Why is Hasbro no longer capable of selling a figure by itself?

[Leave a Whisper]

Hopefully G5 will be a return to original form. I'm not holding my breath.

[StarSwirl05]

I feel like it's a marketing ploy. If they put a new character with an old one, you'll buy it for the new character, which'll probably be at a higher price than if it were sold alone. Of course, it only works if parents allow it.

[LadyMoondancer]

I just hope they make a midnight blue (not purple!) smaller size figure of Princess Luna, preferably sold on her own.  I saw the one in the 9 pack (!!!) today at Target.  Love the color but I don't need the other 8 ponies.

[Taffeta]

So maybe this is an unpopular slant on this but I just think this is what categorises G4. The lack of imagination and creativity in the toy line and the overdependence on the animation and the franchised merch instead.

I am not saying if that is good or bad, but for me it's not attractive. I actually do like a lot of the G4 pony toys, but as I have said before, I generally only collect those outside the mane 6. I have a few mane 6 ones for whatever reason - but I generally don't buy the packs with mane 6 in. The only exceptions I can think of are one with Pinkie & Scootaloo which was on serious clearance and Rarity's carriage for €9.99 because I thought Starswirl was pretty when I saw it in France.

I started off with an AJ, a Rarity and Lily Blossom back in 2011 when I saw them in a store in Finland - but that was before the market got saturated with them. Mostly when I have a mane 6 pony it came from a second hand sale.

I don't know that I blame Faust for this - I think this is Hasbro. I blame Faust for the misconceptions about G1 and for the FIM animation, but Hasbro are capable of thinking for themselves about the toys they produce. I don't even know that they think Mane 6 are going to sell best, but the thing is they rarely give kids a choice to show them otherwise. And to reproduce the same ponies over and over is a cost saving, because same colours, same prints, same dye etc...it's not as much work as creating whole new characters which they can't be bothered to properly promote anyway.

So yeah. This is just the signature feature of G4.

My fear is that Hasbro will take this same concept into G5. I expect them to retain the same horrible boring characters and shove them down kids' throats till MLP is dead beyond the point of rescue.

It's annoying and sad. But ultimately I'm also not their target market. So really what I want them to do is what the kids want most. In my area back home I can absolutely say that kids don't want mane 6 over and over. I've seen numerous kids going through the whole rack to look for a pony that's different. I actually helped one kid find a new pony by accident one week when I was looking at the rack and pulled out Soarin. I put him back at the front of the rack, next thing I know a little girl is all over him with excitement. In terms of the pearlies, the ones we got back home sold out of Coloratura, Pretzel and Cherry Berry before the mane 6 which are still saturating shelves in Entertainer. Cherry Berry did have a prior release I think but I am not confident how widespread it was in the UK - I never saw her.

So yeah. I think kids would like variety, and blind bag sales indicate that too. BUT I don't suppose Hasbro care. They can leave product promotion to the show and churn out the same ponies because of the show.

So although the mane 6 focus in the show is probably the thing influeincing originality in toy line production - it's Hasbro who make that choice. They could easily release background characters more often. They just don't.

[banditpony]

I just hope they make a midnight blue (not purple!) smaller size figure of Princess Luna, preferably sold on her own.  I saw the one in the 9 pack (!!!) today at Target.  Love the color but I don't need the other 8 ponies.

Haha I thought the same thing, although I'd like to big one. But I couldn't help think what an amazing Xmas gift that said would be

Anyway I feel like hasbro knows what they are doing, as g4 has lasted this far and most of the run has been main 6... It's a model they wanted to do since the end of g3, and because of the show, it's a model that worked.

[sd_dreamcrystal]

I rarely see any kids in my area go after the singles, but maybe I'm just not there are the right time? Who knows.
Either way let me put this forward, I was at walmart the other day on my lunch and saw a grandmother with her young granddaughter in the toy aisle with Barbie and MLP. The granddaughter is the target age for MLP but she didn't even look at the ponies, instead she wanted one of those miniature (smallest world figures) Barbies .

Likewise when I do see others in that aisle the kids want the blindbag stuff, not necessarily the MLP ones though. One of our Walmarts has an aisle that is nothing but blindbag/blindbox items.


The one thing I'm concerned about when they do finally get G5 out... is the fact that it's the same 6 ponies, but with a different look. The actual toys may not come to some stores quickly due to whatever saturated stock of G4 toys will be on the shelves at the time..

[MerryAnvil]

I 100% agree with Taffeta's stance on this. You summed up my thoughts perfectly. I really don't like the 're-release the same character over and over' model. When I was a kid during G3 I never got a duplicate pony or release. Granted, they didn't re-release that many G3's, but there were a couple different Minty and Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dashes.  If they're marketing it towards kids...I mean what kid would want to play with 25 Pinkie Pies or Twilights?

"Come on, Pinkie II! Let's go to the candy shop!"

"Great idea Pinkie I! Pinkie III, are you coming too?"

"Sure, Pinkie II!"

It's just...really weird IMO. I don't really think it's a good model because even though they think they're marketing to kids, it's like they're actually marketing to the slightly older crowd who is obsessed with the show and wants to have a herd full of one character. Nothing wrong with collecting the same pony of course! But it's definitely not aimed at the right age group if they really wanna satisfy their child consumers. At least, in my opinion.

[mlp4me]

I've skimmed what has been said, lots of good points... While I do not collect this current line, I do see that G4 could still have a lot of potential! I feel it is unfair for those that are collecting that it's been the same characters over and over and over again... My fear would be that G5 would be like 3.5, same characters just slight re-design. 
\
If you want to see different characters offered start a campaign. Hasrro won't know what you want or what children want unless you
 bombard them with letters, via the post office and even on their social media. Send them videos of your kids asking for new characters. You never know what will happen... Pony bucket challenge! "Release a new bucket of ponies in the next 6 months, Hasbro", something like that and have your kid throw a bucket of the same character in the air saying they're tired of the same old same old characters. Just my 2 cents.

[gabumon]

Hasbro has done this with Transformers recently.  They made 13 Prime Masters but you can’t get all of them unless you buy some pricey $>100 exclusive sets.

Also they made these G1 updates of twins.  a bad guy set and a good guy set.  BUT you could only buy half of the pairs, unless you bought an expensive >$100 exclusive set.  rude.

ya it’s marketing. 

[Leave a Whisper]

Many good points here.

[Ponyfan]

I'm not sure some of the new movie characters will get single releases. We've only seen Capper and hippogriff Skystar in the 2 packs and Queen Novo and Haven Bay with Sequestria.


I've never seen the baby hippogriffs that were supposed to follow the baby sea pony set either. And I think Hasbro missed an opportunity to make more hippogriff characters then the impossible to find babies, Skystar and Stratus Skygazer, 

I'd love to see a Terramar from Season 8 but knowing Hasbro he'll probably be sold in a giant set of repeat characters. Was the Spitfire brushable also sold in a large set? I don't think I saw her?



Ponyfan

[flutterscotch]

With the marketing one character over and over again, they seem to only be marketing to that "first pony" purchase at any given time. A customer's first time ever purchasing a pony.

Which is weird.

[Leave a Whisper]

This is just what Hasbro seems to do when the line is dying down.

Bring on the legit G5s!  What could they look like?

I blame Barbie, somehow.

But they've been doing this insane re-release before they announced the line dying down. Unless you mean the gimmick thing.

[flutterscotch]

But they've been doing this insane re-release before they announced the line dying down. Unless you mean the gimmick thing.

Announced, yes, but its been dying down for a long time at this point, and I bet internally sundowning started years ago. I was more referring to the playsets and massivepacks.

[Leave a Whisper]

But they've been doing this insane re-release before they announced the line dying down. Unless you mean the gimmick thing.

Announced, yes, but its been dying down for a long time at this point, and I bet internally sundowning started years ago. I was more referring to the playsets and massivepacks.

As I've never been much for playsets, I'll take your word on that. Though I do recall g3 having lots of 4-packs early on.