Saban Brands is making a big shift in its toy business and has decided to part ways with Bandai.
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Bandai America has created the Power Rangers toys for 25 years, but Saban Brands announced today that it will not be renewing its partnership with Bandai as of April 2019. The official statement is included below.
“After a successful 25-year partnership building the iconic action franchise, Power Rangers, Saban Brands and Bandai have mutually agreed not to renew their global Power Rangers master toy license agreement, effective April 2019. Bandai will continue to support Power Rangers, including the 2018 commemoration of the Power Rangers 25th anniversary and the current season, Super Ninja Steel. In addition, Bandai, through its partnership with Toei Company Ltd., will continue to exploit toy rights for the Super Sentai series, which has enjoyed over 40 years of success, in Japan and select other Asian territories.”
The change won’t really be seen until later in 2019, so Bandai will probably end up producing any of the lines and toys that they’ve already announced or previewed. That’s good for a few reasons, including the fact that this year is the 25th anniversary, so the changeover coming in 2019 shouldn’t cause any hiccups in the celebration.
There are a few options for Saban Brands’ successful toy lines, with the most prominent two being Hasbro and Mattel. Those are two of the most well-known toy producers, and adding Power Rangers profitable toy line to their inventory would be a nice feather in either cap.
We’ll just have to wait and see what happens next, but hopefully, more details will be released sooner rather than later.
