Has Friendship is Magic impacted you in any way?

[lovesbabysquirmy]

I was horrified when Hasbro took an interest in "our" little private convention, of a niche collectible, and went mainstream with it.  A lot of people were like, "but looooooooooook, sponsorship $$$$ AND access to insider knowledge!" but it set off a landslide of decisions that could not be undone. 

Legally we can't even use the name of the convention anymore outside of a Hasbro-sanctioned event, and it was going on successfully for years before Hasbro started paying attention and searching up animators who did MLP fan art, and C&Ding artists who made products that they didn't approve of, or were competition to already existing licenses.
Yet the last time I went to a popular comic convention a few years back, and asked about G1, as they had advertised MLP on the booth, I was laughed out of the space by the men running it.  Men who were eager to sell other bronies G4 merch.  "Who would want that?" they snidely said, "Go to a yard sale and ask Grandma." 

So clearly there is a discrepancy in the general collector populace between people who collect FiM and people who collect "those old baby toys".  It's cool for all people to collect G4 Pinkie Pie, wear a Spiderman costume, and legally change your name to Sparkle Pegasus, yet there are death threats and doxxing for (primarily women) simply because they like to buy the toys they had as children.   

That is a HUGE problem and I don't know if this rift will heal naturally on a corporate and legal level, or if it will take the fandom and collectors to create another independent sub-movement on their own initiative.  Or if Hasbro would even allow that.  But until Hasbro officially acknowledges that it has catered to the worldview of New Vs. Old fandom and actively resolves to change that, I don't think anything will change.  We will all continue to have to "take sides", as it were. 

[Taffeta]

I was horrified when Hasbro took an interest in "our" little private convention, of a niche collectible, and went mainstream with it.  A lot of people were like, "but looooooooooook, sponsorship $$$$ AND access to insider knowledge!" but it set off a landslide of decisions that could not be undone. 

Yeah, it was  a problem waiting to happen. Ponycon flirted with it, for a while we did get the exclusive the US did and I remember HAsbro being there once promoting whatever the new G3 line at the time was (breezies? I think it was 2006, there was also a giant G4 pony and I have photos somewhere...) but after that it kind of fell off their radar. There was much more involvement between the Ponycon and the Riding for the Disabled that it continues to fundraise for.

I actually haven't had that distinction here with second hand toy fair vendors for MLP. They tend to fit in 2 categories. "Clueless" and "dealer". But I have been able to negotiate on occasion. I picked up one pony from a stall where they were clueless about specifics. And another where I got a discount by pointing out pony was missing its float.

We also have - in normal times - a vendor that brings a lot of 80s toys, including all the gens of pony. They price reasonably, they do deals and they have all of them named. They're proper pony people vending at a toy fair, and I've bought from them a lot of times. And they do sell G4, but they have mostly G1 and G3.

At the carboots, they're all just 'ponies' and the price is basically the same irrespective. I've paid more for a MH doll at a carboot than I have for a pony, even last year (which was the last time I was able to carboot).

Everything else though, 100%. Hasbro have enabled the divide and the inequality by pandering...and now is in a tricky situation trying to get out of it.

I also remember Summer coming to Ponycon and talking about the event we are not supposed to name for copyright reasons. It was the year of the chicken suit Pinkie Pie, which demonstrates the distinction between what the Event that shall not be Named was about and what Hasbro thought was important. I don't know how prevalent G4 was at that event, but it's pretty much a guarantee that the bulk of the attendees would've rather had something retro back then.

...And then there was Hascon. Ooohboy.

So in that light, the UK got off lightly. Depending where it goes from here, though, because right now it's rather like the same thing.

The C&D orders also fly in the face of the idea that G4 opened up creativity. In fact it seems to have also shut it down.

[Leave a Whisper]

Makes me glad I don't go to Cons at all.

At least the MLP community rallied and created something new for itself after Hasbro endorsed, then dissolved what was originally fan sponsored events.

Forever may Hasblo keep its grubby grasping fingers off of that.

[SweetLemons]

I started off as a G4 fan. At some point in like 2013, I had just...stopped using a certain label for myself. But I will say that at first, it started out pretty good! Growing up, my first fandom was The Powerpuff Girls, so I was no stranger to being into stuff with female protagonists. I was 8 years old when FiM first came out, and I became an avid viewer about 3 months after it premiered. A few friends at school were talking about how the lady who's married to the guy who made Powerpuff Girls made a new show about My Little Pony and it was really good! As soon as I heard that I binged the show up to that point (on Comcast On Demand, anyone remember that?  ) and I was hooked. Everything about the show was my vibe! The characters, the world, the voice acting, I loved it! A week after I became a fan I begged my mom to drive me to Toys R Us so I could spend my gift card I got for my birthday and I walked out of the store with all 6 of the first wave of Mane 6 releases. I still have them to this day, displayed on my nightstand and I'm very proud of them. This was the beginning of my journey as a collector, and I still have really fond memories of acquiring ponies. 

Eventually I discovered the you know who's and I'm not going to lie, I have a lot of fond memories of being apart of that community. I met my closest online friends through that fandom and some of the best years of my life were spent apart of that world. And I will admit, there are some things that came from them that I still really dig (I think the concept of the whole background pony craze back in the day was neat) and for the first 2 or 3 years it was nice! But at some point, things had changed.

I don't know when it happened, but it happened. All kids shows have weird violent fanfiction and inappropriate fanart, we know that. If something is innocent and wholesome people are gonna corrupt it. Personally, I thought that Cupcakes fanfiction was hilarious. But it was a rule in most kids show fandoms to keep that stuff away from the general public and have it be posted to communities of adults who are seeking that kind of thing. This fandom however? If you even so much as Google certain characters you are going to run into extremely inappropriate fan content. And that's not okay in the slightest, but it seems to that subset of fans that it doesn't matter because they genuinely believe MLP was made for them and them only. The show, as it went on, pretty much justified these kinds of fans by shoving in references to these communities! I cannot believe they put a body pillow in an episode!!! And no one did anything, so clearly there were children who saw this stuff! Myself included!!! I'll see memes come up on Instagram like "I was traumatized in the MLP fandom" and TikToks that are like "Does anyone remember Rainbow Factory?" and even though I'm supposed to laugh, I can't help but feel sympathy for myself and the thousands of kids who had to see these things, all because the bronies wanted the show to themselves.

The amount of gatekeeping that I've seen from them that made children, female fans, established female fans of the brand before FiM, fans of color and LGBTQ+ fans like myself feel unsafe really hurts my heart. I'll admit, the G1 and G3 animated content isn't really my thing as much as I love their toylines but I still appreciated the amount of fans they introduced into the franchise. But the way the bronies (and at some points FiM) made it out to be so low quality and awful and how you were bad if you as so much liked them just brings out their true colors. I will never wrap my head around how this group straight white cis men turned a little girl escapism haven into...that. It's something that I will forever be somewhat salty about. This is getting waaaay too long so I'm gonna wrap it up here but My Little Pony deserved much better. I weep for those with negative experiences such as myself. This really hurts man.

[Zapper]

Legally we can't even use the name of the convention anymore outside of a Hasbro-sanctioned event, and it was going on successfully for years before Hasbro started paying attention and searching up animators who did MLP fan art, and C&Ding artists who made products that they didn't approve of, or were competition to already existing licenses.
Yet the last time I went to a popular comic convention a few years back, and asked about G1, as they had advertised MLP on the booth, I was laughed out of the space by the men running it.  Men who were eager to sell other bronies G4 merch.  "Who would want that?" they snidely said, "Go to a yard sale and ask Grandma." 

I think it's so telling how these douchebags will treat old crap from boy franchises like the holy grail but stuff women collect is "Grandma's yardsale". These manchildren drool after old Ghostbusters figures I wouldn't even toss to the dogs and screech like chimps if you can't acknowledge the genius of the Ninja Turtles noir comics.

That's the nasty stink FiM fandom now has. The man thing VS the woman thing.
I take solace in history repeating itself. Kids will soon tell them to go to a yardsale to get those dumb, old G4 ponies nobody wants anymore and they will cry "without G4 you wouldn't have G7!"

[Wardah]

Hasbro has always felt that trying to promote whatever was currently in stores was more important than used ponies they don't get a cut in. This was the case even in G3 when they made the "art ponies". That said it's sad that a fan run thing wasn't inclusive to all gens. I would have definitely at least demanded an explanation.

[SunbeamV]

.
The amount of gatekeeping that I've seen from them that made children, female fans, established female fans of the brand before FiM, fans of color and LGBTQ+ fans like myself feel unsafe really hurts my heart. I'll admit, the G1 and G3 animated content isn't really my thing as much as I love their toylines but I still appreciated the amount of fans they introduced into the franchise. But the way the bronies (and at some points FiM) made it out to be so low quality and awful and how you were bad if you as so much liked them just brings out their true colors. I will never wrap my head around how this group straight white cis men turned a little girl escapism haven into...that. It's something that I will forever be somewhat salty about. This is getting waaaay too long so I'm gonna wrap it up here but My Little Pony deserved much better. I weep for those with negative experiences such as myself. This really hurts man.

as a gay asian trans boy, i was unfortunately on the receiving end of all of those gatekeeping problems for the last years of my childhood (which were also largely spent closeted). it's really done irreversible damage to the way i feel about and feel i can interact with mlp and while i'm too stubborn to give up collecting, i think there will always be trauma and hurting from how the nasty side of the g4 fandom basically gutted the pony collecting community where i had always felt safe and cared for beforehand. i started lurking here and on mlptp at around 7 or 8 years old and of course every kid my age had the typical internet safety talk, my parents and i still felt safe and comfortable with mlp communities online since it was mainly people who grew up in the 80s and still loved ponies for the nostalgia, and often had children of their own. then suddenly one day when i was 15, pony internet had gotten so unsafe that my poor mother found out about the creepy bronies via a scrapbooking forum and had to sit me down for that conversation only to find out that i was already miserably familiar with it all. not only did the nasty g4 fandom ruin everything for kids, they also broke my mother's heart because she always fully supported my harmless hobby, ESPECIALLY when i entered public highschool because everyone knows how that can be. i feel like i can never fully forgive and move on from something as deep as being ripped away from a community that cared for me during such crucial developmental years as a child.

[Taffeta]

The amount of gatekeeping that I've seen from them that made children, female fans, established female fans of the brand before FiM, fans of color and LGBTQ+ fans like myself feel unsafe really hurts my heart.

I thought I had posted this already, but disability is missing from that list. There is a fierce amount of discrimination against autism in the brony community, coupled with a lot of autistic people involved in pony. On the few occasions I have gone into that space to look up something G4 related, there's always someone making a slur or using the term offensively.

I actually experienced that in person at 'Ponycon' on Saturday and it still bothers me. Not because I think I'm a victim, but because someone thinks that it's okay to make such comments and that somehow disability discrimination is less relevant than other types of discrimination.

I could've sworn I posted this already, but I cannot think why pointing out the problems for disabled people would be removed by the mod team, so maybe I didn't. Perhaps I'm actually losing my mind...

[lovesbabysquirmy]

The amount of gatekeeping that I've seen from them that made children, female fans, established female fans of the brand before FiM, fans of color and LGBTQ+ fans like myself feel unsafe really hurts my heart.

I thought I had posted this already, but disability is missing from that list. There is a fierce amount of discrimination against autism in the brony community, coupled with a lot of autistic people involved in pony. On the few occasions I have gone into that space to look up something G4 related, there's always someone making a slur or using the term offensively.

I actually experienced that in person at 'Ponycon' on Saturday and it still bothers me. Not because I think I'm a victim, but because someone thinks that it's okay to make such comments and that somehow disability discrimination is less relevant than other types of discrimination.

I could've sworn I posted this already, but I cannot think why pointing out the problems for disabled people would be removed by the mod team, so maybe I didn't. Perhaps I'm actually losing my mind...

All we have to do on this front is see that Hasbro MADE the Muffins pony a character, gave her a name, put her in some episodes, AND uses her differences as a prop for a joke.
If there was a disabled pony in ponyland, you would think that the animators would have enough common decency to NOT stereotype and caricature her in a demeaning fashion!  But no.  No, instead it caused so much drama that speaking her very name on a COLLECTOR'S FORUM FOR ADULTS ended up being banned.

*so much face, not enough hoof*

[SaraMari]

To be honest it's neither positive nor negative for me

I have collected ponies since 2000 and the nostalgia of G1 is what got me started. I was excited when I hear about FiM (it was when they had the first set of pony toys at McDonald's, I drove all over completing the set in a night, I brought Princess Celestia to Japan and took photos of her on the streets) and it was fairly fun. I got up every Saturday morning to watch it for the first few years and made sure to dig through the pony brushables to get every new character.

Luckily I don't have the horrific stories of harrasment, doxxing, bullying as I purposefully avoided anything brony. Perhaps being my age, mid 20s when it started, I wasn't on the ground level when fim fandom coalesced into bronydom so by the time I was fully aware of bronies they already had their aggressive perverted reputation out there.

The show really tapered off in quality with all the brony injokes, nonsense friendship morals, lack of narrative direction etc so I just kinda stopped caring. The toys were just repeats anyway. It was like 2015 and I remember my mom saying "oh should I turn on the ponies, do you want to watch it?" And I just said "no I don't really care". Ive tried to watch the last couple of seasons but I just find the writing and dialog so blah. Same thing happened to me with Steven Universe (another toxic fandom I had to avoid)

So overall it equals out to zero for me

Oh and to circle back to the point of friendships, marriages, jobs coming from FiM. I don't think that really is a big deal because if it wasn't this animated show it would've been another cartoon. The same thing can be said of Adventure Time but overall I think it has a much less toxic fandom?

[Leave a Whisper]

To all who were hurt.

[SaraMari]

Yet the last time I went to a popular comic convention a few years back, and asked about G1, as they had advertised MLP on the booth, I was laughed out of the space by the men running it.  Men who were eager to sell other bronies G4 merch.  "Who would want that?" they snidely said, "Go to a yard sale and ask Grandma." 

Can I just say how incredibly stupid this is from a business stand point. Like you refuse to sell a profitable item that is from a line you already carry because it's "not for cool dudes" 

[lonewolf]

To be honest it's neither positive nor negative for me


Oh and to circle back to the point of friendships, marriages, jobs coming from FiM. I don't think that really is a big deal because if it wasn't this animated show it would've been another cartoon. The same thing can be said of Adventure Time but overall I think it has a much less toxic fandom?

 In my case if FiM hadn't been made, there was no other cartoon or fandom I would've got into. I was losing interest in the Ace Attorney fandom thanks to some toxic people I had to put up with on the main forum, and my interest in making custom MLP's was starting to wane because I was running out of ideas (and partially in thanks to G3.5 appearing) and if G4 had been released without a show, I doubt I would've got any of the toys because they didn't look like G1 or 3. And of course I wouldn't have gone to any conventions, meetups, etc and no internet friends (I had only 1 before FiM came along, and I haven't heard from her in over 8 years).
 I think Adventure Time had it's share of toxic fans from what I remember seeing while in the Ace Attorney fandom , but I can't say for sure.

[Snapdragon]

I was horrified when Hasbro took an interest in "our" little private convention, of a niche collectible, and went mainstream with it.  A lot of people were like, "but looooooooooook, sponsorship $$$$ AND access to insider knowledge!" but it set off a landslide of decisions that could not be undone. 

Legally we can't even use the name of the convention anymore outside of a Hasbro-sanctioned event, and it was going on successfully for years before Hasbro started paying attention and searching up animators who did MLP fan art, and C&Ding artists who made products that they didn't approve of, or were competition to already existing licenses.
Yet the last time I went to a popular comic convention a few years back, and asked about G1, as they had advertised MLP on the booth, I was laughed out of the space by the men running it.  Men who were eager to sell other bronies G4 merch.  "Who would want that?" they snidely said, "Go to a yard sale and ask Grandma." 

So clearly there is a discrepancy in the general collector populace between people who collect FiM and people who collect "those old baby toys".  It's cool for all people to collect G4 Pinkie Pie, wear a Spiderman costume, and legally change your name to Sparkle Pegasus, yet there are death threats and doxxing for (primarily women) simply because they like to buy the toys they had as children.   

That is a HUGE problem and I don't know if this rift will heal naturally on a corporate and legal level, or if it will take the fandom and collectors to create another independent sub-movement on their own initiative.  Or if Hasbro would even allow that.  But until Hasbro officially acknowledges that it has catered to the worldview of New Vs. Old fandom and actively resolves to change that, I don't think anything will change.  We will all continue to have to "take sides", as it were. 

Thank you for sharing this, because I never would have known that about the negatives of Hasbro involvement! I would have been one of the people cheering on more Hasbro involvement, because in my mind, Hasbro = exclusives = more toys. :/ But clearly, that is not the case.

That said, I only know of three C&Ds handed down in the fandom; one was to a prolific custom plush maker, Makeshiftwings I believe, which was truly sad. Her plush were incredible, and the concept of a crafter making a living on her art is still something I want to see more of. (The other was a pin-maker as I recall, Peanut Bucker I think?) But the other one was in answer to the DWM movement, which finally resulted in official action by Hasbro, and I was incredibly grateful for that. I only wish they could have C&D'd all of the creepy material in the fandom - but I suppose it doesn't work unless they're big or prolific enough. Instead, Hasbro seemed to veer on the side of 'adult men are our new demographic!' and let the cartoon put in creepy and inappropriate references, like body pillows. (I'm sure the studio didn't exactly run those decisions by Hasbro, but if Hasbro allowed it, then it's still on them IMO.) Funny enough, the guy who got well known for using sweatshop labor to mass-produce body pillows never got a Hasbro C&D.... hmm.

The amount of gatekeeping that I've seen from them that made children, female fans, established female fans of the brand before FiM, fans of color and LGBTQ+ fans like myself feel unsafe really hurts my heart.

I thought I had posted this already, but disability is missing from that list. There is a fierce amount of discrimination against autism in the brony community, coupled with a lot of autistic people involved in pony. On the few occasions I have gone into that space to look up something G4 related, there's always someone making a slur or using the term offensively.

I actually experienced that in person at 'Ponycon' on Saturday and it still bothers me. Not because I think I'm a victim, but because someone thinks that it's okay to make such comments and that somehow disability discrimination is less relevant than other types of discrimination.

I could've sworn I posted this already, but I cannot think why pointing out the problems for disabled people would be removed by the mod team, so maybe I didn't. Perhaps I'm actually losing my mind...

All we have to do on this front is see that Hasbro MADE the Muffins pony a character, gave her a name, put her in some episodes, AND uses her differences as a prop for a joke.
If there was a disabled pony in ponyland, you would think that the animators would have enough common decency to NOT stereotype and caricature her in a demeaning fashion!  But no.  No, instead it caused so much drama that speaking her very name on a COLLECTOR'S FORUM FOR ADULTS ended up being banned.

*so much face, not enough hoof*

Yes, this too! Ugh, that whole thing was such a mess, and so poorly handled. It was rot from the top down, from Hasbro letting it air, to the voice actress giving such blithe replies as 'I based it on a mentally disabled person in my youth, it's fine!' and telling people who wrote to her that 'you don't sound disabled!' That was so upsetting. I know they're just voice actors, but I wish someone could have just ... gently taken them aside and given them a quick 'here's what NOT to say' before they made any public statements about it.

That said, I genuinely think we started seeing a drop in quality of the show not when Faust left (because she let some real messes through, "Over A Barrel" I'm looking at you), but when they dropped the E/I label. The E/I censorship might have caught the ableism before it even aired, and it prevented the writers from leaning on cheap tropes like ableism in the first place.

I sort of wish Hasbro could have C&D'd the Brony Documentary, if we're on the topic of offensive material already - that thing was such a mess, but the prevalence of 'but I'm not GAY!' from every single interview was just disgusting. It didn't age well from before it was even released.

[Leave a Whisper]

Which is weird, because to my knowledge wall eye isn't a mental disability.