Milton Bradley's Footprint

Milton Bradley, the man,  lived a long life in Springfield, MA. Today, if you had need to locate to that city and were in search of a downtown apartment, you might choose Stockbridge Court. By watching the rental facility's promo video, you would learn that the "distinctive apartments" were once a thriving industrial complex and the headquarters for the Milton Bradley Company. Such is the change of urban land use from a place producing board games, art materials (including the famous "No Roll Crayon) school furniture, and guillotine-like paper trimmers to the distinctive Stockbridge apartments in the heart of downtown Springfield. Indeed, the MB has had a long and storied place in western MA.

When I joined Milton Bradley in 1969, the company had already moved much of its manufacturing from what was known as Park Street (aka Stockbridge Court) to neighboring, suburban East Longmeadow. No longer hampered by "loft logistics" for work in process, production was done in a 1.1 million sq.ft. highly efficient and profitably run facility with a great mixture of several thousand humans and state-of-the-art machines. In the 70s, then CEO James J. Shea Jr. took great pride in running "a fully integrated manufacturing operation where product components came in Door 1 as raw materials and would go out Door 44 as finished goods packed in standardized shipping cartons". Along the way from start to finish, all those games were printed, mounted, die-cut, molded, assembled, inspected, and packed off within timed standards. Game components changed with the coming of Simon and other magical electronic games which diluted the "made in America" imprint to in some cases "packaged in America"-- with components from some distant sources in Singapore, Taiwan, or China.

The footprint of Milton Bradley Company" presence certainly remains in western Massachusetts today though some merely in bricks and mortar. In addition to the Stockbridge apartments, another tenant does business on the 26th floor of Baystate Tower (now known as Tower Square) which was  the location of MB corporate office in the 70s. Later, those corporate offices were moved from the "tower"to a dedicated ground level building ultimately transitioned into an elementary school after Hasbro acquired Milton Bradley in 1985.

And what about that sprawling 1.1 million sq.ft. fully integrated manufacturing wonder today? Yes, it is still on the corner of Shaker and Denslow Rds. employing hundreds in East Longmeadow. If you ever happen to journey to Springfield, MA, perhaps to see the Basketball Hall of Fame, you might include a ten mile trip from the Hall for a drive-by view of the wondrous facility. The size of the plant might give hint to why James J. Shea Jr in days past gave an executive order to "make those games in America"! Will those days ever return? Perhaps. There's that old adage: "where there's a will, there's a way".

Attention Game Shoppers

When a new game candidate was considered for launch into mass market retail, two basic question were always asked of sales and marketing, "How many units will each of the top five accounts order?" And, will all accounts order X00,000 units annually where  X=3, 4 or 5?  Fair questions. Without strong sales forecasts, the numbers just wouldn't support attempts to launch a new SKU onto shelves at Walmart, Target, TRU, and K-Mart (today, the fifth account no longer exists). After all, those retail shelves are the display cases for mass-market consumer eyeballs to view games in the land of "doorbuster sales".
Very often good playing games failed to reach forecasts needed to be judged as having "hit" potential and were returned to inventors. Fortunately, now inventors with new and interesting games are getting the attention of consumer eyeballs not at retail but rather on digital internet displays. One example of such a display is a collection of games selected by Matthew Baldwin as worthwhile for gamers' playtime in themorningnews.com. It is safe to say, none of these games can be found on the shelves of the mass retailers. Potential consumers of any of these games will quite likely order from amazon.com, funagain.com, boardgamegeek.com, or other such e-commerce sites and not deal with a cashier in check out lanes at the mall. So, what does X = for the marketer in the ethernet arena?

Connecting the Dots

Steve Jobs referenced "connecting the dots" in his now famous commencement speech at Stanford University on June 12, 2005. “Connect the dots” is now popularly used to mean serial clues/dots when properly connected foretell a calamitous event. Early in his career, inventor Dr. Howard Wexler found his own way to make a serial connection. After many months of seeking a unique game format, he realized that all games at that time were played on a horizontal plane. Wexler found a way to connect four circular disks or chips of like color onto a vertical plane and Connect 4 was born. Since its introduction by Milton Bradley in 1974, Wexler’s discovery has grown into a top game brand with Hasbro. 
Coincidentally, in 1970, after receiving a Ph.D. in Educational Psychology, Howard joined Hasbro where he invented the very first developmental line of 17 infant toys, called “Your Baby”. This was a breakthrough line, since forty years ago, there were no toys for babies. All previously marketed playthings targeted pre-schoolers. Howard says that while he is best known for Connect 4, he is most proud that he was influential in introducing the world to infant toys.  

Connect 4 and his baby toy line are not the only industry contributions originated by Howard Wexler. During his highly creative and productive career, he has personally invented and licensed over 120 toys and games. But as he admits, Connect 4 is his "Gone with the Wind" largely due to the worldwide acceptance of its fast yet challenging play. Since introduction of the original two-player version, Connect 4 has been marketed as a miniature "travel" edition (Connect 4 Fun on the Run), as a handheld LCD electronic form, as a computer game and most recently as a brand extension called Connect 4 Launchers. Through the years, Wexler has continued to actively assist Hasbro with designs.

Beyond his search for his next WOW! item, Howard has now extended his talents to philanthropic endeavors by helping young budding creative thinkers  in two projects. He will direct an accredited course in Creativity at CCNY where students will learn creative thinking through invention of toys and games with the ultimate goal to license their creation to a company. Secondly, he will partner to lead a program in entrepreneurship at Manhattan's Stuyvesant High School called Toys by Teens where teenagers will be exposed to all aspects of running their own toy company.
Now as throughout his long career, Howard Wexler continues his passion for the hard work of invention knowing it requires days, weeks and months of deliberate, focused thinking. It begins with identifying a specific unmet niche in the marketplace through "connecting the dots" to the type of new toy or game that fills that niche. He’s done it over a hundred times in his career and will very likely do it again. Is there another Connect 4 coming?

Wexler meets Connect 4 sales reps in India.