What's wrong with MLP today?

[Al-1701]

Mail orders to me seem to be more about rewarding loyalty.  You've bought so many ponies, here is a cool new pony for sticking with us.  Kind of like those you get a free sandwich from a sub place for buying a certain number of sandwiches.  If only enough new ponies came out to make it feasible without buying duplicates.  They could even make the yearly mail order prize the celebrity guest pony (though I don't know how many people would want Quibble or Grandpear).

[KarentheUnicorn]

Don't know if the link to the picture will work as I'm rescanning and saving on facebook, but here is the newspaper clipping I saved from 1989.

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[Taffeta]

@Uni. Awesome recollection. Rewarding the richest kid with money seems a bit off mind you.

 Also reminded me that Hasbro UK used to be more communicative that way too. My friend's dragon got caught in a lawnmower and they sent her a replacement...I also know Mum and Dad got my Lemon Drop from Hasbro to go with my second hand stable in 1990. Of course she was the Chinese one.

I also had a lot of correspondence with them in 95.

I wonder if this change is a symptom of the digital age and the loss of the personal touch.

We don't know whether kids now are fine with 50 of the same pony. They kind of don't have an alternative. If they like mlp they are stuck with mane 6.

[Freeindeed]

I remember that contest too and I entered it as well... but my "paltry" 50 or so ponies were not impressive enough for me to win, haha.

I'm not sure how I heard about it... it might have been through the TV after school, because I remember one of my friends was over the day that the picture was taken, and we were preparing my ponies all afternoon for their "photo shoot" by cleaning them and doing their hair. We always had the TV on in the background while we were playing together, and there were always loads of pony commercials. Or it's possible I read about it in a comic book or magazine. I'm 90% certain it was some random thing and it was never officially announced in a pamphlet or anything like that. Because Hasbro.

I do know it was approximately October of 1988 when I entered the contest, because I have still have a copy of my contest entry picture. The back of the picture is dated 1988, and it has my Halloween drawings all over my closet doors in the background (I loved to do different drawings for the holidays! ), so it must have been around Halloween time or thereabouts.

[KarentheUnicorn]

@Uni. Awesome recollection. Rewarding the richest kid with money seems a bit off mind you.

 Also reminded me that Hasbro UK used to be more communicative that way too. My friend's dragon got caught in a lawnmower and they sent her a replacement...I also know Mum and Dad got my Lemon Drop from Hasbro to go with my second hand stable in 1990. Of course she was the Chinese one.

I also had a lot of correspondence with them in 95.

I wonder if this change is a symptom of the digital age and the loss of the personal touch.

We don't know whether kids now are fine with 50 of the same pony. They kind of don't have an alternative. If they like mlp they are stuck with mane 6.

I don't remember exactly how many I had, I think it was around 200something maybe...meh. The thing is, here parents seemed to be collecting for her, whereas I was older, would have been 11 when I started and in 1989, I would have been around 17 years old. I did get a lot of gifted ponies don't get me wrong, but it was really the only thing I asked for as a teenager. For graduation in 1990...I fricking asked for 25 ponies I didn't have, not a car...ponies :p I also worked to get cash as a teen to buy ponies, sold other toys at yard sales to buy more ponies. So meh, I didn't have my parents randomly decide to collect for me, it was all on me.

But, in some ways Hasbro did seem to 'imply' collecting the ponies, as much as being a toy. So I sort of think they saw it as a toy but knew with things like the horseshoe points/mail order program that there were people who were actually invested in getting each and every one of them. It also seems like a reason they'd bring ponies back for mail order...have an old scan of something that shows they're bringing ponies back with a mindset of HAY you might have missed these ponies, here is your chance to buy them and this was back in 1986 mind you.

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Also note they were actually calling them 'collector ponies' back in 1986....

[lovesbabysquirmy]

I think Hasbro is now more concerned with the megaworld that is Intellectual Property, rather than creating new toylines that will please and charm consumers with their aesthetic appeal and useful features.

All they have to do is solidify characters they are going to produce official designs for, and negotiate licenses with third-party manufacturers!   Once that license kit is produced, well now we can have Pinkie Pie toothbrushes and trash cans and party favors and apparel, a video game, a TV show, whatever they need to "plug and play" the Intellectual Property.  Now there is no need to offer 10 choices of pony designs because they don't need to in order to push the product into consumer hands, plus creating variations is expensive! 

If you watched the Netflix series, "The Toys That Made Us", and you watch the Star Wars action figure episode... well, it was a good example of different manufacturers having deadlines, what they could do in the meantime, and how much creative control the artists actually were given in the early stages, versus the later Episodes.  I have to presume that many of the manufacturing processes and obstacles that Kenner faced were similar to what Hasbro was dealing with at the time!

[LadyMoondancer]

Most sets have a couple of the Mane Six, plus a couple other ponies.  Like the "All About" set has Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and Twilight, but also Soarin', Big Mac, Songbird Serenade, and Starlight Glimmer.  The pearly collection had four of the Mane Six, but also Starlight Glimmer, Coloratura, Pretzel, Sea Swirl, Sapphire Joy, and Cherry Berry.  So a kid who didn't want any duplicate ponies could still have a big collection.

I do feel that the collections have been more diverse in the past two years than prior to that.  (Excluding the first year with Feathermay etc which was very diverse.)  This year we got a large set that doesn't have any Mane Six (the eight baby sea ponies), which I think is a first.

lovesbabysquirmy, I agree, I feel like licensed goods are a MUCH bigger piece of the pie than they used to be.

[KarentheUnicorn]

I remember that contest too and I entered it as well... but my "paltry" 50 or so ponies were not impressive enough for me to win, haha.

I'm not sure how I heard about it... it might have been through the TV after school, because I remember one of my friends was over the day that the picture was taken, and we were preparing my ponies all afternoon for their "photo shoot" by cleaning them and doing their hair. We always had the TV on in the background while we were playing together, and there were always loads of pony commercials. Or it's possible I read about it in a comic book or magazine. I'm 90% certain it was some random thing and it was never officially announced in a pamphlet or anything like that. Because Hasbro.

I do know it was approximately October of 1988 when I entered the contest, because I have still have a copy of my contest entry picture. The back of the picture is dated 1988, and it has my Halloween drawings all over my closet doors in the background (I loved to do different drawings for the holidays! ), so it must have been around Halloween time or thereabouts.

For some reason I still feel like it was sent to people who ordered mail order ponies? Just out of curiosity did you order mail orders back then? I don't know that it would have been TV, mostly because I don't think I would have had as much access in terms of writing down the address but I just don't remember...it just feels like maybe it was some kind of letter sent out to people who had ordered mail orders...but I just honestly can't remember.

I don't have a photo of mine, sadly back in the day we didn't get doubles of pictures online 1 of each so on the roll of 24, I would have only had 1 of whatever my original photo was...so hasbro got that photo (back in the day when we couldn't take 50million photos with our phones) haha.

[Dreamer]

Going back to the Mane 6 problem, I think the Zelfs had the right idea. They also attempted to establish some "brand mascots" and thus got new versions of certain Zelfs (especially Vampula, Buttershy and Spellinda, which got 3 variants total). But along these "mascots", they also released a whole bunch of new Zelfs in each wave. Perhaps if Hasbro tried to rehash the Mane 6 everytime but added like 6 more ponies to keep things interesting... or just 3 Manes and 3 news... that way, there would be always Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash on the shelves but also new ponies for every kid to find.

[Leave a Whisper]

Don't know if the link to the picture will work as I'm rescanning and saving on facebook, but here is the newspaper clipping I saved from 1989.

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Holy cow! That's an awesome collection!

[Freeindeed]

I did have a couple of mail orders (Lucky and my Birthflower, February) but they were ordered at my old address about 2 years prior, so I don't know. I certainly wasn't a heavy hitter with the mail orders, although looking back I wish I had been. Oh wait, that's not true! I just remembered, I had another friend (a different one from the one who helped me clean the ponies) who majorly coveted my Lucky. I remember he was available for a few years in different pamphlets, and my mom let me order him for her for her birthday. And that was after we moved, so maybe that was it? I was only 9 years old at the time, so I don't remember all that well.

I also had a mail order Star Dancer but I don't think I got her until after the contest was over. 

[KarentheUnicorn]

I did have a couple of mail orders (Lucky and my Birthflower, February) but they were ordered at my old address about 2 years prior, so I don't know. I certainly wasn't a heavy hitter with the mail orders, although looking back I wish I had been. Oh wait, that's not true! I just remembered, I had another friend (a different one from the one who helped me clean the ponies) who majorly coveted my Lucky. I remember he was available for a few years in different pamphlets, and my mom let me order him for her for her birthday. And that was after we moved, so maybe that was it? I was only 9 years old at the time, so I don't remember all that well.

I also had a mail order Star Dancer but I don't think I got her until after the contest was over. 

In 1988 I would have been around 16 years old....and when I say I kept a lot of the pamphlets and stuff....yea, I kept a lot of it. I even have the envelopes from Hasbro. So my thinking is, if they'd put in a pamphlet about the contest in the packaging, seems like I'd at least have some extras of it in my big red pony binder...but I don't, not one shread of evidence about the contest.

So, if it was just 'one' letter to all the people who have done the mail order thing up until 1988...if I just got one letter then I can sort of understand maybe why I lost it. But then again surely they did more advertising than that? But, I just can't find any more info, etc.

[Freeindeed]

Yeah, I haven't seen any mention of it in any of the pamphlets I have either... I don't have my original childhood ones anymore, but I do have a big stack of them I've saved from eBay lots over the years and nada. So maybe you're right, and it was tied to the mail order program somehow. I wish I had a clearer memory of where I actually heard about the contest, but I was still just a kid so I guess it's not too surprising that I don't remember anymore.

Maybe I can try to ask my mom and see if she remembers anything else. She took the pictures of me with the ponies and she probably helped me fill out the entry form too.

Here's my picture of me and my ponies, by the way. I also have a Halloween pumpkin bucket next to me, so it must have been pretty close to Halloween.

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[Al-1701]

I think Hasbro is now more concerned with the megaworld that is Intellectual Property, rather than creating new toylines that will please and charm consumers with their aesthetic appeal and useful features.

All they have to do is solidify characters they are going to produce official designs for, and negotiate licenses with third-party manufacturers!   Once that license kit is produced, well now we can have Pinkie Pie toothbrushes and trash cans and party favors and apparel, a video game, a TV show, whatever they need to "plug and play" the Intellectual Property.  Now there is no need to offer 10 choices of pony designs because they don't need to in order to push the product into consumer hands, plus creating variations is expensive! 

Even in that business model, the charm of at least aesthetic appeal is vital.  Intellectual properties are only as valuable as the public has interest in them.

And Hasbro is still a toy company.  Making and selling toys is going to be more profitable than throwing out licenses.  In fact, as I said, the former feeds the latter.  License work is not as profitable as original work, those third parties need a reason to use Pinkie Pie and not a generic pink pony.

Variation is also useful in this business model.  The more characters you have, the more the third parties can work with.

Really, if Friendship is Magic wasn't an instant hit, do you think people would care about the Mane 6?

[Khoufu]

Has Star Wars even done a mail order in the last 5 years?