Toy Unfair With Anton & Tony: Big Changes Are Coming

Greetings mortals & welcome to the table! 

This is Toy Unfair, a feature that might turn into a semi-regular thing; might just be Tony Thornley and Anton Kromoff doing this once and out. But the toy landscape is rapidly changing, and we just had to talk about it.

Tony: And I’ll just get right to it with the biggest news of the last month.

Holy crap, Anton, Playmates is losing the Ninja Turtles license!

This might be the biggest change in the toy industry ever. Playmates has held the TMNT license since 1987 (yes, the year the cartoon launched), and while other licensors have come and gone for TMNT toys, Playmates has been the consistent player the whole time. What do you think about this change?

Anton: It’s huge news and something I was only slightly expecting due to some rumblings in late 2025 going into 2026. 

Having some feelers in both the retail space, talking to some associates in the collectors space, and being allowed into a few rooms where decisions are made on a larger scale than sometimes makes sense to me, the world is a big place. I’ve heard a few professionals who buy and sell large units for retail talking about not prioritizing TMNT. When I inquired why, I was told by one person who shall remain nameless that, in their opinion, kids were not interested in TMNT toys. They went on to tell me that it was their opinion that the market for our beloved heroes-on-a-halfshell was something only “nostalgia” based collectors and higher-end purchases were after, and for this reason, they were not as interested in putting TMNT on pegs. 

Tony: This is fascinating because there are so many rumors out there, and basically all of them stem from the new ownership of Paramount. There’s the rumor that Paramount refused to renew, because they felt like Playmates had mishandled the license pretty badly the last few years. That’s a rumor I can believe (and goes hand-in-hand with what you heard), as the line has been all over the place. Mutant Mayhem got a good focus, but there’s been nostalgia reissues of every line of TMNT figures, literally going back to the 1987 originals.

The second, I heard is that Playmates refused to renew because the new license is extremely cost-prohibitive, and this will just be the first in a wave of current Paramount licensors backing out.

Honestly, I could kind of see it being a mixture of the two. The new owners raising the price of the license to force their hand, maybe?

I don’t think we’ll hear for sure, though, but I think if we see companies like IDW Publishing and Nacelle start to lose their Ninja Turtles and Star Trek licenses or decide not to renew, we’ll have our answer. 

Anton: It kinda blew me away, because it always feels like TMNT is present in both the youth space and the adult collectors space; they are kinda timeless.

With Playmates losing the license, who do you think will pick up the flag moving forward? I have some theories, but your insight, to me and I am sure our readers, is invaluable, and I would love to hear your thoughts on where the Fab Four are going to pop up next.

Tony: I think there’s a few options. Paramount did test the waters with the big two action figure companies relatively recently. Hasbro did the Transformers collab, which I think was the best of the Transformers Collaborative sub-line. Also, it appears that they’re licensing G.I. Joe to Playmates for a TMNT crossover mini-line. I think this is the least likely of the big two, because Hasbro didn’t actually produce a Ninja Turtle, just a really good transforming Party Wagon.

Then, Mattel did Turtles of Grayskull in 2024 and 2025, which I didn’t think was perfect, but it was pretty fantastic. It honestly felt like a prototype for Mattel to take over TMNT. Added plus to Mattel is that they have the molds ready to go already, thanks to TOG. It’s going to have a low start-up cost. The downside, though, is that they’re taking over DC in 2027 and that would be two huge licenses at the exact same time. 

I think Spinmaster is unlikely. They just lost DC, and I don’t see Paramount rolling the dice with them right after they lost such a big license. 

A lot of toy collectors are going to say Jada, based on the Street Fighter line. I don’t think they’re big enough to take over one of the biggest toy franchises on the planet, but it’s possible. I only have two Jada figures, and they’re excellent.

You told me about Moose Toys. That’s an interesting choice to me, but I don’t know them well at all. My fourteen-year-old is obsessed with their obsolete Mighty Beanz line, and that’s the extent of my knowledge about them.

Anton: Moose did a really interesting thing with their Treasure X Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Sewer Rescue Pack. Those are the blind box build your own toy packs where you get a little ooze-filled sewer pipe you can crack open and dig through to build a TMNT toy out of the stuff you gather within. They had 7 figures in total with the first line, including the boys, Shredder, Casey Jones, and a Limited Edition Leonardo with different swords. 

They were honestly some of the most solid TMNT sculpts I have seen since I was a kid playing with the original 1980s figures. They just felt like toys to me, not collectables, actual toys you could take in the bath or the sandbox or toss in your pocket and head off to school or whatever with.

With the way Moose has been making moves in both the board game and figure space, it would not surprise me to see more from them license market and with TMNT being an easily recognizable figure base with a low number of staple characters, plus Moose’s ability to scale production and their solid distribution channels feels like they could be a contender for some toys in the actual toy space. I’m not talking the rad high-end stuff we see from NECA, I’m talking legit sandbox toys.

I also like Moose as a dark horse in the race because I have talked to some of the folks who work over there, and each interaction has left me feeling like they are a company that actually cares about the state of play. I’m all for rad plastic on the shelf, but these are toys and should serve kids being able to play with them before they serve looking cool on someone’s shelf or tucked away in some box in someone’s closet as a hedge bet for whatever becomes hot in the pop culture market.

The MSRP on those Moose TMNT toys were like $10. Another thing that makes me kinda feel like they could be a solid space to push out more figures for TMNT because there are an awful lot of full pegs at the local big box retailers just stuffed with action figures, your normal run of the mill one or two accessory action figures, and these things are $15-30. 

Maybe my lack of kids is telling on me, but I remember struggling to scrape together $8 for a dual pack of Beast Wars Transformers with Optimus Primal as a bat and Megatron as a gator. I never did get those figures because all I had was $5 to spend on toys and no one was going to help little kid me out because I was the unfavored grandchild. 

So how kids are coming off with $20 for a single figure is mind-boggling to me. Much less a figure they are going to take into the sandbox or play in the dirt outside with or whatever. Like … you have kids, are they playing with figures still? Did they when they were younger? Am I crazy thinking these prices for the toys — again, not talking about the higher-end collectables, just the toys — have gotten wildly out of control? I mean, I would buy all sorts of Transformers just to have little things to fidget with on my desk if they were not $20, $30, $40 a pop. I want a Grimlock so bad, but I can’t come up with $40 for something that takes more than “Smack this button, one point of transformation, does not even look like Grimlock” toys at this point. Maybe I am out of touch or something … thoughts? 

Tony: To your point, my entire childhood G.I. Joe collection was purchased for between $2 and $3 a figure.

This has been such a problem in the past year. I wasn’t really collecting toys until about two-and-a-half years ago, right around the time that collector’s level figures (IE: Marvel Legends, Star Wars Black Series, Masters of the Universe Masterverse) were increasing in price from $20 to $25. And that’s the low-end with NECA pushing $40, Super7 between $55 and $65 and don’t even get me started on Mezco, Diamond Select, and more.

Now though? The base Marvel Legend price ranges between $25 and $30, with deluxes hitting $40 plus easily. Last year, Hasbro released a Venom, a Gargantos (aka Shuma-Gorath) and a Juggernaut for $65 plus each.

And it’s not just action figures.

Building blocks have seen 30% or so increases. Toy cars about 25%. I don’t look at fashion dolls because I just have boys, but I’m sure those brands have too.

Now, I get this started because the toy companies realized it was largely selling to adult collectors with adult money. I get that the president’s “taco” tariffs have driven a lot of it most recently, to the point that some Fan Channel retailers, like Entertainment Earth and Big Bad Toy Store, can’t give a final price until stuff is in hand. The problem is that it’s going to drive kids — and even many adults — away from the hobby.

I mean, I’m ready to give up on everything except the characters I love the most and take a gamble that other “cool” designs I’m interested in don’t sell out before they hit clearance prices.

Anton: Man, I feel you! 

I love toys, I have a slew of them. I have sold big chunks of my collection over the last year to offset some renovation costs, but I still have more than enough plastic lining my shelves. I swear when I go looking for stuff like Mega Man, Transformers, MOTU, and other epic such nonsense that I can distract myself with between bits of breaking news, it’s either throwback toys on a secondary market or something new that has a limited cut off or elevated pricepoint. 

When a Predator action figure costs more than a week’s worth of groceries for a small family, that’s a little unhinged.  

My hope is we get some new, reasonable peg-hangers as the new Masters of the Universe movie comes out. Although with Big Bad Toy Store selling the retro play figures for under $10 when they were what, $15+ on shelf, makes me a little nervous that they are not making room for new waves but offloading things that are not in the zeitgeist.

It may be an “Unfair Opinion”, but I feel like if we are ever going to get back to toys kids want at prices parents deserve, it’s going to take a fleet of cartoons and movies aimed at that audience showcasing those characters diving in pools or smashing through walls of water cups. 

So enough of my irritation at expensive collectables. What’s coming up that you are looking forward to? 

For me, it’s probably Pokémon LEGO. I don’t do a lot with LEGO, but I have been and always will be a Pokémon fan, so seeing whatever is coming is going to be a lot of fun for me. 

I’m also stoked to see MGA’s Ninjombie line. They have a solid price point, lots of points of play, they seem durable as heck, and they have slime! Also, the sculpts are rad as hell, and they have comic books that come with them! Granted, they are micro comics, but I mean, I was a fan of the He-Man micro comics and the Alien micro comics as well, so that is a big selling point for me going into 2026. 

Tony: My biggest two are probably pretty obvious if you know me.

The current Spider-Man retro card line that’s in the middle of rolling out right now is #1. That’s the line that has Spider-Venom, Uncanny Spider-Man, an update to Spidey 2099, and three B-list villains (Cardiac, Owl, and Hypno-Hustler). Hasbro’s retro card releases — both for Marvel and G.I. Joe — have consistently been some of the best figures they’ve been doing for a long time. 

And hand-in-hand with that line is a Spider-Man villain: the Amazon exclusive Lizard. 

It’s a Lizard based specifically on Todd McFarlane‘s art. His Peter Parker was the basis of last year’s Maximum Spider-Man, and it’s amazing how well they captured the Todd’s art.

Anton: Oh holy crap! I love McFarlane’s Lizard! One of my early core memories was reading, I think it was Spider-Man #2, under a desk in an office … it may have been one of my parents’ offices at their job? I don’t know whose office it was, honestly. The floor was white and blue tile, and the desk was grey metal with a wood top, and I was terrified by the Lizard putting Spider-Man through one of those big wooden water towers on the top of a building somewhere in New York. The Lizard was so primordial, and I feel like all the panels had black backgrounds and Spider-Man was bleeding everywhere! I always get super nostalgic thinking about what he did with the Lizard. That may be a figure I need to track down as well if the price point is not through the roof. What else? Sorry, I interrupted. 

Tony: There’s a reason McFarlane’s Spidey is still the gold standard!

Second is, well, speaking of Todd, the end of the McFarlane’s DC Multiverse line. McFarlane has DC for one more year, unless a sub-license pulls through with Mattel (which I doubt). Just in January, we’re getting a Morrison-era Wally West Flash, Ice, Authority leader Superman and (finally) Zatanna. Next month we’re getting a new Barry Allen, new Hal Jordan, and maybe Jessica Cruz. If that’s how McFarlane Toys is handling Q1, what’s the rest of the year going to look like?

Oh, and Nacelle’s Star Trek line is really shifting into full swing. I have Kirk, Janeway, Worf, and LaForge all on pre-order.

Beyond that, I’ll be curious to see what the year brings. Masters of the Universe’s movie line, the reveal of Mattel’s DC line, Hasbro finally getting it together with reissues, whoever gets TMNT, and the continued growth of Jada Toys. Hell, I’m even looking forward to what appears to be NECA imploding, based on what’s happened over there in the last year.

And hey, if we do find the time to do another of these, we should talk about DC and Mattel, now that the clock is ticking towards that shift.

Anton: Are you kidding me? We are for sure doing more of these! I love talking toys with you, my dude!