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Quote:

Originally Posted by Leo Primus

Does Playmates' license lapse soon or something? Between the reuse of these tired molds and the god-awful reissues of the classic line, they seem completely apathetic.

Playmates doesn’t need to renew their license. They outright own it for keeps, unless they choose to sell it. The purchase of tmnt by Viacom did not affect Playmates ownership of the master toy line rights.

For a slightly oversimplification based on The Toys That Made Us as well as numerous stories I’ve read over decades…Back when tmnt was two guys’ satire of the “dark & gritty” turn of mainstream comics seen in Batman and Daredevil, they were approached by a marketing guy for a toy company looking to compete with Hasbro and Mattel in the boys action figure lines. Playmates basically told them if you sell us a percentage of your brand (the master toy license), we will help finance a kids cartoon and make a line of toys. For a while, playmates also managed a lot of the regular merchandising license rights as well, but those were under regular licensing agreements that required renewal.

When Viacom approached Mirage to buy the tmnt brand, they bought the percentage of the brand that Mirage still owned… the copyrights, trademarks, etc, but either didn’t want or were unable to negotiate a buyout for the toy rights from Playmates.

For all the toys, whether it be Neca, super 7, Mattel Mega Construx, etc, the chief negotiator for licensing toy product is playmates.

I don’t think it’s apathy, I think Playmates is just behind the times and very stubborn. A lot of the toy industry has changed in a very short time, and kids don’t demand toys like they used to, and Playmates really doesn’t have the size of Hasbro or Mattel. Other than Tmnt and a few doll products, Playmates is very much still a tiny toy company. Their heyday was in the 90’s.
They are just now discovering the benefits of licensing to other companies, but they already spent thousands on the Classics molds, so I understand their desire to squeeze every penny they can out of it. Face it, the tmnt brand didn’t have the Renaissance that Transformers did when they released their live action movies, so playmates is probably just trying to do the least amount to keep the brand visible… which is a few reissues of the original toys and the classics.