Hasbro’s Missed Opportunities

[glitterball]

G1:

I know that there are "official" sewing patterns out there to make your own fabric pony toy, but I think a pattern for a selection of pony-wear would have been fun to release (a bit like those 12-inch doll pattern collections).

 

[bright rabbit 1]

Things I think Hasbro missed out on making.

The Grundels
Danny (find it weird they only did his sisters)
Furbobs (flocked)
Flocked bushwoolies

[Taffeta]

G3 potentially had two male characters, but Gossamer was never referred to with pronouns, so I'm not sure.
If you count G3.5 as a part of G3, there were a few boy ponies in the background of Twinkle Wish Adventure, with shorter hair and no eyelashes. None of them had toys, obviously, and their symbols are reused from other ponies, but they do exist. If you look closely, the background ponies in TWA tend to be somewhat alphabetized; the boys tend to appear late in the Bs, but before ponies like Bumblesweet, which implies their "names" may have just been "Boy," potentially followed by an identifying letter, number, etc.
On that note, did you know that Star Flight and Heart Bright appear in TWA? They're earth ponies, only shown at a distance from which their symbols aren't visible, but the colors and position in the aforementioned alphabetized crowds give away their identities!

I have a strong feeling that Hasbro at one point intimated (maybe via a rep at a meet) that they weren't interested in doing boy ponies for G3, like it was unnecessary in the market they were aiming at. Someone can correct me if I'm wrong about that.

For me Brights Brightly is a good candidate for a boy, because that name is just...yeah. I don't really care too much about G3 not having boys though it is weird since all the other generations do. I don't know how/if they would've differentiated, but tbh G3 doesn't have enough character detail for so many of the line that it's easy to designate x pony to be male if so required.

Just that I am pretty sure Hasbro actively didn't make male ponies in G3, so by default they are all officially girls.

[MintyMyndi]

G3 potentially had two male characters, but Gossamer was never referred to with pronouns, so I'm not sure.
If you count G3.5 as a part of G3, there were a few boy ponies in the background of Twinkle Wish Adventure, with shorter hair and no eyelashes. None of them had toys, obviously, and their symbols are reused from other ponies, but they do exist. If you look closely, the background ponies in TWA tend to be somewhat alphabetized; the boys tend to appear late in the Bs, but before ponies like Bumblesweet, which implies their "names" may have just been "Boy," potentially followed by an identifying letter, number, etc.
On that note, did you know that Star Flight and Heart Bright appear in TWA? They're earth ponies, only shown at a distance from which their symbols aren't visible, but the colors and position in the aforementioned alphabetized crowds give away their identities!

I have a strong feeling that Hasbro at one point intimated (maybe via a rep at a meet) that they weren't interested in doing boy ponies for G3, like it was unnecessary in the market they were aiming at. Someone can correct me if I'm wrong about that.

For me Brights Brightly is a good candidate for a boy, because that name is just...yeah. I don't really care too much about G3 not having boys though it is weird since all the other generations do. I don't know how/if they would've differentiated, but tbh G3 doesn't have enough character detail for so many of the line that it's easy to designate x pony to be male if so required.

Just that I am pretty sure Hasbro actively didn't make male ponies in G3, so by default they are all officially girls.

Gossamer is Storybelle's dragonfly assistant from Two for the Sky, not a pony. I also thought the firefly from Come Back, Lily Lightly was possibly male at one point, but if you pay attention, it's a "she." So that's Spike, maybe Gossamer, and G3.5's unnamed boys.

I have a theory with those crowds in TWA. They just had a bunch of animated ponies from G3 and just kinda threw them around in the order they were given, which would likely be alphabetical. Some unused/rejected concepts for boys got thrown in the mix, with random symbols thrown on, and either nobody noticed or nobody cared. They also just could've gone "Well, why didn't we have boys?" and just threw some together.
No proof for any of that, but I'm pretty sure they're supposed to be boys.

Also, in my opinion, Bri Bri (cringy nickname, I know) is quite feminine, but I did get used to a male version in Kimono's Townhouse. It makes me sad that the images are broken for it now.

That said, I do have a few ponies that are male to me. Off the top of my head is Teeny Bootsie, but there's a decent amount of evidence he was intended to be male in the first place; I'll detail it all in a spoiler. And heck, none of the Teeny Twins are referred to with gendered pronouns, so any of them can be whatever you like. According to the comics, Sniffles is a boy's name, so you could apply that to the pink twins as well if you really wanted to.

Spoiler

1. The pair came with a pink bottle and a blue bottle, implying one was for "the girl" and one for "the boy."
2. The name "Tootsie" was previously used for a female character (about whose birthday I often find myself singing in the shower!).
3. He has no lace on his symbol, while his sister does. As everybody knows, lace is only for girls because it's pretty, and boys absolutely hate it because it's frilly and infested with cooties, obviously. That's a well-known fact right there.
4. On the backcards for the year, prototypes of the two are shown. The poses are incorrect, with them both using the same body and then the head from the other's pose. They also appear to lack birthmarks. I identified them by their symbols. The pink bottle is near lacy-symbolled Tootsie, and the blue one is closer to Bootsie. Here's the best image I could find of that: www.mylittlewiki.org/w/images/e/e1/Back-paradisebaby.jpg

[Taffeta]

Meh, I hate the gendered pink for girls and blue for boys trope, although I can't pretend Hasbro didn't use it for Noodles & Doodles.

We had Snookums (from Sniffles & Snookums, the unicorns) as a boy here don't forget. I think that's the only officially unicorn boy in G1-3...at least in an English speaking context.

There are more in Italy. Italy has some fun names...

[MintyMyndi]

Meh, I hate the gendered pink for girls and blue for boys trope, although I can't pretend Hasbro didn't use it for Noodles & Doodles.

We had Snookums (from Sniffles & Snookums, the unicorns) as a boy here don't forget. I think that's the only officially unicorn boy in G1-3...at least in an English speaking context.

There are more in Italy. Italy has some fun names...

Not a huge fan of it either, but it was the "norm" back then (and still kind of is).

Italian ponies are cool. I think I read somewhere that they had their own comic, but I've never seen any of it. I don't know whether they kept Gustavo and friends as such in their dubs of the cartoon, nor whether they decided to use the male or female Applejack in Midnight Castle, but they did dub at least the 1986 series, and let's just say that FiM isn't the only pony cartoon with an amazing, unique Italian theme. I'll just leave this here... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRHIrtaCauI

[Taffeta]

May have that on cassette >.>

[KottonKandy]

YES TO THOSE THAT SAID DANNY!! We 100% needed a Danny doll and I wish Megan would’ve been released with her iconic coveralls from the series.

[Leave a Whisper]

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 colours work together. There's something off about them.

Rats, sorry!!! Yep, Stockings & "Socks" as well.

Tales in general, Hackney, Ace, Teddy & Lancer in particular. Customised so many Tales characters tbh, mostly the males

Post Merge: November 16, 2020, 01:42:33 AM

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...

Yes to G3 Spike.

They did release Skystar, Novo, the 8 babies, Haven Bay and a blue one. But their handling of it was ****-poor.

I have yet to find a brushable Silverstream.
But cheers for supporting the Get G3 Spike Made Campaign xxx

Neither were the babies but they were made. Just in a very annoyingly limited way.

[Carrehz]

YES TO THOSE THAT SAID DANNY!! We 100% needed a Danny doll and I wish Megan would’ve been released with her iconic coveralls from the series.

they did release Megan's coveralls, as a separate outfit set

http://mylittlewiki.org/wiki/Country_Jamboree

[MintyMyndi]

YES TO THOSE THAT SAID DANNY!! We 100% needed a Danny doll and I wish Megan would’ve been released with her iconic coveralls from the series.

they did release Megan's coveralls, as a separate outfit set

http://mylittlewiki.org/wiki/Country_Jamboree

It came on the second UK release as well, albeit missing the pony shoes.

[Wardah]

I already considered Tropical Surprise to be a boy due to the colors. There were lots of other ponies in G3 that could have been boys too.

Would you have been angry if they had made G3 boys but they were all pink or purple?

Not now but when I had decided that TS was a boy I still held on to gender norms that I now consider kinda silly. Back then I probably would have just accepted it and chalked it up to them being a "girl's toy".

Meh, I hate the gendered pink for girls and blue for boys trope, although I can't pretend Hasbro didn't use it for Noodles & Doodles.

Definitely feel that way now but let's face it it's only been in the last decade or so that society has been openly questioning gender tropes. And I'm glad for that tbh.

[Taffeta]

Actually...interestingly...there was a period about 10 years or so ago where it seemed less intrusive. But now the pink aisle is back with a bang, not helped by all the pink packaging that girls' toys tend to come in. One plus point for MH because that rarely happened.

So I think maybe even though we've got more accepting of gender fluidity and people's different gender identities, the same old binary pink blue tropes are in play as much as they were or more years ago.

Slightly off topic but when I was doing my MA - which was 8 years ago now, admittedly - one of the articles we had to translate was about pink and blue gender stereotypes in Japan and how traditionally they are the other way around (since pink resonates to sakura, and thus the warrior) but the influence of the West has now made pink more feminine. And other things I can't remember because it was a while ago.

[LadyAmalthea]

Here's a missed opportunity compliments of my 5-year-old son: he thinks they should have made the Grundels as toys. (Not sure how he remembers them; we watched that movie together almost a year ago, but he randomly brought them up tonight!) Personally, I can't really see them selling that well on their own, but maybe paired with another pony character from the movie as an extra (much like the Bushwoolies with the princess ponies) it might have worked.

[Ponybookworm]

IIRC Pink Kittywinks did some Custom Furbobs a while back???