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Entertainment

Mattel Wins Disney Princess Toy Deal, Joining Elsa of ‘Frozen’ With Barbie

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Cinderella, Elsa and their friends are moving back in with Barbie.

Mattel Inc.

MAT 9.05%

has won the license to produce toys based on

Walt Disney Co.

DIS 0.59%

’s princess lineup and from the recent blockbuster “Frozen” franchise, wresting the properties back from its rival

Hasbro Inc.,

HAS -2.23%

according to Mattel executives.

The deal reunites the characters with their previous home. Mattel lost the license to Hasbro in 2016, a financial and symbolic setback that precipitated a period of four chief executive officers at Mattel and compounding challenges as they tried to fill the $440 million hole from losing the business.

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Much has changed since then. Mattel CEO

Ynon Kreiz,

who joined in 2018, has stabilized operations with over $1 billion in cost cuts, overhauled leadership, revived key brands such as Barbie and rebuilt relationships with Hollywood studios. Since the day the Disney properties walked away, Mattel executives vowed to win them back.

“It was an important priority, and it’s something we worked hard to win,” Mr. Kreiz said. Mattel showed it could manage evergreen brands that aren’t dependent on big movies, he said.

Mattel will start selling new Disney toys in 2023, and the business will be managed by the same group that has overseen Barbie’s comeback. Financial terms of the deal weren’t disclosed.

For Hasbro, the change comes as the maker of Nerf guns and Monopoly games is making the transition to a new CEO following the death of its longtime leader,

Brian Goldner,

last year. Under his watch, Hasbro surpassed Mattel in annual sales and made an unsuccessful approach to take over its rival.

Hasbro declined to comment on losing the Disney princess and “Frozen” line but said it renewed its Star Wars license recently and will soon start making Indiana Jones toys too. Both are properties of Lucasfilm, which is owned by Disney.

Hasbro’s products inspired by Disney movies included a princess pop-up play set.



Photo:

Charles Sykes/Invision/Hasbro/Associated Press

Shares of Mattel jumped about 8% in early morning trading, after The Wall Street Journal reported on the deal. Shares of Hasbro slipped about 2.5%.

Mattel’s loss of the Disney license originally represented a high-profile fracturing of a relationship between one of the largest toy manufacturers and one of the most powerful companies in entertainment. It was a rare dust-up between companies whose founders worked together since the 1950s, when Mattel advertised toys during the “Mickey Mouse Club” show.

In the early 2010s, Barbie was floundering, with sales dropping for several years. Mattel devoted more resources to shoring up its marquee property. Disney’s princess dolls, meanwhile, were managed by a separate team in a competing unit.

Then, in 2013, Mattel came up with a toy line called Ever After High, which featured dolls based on the children of classic fairy tale characters, including Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty and Snow White. That flew too close to the Disney princess orbit. The following year Disney notified Mattel that it was going to Hasbro. (Mattel no longer sells the Ever After High toys.)

“Losing the franchise was not only a financial challenge for us but a really emotional one,” said Mattel President and Chief Operating Officer

Richard Dickson,

who rejoined Mattel for a second stint months before Disney made its decision. “It was a wake-up call for Mattel.”

The fallout started soon after. In early 2015, Mattel fired CEO

Bryan Stockton.

His successor,

Chris Sinclair,

focused on plugging revenue lost from the license with a range of items without staying power, which added complexity and extra costs to operations. Another CEO, former Google executive

Margo Georgiadis,

lasted about a year before leaving.

Mr. Kreiz has brought stability to the top job at Mattel. The former television executive cut one-third of jobs and closed several factories to stem ongoing losses. He helped patch up Mattel’s fractured relationships with retailers and Hollywood studios. Key brands such as Barbie and Hot Wheels responded to new marketing and items. Fisher-Price has stabilized, too.

Though sales are still below their peak of $6.5 billion in 2013, Mattel is on pace for more than $5.3 billion in revenue for 2021, according to analysts, up more than 15% from 2020. Projections for net income of $789 million are the highest since 2013. Analysts expect Hasbro to bring in more than $6 billion in 2021 sales, according to FactSet estimates.

A bit of corporate restructuring allowed Mattel to present a stronger case to Disney that the properties would get appropriate attention, Mr. Kreiz said. Instead of organizing its business around boys, girls and infant products, Mattel is now structured around categories such as dolls, vehicles and action figures. The Disney characters will slide into the doll division and be managed by the same group that has overseen Barbie’s comeback.

Barbie has a more open-ended play pattern than the Disney characters, whose stories are imprinted on film and in books. “Side by side, we know that we can exponentially create more value, more play and more business by complementing the narrative rather than competing with it,” Mr. Dickson said.

The transition raises some questions for Hasbro, which aimed to use the Disney princess and Frozen license to build up its catalog of toys geared toward girls. But the property faltered a bit under its new owner, people in the toy industry said.

Jim Silver, CEO of TTPM, an online toy-review site, estimates that the Disney property is about half as big as it was when it left Mattel, in part because of a lack of new content to boost consumer interest in the characters. The Disney deal didn’t reach the levels Hasbro was hoping to achieve, he said.

Mr. Silver said Hasbro has other toys for girls on the upswing, including My Little Pony toys boosted by a recent Netflix movie, so the shift of the Disney license might not be as dramatic as it was when Mattel lost it. “I think Mattel will do very well with it, and for Hasbro, I don’t think the economics made sense,” he said.

UBS analyst Arpiné Kocharyan estimates the Disney princess and Frozen license could bring in about $300 million in a nonmovie year. Even after paying royalties to Disney, it could still produce a higher profit margin for Mattel than it did at Hasbro, she said, because Mattel owns much of its doll manufacturing, making it more economical to produce incremental units.

Ms. Kocharyan said Hasbro’s addition of the Indiana Jones license, with a feature film due in 2023, could offset more than half of the lost revenue. Hasbro also has the Disney license for Marvel characters.

Write to Paul Ziobro at Paul.Ziobro@wsj.com

Copyright ©2022 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8

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Business

GameStop Entering NFT and Cryptocurrency Markets as Part of Turnaround Plan

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GameStop Corp.

GME 1.28%

is launching a division to develop a marketplace for nonfungible tokens and establish cryptocurrency partnerships, according to people familiar with its plans, pushing the company into much-hyped areas as it tries to turn around its core videogame business.

The retailer has hired more than 20 people to run the unit, which is building an online hub for buying, selling and trading NFTs of virtual videogame goods such as avatar outfits and weapons, according to the people. The company is asking select game developers and publishers to list NFTs on its marketplace when it launches later this year, the people said.

GameStop also is close to signing partnerships with two crypto companies to share technology and co-invest in the development of games that use blockchain and NFT technology, as well as other NFT-related projects, the people said. The retailer expects to enter into similar agreements with a dozen or more crypto companies and invest tens of millions of dollars in them this year, the people said.

Grapevine, Texas-based GameStop has been working to reset its business after years of losses. The company was at the center of a stock-trading frenzy last year that dramatically boosted its share price, which rode a surge in interest and optimism from individual investors. Many saw potential in GameStop despite the pandemic’s negative impact on foot traffic and even though consumers have been increasingly opting to download and stream games over the internet, rather than buy the kind of hard copies that the company specializes in selling.

Last year, GameStop overhauled its executive team and board of directors, naming activist investor

Ryan Cohen

as chairman. Mr. Cohen, who co-founded online pet-products retailer

Chewy Inc.

and sold it for $3.35 billion in 2017, has been pushing to make GameStop more tech-centric.

The turnaround effort has yet to show significant results in GameStop’s financial performance. In the quarter through October, the company said revenues grew, but its loss widened compared with the same period a year earlier. The revenue growth came from sales of hardware and accessories, while revenue from game software slipped 2%.

“We believe our emphasis on the long term is positioning us to build what will ultimately become a much larger business,” GameStop Chief Executive

Matt Furlong

said on an earnings call with analysts last month. Mr. Furlong, who joined the company last year from

Amazon.com Inc.,

then mentioned that GameStop was exploring business opportunities involving blockchain and NFT technologies.

There are signs some investors are losing patience. GameStop shares have plunged by more than 45% over the past six weeks, though the stock remains far above where it was when investors started piling into GameStop shares a year ago.

Terms like “nonfungible token,” “minting,” “gas fees” and more sound like a foreign language to you? To better understand it—and explain it—WSJ’s Joanna Stern turned her son’s art into an NFT on the Ethereum blockchain. Photo illustration: Jacob Reynolds

Diving into the crypto and NFT space puts GameStop on a rapidly growing list of companies trying to cash in on these nascent and largely unproven technologies. A handful of NFT marketplaces already exist and some feature tokens from game publishers. Earlier this week, a marketplace called OpenSea said it raised $300 million in venture capital and is now valued at $13.3 billion, greater than GameStop’s valuation of close to $10 billion.

The videogame industry is likely to play a major role in the adoption of cryptocurrency, NFTs and blockchain technology, analysts say. Gamers are expected to be among the first to embrace the technologies because they are already spending a lot on virtual goods. Virtual real estate in videogames, as well as videogame collectibles, are a rapidly growing segment of the NFT market.

In recent weeks, some of the industry’s biggest publicly traded videogame companies have launched or announced plans to sell NFTs, including

Ubisoft Entertainment,

Zynga Inc.

and

Square Enix Holdings Co.

Some industry executives and players, though, have expressed concerns about the value of NFTs and developers’ motives for creating them.

By getting into the crypto and NFT space while it is still in its infancy, GameStop hopes to avoid missing out on opportunities to be part of a budding trend as it did with computer-game downloads about a decade ago, the people familiar with its plans said. GameStop tried to get into the streaming of videogames at the time but abandoned the effort. Today, the downloading and streaming of games are rapidly growing trends.

Write to Sarah E. Needleman at sarah.needleman@wsj.com

Copyright ©2022 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8

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Entertainment

‘He-Man’ artist and toy designer T. Mark Taylor dies at 80

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This 2018 photo provided by Rebecca Taylor shows artist and toy designer Mark Taylor at his home in Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif. Taylor, artist and toy designer for the He-Man and the Masters of the Universe franchise as well as the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, died Thursday, Dec. 23, 2021, at his Southern California home. He was 80. (Rebecca Taylor via AP)

This 2018 photo provided by Rebecca Taylor shows artist and toy designer Mark Taylor at his home in Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif. Taylor, artist and toy designer for the He-Man and the Masters of the Universe franchise as well as the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, died Thursday, Dec. 23, 2021, at his Southern California home. He was 80. (Rebecca Taylor via AP)

LOS ANGELES (AP) — T. Mark Taylor, artist and toy designer for the He-Man and the Masters of the Universe franchise as well as the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, died Thursday at his Southern California home. He was 80.

The cause was congestive heart failure, Taylor’s family said in an email to The Associated Press on Saturday.

He-man was the muscled frontman for toy manufacturer Mattel’s Masters of the Universe franchise, which would later spawn an animated series that became a staple for children. Kids squeezed in homework between scenes featuring the strapping cartoon hero as he battled sorcerers and other villains.

He-Man might have been known as a hulking superhero warrior but also became an icon within the LGBTQ community, who saw parallels in the secret life of Prince Adam, He-Man’s alter ego.

As in the case of many creative endeavors, many hands shaped the franchise. Taylor has said the prototypes date back to his own childhood as he fantasized about being “the next hero.” He said he based the concept of He-Man on his vision of Cro-Magnon men, as well as Vikings.

Mattel sold more than 70 million action figures from its Masters of the Universe collection within 30 months after it hit stores nearly 40 years ago, according to The New York Times.

Taylor began his career with El Segundo-based Mattel in 1976 as a packaging designer, his family said.

Mattel did not respond to a request for comment Saturday.

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise — featuring pizza-loving Michelangelo, Donatello, Raphael and Leonardo — launched a long-running animated series, live-action movies and a catchphrase: cowabunga!

While Taylor did not create any of the characters, his work as a designer helped propel them into iconic childhood images for many around the world, including action figures and costumes that flew off stores’ shelves.

Terrell Mark Taylor — who went by his middle name, Mark — was born on June 5, 1941, according to California voter registration records. He is survived by his wife of 50 years, designer Rebecca Salari-Taylor of Ranchos Palos Verdes.

“I felt him say goodbye to this world as I held him in my arms for one final loving kiss,” Salari-Taylor wrote in a Facebook post.

Taylor’s family said his father-in-law, Tony Salari, told the artist, “If you can draw well, everything will be okay.”

Taylor took pinstriping commissions for “hot rod” cars as a teen in Redondo Beach in the early 1950s, his family said. He later attended the ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena.

Taylor went on to work for the U.S. Department of Defense in Pasadena and contributed to projects for submarines, biological and technical sonar technology and seafloor mapping, his family said.

Taylor’s toy work was featured in documentaries, including “Power of Grayskull” and “The Toys That Made Us.”

“If I was going to do a hero for today, it would be a female hero — because it’s the time, because the heroes of our time are women. … Us men had our day,” Taylor told fans during an appearance at a He-Man festival in 2015.

___

Calvan reported from New York.

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Entertainment

Afterlife Toy With Huge Spoiler, Hilarious Text

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Proton power!
Image: Sony Pictures

Ghostbusters: Afterlife finally premiered last Friday, raking in more than $44 million over its first weekend—far more than critics and its studio, Sony, had predicted. That doesn’t mean the movie’s better than critics are saying, of course, but that’s not why I’ve brought you here today. We need to talk about a certain set of toys… and most especially, their packaging.

This action figure two-pack contains a big spoiler for the end of Ghostbusters: Afterlife, so be warned. If you’re worried about being spoiled, however, these toys are already in stores, so either stay out of Target or see the movie ASAP.

If you’re not, let’s continue. Behold:

Image: Hasbro/Sony Pictures

The Family That Busts Together!

If you haven’t watched the movie and just didn’t care about being spoiled, the figure of Phoebe (Mckenna Grace) is indeed packaged next to the ghost of her grandfather Egon Spengler (the late Harold Ramis, recreated in CG) who arrives at the end of the film to give his undeceased fellow Ghostbusters a hand defeating… you can probably guess who. This raises all sorts of disturbing questions about the eschatology of the Ghostbusters universe, but the infinitely more disturbing idea is the suggestion that the Spengler family busts together, because the verb “bust” has many meanings and the first one on the Urban Dictionary is exceedingly inappropriate for a father-grandaughter duo.

Clearly, toymaker Hasbro means “the family that ghostbusts together,” but you don’t need to have your mind wedged firmly in the gutter to be taken aback after reading the line. Certainly, someone in the massive line of people who were needed to get this box of toys on store shelves would have mentioned, “Uh, you do know bust also means ‘to orgasm’, right?” There are the people who wrote the copy for the packaging, the designers who had to incorporate the text onto the packaging, the marketing people who had to look at both the copy and the final packaging design, and then whatever execs needed to approve the thing. It’s a lot of people, and you’re telling me no one thought, “This might be misinterpreted badly, given that half the porn on the internet seems to be about incest scenarios nowadays and also Ghostbusters has already canonically specified that bustin’ makes people feel good.” Apparently not.

Ghostbusters: Afterlife is currently in theaters.

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Entertainment

David Bowie’s Unreleased Album Toy Set for Release

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David Bowie’s 2001 album Toy, which was shelved amid problems with his record label, will receive its first official release as part of the late singer’s latest reissue campaign. A mix of new songs and re-recordings of lesser-known tracks from 1964-71, Toy was recorded live in the studio shortly after Bowie’s 2000 Glastonbury performance. He planned to surprise release it almost immediately, but EMI/Virgin stalled, which some say led to Bowie’s switch to Columbia Records. After a leak in 2011, Toy’s official release is set for November 26. Listen to the re-recording of his third single, “You’ve Got a Habit of Leaving,” below.

“Toy is like a moment in time captured in an amber of joy, fire and energy,” said co-producer Mark Plati of the album, which he recorded alongside Sterling Campbell, Gail Ann Dorsey, Earl Slick, Mike Garson, Holly Palmer, Emm Gryner, Lisa Germano, Gerry Leonard, and Cuong Vu. “It’s the sound of people happy to be playing music. David revisited and re-examined his work from decades prior through prisms of experience and fresh perspective—a parallel not lost on me as I now revisit it twenty years later. From time to time, he used to say ‘Mark, this is our album’—I think because he knew I was so deeply in the trenches with him on that journey. I’m happy to finally be able to say it now belongs to all of us.”

Bonus discs in a Toy box set will feature alternative versions, proposed B-sides, and the “Tibet Version” of “Silly Boy Blue” recorded in 2001 with Philip Glass on piano and Moby on guitar. A third disc comprises “Unplugged & Somewhat Slightly Electric” mixes of 13 Toy tracks. Toy also features in a box set out the same day called David Bowie 5: Brilliant Adventure (1992–2001), alongside remasters of Black Tie White Noise, The Buddha of Suburbia, Outside, Earthling, Hours, the rarities compilation Re:Call 5, and a live album recorded at BBC Radio Theatre in 2000.

Toy:

01 I Dig Everything
02 You’ve Got a Habit of Leaving
03 The London Boys
04 Karma Man
05 Conversation Piece
06 Shadow Man
07 Let Me Sleep Beside You
08 Hole in the Ground
09 Baby Loves That Way
10 Can’t Help Thinking About Me
11 Silly Boy Blue
12 Toy (Your Turn to Drive)

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Entertainment

Shang-Chi Marvel Hot Toys Figures Pics: Simu Liu, Tony Leung

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Image: Marvel/Hot Toys

Here’s the one weird thing about Hot Toys toys: While the face sculpts are so accurate that people (mostly me) have speculated that dark magic is involved, they’re sculpted with completely neutral expressions. That’s fine most of the time because they’re made as collector’s items, not toys to be played with. But if you want to pose two figures together in, say, a fight scene, it’s incredibly odd to see two people who are supposed to be in some sort of emotional state have completely blank looks on their faces. Shang-Chi and Wenwu’s bodies and limbs are in the fight of their lives, but their heads are wondering what’s for dinner.

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World

Hot ‘Scot’ Wheels: Dad spent lockdown year Instagramming photos of son’s toy cars in real world settings

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Test drive: 2021 Ford Bronco

The 2021 Ford Bronco is the first model to wear the name in 25 years. Fox News Autos Editor Gary Gastelu travelled to Texas hill country to find out if it lives up to it.

A toy car enthusiast took his little boy’s Hot Wheels cars to a scenic spot every day for a year and posted them on Instagram in a bid to beat lockdown blues.

Ross Burns posted a daily photo of one of his son Daniel’s cars.
(SWNS/Ross Burns)

Ross Burns, 41, has taken a photo of one of his son Daniel’s many Hot Wheels cars every day for the past year in what began as an activity to beat the boredom of homeworking during lockdown.

He completed his task Aug 30 on his Instagram account, Scot.Wheels.

Ross, who works at Edinburgh Napier University, has since featured more than 250 cars in a huge number of settings in and around the capital – including Calton Hill, Edinburgh Castle and the Forth Bridge.

Daniel, aged five, has an extensive collection including Lambos and Volvo estates.

“I have a five-year-old son called Daniel and he loves Hot Wheels.

“I used to love Matchbox cars when I was his age and I soon began to become obsessed with his growing collection.

“To make sure I took a walk every day, I started taking a car out and just taking some pictures on my phone.

“After a few weeks, I set myself the challenge of doing it for a full year and I’m delighted to have now completed it.

“It’s been great for my mental health during the various lockdowns, particularly the one early this year – getting out and taking a picture of a car gave me a purpose and a creative outlet each day.”

Posting a photo a day on Instagram under the handle Scot.Wheels, the images chart the four seasons and a city in and out of lockdown.

Ross’ most popular image is of a Land Rover Defender 90 reflected on the Water of Leith.

He said: “I’ve done a couple of pictures where the car is reflected in the water and people love them.

“The Land Rover in particular is popular as it is one of the most realistic looking cars.”

Due to the restrictions of lockdown, the vast majority of photos are of Edinburgh but Ross and his family did escape to Fife last month for a holiday in Lower Largo.

He added: “We had beautiful weather and the beach made such a great background for the cars.

“A rugged blue Ford Bronco looked fantastic on the rocks by the sea.”

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Now that he has achieved his target of a photograph every day for a year, and run up more than 20,000 “likes” in the process, Ross intends to carry on but take his foot off the accelerator.

“I’ll continue taking car pictures but not pressurize myself to do it every day.

“I’ll aim for quality over quantity and hopefully as we become able to travel more, I’ll explore some fantastic new settings with some wonderful new cars.”

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Entertainment

‘Jurassic Park’ Star Sam Neill Alarmed by New Alan Grant Toy – The Hollywood Reporter

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Sam Neill is more than a little taken aback by a new Mattel action figure for his Jurassic Park character, Dr. Alan Grant.

The actor on Monday took to Twitter to say he was both alarmed and flattered by the toy, which comes with removable heads and hands for the paleontologist-turned hero in Steven Spielberg’s iconic 1993 blockbuster.

“Got sent [an] alarming pic of model Alan Grant with REMOVABLE head and hands! (And generous cricket protector). Is this for would-be young murderers to play with? Regardless – could the manufacturer send some, my kids want them?! Only slightly worried,” the actor wrote.

Amblin Entertainment saw the message and tried to hurry things along.

“@Mattel, could you possibly send Sam some Alan Grant figures with removable noggin and hands for his kids to enjoy? ;),” tweeted Spielberg’s production company.

The Alan Grant figure is part of the Mattel Amber Collection for the Dino franchise. The toyline was launched in 2019 and keeps adding characters from the films. The Alan Grant figure is due out in October.

As for Neill, he is not quite done with Dr. Grant yet. The actor, along with Laura Dern (Dr. Ellie Sattler) and Jeff Goldblum (Dr. Ian Malcolm), will reprise his iconic role in the upcoming Jurassic World: Dominion. The film is due out June 10, 2022.



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Business

Robinhood Agrees to Pay $70 Million to Settle Regulatory Investigation

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WASHINGTON—Robinhood Financial LLC has agreed to pay nearly $70 million to resolve sweeping regulatory allegations that the brokerage misled customers, approved ineligible traders for risky strategies and didn’t supervise technology that failed and locked millions out of trading.

The enforcement action is a blow to the fast-growing online brokerage, which was launched in 2014 and has won over users with commission-free trades and its sleek mobile app. The company took on millions of new customers and attracted more scrutiny this year as many investors accessed Robinhood to speculate on so-called meme stocks such as GameStop Corp. and AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc. Its forthcoming initial public offering is one of the most anticipated of the year.

Robinhood’s growth has continued, with its biggest source of revenue, stemming from customer trading, more than tripling in the first quarter, even as many customers complained about its technology snafus and limited customer service. It enraged clients earlier this year when it restricted trading in some popular stocks that had become so volatile that Robinhood’s clearinghouse told the brokerage to post billions of dollars in additional collateral.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, the front-line inspector of broker-dealers, unveiled the settlement Wednesday. Robinhood neither admitted nor denied the claims.

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Technology

Fujifilm’s new Instax Mini 40 is a $100 vintage-looking toy

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Fujifilm has announced the newest addition to the Instax Mini line of instant cameras, the Mini 40. Much like the Instax Mini 11, which was released last March, the Mini 40 is an entry-level instant film camera with only two settings and two buttons. But what sets this camera apart is its vintage film camera look, complete with a plastic faux leather body and metallic-looking plastic rails. It’s a $100 toy camera that instantly creates printed memories — and of course, it’s a blast to play with.

Beyond the vintage camera look, the Mini 40 has the same mechanics as the $70 Mini 11. Pushing the large silver button under the lens compartment will pop the lens out and turn the camera on. Selfie mode is activated by pulling the outermost part of the lens out about half an inch more. And when you’re ready to pack it away, push the lens back into the camera to turn it off. The camera’s all-plastic housing makes it very light and easy to take anywhere.

To turn on the Instax Mini 40, you push the silver button under the lens.

The Instax Mini 40 has a plastic faux leather body and metallic-looking plastic rails.

There are two shooting modes on the Instax Mini 40: normal and selfie. Selfie mode adjusts the focal distance of the camera to allow subjects closer to the lens to be in focus. Beyond that, you have very little control. The flash will fire with every shutter press, and an Instax Mini film sheet will roll out to a mechanic hum. The results are unpredictable beyond knowing the printed photo will be slightly soft with a high contrast and be bound within the icon Polaroid frame. The magic comes when you place the print on a table, forget about it, and are reminded of a great memory no less than a minute and a half later.

When using any Instax camera, I can’t help but notice the amount of plastic used in each one of the 10-photo film cartridges. Although there is a recycling logo on the cartridge, it is in Japanese, and I am unable to tell what number plastic it is made from. In the US, many municipalities have specific plastic numbers they can and cannot recycle, and without this number clearly labeled on these photo cartridges, I was unable to know if I would be able to recycle them here in Brooklyn, New York. I reached out to Fujifilm for more information and will update this article if I get it.

Selfie mode is enabled by pulling out the frontmost element of the lens.

Play both informs my creative style and relieves me of stress — which, as a person who is tasked with reviewing cameras, is hard to always satisfy when using a camera. But the Mini 40, much like the Mini 11, has so few options, a very lightweight feel, and, at times, such unpredictable results that I can sit back and just have fun when using it. Any further thought about photographic theory while using the Mini 40 is excessive and rarely yielded me better results.

The shutter button is located under the viewfinder on the front of the camera.

At $100, the Mini 40 is a tad more expensive than the almost-identical Mini 11. Besides its new vintage look, there would be little reason to spend the extra $30. But if looking the film photographer part is important, the Mini 40’s design will stand out. Once Fujifilm addresses the amount of plastic used in every one of the 10-shot film packs, I will really be able to have a carefree experience with this camera.

Photography by Becca Farsace / The Verge

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