Projo Biz Blog

Executives at Hasbro Inc. said this morning the company is abandoning its "tween" electronics category as children prefer "the real thing" to the toy-style counterparts the company has marketed for most of the decade.

That's a change from 2005, when the Pawtucket company showcased its efforts to attact tweens -- 8- to 12-year-olds -- with products developed and sold through its Tiger Electronics division.

The company redesigned popular consumer electronics and "downstreamed" them for tweens.

Tiger products emphasized toy designs aimed at giving tweens a chance to play the part of their parents and older siblings by offering a lineup including a pseudo-cell phone, a miniature digital camera, a canine-encased MP3 player speaker, a DVD projector and other gadget-toys.

In 1998, Hasbro acquired Tiger, then based in Illinois, for $335 million, the year after Tiger posted about $400 million in sales with products such as interactive electronic pets, Brain Warp, Lites Out, game.com and Lazer Tag.

It appears that the one electronic product to survive will be the I-Dog -- a plastic pooch that lights up and rolls its head to the beat of digital music played through it from an iPod or PC. It will be sold throught Hasbro's girls division.

Hasbro executives made the comments this morning at a meeting with investors as the International Toy Fair opened in New York.

 Tags  games Hasbro International Toy Fair Pawtucket RI toys tweens

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