Fans of Hasbro, a toy and game company, and its iconic brands may now enjoy action-packed, exciting, and one-of-a-kind immersive experiences at the newly-opened Hasbro City family entertainment centre in Paseo Interlomas, Mexico.
“We are excited to welcome guests to Hasbro City and to continue our Blueprint 2.0 strategy offering more meaningful ways for families to engage with our brands,” says Matt Proulx, vice president of location based entertainment at Hasbro. “New and long-standing fans of Hasbro brands such as Transformers, Monopoly, My Little Pony, G.I. JOE and more can now create lifelong memories for the whole family at this highly themed experience.”
Hasbro City features attractions like Monopoly: The Ride, a suspended roller coaster that carries the rail on top and allows the passenger to control the speed; Power Rangers Battle, a cutting-edge “bumper cars” track that includes 360-degree turns; Zipp’s Royal Flight, and many more
Monopoly, Mr. Potato Head and more
JRA, part of RWS Global, helped to bring a number of much-loved Hasbro IPs to life at the new FEC through rides, food, interactive experiences and technology. For this project, JRA helped to reimagine a beloved attraction and augmented the space with new experiences, in order to build and enhance the experience. For example, an existing ride was rethemed as the new Monopoly coaster to create a memorable experience using the current infrastructure.
Other additions include a new custom Transformers media Hurricane VR ride, a Nerf Interactive theatre, and a separate Nerf dart battle and Nerf Obstacle course. Elsewhere, for the Potato Head Pirate Adventure, escape room-like puzzles were added around the existing replica ship, inviting visitors to solve puzzles and unlock missing pieces of Mrs. Potato Head to reassemble her. Guests can also discover Equestria, a My Little Pony-themed area with a new magic bike ride.
Hasbro City features a range of animatronics, including Optimus Prime and Mr. Potato Head as well as Mr. Monopoly, who greets guests at the central welcome hub. These elements have proved popular in theme parks, so make an exciting addition to a mall-based attraction.
In addition to engaging attractions, the new entertainment centre features character shows, interactive and virtual reality attractions, active play areas, entertaining skill games, and tasty food and beverage options, as well as the region’s only Hasbro branded store.
Reinvigorating the mall experience
The new FEC is the first multi-branded attraction in the world for Hasbro. For JRA, the task was to understand what IP was available and then match it with the geography of the park, to ensure the new centre appealed to the target demographic.
The team at JRA became fully immersed in all things Hasbro IP and branding. As some available Hasbro IPs are not as well known in the Latin America region, the firm needed to navigate the popularity and licensable brand IPs and then offer IP suggestions and accompanying experience design based on local attitudes and playability.
Malls in many regions are seeing a decline in traffic. To combat this, the location in Paseo Interlomas needed to change the operating model and make its attraction more economically accessible, and more intentionally designed to appeal to the market and the way it likes to spend money on entertainment
Many of the popular experiences from the existing attraction have now been augmented with new experiences, allowing guests to connect with popular characters in a more engaging way. This will drive traffic to the mall, also benefitting the other tenants.
“Hasbro City was created so that guests can live incredible experiences based on their favorite brands and characters,” says Luis Javier Santoyo, Hasbro City’s general manager. “We are proud to open this high-quality family entertainment center, the first of its kind in Latin America, which brings together attractions based on several of Hasbro’s iconic brands in one place.”
Last month, JRA announced that it has collaborated with Kings Island in Ohio on a new themed area called Adventure Port. This features two new anchor rides, Sol Spin and Cargo Loco, as well as the Adventure Express roller coaster, Enrique’s restaurant and the Mercado Patio Bar.
