Hi Guys!
Breezing through and saw this topic, couldn't help but answer.
Can I just take a moment to dispell any and all ideas that SA pony's are rare because of some kind of violence/war/other rather radically weird idea?
I live here in South Africa, and trust me, SA ponies aren't rare because they were being piled up in bonfires on the streets in a civil war. We have some problems as a nation, but thats...really not one of them.
I also doubt the more touching theories about them still being recyled in play somewhere because we're all so dirt poor. It is true that in some of the rural areas, that sort of upcycling of toys will happen for those very reasons- but MLP isn't really in that sort of demographic. Kids in that kind of poverty are way more likely to be playing with 'township' specials like unique [and exceptional] wire handcrafted cars. Ironically, these are tourist essentials too
They're stunning works of art, actually.
MLP is kinda in a middle class girls demographic, just like in the rest of the world. I'd speculate they are rare more from snob value, to be honest. SA has a big culture of things from 'overseas' being better then local. If you asked me to put my money on a cause, I'd say they simply got 'choked out' by the imported American MLPs, which were also very widely available and not very different in price- I think my backcards suggest something like a R5 difference, which wouldn't have been immense. I suspect Hasbro/Prima suffered from some of the misapprehensions that other folks in this thread have, and thought they needed to cater to a poorer middle-africa stereotype market then there actually ended up being- for those middle class and upward, SA is an urban metropolis like any other. Even for our poorest of the poor, their lifestyle will be more urban influenced then in other, poorer parts of Africa. They probably decided merely importing from America would be less hassle for them in the end then manufacturing the cheaper ones locally. We don't have that much of a plastics industry- we are mainly into metals, paper, mining and then intangibles like banking, commerce etc.
It was also, I'd imagine, a small market for them. Sadly, where our history does let us down is in Aartheid, and I'd imagine in the early 80's, phenomenan like MLP would have been restricted to a very small and single race demographic. As I mentioned, the very poor would mostly have been into creating toys themselves, rather then buying a cheaper varient, especially in the 80's when there wasn't any homogeniety of culture.
I'm glad to say that's not the case with the modern MLP incarnations, which are enjoyed by little girls of every colour and race!
Guests: 517
Hidden: 0
Users: 1
