Target Exclusive FS Magic of Everypony Collection

[Wardah]

https://www.instagram.com/p/BXL7Zx4DL3d/

There's also this set and while I must have it because pearly translucent things are the best, I wish Celestia and Cadence's colors were swapped.

[lostpony]

Those look pretty nice Wardah but how do you know how big they are?  I can't tell.

[Luxrayx]

Wow, that's a weirdly dumpy-looking Tempest. Also, a bit of a problem when you make the princesses the same mold and basically same color - I don't know about you, but I couldn't tell the difference at a glance. But hey, at least the mane 6 look good!

...even more mane 6...

[TheBeatlesPkmnFan42]

Yeah I can't see myself buying the blindbag set. Four figures I already have, two that are easily available by themselves, the three princesses look too similar... the only thing it really has going for it is Tempest but I'm not going to buy this just for her.

I wish they had instead made a pack featuring blindbag figures for every new movie character, as opposed to only Tempest. That I would buy.

[sd_dreamcrystal]

I saw this set at Target but I think I caught them on a restock day because there was almost nothing in the pony aisle

[Leave a Whisper]

I like Pearly Luna, the rest look kinda off.

[Taffeta]

Lots of really interesting points in this discussion.

With the FS size ponies, I think it's plain Hasbro just found another way to release the mane 6 and that the hair accuracy isn't so much them changing the line to suit pressure from vocal fans but them realising that here's a way to get all the people who did or didn't already buy mane six toys to buy more mane six toys at relatively little extra expense. They are going to use those poses over and over, probably to produce the same characters, so making some with their hair that way is a fairly small gamble on Hasbro's part. And making it a Target exclusive gives Target some kudos while also making sure they're not producing gazillions of sets that might shelf-sit.

I imagine they will have very gelled forelocks/fringes and probably manes. But for the people who care about the style of the hair being accurate rather than the brushability that isn't so much an issue, since if you wanted to restyle them it is just as easy to get a different version of the same pony, as others have mentioned.

I know this has been discussed but I genuinely don't understand the logic of why kids now would want twenty of the same pony. I mean, we never did, and I don't think kids now do, either. The shelf sitting ponies are the mane six in general, here. I have seen little girls go through the whole rack of ponies to look for a specific one. They have to keep the Mane 6 on shelves for the new people coming into the franchise, but I think they overdo it. And I agree with Uni that the specifics of the hair coupled with the set name being a "collection" is a little more targeted to an older fan audience of show faithful than the kids. FIM is important to the toyline but it is an assumption that the mane six are automatically the favourite characters of the kids watching. I saw a little girl today walking around with her plushie Luna. Being forcefed the same characters isn't the same as liking them best. If that's all there is, then they are kind of limited so we don't really know how they might feel about more diversity. It would be like G1 only ever being the first six collector ponies, but the cartoon including all of the ponies from y2 and y3 as well.

As a child who grew up with comic stories with tons of unicorns and pegasus ponies that were never sold here as toys, I can relate to that frustration. I just wanted a Glory and a Medley, but no, just lots of Posey and Cherries Jubilee...so I got Cherries Jubilee, but I always WANTED Glory and Medley

Do kids care about show accuracy? The discussion about that reminded me of Jem, which is a much better comparison than G1 MLP because it covered every character produced as a doll and Hasbro went nuts in certain episodes (Glitter and Gold is probably the worst) to make as many of their new fashions appear as possible. Jetta and Raya live in their original outfits for the whole of the 2-part Talent Show episode that introduces them, and Clash's hair changes colour from teal/red to purple when the purple haired doll comes out. So they are definitely using it as a marketing base. BUT they release 2 sets of Holograms and Misfits across the years, plus fashion. Jem only survived 3 years but in that time, how show-accurate were they, really? Jem the animation I think was much more important to how kids viewed the toy line than G1 MLP was because MLP continued on after the show ended, and Jem didn't. But though the animation continued to show the Misfits with much more dramatic make up, the dolls never had it in first or second release, or in any of the many minor production variations across that time. And kids still bought them. The same applies to the fashions. Every Jem collector knows that Pizzazz wears the Winning is Everything outfit in the Universal Appeal music video, even though the design and colour vary so much from what Hasbro actually produced. And yet it became one of the most common fashions second-hand, so kids really didn't seem to mind.

IT has reproduced many of these characters for adult collectors now and they are more show accurate. I think it is more of an older collector thing to become that invested in detail (though as lostpony pointed out, there are always going to be exceptions).

[lostpony]

Those are some good points Taffeta.

I speculate that little girls probably care a lot more in general about the Princesses than they do about most of the 6 and I don't think children probably for the most part want many of the same thing.  There might be something to them wanting variations, such as all-over cutie marks or some hair variance but for the most part the Mane 6 over and over seems more a brand-recognition/keeping the main characters on the shelf for new people thing. 

I think we probably read too much into the excessive reuse of the Mane 6.  The quantities of these that are made make them comparatively cheap to produce.  After all the cool stuff is gone from the shelf, the same old 6 are left behind.  It doesn't mean Hasbro really expects us to buy them, they just want them to perpetually be there.  Those characters who aren't made in as large a quantity cost more to produce so it's more important that those sell out, and demand for them is uncertain as they aren't in most episodes, and so they don't want those to get stuck on the shelf.  It's not a brand-recognition thing for example to have Coloratura on the shelf all the time.  If you snooze, you lose and Coloratura is gone, and her costs are met and her profits are in.  If there are a thousand of the 6 sitting around unsold, that's fine because the production cost is met long ago and that inventory sitting on the shelf ensures that a new viewer can always find the basics.  Does this make any sense?  It's speculation anyway; I don't know maybe Hasbro really does expect them all to sell.  I don't think they do.  They care about making sure the pony sections don't disappear entirely during the time when there is nothing new on the shelf.  Why Starlight and Luna or the CMCs are not considered staples that should always be on the shelf is a good question and a possible hole in my "theory".

Show accuracy is a weird thing.  I remember as a kid of the 70s hooked on long-dead Star Trek reruns that I was first surprised that there were action figures, then more surprised at how bad they were.  I mean, if not for the size and uniform, Kirk is indistinguishable from Ken.  Lame.  As a kid I would have cared a lot, and in the 80s while I didn't like GI-Joe, I liked that its action figures actually looked like the show so I had one action figure to model accessories on the windowsill.  I really don't think other kids cared about accuracy like I did though, I have OCD and always have, and most people are into other things like getting new stuff, breaking it in play and then throwing it away when the next thing comes...so I really have no idea.  I wonder if any market research has even been attempted; I've never seen anyone with clipboards harassing TRU customers and their kids for their opinions or anything, and a lot of the after-purchase reviews are clearly written by the parents who are more concerned about how much they paid for something and how long the child played with it before they whined for another new thing than the toy itself (Starlily reviews in particular, mostly mis-truths by parents angry their kid made them spend over $100 on one thing that required them to spend another $8 for batteries and zero information about the actual toy itself:  "she eats batteries" when they last almost a year and "she should do more" when you don't see most of what she does unless you play with her for hours).  I really doubt toy companies really give a damn if kids like the toys anyway, as long as they clamor until the parents to buy them.

Anyone here have direct information from their kids whether the toys looking like the show matters?  That's the only way we're going to get real information and we need a lot of it to draw any real conclusions from it.

edit:  I forgot to tie these thoughts together and into the topic of the Magic of Everypony set.

It's pretty clear that Hasbro's rebooting/updating the art with the release of the movie so this set is probably targeted to anyone who excited about the new look, and the "accurate" hair not only makes them a bit more attractive to those of us who care, but also distinguishes them a little bit from the rest of the new toys giving us (adult and child alike) a reason to want the complete set of the new 6 in the new style.

It's compelling, and as much as I don't want to blow $60 in one chunk, if I have the money available without too much pain I will probably buy them when I see them.

[Wardah]

I know this has been discussed but I genuinely don't understand the logic of why kids now would want twenty of the same pony. I mean, we never did, and I don't think kids now do, either.

When something is as character driven as FIM is most kids are going to get attached to a certain character. (Occasionally it might be a reoccurring backgrounder like Luna or Celestia which is probably why the princesses also get a lot of merch). Think of it as similar to why a kid would want to get every single Elsa doll. A kid who likes Elsa might have a doll in her coronation dress and her ice dress and a doll of her as a toddler and a doll of her in her spring outfit and so on. Just like a kid who likes Rainbow Dash might have her regular brushable and the one that lights up and the one with tinsel hair and the one with cutie marks down her legs and the translucent one and so on. Because each one is a different figure of their favorite character.

[Taffeta]

I know this has been discussed but I genuinely don't understand the logic of why kids now would want twenty of the same pony. I mean, we never did, and I don't think kids now do, either.

When something is as character driven as FIM is most kids are going to get attached to a certain character. (Occasionally it might be a reoccurring backgrounder like Luna or Celestia which is probably why the princesses also get a lot of merch). Think of it as similar to why a kid would want to get every single Elsa doll. A kid who likes Elsa might have a doll in her coronation dress and her ice dress and a doll of her as a toddler and a doll of her in her spring outfit and so on. Just like a kid who likes Rainbow Dash might have her regular brushable and the one that lights up and the one with tinsel hair and the one with cutie marks down her legs and the translucent one and so on. Because each one is a different figure of their favorite character.

My objection was the generalised assumption that that's what kids do. Some do, but I don't think it's something "kids do". It's also a matter of disposable income, because if kids only get ponies from time to time, to play ponies properly they will need to have all the characters, not ten of the same one. I think that it's just as likely or actually more likely that an adult collector is going to go to town on all the variations than the kids. I can understand them buying two or three versions of the same ponies, but the issue is the quantity of mane 6 that are produced. No child anywhere is logically going to want all of those versions of one character. And it's an assumption that the mane six must be their favourites. Having seen how Pretzel, Coloratura etc sold better than the gazillionth Pinkie and Dash and Twilight kind of backs that up. Kids don't want to buy the same ponies over and over. They want to buy different ponies too.

It just seems patronising to kids to assume they're happy to just buy the same pony over and over instead of wanting variety. I know that when I was a kid and my sister had a few ponies I had, it was annoying - I liked it better when she had different ponies to me because it made for better and more varied games. Why should kids now be any different?

Something being character driven does not mean the people collecting it lose their interest in multiple characters. Hasbro are great at marketing the same toys over and over but the bottom line is that it's the mane six that always shelfsit and go on clearance. Smyths here had the ones with glitter in their hair on shelves for three years. Especially Rainbow Dash.

[Luxrayx]

Not sure if this is relevant, but when I was a kid, Pikachu was my absolute least favorite Pokemon because there was so much merch of it. Most of my friends felt the same way. Sure, Pikachu gets lots of screen time, so it's easy to market. But when a little kid goes to the toy stores and there's about a million Pikachu toys, but all the kid wanted was a Luxray (just a random example)... I don't know, I don't think it's too outrageous to say that kids will notice when they're getting the same toys over and over.

[gabumon]

as much as i dislike grtting the mane 6 + princesses ad nausium ,  one redeeming quality of G4.5 is the variety of poses they are making.  I think a lot of them are done in maybe 3 poses depending on which set they come in.  so i am enjoying that.  better than just four flat feet + "Omigosh Raised Hoof!!!!".

so there's that.

[Leave a Whisper]

Exactly @Taffeta and @Luxray! Fizzy was my favorite pony and I didn't need ten more of her! I was happy having my one. I had a good variety of ponies, my cousins had a good variety, my friends had variety, my daughter has variety.

 This isn't like eating all the strawberry Starbursts first, the mane six is pushed way too much, too often and other characters don't get proper rotation or decent distribution. Plus having new characters constantly packaged with the old ones you can get everywhere is tiresome. I don't even think the Core Seven ever got quite this bad.

[Zapper]

the mane sux

Is this an expression now? Love it

[Leave a Whisper]

the mane sux

Is this an expression now? Love it

No that was a typo.    Typing on a phone with long nails is a pain in the butt. You can use it if you want.