Hasbro, what were you thinking?!

[Jorgito93]

Personnaly, i still don't understand why Majesty isn't in the G1 cartoon.It's like if FiM had no celestia.
Also, some sets in the last years from g1 are really strange.I still don't understand the colorswirl ponies.

I don't have the link to the original thread on me at the moment, but a while ago Wildshadow posted some photos of her copy of the MLP series bible, and IIRC Majesty was actually listed in the character list.

I'm 99% sure she didn't show up in the end because, well, she was a playset pony and the show was made to sell toys. I'd imagine they were more focused on selling Paradise Estate than Dream Castle at the time the series was made (especially since DC had been written out in the movie and all. Come to think of it, was the Dream Castle even still in production when the series was being produced?). Same reason why everyone from the first special (except Spike, Megan and the Moochick) never showed up again.

Of course, I could be wrong.. but that's my theory, anyway. :B

I can understand for after the movie when paradise estate became the main playset, but in the two specials? When dream castle was important?

[Sunset]

I totally agree with the lack of unicorns and Pegasus in G3.  So much so that I actually like that many of the G3 to G4 designs where updated to include both species.

Im also confused about the lack of boy brushables in G4.  If ever there was a gen where boys might do well, it's this one.

[princessluna11706]

Even G1 had a lack of pegasi and unicorns towards the end, there were often 4 earth for one peg and unicorn in each 6 pony set/ 1 unicorn 1 peg and two earth for a 4 pony set, some sets were only earth, and other sets didn't include pegs (dnp, rock and beats, etc)..

That bugged me as a kid.

[SummerSkye]

All these neat characters in g4 that are never used. I didn't really watch the show but I played the phone game and there were tons of ponies I'd love as brushables. Instead we get 100 versions of just a few, ugh.  And the just sit on the shelf soooo.... yeah .

[Strawberry Swirl]

"Here's a doll franchise that has one unique thing about it: they're all horses, not people!
So let's make the horses people AND REMOVE ANY UNIQUENESS!"

"You know what kids these days want? 400 different versions of the same six characters. What is variety?"

"This pony has a huge dirt spot on its body? Yeah, it'll be fine to sell."

 

[BlushingBlue]

"Here's a doll franchise that has one unique thing about it: they're all horses, not people!
So let's make the horses people AND REMOVE ANY UNIQUENESS!"

Haha that reminds me of the infamous "Ponies are LITTLE GIRLS. Ponies are NOT HORSES." commandment during the Core 7 years of G3. So many bad choices.

[Sparkle Pony]

Stock art with the wings on backwards:

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This isn't the only time they've done this either.  I would think the direction the wings should face would be obvious!

[Motion-Paradox]

For me it's the eye decals, I could understand having the cutie mark on only one side since it would add up to saving a huge amount over every pony toy made, but there are a lot with eye decals that didn't match their appearance. Granted they did fix this with most of them but Applejack's just had the colour changed and they never fixed the shape, I don't think Twilight's was either but at least hers was really close.

Getting Sunset Shimmer's plastic wrong, it's weird that she has one of the most accurate Pony toys, yet they keep making her Human doll red

Thick outlines on the flower line; I could understand why they put those thick outlines on Costco Minty, there was the employees only release that was highly sought after and they wanted to avoid people buying Costco Minty, rehairing her and selling her as the original and having a thick outline that would be difficult to remove without damaging the cutie mark was a good way to prevent this. But for the flower line there was no need to do this and it was a bit overpowering in the smaller areas, not to mention it made the decals bigger and more expensive. A similar thing goes for having extra marks touch the eyes, it's a huge pain to get rid of

Not having standard releases (in North America) of some ponies without the beddy bye eyes, or at the very least making sure they had the same face sculpt either way; yes they fall asleep but do they have to look like they're doing so because they haven't slept in days?

Having characters shown in pony wear they can't wear (Heart throb being given a dress that can't fit on a Pegasus, Baby Lickety Split wearing an outfit that only fits on adult ponies)

1. Continual snubbing of older pony fans, even though they spoil Transformers fans of every generation rotten

2. The G3.5/G4 designs

3. Focusing on the main set of characters

4.shrinking ponies

I'm going to try addressing these (and I numbered them) as well as the point about stallions

Spoiler

1-I don't really know that much about the Transformers series and fans but one possibility is that there isn't as big a difference in the fanbase as there is with Ponies; the G4 fanbase is very different from the long time fans and the sensibilities are very different as well (for example long time fans prefer brushable hair because they grew up with it and see styling it as fun, while newer fans mostly prefer molded hair that's accurate to the show and restyling it is seen as a chore) Plus each generation has been really different for Ponies (again, I don't know about Transformers, but I think they kept most of the cast between generations)

There were quite a few things for older fans during G3, but G4 fans are the focus during G4 because there's so many and Hasbro is seizing the opportunity that presents.

2-I've seen somebody mention a double standard that G4 is popular and G3.5 wasn't even though the alteration to the Pony shape sounds similar on paper (larger eyes, smaller muzzle, smaller bodies, unique hairstyles. etc) and I think it's a matter of execution; G4 did it in a way that more people were drawn to (plus the muzzles are smoother and the legs are a more uniform shape which works better for their proportions).

I'm not sure why this was done, but some of the other animal series that have been released had the proportions altered to make them more chibi and touch more of the typical cute points, I believe littlest pet shop had already done this successfully at the time so perhaps they decided to try with Ponies too. It also makes them stand out more, having animal toys that look like the animal is fine, those are enjoyable; but having one that's altered to be a more cutesy version or have a range of motion that the original animal doesn't can be fun too.

3-I wouldn't say this one is poor judgement as much as a matter of preference. They decided to do something different and follow a smaller cast of characters that are given more development (Yes the G1 characters still had development, but they had to spread it among a larger number of characters). And it does work, not just looking at the success of the current show, but also because of the success of lines like Ever After High; having toys that are a blank slate for a child to project on work well but so do toys that a child likes because of the character they represent.

The big issue seems to be less that the main characters are disliked and more the fact that there are so many releases, but in a way it works for both children and collectors: they need to have the main characters available for children because, well, it would be really upsetting to finally be able to get toys of your favourite character only to find out they aren't making her anymore. And for collectors having fewer new characters because they rerelease the main ones makes it easier to collect them all. Having said that it would be nice if they made more waves so they could have slipped in things like the "Our Town" Ponies.

I think it's partially a matter of what your used to as well; if Hasbro had done the reverse and started with a small core cast and then gone to what they did with G1, you may very well be bothered by the shift to having a huge cast of characters and the overwhelming number of new releases. Actually I think this may also be the reason why the toyline seems worse; in the past the company made playset A or this group of characters and they were supposed to be included in the show, so the animators were basing their designs off of the merchandise. However now the show doesn't have to match the toy exactly and the product looks worse for not matching.

4-This one is partially due to inflation, toy prices aren't very flexible and the cost of a standard Pony is nearly the same as it was during G1, thus they have to make the ponies and playsets smaller with the ones that are closer in size to the old one being usual and more pricey


Lack of Stallions:
Simply put, they would need more molds and molds are expensive, especially when they can only be used on a few characters. With the mares it's easier to keep up with characters, most mares have the same basic model so if there's a new mare it's easy to make a toy of her, you just need to order the right colour of plastic (yes there's the Mrs. Cake toy, but she was actually made with the same mold as all the others, they just shaped the sticker to make her cheeks look bigger). There are fewer stallions in the foreground and most of them have unique design or combination of features.

Let's look at Shining Armour: using his molds you could make Fancypants (actually, I'm a bit surprised they didn't, usually when a company makes a new mold they try to use it with several characters in short succession to offset the costs of making it), Prince Blueblood (who nobody really likes) and maybe some generic guards. You could probably get away with using his body mold for Big Macintosh too, but both would result in not really being able to use those molds for many other characters (well, perhaps Shining's could be used for Sunburst & Party Favour, but they didn't exist when the mold was made)

There aren't many male Pegasi characters, who would need their own torso mold, and at least one of the more noteworthy ones would need a unique mold (Zephyr Breeze). Earth Ponies would be a little bit easier since the head molds could be reused for Pegasi and the body molds could be reused for Unicorns and if they started making more of them this would probably be where they'd start, but there are still a very small number of characters and two really popular ones would need their own mold (Mr Cake & Cheese Sandwich, they could share molds, but any other characters you could make with them would still need a unique piece)

In short you would need to make a lot of different molds that could only be applied to a small number of characters

Having said that they do still get some merchandise, just not brushables; there are the blind bag figures which offer more freedom because they're smaller and more of an impulse buy. There's also the funko ones and I think that the logic behind that is it works better, that the male fans would most want male ponies and most male fans prefer figures with molded hair. That doesn't mean there aren't male fans who want brushables or female fans that want to buy toys of stallions, but this was probably estimated to work the best

[LadyMoondancer]

"Here's a doll franchise that has one unique thing about it: they're all horses, not people!
So let's make the horses people AND REMOVE ANY UNIQUENESS!"

Haha that reminds me of the infamous "Ponies are LITTLE GIRLS. Ponies are NOT HORSES." commandment during the Core 7 years of G3. So many bad choices.

Ha ha, that one made me die a little inside!

Great point about the Glittery Sweetheart Sister names!

About Majesty, I suspect they didn't put her in because they wanted Megan to be the one in charge.  Makes me like Megan even less.

[Regina_Mortis]

All these neat characters in g4 that are never used. I didn't really watch the show but I played the phone game and there were tons of ponies I'd love as brushables. Instead we get 100 versions of just a few, ugh.  And the just sit on the shelf soooo.... yeah .

Oh man, definitely agree here! There are so many unique and interesting characters in G4 that I would LOVE to see. I hate googling a pony and not finding a toy for it

[Lore-Lei]

Equestria Girls. The whole thing, top to bottom.

[Leave a Whisper]

Equestria Girls. As a kid and an adult I didn't like dolls, why you put creepy anthropomorphic dolls in my little pony Hasbro? It's like a cliche fanfic brought to life
(Yes I know it's to complete with MH and EA dolls)

[josiekat]

 I don't understand the lack of these! visitors can't see pics , please register or login


Also, the lack of G2's in general,  G4 boys, more G4 originals, and G4 brushables (I'm not a fan of blind bags)

[Lilja]

I don't have the link to the original thread on me at the moment, but a while ago Wildshadow posted some photos of her copy of the MLP series bible, and IIRC Majesty was actually listed in the character list.

I'm 99% sure she didn't show up in the end because, well, she was a playset pony and the show was made to sell toys. I'd imagine they were more focused on selling Paradise Estate than Dream Castle at the time the series was made (especially since DC had been written out in the movie and all. Come to think of it, was the Dream Castle even still in production when the series was being produced?). Same reason why everyone from the first special (except Spike, Megan and the Moochick) never showed up again.

Of course, I could be wrong.. but that's my theory, anyway. :B

I'm fairly certain this was the case. In the first two specials there was a limited number of ponies they could feature. Since they already advertised the playsets, they didn't see a need to advertise the ponies that came with them (none of the playset ponies were featured in the specials, even thought most playsets were). With the TV series, they had more episodes and could advertise more characters. If the Dream Castle was still being produced by the time it was airing, I'm sure Majesty would have been featured (The buggy and nursery were reissued, so both Tiddley-Winks and Cuddles got appearances), but it was not. Maybe there were plans to reissue the castle, which is why Majesty is included in the series bible, but was cut when the plans changed. I believe the G1 cartoons prioritized toy advertising before everything else, the actual stories were secondary.

I agree with what many have said about the omission of unicorns and pegasi in the toyline being strange. I really loved them as a kid, and I'm sure most others did too. They were already being phased out at the end of G1 (probably because the line was moving away from the fantasy elements during the "Tales" era). As for why they were so few/left out in G2/G3, I don't know. Maybe they wanted to make the unicorns/pegasi they did produce seem more special. At least they made a big comeback in G4.

There's been a lot of weird gimmicks over the years, but most of them I can somewhat understand the rationale behind (even the Sweet Kisses). However, I can't wrap my head around how the gimmick for the Sippin' Soda Ponies was conceived and put into production. I guess they didn't have many ideas left at the end of the line. 

[Wardah]

Equestria Girls. As a kid and an adult I didn't like dolls, why you put creepy anthropomorphic dolls in my little pony Hasbro? It's like a cliche fanfic brought to life
(Yes I know it's to complete with MH and EA dolls)

Honestly they botched it up by rushing them to the shelves. The later dolls were much better quality but I think a lot of negative opinions about the brand were already formed by then.

Then again I was never a doll hater.