Mattel?

Does it have the power?

After writing and wondering what the hell Mattel was thinking by ruining their toy brand to make adult movies (Barbie and He-Man) that mocked the toys they sold, I went to check its share price.

https://www.ericdealmaker.com/p/i-have-the-power

Pro-feminist Barbie didn’t help ticket sales, and a He-Man movie lacking heroes makes me kind of think, nah.

But is all hope lost?

It reminded me of the opportunity that I had with Warner Brothers when it crashed below $10.

Management tried to destroy the brand, but there was real value, eventually, to an authentic buyer who saw the potential: Netflix and SkyDance.

The same could be said about Mattel. They will probably need someone like Warner Brothers or even Marvel (when it was bankrupt) to come in and clean it up from the ground up.

Mattel’s financials are solid so they are not going anywhere.

Here is what SeekingAlpha.com top posts are thinking:

This is a name where sentiment troughed around the Q4 print (Feb 2026), the “Hold” calls are backward-looking on execution risk that’s already priced in, and the current setup is a show-me story on

(1) Mattel Studios’ optionality and

(2) whether tariff exposure stays “better than feared.”

The activist/sale chatter is a free option on multiple expansions, but I wouldn’t underwrite a deal happening

The Hasbro combo was explicitly called unlikely.

Here are there core offerings:

The pitch is "we're not just a toy company, we're an IP licensing and content platform with toy manufacturing as one distribution arm.”

And their management board is a media-heavy composition that actually argues against a straight Hasbro-style toy-industry merger and more toward either (a) Mattel executing its own content/streaming pivot to re-rate as an IP company, or (b) a sale to a media/entertainment buyer rather than a toy peer.

I’m not sure what they are thinking, but they are still in business with good cash flow, so there is enough time to make something work, while a venturous investor may have a low-priced entry into the timeless world of toy-making.

What are your thoughts?

Eric