Mattel ki---d FP which was the most impressive and popular preschool toy company out there. Remember “One Mattel?” Then they buy American Girl and started ki----g that….now it is doomed with the controversial book teaching kids as young as 3 years old that they can wait to decide what they want to be (aka hormone repressers, etc)
No parent wants their kids to have these materials and so the nail in the American Girl coffin has been hit. Mattel lost their credibility with the untested and morally deficient FLAVA dolls. Mattel has no respect anymore.
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I wonder if any Mattel investors realize how many companies Mattel has just ki-led! It is just business HOMIC--E ! Also all the wasted money on corrupt company officials and the great Learning Co. debacle. Mattel should be a study at all business universities on how to NOT run a company.
Ah the JB era where she had her sycophant's wearing pink with her. That was a truly horrendous time and the platinum (well beyond gold) parachute she was given for her massive fail was sickening.
FP was doing OK with licensed brands until marketing/management decided to dilute the brand, extend the Childs interest beyond the typical age they grow out of and just made the license the complete mess it is today with everything working with every system. The premium value is gone and its boxed to look like a generic no frills line.
The only thing FP is successful at is infant deaths at this point. Quite sad that this company had innovations years ago that were way beyond their time. Even the acquisition of Radica was pathetic. They had some cool products like Ucreate that people still have groups online for. It's just sad how we've fallen.
Don't get me started on the Monster high calamity of using the failed fatgirl barbie bodies and that horrendous live action movie. We as a company (and I've been with the company for over 30 years now) are the equivalent of a tire factory fire. we just keep burning on and on giving off noting but toxic smoke.
Sorry, I just needed to vent. Sometimes you leave a meeting and wonder how many incompetent people in the room have failed upwards in this company because they were liked by the "right" people.
Lookingh forward to retiring at the end of the year.
@gpkn+1kq1uWFC
How did you forget one of most famously bad acquisitions in the history of Corporate America? In 1999 Mattel paid nearly $4 Billion to buy the failing "edutainment" CD-ROM publisher The Learning Company. Mattel nearly went bankrupt and the CEO who oversaw the deal resigned in shame.
Agreed, but F-P has lasted longer than most of the others and has been handed several life lines since acquisition (Power Wheels, See n Say, Thomas). The list of destroyed brands and layed off employees is much longer for the quickly-ki---d:
Tyco Toys was acquired for their so-called expertise in Radio Control. The only thing left is Matchbox, and that's after the girls lines, trains, and slot cars were all ki---d off.
Print Packs was acquired in the '90's. For what?
Radica: RIP 20Q and hello cr---y manufacturing plant requiring million$ to upgrade
Pleasant Company (AG): What in the he-l is going on with that brand?
Mega Brands; All but dead and a shuttered plant that was running very well.
Fuhu/Nabi: Who spends $25 million on a bankrupt company with no sales and no long term plan for customer support?
I was at FP when they were acquired by Mattel. Their business plan of increasing prices while sacrificing quality didn’t go over well with the employees or the public….
You mean; we must be new here.
You guys must me new here. 🙄
agreed. wrong forum. go on a facebook parenting group. No one is interested in your child rearing rants.
You are on the wrong forum board. This is a forum board for laid off employees, we don’t have any influence over the management’s policies. if you have some grudge against the MAT, address it somewhere else.
If American Girl is promulgating these absurd progressive gender concepts to little kids they absolutely deserve to go under, good riddance. F these groomer weirdos and their obsession with pushing this nonsense on young children.
Amazon link
https://a.co/d/2JtbNVa
Wait what book?