Will the franchise ever be how it was, again?

[gabumon]

for Tranaformers Hasbro runs multiple  lines and they should do the same for MLP:

one for Pre Schoolers (Rescue Bots)
one for 6 to 10 year olds (Cyberverse)
one for 8 to 13  and up. (Generations)
one for teens and adults who like Michael Bay shows (Studio Series)
one for adults only (Masterpiece)

MLP doesnt need THAT many toylines but at least 2 or three would be good:
Extra Trendy and Girly - for preschool to 11 year olds (their current target)
G1 inspired toyline (take it back from Basic Fun and own it) for grown up collectors.  Free of gimmicks.  lots of characters. All brushable(?)

I’d LOVE to see Hasbro do that for MLP

[Leave a Whisper]

for Tranaformers Hasbro runs multiple  lines and they should do the same for MLP:

one for Pre Schoolers (Rescue Bots)
one for 6 to 10 year olds (Cyberverse)
one for 8 to 13  and up. (Generations)
one for teens and adults who like Michael Bay shows (Studio Series)
one for adults only (Masterpiece)

MLP doesnt need THAT many toylines but at least 2 or three would be good:
Extra Trendy and Girly - for preschool to 11 year olds (their current target)
G1 inspired toyline (take it back from Basic Fun and own it) for grown up collectors.  Free of gimmicks.  lots of characters. All brushable(?)

I’d LOVE to see Hasbro do that for MLP

At present they are.

They're still squeezing the last dregs of G4 toys out like a toothpaste tube.
They've got Basic Fun.
They've got Pony Life.
They've got the Mishmash Crossover line, sparse and unsure though it is.

[gabumon]

ya I guess we should be happy with Basic Fun then. 
it’s basically a line for grown ups.

[Mana Minori]

ya I guess we should be happy with Basic Fun then. 
it’s basically a line for grown ups.

i get that BG is aiming for the nostalgic adult collectors, but Kotobukiya is moreso the adult line, I would think

[Lilja]

Yeah, I don't think bronies have had any significant impact on the toyline (and any product that might've been targeted to them was only an addition, it didn't replace the main toyline). The only thing that matters is what the majority of kids and parents will buy. Hasbro wanted to establish a core cast of recognizable characters long before, but G4 was the first time it was really successful thanks to the cartoon.

Something that comes to mind is the big gift sets Hasbro kept putting out throughout G4. In the beginning they were called "Favorites Collection" and the majority of the ponies in them were unique characters. You can argue bronies had some influence in what characters were selected (although toy-only characters like Dewdrop Dazzle and Minty also appeared in these sets). But it still meant ponies with really unusual color schemes as well as some villains being made as toys. I think Hasbro reasoned that putting unique characters in these big sets would make them sell well. But now in recent years all big gift sets seem to only contain the mane six and the princesses. Strange as it may seem, I guess these sets sold better to kids and parents if they contained ALL the ponies kids already know and like. 

[Taffeta]

Only speaking for the stores here, but the M6 sets shelfsat (and still shelf sit). When I was able to go to stores I could still find things like merpony Pinkie with relative ease. The yellow one? Not so much.

I also saw kids pounce on Soarin and other ponies not in the M6.

It's a quick and easy "get kids interested" pack but not so great for the kid who is already interested.

Kotobukiya is niche and I'm not really sure it's even aimed at the pony fan, so much as the kind of fan who collects those kinds of figures. We're really talking about two different types of fan - there are gonna be some ponypeople who also are into collecting other figures who would go, yeah, that's awesome. But for the most part that's not targeted at adult pony collectors/fans in general. Most especially because the vast majority of pony fans don't really look for humanoid pony things. EQG has a mixed reception for the same reason (Personally even as a G1 person,  I like EQG. But even as someone interested in Japan, I don't like the Kotobukiya figures or consider them MLP). I think I'm right in saying there were also some IT doll figures which again would've been aimed at adult collectors, but again I don't think we can say they were the adult market for pony collectors. They were also going for that crossover where two interests collide.

 I'd say BF ponies are also aimed at kids but mostly at the parents of the kids who would have grown up with those ponies and might buy them for their kids from nostalgia. So it's a strategy to tackle two groups - the nostalgic adults remembering their childhood and the parents of kids who would have grown up with G1.

And all the new game crossover whatevers are Hasbro seeing how well BF is selling and trying to capitalise in on that and the fact that Stranger Things has such a following, thus digging into the eighties vibe. It's Hasbro not really understanding what they're aiming at but eh, it's interesting anyway.

[Mana Minori]

Yeah, I don't think bronies have had any significant impact on the toyline (and any product that might've been targeted to them was only an addition, it didn't replace the main toyline). The only thing that matters is what the majority of kids and parents will buy. Hasbro wanted to establish a core cast of recognizable characters long before, but G4 was the first time it was really successful thanks to the cartoon.

Something that comes to mind is the big gift sets Hasbro kept putting out throughout G4. In the beginning they were called "Favorites Collection" and the majority of the ponies in them were unique characters. You can argue bronies had some influence in what characters were selected (although toy-only characters like Dewdrop Dazzle and Minty also appeared in these sets). But it still meant ponies with really unusual color schemes as well as some villains being made as toys. I think Hasbro reasoned that putting unique characters in these big sets would make them sell well. But now in recent years all big gift sets seem to only contain the mane six and the princesses. Strange as it may seem, I guess these sets sold better to kids and parents if they contained ALL the ponies kids already know and like. 

that’s not how I remember it, though. I mean- wasn’t it the bronies’s constant cries for “show accurate” characters what led Hasbro to change Celestia from pink to white as one of the first movements that got the ball rolling for more? And I mean a very large chunk of the molded toylines as I said, might have been a result of that also. I don’t want to give the fandom more credit than due, but to my knowledge, I don’t think this many molded ponies and character lines came out in other generations, and I can only think of one source for the cause. You made mention of the “Favorites collection” sets, but weren’t those majorly packed with the fandom’s fleshed our characters from the series? Dj Pon-3, Bon Bon, Lyra, Pony, etc? Yeah there were other ponies at times, but I recall them mostly being the secondary 6 with the show villains like Luna or Chrysalis.

[Taffeta]

Although they didn't use the brony/fan names for some of those characters, which you would expect if it was all about pandering to the bronies.

I think the bronies themselves self-inflate their importance and that's why people have an impression they dictated this, but I think that all the other toyline elements are really in keeping with what other toys from the same time period (and tv shows) have tried to do as well. For example Funko and POP are not exclusively MLP but cover a lot of different series. Maybe aimed at older collectors of figures - for sure. At bronies? No.

Bronies are not really very important except in their own world view. But Hasbro was clever enough to make them think they were by dropping scraps to keep them involved and keep the hype and the money coming in.

[Leave a Whisper]

ya I guess we should be happy with Basic Fun then. 
it’s basically a line for grown ups.

Kids like them. Bought some for little cousins and they were well received. My daughter has a few of them.

I've also seen kids picking them up and asking for them.

[gabumon]

thats a good sign.

i just have this metal “tic” about them - “it should be Hasbro doing this!”.  I know its irrational.

but at the end of the day - I am glad BF is doing them.  I hope they keep going and eventually do BB and MBs!

[banditpony]

ya I guess we should be happy with Basic Fun then. 
it’s basically a line for grown ups.

I think it's a line for children, and collectors are secondary. It's placement is in the kids toy aisle (more specifically, an end cap with other retro toys).

Really it's a mixed bag for collectors. Some don't want them because they have vintage ones. Some don't want them due to not being exactly like the vintage ones. Some don't want them due to defects out of the bag. Kids? They aren't going to be that picky.


The upsidedown pony was considered to be more "collector", and that's why it merchandised in a different part of Target.

i just have this metal “tic” about them - “it should be Hasbro doing this!”.  I know its irrational.

It's cheaper for Hasbro to let someone else handle it. And in the end, Hasbro has the last say about what BF is doing with their IP.

[Lilja]

Only speaking for the stores here, but the M6 sets shelfsat (and still shelf sit). When I was able to go to stores I could still find things like merpony Pinkie with relative ease. The yellow one? Not so much.

My experience is completely the opposite. In my area mane six toys were flying off the shelves, especially at the peak of the cartoon's popularity, while non-mane six toys were clogging up the shelves. Whenever I saw kids playing with them they always had the M6 characters. (even at the time when Hasbro was putting out a lot of toy-only characters)

that’s not how I remember it, though. I mean- wasn’t it the bronies’s constant cries for “show accurate” characters what led Hasbro to change Celestia from pink to white as one of the first movements that got the ball rolling for more? And I mean a very large chunk of the molded toylines as I said, might have been a result of that also. I don’t want to give the fandom more credit than due, but to my knowledge, I don’t think this many molded ponies and character lines came out in other generations, and I can only think of one source for the cause. You made mention of the “Favorites collection” sets, but weren’t those majorly packed with the fandom’s fleshed our characters from the series? Dj Pon-3, Bon Bon, Lyra, Pony, etc? Yeah there were other ponies at times, but I recall them mostly being the secondary 6 with the show villains like Luna or Chrysalis.

I don't think Celestia was changed from pink to white necessarily because of brony demand. She was always white on the show, and kids would notice this too. Why not change her to white as the line progressed? Especially since they were going to introduce another pink alicorn later (a character that was mandated by Hasbro).

The very first product released for G4 was actually a set of ponies with molded manes (way before the brony fandom could've been formed), and there were plenty of figures with molded manes in earlier generations too. And even if some of the ponies in the Favorite Collection sets were included because they were brony favorites, I don't think this means bronies have had a large impact on the toyline as a whole.

[Nemesis]

As far as the inclusion of “brony favorite” ponies/names in the main line goes... It’s worth taking into account that in the modern world of online communities, hype, and social media, a lot of these names and characters end up being adopted by pony fans in general (including kids), who see a meme about Lyra or DJ Pon-3 and accept it as canon These characters then end up becoming popular with the general community of the show—not just the bronies. So while these things may have originated with bronies, Hasbro likely includes them in toylines and episodes because of the whole fandoms’ interest, rather than just to pander to the bronies.

[Sparkle Pony]

I don't particularly worry about the brony influence lasting forever, but I do find myself worried that Hasbro will continue clinging to the core cast concept they've been trying to shill since late G3. I understand how it can work for a lot of toy brands, but it is such a poor fit for MLP, in my opinion. Outside of its vast cast of new rainbow horses, I think gimmicks often feel very tacked onto the brand and make me uninterested in re-releases of the same character with a new gimmick. At least G1 coupled its gimmicks with new characters. It drove G3 into the ground and I honestly think G4 only lasted as long as it did using the show as a crutch to promote interest. I'd love to see them go for a collect 'em all approach with tons of characters again, maybe even make the show an incredibly blatant commercial promoting whatever character they want to sell at the time. Just please, no more Pinkie Pie but this time with a slightly different glitter gimmick. I can't take it any more!

[Taffeta]

G3 was already one too many generation with Pinkie Pie in it.

G4 just made her the stuff of nightmares.