Why Do You Think There Were So Few Unicorns and Pegasi in G3?

[rearing_palomino164]

I would have loved to see more of the unicorns!

[Wardah]

In the 80s, it took Hasbro two seconds to realize unicorns and pegasi would be the next hot thing, right after they got over their initial reaction of "HOLY @#*(, LOOK HOW WELL THOSE SIX PASTEL PONIES SOLD!!!!"

I think Hasbro was just more willing to take risks back then but now they try to play it safe. They have to focus group and research and "test the waters" before they do anything risky. I imagine it is because the stores want proof that things will sell.

[kellyponyfeathers]

I went to SDCC the year that they were selling the white SDCC pony.  I can't remember if Star Catcher had already come out or if she was about to come out, but one way or another I got to talking with the Hasbro reps there about Star Catcher, and they said . . .

She was being released to gauge if little girls like pegasus ponies.

Seriously?  SERIOUSLY???

I hadn't heard that, but I can totally believe it.  *rolls eyes*  They can't figure out anything without doing market research.  What's wrong with these people?!  Don't the women who work there remember what it was like to be little girls themselves? 

Well heck, why did it take them 30 years to make an alicorn for that matter?

I KNOW, right!?!?!?  They thought of every crazy thing under the sun they could think of to put together different groups (like Colorswirls and Fancy Mermaids, sorry if I'm insulting someone's fav ponies, but they're not at the top of my list), and yet it didn't occur to them to make a group of winged unis?!?!?!  That's the group I always wanted that was never released!

The didn't think unicorns and pegasi fit with a girly, magical/fantasy pony theme?  Now I want to know what exactly their idea was of what MLP should be!

*shrug* I guess they just wanted ponies to be PONIES and not unis or pegs.  I don't think they emphasized magic and fantasy quite as much with G3 as they did with the older G1's. But it doesn't make any sense to me either, since pegs and especially unis always got bonus points in my book, just for being more magical.

[TickledPink]

I think it came down to poor marketing decisions, plain and simple.

This. I don't think hasbro knew what the hell they were doing towards the end of the g3 line. Especially with that whole "core 7" crap.

[Nesferxty]

I've only recently starting collecting the G3s and its typical that the ones I fell in love with most are the Unicorns

I keep seeing them pop on on eBay but they always seem to go for insane prices probably cause there isn't many unis floating around.

I love the variety in the G4s and that out of the mane 6 there are 2 of each type. Would be great if they did more poses though

[oddish]

This was always the most frustrating thing for me when collecting G3s. Wave after wave and still no pegasi, no unicorns and I just didn't get it.

I was sooo excited to get Star Catcher but then after that they were still slow about releasing more pegasi, and by the time they did I had gotten bored of collecting, and the only other one I ever got was Hidden Treasure. And I have none of the unicorns. Sigh... what everyone's said about why they did it that way makes sense but I wish that it hadn't been that way.

Ah, but they did have Breezies... I wanted so badly to like them because new pony species!! But I just found them ugly and it drove me crazy that they didn't do better...

I really hope G4 is more similar to G1 in that respect. I'm very hopeful. They started out with four pony species, and there are the glimmer wings (though I'm not too big on them), and now we're getting boys. So things are going good. Really really hope the trend continues!

[Wysteria]

Poor marketing on the G3's is right! I got to looking around on youtube after watching the last episode of FIM, and came across some bronies comenting over the Runaway rainbow movie that featured the unicorns, and couldn't help but think what I same it was they never made half the pretty background ones you can see in that show:( But those movies, watching them now after FIM, are so amazingly aweful! I wasn't thrilled with them back then either but I am very thankful hasbro seems to be treating the G4's better.
 
Not having a show like FIM for the G3's was their biggest flaw. Sure we had a couple movies, but they didn't make you excited to see what happens next week to see what new characters there could be. They just went about the marketing all wrong, and despite us collectors grumbling about core 7 at the pony fairs, they still didn't listen.  They literally killed the G3 line. I loved the ponies from the early years through the unicorns, but I think they realized they killed the line and had to start fresh. I'm just thankful it didn't take them another 10 years to come back!

[gallifreyan_pony]

I honestly didn't realise that there was such a discrepancy between the number of Earths to the numbers of Unicorns and Pegs. Wow.

To me, it seems a no -brainer that little girls would love unicorns and pegasus ponies but I can imagine some marketing person talking about returning to first principles and streamlining the range and all that sort of thing. Not necessarily a bad idea in itself, but MLP has always seemed the thrive of the sheer variety of ponies available.

I also tend to believe that more people buy ponies that look good on the shelves than ones they recognise from the TV shows (that's what I did anyway!), so the idea of introducing the new races in features to get people excited was only ever going to have a limited success rate.

[Dragonflitter]

I went to SDCC the year that they were selling the white SDCC pony.  I can't remember if Star Catcher had already come out or if she was about to come out, but one way or another I got to talking with the Hasbro reps there about Star Catcher, and they said . . .

She was being released to gauge if little girls like pegasus ponies.

This is especially awkward for marketing since she was a mold they didn't plan to use again, her wings were not styled like MLP wings had been in the past or would be in the future, and she was more expensive than the regular singles! Geez. If Star Catcher didn't sell, it wasn't because little girls didn't like pegasi, it was because their moms realized they could buy two regular ponies for about the same price of Star Catcher.

I suppose if the wedding castle doesn't sell well, Hasbro will think little girls don't want to play with boy ponies!