Playmates: A Force to Be Reckoned With (Collecting Toys - August 1994)

When I posted the Gang of Five article from the August 1994 issue of Collecting Toys, I mentioned I was actually scanning something else when I stumbled across that story. This is what I'd initially planned to post back then. It's about the toy company Playmates, best known for its Star Trek and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TMNT) action figures. I've shown a few of the toys in posts about the Star Trek Generations Enterprise and TMNT merchandise. As you'll see in the article, TMNT is the property that turned Playmates into a major player in the toy industry. Along with TMNT and Star Trek, it also had toy lines based on Exo Squad and seaQuest DSV in the '90s, and it began publishing video games in 1994, such as Earthworm Jim. Playmates Toys Limited is still in business today and just this week announced that its TMNT licensing agreement with Viacom will not be renewed when it expires at the end of 2026. It had also returned to Star Trek action figures in 2022, but due to poor sales, it ended production of those in 2023.