Playmates Vintage Remastered

[mikey0]

Originally Posted by italianice388

some cool stuff in there. i might snag some of the remastered and some of the two packs. the 5 pack movie turtles looks great, too. i have all those figures, but the packaging/presentation looks amazing. whoever has been doing the packaging at playmates for the vintage line is really killing it.

I would have re-released, at least, the difficult to find re-released figures for the Cowabunga Forever sets. My fingers are still crossed for a RM Bebop, RM April, RM Foot Soldier, RM Scratch, RM Hot Spot, or a 1991 April and Casey Cowabunga Forever set. I may just have to wait for Mattel.

[italianice388]

yeah. would have loved more re-releases. :/

[mikey0]

Originally Posted by italianice388

yeah. would have loved more re-releases. :/

I think they’re saving clean RM Rocksteady for RM Bebop. Sadly, no word on RM Foot Soldier or April O Neil (even).

[sdp]

The Cowabunga Forever logo really hits.
They're releasing the vintage remasters individually without the bumps.

[BlueKatana]

Aren’t they running out of time to release this stuff?

[Roseangelo]

Originally Posted by BlueKatana

Aren’t they running out of time to release this stuff?

I'm wondering if they have to have all inventory sold before the end of the year. I would think so. Might get interesting in December.

[sdp]

nah, that's when the deal ends, for these type of things there's usually a grace period or whatever. I think Mattel starts selling in march so they likely can continue to sell until February or even some of March.
Im sure there'll be a time where we see both playmates and mattel tmnt figures on the shelves, as long as playmates ships it before their deal runs out, it doesn't matter to the stores that they lost the license, those can shelfwarm another year.

[BlueKatana]

Ok, that makes more sense. Thanks for the clarity.

It’s similar to how Walmart is still selling some leftover Spin Master Batman remains while Mattel’s core DC line is hitting everywhere else.

[Zachatello00]

Don't ask me where I heard this, because I don't remember and I can't find it, so, maybe this is nothing, but I thought I remembered reading somewhere that Playmates/Neca/Super7 etc. had until the end of the first fiscal quarter 2027 to sell off the inventory they had and then they'd have to wrap it up, which is likely why NECA keeps doing these pop-up sales. But then again, I could be wrong; as I said I can't find actual documentation on that.

[jestergoblin]

Originally Posted by Zachatello00

Don't ask me where I heard this, because I don't remember and I can't find it, so, maybe this is nothing, but I thought I remembered reading somewhere that Playmates/Neca/Super7 etc. had until the end of the first fiscal quarter 2027 to sell off the inventory they had and then they'd have to wrap it up, which is likely why NECA keeps doing these pop-up sales. But then again, I could be wrong; as I said I can't find actual documentation on that.

Playmates issued a statement back in December 2025. Here's the specific passage, note PCIL stands for Playmates International Company Limited:

Negotiations between the parties regarding the renewal of the License Agreement had been ongoing since October 2025, but PICL has recently been formally notified by the Licensor that the License Agreement will not be renewed upon expiry on 31 December 2026. As a result, the rights of PICL to sell the Licensed Products shall cease on 31 December 2026, while the right to dispose its inventories of the Licensed Products will cease 90 days thereafter pursuant to the License Agreement.

So Playmates has until end of March 2027 to sell off any remaining Turtles inventory they posses, but all manufacturing ceases December 31st, 2026.

Wouldn't shock me if Super7/NECA/McFarlane have similar clauses, but they aren't publicly traded companies so they don't need to release this information to shareholders.

[Zachatello00]

ah, yes! Thank you. I knew I had seen that somewhere. Always happy to see that I'm not just going insane.

[Roseangelo]

I wonder what the status is with the litigation they seemingly filed (but all traces thereof were quickly removed once fan channels caught wind of it).

[DonnieLaForge]

This also explains why NECA are pushing all their multipack items out to Ross/etc as singles. Make the stores buy them, because the stores are under no such rules and can sell the inventory they bought for as long as they like. They can't make Target do that, the NECA product at Target still belongs to NECA. And Ross would not buy a 4 pack for an insane price because nobody generally shopping at Ross would buy that (except us).

[IMJ]

Playmates is suing for the license?

That's all fine and dandy but to do it like it's a "virtue" is f'n clown $#!(.