Toymaker Mattel announced on Jul. 26, 2019 it has been named global toy partner for Paramount Pictures’ Top Gun franchise ahead of the sequel “Top Gun: Maverick.”

According to NBC, the deal gives Mattel the rights to toys across multiple categories, including die-cast vehicles and aircraft, playsets, games and other toys.

“The new line will bring moments from both the classic film and the sequel to life, appealing to fans of all ages,” Mattel said in a statement.

“We are thrilled to bring Top Gun to life for both kids and their parents who undoubtedly fell in love with the franchise over thirty years ago,” said Janet Hsu, Mattel Chief Franchise Management Officer. “Our design-led approach has allowed us to recreate the high-octane action from the movie with a line of toys that will impress fans of all ages.”Yo

The new line of toys will be available globally ahead of the sequel’s U.S. premiere.

First released in 1986, Top Gun, which featured the F-14 Tomcat, then the U.S. Navy’s premier fighter, immediately became a hit and launched more than a few careers. The movie starred Tom Cruise as Maverick, a cocky but talented F-14 driver and one of only a few U.S. Naval Aviators to be sent to Topgun. Maverick has to prove himself, no matter how talented he is, to give his superiors enough confidence to keep him in the air. Joined by his Radar Intercept Officer (RIO) and close friend, Goose (Anthony Edwards), and fellow confident, talented Tomcat pilot Iceman (Val Kilmer), Maverick’s time spent training is both a serious wake-up call about the exhilaration and danger of being a U.S. Naval Aviator.

After decades of wondering what happened next to Maverick, a Top Gun sequel was officially confirmed in 2015.

In 2017, new director Joseph Kosinski said that Top Gun: Maverick would have to address how the Navy has evolved in the last 30-plus years and how its involvement in modern, foreign wars has changed how the institution trains its recruits and prepares them for what lies ahead.

Tom Cruise teased the start of filming on the long-awaited Top Gun sequel on May 31, 2018 with a tweet featuring an image of an older Capt. Pete Mitchell standing in a flight suit with his famous HGU-33 helmet (that wore to fly his F-14A Tomcat) in hand.

Top Gun: Maverick was assigned a theatrical release date of Jul. 12, 2019 last year, but last September Paramount announced that had delayed the sequel nearly an entire year, assigning it a new release date of Jun. 26, 2020.

This first appeared in Aviation Geek Club here.