NECA '87 Toon TMNT

One other thing to consider if the sales channel, of which there are several. There's the standard kids' toy aisle in Target/Walmarts. This is where the Playmates figures have always been. Then there's a relatively recent invention, the collector's section in Target/Walmarts, which has its own separate spot in the electronics section (often not even that far away from the kids' toy aisle. That's where the NECA stuff is. Then you have online retail, both direct on the manufacturer's sites themselves, "fan channel" like BBTS and EE, and of course Amazon, as well as Target and Walmart. Then you have the direct market -- i.e., comic shops.

Playmates really only distributed in the kids' toy aisle, the major toy retailer sites, and Amazon; NECA distributed in the collectors aisle, their own site, "fan channels," Amazon, Target, and Walmart; and Super7 is just on their website, Amazon, and "fan channels."

I'm not sure how Mattel in general approaches sales channels, but I thought it was more similar to Playmates with the addition of "fan channels."
 
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gpmartin414 said:
One other thing to consider if the sales channel, of which there are several. There's the standard kids' toy aisle in Target/Walmarts. This is where the Playmates figures have always been. Then there's a relatively recent invention, the collector's section in Target/Walmarts, which has its own separate spot in the electronics section (often not even that far away from the kids' toy aisle. That's where the NECA stuff is. Then you have online retail, both direct on the manufacturer's sites themselves, "fan channel" like BBTS and EE, and of course Amazon, as well as Target and Walmart. Then you have the direct market -- i.e., comic shops.

Playmates really only distributed in the kids' toy aisle, the major toy retailer sites, and Amazon; NECA distributed in the collectors aisle, their own site, "fan channels," Amazon, Target, and Walmart; and Super7 is just on their website, Amazon, and "fan channels."

I'm not sure how Mattel in general approaches sales channels, but I thought it was more similar to Playmates with the addition of "fan channels."
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A good example of this in motion was how Mattel handled letting NECA do DC figures; they didn't. That was an 'absolutely not' situation that stopped NECA dead in their tracks for ..what was it.. 2 years until they were able to release those at the end of Mattel's run? And they certainly didn't pick up again and start doing them when McFarlane had the license.

Hasbro has also, historically, not really allowed anyone to play in the Star Wars space except in specific areas they're not interested in - like the mini-figures and mini-vehicles. But NECA wasn't out here putting Darth Vaders on their webstore.

TMNT almost seemed to exist in a vacuum, licensing-wise, because Playmates was very comfortable doing the specific thing they did and didn't care about those other markets. I'm not sure there's another toy company operating right now that feels that way. And judging by Playmates stepping in to squash the Super7 TMNT line, I think even they were having a change of heart at the end.
 
Damien said:
I cannot say this is how things always are, so take this with an entire sea of salt, but it may be worth mentioning:
I have seen precisely 1 (one - singular) actual, real life, complete (master) licensing contract for toys. A very large property. There was basically a 'right of first refusal' in the contract that allowed the licensee what was essentially first dibs on all toy-related product before sub-licenses could be farmed out.
Most companies just can't/won't do -everything-. Like, Hasbro probably could have crushed DST by saying 'we also want to make specialty retail 7" figures.' But why -would- they? It's a terrible use of their resources. Let DST have a tiny piece of a pie that Hasbro is otherwise absolutely devouring - it doesn't really hurt Hasbro. Under that theory of a contract, Mattel may legitimately want to make all this stuff. OR they might just think it's worth making a little of everything so they don't have to even worry about anyone competing, even indirectly, with their stuff.

Time will tell.
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Yep. I suppose a simple way of putting it is that the master license holder automatically jumps to the front of the line and I don't think the Playmates license was any different. I feel pretty confident in saying we got those Mirage turtles from Playmates because of the NECA figures. They probably did the original classic collection to squash attempts to farm out that likeness to other companies, and so on. They lost their appetite for that stuff, probably because it wasn't a big money maker relative to their other stuff, and it along with the sale of the franchise opened the door for other companies. We may be going back to those days as Mattel just got access to a new sandbox. Or not, there's always the possibility it's more narrow and that Paramount prioritizes its ability to license this thing out to many parties which just takes us back to the whole "we don't really know right now and probably won't until San Diego, at the earliest." I am definitely of the mind that if these companies aren't showing 2027 product there then it's likely over.
 
Misfit said:
Yep. I suppose a simple way of putting it is that the master license holder automatically jumps to the front of the line and I don't think the Playmates license was any different.
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You know, I always found it weird Playmates would do reissues themed to whatever NECA and Super7 were making. Like not even just obvious stuff like 87 reissues, 2012, 2003, Movie star… they rereleased the 2012 Monsters and randomly called a set of 87 reissues “TMNT Adventures” figures.

I wonder if that was to assert dominance over that branch, like if they didn’t say “um actually we also sell Ninja Turtles dressed as Universal Monsters!” it would have given NECA wiggle room to have those in the main toy aisle or something
 
So, maybe I’m just being a bit pedantic, but the press release from Mattel and Paramount for TMNT doesn’t say “master license” anywhere, so is this something that is normally inferred from these statements rather than explicitly stated, or is everyone just assuming? Don’t get me wrong, they list a whole host of product categories (and specifically call out collectibles) so maybe that statement covers it, but I’m just wondering if anyone knows for sure if this is similar to master licenses of the past?

I’m sure NECA and Super 7 are at risk at some point regardless, simply due to the fact that Paramount is raising licensing fees across the board. I guess I just never paid attention before to whether “master license” was called out explicitly in similar deals, I just always assumed it to be so until 2020 when WB split everything up for DC.
 
scottg10 said:
So, maybe I’m just being a bit pedantic, but the press release from Mattel and Paramount for TMNT doesn’t say “master license” anywhere, so is this something that is normally inferred from these statements rather than explicitly stated, or is everyone just assuming? Don’t get me wrong, they list a whole host of product categories (and specifically call out collectibles) so maybe that statement covers it, but I’m just wondering if anyone knows for sure if this is similar to master licenses of the past?

I’m sure NECA and Super 7 are at risk at some point regardless, simply due to the fact that Paramount is raising licensing fees across the board. I guess I just never paid attention before to whether “master license” was called out explicitly in similar deals, I just always assumed it to be so until 2020 when WB split everything up for DC.
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It's partly observing what's covered in the license (the traditional 'master' stuff), and also the fact that Playmates -lost- the license to Mattel, and Playmates very much did have a master license. It just stands to reason that a mostly intact version of that license is what was up for grabs rather than some divvied up version.

But I don't think anyone here can know for absolute certain.
 
Mint In Boks said:
You know, I always found it weird Playmates would do reissues themed to whatever NECA and Super7 were making. Like not even just obvious stuff like 87 reissues, 2012, 2003, Movie star… they rereleased the 2012 Monsters and randomly called a set of 87 reissues “TMNT Adventures” figures.

I wonder if that was to assert dominance over that branch, like if they didn’t say “um actually we also sell Ninja Turtles dressed as Universal Monsters!” it would have given NECA wiggle room to have those in the main toy aisle or something
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Probably there was something to that. Especially with the vintage reissues and what Super7 was doing. We also know that Playmates scuttled the initial plans for Super7 and NECA's turtle van by reissuing the old Party Wagon. They both had to essentially wait for a certain period of time to pass before Paramount would allow them to do their own.

Black Wright of Toy Collector magazine has reported this as an acquisition of the master toy license by Mattel so I have no reason to think he's wrong. We just don't know exactly what a master license means for TMNT vs what it does for other brands.
 
Seems like to me the consensus of this forum is that it’s very likely Mattel will shut down NECA and Super7 after this year. Bummer.


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All I care about are the Lingjihun and Mondoverse Turtles at this point. NECA had a good run. Getting out all the villains they could should take precedence over giving me Sailor Hat Raph or Little Orphan Annie variants of Michelangelo.
 
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