The MLP Arena
Pony Talk => Pony Corral => Topic started by: LadyMoondancer on October 06, 2020, 12:47:44 PM
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So the Festival of Licensing started today I believe (yes it's really called that lol) but I am having a hard time figuring out where to find the pony info. If anyone finds a good source, please post the link or info here! <3
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Last I looked into it, I think we have to wait for October 20th for Hasbro's stuff. Maybe a few days after that. I checked *coughs up confetti* Daily and did find this (https://soundcloud.com/jeff-thomson-music/sets/my-little-pony-demo), so here's a consolation prize.
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Hasbro did a special presentation today, but the sites covering it are TF and G.I. Joe sites, so they took in all the Joe and TF stuff in great detail and then are like: "Uhhh, and there was My Little Pony and Peppa Pig stuff too." *cries*
So far the most detailed info I've found is from TFW2005 (Transformers fan site):
"My Little Pony
So many announcements for the upcoming CGI movie and the upcoming series. It was hard to keep up. The series titled as Pony Life already has Season 2 greenlighted by Hasbro."
So many announcements but you aren't telling me any of them, AHHHHH!!
Pony Life isn't CGI, so I presume this means: another year of Pony Life (I think we knew that already?) followed by a new CGI movie and series. Unless only the movie will be CGI?
I wish they'd given us more, but to be fair that was more info than I've found on any other site . . .
Edit: Also found this . . .
https://www.licensing.biz/hasbro-and-eone-detail-global-broadcast-partners-for-new-my-little-pony-pony-life-series/
It mostly talks about Pony Life and its expanded rollout (to various countries.) BTW from one of their earlier articles I discovered "Toys “R” Us will be the exclusive destination for the My Little Pony Magic Potion line in Canada in 2020." Not sure if that was known before?
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Oh, reminds me of this image from a Russian lisencing summit.
visitors can't see pics , please register or login
I was waiting for further confirmation that this was true.
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wow that's quite the capture of Pinkie Pie's soul there, isn't it
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More news has been revealed https://news.hisstank.com/2020/10/06/tfw2005-coverage-of-hasbro-brand-panel-at-festival-of-licensing-71091 right here. Seems like the new movie will take place in the G4 universe and feature the Mane 6 in some capacity, albeit reduced to give way to the new characters. Wonder if they'll do anything with Flurry Heart, I'd love to see her cutie mark!
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If it is in the G4 universe and featutres the M6 it is not a new generation :/
It is what I thought might happen - Hasbro are not brave enough to cut the strings and start over.
I hope the new characters and the new toys are worth pursuing, but that doesn't give me much hope.
What exactly do we have to do to send Pinkie Pie to Memory Lane? Isn't 17 years enough?
...I suppose the movie might be a bridge and they might vanish after it, to hand over to the new characters completely. That might be possible, but frankly, the G4 world has some problems that need to be fixed, so if we have to swallow another several years of unconvincing friendship moralising, the animation is probably not going to be top of my to do list ;)
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the G4 world has some problems that need to be fixed, so if we have to swallow another several years of unconvincing friendship moralising, the animation is probably not going to be top of my to do list ;)
They did say in the leaks that it'll be aimed towards an older audience and focus more on adventure (they're probably marketing it towards the Steven Universe/Avatar crowd) so I'm pretty sure the friendship lessons are done for. Not sure how much of the original early production stuff stuck so that idea could have been completely scrapped though.
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Interesting . . .
Even if the new show is in the same universe, it has the potential to be very different in art style, toys, and tone. Like if you compare Transformers Prime, Transformers Rescue Bots, and Transformers Robots in Disguise (2015) they are nominally in the same universe but I don't think the average viewer would know unless they were told.
I dunno, to me generations are about the toys more than anything. If they're sufficiently different then I'm fine with calling it G5. But, I would also be fine just calling the new series by its title name, assuming it has one. (Like how G4 is "Friendship Is Magic" and the current series is "Pony Life.")
What exactly do we have to do to send Pinkie Pie to Memory Lane? Isn't 17 years enough?
Bumblebee has entered the chat
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Having it set in the g4verse and with the mane 6 reappearing doesn’t sound promising for me. I am completely burned out out on mane6 and g4. 10 years is enough, Hasbro. Cut the blasted strings, man!
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If G5 is really just G4.5... I just don't know, man...
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I think I'll like whatever they come up with. I can see why they feel obligated to make the old media segway into the new media because of its reliance on it.
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I think I'll like whatever they come up with. I can see why they feel obligated to make the old media segway into the new media because of its reliance on it.
It's a hole they dug for themselves though. They never needed a crutch to bring out new generations prior to G4, including for G4 itself. It's only something driven by the sheer insanity of the marketing around G4 and the way in which the TV show became so popular...now they feel like it's too big a risk to be original. Which is actually a big problem with a lot of things, not just Hasbro and MLP - LM's remark about Bumblebee is just one more, but there are so many remakes, rehashes and redos of everything in the last few years that it's like so few people are trying to use creativity and imagination any more.
G4 at least had that (at the start, before we got into mane 6 groundhog day and mass memes). It's an insult to the wider franchise that Hasbro think that everything now stems from and links to that same concept, though. They clearly need some new design people who are willing to be bold and , as Mana Minori said, cut the ties.
If it is a new generation for a new generation of fans, then make it new. It's not new if it has dregs of the old propping it up at the seams.
I wasn't a fan of using RD and Pinkie in G4 because of the recycling (even less after I saw their characters, but that's another matter). I don't need it to be tailored to me or my interests, either. I just want it to be something original for once after 10 years of the same. six. characters.
It's really hard to overstate the M6 fatigue effect. Even in G1, in those early few years here where they kept merching the same group of ponies who 70% were not sold here, it was not as bad. True, G3 was quite annoying with its constant use of certain characters on merch (sunny daze, rainbow dash, pinkie pie, etc) so it's not a new fatigue, but at least when G3 ended that went away.
This means that the M6 effect is *never* going to go away. They have free range to keep spewing out the same M6 junk while adding a whole new range of M6 junk to 'complement' the new line.
It will probably make money, but it's just such a disappointing angle for a toy line that once beat the odds and did something different...
Now I think on it, I take back what I said about them not using a crutch. The brand itself is the crutch, isn't it :/ G2 did go very differently, but it's really only G1 that hasn't depended on the reputation to get attention, and this is just an evolution of that same idea.
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This is one of those times when I like to pretend that MLP was discontinued in 2010.
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Yuck on PL getting a second season.
Post Merge: October 07, 2020, 06:30:40 PM
This is one of those times when I like to pretend that MLP was discontinued in 2010.
:snicker:
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Eh, at least we’re getting new toys (of new characters). If the toys are nice, I won’t be too bothered by what they do with the cartoon/s.
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Eh, at least we’re getting new toys (of new characters). If the toys are nice, I won’t be too bothered by what they do with the cartoon/s.
IF Hasbro remembers what made this brand popular to begin with and has the mental fortitude to step away from the evil Xerox machine running it.
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Eh, at least we’re getting new toys (of new characters). If the toys are nice, I won’t be too bothered by what they do with the cartoon/s.
IF Hasbro remembers what made this brand popular to begin with and has the mental fortitude to step away from the evil Xerox machine running it.
Well, at least we’ll have six or seven NEW characters to tide us over for the next 10+ years. XP
There is one thing that might be positive about keeping the G4-verse, though... Maybe there’s still a chance we could get toys of the new species that were introduced late in FiM (Kirin, reformed!Changelings, etc.)?
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I’m just glad to hear about new characters. To be honest, using the mane six to transition into a new cast is really the best I was hoping for. I knew Hasbro wouldn’t completely cut ties with FIM and was just hoping we weren’t going to just get the mane 6 redesigned again.
In regards to generation names: Hasbro is calling the movie and beyond “G5”. Now that Hasbro has officially weighed in, what previously defined generations no longer matters. Hasbro is now in charge of the naming convention.
As I said, I’m just happy that MLP isn’t going to go the route of other franchises like TMNT where every iteration is just a redesign of the exact same handful of characters.
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In regards to generation names: Hasbro is calling the movie and beyond “G5”. Now that Hasbro has officially weighed in, what previously defined generations no longer matters. Hasbro is now in charge of the naming convention.
I’m still tickled that Basic Fun used the term “G3” on rerelease packaging. It isn’t like it used to be, when the world of “official” terminology and the world of fanon were so distinctly separate. I’m not honestly sure how that makes me feel, but companies are a lot more tuned in to their fandoms than they were before the age of wikis, social media, and such.
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In regards to generation names: Hasbro is calling the movie and beyond “G5”. Now that Hasbro has officially weighed in, what previously defined generations no longer matters. Hasbro is now in charge of the naming convention.
I’m still tickled that Basic Fun used the term “G3” on rerelease packaging. It isn’t like it used to be, when the world of “official” terminology and the world of fanon were so distinctly separate. I’m not honestly sure how that makes me feel, but companies are a lot more tuned in to their fandoms than they were before the age of wikis, social media, and such.
I would have liked it better if they had never come together. We really never needed Hasbro's attention on any part of the fandom, much less on the least competent part.
I am in two minds about whether it's now up to Hasbro how generations are defined. As someone who has been here for a long time and remembers the original discussions about naming them, I resent Hasbro's sweeping in to redefine a term that doesn't belong to them. It is probably true that the new release will be called G5 because Hasbro said so, but if it doesn't meet the original criteria for a new generation, it feels a bit of disrespect towards the older fanbase. Not that that's anything new, mind you. They haven't cared about us for a long time.
I am going to pin my hopes on the new characters but if I can have a personal preference here, I want ponies, not other species.
I wonder if Potion Nova will make an appearance?
I don't really feel like G4 should not have happened. I just wish Hasbro were a bit more willing to be a bit more original. I hate this idea that MLP can not exist without FIM when it spent most of its production life not being FIM. I am fine with there being an animated series if that's how things currently roll, production-wise = but I wish they had ditched Equestria and the M6 for keeps. As I mentioned before, that world has so many problems, and so do the M6 as role models.
The only way in which it would be acceptable to me to even include the M6 would be as historical figures in the mythology of the new generation, but I suspect that Twilight will be their "Celestia" and that will be the link.
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Yuck to them dragging the Mane Suxx into the next generation, Hasbro needs to axe them. Any tentative hope I have for them not doing what they've been doing since 3.5 is gone. That is why you fail Hasblo.
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I like Taff's idea, it would be neat to see that. Would also make the new media feel more lore-y which I think felt like what they were going for.
I'm optimistic but I do still like FiM. I can't see Potion Nova making an appearance, it feels like everyone's dropped PL even amongst the cartoon fans. The show already aired its entire first season in...Canada I think?
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Eh, at least we’re getting new toys (of new characters). If the toys are nice, I won’t be too bothered by what they do with the cartoon/s.
IF Hasbro remembers what made this brand popular to begin with and has the mental fortitude to step away from the evil Xerox machine running it.
Well, at least we’ll have six or seven NEW characters to tide us over for the next 10+ years. XP
There is one thing that might be positive about keeping the G4-verse, though... Maybe there’s still a chance we could get toys of the new species that were introduced late in FiM (Kirin, reformed!Changelings, etc.)?
I wouldn’t be so sure. Who knows that Hasbro would bring them back in g5, and even if they didn’t, there’s more of a chance they will continue not to have toys. I mean, look at all the interesting species and races we got in g4. Buffaloes, yaks, Kirin, batponies, Minotaurs, centaurs, gargoyles, chimeras, wendigoes and more. And what did we get? A few breezies, a few seaponies (most of which were babies), ONE hippogriff, One sea serpent, a...whatever the Storm King is, and a Changeling.
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As tired as I am of the Mane 6 (I never want to see a Pinkie Pie brushable again) I do somewhat understand them continuing to use G4 Equestria as a stepping stone for the new stuff. Like it or not, Hasbro has seen how much adaptations of toy brands have changed over the years and it seems like going forward MLP will be seen as animation first and toys second. I'm really glad that it seems like they're not going with the leaked G5 concept of Mane 6 again but slight personality changes. "This Twilight doesn't have a horn or wings! Oh and Rarity has green eyes and Applejack likes oranges!" sounds absolutely terrible and I want no part in that. As long as the Mane 6 are supporting characters and we get new ponies with every wave (and they look cute obviously) I'm a-okay with this being another entry in the G4 universe. Like I said in my earlier post, there's still some neat new things that can still be explored (Flurry Heart, beyond Equestria) and we know they're willing to shake things up to make it stand out from G4 with the new film being CGI so hopefully they understand what worked and what didn't for G4, especially from a toy standpoint.
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I was fully expecting "Mane Six are the main characters in a reboot", so I'm just surprised and delighted that there's going to be a new cast.
Also Equestria as a whole is my favorite MLP setting.
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I don't get it. We aren't getting a rehashed mane 6. (ETA: like TMNT or Carebears rehash). I assume the general thought should be a tentative "yay".
I'm not going to judge, or care, until we actually see more ~especially the toys~. I don't see why this can't be a new gen yet, and why people are so grumpy that they would see the mane6 again.
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guys, we've had some form of a "main six" cast of chars since G3's Core Seven days. I'm pretty sure Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash, at least, are now considered the "Optimus Prime/Bumblebee" of MLP. Or the "Ash and Pikachu" if you prefer. Whatever. I prefer to NOT have a core set of chars too, but I never expected Hasbro to go back on that now. I fully expected G5 to be just FiM: Something New Has Been Added so if it's not that, then...
I'm cautiously optimistic, as always. I don't care about the cartoons, and I don't care if the m6 are still there somewhere, as long as the toys look good and it's not The Main Six Show again. Give me nice toys with at least a decent variety of characters, and I'll be perfectly satisfied. Right now there's too little info for me to get het up about it either way.
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I don't get it. We aren't getting a rehashed mane 6. I assume the general thought should be a tentative "yay".
I'm not going to judge, or care, until we actually see more ~especially the toys~. I don't see why this can't be a new gen yet, and why people are so grumpy that they would see the mane6 again.
Because hating on the Mane 6 seems to be very popular. Granted, I DO understand the rerelease fatigue (which has permeated G4, sadly), but I don’t really get the outright venom for the characters/setting. I’m guessing it has a lot to do with bronies, Hasbro pandering to some demographics more than others, and the aforementioned saturation of M6 merch.
I’m just ready for something new, personally. I don’t harbor any ill feelings for G4 or its characters (which I quite enjoyed in many regards). I’m just a teensy bit worried that their inclusion in the G5 animation could mean EVEN MORE rereleases in the toyline.
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I don't get it. We aren't getting a rehashed mane 6. I assume the general thought should be a tentative "yay".
I'm not going to judge, or care, until we actually see more ~especially the toys~. I don't see why this can't be a new gen yet, and why people are so grumpy that they would see the mane6 again.
Because hating on the Mane 6 seems to be very popular. Granted, I DO understand the rerelease fatigue (which has permeated G4, sadly), but I don’t really get the outright venom for the characters/setting. I’m guessing it has a lot to do with bronies, Hasbro pandering to some demographics more than others, and the aforementioned saturation of M6 merch.
I can totally understand and get why many fans are over mane6, or didn't like them to begin with. But I don't get the insta-hate over a few sentences. It's a step better then all the projected fear from earlier speculations, that's where my confusion steps in.
I mean if there is media involved, we obviously are some sort of core set of characters. It could very well just be the movie is the stepping stone, and maybe the new tv series doesn't involve them. IIRC didn't all the voice actors say they weren't involved in the new tv show?
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At this point I just want good quality toys with nice silky hair and come in many different shades/different characters. If the Mane 6 get some releases here and there that’s fine, I just don’t want them to be at the forefront anymore as they were in G4. They had their heyday, and it’s time for some new blood in the brand, but I’m okay with them popping up once a season/wave in the form of cameos. New innovation on the brand is also an expectation I have, and I would love to see what they come up with.
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So? The balance was excellent and there were a crap ton of toys to collect that weren't Pinkie/Cheerilee/Rainbowdash with MAYBE 1 or 2 new characters short changed every couple of years.
Tales did not oversaturate the G1 line.
We're allowed to be tired of Hasbro's extremely obnoxious obsession all we want. Plus the damn Mane Suxx aren't moving on the shelves, so that tells me the target audience is tired of it too and its not working anymore.
Yes Bumblebee, Optimus, Megatron, Grimlock, Soundwave and Starscream may be pushed to the point where people are getting tired of them, but Hasbro still keeps a healthy and diverse balance of old, new, popular and obscure characters on the shelves.
Little girls aren't brainless goldfish who have forgotten they have 6 packed-in Raritys at home.
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So? The balance was excellent and there were a crap ton of toys to collect that weren't Pinkie/Cheerilee/Rainbowdash with MAYBE 1 or 2 new characters short changed every couple of years.
Tales did not oversaturate the G1 line.
We're allowed to be tired of Hasbro's obnoxious obsession all we want. Plus the damn Mane Suxx aren't moving on the shelves, so that tells me the target audience is tired of it too and its not working anymore.
We have no details on what the toy line entails, unless I missed something.
Right now we know that the movie will have 1) a new "core" and 2) segway with mane 6.
And I agree -- you can be tired of whatever... but we don't know anything yet.
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There's a certain irony in the indignation about M6 fatigue. I really don't understand it, but it does seem more productive if you want to know why someone doesn't like the M6 to ask them, rather than discussing their reasons as though they aren't reading the thread and able to contribute o.O.
My own personal dislike of the M6 is twofold, but it doesn't relate to bronies at all. I actually don't know much about how bronies see any of the M6, my brony fatigue is to do with the hostility to earlier generations, and not how they see their own generation.
So for me it's the repetitive toys on the one hand, which means I'm just sick ofg seeing them on the shelves when there are so many other options they could have used. It reminds me of Shera who did the opposite - promoted only a handful of characters while selling a ton of different ones. That was also pretty annoying for me as a kid too :)
The other reason is that I really don't like Pinkie Pie or Rainbow Dash's characters. I don't have a major objection to the personalities of the others, but I do have big issues with their moralising about friendship and the awkward way that message sometimes opens up problematic debates. But that's the show overall.
I never found Pinkie Pie's humour funny, she's not really random or amusing, she's just annoying to me personally. That is just my opinion, though. I didn't like G3 PP either, but that was more the appearance of the toy than anything else. I really didn't like Pinkie Pie's "I can do what I like" attitude in the EQG special with Sunset Shimmer turning back time, and the fact she's basically immune to learning any lessons.
With Rainbow Dash, it was two incidents - one, the story (with Pinkie!) when they destroyed the statue of the Griffons and then said it didn't matter because friendship was more important. Smacked of colonialism 101. And the other was the way Dash made the animals race to prove themselves to her, and treated the tortoise who eventually became her pet - it was an unhealthy relationship and I didn't like how it was constructed.
So those are my reasons, personally.
These are also really why I don't want to stay in Equestria. I don't like the way these awkward conundrums have come up by trying to force friendship as though it's something that can be imposed universally by the same set of behaviours. I want a clean break from that world for those reasons. I don't think it's a healthy one at this point, or that the M6 are really helpful role models.
Going back to other generations, we had the first M6 concept in G1, with the Tales ponies, but MLP Tales didn't last long enough to really become annoying. They did saturate the merchandise and the market, though, for those two years. All pony merch in those years feature the 7 characters, and there are 2 versions of 3/7. That was the direction Hasbro were going in. We should maybe be grateful G1 ended before it became oppressive.
There's a similar concept of core characters in G2 as well, but the lack of a US release after 1999 kind of makes that a bit less obvious, ponies having different names and all. I noticed Wiki refers to Sundance and Sunsparkle like they are different ponies on one page- they're not, but the different name gives the impression they are xD.
And the core 7 came really late in G3, so it's kind of easier to absorb. I stopped following G3 when that happened, though, because different characters are really important to me in the toyline.
So it's not necessarily an anti-M6 campaign or limited to G4. The problem with G4 is simply that the M6 happened and then didn't move on. They stuck with the same core cast for the whole period, and are still mostly doing so for PL (reminiscent of 3.5/ponyville and the core). I don't understand why it's weird to be fed up with that, or why all negative opinions of G4 must be because of the behaviour of bronies.
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There's a certain irony in the indignation about M6 fatigue. I really don't understand it, but it does seem more productive if you want to know why someone doesn't like the M6 to ask them, rather than discussing their reasons as though they aren't reading the thread and able to contribute o.O.
I’m sorry if that came off as accusatory—I didn’t ask anyone in particular to give reasons because I was trying to encompass the fandom and adult MLP collectors as a whole, rather than just the people posting on this thread.
Again, I completely sympathize with the rerelease fatigue! I’d REALLY rather that G5 ended that. It just seems like a large chunk of the collecting community are leveling that frustration at G4/FiM/M6 as a whole, rather than poor toy design and distribution. While I don’t personally care if someone hates or loves a fictional character, it seems kind of disrespectful to fans who enjoy G4/FiM/M6 to constantly throw around terms like “the mane sucks” and talk about how trash it all is. When G1-3 hate first started floating around in the brony communities, I know a lot of us were miffed at them for calling everything pre-FiM garbage, or saying the original ponies looked like hippos.
It reminds me of the old G2 hate and how that divided the fandom, and I guess that’s what bothers me, really. It goes on in every fandom that’s lasted long enough to get a second generation or reboot. People liking or disliking different things is fine and dandy. Taking issue with how something is portrayed in a series is also completely valid. But calling the things other people like stupid or obnoxious just kind of seems excessive, IMO (again, aiming this at the MLP fandom as a whole, not you in particular). I’m not defensive of G4 or the M6 themselves (they’re far from my favorite MLP iteration), but of the fans who enjoy them and feel uncomfortable or looked down upon by other segments of the community.
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@Nemesis, it wasn't aimed at you particularly or especially anyone specifically on this thread, but I just wanted to point out that criticising something or having a negative opinion of it is not some kind of conspiracy against G4 caused by bronyism (at least not for me) but a valid personal observation on the series/line/whatever.
The reason it bothers me is because if I say I don't like the G1 animation, or prefer the comic characterisations, or whatever, mostly nobody bats an eyelid. Nobody has yet called me to heel for comparing Sundae Best ponies to weapons of mass destruction, either.
...So if I can criticise elements of my own preferred and main generation with more or less no issue, why is it not okay for me - or anyone else - to say we don't like the M6 or Equestria without it being turned into a bigger issue?
I am all in support of reducing inflammatory comments about other generations, but some common sense needs to be used here as well.
And suggesting it's all about the bronies implies that there are no reasons that anyone could dislike the G4 line or the show. When there are actually good and valid reasons that people can dislike both.
...I will say that I am also resigned to a TV series basis. But I don't really see why that automatically must mean reliance on the G4 world except for a lack of originality/desire to cash in on existing media or concepts. It would be so easy to invent a new world for new characters, so it's a disappointment that they haven't done so. But it's a question of whether it's Equestria they want, or a way to keep the M6 merch alive that's really driving this. And I would assume the latter, given that it's going to centre on what Hasbro can sell. It's cheaper to keep some of the same characters in circulation.
I'm not going to shun it without knowing what all the details are. I just feel strongly that the G4 world has basically broken itself by hinging on ONE moral message at the expense of a whole lot of others. And after this long, it wouldn't hurt to take a different approach.
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Nobody has yet called me to heel for comparing Sundae Best ponies to weapons of mass destruction, either.
I missed that conversation, and now I’m genuinely curious. XD
...desire to cash in on existing media or concepts.
^
Hasbro’s thinking in a nutshell. MLP is (for better or worse) an iconic, recognizable brand. A big part of its marketing is going to be based around “X and Y worked for us before, so...”. That’s a bit disheartening, but it’s the route most long-lived franchises follow.
On that note, I’d like to bring up how often Transformers ends up compared to MLP in terms of variety vs. rereleases. As a fan of almost every iteration of TF to date, it strikes me that the last time they really and truly “started fresh” with a new cast of characters and themes was in the 90s with Beast Wars. While there are many, many characters in TF, and there’s a healthy selection to choose from in any given toyline... the same characters are still being recycled from G1 and Beast Era. They have new looks, new molds, new stories, and new gimmicks, but even the background characters are usually based on existing ones from previous gens. New characters pop up here and there, but they are the exception rather than the rule.
Comparatively speaking, MLP has reinvented itself in virtually every incarnation to date. G2 was all fresh faces, and so was G3. G4 used a handful of familiar names, but attached them to very different designs and personas. MLP has never been as story/character-based as TF, so jettisoning the cast from past gens never felt like a huge departure from the core of the brand. On the other hand, TF fans tend to complain if there is a LACK of returning characters. My point being, I think people want very different things from MLP and TF respectively. We actually saw far more new MLP characters in the last ten years than we did TFs. So unless someone is talking about the other (non-M6/royalty) characters within G4 not getting toys or merch, saying that TF (by contrast) gets endless new characters each line isn’t quite correct.
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There's a certain irony in the indignation about M6 fatigue. I really don't understand it, but it does seem more productive if you want to know why someone doesn't like the M6 to ask them, rather than discussing their reasons as though they aren't reading the thread and able to contribute o.O.
I’m sorry if that came off as accusatory—I didn’t ask anyone in particular to give reasons because I was trying to encompass the fandom and adult MLP collectors as a whole, rather than just the people posting on this thread.
Again, I completely sympathize with the rerelease fatigue! I’d REALLY rather that G5 ended that. It just seems like a large chunk of the collecting community are leveling that frustration at G4/FiM/M6 as a whole, rather than poor toy design and distribution. While I don’t personally care if someone hates or loves a fictional character, it seems kind of disrespectful to fans who enjoy G4/FiM/M6 to constantly throw around terms like “the mane sucks” and talk about how trash it all is. When G1-3 hate first started floating around in the brony communities, I know a lot of us were miffed at them for calling everything pre-FiM garbage, or saying the original ponies looked like hippos.
It reminds me of the old G2 hate and how that divided the fandom, and I guess that’s what bothers me, really. It goes on in every fandom that’s lasted long enough to get a second generation or reboot. People liking or disliking different things is fine and dandy. Taking issue with how something is portrayed in a series is also completely valid. But calling the things other people like stupid or obnoxious just kind of seems excessive, IMO (again, aiming this at the MLP fandom as a whole, not you in particular). I’m not defensive of G4 or the M6 themselves (they’re far from my favorite MLP iteration), but of the fans who enjoy them and feel uncomfortable or looked down upon by other segments of the community.
Of course that particular frustration is going to be lveled at it. No other generation of pony has had such obsessiveness in pushing a handful of toys on their shelves to the point of extremism, further aggravated by making new ponies come with a pack in of a M6.
The Bore Core was annoying, but M6 Fever is on a whole other level.
TMNT can get away with it because its a small and focused cast and that is alright. But even then, I sincerely doubt most kids and older fans have 50 Michelangelos, 10 Splinters, 20 Shredders and 36 Raphaels.
MLP has tons of characters and tons of non-characters so it does not work, yet Hasbro continues to push, push, push this strategy.
There are some other companies that do the same thing and its fans are JUST as frustrated.
Really? Transformers hasn't? Then I must have imagined the new characters in Rescue Bots. It may not have a big cast, but Heatwave and Chase get plenty of toys. Moreso then holdovers Optimus and Bumblebee.
And there was nothing BUT new characters in Botbots.
Prime, RiD15 and Cyberverse brought in some new characters as well like Knock Out, Thunderhoof, Windblade, Fix-It, Hammerbyte, Fracture and Wild Wheel.
There was that all girl combiner Victorion.
Heck even Movie-formers, as much as I despise Bay's style brought in new characters like Shatter, Barricade, Dropkick, Steelbane and Cogman. And none of those lines were in the 90s.
If Transformers can do it, MLP can go back to doing it. And when was the last time MLP did it? The early 2000s.
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I actually get quite upset when people try to compare what is just criticism on a board thread to what happened with G2.
There is such a difference between saying you are fed up with the mane 6 and with Equestria, and drawing pictures of G1 ponies killing Twilight, while creating multiple identities to harass you off the internet.
Some of the brony actions towards older gens may be in that category but I have never seen anyone do anything (on either side of the equation) here on the Arena that comes even close to that. Heated discussion and differences of opinion yes. Genuine malice, no.
As I said, some common sense is required when dealing with this.
If we must talk about bronies, I know not all G4 fans are spewing hate. At the same time, not many of them have done much to mediate or stop the negativity from that side to this. Again, I am not talking about Arena people here, but the g4 community in general. Someone commented in the ponycon discord earlier that every con they had been to before this they had encountered snide comments about older generations from g4 fans. Not mad bronies. Just G4 fans. Forgive me if that makes me less sympathetic to them disliking criticsm of G4.
Poor toy design and toy distribution is also not something you can separate from G4/the M6/whatever. That is also part of G4. So is poor QC, repetitive releases, etc etc. Each gen has its own challenges but they are not separate from the gen itself.
I have bigger issues with the moralising in FIM than with any of the toy line stuff, though. And that is also part of g4.
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As long as that particular batch of ponies is nowhere to be seen in the toys and merchandise, as long as Hasbroken doesn't go on another extreme-obsessive streak with any new characters and as long as the toys look like ponies and are of decent quality, that'll be fine. But hearing them being dragged along into the new gen makes me feel that they will continue on destroying the brand.
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Really? Transformers hasn't? Then I must have imagined the new characters in Rescue Bots. It may not have a big cast, but Heatwave and Chase get plenty of toys. Moreso then holdovers Optimus and Bumblebee.
And there was nothing BUT new characters in Botbots.
Prime, RiD15 and Cyberverse brought in some new characters as well like Knock Out, Thunderhoof, Windblade, Fix-It, Hammerbyte, Fracture and Wild Wheel.
There was that all girl combiner Victorion.
Heck even Movie-formers, as much as I despise Bay's style brought in new characters like Shatter, Barricade, Dropkick, Steelbane and Cogman. And none of those lines were in the 90s.
If Transformers can do it, MLP can go back to doing it. And when was the last time MLP did it? The early 2000s.
I wasn’t really counting Botbots, since they’re so divergent from the rest of the TF universe (adorable, though!). But if I were comparing them to MLP toys, I’d say they’re most analogous to the blind bag minis, which featured A TON of new characters.
Rescue Bots borrowed names/themes for Blades and Heatwave, and heavily rereleased the main cast, to the point of nearly excluding additional characters. As someone who was scouring the shelves for the /one/ Dani figure (released with a main character minifig), I can hardly say it was handled better than FiM. The distribution of new vs. rerelease characters was almost the same pattern. Granted, RB had less characters to work with, but I can’t decide whether that makes the poor availability of the existing ones better or worse
And yes, I acknowledged that there HAVE been new characters across various TF media (I scoured the shelves for them, as well), but they are strongly outweighed by returning ones. FiM also introduced new characters like Starlight Glimmer, Cocoa Pommel, Coloratura, Cheese Sandwich, Shining Armor, Flurry Heart, Tempest Shadow, Songbird Serenade, all of the seaponies/hippogriffs, Discord, Chrysalis, and many, many others. All of the ones I listed were represented in varying degrees across the toyline, much like all of the new TF characters from the last decade. And thrown into every wave containing those new TFs were a half-dozen or so familiar faces. I’m not saying that formula is a good idea for MLP, as I feel like MLP has traditionally focused on a “collect ‘em all“ mentallity, but to say that Hasbro favors TF with giant waves of all-new characters isn’t quite right. If anything, I think most of us older MLP collectors are AFRAID of MLP going to a TF-esque format, with Twilight and Pinkie returning to headline every new series or reboot, surrounded by a supporting cast of mostly returning (albeit reinvented) characters. That’s exactly what TF Animated, Prime, the movies, WfC, etc. did (all of which I enjoyed and collected). It works well for TF, not so much for Pony.
At the end of the day, I agree with what most people are saying they want from G5. I want a new story, new style, and as many new characters as they can crank out. I don’t need any more M6 figures, and I don’t intend to buy any unless they’re radically different in design. But I do think it’s understandable that Hasbro is going to try and use the success of G4 to give G5 an initial boost. My biggest concern is that we’ll just end up with six or seven NEW characters who are perpetuated for ten years, but with an ongoing cartoon that’s almost inevitable... There just aren’t many shows like G1 MLP anymore, where the cast is constantly (and somewhat inexplicably) refreshed. :shrug: I’d be happier with that personally, but it must not be a formula that works in today’s world.
As for the kind of people who make fanart of G4 ponies murdering G1 ponies or otherwise deride older gens... I absolutely find that disgusting. I just feel that being respectful of everyone’s preferences in generation or style is more conducive to a healthy community as a whole than simply retaliating with hate for G4 (again, referring to the larger MLP community—people are generally pretty civil on the Arena).
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In fairness, the reason I stay on the Arena and not in the wider MLP community is because mostly here the worst you get is heated and impassioned debate.
But that's something I think that should be protected, and for all generations. I don't think it's a problem to be critical of something you don't like in a generation so long as you aren't making it into a personal vendetta.
The art example I made of a pony killing another pony was from the G2 conflict, and it was a G1 - I think Gusty - killing a G2 pony. I don't know if people do artwork of G4 killing G1 ponies = my point was to illustrate the difference between that event and this discussion. It's a matter of context.
I've posted this before but I wrote this during the G2 conflict. It basically sums up how I felt at that time, both as myself and in terms of the G2s, who bore the brunt of all that hate. I wrote it from the perspective of a G2 pony in that hostile environment.
I left it on my site all these years, because I think that it still matters. Unexpectedly G4 made it topical again.
http://www.etherella.com/scrapbook2/ponydream.htm
G4 fans are not all responsible for bad brony behaviour but it is incumbent on them to understand the wider impact of the actions of some G4 fans on the existing pony community.
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I think the next pony gen will be much shorter then ten years. MLP FIM was originally intended to be three years IIRC. Like Twilight Sparkle becoming an alicorn was obviously supposed to be the stopping point. But it was at its height of popularity so Hasbro just kept going.
Transformers cartoons usually last two to three seasons. Littlest Pet Shop (2012) lasted 4 seasons. Pound Puppies (2010) lasted three seasons. I think the max we'll see from a MLP cartoon in the future will be 4 seasons, but more likely 2 or 3.
About the G2 thing, back in the day I had someone tell me I was "racist" for disliking G2 and that it made me "a Nazi." I remember ripping into them on the mailing list because WTF?
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Sounds about right. It definitely went both ways.
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I think the next pony gen will be much shorter then ten years. MLP FIM was originally intended to be three years IIRC. Like Twilight Sparkle becoming an alicorn was obviously supposed to be the stopping point. But it was at its height of popularity so Hasbro just kept going.
Transformers cartoons usually last two to three seasons. Littlest Pet Shop (2012) lasted 4 seasons. Pound Puppies (2010) lasted three seasons. I think the max we'll see from a MLP cartoon in the future will be 4 seasons, but more likely 2 or 3.
About the G2 thing, back in the day I had someone tell me I was "racist" for disliking G2 and that it made me "a Nazi." I remember ripping into them on the mailing list because WTF?
Whaaaat?!? :shocked:
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Good reasons why a discussion in which someone says the M6 sucks should not be gratuitously compared to what happened with G2.
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About the G2 thing, back in the day I had someone tell me I was "racist" for disliking G2 and that it made me "a Nazi." I remember ripping into them on the mailing list because WTF?
How... Why... Wow. Just wow. :shocked:
To be honest, I never encountered the extreme levels of G2 hate you guys are talking about. I guess I was lucky. XD So maybe I never witnessed the full extent of it, and am wrong in comparing it to G4-related conflict... I’m just weary of reboot-hate in general I guess, be it MLP, Transformers, Star Wars, Thundercats, or whatever.
I really hope LadyMoondancer’s prediction of shorter generations for MLP are correct. That would go a long way towards avoiding the kind of rerelease fatigue we’re dealing with now. I feel like three to five years is plenty.
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Yea, it makes sense. Like with Tales only happening over 2 years, we didn't have time to get bored with the concept. Although they could also try better integration of new and old characters in the way Monster High did - not with the M6 from G4, but I mean from the G5 new cast and other new characters that feature in a particular series or arc. MH would rarely release all the main characters together in a line, but there'd be one or two then a bunch of new characters. And there might be three or four versions of some of thosse but others would be just for that line alone.
I think G2 also attempted that pattern, and I don't see why it couldn't work for G5, since you would always be releasing one or two of the core cast with a new set, but at the same time broadening the cast with new characters.
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MH would rarely release all the main characters together in a line, but there'd be one or two then a bunch of new characters.
Honestly that irked me so much. Especially if that character got an outfit design in the accompanying media but then didn't get a doll. MLP honestly did the same thing. Like the Rainbow Power ones with the extra leg design excluded Applejack but had Cheerilee and Holly Dash and the pearly ponies had a bunch of new characters but no Rarity.
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I suppose that's true too. I didn't do it with MH, but I got used to that with Jem and the fact the Misfits had hardly any of their outfits made, so I just made them myself. I guess in that context separate fashion sets would've been good though too.
But the RR and the pearlies are 2 of my favourite G4 releases involving the M6, because they introduced new characters while jazzing up the originals as well. It doesn't bother me that AJ didn't get a RR version because there are already a zillion AJs. Having Holly Dash was a bonus instead.
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I suppose that's true too. I didn't do it with MH, but I got used to that with Jem and the fact the Misfits had hardly any of their outfits made, so I just made them myself. I guess in that context separate fashion sets would've been good though too.
But the RR and the pearlies are 2 of my favourite G4 releases involving the M6, because they introduced new characters while jazzing up the originals as well. It doesn't bother me that AJ didn't get a RR version because there are already a zillion AJs. Having Holly Dash was a bonus instead.
Holly Dash is a great lil pony. loved that neon stripe in her and all those colors.
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Didn't Rarity not get a pearly version for a long time? Poor girl, she would be the first one to want to be glammed up. (That was my favorite G4 set, aside from the baby sea ponies / baby hippogriffs.)
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Didn't Rarity not get a pearly version for a long time? Poor girl, she would be the first one to want to be glammed up. (That was my favorite G4 set, aside from the baby sea ponies / baby hippogriffs.)
She got a pearly merpony version. I got one for my trade partner on the TP a while back when they first came out. I can personally attest to the fact that she was dull. And I mean gimmickally. You'd think pearlescence would be very noticeable on a white pony, but it wasn't strong on her.
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Maybe that informed the release decision. Nurse Thingummy is basically silver, isn't she? Not so much white with the pearl?
But the pearly set is nice because of the range. And here in the UK, Coloratura's set, we ad tons of those. But Coloratura was not that easy to get hold of because she sold out like lightning. The Entertainer and TRU, before it closed, had wave 1 and wave 2 M6 ponies sitting for months and months.
Wave 3 for some reason only appeared for me in Smyths once and I snapped them all u[. I never saw AJ shelf-sit but I don't think there were enough of them.
In any case, if G4 had centred around that kind of release mechanism the M6 fatigue wouldn't be so pronounced. But in the last year or two there have been a lot of M6. And it hasn't helped that here in the UK especially the same M6 shelf sit for months or even YEARS.
There were so many Water Cutie AJs here for 3 years straight I'm surprised it didn't become a meme.
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Maybe that informed the release decision. Nurse Thingummy is basically silver, isn't she? Not so much white with the pearl?
But the pearly set is nice because of the range. And here in the UK, Coloratura's set, we ad tons of those. But Coloratura was not that easy to get hold of because she sold out like lightning. The Entertainer and TRU, before it closed, had wave 1 and wave 2 M6 ponies sitting for months and months.
Wave 3 for some reason only appeared for me in Smyths once and I snapped them all u[. I never saw AJ shelf-sit but I don't think there were enough of them.
In any case, if G4 had centred around that kind of release mechanism the M6 fatigue wouldn't be so pronounced. But in the last year or two there have been a lot of M6. And it hasn't helped that here in the UK especially the same M6 shelf sit for months or even YEARS.
There were so many Water Cutie AJs here for 3 years straight I'm surprised it didn't become a meme.
I cracked up at Nurse Thingummy. XD I love the Pearly set. I love that there were so many different toys.
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I think the next pony gen will be much shorter then ten years. MLP FIM was originally intended to be three years IIRC. Like Twilight Sparkle becoming an alicorn was obviously supposed to be the stopping point. But it was at its height of popularity so Hasbro just kept going.
Transformers cartoons usually last two to three seasons. Littlest Pet Shop (2012) lasted 4 seasons. Pound Puppies (2010) lasted three seasons. I think the max we'll see from a MLP cartoon in the future will be 4 seasons, but more likely 2 or 3.
Let's hope so! I enjoy cartoons that come to a conclusion rather than droning on for a decade with characters not really changing. I still have high hopes for a MLP show featuring an overarching plot with the seasons functioning like chapters.
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I think the next pony gen will be much shorter then ten years. MLP FIM was originally intended to be three years IIRC. Like Twilight Sparkle becoming an alicorn was obviously supposed to be the stopping point. But it was at its height of popularity so Hasbro just kept going.
Transformers cartoons usually last two to three seasons. Littlest Pet Shop (2012) lasted 4 seasons. Pound Puppies (2010) lasted three seasons. I think the max we'll see from a MLP cartoon in the future will be 4 seasons, but more likely 2 or 3.
Let's hope so! I enjoy cartoons that come to a conclusion rather than droning on for a decade with characters not really changing. I still have high hopes for a MLP show featuring an overarching plot with the seasons functioning like chapters.
*cough cough* The Siiiiimpsoooons
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I think the next pony gen will be much shorter then ten years. MLP FIM was originally intended to be three years IIRC. Like Twilight Sparkle becoming an alicorn was obviously supposed to be the stopping point. But it was at its height of popularity so Hasbro just kept going.
Transformers cartoons usually last two to three seasons. Littlest Pet Shop (2012) lasted 4 seasons. Pound Puppies (2010) lasted three seasons. I think the max we'll see from a MLP cartoon in the future will be 4 seasons, but more likely 2 or 3.
Let's hope so! I enjoy cartoons that come to a conclusion rather than droning on for a decade with characters not really changing. I still have high hopes for a MLP show featuring an overarching plot with the seasons functioning like chapters.
If it happened it would be a literal first.
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Didn't Rarity not get a pearly version for a long time? Poor girl, she would be the first one to want to be glammed up. (That was my favorite G4 set, aside from the baby sea ponies / baby hippogriffs.)
She finally got one in the Best Gift Ever set but those were the Movie molds. She never got one on the old molds.
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Didn't Rarity not get a pearly version for a long time? Poor girl, she would be the first one to want to be glammed up. (That was my favorite G4 set, aside from the baby sea ponies / baby hippogriffs.)
She finally got one in the Best Gift Ever set but those were the Movie molds. She never got one on the old molds.
That was my favorite G4 set... and they managed to exclude my favorite M6 pony. >_<; Ah well.
I agree that the pearly series was one of the best designed lines in G4 in terms of balancing rereleases and new characters... Even if distribution of the last wave was waaaaay spotty in the States. I’d love to see them follow that model going forward. G4 started out with a ton of new characters, but then sadly declined in later years as FiM took off... which is almost ironic