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Actually that reminds me of something else that's always puzzled me, why didn't FiM use more of the toy designs in the show? Like didn't Plumsweet ever show up, for example. (as far as I know?? I just did a quick search and it doesn't look like she did, but I'm not an expert LOL) I feel like in the early days of G4 there wasn't much communication/synchronization between the cartoon and toy people (thus explaining odd stuff like the first Trixie toy being called "Lulamoon") so I understand the initial mismatches, but later on... the toyline started borrowing more from the cartoon but not the other way around (as far as I could tell). Just weird to me since it's like.. surely it'd be easier for them to use existing designs rather than keep making up new ponies? haha
The Funko vinyl ponies (not the POPs) were REALLY popular amongst bronies in their day (because they were ~*show accurate*~ even though they're all in the same boring old pose), that's probably why they made so many of them. No idea why they skipped over so many characters for the POP line, but I've noticed that with other series too :/the hate over EQG amused me since it's not like human/anthro/high school AUs are exactly new or uncommon in fandoms? Why is it different when Hasbro does it themselves? XP
She's come and gone from a few projects and she seems to come across as very difficult and unyielding to work with, it's either her core principles or nothing, with any flexibility very quickly exhausted.
THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS!!!!!All that potential for extra brushable figures & we got, next to NONE!!! Where's our Babs Seed, for one glaring example???
I'm guessing the Glowing Magic thing was a side-effect of animation lead time? MLW says that ep aired in August 1992 and the Glows were 1991... so I could see that just being a case of bad timing.
Heh, I always figured Cadance was made so they could have a pink princess and change Celestia back to white for the toyline.y'know honestly I don't think Hasbro would give a fig about Babs' hair length (they didn't usually bother giving the brushables ~*show accurate*~ hair... Well aside from Zecora and Maud, I suppose), but you could be right that her body colour might've been an issue :O But idk, they made Silver Spoon and she's grey, Babs is way more colourful. I still think she should've been in that set too
EDIT2: Wasn't Bab's talent revealed to be hairdressing later down the line? Make her with super long hair and have her cut her own hair!
The core 7 wasn't Hasbro's first rodeo at trying to bring out a core group, incidentally. They'd been playing around with the idea since MLP Tales/the 7 Characters, though fortunately we didn't get to see much of that. With G2 there were a lot of rereleases of the same basic character, only I think some of them fly under the radar because of the European only release and the fact that meant some of them changed names between releases. And of course G2 did have a balance of original characters as well.The core 7 is probably the prototype for the mane 6 and now the whatever the main characters are, though. I feel like it was absolutely a plan for most profit with least effort. But the success of G4 (driven mainly by the cartoon) maybe suggests what kids wanted at that point was different (or was thought to be, even if it wasn't).
The sad thing about particularly the way G4 was marketed after the first couple of years is how quickly those same toys showed up at second hand sales and so on. I'm not even talking about online or on ebay, but basic things like car boot sales, charity shops, thrift stores etc. By contrast, in the mid 1990s when we first started carbooting for G1, you would still find ponies from the early eighties. You'd find ponies from the same household from several years. You'd have kids who were selling ponies that they had originally got from a cousin/sibling but had now grown out of. Ponies that had stayed in people's houses and been played with multiple times by multiple kids for several years before hitting the second hand market....Whereas when I was in London and going to the carboot sale regularly, I would see G4 ponies that were still in store, regularly. And this in spite of the growth of online selling and collecting and so on. These were being sold as kids' toys tossed in a box for 50p or £1, not people trying to profit from collectors. They just didn't have that longevity.
To this day I’m STILL baffled by Hasbro’s decision to move away from collectibility to just a core cast of characters for the toys.
And that's just looking at it from a personal viewpoint. We NEED things to last, be collected & collectable, be able to be passed down to the next generation, to be easily fixable, for the simple reason the longer a toy is being loved, the more we get out of it AND the less likely it ends up being trashed. And the LAST thing the environment needs is stuff being trashed!!!
I don't understand Hasbro’s baffling hatred for anything that resembles a horse. It's my little pony, not my little human, or my little hydrocephalused chihuahua. The G5s are a little better in this regard in comparison to G4 but not by much. Horses are beautiful creatures. Why do they insist on bracycephalic balloon heads? Of course that unfortunate design choice was in the brand dating all the way back to G1 with the fancy mermaid babies and teeny tinies, then it went onto G2 babies and ponyvilles.Also, what possessed them to remove the jaws in pony life?It's irritating that most other companies who make toy horses make them more beautiful every decade, but hasbro makes them more ugly, deformed, and awkward every generation.
I really don't think children today are anymore focused on electronics as kids in the 80s and 90s. I think it's been pretty even the last few decades. I mean, I grew up rich and had any toy I wanted. We also had computers that I played games on and consoles. We also had lots of movies at home. A pool in the backyard. I had a bike and other outdoor toys. I spent time with all of them. I also spent time with my friends playing imaginary games like house and gameshow. I think kids today seem like they are on their phones all the time because we only see them in public places usually. I know the kids in my neighborhood spend time outdoors playing with friends and sometimes it involves toys. When the big Magic Mixies was the huge toy that year, one kid had gotten one for Christmas and played with it outside. I got so tired of hearing that little jingle that played each time she interacted with it. Someone might say that a toy like that doesn't spark creative play or something, but I had Teddy Ruxpin and loved him and got plenty of imagination out of the stories. Same with read along books on tape and Tiger Electronics.Parents play a bigger role. They're responsible for teaching their kids to take care of and appreciate their things. Both my parents grew up poor so with me they really hammered in that if I didn't take care of my things, they'd be taken away or if I broke something it wouldn't be replaced. They also taught me to be grateful for the gifts I got from extended family even if it was something I didn't like (sooooooooo many Barbie dolls). I also think it depends a lot on the kid. I was always content by myself. Heck, give me a tub of Playdoh and leave me to my own and I'd have a great time. Some kids need more stimulation. I believe that not everyone is born with an imagination too, so those kids would probably be on their phones more. Uh, I started with a point. I've lost it now. Basically, I don't think "the kids" have changed too much. Toy manufactures have. Parents have. The world has.
Quote from: LadyMoondancer on October 11, 2023, 10:54:39 AMI think there was an internal document from around that time that said "Ponies are not ponies, they are six year old girls and they ONLY do the things six year old girls do."They told us that on the HQ tour in 2008. We were all like...visitors can't see pics , please register or login
I think there was an internal document from around that time that said "Ponies are not ponies, they are six year old girls and they ONLY do the things six year old girls do."
It also floors me that the flutter ponies got a second set. I love the flutter ponies but they have a close to 100% breakage rate on THEIR SIGNATURE GIMMICK.
The gimmick of the G1 Sunshine ponies is that their one hair stripe color-changes in the sun, but several of them have the pink hair that fades in the sun.Maybe Hasbro was just unaware of this? They probably didn't take their prototypes outside a lot.
why are all the birthflower ponies in the same pose with the same colors??? it drives me crazy!
I mean, we're talking about Hasbroken here; the people who took the canonically white Princess Celestia and turned her first toy pink, because 'little girls like pink ponies.' If we can't even get the main figurehead of the series the right color, in a traditionally-unicorn-coded color no less, how are they going to get Babs to pass corporate focus groups?*
Heh, I always figured Cadance was made so they could have a pink princess and change Celestia back to white for the toyline.
MLP's 40th Anniversary. Basic Fun did a good job as a third party, but Hasbro was just embarrassing. In general, a complete lack of content.
I always found it baffling that G3 took so long to introduce pegasai & unicorns to the line. I was 10 when the generation launched & I remember reading an annual at the time with the line: 'Kimono loves to tell stories of the days when the woods were filled with unicorns.' I couldn't understand why earth ponies were now the only race. I'd grown up playing with G2 toys & watching G1 videos, so the absence of the other two races was really obvious to me.I do quite like the way the pegasai of Butterfly Island were eventually introduced, followed by the unicorns. Although it's a shame there were so few of them in comparison to the others; feels like a big missed opportunity.
Hasbro's questionable name choices are hilarious. My family held quiz nights on Zoom during lockdown, & I drafted a round where they had to guess which pony names were fake & which were genuine. Nobody got any of them right. I had to show them proof that somebody had actually named a children's toy Pillow Talk.