantity of money to achieve the goal, then – so the argument goes – it is an exploitative manipulation of the mind and breaks anti-gambling laws and anti-consumer regulations. The digital equivalent ("loot-boxes") has been brought to court in Belgium and restricted/regulated in the EU since. Regulated collecting by purchase shows the probabilities, and allows obtaining a rare item or set for a fixed, predetermined price.
- doc_gunthrop 6y agoIn that case we can extrapolate that and apply the argument against things like a pack of baseball cards or MTG cards. Everyone wants that MVP player or the Black Lotus, but you never know what you'll get until you open the pack.
- wnevets 6y agoThe lol dolls are just the worst. The amount of waste plastic is insane. Then you have the outright terrible dolls that reveal lingerie when you wet them. https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/lol-surprise-dolls-water/ https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/lol-surprise-dolls-water/
- kennydude 6y agoYup, they're so expensive and have multiple layers of waste plastic. And I thought twisty ties were bad enough for packaging things
- rl3 6y agoUpon viewing the product video[0], I immediately wondered whether anyone's studied the effects of aggressive jump cuts on child psychology. Turns out, they have! Kind of.[1] Personally I find jump cuts jarring if not repulsive, emblematic of the "Like and subscribe!" cultural, intellectual wasteland that is most YouTube and Twitch content. It's arguably not healthy for adults, let alone children. Then again, I grew up watching The Ren & Stimpy Show, so far be it from me to talk. [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9IqcnQ9GQU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9IqcnQ9GQU [1] https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2012-35066-001 https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2012-35066-001
- l33tbro 6y agoI think you mean quick cutting. Jump cuts refer to when the filmmaker uses roughly the same frame size and jumps forward in time. Godard's 'Breathless' being the first prominent use.
- rl3 6y ago>Jump cuts refer to when the filmmaker uses roughly the same frame size and jumps forward in time. I believe I was referring to that. YouTube content is notorious for them, and jump cuts are part of the lexicon in that space as a result. There's even a YC company with the namesake. Fast cutting or quick cutting doesn't have the same-frame restriction as far as I'm aware.
- l33tbro 6y agoI re-clicked and still don't see any jump cuts. The video actually has pretty standard film grammar, but cuts at a very quick pace. The Youtuber aesthetic you mention is full of abrupt jumpcuts.
- rl3 6y agoAfter watching it again I agree with you now. Either way, the pace of the cuts are still jarring. Interestingly some of the cuts do jump forward in time, but they zoom in on the same subject usually.
- scandox 6y agoI banned unboxing videos for my kids. The only thing I ever had to explicitly ban. I didn't have a big issue with them per se but when I saw the effect on the kids I couldn't allow it. They were...strung out.
- rootsudo 6y agoI come here for these kinds of posts. Informing, interesting, and quite sad in a way.
- vmception 6y ago> Larian initially did not love the Bratz sketches, saying they looked like aliens. However, his 12 year-old daughter Jasmin was also in the meeting. She was immediately enthralled with the dolls, exclaiming “These are so cool - I need these!” This is unironically the inclusivity we need. The corporation concept doesn’t exist to satisfy employees’ ego, it exists to access a market. There should be people with different, unfamiliar backgrounds closer to the market you want to access, in the decision making process.
- mgh2 6y agoThe original article had a long insightful comment- the author has since deleted it (some may have noticed the censoring). I will not be surprised if MGA's attack on Mucciolo's might be deleted as well- as MGA deleted its tweets. Here is a record just in case: https://www.fa-mag.com/news/toy-billionaire-deletes-post-slamming-black-lives-matter-group-56507.html https://www.fa-mag.com/news/toy-billionaire-deletes-post-sla... I detect some biased portrayal on part of the author towards MGA (investment newsletter)- we get that they made a killing on a 'great' product, but its negative implications cannot be understated. Takeaways: 1. MGA is just profiting from trendy cultural uprisings, without actually believing in any values it embodies- as seen in its attack on Mucciolo 2. MGA is brainwashing girls into following counter-culture examples to fuel #1 So yes, MGA might be an underdog here (that is why the appeal), but not all underdogs are good: portraying as one is just another marketing stunt to accomplish 1 & 2 Note: "Fully developed brain" for girls as described in the article denies the fact that they are more susceptible than the general public to marketing tricks
- chrisseaton 6y agoI'm not sure what you think is a 'cultural uprising' or 'counter-cultural' about Bratz dolls? They're mainstream dolls. The article talks about how they were different to the mainstream Barbie... twenty years ago. They were novel before some parents today were born, let alone the children.
- ralfd 6y agoTo be fair: MGA claims the design was done before Mucciolo styled herself that way: https://mobile.twitter.com/MGAEnt/status/1270904973727952897?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1270904973727952897%7Ctwgr%5E&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.lamag.com%2Fculturefiles%2Flol-surprise-studio-mucci%2F https://mobile.twitter.com/MGAEnt/status/1270904973727952897... And the designer of the doll swearing herself that: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EbgLX6wXYAEonlk?format=jpg&name=large https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EbgLX6wXYAEonlk?format=jpg&name=... I see the similarity, but I can also belief that it is coincidence. Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn made the twin rope hairstyle 2016 popular and also that colorful neon turquoise.
- crawsome 6y agoThose kids dolls are skimpy and slutty as hell. Literally marketing these barely-dressed dolls to little girls, while seeing this old man smile makes me sick to my stomach.
- ralfd 6y ago> People do not really take kids seriously, and they especially do not take young girls seriously. (How many times have you read articles about how great Fortnite is, with no mention of Roblox? I have never heard of Roblox! It was discussed though a few days ago here on hacker news I learned through a search. Interestingly through a specific nerdy lense: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24221010 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24221010
- segmondy 6y agoI work for a privately owned company that has been doing billions for more than a decade. I live 10 miles away and never even heard about them until I started working for them, most people don't that live here don't know about it or what they do. It made me realize and look into businesses that are privately held that are doing well. Killed that idea for me that you need SV or VC funding to scale.