Molded vs Brushable Hair?

[Baby Sugarberry]

G3 lacked diversity in colors more than it lacked diversity in characters - so much pink, purple and white!  There are precious few G3's without one of those three, alas.

No it didn't. It had nearly every color of the rainbow including black, gray and red. Two of which had never been introduced before. I don't know why people say that? There's a ton of orange, yellow, blue and green out there. Not to mention art pop, tie dye etc.

I wasn't implying that they didn't make G3's in every color, but that the dominant colors are Pink, Purple and White.  Just look at Strawberry Reef sorted by color.  There are 34 ponies listed under 'green' (only FEW of which escape from pink/purple/white completely) and 209 ponies listed under 'pink'.  Don't try to tell me there's not a color bias going on, please. 

[Leave a Whisper]

G3 lacked diversity in colors more than it lacked diversity in characters - so much pink, purple and white!  There are precious few G3's without one of those three, alas.

No it didn't. It had nearly every color of the rainbow including black, gray and red. Two of which had never been introduced before. I don't know why people say that? There's a ton of orange, yellow, blue and green out there. Not to mention art pop, tie dye etc.

I wasn't implying that they didn't make G3's in every color, but that the dominant colors are Pink, Purple and White.  Just look at Strawberry Reef sorted by color.  There are 34 ponies listed under 'green' (only FEW of which escape from pink/purple/white completely) and 209 ponies listed under 'pink'.  Don't try to tell me there's not a color bias going on, please.

There's still plenty of color diversity in the G3s. In fact it is just as, if not more diverse as G1. There was plenty of pink, white and purple in body, hair and symbol there too. Does this mean G1 has little diversity? No.

 With all respect, I really don't understand where this misconception comes from.

The only diversity that Gen lacks is species and obviously no males. Sure it brought back merponies and introduced Breezies, but the ratio of everything else to earth ponies was ridiculous.

 Plus there are only so many color combos you can do. And G3 not only had a ton of color, but they made some truly gorgeous and interesting  color combos including some we haven't seen before or since. Especially with hair. Wishawhirl, Peacock, Autumn Skye, Tropical Surprise, Chilly Breezes, Port-a-bella, Aurora Mist, Underwater, Silver Glow, Twinkle Hope, Thistle Whistle, Good vs. Evil, Superhero, Velvet Bow, Black and Blue, Citrus Sweetheart, Applejack, Tropical Delight.
There's some seriously stunning, brushable hair in the G3 line.




Post Merge: February 25, 2017, 07:06:59 AM

The tails on the G4s are set too low, as well.  They don't look right.  :/  Real horses' tails start right after their spine.  Obviously I don't expect a MLP to adhere strictly to horse anatomy, but it would look so much better if they would just move them up a smidge.

I know it bugs me. I'm glad my Princess Luna has it where a horse ought to at least.

[Baby Sugarberry]

We'll just have to agree to disagree then.  Hasbro got lazy in producing new characters (See: Bore 7), and stuck to a limited colour palette/themes for a good chunk of the G3 line, especially near the end (See: ponies by colour breakdown on Strawberry Reef).    Regardless, this isn't the topic of discussion. 

G4 tails are so disappointing - like not only in their placement, but how thin and ratty they often are.  It makes me super sad.  The trend started with G3 even, where they had nice full manes but somewhat meagre tails, which is s shame since tails are so much fun to braid and brush.  Have to wonder what they're going to knock off the next generation - G3's lost half their symbols, G4's most of the size/hair/looking like a pony, doesn't leave much left.  Maybe Hasbro's going to ditch brushable hair completely by G5.  I hope not!

[Motion-Paradox]

Molded in almost every regard, It's a reverse from the majority here, but a toy with molded hair is something I'd have more fun playing with since it would stay nice looking no matter what, while one with brushable hair would be more of a display thing because it tangles easily.

Now to clarify I don't outright despise brushable hair; I don't care what variety of hair the Pony toy I'm buying has and even though I didn't enjoy playing with it as a child I more accepted it as a thing that came with the territory than anything else; Barbies had brushable hair and extra clothing pieces you could buy for the girls that liked that sort of thing, they weren't an integral part of playing with the dolls, just an option that was being left open for the majority. Having said that my favourite Barbie doll was the Mulan one with her training outfit, it was based on a character I already liked, had elbows and knees that moved, and her hair couldn't tangle. Even then I confess that when I played with my Babysitter's old G1 Ponies that I liked the outfits she had for the baby ones and would do holiday themed stories with them.


In regards to Ponies as a plaything I'm biased by my own childhood; I found the brushable hair on my dolls to be a pain growing up since it would get tangled and I didn't enjoy brushing it, know anything about styling it, and if I wanted it fixed I'd have to get my mom to do it (I actually have a Kelly doll with hair that goes strait back because of this, I never played rough with my toys either so I have no idea how it happened), for me hair brushing was never fun and it's part of the reason I usually kept it short growing up. I remember with my G2 ponies one had little velcro hair decorations I had trouble with because they would tangle the hair when I took them out, I do know my tastes were a bit compared to other girls though; I had typical girly things I liked but not always in the way they did (I didn't enjoy doing ballet, but I liked watching it), and I wasn't an outright tomboy either (I didn't really enjoy sports) and my most favourite ones were tiny things like teeny weeny families. Having said that, I loved toys based on actual characters and creating new scenarios for them to act out and show accuracy would have mattered to me (No I'm not projecting, I actually upgraded to a better Pikachu doll twice and made plush Digimon that were more detailed than the official bean bag ones we ended up getting).


As a display piece it doesn't make as big a difference as there are fewer opportunities for their hair to be  messed up, but since my collecting is more character based (most of my G1 Ponies are either ones from the shows or for a gimmick they have) having sculpted hair and being show accurate works better for me. Having said that it is much easier to have a coheisive set when there are characters you have to customise for; there are some Ponies I'd like to have toys of that I'm having to get that way, while I'm a bit unsure of what to do with the Equestria Girls minis lines since I'd like to have dolls of Sonata & Aria but am not very confident in my sculpting abilities.


As for what makes a My Little Pony toy, I'd say it's a bit tricky to pin down since a variety of styles have been used over the years, but....

1-A more fanciful quality and departing from realistic phenotypes: This is mostly in regards to differentiating Ponies from more realistic horse toys, but even comparing a G1 My Little Pony toy to a real Pony you can see that the toy is more stylised and a bit anthropomorphised (at least enough that they can see forwards) and certainly the toys are more colourful (Which I love, this applies to characters as well; one thing I find odd about Western animation is how, generally, characters that are human only have human eye and hair colours).

2-Attention to detail: Even when bootleg toys use official moulds they lack the detail that the official ones have. True some of those details have fallen by the wayside over the years, but it still feels like thought went into designing it and in some ways those details have changed form; true they've gone from having a little story on the back-cards to having no text about the character at all (I say text because we now have screen shots), but the show has a smaller core cast and is more able to give the characters attention, the package may not say that Rarity has a self-serving streak that she sometimes has trouble keeping in check, but we know she does because of the show.

3-My Little Pony Branding: Yes, I'm dead serious, but allow me to explain a bit; I was born in the early 90s right around when they stopped releasing Ponies here, there was also a video rental place I used to go to when I was 4 & 5 that had a lot of 80s shows which I would rent often, My Little Pony was not one of them. At the same time I heard people talking about it, and had a vague memory of watching what turned out to be a scene from Escape from Katrina but I would not be able to see any of it until I was able to rent the movie & pilot special when I was 8 and I wouldn't see the show itself until I was nearly 14, so for me My Little Pony had an air of mystery to it. Because of that it was exciting for me when G2 Ponies were released, true I eventually found that they were completely different from the ones people were talking about and I had other toys that were similar, but they were still My Little Pony toys and a way for me to experience the series myself (This wasn't the only time something like this would happen either; there's a series I like where the manga referenced things that happened in the anime quite a bit and the next year I found DVDs of what turned out to be a spin off with a slightly different premise, even though I eventually saw the series they had been referencing, that spin-off made some of the events in the manga make much more sense)

[Galactica]

If Hasbro made Breyers:

visitors can't see pics , please register or login

.....  "The Claiming Of Sleeping Beauty" by Ann Rice...... *cough cough*  .....

You know, that is EXACTLY what I thought...

[kasin]

If Hasbro made Breyers:

visitors can't see pics , please register or login

.....  "The Claiming Of Sleeping Beauty" by Ann Rice...... *cough cough*  .....

You know, that is EXACTLY what I thought...

Oh good! I was starting to feel a little awkward! Haha!

[LadyMoondancer]

If Hasbro made Breyers:

visitors can't see pics , please register or login

.....  "The Claiming Of Sleeping Beauty" by Ann Rice...... *cough cough*  .....

You know, that is EXACTLY what I thought...

Oh good! I was starting to feel a little awkward! Haha!

I thought it was funny. 

[U2QueenBee]

I'm in the 'I like both' camp. I grew up with G1s so brushable is definitely what I'm used to, and I always enjoyed brushing and styling their hair. A lot of 'girls toys' are kind of centred around grooming that way and while I never really got into traditional (human) dolls, I did like dressing up and styling my ponies.

That said I've got a couple of the molded hair ones from the GoH line and I like them a lot too. For action-figure kind of playing, it's great because you can get much different styles than you can with brushable hair and there's no risk of it getting tangled, cut or frizzy. I don't have the GoH Nightmare Moon (yet! I really want her) but it would be hard to recreate the glitteriness or the flow of her mane and tail in brushable hair, I think, for example.

I think there's room for both in MLP and I'd like to see them keep making both available in future, even if the molded stays as more of a rarity or restricted to certain lines.

[DazzleKitty]

I vastly prefer brushable hair. It's what made me love MLP in the first place.

[Shaiyeh]

Brushable, for me. I don't play with my ponies, so the hair getting tangled isn't an issue (and if it does get tangled, it's a super easy fix). I don't mind molded hair though, but I think it looks better on small ponies like Ponyville and Petites. (which I love, not so keen on blind bag g4s but I like the molded look on those as well)
But yes. I love the look of silky, shiny hair on my ponies. I love styling it, defrizzing it if needed, restoring factory curls... you name it. I'm a sucker for brushable hair xD

[lovesbabysquirmy]

I think Hasbro started doing blindbags because they saw how profitable it was for other companies .

Besides, didn't G1 have ceramic figures? And of course McDonalds ponies with half brushable, half molded hair . Plus the Ponyvilles and Tiny Tins.

yes but in G1 the marketing was ESPECIALLY focused on  the hair care.  I mean there are HOURS of grooming when you actually have horses.

[Leave a Whisper]

I think Hasbro started doing blindbags because they saw how profitable it was for other companies .

Besides, didn't G1 have ceramic figures? And of course McDonalds ponies with half brushable, half molded hair . Plus the Ponyvilles and Tiny Tins.

yes but in G1 the marketing was ESPECIALLY focused on  the hair care.  I mean there are HOURS of grooming when you actually have horses.

I know. I love grooming horses. Well, the nicer ones anywho.