Strap in folks, this one is big.
It was announced in a short press release that Bandai America is no longer going to be the partner for Saban Brands for the Power Rangers toy franchise. The press release is 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.
We have more details and will announce them shortly.
From Saban
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.
That is... quite a bombshell.
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.
Wow.
What does Bandai of America have left that could keep it alive as a powerhouse?
Serious question here.
Vangelus brought it up on Twitter but...yeah, how would the licensing even work now?
Like...Toei and Bandai produce Sentai goods. PR is a Sentai translation. Sooo...yeah...This is such a weird and shocking call.
Interesting.
Big news
Huh. Interesting.
Curious to see where this will go now.
now if judd gets rid of the writers, my faith in pr will be restored.
I am wondering how PLEX is going to figure into all of this and if that means no more American exclusive designs. Now I could be wrong but isn't PLEX a divison of Namco Bandai.
It's a longshot, but I hope that someone like Bluefin gets distribution rights to start to bring over some Sentai merchandise.
Also I hope Hasbro doesn't get the license, they control too much of the market right now.
Wow I didn't see this happening at all.
Keep reading: Bandai America loses Power Rangers license - Page 2
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