Sean McGowan Quotations

World events may help the success of new patriotic products like Rescue Heroes from Fisher-Price. Yet retailers still see evergreen brands such as Mattel's Barbie and traditional LEGO leading the way off store shelves in the next few months.

The people who are obviously most interested in it obviously went out and did it already. He doesn't even talk about it.

Here we are, four weeks ahead of Thanksgiving, and it hasn't gotten stupid yet.

The only thing that is a problem at Mattel is the one thing it cannot afford to be a problem.

Kids don't want a walkie-talkie that looks like a cell phone, ... They want a cell phone.

It could be this week, it could be next week, but I think we're going to see that sudden drop.

I think the most important thing that investors want to hear from the company is what it thinks is a credible catalyst for boosting return on investment. One catalyst could be new management.

I think store closure will actually be viewed as a positive and proactive step for the company,

Part of the reason is the stock's had a decent run-up this year and investors are selling on the news,

The prospects for growth for Mattel seem a little easier. In Hasbro's case, they did well last year with Star Wars, but it's going away.

The problem is that consumers are not only online buyers. They buy in multiple channels. We go to stores; we go to the Web site.

Everybody wishes Mattel would buy Hasbro, but that probably won't happen,

Costs were higher, gross margin was lower, there are some challenges, and the price of oil isn't going to help. They are aware of it and getting the price increases now, but the balance of the year is not going to be spectacular.

There isn't an industry where product prices come down faster than consumer electronics.

It's all riding on the fourth quarter, you know. (Toy sellers) are looking at products like scooters and electronic dogs to bail them out in the fourth quarter, but they're nervous.

It may be a boon for electronics retailers, but not for toy sellers.

It's certainly a positive that they'll be back at work, but we're still a little cautious about what the effect will be. Any time you force somebody to do something they don't want to do, you have to wonder whether or not their heart is going to be in it.

It signals that there's still a lot more to find our about what's going on. Given that they are underscoring the liquidity of each unit, maybe they will hang a 'For Sale' sign on the entire business.

A rush to judgment will not ease the pain of the people whose lives have been changed forever.

I'm not sure why they didn't have the Q&A session today or even a conference call with analysts when they first announced the restructuring,

If you compared 'Harry Potter' to 'Star Wars,' you're probably in the same vicinity of expected revenue, you know, in the billion-dollar-plus range. And similar to 'Star Wars,' this is something that has been around for some time now and will be around for a long time in the future.

Children are migrating to consumer electronics faster than toy companies can take them there.

I don't think even a strong holiday season would be enough to offset the weakness we've already seen this year. I wouldn't want my job to depend on an up second half.

The lists of projected bestsellers we received from the retailers clearly cited that the scooter craze was not just a summer fad. Aside from scooters, there really doesn't appear to be any other dominating property or category this year. Compared to last year, there is a relatively wide range of items that are among the most sought-after products, from electronic dogs to finger bikes, from sports-related video games to Harry Potter.