the main problem of the G5

[2003pony]

Hello everything is fine!! I think I discovered the main problem with the G5 and it's Hasbro's fault, well the problem is the dissemination and distribution to other countries besides the USA. I live in Brazil and in my country the G5 doesn't have mass dissemination like the G3 and G4 did the same ponies as in 2021 and 2022 are being sold in stores, the only products we have are notebooks and ice cream and some candies  at the time of G3 and G4 we had everything, even new clothes and toys on the shelves, I love G5 and I collect G5 ponies but distribution is difficult here in Brazil. I talked to friends from other countries in Latin America and they are experiencing the same lack of G5 content. Why isn't Hasbro focusing on distributing G5 products and ponies around the world? The only thing we have complete are the episodes of the series. How is the distribution of G5 ponies in your country?

[Barnacle_lady]

If it comes to brushables: very poor. The ponies we get are at least from 2 years ago. In different shops.
If it comes to other merch like stickers, colouring books: I see those a lot. Sometimes other merch pops up like beach towel, pen case, diary, gift bags, party supplies, postcards. A Dutch company bought the licence to produce this stuff

[DreamvalleyMLP]

Could very well be that stores just don't want to carry the products. Keep in mind that they *have to* buy a minimum quantity of products. Hasbro may be trying to get them in stores, but if their expectations are too high - because stores know better what sells and what doesn't - they might decide to just pass on most of the assortment.

I remember that being a bit of an issue even back in the days of G2. That line was quite popular in Europe, and still some stores eventually stopped carrying the brand. When I asked why they didn't have pony anymore, they said that Hasbro's minimum order requirement was way too much and that they wouldn't budge from it. I can definitely see that being an issue with G5 toys as well.

I'm very interested in learning about these behind-the-scenes bits of info. If anyone here who has worked in a toystore has more of these insights, do share them please 

[tailrustedtealeaf]

Toy-wise, there just straight up aren't new products to order. There's a Rainbow Maned Izzy that I just saw listed on Amazon today, but before that... what, the five-pack with Haven? The dragon set? They just aren't releasing anything.

Even if these sets are more interesting than what was released the year before, as said, there are minimum order quantities and a cost to having these items on the shelf. If Sunny didn't sell well in 2022, they're not going to order her new set in 2023 because a shelf-warmer loses money. That's space that they could fill with something that moves, like Mini Brands or Monster High or something else. Walmart only has four different products near me, maybe five? And they've been pushed to the Preschool section away from the fashion doll section.

...But even if they did sell well, there's nothing to stock. Hasbro has said themselves (I can never find a source but I absolutely remember hearing this, if anyone knows where, I'd love to find that link!) that they're more interested in farming out their IPs rather than producing first-party toys.

Merchandise wise, there really isn't anything. I think I end up seeing more G4 stuff in stores between smatterings of Five Below products and Hot Topic stuff. I've seen coloring books... that's kind of it.

[lovesbabysquirmy]

more problems :how over-saturated the market is with other toylines, and how MLP is now a preschooler toy.  If it was marketed on the same level as Monster High and Rainbow High and LOL Surprise... they might have a chance.

[Minty_Magic]

I have to agree it seems like a lack of interest from consumers is probably driving retailers to be hesitant on ordering G5 products. To be honest even distribution here in the US has been pretty abysmal. There have been a few recent sets I would have liked to buy, but I’ve just never seen them! The ponies that do make it to stores don’t sell and will sit on the shelf for a really long time as others have said.

I really liked G5 as well and I’m sad they didn’t get more of a chance! I think if I had to pinpoint the biggest flaw with the line it was that there was not enough of a break between it and G4, and also the fact they tried to still hang onto G4 with lore and such. It never made it feel like a fresh new start for MLP and it by not fully committing to it being a new gen, it isolated pony fans who were ready for something new and G4 fans who weren’t ready for G4 to end. This weird halfway thing just wasn’t the right move. I hope that if there ever is a G6, Hasbro gives the line some time to be missed before trying to reboot anything.

[Carrehz]

It never made it feel like a fresh new start for MLP and it by not fully committing to it being a new gen, it isolated pony fans who were ready for something new and G4 fans who weren’t ready for G4 to end. This weird halfway thing just wasn’t the right move.

Agreed!! I could see something like G5's story (from what I know of it - the G4 lore and all) working a few gens down the line, but it's just too soon after G4 to do something like that. If you have the old characters existing in the new show, you run the risk of the old fans going "Why can't it focus on them either?". Unless it's a direct sequel (I mean a SEQUEL sequel, not a "shared universe" thing - like if G5 was about idk the main 6's kids, that'd be a sequel), you need to establish the new series as its own thing before thinking about revisiting the old characters. Let it stand by itself. Otherwise you'll have new fans confused by the callbacks and old fans just comparing it to the previous show (which, they're gonna do anyway of course, but it's worse if there's an actual link rather than it just being Its Own Thing).

[Artemesia's Garden]

more problems :how over-saturated the market is with other toylines, and how MLP is now a preschooler toy.  If it was marketed on the same level as Monster High and Rainbow High and LOL Surprise... they might have a chance.

Kids under 3 years old just want to chew everything, so what are you left with? Expensive chew toys! or not brushables anyway. Which is a shame i think.

Here's a slightly off-topic thought which is that maybe it's really hard to present toy lines any more because due to social media, fashion is dead. Maybe because culture is so fragmented now? Or maybe fashion just moves so fast that production of physical media like toys or clothes can't reflect it anymore. That said, most people my age don't understand fashion anyway!

[lovesbabysquirmy]

more problems :how over-saturated the market is with other toylines, and how MLP is now a preschooler toy.  If it was marketed on the same level as Monster High and Rainbow High and LOL Surprise... they might have a chance.

Kids under 3 years old just want to chew everything, so what are you left with? Expensive chew toys! or not brushables anyway. Which is a shame i think.

Here's a slightly off-topic thought which is that maybe it's really hard to present toy lines any more because due to social media, fashion is dead. Maybe because culture is so fragmented now? Or maybe fashion just moves so fast that production of physical media like toys or clothes can't reflect it anymore. That said, most people my age don't understand fashion anyway!

Yes I really believe that a lot of it is tied to technology...  right now there are a lot of laws designed to "protect" kids from marketing and ads, but how do you promote and encourage a product if you are not able to take advantage of the media format that nearly everyone has access to?  Not to mention, when the product is no longer popular, the website and related things are expensive to keep online! 

[Taffeta]

It never made it feel like a fresh new start for MLP and it by not fully committing to it being a new gen, it isolated pony fans who were ready for something new and G4 fans who weren’t ready for G4 to end. This weird halfway thing just wasn’t the right move.

Agreed!! I could see something like G5's story (from what I know of it - the G4 lore and all) working a few gens down the line, but it's just too soon after G4 to do something like that. If you have the old characters existing in the new show, you run the risk of the old fans going "Why can't it focus on them either?". Unless it's a direct sequel (I mean a SEQUEL sequel, not a "shared universe" thing - like if G5 was about idk the main 6's kids, that'd be a sequel), you need to establish the new series as its own thing before thinking about revisiting the old characters. Let it stand by itself. Otherwise you'll have new fans confused by the callbacks and old fans just comparing it to the previous show (which, they're gonna do anyway of course, but it's worse if there's an actual link rather than it just being Its Own Thing).

I agree, Minty-Magic's comment sums it up really well. It's stuck in that limbo that pleases nobody. Small details like visual appeal (kid says Mum I want that! based on what it looks like on the shelf) are not being taken onboard (eg Sunny is overwhelmed by the PINK of her packaging. If she was in pale blue packaging, she might catch more attention from kids).

I don't think MLP is any more preschool now in G5 than it was in G3. They did shift the target age down for G3 - it didn't stop there being wide variety, a new line and some cute animation that stood up on their own merit. I wasn't a G3 kid, but the fact we have so many G3 collectors proves that although they did age the target of the line down, in reality it still captured a wide range of kids.

I DO wonder also how imagination plays into this. If you have a series, you have a collective canon. Having seen bronies rant at one another about actual canon this or proper canon hairstyles, I realise how restrictive having a fixed canon can be. By which I mean an established character base and storyline. G1, G2, G3 did not really have this. G4 did but made it work. But G5 is trying to reiterate what G4 did, only less well, with fewer new ideas. So you have a dull, rigid canon and nothing else.

I will always think that having a fluid canon helped G1 and G3 in particular because kids just made up their own stuff. And having potentially thousands, maybe millions of unique canons dreamed up in kids' heads is better for a toyline's success than them waiting to be told who their toy is, or needing to watch something to find that out.

This is a generalisation, of course. I know kids still play creatively with toys and including MLP. But while I know Hasbro don't seem so keen on focusing on MLP as a TOY THING anymore...it's probably the bigger reason why it isn't working.

[Carrehz]

(eg Sunny is overwhelmed by the PINK of her packaging. If she was in pale blue packaging, she might catch more attention from kids).

Y'know, I hadn't thought about this before, but you're right... I was in Smyths Toys today and they had *one* MLP toy, a big Sunny (I think she talked or something), and she really did blend in with the other toys surrounding her (mostly Trolls). I wonder what G5 would look like with a different colour for the packaging...

[MJNSEIFER]

Maybe a rainbow colored box? I mean, it fits My Little Pony, and would probably stand out as it's multiple colors, as well as looking beautiful. Or would that still blend in with other toys?

[Crystal-Sushi]

MLP's core product (the actual basic ponies, I loathe the term 'brushables' when that is the MAIN product, those ARE the titular ponies) has been in steady decline since G3.5, becoming smaller and cheaper with less hair and much less character variety.
I don't understand why Hasbro doesn't seem to get the 'collect them all' mentality which I feel helped drive sales in previous gens - like if kids nowadays don't like one of the main 5-7 characters they're pretty much out of luck whilst there was bound to be at least one they could latch onto in the past given the sheer number of characters and designs.
If they wanted the large ensemble cast to work within an animated show/multimedia, have it so that the 'main' characters are constantly traveling or something, always meeting new friends and going to new places! I have conceptualized something like this myself for how I'd do a new gen - variety is key!

[Taffeta]

Maybe a rainbow colored box? I mean, it fits My Little Pony, and would probably stand out as it's multiple colors, as well as looking beautiful. Or would that still blend in with other toys?

I was thinking more that the box colours Hasbro are using overwhelm or are too heavy to go along with Sunny's own colour scheme. Though the blending in is an issue as well. I'm pulling up G1 just as an example here but a lot of early pony packaging is blue sky/clouds/sometimes grass at the bottom. That's more lowkey, allows the pony's own colours to stand out. I'm imagining if Masquerade was sold on a card the same colouring as Sunny's packaging. I don't think she would stand out as much to a kid because she'd be competing for attention with the box.

I don't like the last line of packaging in G1 with its garish pink. I feel it swallows up ponies, especially those who have a more neon pink or dark pink colouring (Melody, Baby Billie, etc). Sunny is orange, true, but her hair is dark pink...so is the box. I think this doesn't help in catching a kid's eye.

I also think orange/pink was a bad choice for the MC's colour scheme. Orange blue, orange green, even orange-red would've worked better. But orange pink...doesn't really stand out.

[Carrehz]

I don't care for the later G1 packaging either. The art's not as cute... but also those colours x_x

Honestly I've never quite understood why Hasbro love the orange/pink (and orange/purple) combo as much as they do. It's alright once in a while, but they use it soooo much....