I Bring You More G5 News

[LadyMoondancer]

Hasbro gave Kenner the Transformers line to revamp and I think they gave Kenner the MLP line at the same time.  A long time ago I stumbled across the blog of a former Kenner employee who talked about how they weren't thrilled about being absorbed into Hasbro and saw MLP / Transformers as a way to strut their stuff and kind of assert their independence. Which is why both reboots were radically different from the original toylines.

G2 MLP sold poorly, Beast Wars did great, so I guess they broke even.  (Beast Wars did have a state-of-the-art cartoon to help it along, maybe G2 MLP would have succeeded if it had had a cartoon.)

I do feel like all the G2 MLP stuff is misfiled at Hasbro and that's why they never remember it.  They probably have a big file labeled MLP and the G2 stuff is in a file called "Kenner."

[Carrehz]

Oh wow that's definitely Sundance/sparkle! The long legs are very G2-esque :O

I'd love to know more about G2's production, how much involvement Hasbro had in it, etc.

I do feel like all the G2 MLP stuff is misfiled at Hasbro and that's why they never remember it.  They probably have a big file labeled MLP and the G2 stuff is in a file called "Kenner."

I suspect something like this happened, too. I don't think it's really an intentional snub since they're clearly AWARE there was a second generation... I'm just not entirely sure they know what it was.

[Shaiyeh]

Aw, I love seeing some g2 references! Sun sparkle is adorable!

[Dragonflitter]

I only watched the Flight School episode and I thought it was fine, but I'm not really planning on watching more. The animation just kills me. Even if it was right up my alley, with the most epic storyline of fully fleshed out lore and plotlines with actual consequences... I just can't watch those little matchstick-leg ponies running and flying around with their little bean mouths popping on and off. None of their movements look natural or even possible. Which is fine, it fits the style of the show they're going for. Just not for me.

I do like that they gave every character a unique body shape, that's pretty cool. And I like that we're seeing more original characters that might become toys in the future. (I would totally buy a toy of the G1 Seashell look-alike!) Putting the cutie marks on only one side in the animation is really annoying, though.

Promo clip for MLP 2022 Youtube and Netflix series:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxHmGwM30Cg

Notice at 4:46 the cast lineup. "Misty" instead of "Zip Storm"..?

Seeing them animated makes it look better than in the earlier stills IMO.

This video was such a trip to watch! I'm with LadyMoondancer, hearing the 40 years felt like I was slapped upside the head.

That whole presentation gave me so many cringe feelings. I mean, I completely understand Hasbro is a major company and at the top of the toy industry. I know their goal is only to make money, but, man... that whole video just felt so sanitized and corporate. There was nothing "real" about what that woman was saying. It felt like I was watching an AI robot programmed to spout catchphrases. She couldn't say a single noun with a buzzword adjective in front of it.

I physically shuddered when she said that "TYT is specifically designed to take advantage of the YouTube algorithm." I mean it makes sense, since these are commercials and you want your commercial in front of as many people as possible. But it's just wild that this is a deciding factor in how you design a show these days. Can you imagine how much of our lives are being influenced by requirements such as these?

Don't get me wrong, I'm fully aware that ALL merchandising is like that, not just MLP. I just don't watch a lot of these types of presentations, so it isn't something I've been exposed to a lot. It really is mind-blowing to look into the world of sales and marketing and see how they actually talk to each other.

[lowpolyzoe]

I find it a smidge interesting how you can see different forms of media distribution changing between each generation of MLP. I've only been alive since just before G3 (and late G2) but G3 had direct to VHS/DVD short specials, G4 had a TV show released on DVDs and eventually moving to streaming services, G5's first content is a streaming service exclusive film and a YouTube webshow designed to tickle the algorithm. Everyone has to do the algorithm dance doing YouTube, for better or worse.

[LadyMoondancer]

In the preview for the next episode:

visitors can't see pics , please register or login

[tailrustedtealeaf]

A clip of the special coming out next month is out: Link

[LadyMoondancer]

Wow, honestly . . . that looks pretty good!  I was bracing myself for gummi looking hair (like the 3D He-Man show, if anyone is familiar with that--no shade, I genuinely like the show, but the hair does look like claymation) but it actually looks pretty close to the movie??  And so do the character models.

I know the studio doing the Netflix show (Atomic Cartoons) is different from the one that did the movie (Boulder), but Boulder is a subsidiary of Hasbro, so I guess Hasbro made sure they had the right to use the 3D models elsewhere.

[Leave a Whisper]

Not bad. Wonder who the green and pink haired pony is?

[tailrustedtealeaf]

Not bad. Wonder who the green and pink haired pony is?

We think that's actually Posey, since she has the same ponytail as her TYT counterpart.

[BlackCurtains]

They're making a Marmaduke movie?!

*cough* I mean, the ponies look really good there!

[Leave a Whisper]

They're making a Marmaduke movie?!

*cough* I mean, the ponies look really good there!

I could have swore they already made a Marmaduke movie a while back?

[starscout]

The flying animations are kinda stiff (and I'm sad about Izzy's haircut, but I do understand why that was a necessary loss), but besides that, it looks nice. Can't wait to see the show.

[Mermaid]

Is that Andrea libman  voicing Izzy in the hasbro promo video?

[Leave a Whisper]

So I hear Hasbro is raising their prices yet again. Not G5 news specifically, as I heard it on the tfw2005 board. But it stands to reason that if it's going to affect transformers, it will likely affect all their other toylines.