It’s hard to imagine Hasbro making anything other than toys but in its early days, the company actually focused on fabrics.The three Hassenfield brothers (the titular ‘Has-bros’!) were Polish immigrants who started selling textile remnants and leftover cloth. Their business grew and they started making hat and pencil case liners with these offcuts, before moving on to making the pencil boxes themselves.It’s not a stretch to see the connection between pencil boxes and toys, but only one of the Hassenfield brothers ever had any real interest in making toys at all. It wasn’t until the 1960s, and the launch of their iconic G.I. Joe dolls, that the company fully committed and cemented its place in the industry.
