Hasbro and Playmates Toys Enter Into Stategic Relationship to Produce & Distribute Power Rangers Products Globally Starting in 2025

[toynewman]

PAWTUCKET, R.I.—April 22, 2024— Hasbro, a leading toy and game company, today announced a global licensing agreement with Playmates Toys, a global toy design, development, marketing and distribution company, to produce and distribute POWER RANGERS product. Playmates is debuting its first POWER RANGERS collection with a kid targeted MIGHTY MORPHIN POWER RANGERS toy line in 2025.

As part of the agreement, Playmates holds licensing rights to develop additional cross-category POWER RANGERS products, including action figures, blasters, plush, role play, vehicles and accessories. The deal encompasses global distribution across all regions excluding Asia.
 

 

 

“We are honored to work with Hasbro on the reimagination of this iconic franchise’s toy line for long time fans and a new generation of children. Playmates and Hasbro speak the same toy language and share a passion for POWER RANGERS, a multi-generational phenomenon that has stood the test of time,” said Karl Aaronian, Playmates’ SVP of Marketing.

Hasbro will retain all entertainment rights and will continue to drive global strategy and growth for the POWER RANGERS franchise by strategically working with licensees across multiple categories, including publishing, fashion and footwear, promotions and more. Hasbro will also further activate the brand across their direct-to-consumer channel Hasbro Pulse and as part of its presence at major industry events like San Diego Comic Con.

“Playmates’ ability to interpret character-based story telling in highly detailed, innovative, and affordable products has revitalized several iconic brands, they are the perfect fit to fully expand the POWER RANGERS franchise,” said Casey Collins, President of Licensed Consumer Products at Hasbro. “While we’ll continue to provide oversight and direction on future POWER RANGERS product ranges, Playmates will leverage its action figure and accessory design, development and marketing expertise to create an entirely new play and collecting experience for fans of all ages. With two powerhouse companies coming together to support a powerhouse brand, the potential is limitless!”

Celebrating 30 continuous years on the air, POWER RANGERS has become one of the longest-running kids’ live-action series in television history, with more than 900 episodes aired to date. Created by Haim Saban and launched in 1993 with MIGHTY MORPHIN POWER RANGERS, the series celebrated its 30th year in 2023 with MIGHTY MORPHIN POWER RANGERS: ONCE & ALWAYS, an anniversary special streaming exclusively on Netflix. The most recent season of POWER RANGERS, POWER RANGERS: COSMIC FURY, is currently available exclusively on Netflix.

Source: Hasbro

[Frozentenderloin]

"Playmates and Hasbro speak the same toy language"

Do they tho? 

[MagnaPrime]

Ok.... is anyone else flabbergasted here? Playmates is so far below the quality of hasbro.

[lordtom]

HAHAHA Can't wait for their crop of rubbish to burn our retinas 

[Reno]

Hopefully this will not include the Power Rangers Lightning Collection 6-inch figures, because that would be a major downgrade - but of course Hasbro has basically stopped making them altogether. We knew that Hasbro would likely be taking a step back from manufacturing their own stuff though because it just hasn't been as profitable in recent years. I'm really starting to wonder if they'll choose not to bid or attempt to retain the licenses when their existing contracts with Disney for Marvel, Star Wars and Indiana Jones expire.

[MagnaPrime]

31 minutes ago, Reno said:

Hopefully this will not include the Power Rangers Lightning Collection 6-inch figures, because that would be a major downgrade - but of course Hasbro has basically stopped making them altogether. We knew that Hasbro would likely be taking a step back from manufacturing their own stuff though because it just hasn't been as profitable in recent years. I'm really starting to wonder if they'll choose not to bid or attempt to retain the licenses when their existing contracts with Disney for Marvel, Star Wars and Indiana Jones expire.

Wondering the same thing. Hasbro seems more interested in being an IP holder than a toy maker. Fortunately for my transformers takara can take the wheel.

[bgiles73]

If this would somehow extend to Star Trek figures on par with Hasbro’s Star Wars Black series I would certainly be ecstatic! I also wouldn’t mind Star Trek Epic Heroes! If done right, Star Trek toys could definitely hang with the big players. It would be very interesting to see what a Hasbro Haslab/Playmates Toys collaboration could do for any of Star Trek’s world famous starships!

[memocromatico]

13 minutes ago, bgiles73 said:

If this would somehow extend to Star Trek figures on par with Hasbro’s Star Wars Black series I would certainly be ecstatic! I also wouldn’t mind Star Trek Epic Heroes! If done right, Star Trek toys could definitely hang with the big players. It would be very interesting to see what a Hasbro Haslab/Playmates Toys collaboration could do for any of Star Trek’s world famous starships!

I really doubt it. Playmates has had the chance to look at the market, look at the competition (NECA, Revoltech to name a couple), and find a way to up their game in articulation, sculpting and painting. Yet they always cut corners (not painting the back) and they always end up looking bland. It's been 20+ years since we started getting Marvel Legends and every other toy company has found a way to step up their game (even McFarlane in the wrong scale, but hey, that's their thing), except Playmates.

[JayC]

 This is def going to be kid related stuff. Hasbro has been licensing out Power Rangers to other companies for awhile now as they have with other brands they own. Super7 , Threezero, Mezco just to name a few. Again with Playmates its gonna be more the kids stuff while with those other companies it was the adult stuff.  As for Hasbro's own Power Rangers stuff,  they could certainly choose to continue do their own stuff but for whatever reason long before this announcement they seemed content with just letting others do it as they put their own stuff on hiatus. That doesnt mean they could start to do their own stuff again at some later time but for now I wouldn't count on it.

[yojoebro82]

The script Hasbro was going with as far as Lightning Collection is concerned was that it was going on a one year "hiatus".  Even before this announcement I considered the odds of "canceled" vs "hiatus" to be about 50/50.  Today I'd say we're looking at about 90/10.  It's a bummer because they left a lot on the table character wise.  As a fan of mainly MMPR, I personally have just about all I need, but I feel for the fans who are (probably) going to be left with incomplete teams.

As far as Hasbro, the biggest toy company in the world, who would rather have other toy companies make toys for properties they own outright, I don't hold them in too high regard.  Besides the fact that they are laying off so many employees and letting other toy companies pay them to make their stuff, the stuff they DO make (with the exception of GI Joe) has been taking a dip in quality lately.  Yeah, I don't think too highly of Hasbro at the moment.

[Nosferatuman62172]

17 hours ago, MagnaPrime said:

Ok.... is anyone else flabbergasted here? Playmates is so far below the quality of hasbro.

This is so true.

[JayC]

13 hours ago, yojoebro82 said:

The script Hasbro was going with as far as Lightning Collection is concerned was that it was going on a one year "hiatus".  Even before this announcement I considered the odds of "canceled" vs "hiatus" to be about 50/50.  Today I'd say we're looking at about 90/10.  It's a bummer because they left a lot on the table character wise.  As a fan of mainly MMPR, I personally have just about all I need, but I feel for the fans who are (probably) going to be left with incomplete teams.

As far as Hasbro, the biggest toy company in the world, who would rather have other toy companies make toys for properties they own outright, I don't hold them in too high regard.  Besides the fact that they are laying off so many employees and letting other toy companies pay them to make their stuff, the stuff they DO make (with the exception of GI Joe) has been taking a dip in quality lately.  Yeah, I don't think too highly of Hasbro at the moment.

Nothing is ever canceled. Your never going to hear Hasbro come out and say they canceled this or we canceled that. Hiatus is about as close as it gets. That being said Hasbro owns this license so they could decide at any time if they wanted to produce something they could, and who knows one day may decide to take another shot. This however is not shocking news. The toy market is drastically changing and has been for awhile. Catering to the "Adult Collector" means smaller production runs at higher costs and for a large company like Hasbro that is very difficult to do and stay profitable. When Hasbro purchased Power Rangers the goal was clear. Make it into a huge entertainment property that would cater not only to adults but also a new generations of kids. That apparently failed, at least making it appealing to younger kids. The new show didn't seem to perform to well.

Transformers and GIJoe have also been licensed out to other companies just like Power Rangers. The difference is, as long as Paramount is willing to crank out new movies and such for those properties which have always been their bread and butter, Hasbro will also continue to churn out products.

I'm amazed Playmates has entered into this agreement and pay Hasbro to make Power Rangers cause I doubt Playmates will have any more success with the brand than Hasbro did but Playmates doesn't have a lot of options. It owns no brands themselves and the only action figure line they make any profit from is TMNT which also has entertainment movies and series pushing it to younger audiences, however Nickelodeon has milked that licensed to death by letting everyone and their uncle make product for it, so I guess Playmates is desperate. Playmates however has demonstrated over than over that they aren't very good at reaching the adult collector other than using nostalgia to get them to rebuy the exact same products they bought as kids.

[MagnaPrime]

2 hours ago, JayC said:

Playmates however has demonstrated over than over that they aren't very good at reaching the adult collector other than using nostalgia to get them to rebuy the exact same products they bought as kids.

This is 100% the truth. As much as the other companies rely on nostalgia, at least they do something new with it.

[Lord_Scareglow]

So it's gonna be some more kiddy dinky stuff, why Hasbro why? Playmates? okay...I can't imagine anything wonderful will come out of this partnership but I'm always down to be surprised, maybe they can make some more Space alien monsters, that's really all I need and they can like barely articulate and I'd be just fine with that if they cost like 15 bucks.

Honestly I'm just super dandy with my Lightning MMPR collection, I don't need much in the Ranger Department.

[yojoebro82]

23 hours ago, JayC said:

Nothing is ever canceled. Your never going to hear Hasbro come out and say they canceled this or we canceled that. Hiatus is about as close as it gets. That being said Hasbro owns this license so they could decide at any time if they wanted to produce something they could, and who knows one day may decide to take another shot.

This is true.  It's like a candidate running for office saying they're "suspending" their campaign.  They never say they're "dropping out", but at the same time we all know they're dropping out.

2024 is not shaping up to be a good year for Power Rangers fans.  No TV show, no toys, and now I'm hearing conflicting rumors about the status of the Boom comic series.  The hits just keep on coming.

It's especially sad considering this was long-running franchise that just celebrated 30 years last year.  30 years of consistent media presence on TV and in the toy aisles.  Now if feels like that was a goodbye wave.

[yojoebro82]

17 hours ago, Lord_Scareglow said:

 

Honestly I'm just super dandy with my Lightning MMPR collection, I don't need much in the Ranger Department.

Same here.  That LC Remastered series was a pretty good last hurrah for the line if nothing else.  The MMPR fans were left in pretty good shape before LC ended.  The core team completed twice over, the Ninjetti team complete, Zordon and Alpha, 2 Ritas, Zedd, Goldar, Scorpina, both versions of the Putties, Tengas, Finster, and about a half dozen of the more memorable monsters of the week.  Yes there are some holes, I personally would have wanted a Bulk and Skull, and the 1995 movie was left untapped, but no other PR iteration received that much love in LC so I am feeling fortunate and I'm going to dwell on what I have rather than what I didn't get.  I have a collection I plan to enjoy for years despite the line being gone.  Still, like I say, I feel for the fans who are into other teams that didn't make their way to completion.  

[Lord_Scareglow]

5 hours ago, yojoebro82 said:

Same here.  That LC Remastered series was a pretty good last hurrah for the line if nothing else.  The MMPR fans were left in pretty good shape before LC ended.  The core team completed twice over, the Ninjetti team complete, Zordon and Alpha, 2 Ritas, Zedd, Goldar, Scorpina, both versions of the Putties, Tengas, Finster, and about a half dozen of the more memorable monsters of the week.  Yes there are some holes, I personally would have wanted a Bulk and Skull, and the 1995 movie was left untapped, but no other PR iteration received that much love in LC so I am feeling fortunate and I'm going to dwell on what I have rather than what I didn't get.  I have a collection I plan to enjoy for years despite the line being gone.  Still, like I say, I feel for the fans who are into other teams that didn't make their way to completion.  

Yeah MMPR they did a pretty great job on, honestly for me the only real glaring omissions were Squat & Baboo, those are the only 2 I'd have really liked to have finally gotten, they were integral in that show it's crazy they got overlooked, but that being said we did get a lot of the characters we needed.

[toynewman]

Playmates Toys has teased an upcoming announcement for their Mighty Morphin Power Rangers License called Re-Ignition! Stay Tuned here for anymore info as its announced!

[Roadpigmaster]

8 hours ago, toynewman said:

Playmates Toys has teased an upcoming announcement for their Mighty Morphin Power Rangers License called Re-Ignition! Stay Tuned here for anymore info as its announced!

I want to see if they do a good job with the face sculpt of the Rangers... Everybody with helmets should look fine but to me is to display a set of the characters showing their faces.

[ucsf]

This will be another interesting step in the world of toy making. Hasbro is still outsourcing it's brands, but sometimes it goes in a very good way. Soon we'll find out.

[Lord_Scareglow]

I still have a strong feeling these are not going to be what "Collectors" are looking for, but I hope to be wrong, Playmates doesn't have a great track record as of late for putting out great collectible lines, but lets see what they can do with this, although seems a bit unnecessary with Lightning collection and S7 having done what they have done, are people going to re-collect the rangers again for what a 4th time? anyone that dedicated?, I mean we've had Bandai Legacy, Hasbro Lightning, Super7 Ultimates and now potentially Playmaters Re-Ignition, that's possibly a lot of the same over and over again?

 

[A_Spidey_Fan]

I'm sure Playmates will do fine for toys aimed at the "Kid Market", even more so if they have them at around the 5" scale, or that sort of "Smaller" 6 Inch Scale.  Would be interesting if Playmates does a more 6" Scale line aimed at Collectors, but we'll have to see what they do. 

 

1 of the things that was really cool about most of the Hasbro 6" Lighting Collection figures of the Rangers, is that most of the time, the Ranger figures also came with a Unmorphed Head, so that you could have options of when the Rangers remove their helment and what not.  

[Roadpigmaster]

On 1/18/2025 at 1:26 PM, Lord_Scareglow said:

I still have a strong feeling these are not going to be what "Collectors" are looking for, but I hope to be wrong, Playmates doesn't have a great track record as of late for putting out great collectible lines, but lets see what they can do with this, although seems a bit unnecessary with Lightning collection and S7 having done what they have done, are people going to re-collect the rangers again for what a 4th time? anyone that dedicated?, I mean we've had Bandai Legacy, Hasbro Lightning, Super7 Ultimates and now potentially Playmaters Re-Ignition, that's possibly a lot of the same over and over again?

 

They are actually fans that collect 20 different versions of a particular character so I will no doubt that some of us will be buying them. There are other's that never bought a Ranger figures before so this will be their chance to get some...

[Lord_Scareglow]

13 hours ago, Roadpigmaster said:

They are actually fans that collect 20 different versions of a particular character so I will no doubt that some of us will be buying them. There are other's that never bought a Ranger figures before so this will be their chance to get some...

Well true, there are those collectors, and there are always new collectors looking to get into the game, I guess in reality it never hurts to give the people more, for both of those reasons.

 

[Admiralty_Entertainment]

It'll be interesting to see what they have to offer (I'm assuming we'll see something at Toy Fair). As a semi-casual fan of the Lightning Collection (and not a huge Power Ranger fan in the first place - I just thought those toys were cool and I was able to pick up a heap of them relatively cheap), I'm not going to be looking at anything that's not approximately comparable with that series or fills gaps in that. As such, I fully expect there to be absolutely nothing of interest to me in their offerings (they'll have to do a vintage TMNT-style Rangers line, right?), but fingers crossed more modern style figure collectors are pleasantly surprised.