Mattel x TMNT.

Carrying on from the S7 conversation into something that I do think matters, just maybe less to most of us here: I genuinely think Mattel, yes Mattel, will do a better job on the kids' toys part of this license than Playmates has been doing for the last decade. I have a kid. He likes TMNT. We buy TMNT toys every time some new media comes out that Playmates is supporting. The figures are always pretty fucking garbage - SOMETIMES with the exception of just the Turtles figures themselves.
 
Do we know if it’s a master toy license or is that a thing of the past and it’s slicensing all the way down now? Is NECA safe?
 
Poe Ghostal said:
Do we know if it’s a master toy license or is that a thing of the past and it’s slicensing all the way down now? Is NECA safe?
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My understanding is that it is a master license. But keep in mind that Playmates had the master license and NECA/Super7 were still out there doing their thing. It just makes things.. more complicated for people like NECA. But I -believe- it also puts Mattel in a position to shut all that stuff down if they want to and can meet that market.
I.E. If Mattel says they want to handle all the adult collector specialty retailer product... NECA and Super7 are screwed.
 
Agreed. It all depends on what Mattel has planned. The only thing we know for certain is that, like Playmates, they'll be handling merch for whatever is new in the world of TMNT. Since they do collector-focused toys for other brands, I would expect they have plans to do that here as well, but is that a Masterverse take on the Mutant Mayhem designs? I guess it's possible.

My assumption based on absolutely nothing but my own gut, I would guess the overseas licenses are safe. Mattel probably won't impact JoyToy, Mety, and whoever else is making turtles for the Asian market in their own style. Super7, assuming they're happy doing 2003 designs, might be okay too. I don't see Mattel wanting to get into that playground. Mondo is doing 1:6 so they're probably safe and Mezco's price tag also probably means they're likely going to be able to continue if they so choose to. If anyone is in trouble I would guess it's NECA. The most appealing part of the franchise is still '87 and I wouldn't be surprised if Mattel wants to do something that at least evokes those classic looks even if they're not going for a "pulled right from the show" look. NECA's product would be competition and who pays for a master license for a property to compete against someone with a cheaper one? Archie may be too stylistically close as well for that line to continue. Maybe they keep things like Fortnite, Last Ronin, and Mirage but I don't know how much life is left in them? The 2012 line seems like the most obvious pivot for them, but I don't know how well that is being received. It might not be worth it to them to re-up on the license if that's all they have as I'm sure it's getting more expensive now that it's under new ownership.
 
Misfit said:
Agreed. It all depends on what Mattel has planned. The only thing we know for certain is that, like Playmates, they'll be handling merch for whatever is new in the world of TMNT. Since they do collector-focused toys for other brands, I would expect they have plans to do that here as well, but is that a Masterverse take on the Mutant Mayhem designs? I guess it's possible.

My assumption based on absolutely nothing but my own gut, I would guess the overseas licenses are safe. Mattel probably won't impact JoyToy, Mety, and whoever else is making turtles for the Asian market in their own style. Super7, assuming they're happy doing 2003 designs, might be okay too. I don't see Mattel wanting to get into that playground. Mondo is doing 1:6 so they're probably safe and Mezco's price tag also probably means they're likely going to be able to continue if they so choose to. If anyone is in trouble I would guess it's NECA. The most appealing part of the franchise is still '87 and I wouldn't be surprised if Mattel wants to do something that at least evokes those classic looks even if they're not going for a "pulled right from the show" look. NECA's product would be competition and who pays for a master license for a property to compete against someone with a cheaper one? Archie may be too stylistically close as well for that line to continue. Maybe they keep things like Fortnite, Last Ronin, and Mirage but I don't know how much life is left in them? The 2012 line seems like the most obvious pivot for them, but I don't know how well that is being received. It might not be worth it to them to re-up on the license if that's all they have as I'm sure it's getting more expensive now that it's under new ownership.
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And something to remember in this is that Mattel, in the past at least, has been kind of famously spiteful. Like when they pulled the MOTU license from Super7. They didn't have to. Super7 was just doing obscure cartoon characters at that point and Mattel was starting over with Origins and Masterverse - neither of which had anything to do with Filmation fucking Skunkface or whatever barely-worth-mentioning character was left to make.

But they did it anyway. Purely because they did not want anyone else competing with them for the western market on MOTU action figures. If those decision makers are still around, it's almost a guarantee they will do everything they can to make sure no other company is making TMNT toys even within the same wheel-neighborhood, let alone wheelhouse, as they are.
 
Damien said:
Something I'd be excited about with a Mattel line is the potential for a '90 movie or '87 cartoon line of figures that are TOYS. Not delicate collectibles with paint gumming up all the joints and flying off in little paint shavings whenever you move something. NECA made for a beautiful collection of cartoon figures that I was constantly afraid to do anything with and, consequently, just couldn't ENJOY. And I'm always afraid of breaking the movie stuff.

I'd take slightly less beautiful figures for stuff I can have fun with in the way I do with Marvel Legends, Joe Classified, etc.


If Mattel has a single person with a brain working there, they will do a line in the vein of Marvel Legends or whatever and make a unified line that encompasses all eras/styles of TMNT together, in a relative scale where they are confident they can do every figure justice. Don't fucking start with 7" tall Turtles and then be like "well fuck.. either we can't do Rocksteady or he has to be 100 dollars...."
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As always, you've said it best. NECA's toys just don't impress me as toys, I really just want Masterverse or Classified-esque TMNT. A 6 inch line that's willing to do a hodge podge of designs, specific variants, animation accurate releases, etc. Mezco basically put my mental image versions of Mirage Casey and Shredder perfectly into figure form, just give us that, filtered through retail figure standards. I like their Turtles way less, but I'd happily get something similar in design at $25-ish a pop.

If they hand me any 5 inch tall Turtles to kick off their era, I'm content. I can't have the Playmates 2012 Turtles standing in for my Turtles forever. So long as they don't screw up the way Playmates has routinely screwed up making the Turtles ALWAYS be oversized, I can't complain.
 
Niko (protozoalord) said:
If they hand me any 5 inch tall Turtles to kick off their era, I'm content. I can't have the Playmates 2012 Turtles standing in for my Turtles forever. So long as they don't screw up the way Playmates has routinely screwed up making the Turtles ALWAYS be oversized, I can't complain.
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Yeah, it was always kind of double-edged with every other toy company; they started out making the Turtles too big, and then also made the ancillary characters too small. So you've got characters towering over the Turtles in the source material that are literally smaller than the Turtles in action figure form. And it's because every company has started from the perspective of 'make the Turtles and flow from there' without a plan, rather than identifying what to do with the line holistically from the beginning.

How tall is a human being in this line? should be the FIRST question anyone asks when making a TMNT line. Work from there.
 
Was about to come in here and say, my ideal TMNT line still has yet to happen. I bought a lot of the NECA cartoon figures because they may be as close as it gets, but for me, my ideal Turtle line wouldn't be beholden to any one single source.

Even to this day, I think MOTU Classics did a really great job at showing off what a great line could be that combines aspects of several decades of a franchise into one cohesive line. You had characters from toys, comics, the 80's cartoon, the 2003 cartoon, etc all unified in one style. And that's what I'd love for TMNT. And then for major characters you had multiple releases and swappable parts to give you whatever your mind's eye view of that character may be.
 
Boy Wonder said:
Was about to come in here and say, my ideal TMNT line still has yet to happen. I bought a lot of the NECA cartoon figures because they may be as close as it gets, but for me, my ideal Turtle line wouldn't be beholden to any one single source.

Even to this day, I think MOTU Classics did a really great job at showing off what a great line could be that combines aspects of several decades of a franchise into one cohesive line. You had characters from toys, comics, the 80's cartoon, the 2003 cartoon, etc all unified in one style. And that's what I'd love for TMNT. And then for major characters you had multiple releases and swappable parts to give you whatever your mind's eye view of that character may be.
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MOTUC and Marvel Legends are really the poster children for 'take a bunch of disparate, disunited designs and smash them into something cohesive.' That is pretty much what I'd like from a TMNT line at this point as well. Especially since we've had basically everything else a TMNT line can be.
 
I honestly don't know what Mattel could do in the adult collector market that would really bring people in or wow them. There have been so many great looking TMNT figures, and even some deep collections over the last couple years. Especially with NECA. But even crazy ass Super7 made some great looking figures. I love the look of all the Ultimate figures based on the Playmates vintage figures.


Speaking of Playmates, will Mattel be able to make figures that look like the classic/vintage Playmaters TMNT figures? I know Mattel now has the license to make Turtle toys, but Playmates owns the rights to those vintage TMNT looks right?
I wonder if Mattel have or will work anything out with Playmates to be able to do something like what Super7 set out to do, in order to make an adult collector line of figures based on the vintage TMNT figures.
 
The TMNT/Grayskull stuff came very close to giving us an Origins-style classic TMNT line - something Playmates utterly botched with that terrible Remastered line.

All Mattel has to do from my perspective is execute the MOTU Origins plan with the original TMNT designs and then throw in other new characters from other eras in the same style.
 
Super Camel said:
but Playmates owns the rights to those vintage TMNT looks right?
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No, I don't actually believe they do.
When they were the master license holder, they could pitch a bitch fit and get Super7 stopped, but I think that was more because the licensor wanted to placate them. I don't think it was because Playmates had any legal standing to challenge their ownership of designs for characters they do not own.
In fact, I'd LOVE to see Playmates square up with fucking PARAMOUNT and say 'we own these designs of your characters.'
 
I think for me, a lot of the art-specific stuff just doesn't have much interest any more. We've got Mirage and Archie and '87 and 2012 and 2003 and movie etc. to better and worse degrees. I don't need it redone, especially not if the sculpts are gonna be more mass-market soft. I'm more interested in new takes and looks, which is why I've gravitated towards the overseas offerings more lately. But none of that means I won't pick up Mattel stuff if my dumb collector brain takes a fancy to it.
 
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