In Your Opinion, How Successful Was G4 During Its Run?

[Ragamuffin]

Making this post as sort of a poll to see how G4 as a toyline is doing in other places of the world, especially in comparison to previous generations. It's easy to complain about Pinkie Pie but this is a little different. We all know FiM is... or was... a phenomenon, of course that made money, but this is about the toys specifically.

I've made a lot of posts on my blog about my "Pony-Finding" Adventures. Or I guess, my "Walking-Into-Target-and-Going-Into-the-Pony-Isle-to-Find-Nothing,-Turning-Around-And-Leaving-In-The-Span-of-5-Minutes" Adventures. Ponies just do NOT sell here. We hardly get any new releases. Last year I didn't see any of the Best Gift Ever or School of Friendship ponies (I ended up buying Sandbar off Amazon for $30 instead of $15 ). I never saw Hippogriff Skystar or Baby Sea Ponies anywhere (I found Bubble Splash at Best Buy of all places while looking for a game). I never saw any Friendship is Magic Collection playsets or ponies outside of the Apple Family stuff, which was put on clearance very quickly. Never saw Guardians of Harmony (except for Cheese Sandwich who was always on clearance), Toys R Us never got Ponymaina, I haven't seen Equestria Girl Minis since 2016, no one got Songbird Serenade or Tempest Shadow, I didn't see the early reboot/G4.5 ponies (like the set with Celestia, Fluttershy, and Philomena for example), and I can continue on and on about what I've never seen in person.

Target has a very small selection of ponies. Walmart is even smaller. Before the movie came out, they still had Cutie Mark Magic and pearly ponies they weren't able to get rid of. Now they have Raritys and Cappers they're not able to get rid of. One Walmart here doesn't have a pony section, it's just a small basket full of pearly ponies and FiM Collection Apple Family ponies.

Does anyone else find it impossible to find G4 stuff? Has stock always been this bad? I remember during G3, whenever you walked in, there was always good selection of ponies to choose from, and they always had something new. If there was a pony in the pamphlet you wanted, you'd be able to easily find her. Even with early G4s, I remember them changing things up often enough, they'd get in the playful ponies, the wedding ponies, the Crystal Empire and the Rainbow Power ponies... and then during Cutie Mark Magic and Explore Equestria, they just kind of... gave up? The Basic Fun ponies move along well I think, the Rainbows are usually snatched up, and the Collectors move a bit slower. But the G4s just won't move! There's never anybody even looking at ponies. There's usually two or three people in other aisles, and the toys in the other aisles usually have some indication of things actually selling (Woodzeez extremely are popular here... that, or they never stock them. Shopkins shelves look bare a lot of the time too, of course), but ponies are just collecting dust!

Do you see people buy ponies often? I think I've seen people looking at ponies twice from the past couple of years. I don't see little girls in public care about MLP either, they're more about LOL dolls or whatever, Fingerlings, and Shopkins. I've actually seen more children carry around EQGs or watch EQG on a tablet than MLP...

People on Tumblr have said similar things, where they can't find what they want because no one stocks it. Is this an issue worldwide? Do you think people are still interested? Is there a lack of interest due to oversaturation, or something else? From your experience, were other generations this bad?

I've tried googling numbers, but can only find MLP as a franchise rather than just the toys by themselves. I know they made big money off the movie, and FiM is still popular to this day, but the toy departments tell a totally different story.

Spoiler

A conspiracy theory to finish off: Do you think that sales determined them to reboot G4 into G4.5? I heard they rebooted the toys solely for the movie, but why do that when you could just reuse the old molds? It would have been just fine I think. Or maybe that was just speculation, did they ever give a reason to reboot? I heard some things about "to make the ponies more 'show-accurate'", but why did they do it so late in the generation instead of doing it when FiM was more relevant in the early 2010s? To me it just feels like they did it to try to get people to buy ponies again, because in my opinion 2015-2016 were the worst years for G4. I know it sparked my interest in them again, at least for a minute. While I already own 7 Twilight Sparkles, I don't own one in this ~new mold~!

[Leave a Whisper]

Fairly successful. It lasted for quite a while and made Hasbro quite a bit of dough. As much as I dislike it, I'm not petty or dishonest enough to deny that.

However, the toyline shrinking and putting out the same crap over and over means the pony section has shrunk drastically. Haven't even seen the range of School of Friendship ponies at my local Walmart or Target. Wish Hasbro would get it through their heads not to do a Bore Core/Main Six thing again.

[lovesbabysquirmy]

some things sell, some things sit forever.  it really depends...

[TheBeatlesPkmnFan42]

It's doing alright here, I think. I live in western Washington. Stores are alright at getting new toys in for the bigger toy reset periods, but when it comes to second waves of things that come out when it's not a time of year for the whole toy aisles to reset, things can get skipped. Like Walmart's gotten the recent resets' stuff in such as the Mane 6 singles in those plastic packages, the new 2000s Polly Pocket-esque Equestria Girls, etc, but entirely skipped over the second wave of the sparkle TAF singles, as did all the other stores around me I think... Target's the same way, basically. The Best Gift Ever line though had abysmal distribution here. Not once did I see any Best Gift Ever ponies at the regular stores for ponies such as Walmart or Target. Instead, I found the Mane 6 set at Fred Meyer (Kroger owned store chain here), and the blindbags at the Safeway I work at, didn't see them anywhere else, and I never found the Cadance and Shining Armor set for the line anywhere.

So Walmart and Target get new stuff in for the bigger toy isle resets, but not really so much for the things that are released at other times of the year.

[brightberry]

I would say it's been successful.  But even Barbie needs to be rebooted once in awhile.  Kids grow up. Trends change.  I don't expect G4 to last forever.

[banditpony]

Of course it was successful -- and just because it's at the end of it's lifespan, has no reflection on if it was successful or not. G1s sat at stores at the end of their lifespan too. I bought Bunny Hop in the summer of 93. She's the only pony I remember picking up in the stores.. and i remember there was somewhat of a selection to choose from. I think I got my petites around 93-94 as well.

I don't think G4.5 is a conspiracy. It's pretty obvious that a reboot was needed to freshen up the line. Not because someone needs another twilight sparkle, but to try to appeal to kids that are currently in the target range.

The toys and the brand intertwine. But TBH, if the toys did not still make *stores* money, there's no way they would still be in the toy aisles. And especially at the end of a run, not all stores are going to carry all ponies. There's different demographics.

A 8+ year run is really great.

[Ragamuffin]

Of course it was successful -- and just because it's at the end of it's lifespan, has no reflection on if it was successful or not. G1s sat at stores at the end of their lifespan too. I bought Bunny Hop in the summer of 93. She's the only pony I remember picking up in the stores.. and i remember there was somewhat of a selection to choose from. I think I got my petites around 93-94 as well.

Around here, it's been this slow since 2014. I haven't seen ponies move off shelves since the wedding stuff came out in 2012.

It sounds like everyone else has had better luck?

[Safflower]

It sounds like everyone else has had better luck?

My area still has the Pearlies, hairbows, and ribbon sets. We are pretty behind, and nobody is moving off the shelf.

[banditpony]

Of course it was successful -- and just because it's at the end of it's lifespan, has no reflection on if it was successful or not. G1s sat at stores at the end of their lifespan too. I bought Bunny Hop in the summer of 93. She's the only pony I remember picking up in the stores.. and i remember there was somewhat of a selection to choose from. I think I got my petites around 93-94 as well.

Around here, it's been this slow since 2014. I haven't seen ponies move off shelves since the wedding stuff came out in 2012.

It sounds like everyone else has had better luck?

Then it's probably more of a reflection of your area. If ponies didn't move since 2014-- they wouldn't be on *any* store shelf.

[Stormness_1]

Ponies always went like hotcakes in the early days of G4, but things have slowed down, since well before the reboot and the movie, and honestly, the movie didn't really do much for sales here either. There wasn't all that many showings, the closest one to me was an hour away, and I'm in a capital city - we had none here, in my city at all, just one in a shopping centre cinema on the south coast. So I waited and bought it on DVD, and by then, the hype was long gone, and the toys were everywhere, just not moving terribly fast. Christmas helped, as did some clearance sales, and there are still a few dregs in stores now, but not much. Just those glitter ponies, a few hippogriff babies, the singing ponies, and the cutie mark crew blind bags. and that's where stores haven't dropped them completely. Leftover stock is turning up in cheap shops, that's where I'm usually seeing the hippogriff babies, and they're not moving there either. MLP is pretty much dead in my area, the only new stock in forever is the cutie mark crew stuff.

[LadyMoondancer]

To us, collectors, it may seem like Hasbro producing 40 Twilight Sparkles (it's probably way more than that, lol) means they are trying to convince or trick kids into buying 40 Twilight Sparkles.  What it really means is Hasbro is always keep a convenient Twilight Sparkle on hand for the NEW child viewers who do not have ANY pony toys yet.  It doesn't matter if the kid who was six when FIM started already has Twilight Sparkle because they are now 15.

As far as collectors go (both bronies and collectors in general), they don't make up a big market.  So Hasbro primarily has kids in mind when they design / plan.  I mean, sometimes they throw us (or the bronies) a bone, but their main focus is kids. Collectors might not care about "Fluttershy who has a skirt that then turns her into a sea pony" but kids might, especially if they just saw the movie.

I do feel the franchise is on a downward slope, but I don't really think it's due to any one specific thing--new molds or whatever--I think it's just a natural lifecycle.  The toys have sold well where I am.  (It also depends on the individual store, though.  Like there's a Rite Aid that has had the same pearly Starlight Glimmer forever.)  Like bandit said, eight years is a great run.

Hasbro got a new head of the Girls Department or the MLP Department a few years ago (I can't remember which) and I think that is the reason for the new direction with the molds.  I don't think there's any "conspiracy", I think the new lady just looked at the line and said "Why the heck are all these ponies in the same standing-there pose?"  (And I mean . . . fair.  I'd been asking that for years, lol.)

Hasbro would never try to purposely drive down toy sales to have an "excuse" to reboot.  They don't need an excuse, they can reboot whenever they want.  There've been, like, three Transformers reboots during MLP FIM's lifespan.

Edit:  I've never personally seen someone buying MLP FIM ponies, but I've also never seen someone personally buying the retro ponies.  But I can see the evidence of them moving--different ponies each time I visit.  I also find tons of G4 ponies at the thrift store, obviously someone bought all those Mane Six toys to begin with so . . .

Also, "the FIM toys sell well" doesn't necessarily translate to "the store orders everything".  My stores don't order everything, but that doesn't mean ponies don't sell well.  "Wave 2" toys--of any toyline--tend to be harder to find.  The reason is that stores will wait until they're totally cleared out of Wave 1 before Wave 2.  And sometimes by the time they've sold all the Wave 1 toys . . . Wave 2 is no longer available.  The 2nd set of G4 baby sea ponies never showed up at my Target, even though ponies sell very well there . . . (This is probably also why Year 3 G1 sea ponies are so hard to find.  "Why should we order more adult sea ponies, we still have 20 Sealights and Seawinkles in the back.")  Sometimes shelf space is an issue too.  My Target has very short shelves for their toy section--it's rather small compared to the average Target--and the sets they skip tend to be the larger boxed ones.  Like I haven't seen the Sandbar set at all.  But they did have the Rarity and Capper set and I think the Pinkie Pie (?) and Princess Skystar set.

[Taffeta]

In the UK version of this story, I suspect you'll get different experiences based on region as I've heard very different accounts from people all over the country (you wouldn't think it considering how small the UK is compared to the US, but there you go).

The earliest wave I ever saw was the release with Lily Blossom as well as the mane 6, and that was in Finland. I never saw them in the UK until after that. I only ever saw the set with Feather May etc once in Harrods in London, which is a specialist store, never anywhere else. So I think early distribution was slow. I also never saw Dewdrop Dazzle in the UK. Mine came from Lille. I have heard that Starswirl's carriage and the other Euros may have been in some places here, but again, I got the ones I have of them from Lille on that same trip.

The midpoint of G4 seemed to be doing ok. The distribution of some lines was a bit wobbly though. We had Buttonbelle and her set but it took a while to get here. We had a lot of Rainbow Power I and II, including Holly Dash, but her wave were on shelves here briefly and sold out MAJORLY fast. We had the ones with the patterns up their legs - Flower Wishes etc - for a while too. Also some of the masquerade ones on card.

At the time of pearly waves, we had wave 1 and 2 quite regularly. I think some Entertainers may still have odd ones of wave 1. Wave 3 appeared in my area of North London when I lived there for one week, then I never saw them again. That was probably when things started to go funky.

Water Cuties. We had Rarity and the blue one I forget the name of at the time they should be out, but then much later had AJ and Flower Wishes and had them ad nauseum. We had them in Euro packaging and then in Canadian packaging. Some stores still have them.

The all about sets - I believe we had set 1, but only briefly. We had wave 2 for a long time. I never saw wave 3 or 4 in the UK. I got Tempest from Tel Aviv airport and my parents bought me Songbird - she is on a US card so I know she wasn't found here.

G4 ground to a halt with the movie stuff. It's still there and not moving particularly fast. Mostly because it's all mane 6 stuff. Mane 6 ponies don't sell well here, except the odd one here and there. I have seen kids looking for AJ. Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie particularly shelf-sit. THe baby sea ponies sold well to begin with but then everyone had them - but they do come out occasionally on discount and sell quickly even now. The skystar sets with musical shells sold fast, Pinkie still shelf sits in places.

For me it's a complete fallacy that the kids want the mane six on reboot. I think it's fine to release a few of each character over the course of things to attract the new kids watching, but ten or so releases every year is too much and that is reflected by the fact you can see the shelves here picked clean of anything not mane 6, with the mane 6 characters left here to rot. Yes, mane 6 do sell, because otherwise they wouldn't do it. But it's impossible to say that kids prefer this system as they get so little chance to buy other characters. I've watched the kids go through the whole rack to find the particular non mane 6 character they want, and I've seen a girl get super excited to see Soarin in among all the Rainbow Dashes.

We have had very little if any new stuff since the movie. We haven't had some of the later movie stuff, including the green boy pony and capper's set and only JUST got a set with Tempest Shadow in in Entertainer. The ultimate equestria set was on sale in Argos but I never saw it till it was sold out on clearance, so I don't know when it came in stock.

In conclusion - the UK started slow, was ok in the middle if kind of regionally patchy, and then slowed right up in the last couple of years to the current point now.

In terms of EQG dolls, there are still old style Rainbow Rocks & Friendship Games dolls in stores around me. I never saw Everfree dolls in stores. The first wave of reboot EQG dolls came out here but I haven't seen the second. I've not seen the latest minis since the sushi stall came out.

Blind bags stopped at the hallowe'en set for some reason and the Cutie Mark Crew appear to have had wave 1 and then stopped.

G4 is essentially dead here. THe same stuff has been on shelves for a long time and G4 turns up regularly in carboot sales and charity shops. I assume the show is still airing on Tiny Pop, but I no longer have the channel, so can't be sure...

[Mewtwofan1]

     G4 is doing okay here. We get new releases every so often. Not immediately, but not too long. Though a few things have been, and have stated on he shelves for a while. I have noticed a significant decrease in stock though. The end is nigh!

[tailrustedtealeaf]

My Target doesn't keep stuff in stock enough to provide a great answer for you.  They sold alright enough, but it's clear that they weren't as popular as Shopkins and stuff. When Five Below gets pony stuff in it's only in for a few weeks before they're out, and it's usually the same thing shelf-sitting.

[achab1984]

They are still selling here, but there is not much new anymore.