When I was 8 years-old, my brother (10 at the time) and I really wanted Pro Wrestling for the NES (Nintendo Entertainment System). Pro Wrestling had a monster character called “The Amazon” who bit his opponents’ heads — that’s pretty much all it took back then for a game to be a hit. But for Christmas 1989, we got WWF WrestleMania, a terrible game with real WWF (now WWE) wrestlers. The worst part? No one bit anyone’s head in the officially licensed game. This Christmas, 8 year-olds may be disappointed for another reason.
Netflix’s (by way of Sony) most-watched-ever movie KPop Demon Hunters is (still) all the rage. If you don’t know KPop Demon Hunters yet, you will in a week when roughly 10,000 Rumis come trick-or-treating. Quality on the HUNTR/X costumes will vary, as the only options are homemade, sort of rush-delivered officially licensed Spirit Halloween costumes or a generic knockoff.
Parents will have only have that final option come Christmas toy-shopping.
Earlier this week, Netflix signed deals with toymakers Mattel and Hasbro to manufacture KPop Demon Hunters consumer products. Mattel will make the dolls, action figures, accessories, collectibles and play sets; Hasbro will make the stuffys, electronics and board games. The problem is, none of this stuff will be available for this holiday season, when they would be in peak demand.
Don’t blame the builders. Well, not too much.
A Netflix spokesperson told The Hollywood Reporter that when the streamer approached its licensing partners and retailers in 2024, it received only “soft” interest. That’s not shocking: KPop Demon Hunters was wholly new, unproven IP. One year and 325 million views later, everyone is sprinting at full speed to catch up to demand.
They won’t make it for the holidays — not these holidays at least. It’s just not possible.
Making toys and games usually takes about 18 months from “concept to store shelves,” Nick Karamanos, Mattel’s senior vice president of entertainment partnerships tells The Hollywood Reporter.
Where were you at those pitch meetings 12-18 months ago, Nick? (Just kidding — until I see my daughters’ Christmas lists, perhaps.)
Karamanos and his counterparts at Netflix (and probably Hasbro, though they didn’t respond to our emails) are on it. Their stuff will begin to come out in phases from spring 2026 through Christmas 2026.
“This is warp-speed for us,” Karamanos said. “It is absolutely the fastest we’ve ever done.”
To put it another way: Santa’s elves couldn’t even keep up with Karamanos’ assembly line, so don’t bank on that loophole either, kids.
And Netflix is “wildly” expediting the product-selection process on its end, he said. Some products have already been dreamt up by Mattel and approved by the streamer — those products (Karamanos could not elaborate on what they are) will be the first ones out. It helps to play catch-up with a company you’ve worked with before: Mattel makes toys for Netflix series Stranger Things, Squid Game and Bridgerton.
Pushing the pedal to the metal here will not push aside quality control, “a huge point of emphasis for us,” Karamanos promised. Another is providing what he called “newness” in its product line. In other words, Mattel isn’t just making Barbie dolls with long, purple braids (though there will probably be those too) here. The excellent music of KPop Demon Hunters is “on the table, absolutely” for his line, Karamanos said.
Karamanos says he’s cool sharing the (eventual) spoils with competitor Hasbro. “They have a core competency and they’re going to create products in their areas that we wouldn’t, and so I wish them well.”
A person with knowledge of the deal told THR that Mattel is making about 80 percent of the consumer products in the Mattel/Hasbro split.
KPop Demon Hunters
Courtesy of Netflix
HUNTR/X fans won’t be totally SOL this Xmas. Netflix’s own shop carries KPop Demon Hunters clothing, Funko Pop! figures, light sticks created by Copan Global, etc., and themed apparel continues to roll out at Amazon, Zara Kids, Target, Gap, Old Navy and Hot Topic.
One thing Netflix (and Mattel and Hasbro and every other company named in this story) definitely doesn’t want you doing is buying unlicensed KPop Demon Hunters toys (on, say, Etsy) or generic knockoffs, like “Korean Movie Figures.”
Netflix says it will “work closely with our IP security team to take action where appropriate.” They’ll have help.
“We certainly would help Netflix go and pursue those counterfeits,” Karamanos said.
