Saban Brands Teams Up With Hasbro For Power Rangers Toys Starting In 2019

Power Rangers has a new ally, and its name is Hasbro.

Saban Brands shocked a lot of people when it decided to not renew its contract with Bandai regarding the master toy license for Power Rangers. Now the company's announced that the master toy license has a new home at Hasbro, who will design, produce, and distribute many of the toys for the franchise going forward starting in 2019.

"We're particularly excited to partner together to help reignite and drive this brand for the next 25 years and more," Hasbro CEO Brian Goldner told Heat Vision. "It's a partnership that is very collaborative and feels very good to us to be in business with Saban and to help power Power Rangers."

Goldner and Power Rangers creator Haim Saban have been friends ever since Goldner worked at Bandai. Goldner then moved to Hasbro, and ever since he's always hoped they would work together again.

"Our friendship started, as a matter of fact, when Brian left the advertising agency he worked at and moved to Bandai, which had the license at the time," Saban explains. "Since then, we've been in touch on and off, on different subject matters. From time to time, Brian would say to me, 'So when are you coming to Hasbro?' [Laughs] This is just the culmination of events that have been happening for some time. We're just beyond thrilled."

Hasbro is adding a new team dedicated to just Power Rangers to its West Coast offices, a move that allows the team to work with Saban on an hourly and daily basis whenever the need calls for it.

"Both teams seem to get along so well that they don't need Bryan or me," Saban said. "The two of us have other things that we do, other than Power Rangers, even though it might not seem like it. Brian is running a multi-million dollar toy company!"

Hopes are high for the new pairing, especially considering the untapped potential of the Power Rangers brand as a whole.

"In terms of user-generated content, Power Rangers has more views that all — I repeat, all — superhero properties combined," Saban said, specifically referring to pointing to research from content management company Zefr. "This is a staggering fact. I know this sounds crazy, but I don't think we've even scratched the surface."

"We're particularly excited to introduce the brand to the youngest Power Rangers fans, but we've also talked for many years about the growth and development of the fan economy," Goldner said "We do believe that fans today have more interest in, and more access to, fan-oriented products. The online retailing world allows us to retail products at higher price points, along with conventions, to move product that are aimed at older fans. You can only imagine with the amazing creativity of the Power Rangers show, as well as Haim's own creativity, that this allows for some very exciting things as we move forward."

No specifics were given, but Goldner seemed to suggest that classic characters will be an important part of the mix.

"I think there's a lot of love for the classic characters," Goldner admits. "I was around in the first years when Haim and Saban decided to renew the concept every year, and we could see how it renewed interest every year. It allowed the creative to change and the brand to evolve. We want to continue to evolve and reinvent. We're very dedicated to continuing to evolve and rededicate the brand every year."

The Power Rangers brand has expanded into plenty of new areas in recent years, but toys will always be an essential part of the brand.

"Toys are absolutely essential to Power Rangers," Saban said. "Toys are basically the leading merchandising and licensing partner that we have. It's very important."