All the uncertainties of our age were on gaudy display at Toy Fair 2026. Last year marked the venerable showcase’s return to its traditional February timeslot after COVID era disruption. Last year the mood was full speed ahead even as questions loomed: the Diamond bankruptcy was fresh but still “business as usual” and tariffs were a big, terrifying question mark.
One year later, some major players had been severely dinged: Funko has foundered and faces an uncertain future; and just days before this Toy Fair, Mattel had a painful earnings report that resulted in a 30% stock plunge.
And tariffs have taken a huge toll on the industry. Smaller companies had to undergo major cutbacks, while larger companies ate the tariffs while quietly raising prices. But everyone has been affected even if no one has been paying attention.
Following a year of uncertainty, the show floor took a big hit, with many empty spaces and booths completely rearranged. With my own trip to ComicsPRO coming only a few days after Toy Fair, I had to cram the whole show into two days, and the new show floor meant I wandered around a lot trying to figure out where everything was. Instead of the “collector toy” area that used to be on the lower level of the Javits Center, companies were spread all over. It’s not entirely clear who pulled out of the show either…I think it was more 10% attrition among a bunch of categories.
The new layout found Funko and Lego across the aisle from each other, resulting in a standoff between two enclosed booths. I didn’t have time to tour Lego, but the Funko booth was much smaller than in the past, although still showing off a wide array of sizes and brands. The newest addition was a giant Derpy from KPop Demon Hunters, and it seems the rush to get KPDH Pops on shelves gave the beleaguered Funko a shot in the arm. The newest brand from Funko was Pop! Mysteries, blind boxes (what else) featuring stylized horror favorites.
Blind boxes and bags were everywhere, natch. And so was sadness. A visit to the Playmates booth showed an array of their final Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles toys before the brand moves over to Mattel, and the mood was distinctly elegiac.
At Mattel, one couldn’t help but notice a lot of bursts of green and yellow accompanied by mutant slime….almost as if they were waiting to throw the word “Turtles!” onto the branding. “It looks like you’re already ready for the Turtles,” I observed to our tour guide at Mattel. He just smiled.
This year was all about the big brands. As one industry insider told us, companies are sticking with the tried and true to the tariffs and other uncertainties, leaving less room for adventurous, niche products.
Besides the Turtles, other brands that were everywhere you looked:
- Pokémon (the most successful toy brand right now we were told, although what that actually means, who knows.)
- Godzilla: also super popular
- Powerpuff Girls (Aughts nostalgia)
- Baby Yoda – The Mandalorian and Grogu has a lot of heavy lifting to do this spring
- And of course, KPop Demon Hunters. Everyone got into the brand, from Mattel’s collector figures to Hasbro’s weapon playsets and KPDH monopoly and Funko’s Pops. The appearance of KPDH was an example of the toy industry’s need to pivot quickly: all of the manufacturers noted how quickly they had to bring their products to market after the surprise hit status of the Netflix film. But they all managed to do it – despite a typical production cycle for toys being a year or more. The results were strong sales everywhere, according to spokespeople. Everyone got it done–they had to.
There was not a lot of new IP on display, at least in my relatively brief visit. The sole exception was Playmates promoting a line of Dungeon Crawler Carl toys, based on the hit novels and audio books. With clever character designs and an appealing cat – always a draw for toy lovers – the toys are cute but will fans follow this relatively unknown property? We’ll see.
Perhaps most interesting for comics Kremlinologists was the fall out of the Diamond Disaster. Last year there was a final Diamond booth, where we were told “business as usual.” Of course, that was not really the case. But most of the survivors were back in one form or another.
Alliance Entertainment, the rejected suitor for Diamond, has continued with its plan to sell pop culture collectibles, with a second catalog landing just before Toy Fair. Although they have exhibited at Toy Fair in the past, I guess I never really noticed them before. This time they had a Diamond-sized booth showing off a familiar array of licensed toys – including WETA’s Lord of the Rings figures, redeployed for the 25th anniversary and just as timeless and beautiful as ever. Alliance is still staking its claim in this arena, we were told, but they are in it for the long haul.
The biggest shake-up was Ad Populum’s rebranding. With the show floor reconfigured, all of Ad Populum’s brands were displayed in a larger area: Rubies, Wiz Kids, Enesco, Chia, NECO and most intriguingly, the new entity Diamond Select Brands. The best way to describe the new DSB’s business plan is how it fits in with the rest of Ad Populum’s companies. Enesco sells tchatkes to gift stores, Kidrobot sells designer toys to boutiques, and DSB will sell pop culture collectibles to comics shops and other outlets. Looked at this way, it actually makes sense.
The presentation in the booth answered some questions and raised others. An entire wall of the display was given over the showcases of brands that DSB has deals with – including Good Smile, Hiya, Medicom, Boss Fight Studio and and Beast Kingdom – and even more intriguingly, a timeline of Diamond history (but just the highlights) ran across the top of the displays. The final display case featured a large Garfield figure with a DSB branded food dish. What on earth….? While the meaning of the pet food dish was not clear, maybe it was just meant to put a punctuation mark on the whole tiresome affair.
I didn’t get a tour of the booth, but I did chat to a few people on background, and hopefully I’ll have more official DSB news as they roll out their programs.
One thing did strike me: a year ago I doubt anyone had ever heard of Ad Populum, the parent holding company behind NECA, Wiz Kids, Rubies and more. Now, it’s being promoted as the umbrella for the whole suite of products. Even Chia Pets.
A couple of other news notes: a McFarlane Toys rep said they are still doing DC figures – Mattel’s line is still in development aside from a Batmobile or two.
Indeed, one thing I learned is that exclusives are not very exclusive any more. Whereas in the past licenses were for very specific products – one company might have 6 inch figures and another 12 inch dolls for instance. Now everybody just does everything, and it ends up being a popularity contest? This explosion of repetitive, competitive figures is part of what made Toy Fair so exhausting.
As mentioned, my packed two-day tour at Toy Fair was a bit of a blur. I took more than 1000 photos though, and here’s an edited selection with some commentary.
“will fans follow this relatively unknown property? We’ll see.”
You’re probably not aware of the sheer level of fanaticism in place for Dungeon Crawler Carl. There’s already a ton of merch that sells pretty well, and this is before the movie has even started production. Playmates was really smart to get in on DCC.