Late last year, news broke via Playmates Toys that they would no longer be the master license holder for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles toys. As far as news in the toy world goes, this was pretty damn big. Up until now, Playmates has been the only company to hold the master toy license for the franchise and it’s very likely that without Playmates most wouldn’t even know what Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is. The brand was shopped around and basically had no takers except for Playmates. It was Playmates that mandated an animated series be created in tandem with the toy line which was how we got colored masks and the personalities we all know and love. And without that show and those toys there would have been no turtle-mania in the late 80s and early 90s, but this isn’t a topic about that. This is a post about the future for it was announced on February 10th, practically on the even of New York Toy Fair, that Mattel would be the new master license holder going forward.
Mattel is obviously known to those in the toy world and really anyone who has ever walked down a toy aisle at a major retailer. For years, they were the envy of other toy producers because they held a stranglehold on both the “boy” and “girl” aisles with their in-house franchises Masters of the Universe and Barbie. Over the past year, they have added an enviable amount of licenses as well first by regaining the DC master license from McFarlane and, more recently, by landing the license for the mega popular KPop Demon Hunters brand. Now add TMNT to that list and it sure seems like Mattel has set out to dominate the toy landscape for the foreseeable future.
Naturally, this leads to more questions than answers. Right now, we know Mattel has the license, but we don’t know what that means for the other license holders for TMNT or even what it means for Mattel. In the press release, it was only stated that Mattel will be producing toys based on the upcoming Mutant Mayhem 2 as well as an unannounced live action/CG hybrid film. We’ve seen with both WWE and Masters of the Universe that Mattel likes to aim to make product for both kids and collectors. I am of the mind that the toy market for children is dying, at least the toy market established in the 1980s, so I have to assume the collector market is part of Mattel’s plans. Per the channel Mad Hatter Reviews, we now know that Hasbro did make a play for TMNT. Their pitch included some concept art that, at least to Hatter, resembled the 1987 cartoon series. Did Paramount not want to go in that direction? It’s possible they’re only interested in finding a partner to do their version of the turtles much like Playmates was doing. Playmates would dabble in the collector market with its Last Ronin figures and the Remastered line, but primarily they were putting out stuff for the current Mutant Mayhem film and adjacent series.
That said, the most profitable and popular version of the characters are still definitely the old cartoon turtles. It seems crazy to me that Mattel would pony up the money for the license and not want a piece of that pie, but I could be wrong. As for the other companies, they basically all hold what is called a general toy license. They’re basically second fiddle to the master license. Paramount basically gives them some guidelines on what they can do and ultimately they have to approve it too. They decided a company like NECA is free to make toys based on the old cartoon provided they fit into certain categories. They couldn’t be sold in certain places, had to be in a specific scale, and cost a certain amount of money. With these kind of licenses, it’s not uncommon for them to also be tied to the master license when it comes to expiration. Based on a conversation from the channel Robo Don’t Know with Super7’s Brian Flynn, we know their license is expiring at the end of the year alongside that of Playmates. It stands to reason the same is true of NECA and probably others. Paramount was also recently acquired by Skydance and it’s also pretty likely they’re trying to get higher rates for the license. Will that alone force out the likes of NECA and Super7? Maybe. For what it’s worth, Flynn expressed optimism that their relationship will continue, but we’ll see. It probably wouldn’t be good for business (they just showed off the next wave of TMNT Ultimates! as well as some new ReAction figures) for Flynn to be pessimistic.
I guess this is a post to mostly say that when it comes to the future of TMNT toys we just don’t know! I can only speculate and from where I sit I would guess that the companies with an overseas license (i.e. JoyToy, Heat Boys) and Mondo are pretty safe. Mondo is making very expensive sixth scale figures that likely won’t impede on anything Mattel wants to do with the franchise. Mezco is likely pretty safe as well because of their price point. For Super7, this would appear to clear the way for them to go back to doing figures that look like Playmates figures. There’s no Playmates to get in their way and all of those designs and characters are owned by Paramount/Skydance, but they still need to get approval to do them. As for their current output of figures based on the 2003 series, I think that’s likely pretty safe at I can’t see Mattel being interested in kicking the tires there. With those figures also being $65 a piece now they don’t seem like real competition either. The company that may have the most to lose is NECA since they’ve spread themselves pretty wide with TMNT and have also been making toys based on what is the most lucrative era of the franchise – the ’87 toon. We know Paramount rejected Hasbro’s concept art of a line resembling that so maybe they would keep Mattel from doing the same. They may like how things are going with NECA and don’t want to rock that boat. While the line does well, I doubt the returns are anything like what most companies see from a master toy license distributed in massive numbers so if Mattel is pushing for such a thing, I would have to believe they would get it. On the flipside, NECA’s line has gone pretty deep and that aspect of the franchise has been well mined at this point. Mattel likely knows that and might not want to wade into those waters. At least not immediately. This could impact the Archie line as well since it’s so close stylistically to that cartoon and the Mirage looks always seem to retain some popularity. For NECA, they have indeed gone deep with almost all of their iterations save for the current 2012 offerings so they may not be willing to fight all that hard for either property. Maybe they’re content to commit to 2012 and go as deep with that as they have ’87? For me, personally, I don’t need anything more from NECA, but I’d definitely like a couple of characters from that series. My biggest fear is for the Archie line as I really want to see some evergreen turtles in that style.
Which brings us back to Mattel and what we know or can safely assume. There will be new Mutant Mayhem 2 toys from Mattel next year likely to coincide with the film’s release. Summer 2027 is probably when we get our hands on the first Mattel turtles. With that being so far off I’m not expecting to see anything at Toy Fair for TMNT. If anything, maybe we get to see some of the pitch art, but even that would surprise me. Paramount also won’t want to reveal too much about the film just yet. If we see anything this year, it would likely be at San Diego Comic Con, but even that feels like a stretch. Since the turtles are tied to New York I suppose New York Comic Con is a remote possibility as well. I think the most likely scenario though has Mattel unveiling its initial offerings at Toy Fair 2027. Yeah, that’s a long ways off, but these things take time and Mattel just landed the license. We’re just now seeing their first offerings for DC and that acquisition was announced about a year ago. TMNT is likely on a similar path. And if Mattel attacks the brand with the same level of quality as it does MOTU then I think we may get some pretty solid action figures out of this. It would be cool to get Mutant Mayhem style turtles that are more collector-grade. I’m basically thinking a kid line and a Masterverse type line living together. Will that happen? I don’t know, but the rest of the year will be pretty interesting as we see how the other companies respond. The news likely doesn’t alter plans for Toy Fair 2026, but if SDCC rolls around and NECA, Super7, and others have drastically scaled back their TMNT offerings then we’ll probably know that even bigger changes than initially expected are coming in 2027.
For more thoughts on the changing of hands or a look at some previous Mattel TMNT offerings check these out:
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