The toy industry is facing some dark days, what with the death of Toys R Us and a general pattern of declining sales, but Hasbro isn’t just going to sit back and wait until the entire industry is replaced by smart phone apps and Fortnite. To try and squeeze as much money as it can out of toy sales before that day comes, it has just picked up the rights to another big multimedia brand: Power Rangers.
This comes from Deadline, which says Hasbro bought the rights to Power Rangers—and a number of lesser-known properties like My Pet Monster, Popples, and Treehouse Detectives—for $522 million from original owner Saban. That company will stay on board “in a consultant role,” but Hasbro will take over Power Rangers merchandise next spring. It’s unclear how (or if) this will impact the Power Rangers TV show or the future of its live-action movie series, but since the show has almost been on for 900 episodes already, Hasbro probably couldn’t even stop it if it tried. At the very least, we might get some cool Power Rangers cross-overs with the Transformers or My Little Pony now.
[Note: Saban Capital Group, the now-former owner of the Power Rangers, is a part owner of Univision Communications, the parent company of Fusion Media Group, which owns The A.V. Club.]