Year 10 ponies

[promqueen]

Does anyone know if less of the year 10 ponies were made ? And is it just me or do many of them seem to have only been sold in North America ? They are generally harder to find both loose and especially moc it seems than the previous years. I am guessing because Hasbro was phasing MLP out in the US. Anyone have any insight ?

[MyLittleMillennial]

Sounds likely. I know for sure this was the case for the last years of Jem and She-Ra.

[Taffeta]

The UK had the Birthday Pony, the Sweet Talking Ponies. And our own versions of the Sweet Kisses. I think that's all. I am not sure about Europe but fairly sure I've heard Australia had a selection of them as well as some of the ones sold here though.

They're the end of the run, though, those sets are likely to be harder to find. MIND YOU there used to be quite a glut of MOC ones back in the day. Probably for the same reason. Wonder where they all went to, since you're right that they don't show up very often. I have one of the paradise babies and two of the sundazzles moc, but I don't see them come up very often now. Especially the FLower Fantasy and the Colorswirls.

Now I think about it, my 2 sundazzles came from a seller in australia. But I'm not sure if they originated there or the US...I can't remember. It was a while ago. Baby Beachball came from the US but that was more than 20 years ago.

The last line in the UK are the same. Some of the most htf ponies from the European line were sold in 1993-4.

[tailrustedtealeaf]

I think they tend to be regarded as North American exclusives? They certainly are hard to find, aren't they.
I wasn't alive back then (t'was not even a single cell) but I'd imagine the demand from kids for Pony had tapered off a bit and there was just less demand as retailers ditch Pony in favor of newer brands.

[promqueen]

The UK had the Birthday Pony, the Sweet Talking Ponies. And our own versions of the Sweet Kisses. I think that's all. I am not sure about Europe but fairly sure I've heard Australia had a selection of them as well as some of the ones sold here though.

They're the end of the run, though, those sets are likely to be harder to find. MIND YOU there used to be quite a glut of MOC ones back in the day. Probably for the same reason. Wonder where they all went to, since you're right that they don't show up very often. I have one of the paradise babies and two of the sundazzles moc, but I don't see them come up very often now. Especially the FLower Fantasy and the Colorswirls.

Now I think about it, my 2 sundazzles came from a seller in australia. But I'm not sure if they originated there or the US...I can't remember. It was a while ago. Baby Beachball came from the US but that was more than 20 years ago.

The last line in the UK are the same. Some of the most htf ponies from the European line were sold in 1993-4.

I think that is all too but U.K. also had the bridal beauty! I got her recently mib with the European packaging 
Aaah you're so lucky to have a paradise baby & two sundazzles those are ones I'm missing ! 
They certainly do seem harder even the storage unit didn't have them all. If I can remember correctly they only had sundazzle & one other set...maybe teeny tiny twins? Memory is foggy lol
Interesting you notice that the colorswirl and flower fantasy almost never come up moc as they are also the only two sets not pictured on the backcard of all the year 10 packaging!

Post Merge: June 18, 2020, 10:43:59 PM

I think they tend to be regarded as North American exclusives? They certainly are hard to find, aren't they.
I wasn't alive back then (t'was not even a single cell) but I'd imagine the demand from kids for Pony had tapered off a bit and there was just less demand as retailers ditch Pony in favor of newer brands.

Yeah I think the only ones that weren't NA exclusives that were sold in U.K. packaging were the sweet talking, birthday pony, bridal beauty & sweet kisses (different ponies though)

[Taffeta]

Ah, yes you're right. We did have Bridal Beauty as well, nice catch!

I have seen the Colorswirls and the Flower Fantasies MOC, I also have a loose backcard for one of the Colorswirl ponies. But yeah, I can't remember the last time I saw one MOC.

They're not NA Exclusives though, because like I said, pretty sure some of them happened in Australia as well.

However you'll have to check with Australian collectors which.

[Shaz]

Sweet Talking ponies must have been sold in a few places, as there are versions that speak in German and Spanish.

[Taffeta]

Sweet Talking ponies must have been sold in a few places, as there are versions that speak in German and Spanish.

Yeah, true enough. Though in fairness nobody said they didn't come out in other places xD I merely said that was all the UK had, not that that was the only example of them being sold outside the US. Sorry if that was unclear.

[goddessofpeep]

After watching the end of each of the different generations of MLP as it was happening, there are some definite patterns.  Each line generally starts the "gimmick" phase some time before the line really starts to obviously decline.  I assume that is due to Hasbro trying to squeeze a few more years out of a line that has declining sales.  You get some wild stuff in the last few years.  Sometimes Hasbro gets experimental(G1 Fancy Mermaid Ponies, Teeny Tiny Ponies, Colorswirls, etc), and sometimes it gets desperate(G3.5, whatever you call the G4 redesigns, etc.). 

At this point, sometimes Hasbro also gets cheap and makes things that are obviously much cheaper than your usual ponies to get *just one more thing* out on the shelves before the line totally ends(the latest G4 redesign, much of the final G2 releases, etc).  You'll see a lot of cost cutting in the last few years of the line.  G4s really had this issue.  They redesigned the ponies twice, and each time they went with noticeably cheaper plastic and hair.  You'll also often find recycled accessories, less colorful symbols to save on paint costs, and other obvious cost cutting measures.  G1s didn't suffer this as much as the other generations, but there were a few cost cutting things here and there.

Eventually the distribution problems start to pop up.  Stuff starts showing up only in certain areas or countries as the markets change, certain things show up only at one or two stores instead of the previous mass releases, or things go straight into the discount retailers like Big Lots or Marshall's without hitting the major ones first.  I assume that this is due to major retailers having issues moving previous stock, and not ordering as much of the new stuff.  G2 got hit hard with this one.  The majority of that line was Europe only, and by the end only one or two countries got the full line. A significant number of the last true G3s popped up only in a few countries, and quite a few later G3s ended up in discount stores. I think this is what happened to G1 as well.  The very last G1 ponies ever produced were the "Dutch" ponies(correct me if I'm wrong on that), and they were mostly recycled ponies from other earlier lines just with different coloring and recycled accessories.  Less people were buying the dying line, so less product was shipped, and what was shipped didn't have as much self space available as the early stuff did.  There may be some pockets where the market is still ok, and I think that's why you see countries getting certain releases that the rest of the world doesn't.  Either that, or those countries have a different distribution system, and Hasbro is dumping their product wherever it can.  Or some combination of the two.

Every generation has followed some version of this pattern.  Some drag it out longer than others, but they all seem to go through some version of this.  I think basically what is happening is Hasbro sees the declining sales, so it tries some things to keep the line going for a little longer.  These fail to get the sales back up to previous levels, and they start getting less orders for new items.  Items aren't getting into stores for customers to even buy, making the decline accelerate.  Hasbro then makes one last desperate attempt to squeeze a few bucks out of the line before it completely dies, but they don't put too much money into it.  The end result is a bunch of weird ponies coming out to a market that doesn't buy them, so they're harder to find. 

[Taffeta]

There was some complex arrangement regarding the 1995 line in the Netherlands, they're actually licenced products or something...I forget the details now but the promotional flier for them lists another company. Their cards are also generic with no stories and so on on them. The adults are all 7Character cards I think. I don't have any babies MOC so not sure which art they use.

What details I have came from collectors in the NL and are here.
http://www.etherella.com/scrapbook2/1995.html

But otherwise pretty much everything said above. Albeit with G1 it didn't happen so much I don't think, there were simplifications. For example, "Where have the unicorns gone?"

No unicorn or pegasus ponies in any of the last years of G1 in Europe. Possibly also in the US, can't recall off the top of my head. Even to the point of converting the main baby unicorn pose into an earth pose! And no clydesdale hooves on male ponies as far back here as 1991ish with Sportstime and Baby Schoolbag, but also the family daddies.

Less obvious cuts but still, yeah. Cuts.

(By 1994 here ponies had 1 accessory and a combined story. Up till 1992, ponies in the UK had individual stories and through 1993 had combs and ribbons as well as inserts as a general rule. But 1994 ones generally only have one thing. Jewellery babies are an exception, they have 2).

[goddessofpeep]

I think G1 lucked out when it came to Hasbro's cost cutting.  It didn't get hit nearly as hard as any other generation, and they cared enough to be sneaky about it.  I think a lot of the individual babies like the Newborns and Teeny Tiny Ponies were part of this.  Almost no accessories, small backcards, small ponies, but not that much smaller of a price tag.  I think around this time they also got rid of the individual stories, and just had one group story for the whole set.  Everything had just a bit less effort.  Not so much as to be noticeable, but a bit. You also stopped getting the full 6 ponies in each set.  A few sets still had 6 ponies, but most had 3 or 4.   Little things like that started popping up all over the place.

G1 was the first generation to go through the death of the generation, and probably the strongest and most robust generation.  It was also the only generation that had a break between it and the next generation.  G2s were still active in 2003 in a very few places, and it did technically overlap with G3, though I think it had been licensed out to another company at that point.  Things got confusing at the end of G2, even for someone who was actively collecting and following the line at the time like myself.  I think by the end of it, G2s were only available in France, and a few other northern European countries.  I remember the G2s coming out of a handful of sellers from only a very few countries. 

It's likely a lot of the cost cutting and other issues associated with the ends of G2-G4+ have been influenced by Hasbro already having moved on to the next generation, and just keeping the previous generation on life support to keep the cash flow going while they got ready for the next release.   Still, each generation went through the same sequence of decline.  Once the gimmick phase hits, that's the start of it all. Then it's a long slog to the end. 

[lovesbabysquirmy]

I think there are slightly less of the Year 10 ponies but also, I think they are easier to find MIB/MOC because stores ended up with stock that didn't sell or it just never made it to the salesfloor.  So those sorts of things went to collectors, carboots, the secondary market, etc.  in the early and mid-nineties.  This is how collectors started learning about Nirvana/international ponies.

and yes to GoddessofPeep, the sets went from 6-pony sets with pamphlets and brushes and ribbons and stickers and accessories and different backstories, to 4-pony sets with 1 backstory for the set, a brush and maaaaaaaaaaaaybe a pamphlet.  definitely winding down the effort it took to get the products out the door!

[Taffeta]

What is interesting about G1 in that regard is that the wind down techniques in the US and Canada in 1992 (reduced accessories, single backcard stories) didn't happen in Europe in 1992. They did happen across 1993 and 1994, which reinforces the idea that it's something that occurs towards the end of a line. But again, in Europe from 1993-4, we had a few new or amended poses, which suggests that the line had not completely burned itself out at the time it ended, and that a decision was made to stop it (perhaps because of cost, but it's really not clear).

In my part of the UK NONE of the 1994 ponies ever came to shelves in store here. Well, they maybe did at TRU, but I never went to TRU as a kid so can't really be sure. They certainly didn't hit Woolworths or Children's World, the two big toy selling stores in my area at that time. We had endless repeats of the Rockin' Beats and a lot of ponies on German or French cards. But nothing from 1994. All of our 1994 ponies came from clearance stores and carboot sale purchases.

But yes, Rockin' Beats, Glowing Magic ponies, etc all had comb/ribbon and individual stories in the UK. So did the two Sweet Talking ponies (in boxes, with comb, ribbon, and individual names). Bridal Beauty and Birthday Pony were one-offs so obv. got their own accessories and stories, so they kind of don't count. But the 7 Characters and any others sold on those garish pink cards with the funny art at the end had collective set stories. And the final year, as I said, mostly did not come with combs or ribbons but one random accessory (hair clip, sea float, nurse hat, etc). Albeit again, innovative individual accessories, all requiring new moulds to make and sometimes different ones per pony in a set (like the Sweetie Baby clips)!

[brightberry]

I lost track of My Little Pony after year 6 after a move and only learned of new ones when they sporadically appeared in grocery stores.  I noticed and really disliked the new back cards.     I actually thought they were fakes at first.

I'm still happy I got Newborn Squirmy though.  She's so cute.