The MLP Arena
Pony Talk => Pony Corral => Topic started by: Ragamuffin on July 31, 2019, 12:01:36 PM
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We have the Basic Fun repros, we had Mash 'Ems, we had Loyal Subjects vinyls, we have Hallmark ornaments, we have all sorts of other merchandise ranging from shirts to kitchenware to colouring books to headphones, and this year we even got a SDCC exclusive. Basic Fun collaborated with Stranger Things and saw great success with that. And recently, we got those weird repro G3s made by... whoever (imo it might be Hasbro due to the fixation on Mane 6 instead of the Celebration ponies or even the Core 7).
Now Hasbro is joining in on the Retro craze with their own ponies. They've even made them their own page on the official My Little Pony website. They see G1s are beloved, and they're only now realising it because it's profitable.
G5 has been in development since about 2016 as far as we know, and with the movie releasing in 2021 (assuming they don't delay it), they're probably actively working on the movie right now and working on concepts for the toys. I gotta ask, do you think the "Retro Hype" has affected how they're going about G5 at all?
I think it's all weird, and I'm not sure what it means other than "money". While Basic Fun is making the Retros because there's an obvious demand, when Hasbro is doing it, it comes off as cashing in. It feels shallow and disingenuous. To me, it seems like "no one is buying G4s anymore, but we still want to make Mane 6... I got it! Why don't we make our own Retro ponies?! Yeah! People are all over 80s ponies nowadays, people won't able to resist buying these!"
I also personally still think they're going to go with the ultra-stylized, big-eyed, brachycephalic ""ponies"" we've had. G5 is probably too far in development at the moment for them to potentially make them more horse-y or whatever. But maybe with G5, Hasbro could make a separate spin-off-or-whatever line, focusing on G1s or "retro-styled" ponies?
(I know the "What if Hasbro's Retros were G5" (http://mlparena.com/index.php/topic,395753.0.html) thread exists but this is different)
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I agree with you about how Hasbro's efforts come over, as they've largely ignored older gen ponies in favour of G4 for a long time. I remember hearing Summer talk at ponycon about all the hints they dropped for an exclusive that would be older gen related and then it was some kind of pinkie pie. Because all older gen collectors want pinkie pie. I think the brony hype swept Hasbro up in "this is MLP now" fever - because there was nothing really to tell them otherwise.
I don't know whose idea Basic Fun's thing was, and that's the interesting part to me. Did the company approach hasbro or did Hasbro approach them? Did Hasbro think about it but decide it too expensive to do themselves so licensed it out? I really wonder (and if anyone knows, awesome). But what I do think it's done is kick the G1 back into the spotlight.
I always thought 35 was a daft anniversary (not to mention it's now very spurious, the unipegs are out here now with 35th anniversary on the box, in 2019, which is actually THEIR 35th anniversary as a set but not really the overall message intended). And all these sets, not just one or two token ones like at 25th. Plus all the clothing and stuff in primark here had been going on a while. We also had notebooks going back even further. We had the dollymix going back to the end (?) of G3. So in a way this retro thing has been building.
BUT it's the first time since actual G1 that Hasbro seem to show any interest in their original franchise again. It's obviously about money...but...if Basic Fun's ponies and their popularity is now swaying them back towards the older style, I think it's more likely G5 might be influenced by G3 looks than G1. The retro G3 might be part of that, as a test the waters kind of thing.
I am not totally persuaded we know anything about G5, or if it even really exists as a toyline (rather than a cartoon series that may or may not happen), to be honest. We've seen nothing concretely toy-related in terms of leaks for G5 I don't believe. Just potential drawings and animation concepts. That means the actual toys are potentially fluid.
Some ponies changed a ton between their prototypes and release even during G1. The original pocket ponies were regular pose and sized, but ended up much bigger and in their own poses. Hasbro can change anything they like...and they want our money. And the money of parents of kids of pony age, who are probably also now our age...
I think if there is going to be a G5, then it could have an effect on a toy design. But I doubt it will kill off the M6.
(Maybe they'll reinvent the "original M6" instead, since they're on the website now, and we'll have hundreds of blossoms and snuzzles for the next ten years...)
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I imagine the retro stuff is just to fill a gap in between stuff. They obviously saw an opening.
I assume that g5 has been in the works for a long time. I don't think nostalgia itch is what they are aiming for.
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In the short term, I think it depends how far along they are in development. My guess is they are pretty far in because IIRC it takes about a year to get a toy from design to production? So with G4 winding down I would think they've already done most of the heavy lifting for G5, at least on the design side.
In the long term, it could make a difference. Hasbro definitely is aware of / follows trends. For example, Equestria Girls were inspired by Monster High dolls. Transformers BotBots were inspired by Shopkins. If "horsey" toys do well then it just makes sense to horse up your pony dolls.
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(Maybe they'll reinvent the "original M6" instead, since they're on the website now, and we'll have hundreds of blossoms and snuzzles for the next ten years...)
How much do you want to bet they'll include Peachy? :lol:
I think we'll have to wait and see how much this affects the brand. To my understanding, 'retro' products are very popular right now - look at the re-releases of old video game consoles, for example. (My mom works in retail and has made some comments about other retro products on the market, but the names of whatever she was referring to has slipped my mind.) Hasbro's just cashing in on the market.
That being said - assuming the retro products have an unexpectedly positive reception, we very well may see an art style heavily influenced by G1.
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Hopefully. Pity it won't knock the mane suxx out of Hasbro's heads though.
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I think Hasbro are just out to make money out of whatever market seems the most profitable at the time.
FiM is hot with bronies? They're our main target now!
Monster High is making tons of cash? Let's make a line where the characters are teenage girls!
Bronies are jumping ship and retro stuff/80s nostalgia is "in"? Time to make some retros!
Not that I can necessarily blame them for this, I guess. I mean, they're a business, they need to keep the money train going. I just wish they could be a little less obvious with it :P and the cynic in me can't help but be irritated by now us G1 folks were ignored for so long and we're only getting thrown a bone now that it's profitable!
(Although I guess to be fair, come to think of it - didn't the 25th anniversary sets sell poorly? If that's the case, I could see Hasbro being hesitant to make more retro stuff - doesn't explain why they balked on making a special one for the Pony Fair or similar collector-based venues for so long, though.)
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(Maybe they'll reinvent the "original M6" instead, since they're on the website now, and we'll have hundreds of blossoms and snuzzles for the next ten years...)
How much do you want to bet they'll include Peachy? :lol:
:scared:
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Bronies are jumping ship and retro stuff/80s nostalgia is "in"? Time to make some retros!
But was it really bronies buying the toys? I don't think so.
IIRC a majority of them didn't even like the toys because they weren't show accurate. I think things like the we love fine figures, funko (the normal ones), and the kotobukiya stuff was geared toward them.
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Bronies are jumping ship and retro stuff/80s nostalgia is "in"? Time to make some retros!
But was it really bronies buying the toys? I don't think so.
IIRC a majority of them didn't even like the toys because they weren't show accurate. I think things like the we love fine figures, funko (the normal ones), and the kotobukiya stuff was geared toward them.
I didn't say bronies were buying the toys... I meant Hasbro were making stuff marketed towards them, or licensing the brand out to companies that'd make stuff directed more towards bronies. Hasbro were trying to pander towards the brony market.
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Bronies are jumping ship and retro stuff/80s nostalgia is "in"? Time to make some retros!
But was it really bronies buying the toys? I don't think so.
IIRC a majority of them didn't even like the toys because they weren't show accurate. I think things like the we love fine figures, funko (the normal ones), and the kotobukiya stuff was geared toward them.
I didn't say bronies were buying the toys... I meant Hasbro were making stuff marketed towards them, or licensing the brand out to companies that'd make stuff directed more towards bronies. Hasbro were trying to pander towards the brony market.
Oh. Well in that case, we had retro stuff all along side all that brony junk. Not just the vectors, but also some of the old school art as well... but mostly the vectors.
(I saw this thread more about toys).
I mean in 2013-2014ish there was a whole slew of baby junk/home goods from multiple places with starshine and glory.
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When Primark were selling pony clothing over here (in that same kind of period, maybe up till about 2 years ago), they were generally tagged with a cardboard pony tag featuring G1 pony art.
...From the US pony line.
...Of ponies not sold here :P
But that aside, there was a lot of stuff around the Rainbow Ponies, and also Milky Way and Princess Amethyst. Also for a while before that Glory had a lot of attention, but I assume with her it was because she looked like Rarity. It's interesting that with the Dollymix Princess Amethyst (albeit named as Sparkle) and Mainsail (!?!!?!) appeared in the lineup. I never understood why Mainsail of all ponies...
But the use of the US name for Amethyst and the US artwork for the tags suggest a bigger US based intent here. This is stuff the UK would not have had on it's own - it must have come from the mothership somewhere along the line.
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I don’t know whether it will effect G5 or not. I suspect that this is just a place holder line in between G4 and what ever is coming down the pipeline.
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I don’t know whether it will effect G5 or not. I suspect that this is just a place holder line in between G4 and what ever is coming down the pipeline.
Something awful is coming down the line. Of this I have no doubt. Hasbro is making a complete mess, except this time, I'm not sure its phoenix will ever rise again as anything more then a shell of its former self
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I don’t know whether it will effect G5 or not. I suspect that this is just a place holder line in between G4 and what ever is coming down the pipeline.
Something awful is coming down the line. Of this I have no doubt. Hasbro is making a complete mess, except this time, I'm not sure its phoenix will ever rise again as anything more then a shell of its former self
I'm excited for G5 for the potential it could have, but I just can't imagine it being big. I think it will either do "okay" or under-perform.
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I think it's laughable how the M6 are just the same six characters sold in different forms. It needs to stop at one point. The M6 will never be the Sailor Senshi or the Power Rangers.
It would be cool if some of the retro trend would touch G5 in that they would step away from focusing on one set of characters, or as Hasbro calls it "the squad". What sells these toys are their colors, let's be real. That's why Twilight, RD and Pinkie got the focus when it came to merch. It was the tried and true (and tired) "Purple Blue Pink" scheme that plaques so many girl toys.
So if they made new characters but they'd be PBP you bet they would sell. They don't need to be Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie. That's my personal opinion based on experiences.
I think kids gave a damn about the characters on the show, I truly did. But these kids have now grown out of it and new kids won't know Rainbow is supposed to be the sporty one just like kids didn't know G3 Rainbow was the fabulous one when FiM first came out.
Only us oldheads were amused that she was suddenly the polar opposite of her G3 incarnation.
You could have a pink unicorn with rainbow hair in G5 and it would sell like hotcakes. Only FiM fans would cry that "RD is the only one with rainbow haiiiir!!!"
Tl;dR: I doubt that the connection to the M6 is as strong as Hasbro wishes. At least when it comes to new target audiences and not FiM fanatics.
PS: since I am on the MLP Tales train right now, Tales really started that Core Seven thing and I can see why Hasbro has been trying to make it happen again with G3 (and then EqG). They even added Starlight to the M6 in FiM so they could be seven. Hasbro could be adding a seventh core character for G5. That could be the retro inspired part about the new gen :lol:
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I don’t know whether it will effect G5 or not. I suspect that this is just a place holder line in between G4 and what ever is coming down the pipeline.
Something awful is coming down the line. Of this I have no doubt. Hasbro is making a complete mess, except this time, I'm not sure its phoenix will ever rise again as anything more then a shell of its former self
I'm excited for G5 for the potential it could have, but I just can't imagine it being big. I think it will either do "okay" or under-perform.
What potential? Another 5-8 years of the same 6 ponies shoved down consumers throats? They're shelf-sitters and any rare non m6 pony gets snatched up fast. I'm certain kids are a little tired of it too.
If G5 is the Mishmash style, I will of course buy my kid and myself any new characters we fancy. But I suspect Hasbro is shooting the cannon at their own deck and cheering.
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The advantage with seven as a number is that they can belatedly call in lame rainbow comments along the way.
Starlight is also more interesting than all of the M6 put together, rather like Sunset is in EqG, where there is also already a M7.
I've said it before but I've seen kids go through whole displays looking for ponies other than M6. When the pearlies came out, the shelf sitters were Dash and Twilight. The others went very fast.
I also remember one girl with her mother looking at ponies and it didn't seem like they would buy any. I was with my sister and I had found a Soarin and was showing it to her as an example of a boy pony. I put it back on the rack and within 10 seconds this little girl had swooped on him in excitement. He went home with her.
The shop was full of M6 ponies. She didn't even look at them.
Kids do not and did not ever want the same pony over and over. At carboot sales when I find M6 ponies, they're not usually in multiples at one place. They have one of each pony, or just one pony, total. Interestingly the BAB plushes also appear a lot there lately. But the M6 plushes don't get bought up so much as the others...you see kids clutching non M6 BAB but often the M6 ones stay there.
I think the kids love the show and the characters, probably. Maybe there are certain favourites that they might want a second pony with a particular gimmick or style. I can understand that. But the sheer number of them vs other ponies is offputting. It doesn't make for a long term line. I just don't know if Hasbro have realised this yet because (at least here), the ponies go to stores but the unsold ones get clearanced, they don't go back to Hasbro. And to get the non-m6 stuff, they're cunningly mixed in with M6 stuff, and stores can't pick which boxes they get, so in the end, they get the problem of selling M6 to a clientele that don't want them.
I have seen kids buy pony stuff here. The only time I've ever seen a kid actively excited about a M6 character was a tiny girl with a huge BAB Twilight Sparkle plush around Christmas one year. Maybe the area is an exception or maybe the kids already got past the M6 phase. But that's still how it is.
On balance, it seems healthier to me (and more current) to go back to the old collect them all mentality. Other lines with the blind bags and stuff are really encouraging kids to buy several in order to collect them all and complete the set. Trading cards are and have always been like that, too. For ponies not to be is a bit weird, since it seems contrary to current trends as well as to how MLP were in the past.
G1 is full of 'collect them all' language. I think that's an idea that can still be capitalised on now. I don't think throwaway toys are as good an idea as Hasbro seem to think.
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G1 is full of 'collect them all' language. I think that's an idea that can still be capitalised on now. I don't think throwaway toys are as good an idea as Hasbro seem to think.
Oh, definitely. I'd bring up Shopkins, but those aren't as popular as they used to be. "Blind bag" toys in general are super popular, for the surprise element of course, but also you have so much variety. You could potentially get something new every time. If you don't like what they're offering, sit and wait until the next wave, where there's probably something new. You don't have that luxury with Cutie Mark Crew, where 75% of the line is taken up by Mane 6. Literally. I counted. There's 24 in a wave, and each of the Mane 6 usually get their EQG form, their pony form, and their seapony form. And there are, what, 5 waves now? And it's all taken up by Mane 6.
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G1 is full of 'collect them all' language. I think that's an idea that can still be capitalised on now. I don't think throwaway toys are as good an idea as Hasbro seem to think.
Oh, definitely. I'd bring up Shopkins, but those aren't as popular as they used to be. "Blind bag" toys in general are super popular, for the surprise element of course, but also you have so much variety. You could potentially get something new every time. If you don't like what they're offering, sit and wait until the next wave, where there's probably something new. You don't have that luxury with Cutie Mark Crew, where 75% of the line is taken up by Mane 6. Literally. I counted. There's 24 in a wave, and each of the Mane 6 usually get their EQG form, their pony form, and their seapony form. And there are, what, 5 waves now? And it's all taken up by Mane 6.
It's like they have a crutch and are afraid to create 'new'. Which is what worries me about G5.
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I'm still new to this game, since I only became a pony collector in adulthood, but I'm interested to see what happens next. Whatever Hasbro does with themselves is going to be judged hard because of the hype surrounding the ponies. FIM was been their cash cow, whatever they do, they should do slowly.
Also, to whomever mentioned the "Transformers BotBots"... what even are these? If this was an attempt to get girls into the franchise, they failed miserably, IMHO. No longer the demographic here, clearly, but if you want girls in, they should've tried making the female characters more available, given Elita-One, Arcee, and some of the other girls action figures comparable to the male characters. Cause these are really kinda dumb.
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What evidence is there that BotBots aren't popular with girls? Also, a lot of the BotBots characters are girls.
I don't know which demographic is buying BotBots, but I have to assume they're successful because Hasbro is releasing their third wave of them.
There are also female characters in the more traditional "vehicle to robot line", Windblade is basically co-starring with Bumblebee in Transformers: Cyberverse and half of the Decepticon Seekers are female.
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Botbots is more about the blind bag and chibi craze and less about girls, I think. Allthough I bet more girls want cute blind bags right now than trying to get Unicron made on Hasbro Pulse :lol:
I think a big giveaway on who Botbots is for is evident in the character and mold diversity whereas the "girl line" Cutie Mark Crew is mostly just Mane Six repeats. Girls are better off with Botbots than getting five Twilights in a row.
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What evidence is there that BotBots aren't popular with girls? Also, a lot of the BotBots characters are girls.
I don't know which demographic is buying BotBots, but I have to assume they're successful because Hasbro is releasing their third wave of them.
There are also female characters in the more traditional "vehicle to robot line", Windblade is basically co-starring with Bumblebee in Transformers: Cyberverse and half of the Decepticon Seekers are female.
I haven't kept up with modern Transformers, but as a kid and a girl I was fine with the original series and never noticed the ratio of male/female characters. Or cared.
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These are all very valid points, LOL! I mean, I never got the whole Shopkins thing, maybe I would've been into it when I was a kid, I'm not sure. It is, however, nice to see more female TFs of any kind in the line!
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These are all very valid points, LOL! I mean, I never got the whole Shopkins thing, maybe I would've been into it when I was a kid, I'm not sure. It is, however, nice to see more female TFs of any kind in the line!
What's nice about Botbots is that they actually transform, so the kids really get a tiny Transformer to play with and not just an inaction figure. Never cared about Shopkins myself. And I wouldn't care about Cutie Mark Crew if I wasn't so in love with their look. As a collector line they are just too repetetive.
As a kid I would go insane trying to get the character I wanted instead of a hundred Mane Six incarnations and no kid on the playground would trade Pinkie for Crysalis.
Botbots prove that Hasbro puts diversity into all their lines except for MLP these days :|
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I'm still new to this game, since I only became a pony collector in adulthood, but I'm interested to see what happens next. Whatever Hasbro does with themselves is going to be judged hard because of the hype surrounding the ponies. FIM was been their cash cow, whatever they do, they should do slowly.
Also, to whomever mentioned the "Transformers BotBots"... what even are these? If this was an attempt to get girls into the franchise, they failed miserably, IMHO. No longer the demographic here, clearly, but if you want girls in, they should've tried making the female characters more available, given Elita-One, Arcee, and some of the other girls action figures comparable to the male characters. Cause these are really kinda dumb.
Maybe you should do a bit of research around the TF community before you go bad-mouthing Botbots. :hmm: They are essentially transforming Shopkins. They've been selling like crazy with boys, girls, kids and adults. They have a healthy mix of male and female characters, and a wide range of everyday objects. And people have been wild about picking them up for their kids and themselves.
My daughter and I are TF fans. She's also a Shopkins fan and we both have a growing pile of them.
They do release female transformers. Fairly recently, we've gotten Slipstream, Slash, Chromia, Windblade, Moonracer, Greenlight and we are due for another Nightbird.
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I'm still new to this game, since I only became a pony collector in adulthood, but I'm interested to see what happens next. Whatever Hasbro does with themselves is going to be judged hard because of the hype surrounding the ponies. FIM was been their cash cow, whatever they do, they should do slowly.
Also, to whomever mentioned the "Transformers BotBots"... what even are these? If this was an attempt to get girls into the franchise, they failed miserably, IMHO. No longer the demographic here, clearly, but if you want girls in, they should've tried making the female characters more available, given Elita-One, Arcee, and some of the other girls action figures comparable to the male characters. Cause these are really kinda dumb.
@Leave A Whisper, I'm very sorry if I offended you, I didn't mean to in the least. And I had no clue they'd started making more femmes! The ten year old in me just screamed with joy. This only goes to show me that I, as a toy restorer and seller myself to get on the ball a little more!