g4 fandom paranoia. THE END IS NIGH!

[Baby Sugarberry]

Come to think of it, there have been no new leaks and absolutely no official press about what will come next.  We're only a year or two away from this, so you would think we would hear something.  Maybe at New York Comic Con or next year's Toy Fair.

If the leak wasn't intentional, I'd expect there were some very Stern Talking To's that went on about corporate security and possibly some lost jobs or even legal action.  Big companies take breach of NDA's pretty seriously. 

[Zapper]

There is the current and the next season to go. Why would Hasbro sabotage this? They are rolling out the Cutie Mark Crew right now, what should they say? "We will replace all of this very soon. But please stay invested." ?

If the last FiM season is 2019 and the G5 movie and show is slated for 2020, there is still enough time to plan a smooth transition. We know they moved to Boulder Media for their next series and there was a call for animators to work on a secret movie project there. Given how much time it takes to make an animated movie, this can only be the G5 movie.

It all fits together. I figure the last FiM season will have an ending that leads right into G5 (or closes G4 in an obvious way). The leak e-mails had a schedule that showed two more toylines, one of them holiday themed and the last season is supposed to show Celestia's backstory.
Still a lot of things to see and buy. If I was a Hasbro employee I'd never ever announce and end right now. Pony is forever

[tailrustedtealeaf]

Have we heard any official news about the movie? 2020 is only two years away, and I thought it was meant to be a theatrical release?

[Zapper]

Have we heard any official news about the movie? 2020 is only two years away, and I thought it was meant to be a theatrical release?

No. But Boulder Media was hiring for new animators to work on a Hasbro movie for 2020. They posted that on their official twitter only months after the leaks that confirmed a G5 movie for 2020 in cooperation with Boulder Media.
Can't get more official than that. Also, I repeat myself, but why should they announce a new gen when the old gen still has stuff to sell and one more season to go?
It's bad business.
That's also why I don't believe the leaks were done by Hasbro. They leaked entire season 7 episodes along with the e-mails and dozens of pitch art. Also the e-mails talked about kids as the target audience. Nowhere did they say 'I wonder what adults will want'. That's just being a self-centered fan who thinks MLP is produced for them.

A Brony hacker or bad little intern who leaks stuff that is then whiped from several websites because they fear a Hasbro crackdown is not carefully calculated by this big of a toy company. They do not need our approval. They want to bring in a new generation of kids as the old fandom is outgrowing FiM already.
It's business as usual. It really confuses me how adamant some people here are in not believeing it

I remember when the Monster High redesign was "leaked" by someone who talked to a Mattel employee one year before the redesign would slowly dribble in. I didn't believe it and I laughed at rhe "insider". A year later all the things she wrote about came true. And that was mere hearsay, not folders full of e-mails and at least 15 different art styles attached to RL illustrators and character artists.

[tailrustedtealeaf]

Oh, I wasn't doubting the validity of the leaks, just wondering if they were still going for the plan. After the entire MLP Movie got leaked in HD a day or two before release in theatres, I had no problem believing this round's.
We'll just have to wait to see if they market the movie as a New Generation or some sort of tie-in to FiM's universe.

[Taffeta]

That's also why I don't believe the leaks were done by Hasbro. They leaked entire season 7 episodes along with the e-mails and dozens of pitch art. Also the e-mails talked about kids as the target audience. Nowhere did they say 'I wonder what adults will want'. That's just being a self-centered fan who thinks MLP is produced for them.

Maybe I missed something, but I don't remember anyone actually saying it was leaked to see how bronies would feel (or we would feel) about it. Just that it might have been market research. Let's not forget that a lot of the G1 fandom age group have children in the FIM target age group. Let's also remember how much parents have influenced changes in other toy lines by their approval or otherwise (see Monster High being 'too scary').

But the reason I am keeping my mind open on this is because there are a lot of things that are odd. I mean, as someone said, NDA are pretty serious. And yet there's not been a huge clampdown on this stuff from Hasbro. I would've thought that a hacking would have created a different kind of response from Hasbro :/ So to me it seems plausible that one of two options are in play.

One, the material is not significant in terms of knowledge about G5. For example, designs that were discussed but discarded. Yes, the eps were leaked, but then again that provided pretty good advertising and anticipation for the school of friendship stuff coming out so that's not necessarily the end of the world and it was going to come out soon anyway.

Two, Hasbro intended the material to be out to see what reactions people gave.

Of course, option 3 is still that none of it is authentic and the rest of the leak has nothing to do with the leaked episodes which were obviously real.

The other thing is that this leak wasn't Hasbro's main base, but the TV company, right? So we're talking about designs for a potential TV show using recycled characters for a rehashed version of FIM at some point in the future. We've seen absolutely nothing that tells us about any toy line (if there is to be one), who the key characters are, whether they are the characters we've seen drawings of, or anything else that will directly involve Hasbro and not a franchise.

So to me it seems whatever this is probably is not invented, but may also be the smallest and least sensitive or important aspect of the reboot reveal - and its leaking may actually benefit Hasbro by distracting people (especially bronies) from thinking about what Hasbro themselves are or are not developing...

I am just a very cynical person I guess. It's not that I believe the leak is fake, just that I think there are no coincidences.

[Zapper]

Oh, I wasn't doubting the validity of the leaks, just wondering if they were still going for the plan. After the entire MLP Movie got leaked in HD a day or two before release in theatres, I had no problem believing this round's.
We'll just have to wait to see if they market the movie as a New Generation or some sort of tie-in to FiM's universe.

I was just using your comment as a jumping off point for a rant 
Being nosy I wish there were more leaks coming in but after that bomb last year I assume they upped their game a little. And I understand they will go forth with G5 no matter what feedback they'd be getting. Because if people are already being hired as of January that means pre-production has already kicked in.

I just don't get why some people believe that leak was orchestrated by Hasbro. These things happen so rarely, almost never with kids media. Its as if people believed the movie was being leaked by Hasbro for Bronies to enjoy for free because they would get "beaten up" in theaters full of angry dads. Which is something I read in various forums. The delusion was real!

Not even in Hasbro's in-house plans they had a picture standing in for Bronies. The "older fan" in their eyes are young women who do cosplay and like MLP fashion products. And I doubt they give enough of a damn about that fanbase to leak episodes and mails à la the Sony Hack to gauge their interest.
Allthough I'm sure they saw some of the more extreme reactions to the leak. So I hope they saw mine and keep in mind that I don't want a male Applejack

Post Merge: August 13, 2018, 09:52:46 AM

(...) it might have been market research. Let's not forget that a lot of the G1 fandom age group have children in the FIM target age group. Let's also remember how much parents have influenced changes in other toy lines by their approval or otherwise (see Monster High being 'too scary').

But they hold official market research meetings and events with select families for exactly that purpose. One guy leaking a bunch of stuff together with half finished episodes just for market research is unbelievable to me.

But the reason I am keeping my mind open on this is because there are a lot of things that are odd. I mean, as someone said, NDA are pretty serious. And yet there's not been a huge clampdown on this stuff from Hasbro. I would've thought that a hacking would have created a different kind of response from Hasbro :/ So to me it seems plausible that one of two options are in play.

Hasbro is a tad more relaxed about that stuff than let's say Mattel. Hasbro lets people create XXX pony plushies as long as they are not saying it's official. They also took their sweet time to finally send a cease and desist to a certain XXX artist with his particular Celestia crap. The thing they reacted quickly on was full episodes on youtube.
And within only days the leaked episodes were scrubbed off the net. I know because I tried to watch one only days after the leak and it said "removed due to copyright infringement".
So it took them a little but they made sure the eps disappear from the biggest sources. If that was marketing research it was very poorly done

In the end, the easiest explanation is a dude wanted to leak pony stuff and found a motherload. If it was an employee he most likely got fired for it.
Leaks have their own fandom. People leak things because they can. It doesn't always have to be about a conspiracy.

But like I said, Hasbro social media peeps probably used some of that leak to look at reactions and in the end they might have profited from it a little. Sure. Just not in the way actual market research would be done.
Silly they would orchestrate that for MLP only. You'd think Transformers would be more important to them, so why didn't they leak Cyberverse episodes and Bumblebee movie e-mails? I would have wanted to see that and tell them I hate the CG animation If the new MLP movie looks like that... no thanks

[Wardah]

I'm going to be old and cranky now but I would have been fine not having pony 'put out there'. From a community and a fan point of view, there isn't really any benefit to mass outside attention on MLP.

What about the merch like clothes in adult sizes and such? Like nothing exists for LPS and that's sad.

[Carrehz]

The main thing I hate about it is if anyone hears "Pony" now they just start making all these assumptions, and what they have in their mind is G4, bronies, etc. I liked being able to say I was an MLP collector before without the stigma or assumptions.

This is what upsets me about it all. I don't care about what people do in their own corners of the internet, whatever, if it makes them happy that's nice, just keep it away from me. But I feel like whenever I mention liking MLP, I have to immediately add the disclaimer "not FiM, I'm not a brony" and it's irritating/disheartening/whatever word you want to use.

[Baby Sugarberry]

The main thing I hate about it is if anyone hears "Pony" now they just start making all these assumptions, and what they have in their mind is G4, bronies, etc. I liked being able to say I was an MLP collector before without the stigma or assumptions.

This is what upsets me about it all. I don't care about what people do in their own corners of the internet, whatever, if it makes them happy that's nice, just keep it away from me. But I feel like whenever I mention liking MLP, I have to immediately add the disclaimer "not FiM, I'm not a brony" and it's irritating/disheartening/whatever word you want to use.

This, so much this.  ; 

[Leave a Whisper]

The main thing I hate about it is if anyone hears "Pony" now they just start making all these assumptions, and what they have in their mind is G4, bronies, etc. I liked being able to say I was an MLP collector before without the stigma or assumptions.

This is what upsets me about it all. I don't care about what people do in their own corners of the internet, whatever, if it makes them happy that's nice, just keep it away from me. But I feel like whenever I mention liking MLP, I have to immediately add the disclaimer "not FiM, I'm not a brony" and it's irritating/disheartening/whatever word you want to use.

 

[Taffeta]

I'm going to be old and cranky now but I would have been fine not having pony 'put out there'. From a community and a fan point of view, there isn't really any benefit to mass outside attention on MLP.

What about the merch like clothes in adult sizes and such? Like nothing exists for LPS and that's sad.

I am happy to lose the merchandise if it means that pony goes back to being something enjoyed by those who know it, not fad followed by internet memers and misinterpreted by whole swathes of the 'real world' as something to do with adult males or people who want to become unicorns or whatever.

I like a lot of the G4 pony toys (non mane 6, although I do still love my original AJ and Rarity that I brought back from Finland), so I guess my cranky old person gripes are with the show and the kind of fandom it spawned, rather than the generation or the toys. I am over the mane 6 like a lot of people, but I would've enjoyed G4 much more without the cartoon.

When you have had to remove explicit MLP images from a non-MLP related website as part of a spam war between two stupid teenage boys, you realise that there are problems with MLP being public property. You can't unsee that stuff :/

I was a pony collector in 1985, a pony collector in 1995, in 2005 and in 2015. I've bought ponies from every generation new and enjoyed each for its own merits. The publicity is anathema to me.  I'll still be a pony collector in 2025, even if FIM is a long forgotten memory. If it means losing some merch, so be it. I can deal. It's easy enough to make shirts if you really want them (and thanks to sites like redbubble, get some really stunning G1 designs). A lot of real merch has errors in the graphics or the labelling, anyway - or is ridiculously expensive (eg Moschino).

I love the G4 ponies I have. But I am ready for the hype to move on to something else.

[Wardah]

I'm going to be old and cranky now but I would have been fine not having pony 'put out there'. From a community and a fan point of view, there isn't really any benefit to mass outside attention on MLP.

What about the merch like clothes in adult sizes and such? Like nothing exists for LPS and that's sad.

I am happy to lose the merchandise if it means that pony goes back to being something enjoyed by those who know it, not fad followed by internet memers and misinterpreted by whole swathes of the 'real world' as something to do with adult males or people who want to become unicorns or whatever.

I like a lot of the G4 pony toys (non mane 6, although I do still love my original AJ and Rarity that I brought back from Finland), so I guess my cranky old person gripes are with the show and the kind of fandom it spawned, rather than the generation or the toys. I am over the mane 6 like a lot of people, but I would've enjoyed G4 much more without the cartoon.

When you have had to remove explicit MLP images from a non-MLP related website as part of a spam war between two stupid teenage boys, you realise that there are problems with MLP being public property. You can't unsee that stuff :/

I was a pony collector in 1985, a pony collector in 1995, in 2005 and in 2015. I've bought ponies from every generation new and enjoyed each for its own merits. The publicity is anathema to me.  I'll still be a pony collector in 2025, even if FIM is a long forgotten memory. If it means losing some merch, so be it. I can deal. It's easy enough to make shirts if you really want them (and thanks to sites like redbubble, get some really stunning G1 designs). A lot of real merch has errors in the graphics or the labelling, anyway - or is ridiculously expensive (eg Moschino).

I love the G4 ponies I have. But I am ready for the hype to move on to something else.

Also I bet a lot of the G1 themed stuff would have still happened even if FIM hadn't attracted the fanbase it did. After all Care Bears and Strawberry Shortcake get plenty of attention and they don't have any kind of "brony" equivalent.

[Zapper]

Yeah MLP nostalgia is also part of that general 80s toy nostalgia because the kids from back then are having kids themselves (and disposeable income).

Still, I think some attention was brought back to G1 because FiM attracted a new female fanbase as well. Those cosplaying young women I mentioned earlier. Hasbro took note of those and declared them the target group for the nostalgic merch.
Not to mention the focus on the same G1 ponies over and over again. If it was for pony collectors they would use more obscure characters or just Mimic on everything

[Leave a Whisper]

Yeah MLP nostalgia is also part of that general 80s toy nostalgia because the kids from back then are having kids themselves (and disposeable income).

Still, I think some attention was brought back to G1 because FiM attracted a new female fanbase as well. Those cosplaying young women I mentioned earlier. Hasbro took note of those and declared them the target group for the nostalgic merch.
Not to mention the focus on the same G1 ponies over and over again. If it was for pony collectors they would use more obscure characters or just Mimic on everything

Don't we wish.