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Author Topic: Hasbro’s Missed Opportunities  (Read 9305 times)

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Offline KottonKandy

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Hasbro’s Missed Opportunities
« on: November 15, 2020, 05:05:19 AM »
I think this will be a fun discussion topic, but we will see if y’all agree with me  ;)
I wanna hear what you think are areas that Hasbro really dropped the ball on. Missed opportunities or botched ideas. Just anything by you think could’ve been done better/differently!

For me, not having Rapunzel as a Brush n Grow? That was a missed opportunity. Same with only having Christmas and Valentine’s Day ponies. Imagine what neat Halloween ponies we could’ve had! (This one prob just didn’t fit their aesthetic). And I also think there should’ve been more grey ponies like Snuzzle! Grey is such a nice and soft neutral colour for the rainbow hair and symbols to really stand out on!

I know there’s at least one other thing I’ve thought of, but it slips my mind at the moment but I’ll post it if I remember lol.  :blush:

So what do YOU think Hasbro could’ve done better?

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Re: Hasbro’s Missed Opportunities
« Reply #1 on: November 15, 2020, 06:21:34 AM »
The handling of the G4 line and it's failure to tie into to the show.
The show is clearly meant to be an advertisement for the toyline-fine, typical. But what sense does it make to introduce so many characters and then just...not make those characters? We don't have a Mayor Mare!
I do like towards the Explore Equestria line we saw more background characters become pearly ponies. Yes, more of that please, but all the time, and with accessories that let kids act out the scenes from the show.
No villains? How are kids supposed to act out a playscene between the CMC and not give them Cozy Glow to be the sassy bully? I know we had DT and NMM but I mean beyond that, we had so few.
The school...Yona? Hello?
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Re: Hasbro’s Missed Opportunities
« Reply #2 on: November 15, 2020, 06:52:20 AM »
When FiM was up to season 2 at the latest, I felt that Hasbro should have released a soundtrack of the show, but with two bonus tracks; a full version of Fluttershy singing "Hush Now, Quiet Now" as the lullaby it was meant to be, and a full version of Sweetie Belle singing the Cutie Mark Crusaders' theme song.

I also felt that they could have released a toy Fluttershy that sings "Hush Now, Quiet Now" for kids to play as they go to sleep.

I agree with tailrustedtealeaf - there were so many characters introduced that weren't toys, and to add to that, there were toys introduced that weren't characters.  I've also seen a complaint that some of the places in FiM would have made great playsets, but they were never made, and if my memory of Twilight's castle is correct, there is at least one playset that doesn't even look like how it does on the show.  The show and the toyline seemed to be two different things a lot of the time...  I get that they are normally, but they were too distant, like neither was really giving anything to the other most of the time.

Cartoon wise, my friend/pen pal has often said (and I agree with him) that the later seasons could have done more episodes about the Mane Six bonding with each other, and going through things that makes their friendship stronger - seeing as that's the theme of the show.  We didn't like how Diamond Tiara ultimately stopped existing when she became nicer either, and would have loved to have seen episodes with her as the CMC's friend (actual episodes, not just her waving at them.)
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Offline Zapper

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Re: Hasbro’s Missed Opportunities
« Reply #3 on: November 15, 2020, 08:51:15 AM »
G4: Show-only characters that would have made great toys, lack of poses, no green ponies.
G3: Too few unicorns and pegasi.
G2: Not having a cartoon show.
G1: Not following the RaMC art style into the show, not keeping Megan as a cowgirl.

Offline goddessofpeep

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Re: Hasbro’s Missed Opportunities
« Reply #4 on: November 15, 2020, 09:14:20 AM »
Every single major anniversary  Occasionally we got some half-hearted “special” release, but if you look at what some of their other toy lines got(Transformers, GI Joe, etc) for their major anniversaries, it’s shocking how little effort Hasbro put into MLP.

Offline MJNSEIFER

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Re: Hasbro’s Missed Opportunities
« Reply #5 on: November 15, 2020, 09:40:43 AM »
Every single major anniversary  Occasionally we got some half-hearted “special” release, but if you look at what some of their other toy lines got(Transformers, GI Joe, etc) for their major anniversaries, it’s shocking how little effort Hasbro put into MLP.
I don't know what the other generations did, but one thing that shocked me was that Equestria Girls was created as an anniversary celebration.  This makes no sense, as not only does it only focus on G4, it barely even focuses on ponies!

If they're going to make the effort into animating something for an anniversary, they should at least throw in some shout-outs to the previous generations if they can't (or don't want to) actually include ponies from them.  The only thing retrospective about the first Equestria Girls (to my knowledge, I haven't watched it yet) is that some of it was written as a remake of FiM's first episode - if anything that would make more sense for FiM's anniversary, not the anniversary of the whole franchise.
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Offline Wardah

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Re: Hasbro%u2019s Missed Opportunities
« Reply #6 on: November 15, 2020, 10:14:22 AM »
Same with only having Christmas and Valentine%u2019s Day ponies. Imagine what neat Halloween ponies we could%u2019ve had! (This one prob just didn%u2019t fit their aesthetic).

There were Halloween ponies in G3. As for why not during G1, during that time Halloween was mostly just a candy and party holiday. The idea of giving full toys for Halloween seemed excessive.

As for my idea of missed opportunities, prototypes. That's all.
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Re: Hasbro’s Missed Opportunities
« Reply #7 on: November 15, 2020, 10:25:06 AM »
Prototypes, definitely. I will forever be sad the dolls meant to go with the Pony Friends never came to be. :(

Speaking of dolls, they should've made a doll of Danny! I hate only having 2/3 of the kids - call me sentimental but I always hate only having part of a family :P

And YES they really dropped the ball with characters in G4. That's always baffled me, and it goes both ways, too. The early G4 brushables gave us some nice designs - Plumsweet, Feathermay, etc - but AFAIK those never showed up in FiM? And then on the flipside, FiM had a lot of nice character designs... and no toys for 'em. :( Yeah, I get it, kids aren't necessarily going to want a toy of Background Pony #373, fair enough, but the lack of toys for more "principal" characters in the show is baffling. The school, from what I've seen of it, definitely felt "toyetic", but I think the only chars that were made into toys were Sandbar and Silverstream, right? And you can't even say "well, maybe they didn't want to make new molds" cause Sandbar had a new head, right? :s

And don't even get me started on the FiM Collection figures, that was weird. Great ideas, great toys - but the eps the toys were based on were years old by that point - why didn't they make them years before?!? @_@
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Offline Gator

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Re: Hasbro’s Missed Opportunities
« Reply #8 on: November 15, 2020, 10:28:26 AM »
Big Brother Unicorns and Pegasi.  Major missed opportunity.
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Offline Taffeta

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Re: Hasbro’s Missed Opportunities
« Reply #9 on: November 15, 2020, 10:50:41 AM »
G1 - Paradise with the Estate. I'll probably never forgive them for that xD. That fits into prototypes though. A lot of them should have been made. I am also still mad at Hasbro UK for omitting the early unicorns and pegs here while simultaneously promoting them. One. Or. The. Other.

I won't lie and say that I would've preferred G4 without the cartoon links being so intense. I agree with making a wider range of characters, but the connection to FIM was probably the reason that didn't happen. I don't know how much this impacts FIM but I remember that a lot of the support cast in Jem were not created by Hasbro. Of course, that doesn't mean Hasbro can't later release them  - the Starlight Girls happened for that reason - but if they weren't originally part of Hasbro's plan, then it seems less likely they'll appear in the stores. Ironically the fact that in early releases there were FIM ponies and there were different characters sold as toys demonstrated that the FIM writers and Hasbro were NOT on the same page as regards the cast.  Ultimately FIM the series swallowed up any opportunity for more diverse lines, and Hasbro didn't probably see a point in producing toys en masse if they didn't design them and didn't have that interest in them. So we ended up with the M6 and a handful of others who managed to survive that early period.

I am not saying FIM was a bad idea, but I think the way it was managed was detrimental to a varied toy line, which had always been the cornerstone of MLP in previous generations. It was avoidable. I actually think if MLP had done the same as MH and had the web shorts and then the animated long specials on DVD every so often (G3 also did this) it would have been better. The specials would have promoted the new line out at that point, alongside the mane characters, and we would have still seen variety. But eh. Hindsight.

I don't care that G2 didn't have animation, but I do regret that Hasbro gave up on it in the US so early. That has made it universally forgotten or overwritten by documentaries and later collectors. If it didn't get sold in the US, there's a tendency to either push it out to a fringe 'other' category or to omit it completely from memory. And G2 had some very pretty ponies who deserved a wider audience. It would have been nice to see G2 with some pegasus ponies that were not clip on mind you.

G3...I would have liked baby unicorns. Maybe boy ponies and sea ponies. More unicorns and pegasus ponies would have been nice as well, although there are some lovely examples of both. I wish it hadn't descended into the Core 7 at the end, because G3 did a great job of maintaining variety for the most part. 
Oh yeah, my biggest bugbear for G3 - store exclusives that don't translate overseas. Again with the US-centric market (rolls eyes), never minding the fact that G1 and G2 had both already shown greater longevity outside the US. G4 resolved this quite a bit, with many of those exclusives getting releases in other stores here. But the G3 target ponies were at the same time some of the nicest ponies in the line, and some of the most annoying for the cost and hassle of getting them. While realising Hasbro is a US company, sometimes it is very blind to the global appeal of its brand.

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Re: Hasbro’s Missed Opportunities
« Reply #10 on: November 15, 2020, 11:45:29 AM »
Oh YES, non-earth boys!! And unicorn G3 babies :>

G4 had a real lack of boys AND babies, really. Okay, okay, they made more boys than G3 did ;) but still, I just don't get why they made those molds and then barely used them. (and while we're at it, WHAT was with Shining Armour's awful troll hair?!? I give Hasbro a lot of grief but I'll say this for them, at least they learned from THAT mistake. >_< okay sure, the rest of the G4 brushable boys had mohawks, but I'll take a mohawk over troll hair any day)

G2 definitely needed more love (and proper pegasi, yes, definitely!!). I wish we knew more about what happened "behind the scenes" there.. I know they're far from the only toy line to die after one line (in the US, I mean) but MLP's an established brand... you'd think they'd have tried another wave before giving up altogether. :s There's a lot of MLP stuff I wish we had more info on, but the history of G2 is something I *really* want someone to do a tell-all on.
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Re: Hasbro’s Missed Opportunities
« Reply #11 on: November 15, 2020, 12:16:16 PM »
I really wish they had actually made that Ice Delight Cottage prototype. I would have loved that...both as a kid and as an adult.

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Re: Hasbro’s Missed Opportunities
« Reply #12 on: November 15, 2020, 02:28:12 PM »
G3 Boys = none unless you Customise. G3 pegasi were too few, wi unicorns being FAR too few!!! And Spike. Can't forget Spike.
G2 Unicorns & pegasi, again too few. And could they not find a way to permanently attach wings to G2s??? At least you can gender-bend G2s. My Her (His) Majesty Star & Snowball are both male.
G4: agree wi everybody. Where were half the Ponies??? Where were most of the Changelings & ANY of the bright changelings??? Where were most of the hippogriffs & ANY of the griffons, yaks & kirins???
For ALL of the above: SEA PONIES!!!! Why were there pretty much NONE??? G2 had NONE. G3 Had Bore 7 Blind Bag mermaids. G4 had Mane Six & two more.
Also Pony Wear. Why sell it ONLY attached to the Pony??? Serious missed opportunity there.

OK, now G1: Holiday Themed Ponies. I can count the ones who exist on the fingers of one hand: Merry Treat, Felicidades (SP), Lambaditsa & Paschalitsa aka Ladybird. Two for Christmas (one a Nirvana), & two for Easter who are both Greek nirvanas. Where were Halloween Ponies, Valentine Ponies (they could have been couples as well), more Christmas & Easter Ponies???
On the subject, a variant of an existing Pony does not a themed Pony make. Why did G2 cop out with Easter Sky Skimmer, instead of giving us an actual new G2 Pony with an Easter Theme??? Same goes to G4 & their Mane Six adjusted for X season Ponies.

One other thing: not giving the G3 Easter Ponies rabbits, the G3 Halloween Ponies black cats & treat buckets, the G3 Valentines Ponies heart cushions & doves, & any of the castles a G3 Spike was a huge missed opportunity.

I can moan until I'm blue in the face about a lack of G3 Spike figure...
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Re: Hasbro’s Missed Opportunities
« Reply #13 on: November 15, 2020, 02:52:10 PM »
OK, now G1: Holiday Themed Ponies. I can count the ones who exist on the fingers of one hand: Merry Treat, Felicidades (SP), Lambaditsa & Paschalitsa aka Ladybird. Two for Christmas (one a Nirvana), & two for Easter who are both Greek nirvanas. Where were Halloween Ponies, Valentine Ponies (they could have been couples as well), more Christmas & Easter Ponies???
Don't forget Stockings and her unofficially-related baby!

But yeah, G1's seasonal ponies were pretty lacking. Stockings was basically a Birthflower with a new symbol (we have fourteen ponies with the same body, hair, and eyes!), and the unnamed Rice Krispies baby just reused her symbol.

G2 had Baby Sweet Snowflake, but I really don't like how her colors work together. There's something off about them.
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Re: Hasbro’s Missed Opportunities
« Reply #14 on: November 15, 2020, 03:25:04 PM »
More male species in the older gens. Unicorns, pegasus, sea ponies, flutters, wingers.

Not releasing the Tales Crew in the states,  + not releasing Teddy, Ace and Lancer at all.

Male G3s

Baby G3 unicorns

Mishandled a lot of the G3 birthstones by giving them boring symbols and/or colors that have zilch to do with their months.

Not releasing the Celestial Swirls.

Mishandling the 2017 movie cast. Like, your just gonna promote the same, tired, mane suxx instead of your NEW characters Hasbro? Really?

G4 as a toyline is was handled badly in every conceivable way.

Botched the Flutter's wings.

Not releasing the rest of the G3 pegasus and unicorns.

Making the line about the show instead of the toys is one of their most egregious errors.

Troll doll and crappy boy hair. You deserve the one fingered salute for that one Hasblow.






Post Merge: November 15, 2020, 03:31:17 PM

OK, now G1: Holiday Themed Ponies. I can count the ones who exist on the fingers of one hand: Merry Treat, Felicidades (SP), Lambaditsa & Paschalitsa aka Ladybird. Two for Christmas (one a Nirvana), & two for Easter who are both Greek nirvanas. Where were Halloween Ponies, Valentine Ponies (they could have been couples as well), more Christmas & Easter Ponies???
Don't forget Stockings and her unofficially-related baby!

But yeah, G1's seasonal ponies were pretty lacking. Stockings was basically a Birthflower with a new symbol (we have fourteen ponies with the same body, hair, and eyes!), and the unnamed Rice Krispies baby just reused her symbol.

G2 had Baby Sweet Snowflake, but I really don't like how her colors work together. There's something off about them.

White/green/red aren't Christmassy to you?
« Last Edit: November 15, 2020, 03:33:12 PM by Leave a Whisper »
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