Random House, 1998. $25, ISBN 0-8129-2984-5, 348 pgs. Hard back

I bought this in a dollar store because the content seemed fascinating. This business profile of Hasbro, with some Mattel and a little bit of other to companies thrown in, is like most business profiles: not bad, not great. Written by a newspaper reporter, it reads like a long Sunday feature article: not bad, not great.

Toy Wars traces Hasbro's rise to king of the toy kingdom through 1996 (when the book ends). It recounts products that made and broke fortunes -- dolls, games, action figures, and others -- and the people that championed them. This is primarily about boardrooms and managements down to division presidents, with the usual shuffles, back stabbings, bean counting, and stock market concerns. Forget about employees, all the big wigs treat them as just another asset -- or liability -- to be used and discarded as necessary to pump up the stocks.

The book does not paint a very positive picture about upper management in any toy company. As the founders bring in outsiders who know nothing about toys, the projects become trivialized. They could be selling anything...and it shows. Literally, sure bets crash and burn while afterthoughts blossom.

And that's the appeal of Toy Wars: the anecdotes about toys we know. You may not learn much about management skills, but you'll enjoy the anecdotes about prototypes, promises, focus groups, and marketing. It's definitely worth a buck.

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