Nearly Non Existent Pony Section

[goddessofpeep]

I found it very depressing how quickly Hasbro decided to cater to the bronies after watching this community beg them for literal decades to listen to us. Collectors have gotten meager scraps from Hasbro for years.  To have Hasbro give the bronies whatever they wanted was like Hasbro spitting in our faces.  And they were catering to a community that had a significant problem with some of the worst people imaginable.  Fortunately, the collector community went through its own issues several years ago, and moderation was already in place to mitigate the worst of it here and a few other places.  Still, the bronies certainly befouled the My Little Pony name to the general public.  I still have nothing to do with most facebook groups since they lack a lot of the moderation that keeps things civil here. 

This was a big reason I felt Hasbro should have taken a break after G4.  It would give  the toxic subset of  “fans” a chance to really clear out and give the MLP brand a chance to recover.  You know, give the general public a chance to forget about pony love pillows and plushes with…holes. Maybe get the “alt right” people a chance to find some other more fertile ground to use to spread their hateful messages.   We’ll see how it goes. G5 is already limping.  Maybe Hasbro will take a break at the end of it, and being it back in a few years. 

[cowboyopossum]

Oh lord don't even remind me of... those plushies... 

[Leave a Whisper]

I found it very depressing how quickly Hasbro decided to cater to the bronies after watching this community beg them for literal decades to listen to us. Collectors have gotten meager scraps from Hasbro for years.  To have Hasbro give the bronies whatever they wanted was like Hasbro spitting in our faces.  And they were catering to a community that had a significant problem with some of the worst people imaginable.  Fortunately, the collector community went through its own issues several years ago, and moderation was already in place to mitigate the worst of it here and a few other places.  Still, the bronies certainly befouled the My Little Pony name to the general public.  I still have nothing to do with most facebook groups since they lack a lot of the moderation that keeps things civil here. 

This was a big reason I felt Hasbro should have taken a break after G4.  It would give  the toxic subset of  “fans” a chance to really clear out and give the MLP brand a chance to recover.  You know, give the general public a chance to forget about pony love pillows and plushes with…holes. Maybe get the “alt right” people a chance to find some other more fertile ground to use to spread their hateful messages.   We’ll see how it goes. G5 is already limping.  Maybe Hasbro will take a break at the end of it, and being it back in a few years.

Ugh. What is wrong with them?

[Snapdragon]

I found it very depressing how quickly Hasbro decided to cater to the bronies after watching this community beg them for literal decades to listen to us. Collectors have gotten meager scraps from Hasbro for years.  To have Hasbro give the bronies whatever they wanted was like Hasbro spitting in our faces.  And they were catering to a community that had a significant problem with some of the worst people imaginable.  Fortunately, the collector community went through its own issues several years ago, and moderation was already in place to mitigate the worst of it here and a few other places.  Still, the bronies certainly befouled the My Little Pony name to the general public.  I still have nothing to do with most facebook groups since they lack a lot of the moderation that keeps things civil here. 

This was a big reason I felt Hasbro should have taken a break after G4.  It would give  the toxic subset of  “fans” a chance to really clear out and give the MLP brand a chance to recover.  You know, give the general public a chance to forget about pony love pillows and plushes with…holes. Maybe get the “alt right” people a chance to find some other more fertile ground to use to spread their hateful messages.   We’ll see how it goes. G5 is already limping.  Maybe Hasbro will take a break at the end of it, and being it back in a few years. 

I totally agree with your stance on the FB groups; I treat it a little bit like walking into an alligator swamp, with the amount of poor behavior and scamming that goes on in there! But I also feel like people who want to be mods would get immediately overwhelmed, since you can't really IP ban anyone from the site, much less your group. The scammers can just make ten more accounts and come right back in! It feels like a losing battle, so I lurk for what I can and block like mad!

I agree, and can't help but feel like, knowing what I know about Hasbro after 'The Toys That Made Us', Hasbro corporate would prefer to be an entirely boys-toys type company anyway. So when boys took interest in one of their (icky) girls lines that is still kicking (Jem who?), they jumped on it, without really doing any research. I did enjoy seeing the takedown of one of the more prolifically gross webcomics (which I won't name since the title itself is offensive) thanks to Hasbro, but I still can't believe that Hasbro just started throwing out 'Brony' on any merch they could without doing any due diligence. So it did give me some satisfaction any time it blew up in their face, which it didn't often enough frankly. The blowback seems to land on the fans - anyone who calls themselves a fan, which includes people who's been fans for years and (checks notes) literal children. I dislike the idea of MLP "taking a break", because I'm selfish like that and enjoy shopping for pretty ponies, but it's sad that it's something that collectors are actually asking for, because so many of us feel like it's necessary.

Personally, I do see people complaining about how 'babyish' and 'poorly written' G5 is compared to G4, and part of me feels like, good! Excellent! Give me the annoying baby dragon! Let it get boring, and let the people who enjoy it anyway keep enjoying it, and then maybe we can get back to enjoying the franchise in peace. Maybe that's more selfish than wishing for a break for the line? Ah well, bring on that Sparky Sparkerooni!

[cowboyopossum]

People often forget that My Little Pony is meant for children. It's not some brand that is exclusive to collectors, or even adults at all. First and foremost it is for kids. I find people criticizing the show writing all the time and, while it is not as good as g4's writing, it is a show for little girls. It's not some big intricate plotline like some other shows I see people dissect.

[pvppyp4ws]

i haven't seen many ponies in stores here i went to finland in the summer and i saw a bit more there, there was some g4 stuff and a lot of 40th anniversary ponies which i haven't found here at all

[Taffeta]

Admittedly, I've only watched the intro movie, but I felt that G5 was lacking in the edge that made it appealing for bronies, and that was a relief. I can't hate G5, I just feel like it has no real power or identity because it's so tied onto something that took so much attention.

I know a few people who were big into G4, as G4, and not the nasty type. But what frustrates me about that is that a lot of them knew there was stuff going on that wasn't so great, and kind of just didn't do anything about it. I'm not talking about the scary folk. The best thing you can do with them is keep your distance. But the targeting of older gens and the existing fandom. It frustrates me because we welcomed G4 with open arms and excitement when it first was announced.

Hasbro's Pinkie Pie Chicken Suit fair exclusive and then taking over the Fair and making it Hascon are the two big events I feel went against the collectors in favour of G4. In a way maybe this is reaping what was sown then. Kids will always love something that is dynamic and aimed at them, that they can hook into and become a real fan of. Collectors are more picky, but showing even the modicum of respect to the older communities WHILE promoting collector lines for G4 would have helped settle the issues about who the 'real' pony fans were.

Now most of those fans have gone, the real collectors are still here (yes, including those who came in with G4, I can't believe I need to say that explicitly now but there we are)...but there's a void. Basic Fun have filled it for the G1 collectors, and a little foray into G3. But I feel like if they had recognised those key 'iconic' characters throughout G4, it would be easier for them to do what Mattel are doing with G1 Monster High, and making a lot of money out of collector release dolls aimed at adults.

...I know MH is different in lots of ways, but by severing that relationship with the collectors, then trying to reconnect it by a very haphazard and slapdash "here's a retro M6 set!" gesture...I think they missed an opportunity.

And then they could have given the toyline a hiatus, while marketing at collectors in the interim.

Yes, BF is doing this, but it's BF, not Hasbro, who are driving that. Hasbro made it clear to me when I emailed them about the BF ponies back when it began that it was 'nothing to do with them'.

MLP will always be about kids and ponies, but as goddessofpeep was saying, giving us scraps (despite the fact we've kept being here in years of nothing, and are likely to spend if the product is right) in order to chase after a mad online fad...seems unwise to me.

I went in Smyths the other day. THey only have large Sunny toys, next to a lot of fakies.

The sad thing is, unicorns are still REALLY BIG at the moment. There are a lot of unicorn toys around. And yet it feels like Hasbro's are blending into the background :/

[cowboyopossum]

That is a great point Taffeta! I really feel like once they caught wind of bronies they took it as a huge cash grab and forgot about the target demographic + collectors. It really felt like being spit on when they were slapping the word "Brony" on everything, especially considering things like pony.mov and smile hd being up on youtube for any kid to watch... They didn't really do anything about that stuff while giving c&d's to other animators.

I would love a g4 "retro" line, but they have kinda lost us as collectors. Of course, I collect g5 because I do like the character designs, but they just really need to calm down. I think the main thing about g5 not being popular is the continuation of g4, which made things so complicated with the canon, and that Hasbro only wants to make those 3 inch plastic Sunnies and not different character brushables that made them so much money in the 80's and 2000's.

[goddessofpeep]

I think the “Core 7”/“Mane 6” was the original beginning of the end for MLP, and most of the issues that came after stemmed from that.  MLP was about variety and always something new to buy.  As a kid, I never wanted doubles. I always wanted to see something new. G1, G2, and the prime G3 years were all about new ponies constantly coming out.  Having access to repeated characters does give kids a chance to get their favorites if they missed them originally, but having nothing but the same group of characters over and over makes everything stale. And no parent is going to cough up for a 10th Pinkie Pie at current market prices.  The first few years of G4 was a decent balance of Mane 6 and new ponies, but they managed to screw it up in later years by putting out nothing but the Mane 6. Churning out G5 on the heels of G4 led to the new toys sharing shelf space with the unsold crap that was sitting on shelves for over a year, killing the new stuff before it had a chance to even get rolling.

Hasbro went for cheap and lazy(endless boring iterations of the same characters) and catering to the fad group(all the stuff marketed to bronies).  Mattel knows how to make a great toy for kids, and how to cater to collectors at the same time. I often envy Mattel collectors. They get respect from Mattel. MLP only got noticed once the bronies took over, and even then Hasbro wasn’t great. 

[DreamvalleyMLP]

I have a sneaky suspicion that G5 is on its way out. Make Your Mark is over and done with; and while the Youtube shorts continue they could simply serve as a placeholder like Pony Life did, while they are figuring out what to do with the IP.

[Crystal-Sushi]

I think the “Core 7”/“Mane 6” was the original beginning of the end for MLP, and most of the issues that came after stemmed from that.  MLP was about variety and always something new to buy.  As a kid, I never wanted doubles. I always wanted to see something new. G1, G2, and the prime G3 years were all about new ponies constantly coming out.  Having access to repeated characters does give kids a chance to get their favorites if they missed them originally, but having nothing but the same group of characters over and over makes everything stale. And no parent is going to cough up for a 10th Pinkie Pie at current market prices.  The first few years of G4 was a decent balance of Mane 6 and new ponies, but they managed to screw it up in later years by putting out nothing but the Mane 6. Churning out G5 on the heels of G4 led to the new toys sharing shelf space with the unsold crap that was sitting on shelves for over a year, killing the new stuff before it had a chance to even get rolling.

Hasbro went for cheap and lazy(endless boring iterations of the same characters) and catering to the fad group(all the stuff marketed to bronies).  Mattel knows how to make a great toy for kids, and how to cater to collectors at the same time. I often envy Mattel collectors. They get respect from Mattel. MLP only got noticed once the bronies took over, and even then Hasbro wasn’t great.

EXACTLY! I was exactly the same as a kid, and still am today, and I would imagine I'm not the only one either...! Even if Hasbro was doing current trends like slime/fidgets in the line, as long as they had consistent new characters I'm almost sure they'd sell with both kids and collectors.

I feel like another issue is that G4 wasn't very toyetic - like Lauren's designs are great for animation but don't translate super well into physical toys? Ideally MLP should have a balance, and I think that's something G1/G3 did very well, but G5 seems to be falling into the same pitfall, with a lot of design elements from the animated counterparts being absent on the actual toys and that sort of stuff bothered the heck out of me as a kid haha.

[Taffeta]

I know that I've said this before, but if I had been a target age kid in 2011, I would have gone Monster High and not MLP. I hated dolls as a kid because my memory of wall to wall blond haired blue eyed Barbies with no real personality just horrified me when I was 5. We did not get any variety in those toys for a long time. There was Jem, but I was 5 in 1987, Jem was never massively successful compared to barbie, and I probably was too young for Jem at the time it fizzled out. But I played with my mother's old dolls from the 50s and they had more variety than the barbies on shelf did.

I hated Megan for the same reason. (Being a blond haired blue eyed girl at the time, it's not the specific appearance but the monotony that I hated).

The ponies were all shades and shapes and designs and I loved that. I don't think it would've mattered if they'd been koalas or deer or giraffes. Or maybe it would, I don't know, LOL But I wasn't especially mad on horses before MLP. In fact, the photos we have from when I was 3 or 4 (I had some ponies by then) are mostly me carrying around either Red or Mokey fraggle, so that tells you that it wasn't all about the horses for me. But as MLP got more complex and the comics (Stories!) happened, I got more pulled into it.

I had a couple of Keypers too, as a kid, and I did love them, although fewer stories thus fewer opportunities to connect with them in the same way. But that was another line I liked and would have wanted more.

My sister was big into Carebears. She used to grab them all up at carboot sales and still has a lot up in the attic.

All toys that had variety at their core. I think if I had seen Shera figures I might have gone after them, but I never did.

The idea of a core group isn't wrong, but has to have balance, as others have said. I think if you look at how G2 did it, or the Tales series, or the start of G3, you see repeat characters plus new ones. As mentioned, G4 also did this. I love some of the early G4 ponies.

I just think there was a lack of creativity involved in production at this point. Maybe it was all reliant on the animation, but (controversial opinion), I think that also lacked creativity after a point.

That point about the toys and their designs is also valid. Things do change in production. But you can't animate a fixed hairstyle, which means moulded hair. And that isn't what the core of MLP is. It means making a direct choice about what market you're going after. Hair quality in G4 towards the end is...not great.

[Carrehz]

What ticks me off about the whole "core character" concept isn't the idea itself, it's the fact that Hasbro think having a set of main characters means you can ONLY make toys of THEM and no one else! Look at other toylines that do this, most of them handle it way better. Like, Monster High has always had the core characters like Frankie, Draculaura, Clawdeen, etc but they're not all in EVERY line. There'd usually be a good mix of characters. Or like, Jakks Pacific's Sonic the Hedgehog line, they're doing really well at keeping the major characters on the shelves while also releasing at least one new character in each wave.

And then there's Hasbro who are all "Here's Sunny Starscout with a new hat!". x___x

[lovesbabysquirmy]

Hasbro taking over the Pony Fair was SUCH A MASSIVE AND COLOSSAL MISTAKE!!!

I've said this from the very beginning!  and for what, access to some voice actors and an exclusive pony that we had zero input over???!

*rages , throws fakies* 

[Kitcatepic]

What ticks me off about the whole "core character" concept isn't the idea itself, it's the fact that Hasbro think having a set of main characters means you can ONLY make toys of THEM and no one else! Look at other toylines that do this, most of them handle it way better. Like, Monster High has always had the core characters like Frankie, Draculaura, Clawdeen, etc but they're not all in EVERY line. There'd usually be a good mix of characters. Or like, Jakks Pacific's Sonic the Hedgehog line, they're doing really well at keeping the major characters on the shelves while also releasing at least one new character in each wave.

And then there's Hasbro who are all "Here's Sunny Starscout with a new hat!". x___x

And it's not like hasbro is incapable of doing this in g3 they released tons of characters and there was still room for pinkie minty rarity and the other major characters