In a press release posted to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on December 23, Playmates Toys informed shareholders that it will lose the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles license at the end of 2026. The Hong Kong-based toy company has released the franchise’s figures since their debut in 1988, when the characters were still owned by creators Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird, and co-produced the first two seasons of the original 1987 cartoon as a means of marketing the toys.
The letter does not share why, but states negotiations to renew the license began in October 2025, two months after the merger between Skydance and TMNT owner Paramount was finalized. They had “recently been formally notified by the Licensor that the License Agreement will not be renewed upon expiry on 31 December 2026. As a result, the rights of PICL [Playmates International Company Limited] to sell the Licensed Products shall cease on 31 December 2026.”
It is likely Paramount Skydance’s licensing fees simply became too high for Playmates, based on similar recent stories about Star Trek merchandise. Apparel company Hero Within and painter Kavita Maharaj‘s company Retrospect Studios both announced that they would stop selling Trek products after the merger, because Paramount had increased the minimum royalties to the point they would be unprofitable.
Playmates took on the TMNT property in 1987, three years after the comic’s debut, on the condition that the cartoon would be produced. From 1988 to 1992, they reportedly sold $1.1 billion worth of toys, making TMNT the third highest-selling action figure line at the time, behind G.I. Joe and Star Wars; the company’s site boasts that by 1990, the turtles had handed them 60 percent of the boys’ doll market.
While other companies, like Hasbro and Mattel, have released TMNT toys, Playmates has continued to produce action figures for nearly every major media incarnation of the turtles, including 2023’s movie reboot Mutant Mayhem, and its spin-off series Tales of the TMNT. As a result, another licensee will have to snap up the rights soon for the untitled sequel, due out September 17, 2027, if it’s to have its own line of action figures, as well as the planned live-action reboot, penciled for a release on November 17, 2028.
Playmates’s other toy lines include Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (licensed from Hasbro), Legendary’s MonsterVerse, Miraculous Ladybug, and Winx Club, while past brands include Star Trek, Ben 10, and Frozen. The company’s announcement states TMNT could generate as much as 77 percent of their annual revenue, and added in another document that the lack of a new film strongly contributed to a decline of 58 percent in profits in the first half of 2025. As they put it themselves, “Shareholders and potential investors should exercise caution.”
