Hasbro is starting a NEW approach to merchandise

[RAMChYLD]

Well, I do hope it's proven false, or if it's true, Hasbro won't follow through with it. I believe the toys and TV series should be kept separate.

I'm constantly blocking the TV series from my mind since my meltdown earlier this year. Thinking about the TV series for too long (as in, for more than one minute) results in my depression kicking in. Right now the reason I'm still collecting the toys is that they're in a different universe from the TV series. If Hasbro integrates the two line, well, I will have to let the toys go as well, lest I want to live in constant deep depression.

To be honest, after I made my earlier post, I let my mind digest what it read. I ended up trying to get through the entire day while trying to suppress my depression. It wasn't fun.

[Galactica]

Well the rumor is probably false- but the first post definitely is not-

If watching My Little Pony makes your depression kick in-  I think you probably need some professional help... 

As for show to toy ideas-
I personally would like a Fluttershy and RD Jousting set with armor-  (like Salli came up with, hehe)

[momo_no_hime]

To be honest this almost reads like Hasbro hasn't like something that's been going on. The idea of restructuring used by a big company - I don't know a lot of times they use restructuring as a pretty word to just mean some folks are getting fired or replaced.

I mean, this is me just looking at it one way.

Then again they almost read like Hasbro is laying down some law, coming in and completely taking over what previously they had either other people doing or didn't really like everything that was going on so they're putting in a big wheel to oversee things and make sure whatever comes out of the other companies is approved by hasbro.

Not just you thinking that! I literally was reading that article as "this one guy is getting a bigger paycheck and will keep a close watch on the show." Realistically, it's in Hasbro's best financial interests to keep the show and the toys tied as close together as they can. (Yay marketing!) Not saying that I like that idea, but I'm just figuring Hasbro is looking out for its bottom line again.

Well, I do hope it's proven false, or if it's true, Hasbro won't follow through with it. I believe the toys and TV series should be kept separate.

I'm constantly blocking the TV series from my mind since my meltdown earlier this year. Thinking about the TV series for too long (as in, for more than one minute) results in my depression kicking in. Right now the reason I'm still collecting the toys is that they're in a different universe from the TV series. If Hasbro integrates the two line, well, I will have to let the toys go as well, lest I want to live in constant deep depression.

To be honest, after I made my earlier post, I let my mind digest what it read. I ended up trying to get through the entire day while trying to suppress my depression. It wasn't fun.

Umm... if ponies are causing you that much grief, perhaps you need to seek professional help and/or move away from collecting. I'm sorry, but it's just a show for kids and toys made for kids. Ponies shouldn't cause that much grief to anybody.

[Betelgeuse]

I want my toys to be designed by toy designers. Not someone who was copy pasting some stuff in flash to fill out a scene.

THIS.
I like the variety in G1 and how the cartoon's ponies were based off of them. I'd really like to see some of the toys of G4 make it into the cartoon; Twilight Sky, Sassa Flash, Star Dreams. Also, I just want the ponies to be unique and original.

[Tropical_Sunset]

I want my toys to be designed by toy designers. Not someone who was copy pasting some stuff in flash to fill out a scene.

THIS.
I like the variety in G1 and how the cartoon's ponies were based off of them. I'd really like to see some of the toys of G4 make it into the cartoon; Twilight Sky, Sassa Flash, Star Dreams. Also, I just want the ponies to be unique and original.

Twilight Sky and Sassaflash are from the cartoon. 

I personally don't see the difference between a FiM bg character designed by an animator and most of the brushable ponies that Hasbro has been putting out.  Simple 1-2 color symbol and 1-2 color hair.  Diamond Rose, Cherry Pie, Twinkleshine, etc. are all incredibly plain.  I still love them, but I don't see the big disparity between them and Lyra or Flower Wishes, from a design point of view. 

The main six themselves aren't too colorful themselves, minus Rainbow Dash, so the simple color schemes match them.  All of the CMC and 4 of the main six have 1-2 hair colors, as well.  So it's not just the bg characters that have simplistic designs.

[Betelgeuse]

I want my toys to be designed by toy designers. Not someone who was copy pasting some stuff in flash to fill out a scene.

THIS.
I like the variety in G1 and how the cartoon's ponies were based off of them. I'd really like to see some of the toys of G4 make it into the cartoon; Twilight Sky, Sassa Flash, Star Dreams. Also, I just want the ponies to be unique and original.

Twilight Sky and Sassaflash are from the cartoon. 

I personally don't see the difference between a FiM bg character designed by an animator and most of the brushable ponies that Hasbro has put out.  Simple 1-2 color symbol and 1-2 color hair.  Diamond Rose, Cherry Pie, Twinkleshine, etc. are all incredibly plain.  I still love them, but I don't see the big difference between them and Lyra or Flower Wishes, design-wise.

OH MI GOSH!!! WHERE!!!??? Also, I'd prefer they'd have speaking roles to be honest and be a bit more than background characters.

I guess I just don't like the idea of flash-based design. Probably because I am a "back in the day" sort of person. But yeah, you have a point. Though I think that the toyline and cartoon should be kept somewhat separate with the people who work on toys and who work on the cartoon.

[lovesbabysquirmy]

I highly doubt any of this will affect the toys we get to buy off the shelves. 

Hasbro is just making its investors aware that instead of separate departments for "Toy Design" and "TV Shows", that they are firing/laying off/restructuring workers' jobs so that there is just one department, "Children's Multi-media Entertainment".  The costs of retaining and training staff become cumbersome in a large corporation like Hasbro, so they constantly are shifting dynamics around so that they can continue to grow. 

It makes much more sense to hire a crew for the TV show and then have them be supervised by someone who will go over to the office next door and also supervise how the crew for the toyline is doing, rather than have a supervisor in charge of the animators and another supervisor for the toy designers.  If you work in an industry where your colleagues' progress is directly linked to your own, it can be drastically frustrating if your colleagues never find time to get together for meetings. 

But I seriously doubt any of the press release relates at all to what we as collectors will be able to buy in the near future.  :-p

[Flitter]

OH MI GOSH!!! WHERE!!!??? Also, I'd prefer they'd have speaking roles to be honest and be a bit more than background characters.

Twilight Sky http://mlp.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_ponies#Twilight_Sky

Sassaflash http://mlp.wikia.com/wiki/Sassaflash

[Majesty]

Personally, I think the best thing to do is to not worry about whether it's true or not.  We should wait and see what the future of MLP holds for us.  See what the toys look like and that kind of thing.

Post Merge: December 13, 2012, 12:54:55 PM

Well, I do hope it's proven false, or if it's true, Hasbro won't follow through with it. I believe the toys and TV series should be kept separate.

I'm constantly blocking the TV series from my mind since my meltdown earlier this year. Thinking about the TV series for too long (as in, for more than one minute) results in my depression kicking in. Right now the reason I'm still collecting the toys is that they're in a different universe from the TV series. If Hasbro integrates the two line, well, I will have to let the toys go as well, lest I want to live in constant deep depression.

To be honest, after I made my earlier post, I let my mind digest what it read. I ended up trying to get through the entire day while trying to suppress my depression. It wasn't fun.

Why does the show or the ponies make you depressed?  I can see if you miss the G1 days and it reminds you of how it isn't the same but it shouldn't make you depressed.

[Malicieuse]

I want my toys to be designed by toy designers. Not someone who was copy pasting some stuff in flash to fill out a scene.

THIS.
I like the variety in G1 and how the cartoon's ponies were based off of them. I'd really like to see some of the toys of G4 make it into the cartoon; Twilight Sky, Sassa Flash, Star Dreams. Also, I just want the ponies to be unique and original.

Twilight Sky and Sassaflash are from the cartoon. 

I personally don't see the difference between a FiM bg character designed by an animator and most of the brushable ponies that Hasbro has been putting out.  Simple 1-2 color symbol and 1-2 color hair.  Diamond Rose, Cherry Pie, Twinkleshine, etc. are all incredibly plain.  I still love them, but I don't see the big disparity between them and Lyra or Flower Wishes, from a design point of view. 

The main six themselves aren't too colorful themselves, minus Rainbow Dash, so the simple color schemes match them.  All of the CMC and 4 of the main six have 1-2 hair colors, as well.  So it's not just the bg characters that have simplistic designs.

And the plain color designs are one of my biggest pet peeves when it comes to FIM. Especially the amount of male ponies that have brown slapped on them. The earlier (2011) G4 toys had a lot more color. Like Blossomforth, Dewdrop Dazzle, Honeybuzz, Sugarcup...It's very noticable when you check the earlier blindbag waves to the newer ones. Wave 6 has hardly any ponies with more than one mane color. Diamond Rose and Cherry Pie are both fairly recent ponies and Twinkleshine was released in a set with some more interesting ponies. To me it indeed looks as if they are moving more towards the show and i don't think that's always such a great thing. (Like the million re-releases.)

Lyra and Trixie might have some pretty nice designs. But there are also plenty of characters that have recycled cutie marks and recycled, simple color combinations. I don't think is wierd some people prefer someone who gets paid to think up designs over someone who just quickly has to slap togheter a design to fill out a scene. I pick Dewdrop Dazzle and Honeybuzz over Lyra and Trixie any day. Not to mention that i would like designs that don't pop up on the show. Like TAF designs.

[Tropical_Sunset]

I want my toys to be designed by toy designers. Not someone who was copy pasting some stuff in flash to fill out a scene.

THIS.
I like the variety in G1 and how the cartoon's ponies were based off of them. I'd really like to see some of the toys of G4 make it into the cartoon; Twilight Sky, Sassa Flash, Star Dreams. Also, I just want the ponies to be unique and original.

Twilight Sky and Sassaflash are from the cartoon. 

I personally don't see the difference between a FiM bg character designed by an animator and most of the brushable ponies that Hasbro has been putting out.  Simple 1-2 color symbol and 1-2 color hair.  Diamond Rose, Cherry Pie, Twinkleshine, etc. are all incredibly plain.  I still love them, but I don't see the big disparity between them and Lyra or Flower Wishes, from a design point of view. 

The main six themselves aren't too colorful themselves, minus Rainbow Dash, so the simple color schemes match them.  All of the CMC and 4 of the main six have 1-2 hair colors, as well.  So it's not just the bg characters that have simplistic designs.

And the plain color designs are one of my biggest pet peeves when it comes to FIM. Especially the amount of male ponies that have brown slapped on them. The earlier (2011) G4 toys had a lot more color. Like Blossomforth, Dewdrop Dazzle, Honeybuzz, Sugarcup...It's very noticable when you check the earlier blindbag waves to the newer ones. Wave 6 has hardly any ponies with more than one mane color. Diamond Rose and Cherry Pie are both fairly recent ponies and Twinkleshine was released in a set with some more interesting ponies. To me it indeed looks as if they are moving more towards the show and i don't think that's always such a great thing. (Like the million re-releases.)

Lyra and Trixie might have some pretty nice designs. But there are also plenty of characters that have recycled cutie marks and recycled, simple color combinations. I don't think is wierd some people prefer someone who gets paid to think up designs over someone who just quickly has to slap togheter a design to fill out a scene. I pick Dewdrop Dazzle and Honeybuzz over Lyra and Trixie any day. Not to mention that i would like designs that don't pop up on the show. Like TAF designs.

I never said that it was weird.  I just said I don't see the difference between all the plain ponies Hasbro's toy designers have made on their own and the plain ponies from the show. 

Hasbro has been increasingly cheap with this line.  First we got ponies with bangs and ponies beautiful designs like Dewdrop Dazzle.  Now we don't.  Maybe less hair colors on ponies = less money spent producing the pony.  Perhaps the increasingly simplistic designs of the Hasbro-designed ponies has more to do with "let's save as much money as possible on this" and less to do with making sure Diamond Rose could fit in with the FiM characters from the show.  Hasbro has actually simplified the designs of the more complex FiM show characters for the toyline, like giving Twilight Sparkle two hair colors instead of three and Cadence one hair color in her tail instead of three, etc.  I think following the design of the show is probably less to blame than Hasbro trying to cut production costs, but of course I don't know for sure.   

What I do know is that my brushable Cadence only has 1 hair color in her skimpy little tail and it annoys me.

I am all for the show and the toys to become more closely linked, because, as I said, I see little difference in the characters Hasbro has been producing on their own lately and the more FiM-inspired characters that have been produced.  I've just kind of accepted that the G4 toy line is more simple and plain than the other generations (perhaps due in part to their small size) and I'm hoping that the show and toyline being more closely linked will result in more FiM characters eventually being made into brushables.  I just want more brushable characters at this point, simple or not.

[Betelgeuse]

OH MI GOSH!!! WHERE!!!??? Also, I'd prefer they'd have speaking roles to be honest and be a bit more than background characters.

Twilight Sky http://mlp.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_ponies#Twilight_Sky

Sassaflash http://mlp.wikia.com/wiki/Sassaflash

awesome.

[hathorcat]

Wow...this thread went weirdly off topic.

So keeping to BerryPunch's original post. I personally don't think its something which is going to have a massive impact on us as collectors. It doesn't surprise my that a more synchronised approach is being sought; look at how out of touch the time between wedding release ponies hitting shelves and the season 2 finale actually was. This press release is more along the lines of an alignment of marketing and ensuring that a brand [MLP] remains consistent across cartoon, licensing and the actual product Hasbro are most interested in - the toys. Thats certainly going to mean a tweak or two - and this will affect both sides [more "toy placement" in the cartoon and perhaps more cartoon elements being released as toys].

[Bag of Magic Food]

If watching My Little Pony makes your depression kick in-  I think you probably need some professional help... 

My thinking about the TV show is, if the last episode was bad, try the next one!  Odds are good it'll be better, and it may wipe away the memories of the bad one some.

[BerryPunch]

It kinda would be nice for a better link between the toys and the show.

Look at the name of Daisy in the toys.

Also, I hope this doesn't mean that the cars are gonna be in the show