DHX hit with major data breach (beware of spoilers)

[Leave a Whisper]

I remember seeing that.  The toy part of the bar scared me considering how much new product they were putting out and yet expecting a minimal increase.  And consumer goods, while nice, is not the best way to make money on something when you're a manufacturing company.

And I don't like the "life expectancy is shrinking" argument either.  When I took marketing, customer retention is drilled into us.  To give up on it and just rely on new customers coming in is a dangerous game.  If you don't have the faith in your to compete against the Next Thing, you run the danger of your customer base just bypassing you for the Next Thing.

I agree. I think its faulty thinking on a company's part. It's just their excuse for being lazy. And pretty silly for anyone else to automatically  think that way.

Kids still have favorite toylines, books, movies and games. Same as we do. Not to mention we had tons of options when we were kids and our parents didn't buy us everything, any more then today's parents do.

It's also evident in other forms of entertainment that kids don't move onto the next big thing and instantly forget that they loved this book series, or that cartoon, or this videogame series, or those toys.

[Taffeta]

I think there's more likely to be brand fatigue if they don't swap out the mane 6 and start over completely. I'm not just saying that because I want to see the mane 6 go. I have been watching with some interest as new toys come out over last few years and the stocking in the local shops.

New character stuff - the pearly ponies, all gone. Residuals - Princess Twi, one or two fluttershys, but mostly Princess Twi from the pearly range. Applejack was not here long enough to shelf sit but although the one store I know about had a full bunch of racks of the pearlies from wave 3 (all 4 characters, about 40 toys in total), they all vanished in a couple of weeks, AJ included. So she's not the problem, even if she is one with the bronies. I've also heard kids specifically asking parents for applejack here.

Sea Ponies with musical shells. There hasn't been a single Skystar in either the London or the home stores I have access to since before Christmas. Hamleys has a wall of Pinkie Pie. Even if we assume they are 2:1 in box Pinkie:Skystar, that's still too many pinkies and not enough Skystars. Entertainer and Smyths have Pinkie with shell on clearance. Mermaid Pinkie is also on clearance at Smyths here.

There are still Fluttershys with the wings/attached ornaments on shelf here in Entertainer. Honey Rays is long since sold out.

The baby sea ponies are practically extinct. Not everywhere has clearanced these. I only saw ocean gem today. Entertainer's hooks are marked Hippogriff.

Discount ponies in bags appeared in Entertainer before Christmas. Only mane 6 and Cheerilee are left and Cheerilee was shoved right to the back.

I could go on, but the basic reality is that the mane 6 are not holding as much appeal as the characters who are not mane 6. Kids probably do love those characters but probably don't want six or ten of the same one. And it's not a problem to rerelease them. It is a problem to rerelease them so many times and simultaneously through a short period. Toyline might have a shorter life expectancy, but that life expectancy is not 3 weeks. We still haven't sold out here of the attach a fabric tail mane 6 or the glittery tail mermaid mane 6 but we already have the tip up side down weird water in the tale Dash, Twilight and whoever the other one is in the first wave. Are they selling? Well, they're already on clearance in my local store.

If they try and continue MLP with the same characters, there will be ultimate MLP burnout in the kid range, not just the collector one. They escaped that between G3 and G4 by shaking up the mane 6 and then creating a hit TV show. But that's tired and exhausted now, as shows tend to be after more than 100 episodes, and the toylines are getting silly and overlapping way too much. We don't need three versions of a rarity mermaid plus fashion style versions.

Incidentally, Iv'e seen Singing Songbird Serenade with the glowing bow in Tesco here once. She sold out practically immediately despite being £25, which is the cost of 5 regular ponies, who (even discounted) are not selling.

...G5 will probably kill MLP forever if they don't change the cast. And if they have a core group in 5, they need to change it up more and release maybe one or two sets of those characters a year with new characters, not just regurgitate the same stuff over and over. The market is tired and oversaturated with mane 6. The playsets here are not selling because they're coming with the same ponies. The only one here that ISN'T cluttering the shelf in Smyths or Entertainer is Seaquestria - which came with a new pony. Sadly for us, not Haven bay, because ironically she'd have probably done well here (as opposed to the Pinkie Pie sea thingy that Entertainer here have about a hundred of).

Kids and trends change. But we only have to look at the way Monster High has capitulated by trying to reinvent the wheel (badly) to see that you either totally change things, or stop before you ruin the brand for good.

Merchandise and commercial products are different in terms of the mane 6 - it tends to be that core characters (think Pikachu) feature on merchandise excessively even though they're not the whole of the line. That's a good outlet for mane 6 stuff. But it doesn't need to swamp the toyline.

[LadyMoondancer]

I think it's a bit naive to think that the Mane 6 aren't selling well and Hasbro just hasn't noticed.  Their sales keep going through the roof, so apparently someone is buying all these ponies.

For what it's worth, the shelfwarmers where I live are often not the Mane Six.  (Cherry Berry was the shelf-sitter from the pearly set.) Anecdotes are interesting, but they're just anecdotes.  There's no way to tell if they reflect local trends versus broader trends.

[Taffeta]

I think it's a bit naive to think that the Mane 6 aren't selling well and Hasbro just hasn't noticed.  Their sales keep going through the roof, so apparently someone is buying all these ponies.

For what it's worth, the shelfwarmers where I live are often not the Mane Six.  (Cherry Berry was the shelf-sitter from the pearly set.) Anecdotes are interesting, but they're just anecdotes.  There's no way to tell if they reflect local trends versus broader trends.

It may be anecdotal, but I think it's more naive to assume Hasbro knows or even cares.

Firstly, how much of product is getting returned to Hasbro unsold? We don't know. It's possible that if stores are clearancing stuff, they're not returning anything to the supplier. That means Hasbro already sold it, right?

Another factor is that in the UK at least, we don't just clear our stock. We get excess stock from other places. Right now as I speak my local Entertainer has stuff marked Target in US boxes and my Tesco in London has Water Cuties marked Australia/Canada/NZ release. Aside from seeing the UK as a viable dumping ground for stuff (which has always been the case back to G1), and taking into consideration potential store deals with the US to import things directly, it is just as possible US store shelves clear of old stock more easily than UK ones do. Either way, we don't have official release dates that are stuck to and ponies do not come here in the right order. And it's very obvious something is shelf-sitting if it's there for four years.

Not a single non-mane 6 pony has ever shelf-sat in any of these places beyond a period of 4-6 months. In some cases they're gone immediately. Mane 6 ponies can sit on shelves here for 4 years. It's circumstantial but it's compelling suggestion that kids are not interested in those particular items - they're more interested in the new.

I've been watching this for a few years specifically so I'm not just making it up or assuming. It's all circumstantial but based on empirical evidence rather than my wishful thinking. My sister also works in the web promotion part of retail and I know which ponies her store has trouble shifting. It's not the non-mane 6. It's the others.  That's a different part of the UK from the two I circulate in, so that's 3 different locations.

Another thing that happens here is stuff comes on shelf and is on clearance the moment it is released. This sometimes happens with mane 6 and sometimes not. The stuff that's not mane 6 goes like crazy. Holly Dash was in my local store for 4 weeks max. Never came back. The Pinkie Pie from her set and the glitter hair ones (Rarity etc) from the previous RP release were still on the shelf long after Holly Dash had gone. My Smyths still has some of those ponies. And the ones with hairbands. But Pursey Pink? Long gone.

Make of it what you like. It still seems to me that the mane 6 are killing the franchise and that keeping them going beyond g4 will ultimately kill MLP completely. At least here.

Maybe in the US it's different. Maybe the mane 6 is more popular. It is true that playsets and stuff have sometimes come out in Europe with extra freebie non mane 6 ponies and it's interesting to consider why that happens, because it's not happening in the US release. These aren't store exclusives like Haven Bay. They're regional. Why are these more marketable in Europe than in the US?

[Leave a Whisper]

I think it's a bit naive to think that the Mane 6 aren't selling well and Hasbro just hasn't noticed.  Their sales keep going through the roof, so apparently someone is buying all these ponies.

For what it's worth, the shelfwarmers where I live are often not the Mane Six.  (Cherry Berry was the shelf-sitter from the pearly set.) Anecdotes are interesting, but they're just anecdotes.  There's no way to tell if they reflect local trends versus broader trends.

It may be anecdotal, but I think it's more naive to assume Hasbro knows or even cares.

Firstly, how much of product is getting returned to Hasbro unsold? We don't know. It's possible that if stores are clearancing stuff, they're not returning anything to the supplier. That means Hasbro already sold it, right?

Another factor is that in the UK at least, we don't just clear our stock. We get excess stock from other places. Right now as I speak my local Entertainer has stuff marked Target in US boxes and my Tesco in London has Water Cuties marked Australia/Canada/NZ release. Aside from seeing the UK as a viable dumping ground for stuff (which has always been the case back to G1), and taking into consideration potential store deals with the US to import things directly, it is just as possible US store shelves clear of old stock more easily than UK ones do. Either way, we don't have official release dates that are stuck to and ponies do not come here in the right order. And it's very obvious something is shelf-sitting if it's there for four years.

Not a single non-mane 6 pony has ever shelf-sat in any of these places beyond a period of 4-6 months. In some cases they're gone immediately. Mane 6 ponies can sit on shelves here for 4 years. It's circumstantial but it's compelling suggestion that kids are not interested in those particular items - they're more interested in the new.

I've been watching this for a few years specifically so I'm not just making it up or assuming. It's all circumstantial but based on empirical evidence rather than my wishful thinking. My sister also works in the web promotion part of retail and I know which ponies her store has trouble shifting. It's not the non-mane 6. It's the others.  That's a different part of the UK from the two I circulate in, so that's 3 different locations.

Another thing that happens here is stuff comes on shelf and is on clearance the moment it is released. This sometimes happens with mane 6 and sometimes not. The stuff that's not mane 6 goes like crazy. Holly Dash was in my local store for 4 weeks max. Never came back. The Pinkie Pie from her set and the glitter hair ones (Rarity etc) from the previous RP release were still on the shelf long after Holly Dash had gone. My Smyths still has some of those ponies. And the ones with hairbands. But Pursey Pink? Long gone.

Make of it what you like. It still seems to me that the mane 6 are killing the franchise and that keeping them going beyond g4 will ultimately kill MLP completely. At least here.

Maybe in the US it's different. Maybe the mane 6 is more popular. It is true that playsets and stuff have sometimes come out in Europe with extra freebie non mane 6 ponies and it's interesting to consider why that happens, because it's not happening in the US release. These aren't store exclusives like Haven Bay. They're regional. Why are these more marketable in Europe than in the US?

The Mane Six are shelf sitters in my area. The newer ponies get snapped up and are scarce.

[Wardah]

I think it's a bit naive to think that the Mane 6 aren't selling well and Hasbro just hasn't noticed.  Their sales keep going through the roof, so apparently someone is buying all these ponies.

For what it's worth, the shelfwarmers where I live are often not the Mane Six.  (Cherry Berry was the shelf-sitter from the pearly set.) Anecdotes are interesting, but they're just anecdotes.  There's no way to tell if they reflect local trends versus broader trends.

It may be anecdotal, but I think it's more naive to assume Hasbro knows or even cares.

Firstly, how much of product is getting returned to Hasbro unsold? We don't know. It's possible that if stores are clearancing stuff, they're not returning anything to the supplier. That means Hasbro already sold it, right?

Another factor is that in the UK at least, we don't just clear our stock. We get excess stock from other places. Right now as I speak my local Entertainer has stuff marked Target in US boxes and my Tesco in London has Water Cuties marked Australia/Canada/NZ release. Aside from seeing the UK as a viable dumping ground for stuff (which has always been the case back to G1), and taking into consideration potential store deals with the US to import things directly, it is just as possible US store shelves clear of old stock more easily than UK ones do. Either way, we don't have official release dates that are stuck to and ponies do not come here in the right order. And it's very obvious something is shelf-sitting if it's there for four years.

Not a single non-mane 6 pony has ever shelf-sat in any of these places beyond a period of 4-6 months. In some cases they're gone immediately. Mane 6 ponies can sit on shelves here for 4 years. It's circumstantial but it's compelling suggestion that kids are not interested in those particular items - they're more interested in the new.

I've been watching this for a few years specifically so I'm not just making it up or assuming. It's all circumstantial but based on empirical evidence rather than my wishful thinking. My sister also works in the web promotion part of retail and I know which ponies her store has trouble shifting. It's not the non-mane 6. It's the others.  That's a different part of the UK from the two I circulate in, so that's 3 different locations.

Another thing that happens here is stuff comes on shelf and is on clearance the moment it is released. This sometimes happens with mane 6 and sometimes not. The stuff that's not mane 6 goes like crazy. Holly Dash was in my local store for 4 weeks max. Never came back. The Pinkie Pie from her set and the glitter hair ones (Rarity etc) from the previous RP release were still on the shelf long after Holly Dash had gone. My Smyths still has some of those ponies. And the ones with hairbands. But Pursey Pink? Long gone.

Make of it what you like. It still seems to me that the mane 6 are killing the franchise and that keeping them going beyond g4 will ultimately kill MLP completely. At least here.

Maybe in the US it's different. Maybe the mane 6 is more popular. It is true that playsets and stuff have sometimes come out in Europe with extra freebie non mane 6 ponies and it's interesting to consider why that happens, because it's not happening in the US release. These aren't store exclusives like Haven Bay. They're regional. Why are these more marketable in Europe than in the US?

If stuff keeps going on clearance stores are less likely to order as much next time. They definitely would notice if Walmart started ordering 100000 cases instead of 500000.

I think it matters little who the ponies are and more how different the brushable actually looks. The pearly Mane 6 merponies sold well and all the regular pearlies sold well even the mane 6. The wave before it with the silly ribbons in their hair shelf sat even newer characters like Starlight and Sunset. Because the gimmick was bleh and they weren't different enough from past releases. If the new poines have exciting molds and look different enough they will sell.

[Zapper]

I think it's a bit naive to think that the Mane 6 aren't selling well and Hasbro just hasn't noticed.  Their sales keep going through the roof (...)

Some people believe the toy market never changed. I don't like the Lame Six either but to imply Hasbro has no clue about sales is... something. There is a marketing strategy behind this. One I hate but it's there.
The core cast stuff is all over girls entertainment.

[Lilja]

It's interesting how everyone's experiences can differ. In my experience I always see kids go for either mane six or the princesses, while non-mane six and Applejacks tend to clog up the shelves. I'm sure there are kids of all types though.

MLP seems to be a surprisingly difficult toyline to keep going for a longer period of time (G1 obviously lasted long, but with a clear decline in later years). You'd think there'd always be a market for colorful fantasy horses, but apparently it's not that easy (the demand always did seem stronger in Europe compared to the US, but Hasbro prioritizes the US). Considering Hasbro has been pushing mane six for seven years straight and it's still going, they must be doing something right.

I can't say for sure if I think keeping the same main cast for the next generation is a mistake or not. I can see the arguments both for and against. Personally I wish it wouldn't stay exactly the same, but either way if the MLP toyline goes under, I don't think it will depend solely on this factor.

[Taffeta]

Hasbro is a big corporation with many different regional branches. There's a lot of levels and layers involved in organising and promoting a product like MLP and all aspects of the wider franchise. If Hasbro knew every detail of every sale they would be superhuman. It's crazy to think that they do. In the past, certainly, it's known that different departments in hasbro didn't communicate with each other very well (this from people who worked with Hasbro in the 1980s for Jem, rather than MLP). They've gone on record to say so. We know that a lot of things don't make a lot of sense in MLP distribution across the world. Hasbro UK and hasbro Europe are both in the UK, but aren't even located in the same country, let alone the same city. It seems mad to me to even think that Hasbro Inc as the mother company knows every detail of everything that is happening.

Moreover, as regards not reordering stock, I think that subject was raised and discussed in this thread to differing degrees:
http://mlparena.com/index.php/topic,390128.0.html
Which would suggest that yeah, they're not selling as well. Of course, here it's not necessarily a measure of whether they are or not, since as I said, we get the dumped stuff from other places. We also got Scandinavian EAH dolls and Spanish ones as well. So what's on our shelves from different toy shops is clearly operating on a different frequency to what's going on in other places - but if stores or manufacturers are offloading spare stock in the wrong packaging in another country, it says very clearly that they are not selling in the original country. In those instances, it might also be individual deals between stores, though I know Entertainer is a native British store and Smyths is Irish I think - but they have had ponies with Walmart labels on them, rather than Asda, who are Walmart.

Does Hasbro know all about all of that and do they quantify it? I think it's highly unlikely that they do. If stores have contracts or bulk deals with a manufacturer then returning stock might not be as economically viable as selling it off elsewhere. We also have a clearance type store called TK Maxx here which also gets a lot of pony stuff (and MH actually) discounted after it's left the main shelves. Again, do we think Hasbro orchestrated that?

Credit where it's due, Hasbro have created a very successful brand. I am not saying otherwise, and they obviously have some records of general sales, but do we think they're really focusing on that store by store country by country pony by pony? Saying they know everything about all their sales and understand their target market to the nth degree is ridiculous. Of course they don't.

All of this of course is without factoring in any warping of the target market produced by the unexpected brony phenomenon.

In any case, I reiterate. Kids do not need a new mane 6 character every 4 weeks. What people are forgetting is that it is cheap and easy to keep producing the mane 6. For a new character, more design processes need to go into play. Decisions on plastic colour, on hair, on symbol. Artwork, etc. Yes, mane 6 get redesigned into new styles, but the fundamental features and the components used are probably mostly the same, allowing hasbro to acquire them in bulk and save on production. Hasbro don't need to sell every mane 6 pony to make a profit if they are able to get them made more easily in quantity than if they were to create a whole new set of characters from absolute scratch.

They're out to save costs and make money, but they're not really that interested in making sure everyone loves the mane 6. They're interested in selling enough mane 6 to keep the brand ticking over while occasionally shoring it up with a bit of new stuff to make people think the line has more to it than it actually does. But by oversaturating the mane 6 - whose popularity depends on the TV show that might yet vanish - they're also threatening the future viability of the line. If it's just the same as what happened before, it's not going to have the same success as G4 did from G3/3.5.

You'd think there'd always be a market for colorful fantasy horses, but apparently it's not that easy (the demand always did seem stronger in Europe compared to the US, but Hasbro prioritizes the US).

This is the single most frustrating aspect for me with MLP in general. Although it has improved between G3 to G4 in some cases with stores in other countries outside of the US picking up store exclusives, I don't know that it's as good as it could be. I feel like we're punished for not being America most of the time. Considering that Europe was more loyal to the brand in G1 and G2, the fact that a lot of G3 ponies turned out to be US releases only or store exclusives in the US only was a slap in the face to the international market. I am still interested as to why the exclusive ponies with certain playsets in G4 has happened in Europe and not the US, though. I'd love to know the thought process behind it.

[Galactica]

Hasbro is a big corporation with many different regional branches. There's a lot of levels and layers involved in organising and promoting a product like MLP and all aspects of the wider franchise. If Hasbro knew every detail of every sale they would be superhuman. It's crazy to think that they do. In the past, certainly, it's known that different departments in hasbro didn't communicate with each other very well (this from people who worked with Hasbro in the 1980s for Jem, rather than MLP). They've gone on record to say so. We know that a lot of things don't make a lot of sense in MLP distribution across the world. Hasbro UK and hasbro Europe are both in the UK, but aren't even located in the same country, let alone the same city. It seems mad to me to even think that Hasbro Inc as the mother company knows every detail of everything that is happening.

Moreover, as regards not reordering stock, I think that subject was raised and discussed in this thread to differing degrees:
http://mlparena.com/index.php/topic,390128.0.html
Which would suggest that yeah, they're not selling as well. Of course, here it's not necessarily a measure of whether they are or not, since as I said, we get the dumped stuff from other places. We also got Scandinavian EAH dolls and Spanish ones as well. So what's on our shelves from different toy shops is clearly operating on a different frequency to what's going on in other places - but if stores or manufacturers are offloading spare stock in the wrong packaging in another country, it says very clearly that they are not selling in the original country. In those instances, it might also be individual deals between stores, though I know Entertainer is a native British store and Smyths is Irish I think - but they have had ponies with Walmart labels on them, rather than Asda, who are Walmart.

Tell me that Hasbro knows all about all of that and can quantify it. I think it's highly unlikely that they do. If stores have contracts or bulk deals with a manufacturer then returning stock might not be as economically viable as selling it off elsewhere. We also have a clearance type store called TK Maxx here which also gets a lot of pony stuff (and MH actually) discounted after it's left the main shelves. Again, do we think Hasbro orchestrated that?

Credit where it's due, Hasbro have created a very successful brand. But saying they know everything about all their sales and understand their target market is ridiculous.

And that's before factoring in any warping of the target market produced by the unexpected brony phenomenon.

In any case, I reiterate. Kids do not need a new mane 6 character every 4 weeks. What people are forgetting is that it is cheap and easy to keep producing the mane 6. For a new character, more design processes need to go into play. Decisions on plastic colour, on hair, on symbol. Artwork, etc. Yes, mane 6 get redesigned into new styles, but the fundamental features and the components used are probably mostly the same, allowing hasbro to acquire them in bulk and save on production. Hasbro don't need to sell every mane 6 pony to make a profit if they are able to get them made more easily in quantity than if they were to create a whole new set of characters from absolute scratch.

Common sense really. They're out to save costs and make money, but they're not really that interested in making sure everyone loves the mane 6. They're interested in selling enough mane 6 to keep the brand ticking over while occasionally shoring it up with a bit of new stuff to make people think the line has more to it than it actually does. But by oversaturating the mane 6 - whose popularity depends on the TV show that might yet vanish - they're also threatening the future viability of the line. If it's just the same as what happened before, it's not going to have the same success as G4 did from G3/3.5.

You'd think there'd always be a market for colorful fantasy horses, but apparently it's not that easy (the demand always did seem stronger in Europe compared to the US, but Hasbro prioritizes the US).

This is the single most frustrating aspect for me with MLP in general. Although it has improved between G3 to G4 in some cases with stores in other countries outside of the US picking up store exclusives, I don't know that it's as good as it could be. I feel like we're punished for not being America most of the time. Considering that Europe was more loyal to the brand in G1 and G2, the fact that a lot of G3 ponies turned out to be US releases only or store exclusives in the US only was a slap in the face to the international market. I am still interested as to why the exclusive ponies with certain playsets in G4 has happened in Europe and not the US, though. I'd love to know the thought process behind it.

One thing that I think people forget, is that Hasbro doesn't pick what ponies go to what store and in what quantities.  HASBRO isn't punishing UK stores.  They make an assortment every year- then RETAILERS place their orders.

Retailers probably prefer the more easily recognizable characters- the store "buyers" probably have a feeling these sell better.  Even though Argos and Target are affiliated companies, they still probably have different ideas about what will sell the best to their customers.

Plus, thanks to various trade deals/fees/customs, it is more expensive for European stores to order Hasbro toys than US stores- so I imagine that makes them more cautious about taking risks. THey don't want to get stuck with stock that they will have to clearance out at below cost later, if they take a risk and it doesn't work out.
 
So the people to pester about why we don't have enough ponies is not Hasbro-  it's your own retail stores.

[Al-1701]

I think Hasbro is holding serve right now.  That's the primary strategy.  They're depending on consumer goods right now which can carry what's left of G4 to its conclusion.  And, frankly, Hasbro has become a rather lazy company.  Developing new characters would mean work, and they figure they can get away with this.  We will see if that's the case.

[Taffeta]

One thing that I think people forget, is that Hasbro doesn't pick what ponies go to what store and in what quantities.  HASBRO isn't punishing UK stores.  They make an assortment every year- then RETAILERS place their orders.
So the people to pester about why we don't have enough ponies is not Hasbro-  it's your own retail stores.

Editing for clarity...I realised this can be said much more simply.

In short, not true. In G1 it was the stores like Woolworths importing US release ponies like Happytails that broadened the UK line and evidence of this in other European countries also exists. In G4, the fact Target and Walmart labelled products appear in stores without the affiliation also indicates some stores are acting on their own to import stuff outside the Hasbro agreements with particular chains, even now.

We know in G1 that it's Hasbro, not the stores, because the Hasbro catalogues for the UK omit stuff sold in the US. It's not offered to stores, although some do still import direct from the US anyway. Those that do appear, like Jangles and Tangles, are removed by Hasbro, not rejected by stores - because they're in the catalogue, but removed from the box art by the time of release. Only Hasbro can make those decisions. Stores can only sell what Hasbro choose to make available to them - Hasbro are the driving force in this equation. Of course this isn't the same thing as Hasbro knowing or micromanaging every single character sale and release across the whole globe. Their concern is to sell to their distributors, and at that point, job done.

How this all impacts on the quantity of mane 6 vs the others is another story of course. We are dealing with a different relationship between toy stores and companies and the market because of the global and digital nature of everything these days. But given that original characters sell out here at least more quickly...the other thing is, Pinkie Pie is 2x every other pony in every release pretty much. So there are 2x as many Pinkies from Hasbro (not store dictated) in each box. I know that because my sister has seen them >< so anyway. I also remember Hasbro's enthusiasm for chicken pinkie pie as a con exclusive some years back. I am not totally sure they are paying attention to the market. And I am NOT sure that retailers get a choice to NOT order mane 6...I think given the way these waves are released, new characters are always with mane 6 ones, so it's kind of a done deal.

One other factor is the SKU. For example, Tesco here recently put all baby sea ponies on clearance. Baby Sea Ponies wave 2 have been out here since October. Wave 1 haven't. But Tesco had ALL baby sea ponies on clearance, even the newly appeared wave 1 that had never been sold at full price. For Tesco, these were all the same thing. The Hippogriffs also have the same tag, I think - at Entertainer the baby sea ponies are on pegs marked Hippogriff right now. So I get the feeling stores don't really know the specific characters they are ordering. They just get what they're sent and aren't aware that some characters under the same SKU are new and some are not. This same thing also happened with Holly Dash's wave of the Rainbow Power II set in a different store.

Methodology might have changed, but I think the buck still stops with what Hasbro decides, not so much stores. Also your logic suggests that Starswirl etc were offered to US retailers but turned down - which seems strange considering Haven bay as an extra was offered to Walmart and accepted even though they clearanced it out at $19 from $88, clearly making some kind of loss on it overall. And instead of offering that internationally, Walmart got all of them and thus had to clearance them - but didn't choose to return them to Hasbro, making me wonder whether they even can. The surprising thing is that they didn't get farmed out to Asda here (of course they may yet >.>) but I guess maybe with the size of the set shipping there was prohibitive. Mind you, though, it's all made in China...so there's shipping costs either way...?

[LadyMoondancer]

During G1, yes, Hasbro had a lot of influence over the stores.  But today, the stores have a lot of influence over Hasbro.  I read an article by a former (80s) vice president in charge of marketing in Hasbro, and he said they basically "forced" My Little Pony into stores, over the doubts of the retailers.  They were one of a few, large toy companies and they had that leverage. 

He went on to say that today, the situation is reversed.  Today the stores can say "we want this color of product, we want this size of product."  Obviously Hasbro is still the company making the toys.  But they try to make something that will match what the retailers want.    Wal-Mart probably had as much to do with the first Princess Celestia toys being pink as Hasbro did.  (Particularly since the prototypes photographed on the back of the box were white.)

[Bewilderbeast]

I think Hasbro is holding serve right now.  That's the primary strategy.  They're depending on consumer goods right now which can carry what's left of G4 to its conclusion.  And, frankly, Hasbro has become a rather lazy company.  Developing new characters would mean work, and they figure they can get away with this.  We will see if that's the case.

The big two toy companies (Mattel and Hasbro) have become INCREDIBLY lazy in the last few years.

[Zapper]

In the end it's always about money. Why would they change a working formula? Personally, I dislike how ponies today are so small. But being small means there is more space for them on the shelves, more space in kids' bedrooms for them, less material used to make them.

About the core cast problem... apparently this sells. It's boring from a creative or collector perspective but the tatget demo seems to literally buy it.
This is sadly the issue with a lot of products. Either you buy them or they take them away. Had G4 failed do you think they would have made a new movie or upped the production costs for G5 or even introduced the G1 retros? They do this because people bought the Mane Six and not because they care about MLP fans so much they want to play Santa and give us presents for ~supporting their brand.

Last but not least these toys are manufactured in factories overseas that pay a minimal wage probably none of you would accept. Less quality control, lesser quality in general and increased price is due to capitalism and not a general laziness. Which is why I feel no remorse in buying factory ponies off Chinese ebay sellers But that's another story.

It would be awesome if Hasbro had the fan exchange that smaller companies manage. Like Basic Fun for instance, who are already aware of our G1 Celestial Pony campaign. MGA, who are still trying to make their horrific looking Bratz happen again just because there is still a mostly adult fanbase for them.
Or IDW, the publisher who does the G4 comics. The MLP team at IDW responds to any stupid fandom drama.
But Hasbro is about to become the Disney of playline toys. They kicked Mattel off its throne and they did so by providing quantity instead of quality and aggressively pandering to the lowest common denominator.
If you take a quick look at the toy market, it is kinda sad how Hasbro managed to compete with Mattel's Monster High just by releasing Mane Six repeats while at that time MH still had a huge cast of characters.
MH's sales declined and they eventually tried to copy Hasbro with the rigid core character roster. And now MH is knee deep in a reboot that disappointed them financially while Hasbro is already planning EqG 3.0