My Thoughts to Hasbro on MLP

[banditpony]

Meanwhile they had snubbed collectors and the parents of little girls who are going to be there when Friendship is Magic is over.  Just because you do market research doesn't mean your research is correct particularly if you're only interested in short term gains.

I'm sure they are aware. They are a company out to make money. They aren't set out to make "collectors" happy, and I'll keep saying this, the community of collectors isn't that huge...

Some of the girls who were probably interested in G3s as a kid, are grown up and moved on. They aren't in the market either anymore. People who buy ponies come and go. So I don't think it's a big deal when bronies will move on.

[Al-1701]

Also, it's not like it would kill Hasbro to make ponies that don't appear in Friendship is Magic.  As far as the kids are concerned, they just care it's a pony and parents and collectors just care that it's a different pony.  My problem is Hasbro seems a little too fixated on the bronies and willing to limit themselves.

[hathorcat]

goddessofpeep sums it up perfectly for me.

We have never, as collectors, been a big enough market for Hasbro. I know its not what everyone wants to hear but its unfortunately true. We are an awesome group of people and a dedicated band of collectors of the line but in comparison to the brands which do get attention [GI and TF] we are no where near those figures in numbers or spending power. In  many ways I like being a member of a smaller collecting community - we know one another, we talk, we share in many ways we are not ultra competitive or at one another's throats all the time. Yes, there is drama here and there and yes not everything in the pony world is sunshine and rainbows [and neither should it be when you get grown ups with differing opinions together] but there is seldom anything to the degree or regularity as you see in other collecting groups.

And as I mentioned before when Hasbro did give us the chance for something - in the retro releases - we gave them a poor purchase point and not a great take up of the item. In addition for Hasbro's the lack of $$ will also show in the sheer volume of Fair/SDCC ponies which would not sell at events [pre G4]. I am sure previous Fair organisers can tell of the numbers of ponies they would have left over after the event. Not to mention that even after SDCC if you wanted an SDCC pony you would not struggle to get availability on HTS.

It's incredibly frustrating and I agree that as collectors we should make our voice be heard. But I think its unfair to say Hasbro are focusing on bronies. They are not. Other than the favs sets [which dont always contain "brony favs" anyway], I dont think you could say there is anything specifically in the toy line which is geared towards an adult male market. Their licensing lines are however focusing on bronies. It seems to be that split: toys for the actual little girl/parent target market and merch for bronies. Thats not Hasbros issue - companies have to decide whether buying a licence is financially worth their while and for those t-shirt makers right now it clearly is. Unfortunately this means as collectors, we are left out in the cold.

[Al-1701]

But is selling the same small set of characters a good idea when it comes to the little girls the brand is geared towards?  During G1 something like 30 new ponies came out every year.  G3 was almost as prolific before the Core 7 decision.  I don't even know if there 30 G4 ponies that have been released as brushables period.  My worry is parents will close their wallets and G4 will come to an end with a crash.

I also talked to some bronies about this and they said they'll only stay with the brand past Friendship is Magic is the media remains good.  They don't give a damn about the toyline.  Yet the answers at the Fair sounded like Hasbro is under the assumption they do care about the toyline.

And I think the problem with the anniversary sets is they were meant to be special like fair exclusives.  They're meant for a small audience.  We should ask for them to simply make some G1 ponies in the G4 style and release them to the general public.  I think the little kids wouldn't care that they're buying ponies that were first created 30 years ago.  They just care that they're getting a new pony and the parents only care that the pony isn't one they've already bought five times over.  Or just make some new ponies for the sake of variety.

[hathorcat]

But is selling the same small set of characters a good idea when it comes to the little girls the brand is geared towards?

Unfortunately yes. And for the reasons I mentioned before. Most kids will want the ponies which have appeared on the cartoon which is selling them the product. Therefore retailers want those main characters. Parents/friends/relatives will buy the same ponies in repeat - I had 2 Applejacks when I was a little girl and 2 Bow Ties. They were all played with and being the same pony did not bother me. Kids are pretty creative. I dont doubt there are plenty of little girls and boys who want different characters but Hasbro also rely on a fast churn for this line - i.e. kids growing out and moving on and then more children becoming interested in the line. In addition the line includes lots of different types of release - accessory packs, multi pony packs, vehicles, etc - this kind of variety in "add ons" did not exist in earlier lines.

As goddess mentioned earlier Hasbro are a multinational money making monster - they tested the concept of a "core" line of characters with late G3 and G3.5 - clearly they were comfortable with them enough to continue this into G4. If these were a complete flop they would no doubt have gone a different direction. It is so depressing to continually see the same pony again and again; and I ll shout loud about new characters and different ponies. But I can also at least see the why of Hasbro's strategy, even if I dont like it

Its a different market now than 30 years ago - we cant truly compare G1 and G4 them as toy lines. They are marketed differently, the are even priced differently in the market. 2013 is a different time from 1983 in many ways.

[rtattles]

I agree with you wholeheartedly Hath! I think the reason why Hasbro is going with a core line is because unlike the 80s, kids grow up a lot faster today, at least mentally. This means they move out of the toy-play age a lot sooner, and move on to something else. With a shorter trend cycle to sell to, it doesn't make much sense for Hasbro to churn out more elaborate deviations to sell to their target market, the little girls. By the time they come out with something "better", the old crowd would have moved on to make way for a new crowd.

It is more economical to just stick with a staple set of ponies, and market them over and over again. For one, the characters "stick" better and Hasbro saves a lot on marketing. They dont really need to fret over making too much new material and has an established base of material to reuse at their disposal.

Moreover, I see that they are taking the franchaise route, which seems to me that the toys themselves aren't the biggest money makers in the line. The licenses for related merch are where the biggest money is. First Hasbro doesn't have to care about distribution, production or even beg big corporations to display their product. They simply sell an intellectual property, and the hassle of producing and selling goes to someone else. It is clever from a business point of view, so I can see why they work so hard to establish the FiM so firmly with repeat characters.