Hasbro lost the G1 ponies?

[StarberryTart]

Is this true? How extensive is this?

Because they were able to make that collection of retro anniversary ponies in 2007 (?) and they can still make Minty, so they haven't lost ALL of them, have they? Would the retro ponies show that they still own some of the rights to some of the ponies?

[RedKitsune]

I don't know everything about it, but I think they lost a lot of the molds for the G1 ponies. And even if they did have them, I don't think the company has much interest in re-releasing them again : /

[Elisto]

If you mean the Trademarks, then as far as I know, what they lost is the trademark of the name associated with a specific character. As I understand it, this doesn't mean they CAN'T use them at all, but they'd have to spend time and money trademarking them again or just using the names without trademarking them, which I would assume they'd rather not do (since that would mean others can use it?). Or make sure others haven't already trademarked those names.

As for the molds, I'm sure they don't have those anymore. The retro ponies were remade molds.

[StarberryTart]

Yeah I was talking about the trademarks. Sorry that I didn't make that a bit clearer.

I was interested in it because some of the retro ponies are my favorites from G1. If they made the retro ones, wouldn't they still own the trademark? I'm interested in the possibility of these G1 ponies being able to made into G4 or future generations. If they've lost the trademark, then it's unlikely.

[LadyMoondancer]

My understanding is it's mostly a name issue.  It's not that big of a deal.  Hasbro has made Transformers called "Autobot Bumblebee" or "Autobot Ratchet" to get around TF issues, they've used "Spike the Dragon" (instead of just "Spike") and "Rarity the Unicorn" (instead of just "Rarity") in the current line.

This leaves me to believe they could release "Firefly the Pegasus" and so on.

[Firehooves]

Ok, this is my understanding on the whole thing, though I admit I may be wrong on this...

Hasbro lost a lot of the trademark names for the toys because they didn't keep the trdemarks up after the 1980's. However, they did re-aquire the rights to the characters with the purchase of the sunbow animated library a few years back, meaning G1 characters can be used, or g1 could technically be remade. A way around the toy name trademark issue would be what they did with the transformers line- such as calling Jazz 'autobot Jazz' and Ratchet 'autobot Ratchet' to get around trademark issues. Hence we might get 'pony Firefly' or 'Pony Surprise'

(edit: Aaaand Moondancer beat me to it!  )

[HavACrumpet452]

As far as I know, all of this is rumor and none of it is true.

[shimmer73083]

Thanks for asking this because I'm confused on the whole issue and haven't really been able to find any information.

[Firehooves]

Well, the Sunbow aquistion by hasbro part is totally true, they bought back all the right to thier 80's toons based on thier toys. The name loss hoever, might be rumor.

[DreamLight]

We have seen Firefly in the comic and Moondancer was talked about in the first episode

[lovesbabysquirmy]

Hasbro likes to give us conflicting information because none of us are lawyers. 

Here's the down-low:  The molds for all but the re-releases have been destroyed for decades.  Hasbro already admitted they had to sacrifice ponies to make the molds again, at great expense, since they had to make hundreds for the factories.  Plus all the artwork would have to be re-printed again on the boxes/cards= more costs...

Although they COULD invest millions of dollars into a "revival" and push themselves back into having the trademark for certain G1 characters... they likely never will, because it was such a traumatic failure the last time they tried. 

[brighteyes]

Although they COULD invest millions of dollars into a "revival" and push themselves back into having the trademark for certain G1 characters... they likely never will, because it was such a traumatic failure the last time they tried. 

Oh wow, the re-release of the collectors ponies etc... was a failure?  I didn't know.  That really stinks    I bought a few sets when they came out but I guess I never noticed if they stayed on the shelves a long time.

[partypony566]

Although they COULD invest millions of dollars into a "revival" and push themselves back into having the trademark for certain G1 characters... they likely never will, because it was such a traumatic failure the last time they tried. 

Oh wow, the re-release of the collectors ponies etc... was a failure?  I didn't know.  That really stinks    I bought a few sets when they came out but I guess I never noticed if they stayed on the shelves a long time.

I guess we will never see anymore retro releases then

[hathorcat]

As everyone has said this story of "loosing the rights to their own ponies" is a fiction which was either offered by Hasbro and/or Faust at the start of FiM in order to quieten fans and questions over why we have Rainbow Dash and not Firefly or Pinkie Pie and not Surprise. They way it was stated was as though it was the reason they didnt use Posey and Surprise - instead a more honest answer would be that they had invested time and energy into market research and into the most recent G3 line and therefore Pinkie and Dash were going to be renamed. After all they had to trademark "Twilight Sparkle" why couldnt they just have trademarked "Surprise Dash" and have her white with yellow hair?

As others have said they dont hold the trademark any more - because they havent used them therefore the rights are lost after a period of inactivity. There is absolutely nothing stopping Hasbro calling a pony Firefly and releasing a pink pegasus with blue hair. However, they probably would not be able to trademark just Firefly.

[lovesbabysquirmy]

Although they COULD invest millions of dollars into a "revival" and push themselves back into having the trademark for certain G1 characters... they likely never will, because it was such a traumatic failure the last time they tried. 

Oh wow, the re-release of the collectors ponies etc... was a failure?  I didn't know.  That really stinks    I bought a few sets when they came out but I guess I never noticed if they stayed on the shelves a long time.

Yep, they were poorly received by a lot of fans in the pony community at that time.  I remember the G3 days on the Arena were full of just as many complaints as G4s are now.   Just not ALL about QC. 

I must sadly admit that I myself have a part in this failure because I saw them multiple times, complained about I didn't like the brighter and more reflective plastics used instead of the muted pastels in the originals, then didn't buy them.  If I had realized that my actions would become a nail in the coffin for Hasbro's plans to cater to collectors, I WOULD HAVE BOUGHT THEM.  *cry cry cry*

Ah well... hindsight and almost 5 years life experience later...