Original subtitles

[Narrator] On the shores of Lake Minnetonka,

a struggling toy company is in desperate need of a new hit.

All right, uh, micro bots?

No.

Change bots?

Anything? No, okay.

Tonka in the '80s, was already well known for their trucks.

Ultra bots.

One did not say Tonka without the word truck after it.

I'll put a maybe down.

But it wasn't exciting, it wasn't fresh.

[Narrator] To turn the company around,

Tonka is betting on a revolutionary new toy.

Machine men?

[Narrator] They just need a name.

Okay, transform men, no.

(sighs)

Transformers, transformers.

(upbeat rock music)

[Narrator] But they need to move quickly.

I love it, how soon can we have it on the shelves?

[Narrator] Industry giant Hasbro is hot on their heels

and about to launch their own shape changing toy.

- Great. - It's perfect.

[Narrator] The race to rule this new toy frontier

will generate nearly half a billion dollars

in just one year.

We wanted to wipe them out

and make sure that our brand was the one.

[Narrator] In the end,

only one company's creation will become

a nine billion dollar multi-media legend.

We knew they were coming

and we knew they had more money than us.

[Narrator] The other...

Transformers.

No, it won't work, it's too complicated.

They could have named their toy transformers!

The toy transforms.

(bell ringing)

[Narrator] May the best bot win.

(upbeat music) (electrical whirring)

Calling Steve Austin on Mars, your radio signal's weak.

[Announcer] The new six million dollar man

with bionic grip.

[Narrator] By the early '80s,

action figures with their own TV show or movie

ruled the toy world for half a decade,

led by Kenner's "Star Wars" line.

You can't underestimate the power of "Star Wars".

That runaway success certainly fueled

the power of what action figures could be.

Your search is over, Luke.

Ben Kenobi and Yoda.

Having entertainment connected to your toy line

was very important.

Everyone started looking for the next "Star Wars".

(tense music)

[Narrator] Including Tonka's CEO Steve Shank,

who's eager to dig his company

out of a 10 million dollar hole.

Tonka is lost in the '70s.

It was an institution.

Everyone had that sort of

landmark classic yellow Tonka truck,

but we started to see that be not as hot

when "Star Wars" came in,

there was more of an element of space, and fantasy.

Video games had become incredibly dynamic.

(video game beeping)

These had a lot of animation, a lot of action,

things change, things exploded.

The market shifted and they didn't shift with it.

[Narrator] Now deep in the red, they need fresh ideas.

But they were off by themselves,

Minnesota, you know it's not this mecca of toy creation,

you don't have people going there to pitch ideas.

Tonka was literally out of the loop,

they were almost like a flyover toy company.

He needed to bring some people in

who could help him turn Tonka around.

- I know. - (knocking)

Yeah, come in.

[Narrator] Shank hires Mattel veteran, Pat Feely,

who was part of the team that made He-Man a massive hit.

Pat Feely didn't feel like he was getting promoted

fast enough at Mattel,

so he comes to Minnesota to remake Tonka.

It was a huge risk

going from the big time to the small time.

(tense music)

We're losing our shirts trying to come up with new toys.

They brought Pat in to say,

"Hey, we wanna become a toy company,

not just a vehicle company."

Exactly, so this time, we license one.

(tense music)

Let's take a short cut, let's license an existing toy.

Now, that saves them an unbelievable amount of time,

because all of the manufacturing

and all of the fabrication apparatus is in place.

[Narrator] Determined to find the perfect toy,

Feely looks everywhere, he even scours the inventory

of a company going out of business, Knickerbocker.

They did some licensed dolls, I think they were most famous

for the Raggedy Ann and Andy line of product.

And he comes across a very interesting toy

that seems right at the crossroads

of the high tech appeal of the video game

and their wheelhouse, metal vehicles.

It was two toys in one,

like oh, this is a car and it's a robot.

(toy clicking) (intense music)

[Narrator] Unfortunately, this is a cheap knock off.

The real toys are 6,000 miles away.

(upbeat music)

The toys of Japan were something

that we've never seen before,

it was like something brand new.

So over in Japan, a company called Bandai

was making a line called machine robo,

and they were transforming vehicles for the most part

that would turn into robots.

[Narrator] Luckily for Feely, his new sales director

has the inside scoop on machine robo.

I had worked for Bandai America,

said to him, "Pat, the focus groups were off the charts."

So then I wanted to launch it in America

but Bandai disagreed,

they wanted us to do solar powered, hand held games.

Solar powered games,

which, I mean, games were big at the time,

I get it, but the idea didn't hit.

[Narrator] Desperate to make a deal,

Feely and Shank head east

hoping to snap up Bandai's machine robo

before someone else does.

To our partnership.

Kanpai.

But there's one thing.

We need a bigger buy.

So Bandai, they don't think it's gonna work,

so they say, "If we are going to partner with you,

we want the security of a sweet deal."

800,000 units.

Which is bonkers.

I don't think Tonka had ever sold

800,000 pieces of anything.

But Tonka was really really desperate.

That is a massive buy for an unproven toy

in an unproven market.

This is really Tonka going all in.

[Narrator] A gamble that's about to get even riskier.

(pen thudding)

When Japan's robots hit the radar of a U.S. powerhouse.

Hey, it's Hasbro, Hasbro makes toys.

What's new, Hasbro?

Hasbro, at that time,

would've been the number two toy company

in the world right behind Mattel.

They were a juggernaut.

[Narrator] From Mr. Potato Head to My Little Pony,

Hasbro has launched some of the most iconic toys

of all time, but one stands above the rest.

♪ G.I. Joe, G.I. Joe, fighting man from head to toe ♪

We wouldn't have had action figures

if we didn't have G.I. Joe.

So G.I. Joe had first been piloted

in early 1960's and was really, really popular.

(flamethrower bursting)

But there was a big problem, obviously,

trying to sell G.I. Joe during the Vietnam War.

[Narrator] After discontinuing him in 1978...

(upbeat music) ♪ Yo Joe, yo Joe, yo Joe

[Narrator] Hasbro reboots the line four years later.

That was such a major success.

The stock sky rocketed, our sales sky rocketed.

But I think they knew this would be great for a while

but at some point it will reach its saturation point

and you have to have the next thing.

(pensive music)

[Narrator] Toy pitch man, Henry Orenstein,

believes he's found the next big thing.

Henry was a total independent,

I mean, he said, "I'd rather live in one room

with a card table and a chair than work for somebody,"

and he meant it.

It's just a truck.

Are you sure?

(light music)

There was a company called Takara in Japan

that had two lines that had some transforming figures,

they had the Diaclone and then Micro Change.

[Narrator] After discovering them in Japan,

Orenstein rushes back to pitch a shape changing truck

to Hasbro's Stephen Hassenfeld.

Stephen Hassenfeld was the CEO of Hasbro at the time.

The Hassenfeld brothers were the "Has" in Hasbro,

so Stephen was third generation.

(tense music)

(toy clinking)

It's a vehicle,

it's a puzzle, and it's an action figure.

It's three toys in one.

I love it.

Intuition, I mean, he could feel a toy,

you know, he could feel an idea.

How soon can we have it on the shelves?

The toys were exciting toys.

So I'm holding this toy,

but if I do this, I have a completely different toy.

Boom, off to the races.

[Narrator] As Hasbro goes all in

to make transforming toys its next big hit,

little do they know, scrappy Tonka is already a step ahead.

If you're Tonka, it's very much a David and Goliath story

and you are David.

Unbeknownst to one another, the robot toy wars are on.

(tense music) (train whirring)

[Narrator] Hasbro RND chief, George Dunsay,

and toy consultant, Henry Orenstein,

are hoping to strike a deal with toy maker Takara.

At stake, a license to sell their Diaclone line

of transforming robots.

Can I see that robot over there, the yellow one?

Transforming robot toys have been a big deal in Japan

at that point for a long time.

[Executive] You're gonna love this.

Takara is actually confused.

They don't understand why Hasbro wants something

that's been out forever in Japan.

(toy winding)

How's this transform into a robot?

It doesn't.

They want to sell Hasbro on the idea

that this remote control car is the thing.

That's what we want.

(tense music)

Hasbro is just not interested.

We wanna make this robot deal,

I think you need to take the car too.

(suspenseful music)

We'll take 'em both.

Much like Bandai made Tonka buy 800,000 units,

Hasbro is saddled with a toy they don't even want

and have to sell.

(tense music)

[Narrator] And with the biggest industry event

of the year just seven months away, the pressure's on.

The clock is ticking

because Toy Fair is in February every year,

so all of the buyers are there looking at your wares.

(pensive music)

[Narrator] But the first thing both toys need

is a better name.

Does it sound too electrical

like something on a telephone pole?

Stephen Hassenfeld was a funny guy.

Maybe.

He always thought, "You know, that's good,

but you could do better."

Yeah, but one word that conveys exactly what they do.

You're right, let's go with it.

(suspenseful music)

Transformers.

(birds chirping) (tense music)

Transformers.

No, it won't work, it's too complicated.

Let me just rewind that,

they could have named their toy transformers!

(tense music)

And they say no.

Okay, go, little bot, go, you're not a robot, you're a...

GoBot!

GoBot.

GoBot.

Ray was head of marketing,

he had worked on brands like Hot Wheels.

They liked Hot Wheels, GoBots, you know, simple.

It's just kinda one of those things

where a decision made in a room

can kind of alter the course of history.

[Narrator] But to succeed,

they'll need more than a catchy name.

We had this fantastic line of product

and it was just begging for the story.

So in Japan, they weren't as focused

on character and story,

a robot that would turn into a motorcycle

didn't have to be character driven.

[Boy] R2, come outta there right now.

[Narrator] But in the U.S. a good backstory

has been crucial to the success of lines like "Star Wars",

He-Man, and Hasbro's own G.I. Joe.

♪ G.I. Joe, a real American hero ♪

♪ Go Joe

[Narrator] So Hasbro starts there.

Okay so let's make it a good versus evil story.

[Daniel] Keep the cars over here to be the good guys.

Let's make the good guys the Autobots.

[Daniel] We'll put the jets over here

to be the bad guys.

Let's make the Decepticons the bad guys

and the gun is the leader of the bad guys.

[Narrator] Meanwhile, unaware of their looming competitor,

Tonka pumps out the 800,000 GoBots

required by their licensing deal.

We were much smaller, so we could move faster.

We wanted to present a line that you can buy right now.

[Narrator] But that kind of volume

means the figures have to be small and cheap.

Around the holidays, kids generally expect

like a signature present, something marquee,

something a little pricier

and a five dollar action figure is not gonna cut it.

[Narrator] To cash in on a bigger ticket item,

Tonka rushes to create a 17 dollar carrying case

it's calling the command center.

But it just kinda ended up

looking like a Pringles can with a face.

I thought it was ugly.

(Jacob laughs)

It wasn't sexy, I felt it was rushed.

I just wish it were a little bit cooler,

but cooler takes time which we don't have.

(tense music)

[Narrator] Then, things suddenly get worse for Tonka.

They find out that big, mighty Hasbro

also has a transforming robot.

We knew they were coming

and we knew they had more money than us.

(Jacob laughs)

We'll just have to beat Hasbro to the punch.

So they really speed up the process,

but when they decide they have to push up the timeline,

they can't wait for Toy Fair.

And we gotta be first to market,

first mover advantage.

And Pat was aggressive.

So it's already late summer 1983

and there is a massive amount of creativity

that still needs to go into the development of GoBots.

[Narrator] On top of that,

Tonka goes big on a cartoon to support the GoBots launch.

So Tonka went with Hanna-Barbara,

which at the time was a powerhouse animation studio.

They were known for Jetsons and Flintstones, Scooby-Doo.

Hanna-Barbara is lighthearted, it's humorous.

Oh Dino, bring daddy the paper.

Hey, watch it! (crashing)

They've got a certain panache, a certain reputation,

the Hanna-Barbara touch.

[Daniel] The GoBots are from the planet GoBotron.

The Guardians were the good guys,

the Renegades were the bad guys.

The good guy was Leader-1

and the bad guy was Cy-Kill,

very simplistic 'cause he's a motor-Cy-Kill.

So you have Scooter, okay he transforms into a scooter.

Turbo turns into a sports car.

Cop-Tur, a helicopter.

The Renegades left for planet Earth,

the Guardians followed them

trying to protect the people of Earth.

And this was the very simple structure of the conflict.

Hasbro on the other hand is working with Marvel

which has a totally different vibe, it's very super hero,

it's sort of serious, it's a little older of a demographic.

[Narrator] Like G.I. Joe,

the plan is to release a comic book followed by a cartoon.

So the Transformers,

they come from the planet Cybertron.

And they're in a civil war,

and they're using all their resources,

so they have to come to earth for our resources

but they hide as regular Earth objects.

Like, oh, there's Transformers among us.

But the preexisting Japanese names

are not going to work here in the United States.

So the Marvel Comics team have to, with lightning speed,

create brand new names, characters, back stories,

before the toys come to market.

[Narrator] They start with the Autobots leader,

Battle Convoy, who becomes Optimus Prime.

But he's just one character of dozens.

(pensive music) (horns honking)

It's Thanksgiving week and Toy Fair is fast approaching.

Marvel is running out of time.

They're running through the office

trying to find someone willing to work on this

through a holiday weekend, and they come to Bob Budiansky

and they say, "Bob, can you do this?"

[Narrator] An editor with limited writing experience,

Budiansky races to flesh out the rest of the characters.

Most important, the main villain.

The Japanese name for this gun is the Walther P38 Uncle,

based on the Walther pistol used by the man from Uncle.

But as a kid of the '80s growing up here,

I didn't know diddly squat about that.

So the great name that he came up with was Megatron.

Way cooler to me.

[Narrator] But just as the Transformers

story is taking shape,

there's an issue with the toys themselves.

Importing these toys over from Japan,

the Diaclones had pilots, so that means they had seats,

they had little hatches in them

and places whee you could put figures.

The ones in Japan didn't have brains,

they had drivers.

With this story line they've created,

the ones in America have brains, no drivers.

They are robots who have self awareness

and function on their own.

They're like, "Okay, we'll get rid of the pilots."

Why are there all little tiny seats in this stuff?

So Hasbro has an incredible dilemma.

(phone clicking)

Are you gonna put out an airplane with a seat in it

and a cockpit with no pilot?

So what do they do?

(tense music)

[Narrator] With the February Toy Fair deadline

rapidly approaching,

Hasbro can't afford any setbacks.

How long would it take for us to get rid of the seats?

If you were going to then remove the cockpit,

that's new tooling and that's a lot more dollars.

Nevermind, we'll just live with them.

(phone clinks)

[Daniel] All of the early transformers have a cockpit,

or a seat or something that was made for a pilot

that kids just didn't get.

They realized that it's way too expensive

to try and retool these toys,

and they are keeping their fingers crossed

that there aren't angry parents from all over

calling them and calling them out.

[Narrator] By November 1983, Tonka's GoBot line

is almost ready to hit the market,

all they need is a killer jingle.

We knew that Hasbro's going to have a big media budget,

and so how do we drum into the kids the word GoBots

so that that became the anthem?

Repetition is the father of learning,

so we wanted to just pound that, GoBots, GoBots.

♪ GoBots, GoBots, GoBots

♪ GoBots, GoBots

[Steve] They say GoBots five times.

You have like, a bunch of old dudes

woke up and just started chanting, GoBots.

(tense music)

[Henry] It is a world transformed.

Hasbro was much more sophisticated marketing-wise

than Tonka was.

Where things are not what they seem.

It is the world of the Transformer.

Transformers, more than meets the eye.

More than meets the eye.

Transformers, more than meets the eye.

- (Henry chuckles) - Yeah.

- That's it. - That's it.

The tagline, "More than meets the eye," was the key,

because in one sentence,

it set up exactly what the product was.

- Great. - It's perfect.

Try to think of the GoBots theme song,

can you even remember it?

When you think of Transformers theme song...

♪ Transformers, more than meets the eye ♪

You can hear it in your head, it just sticks with you.

It had a different, operatic,

like Don Giovanni, syncopated thing.

♪ Autobots wage their battle to ♪

♪ Destroy the evil forces of the Decepticons ♪

Evil forces, Decepticon, Autobot,

these amazing like, images and fun phrases to say.

♪ Robots in disguise

I think the coolest part of that song

was, "Robots in disguise."

Told the whole story,

they're hiding here on Earth and it could be anything.

[Boy] We're under attack!

It could be a plane, could be a truck,

it could be a cassette deck.

It was mind blasting for a little kid.

(birds chirping) (tense music)

[Narrator] Hasbro may have a slick ad ready to air,

but by early 1984, Tonka has something better.

So Tonka gets out ahead of the giant Hasbro

with their GoBots, they're the first on market,

with 1980's best transforming robot.

We wanted to beat Hasbro to market, which we did.

It was exciting.

[Narrator] GoBots are in stores nation wide

ahead of February's big Toy Fair, and the response is huge.

They were a phenomenon, nothing else looked like them,

nothing else did what they did.

The orders that came in were just phenomenal.

And now we go into February,

it was like the greatest Toy Fair anybody could have.

I believe in the first year,

little Tonka toys did more in volume with GoBots

than Mattel did in its first year of He-Man.

(laughing)

- And the rest is toy history. - (Jack laughs)

(tense music)

When GoBots got to the market before we did,

there was a lot of anxiety.

[Narrator] Now having shown Transformers at Toy Fair,

Hasbro is racing to get them onto shelves.

(knocking)

I gotta call you back, okay.

(phone clinking)

We have a problem.

(tense music)

Lead?

[Narrator] Tests reveal unsafe levels of lead

in some of the toys.

You've gotta be kidding me!

(tense music)

We had to stop and we had to correct it.

How much of a head start are they gonna get?

Did we blow it?

Are they gonna beat us, are they gonna kill us?

(phone clinking) (intense music)

(tense music)

I don't know how it slipped, I don't know when it was,

but when we tested it, the lead content in the paint

was beyond the guidelines

and it slowed us down immensely.

We felt that Hasbro's quality assurance

was not where it should be.

We were gonna be late.

"Okay, how long?"

"Well, we don't know."

"What do you mean you don't know?"

Stephen Hassenfeld has a very, very

difficult decision to make.

Does he stop the commercials, does he stop the cartoon?

Or does he let it go and hope that it all works out in time?

So what are we gonna do?

Stephen Hassenfeld had one of the most important,

key elements in business.

Discipline.

Stick to the plan.

First the ad campaign then the comic book.

We have no toys.

We will, just stick to the plan, trust me.

It's a huge risk,

it's something that they're gonna be working on

kind of night and day to figure that out.

Tonka, they had this great new line

and they are raking in the dough right now.

Hasbro is in a hurry because now this line is out

and they have to get theirs to market.

[Narrator] As they fall further behind,

Hasbro unleashes an ingenious strategy to build demand.

[Yohuru] Children's toy commercials

are highly regulated in the early 1980s.

[Announcer] Imagine you enter the world

of the Shogun warriors.

[Yohuru] There were restrictions on the way

that they were edited,

they could only contain so much animation.

There were even restrictions

on when children's advertising could be shown.

But there was no rule

about doing commercials for comic books.

So they put out the exact same commercial,

♪ More than meets the eye, robots in disguise ♪

Pew pew, all the lasers and the explosions and the whatever.

(gun firing)

[Announcer] The Transformers, from Marvel Comics.

And at the very end it's like,

oh by the way, there's a comic book.

The kids knew, we knew that there was gonna be a toy line

associated with that.

So it was a great sort of workaround

to have your advertising be about the comic book

as opposed to the toys themselves.

(tense music)

(glass clinking)

[Narrator] Meanwhile in Japan, engineers working for Hasbro

finally find the source of lead.

What it ends up being is not the metal itself in it,

it is not the paint itself,

but it is the lacquer on the metal pieces.

And we said, okay let's execute a plan,

not worried about their plan.

Let's get the damn stuff and make it work.

(upbeat music)

[Narrator] Finally, in May 1984, Transformers hits shelves

five months after GoBots.

GoBots had a major headstart over Transformers.

So you would think Transformers had a disadvantage there.

But it exploded.

(upbeat synth music)

It was sensational, the rates of sale were legendary.

They were both a phenomenon.

I mean, I remember going to the Toys R Us

near where I used to live in Brooklyn

and there was one aisle for Transformers,

one for GoBots, and it was mobbed, mobbed.

[Narrator] Even People Magazine

cashes in on the growing rivalry,

booking each CEO to pose separately,

then positioning them head to head

for a story about the industries hottest two toys.

(tense music)

By September 1984, GoBots sales surpassed

Tonka's initial 800,000 unit order,

keeping them well ahead of Hasbro's Transformers.

But soon another battle begins

between their competing cartoons.

And once again, Tonka makes the first move.

Let's step on it, Renegades.

[Announcer] Cy-Kill makes an astounding conversion.

(tires squeaking)

They started with a five episode mini series,

and then the regular series was gonna air daily,

you know, Monday through Friday.

But that's a lot of animation.

This takes time, this takes the better part of a year.

[Narrator] Just nine days later,

"The Transformers" debuts.

(intense music) ♪ Transformers

Transformers is actually airing every week

as they're produced,

and while GoBots is off the air,

Transformers is on every Saturday.

Each episode in a lot of ways was an event,

because you had to wait for Saturday morning to watch it.

With GoBots, the thinking behind it was just kinda goofy.

An assault on the Renegade fortress tonight.

Tonight?

Aren't we being a little hasty?

Transformers just felt much more epic.

You know, their planet shows up

and it's a giant transforming robot too.

It always felt much more heightened.

So yes, GoBots exploded on the market.

I remember wanting them.

The party's about to begin.

So soon?

And then I saw my first Transformer

and then I saw the cartoon, game changer.

[Narrator] Fueled by its wildly popular TV show,

the Transformers line soars.

(tense music)

But the attention puts a target on Hasbro's back.

Steve!

Steve, we've got a problem.

I know, can't they speed up production?

No, it's not just that,

somebody else is selling our toys.

(suspenseful music)

I hated knock-offs in any form,

I considered it grand larceny.

You need a cease and desist?

Wait, people are buying them

because they think they're Transformers right?

What if they are Transformers?

(pensive music))

[Narrator] Faced with an onslaught

of Transformer knock-offs,

Hasbro's Stephen Hassenfeld goes on the offensive.

What Stephen Hassenfeld did

was go out and buy rival transforming toys.

It prevents Tonka from doing the same thing,

and it keeps those dollars coming to Hasbro.

And any ones that he or Hasbro don't like,

(snaps fingers) they just kill 'em off and discontinue them.

It was brilliant and they had the resources to do it,

we didn't have the resources to do it.

It was pretty ghastly business tactics of competition.

We think of the toy industry as being nice and cuddly,

but it is not, it's a really vicious industry.

You hold it on the hand, 10 seconds, boom.

Check that out.

[Narrator] But even Hasbro can't buy every knock-off,

so they also come up with an innovative defense.

There is an extra piece of marketing that they do

that was in a lotta ways, an extra cool factor for them,

and that was the rub sign.

Every transformer, somewhere on them

had a little black box,

you'd rub it or you could just hold your thumb on it

and then magically either an Autobot symbol

or a Decepticon symbol would appear.

[Narrator] The rub signs patented

heat activated technology is similar to mood rings,

but this is the first time it's used to identify toys.

So there's this commercial that comes out,

only we have he right to be called

Autobots and Decepticons

and having Optimus Prime and Megatron say it.

[Autobot] Only we have the right to wear this symbol.

[Decpticon] Or this symbol!

[Autobot] And only we have the right

to be called the Transformers.

♪ More than meets the eye

You set in the kid's mind

that only they are really Transformers,

everything else is a knock-off.

Kids wanted the real thing, so all we did was help them

by putting that authentication in

which you couldn't knock off.

[Narrator] This built in protection

harkens back to a tactic Hasbro once used

to combat a G.I. Joe copycat.

The initial production of G.I. Joe,

they put the nail on the finger backwards,

and the knock-offs copied it.

And when it went to court the judge said, "Really, really?"

And they just went, "Okay, you got us."

So Hasbro, this isn't their first rodeo.

They were a much more worldly company operationaly

than Tonka was.

We got a better product line than they do,

our advertising is stronger, let's kill it.

And it didn't take us long to get there.

(tense music)

[Narrator] After months of lagging behind,

Hasbro surges ahead in sales.

Transformers earn $111 million in 1984,

more than doubling GoBots respectable 50 million figure.

Huge.

Our product was flying off the shelves as it always had,

but Hasbro just made the category.

Once they stepped up the marketing,

they made the whole category bigger.

- (laughs) - Well done.

No, well done to you sir, good work.

(tense music)

(car horns honking)

[Narrator] As GoBots continue

losing ground,

in 1985, Tonka scrambles to find a new toy

that can take down Transformers.

We're looking for our next best toy,

preferably one- Sorry to stop you there,

we've already committed to Hasbro.

At Tonka, there was a learning curve for us.

So have a good day, and please enjoy the fair.

Yes, you too, take care.

And so in a lotta cases, Tonka was slow to react.

Without question, Tonka realizes

they have to pivot quickly

if they are going to compete with Transformers

in this toy transforming, robot battle.

[Narrator] The little toy truck company from Minnesota

isn't ready to back down,

and they might have one more trick up their sleeve.

(tense music) (people chattering)

(car horns honking)

[Narrator] Hoping for another smash hit to follow GoBots,

Tonka's Pat Feely turns again to Bandai.

And so with that, American kids love GoBots,

but we're gonna need something new.

What's this?

It was a rock.

(toy clinking)

It was a rock that turned into a robot.

Impressive.

Rock Lords came out of a conversation about pet rocks,

if you remember the pet rocks.

(Jacob laughs)

They looked like simplistic robots

hiding inside of a rock.

(tense music)

(volcano exploding)

♪ Rock lords, rocks that come alive ♪

Yeah, rocks that come alive!

[Narrator] A desperate Tonka goes all in on Rock Lords,

launching a feature film in advance of the toy.

I thought it was a good product.

We wanted to expand the transformable line

so that we could continue to lead.

[Narrator] In 1986, the "Rock Lords" film

goes head to head with "Transformers: The Movie".

Kids respond the way you think they would,

nobody wants a rock, they want a cool robot

that turns into something interesting, not a rock.

It never came to quite the mania

that the convertible vehicle came to.

It was so-so.

(tense music)

[Narrator] Shortly after in 1987,

GoBots are officially discontinued.

♪ Transformers, more than meets the eye ♪

[Narrator] Meanwhile Transformers sales reach

nearly a billion dollars by the end of the decade.

The thing that jumped out at me

was when they selected Marvel to do the cartoon,

because they target an older audience,

and no kid wants to be younger.

[Narrator] Today, Transformer sales

have reached nearly four billion dollars,

and inspired a live action movie franchise

that's earned over five billion dollars.

Transformers in my mind has become a movie toy,

almost like a toy come to life.

I think one legacy of Transformers

is the way that this was a toy that gave us a movie,

and we see that all the time today.

Lego, there's a movie, Barbie, there's a movie.

One could argue that taking a kids toy

and turning it into a cinematic experience

could never really happen without Transformers.

[Narrator] Stephen Hassenfeld doesn't live

to see Transformers become a live action movie giant.

He dies in 1989 at just 47 years old.

He was a visionary,

he kind of took toys from what they were in the '70s

to modern toys with kind of their media franchises

and all the rest,

that really came from him, he was a pioneer.

Stephen Hassenfeld was one of my best friends.

Not only did he convince us

the company belonged to us as much as him, and he did,

but he gave us the courage to make mistakes.

That's invaluable.

[Narrator] Stephen's brother Allan takes over in 1991

and Hasbro eventually surpasses Mattel

as the most valuable toy company on Earth,

worth more than a whopping $14 billion by 2017.

Today if you think of a famous game,

or a famous toy,

there's a good chance that Hasbro owns it.

The bitterest irony is Hasbro bought Tonka,

so GoBots now live in the Transformers world.

If they wanted to, Cy-Kill could show up as a Transformer.

[Narrator] But Tonka is transformed as a business,

GoBots propels it from the number 11 toy company

to number five,

nearly quadrupling its sales in just a few years.

(intense music)

If you were a professional golfer

and you finished second to Tiger Woods

in every tournament he ever played,

you'd be a pretty wealthy man and be pretty happy.

To our partnership.

Look, Tonka got what they wanted out of the robot wars.

And that was a place on the shelves again,

they were a name.

- All right, excellent. - Let's do it.

We beat 'em, we beat 'em.

They lived, they made money.

But we won.