Milton Bradley
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Milton Bradley is an American toy and game company. In 1984, Hasbro purchased Milton Bradley, temporarily renaming itself "Hasbro Bradley", and used MB's existing European distribution network to introduce the Transformers toyline to Europe; as a result, many of the earliest Transformers to be made available in Europe featured MB rather than Hasbro logos on their packaging. The MB Transformers came in two waves in 1985, the second of which seemed more like an afterthought despite containing some of the more well-known characters of the line. A mini-comic was also released to advertise the initial line-up, which was available in all the markets the MB toys were distributed in, and featured the MB branding on its cover.
In some countries (such as Germany), the local MB branches kept distributing Transformers toys (despite the packaging now sporting "Hasbro" logos) under supervision from Hasbro UK until Hasbro consolidated its international markets in 1991 in an attempt to establish the parent company as a worldwide household name, thus renaming all the various international subsidiaries into "Hasbro". From that point on, "Milton Bradley" continued merely as a Hasbro sub-brand with a focus on strategy games until around 2009 (when it and Parker Brothers were both phased out in favor of the unified Hasbro Games brand).
Additionally, the Generation 1 Action Cards trading cards were marketed under the Milton Bradley brand, as were the Robotix line of construction/motorized robot toys.
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Connection between Milton Bradley and Joustra
A theory (based on hard evidence) suggests that most, if not all of the second wave of the MB-branded Transformers toys were originally intended for a competitor, French company Joustra, which released their own Diaclone toys under license from Takara at that time.
Because Joustra's parent company, Ceji, was in financial trouble in 1985, Hasbro/MB acquired Joustra's existing Diaclone stock and had Joustra put the toys into newly created Transformers packaging, which would then be distributed by MB. This would explain why the second wave of Joustra Diaclone toys (which became wave 2 of the MB-branded Transformers toys) is so rare compared to the first one. It also explains why Optimus Prime was originally absent from the MB line-up, as any toy released by Joustra was off-limits for MB due to Joustra's exclusive contract with Takara until the Joustra/MB deal allowed for those toys to be released as Transformers as well. This resulted in several oddities, such as the MB version of Tracks being red (the toy's original Diaclone colors) instead of blue (the regular Transformers version's colors), Thundercracker being sold in Starscream packaging with Starscream's sticker sheet, and, most bizarrely, Sunstreaker (whose toy, in its yellow Hasbro Transformers color scheme, was part of Joustra's Diaclone line-up), being sold in Sideswipe packaging with Sideswipe's instructions and sticker sheet.
The same theory also suggests that several MB toys (in particular, Optimus Prime and Megatron) were explicitly manufactured by Joustra as part of the same deal, even though another Ceji subsidiary, Revell (misspelled as "Revel"), is credited on the packaging instead.
Games and puzzles
As a brand more commonly associated with board games and puzzles, the Milton Bradley branding appeared on a variety of Transformers merchandise over the years:
- A variant of the 1985 Warrior Robot Game is branded "Milton Bradley" rather than "Waddingtons"
- The 1986 Transformers Game that was available in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands
- Two jigsaw puzzles that were available in Europe in 1986
- The 1996 Beast Wars Transformers Jigsaw Puzzle
- The 2007 Transformers edition of Stratego
- The 2007 Transformers Battling Card Game
- Various jigsaw puzzles released in 2007 as part of the merchandising blitz for the first live action Transformers film
Notes
- "Milton Bradley" appears as a sponsor decal on the European Aquaspeeder Speedstream. His United States Generation 2 redeco, Color Changer Deluge, replaces most of those with "M. Edminson", but retains one "Bradley" decal.
External links
- "Milton Bradley Transformers" article at TF-1.com
- Multi-part article on Milton Bradley Transformers at 20th Century Toy Collector: Part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5, part 6
See also
