Playmates losing TMNT license December 31, 2026
 

Press release from Playmates:

https://doc.irasia.com/listco/hk/pla...nouncement.pdf

Just heard about this. Kinda shocking, to be honest. At the end of next year, they’ll be at 38 years with the license.

Whatever you think of the more recent output, that’s still one hell of an incredible run.

Curious to see who gets the license next.

Was Super7 purposely holding out information for this moment...?

Further grim tidings for Mutant Mayhem sequels. Now no toy lines for them?

Yes...TMNT ultimate Classics continues.....stay tuned :lol:

Man end of an era to be sure. That’s great for adult collector companies

Or they sadly may cancel the movie altogether, Paramount wanted to Sonic-ify the license, so they announced a new movie and cancelled Tales. Had MM2 stuck to its original release date, it absolutely would’ve been covered by this license.

You have to applaud Playmates for keeping their lines affordable. I hope they pump out whatever they can especially for the retro line before it’s over.

Wow. I’m not even sure how to process this…

I think that’s unlikely. Surely Paramount will have a DEAL in place with someone else ready to take effect on January 2nd 2027. So even if MM2 keeps that September release date, that’s 9 whole months to crap something out.

That is huge news....

Well everyone and their mother has a license to make the figures, so in a way it doesn't really matter. I think between the dozens and dozens of lines surely one that fits the needs of every TMNT fan already exists.
On the other hand, playmates figures had a certain style that I'll miss. Not to mention they are one of the few toy companies that can make decent fun toys to play with and accessories/playsets to go along with them at an affordable price. It's a bit sad, same that we now won't see re-releases of the original turtles anymore, sure it's been done to death by now but the fact that it'll never happen again is a bit sad.

I haven't bought any toys in like 15 years, but even then this news hit me pretty hard. I grew up with the Playmates toys in the 80's and 90's, had all the mutants and all the bad guys. Still love the old figures. Also bought every major character in their 2k3 line. I stopped after the first wave of Nick 2012 figures.

This really is a big deal given Playmates had been with TMNT for almost 40 years. Feels like the end of an era.

Welp now I *really* wish I'd bought Turbo-Cammy and Crabapult!

But yeah this is big news. Playmates literally invented TMNT toys. And at this point Playmates is very nearly the only TMNT I'm still collecting. I can definitively state that this means that I will finally retire from it. I will not be following to a new line.

Crazy. Thank goodness we got the retro blitzkrieg that we did over these last few years and I really do hope we get some good classic reissues in the final stretch. Scratch, Hotspot, come home to daddy and be our final loyalty reward!

However I'm not personally optimistic they'll deliver much now that the writing is on the wall. In the past Playmates seems to either be all in, or phoning it in, and this feels like it might swing them back to the phone...

Yeah, I hope that we get some good figures from playmates in 2026. What are your realistic wishlists?

-One Final re-release of the original turtles, make them gold, transparent, black light figures I don't know something interesting to make it worth getting.
-One more original take not based on anything basic turtles + shredder figure

I guess that's about it, first one is somewhat realistic, second one I don't see them doing it but it'd be the most interesting one. But knowing playmates they won't treat 2026 any different we'll just see the re-issues line continued and some repaints of the MM toyline. I guess they could do a "history of the TMNT" like they've done in the past with Leo or whatever from the different toylines they've made which they've done in the past.

Insane end of an era. But all things considered, it may have been more of a blow, too, if so many other companies weren't already doing so much with the license now ... NECA, Mondo, McFarlane, Super7 (kinda, they seem to be slowing down).

Moreso, it's like the history with the franchise since they were there at the beginning, and I just wonder who is going to fill that void for smaller kid figures at the smaller price point. Playmates never really found a way to nail the collector market, but seemed to be doing well ... "okay" for themselves with Mutant Mayhem stuff.

Going back to re-release old figures using old molds from the 80's and 90's is cash-grab creative bankruptcy.

It is huge news given how long Playmates has been associated with the I.P., but quite frankly they deserve to lose the license. The last semi-decent toys they pumped out were from the 2007 movie. The 2012 stuff has a certain degree of charm, but they were more akin to hollow-plastic rotocast statues that you'd pull out of a gumball machine.

Same. I thought they were for-sure going to lose the license after the Viacom buyout.

My favorite TMNT releases lately have been the original line re-releases. Seeing Scaletail on store shelves in original packaging was unreal.

I hope Playmates CRAMS their final year with original run re-releases. I really wanted to see the Mini Mutants come back out.

And, once this year is over, hopefully Viacom will be able to have access to the molds to reproduce the original figures themselves. To lose those forever would be a tragedy.

Next year would be perfect for a Mini Mutant Tokka Technodrome Playset re-issue.

I, for one, cannot wait to see the new Tokka and Rahzar on the TotTMNT cards. Go Ninja! Go Ninja! Go!

I remember the last time I got a new Playmates TMNT figure... when I was like 7 years-old.