2005 Network News - RUMOR: Disney Interested in Hasbro Inc?
 

From time to time we like to post news from our 2005 Network sites that we are a part of - TFW2005.COM, HissTank.com, ToyArk.com, and Thundercats.WS. That being said, there's a major rumor circling the Internet today and we wanted to share it with everyone here ... seeing as there's some history in the world of Tokusatsu when someone mentions the House of Mouse, or Disney.

From MTV Geek News:

"OK folks, take this one with a grain of plastic for the time being. Unless you’ve been under a rock, you’ve heard that Disney acquired Lucasfilm for roughly $4 billion last week and Marvel for around the same price a few years prior. Well, we have it on good authority that serious discussions are happening at the highest levels of both Disney and Hasbro to fold the largest toy and game company on the planet into the Mouse.

From what we’re told, these are still just discussions at this point, but serious enough that something could be announced at any time and create ripples throughout the entertainment industry. "

The company Hasbro Inc. is the owner of two major franchises that our 2005 Network covers - Transformers and G.I. Joe. Whereas when Disney purchased the Saban Entertainment library and got Power Rangers television rights out of it, Hasbro is the sole owner of Transformers, G.I. Joe, My Little Pony, and more. Not only that, Hasbro makes the toys for those said franchises (not to mention both Marvel and Star Wars). To sum it up, it would be like if Disney purchased TOEI, Bandai, and Saban Brands in one foul swoop.

Share your thoughts and your comments for our Transformers and G.I. Joe fans! Should they be excited about this possible development? Or should they fear that Disney is going to end the war between the Autobots and Decepticons, as well as G.I. Joe and COBRA, forever?

Discuss!

Hot Damn, if everyone is going to join the Disney party, Power Rangers should just get rebought by them. Disney, also buy rights to adapt a Kamen Rider series while your at it buying all these companies.

My fear is that I look at Disney's history with "shows involving violence" (ie: Power Rangers?) and fear that a Disney take-over of GI Joe would mean that GI Joe ends up going away because of the very premise of the show (military versus terrorists). The only way to save it would be to turn it in to some sort of ... super hero team.

I won't even begin to get in to the problems that arise with the comic licenses - IDW's Transformers have skyrocketted in popularity the last year.

Its interesting that this popped up just after there was that thread on tfw about whether Disney should buy Transformers, but I'm not going to think much of this until I hear something concrete.

Oh man this could mean so many amazing incredible things. Anything is on the table if this happens.

First Disney takes over the entertainment industry…then the world!

i want see japanese tf series like headmasters , master force , victorty , zone , beast wars , beast wars 2 , beast wars neo , and etc on toon diseny

Kingdom hearts 3
They're going to Cybertron,Equestria and earth

Every time Disney buys up something new my first though is how good it would be in a Kingdom Hearts game :lol

Is this why 3 is taking so long?

No no no no no no!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Exactly! As soon as they aquirred Star Wars my nerd dreams were filled with a Corruscant world :) Now? Please have a Cybertron level.

To some up my opinion;

If Disney buys Hasbro they might just have a monopoly on the entertainment industry....

Sorry, couldn't resist.

Hello, Disney? It's me.

YOU HAVE ENOUGH. STOP BEING GREEDY.

diseny buy hasbro
i see dinobots toys with driver figures and trainbots too

This. Times 1000x.

I'm beginning to hate Disney so much. Aren't there laws to keep one company from having too much power?

There are laws to prevent monopolies when a market is completely owned and dominated by one company - however if Disney purchases Hasbro, all it means is that Disney now has:

- ABC (news and television network)
- ESPN (sports multimedia)
- Disney (childrens programming)
- Disney Land/World (theme park based around childrens programming)
- Marvel (comic company and movie entertainment studio)
- LucasFilms & Industrial Lights and Sound (movie studio and special effects department)
- Hasbro (toy company)

That's it. Toy wise?

Mattel, Bandai, PlayMates, McFarlane, off-brands

Movie studio wise?

Thousands.

Comic wise?

DC, Dark Horse, IDW Publishing, Image, Valiant

Hardly a monopoly. Just an unstoppable juggernaut.

Wow, more stuff under the House of Mouse. It's a bit weird though, hasn't Disney worked more with Mattel in the past?

If this is true, I'm most excited about Disney My Little Pony.

Holy shit. My Little Pony/Disney Princess. Each Princess has her own pony.

Oh come freaking on goddamn it. You have Marvel, now Lucasflm, now you want Hasbro?! Disney needs stopped -_-

I agree to an extent, but it could be worse...they could be under VIACOM!

…Wonder what sort of Yummies would pop out of Disney Execs? :lol

Honestly, the only things I'd be afraid for would be third party TFs and IDWs license. I really don't want current Marvel Comics to have Transformers. Keep Joe Quesada away!

This could be the only thing that saves both Transformers and GI Joe from utter crap. Neither series has done really anything worthwhile in a long time. Well, that isn't completely true, as the 30th figures that were coming out were excellent, but then Hasbro decided to can them for a non-existent movie line, making it one of the worst decisions ever when dealing with the Joe universe. As such, I no longer have a desire to really own anything Joe related and I hope this movie bombs so badly that they have no choice but to sell to Disney.

...Did Hasbro murder your puppy or something? Dude, they're doing great! They've made a few dumb decisions, but so did I by deciding to be a nerd (...I'm still single, aren't I).

I love how every site on this network frontpaged a RUMOR while only Hisstank frontpaged the real news that Disney bought Lucasfilms. Apparently Disney used Confuse and it's super effective on this network :lol

PS What do we call this network anyways? TFW?

well you also for got Lucus films gamign studio lusarts and DC is owned by Warner brothers

As a customiser, I can only feel this would be a bad thing for those who like to customise their toys and sell them on, I have no idea how Disney would react to that but i'm pretty sure they are even more protective of their IPs and after the 3rd parties are gone there is no telling whether they will have away with independent artists and fan conventions as well.

Not to mention we don't know how Disney will react to the more violent aspect of Transformers, plus with them owning Marvel IDW's current transformers comics would come to an end (which would be a crying shame as the current comic series are fantastic fiction.)

I hope it stays as a rumour and doesn't prove to be true.

Shame Lucas arts isn't owned by Disney now though, I would have liked a film version of Grim Fandango

Nah, they just killed my interest in Transformers with thier Bayformers ****. Animated was the best thing to happen to Transformers since Beast Wars ended and then they went and prematurely canceled it just because they wanted to promote another Bayformers and do a Bayformer-esque cartoon. As for GI Joe, like I said, they canned the 30th anniversary line to do movie toys for a movie that was then pushed back until next year. They could have been celebrating the 30th anniversary all year with new toys based of unreleased comic characters and the like, but instead, they wanted to focus solely on a movie that never came out, and as such, also delayed the toys until next year.

Rotor, what is the big deal if they canned IDW's license of the series to give them back to Marvel? IDW has not put out a single good Transformers comic ever. As for GI Joe, meh, their Hama continuation is all right, but it does not feel like a continuation at all.

Hasbro's decisions have sometimes been questionable, but I'm still rather fond of them as a company. They just seem more fan-friendly than many toy companies out there.

Admittedly, though their product on the Transformers front is so stagnant recently that I've mostly given up on them. I hope whatever they have in mind for the future of Transformers is good.

Disney must be stopped...no matter the cost

THIS!!!!!!!!!

i want diseny part up with hasbro to make the dragonlance figures and dragonlance live action movie

No. You are wrong. LSOTW was fantastic. MTMTE and RID are fantastic. We are currently in a Golden Age of TF comics. I can see being burned by AHM and the Costa stuff, but we're past that now, and its amazing.

I don't want Marvel editorial (y'know, the people who ruined Spider-Man) anywhere near TFs.

Another thing I thought of, maybe if Disney takes over, they'll get Bay to tone down some of his tasteless stuff in Transformers. One can dream, I suppose :D.