Hasbro's Most Baffling MLP Decisions

[Mrs. Prospector]

So I was thinking the other day about the G3 Core 7, and how I just don't understand why Hasbro made the decisions they did with this refresh. I somewhat understand that they wanted to have some characters become the face of the brand for merchandising purposes, but I don't know why they chose the ponies they did.

It could be argued that Hasbro wanted to tie the toyline and movies together more, but they could have used characters that had already been established such as Minty, Wysteria, Starcatcher, or Rarity. They instead decided to choose the oddest group of ponies and try and force kids to love them, while erasing the 300+ other ponies from existence. Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash were obvious shoe-ins, but they decided to change Dash's voice and personality, making her traits less unique and unfamiliar to those who saw her in the earlier movies. The only other character from earlier that went unchanged was Scootaloo, also a strange choice seeing as she never appeared in any cartoons and only had one toy release. Then for some reason, they took Cherry Blossom, but gave her the name of another pre-existing pony, who had a prominent role in previous cartoons, which I don't understand at all. I understand even less the decision to take Toola Roola, a pony whose name is a reference to an Irish song, tying in with her Celtic symbol, and slap the name on a completely different art-themed pony, where the name makes no sense. There was no reason they couldn't have made Toola 2 a completely original character. Starsong and Sweetie Belle are brand new to the Core 7 refresh, so I don't have much to say, except that they didn't even let Starsong be completely unique-her Cutie Mark is the same as Silver Glow!

Not to mention, it's just a weird selection of characters from a group standpoint. 3/7 ponies are pink, and all of them have pink somewhere on them. I get that pink sells, but it makes the limited number of characters look even more limited. They needed a green pony in there (hint hint).

Honestly, I don't even know why the Core 7 refresh was made in the first place. I don't think Hasbro understood why kids were so drawn to MLP, especially at a time when it wasn't as character and media driven as G4/5. Apparently around this time MLP sales were getting low, because kids became more interested in LPS instead. As an LPS kid around this time, who recently lost interest in MLP, I was into LPS because of the collectibility and huge number of pets you could get. So how does Hasbro try and boost MLP sales? By limiting the number of ponies you can get!

This era was a harbinger of sorts for what MLP would become for the next decade and a half. I understand having a focus group of characters, especially for a TV show-other toy lines have done this for decades. But just because there are main ponies doesn't mean that no other ponies can exist, or that nobody will buy them. G4 had loads of characters in the show that you'd think would be perfect toy material, but never existed-the reformed changelings, the Kirin, the student six, the Pillars of Equestria-If you didn't know better, you'd think the inclusion of all these characters was to push toys, but Hasbro was too busy selling Pinkie Pie with a new hat instead of Thorax or Autumn Blaze. The popularity of background ponies like Muffins and Lyra was because fans enjoyed being imaginative and giving these incidental characters in the MLP world their own personalities and stories. Fans of all ages have been making their own OC ponies and giving them their own personalities and stories. Not even the most die-hard fans are tied so hard to FIM canon that they will not accept any character that is not one of the Mane Six. Kids are no different than Bronies in that regard. Give them a random character like Dewdrop Dazzle or Snowcatcher, and they can imagine their role in the world of Equestria and their relationships with the Mane 6 and other characters. TV tie-ins and toy variety don't have to be mutually exclusive, and I don't know why this big toy company seemingly doesn't know that.


What are your thoughts on the Core 7 15 years later, and are there any other decisions made about MLP that make you go "Hmmm"?

[Ponybookworm]

The first thing which made me go EH???!!! was the G3 Soft Newborns. Like, these were supposed to be relatable to the actual Ponies, how??? To resolve this (& the lack of variety in Core 7) I made Customs in Newborn Cutie of the Soft Newborns. Before that Pony plush lines were like Pony minis: offshoots of the actual Pony line with actual Ponies tying in. Even G3 Ponyville was mostly, except Breezie Dreams (I Customised her as a Divine Shine using a G3 mould glitter Fakie), smaller versions of existing Ponies.
Core 7 was next, for exactly the reasons you said: variety (both number of characters & colour schemes) out the window, CLONE POSE, plastic clothing...
Then we got the Mane Six, & so few other toys the ones we DID get are three to four times the price I could get them new already. I'm already shocked to see Plumsweet now considered rare, for example.
But then we got the next baffling thing: drawing the focus AWAY from brushables, & to, of all things, MINIS. Like, minis are fun to have a few of, but for them to DOMINATE??? Just look at everybody's size opinions & see how many times G4 Blind Bag size comes up: you've guessed it, NONE!!! Everybody's G1/ G3, sometimes G4 Brushable, often G2, but NOBODY is blind bag. If G4 Blind Bags had been just an offshoot of the main brushable line, fine, but the fact that Flim, Flam, all but four (if you count the GOH Cheese Sandwich) of the Boys, & more than even came to mind for characters, let alone was made a brushable, were all Blind Bag, compared to fewer than 100 unique brushable & GOH characters combined (want a changeling, want Cheese Sandwich, want Daring Do in normal size, want the pirates from the Movie??? Got to go GOH), & even fewer without the GOH adding essential characters.
And of course, the G4 brushables are smaller size, like Baby Ponies, so there's lees room for decent quality. The Fashion Style Ponies helped a bit, but there are even fewer of them than of the standard brushables!!!

And then we get to G5.
Five main characters & an antagonist. And only four of those are made fully brushable (I know, Shining Armour's Russ Troll hair, but it was still better than moulded manes on Hitch & Sprout ad nauseum. It took all the bad stuff about G4 & MADE IT WORSE, regarding toy releases. The small figures are too small, & a pain to do anything with, the big ones are bigger than G4 Fashion Style, & therefore incompatible with G1 & G3 in any way, & their symbols are so tiny & hardly visible, yet somehow, since G4, they're all-important & tied to your destiny. Oh yep, AND the G5 world is a continuation of the G4 one, rather than a unique new world as every gen before had been.

Hasbro, make it make sense, PLEASE!!!

[LadyMoondancer]

Weren't the Core 7 also all in the same pose (until G3.5 molds were created) so they could wear interchangeable plastic clothes?  Which made them look even more samey and boring.

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."  Which is lowkey insulting imo . . . as though six year old girls don't aspire to growing up and doing grown-up things. They would never say that about a toyline aimed at six year old boys; hell, the Rescue Bots (the Playskool Transformers line) go around putting out fires and saving people from earthquakes!  But anyway, I think that's why Rainbow Dash's voice was changed: it was too adult sounding.  Her new voice was so generic.

The original set of Big Brother ponies are fan favorites, but very weird from a marketing perspective.  So, you're adding all these boy ponies to your toyline; the way I see it, you have two obvious options. 

#1, market them towards girls, as all the rest of your ponies have been, and give them unisex symbols / themes.

#2, market the ponies towards little boys and give them boyish symbols, colors, and themes.  Also make the packaging and commercials aimed at boys, with a new jingle.  Make it a rap or something (it's the 80s baby) and show little boys playing pretend tug-of-war with their ponies or running races with them.

Instead they're this confusing mishmash where the ponies have a LOT of pink in the set and there's nary a boy to be seen in the commercials, but the ponies have themes like football?? and dump trucks??  Obviously some girls are into those things, but from a marketing perspective it's sooo stupid, lol.

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.

[Leave a Whisper]

Because whoever runs MLP at Hasbro is not the brightest crayons in the box. They keep at it because it turns a profit for little to no effort. They're lazy. And the brand has been suffering since the core group thing was established proper. But they don't care.

Legacy characters are okay sometimes? But they still don't get the memo that kids got tired of seeing 40 Scoot-a-loos, 1,000 Twilight Sparkles and 20 Sunny Starscouts instead of ANYTHING else.

Like seriously, outside of Jazz and Pipp I have never even seen Zipp or Trailblazer by themselves. It's just Sunny and Moonbow and anything else is stuck in a pack. And I'm already tired of them.

At least HQG1C and Basic Fun gave us something new.

[Gator]

All I can say, is I couldn’t collect G4 because every unicorn toy had “evil” eyes to me.  And they didn’t have these eyes in the cartoon show.  I did not like those eyes, so Hasbro did not get my dollars

[LadyMoondancer]

Gator, did you ever see the Sunset Shimmer pony toy?  Her eyes looked very pretty to me.  (Ironically she started out as an antagonist so evil eyes would have fit her, lol.)

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Something I don't get is why they didn't make the G4 unicorn horns longer.  Like, just one or two more spirals tall would have looked so much better.  The short horns aren't even show accurate so . . . why?  Anyway, that's one of the reasons I liked the redesigned G4 molds (the ones that came out during the G4 movie) more than the original G4 molds.

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[PinkRosedust]

I'm still bewildered by this stuff too! Core 7 definitely felt like MLP (or at least G3) dying in a way. And what do ya know, it actually was! So sad going from seemingly endless new designs to...the same 7...in the same exact pose everytime. The goofy name changing and reusing always annoyed me too. Honestly they did Cherry Blossom dirty, then they did her even more dirty in G4 by making Cheerilee's lovely symbols so cutesy. And original Styling size Cheerilee was a pretty pony. Sure she was just pink and purple, but she was nice shades of those colors that you don't see much. Shame she didn't get a regular size release. Original Toola Roola being replaced was sad too. Why could they not just...come up with another name for these ponies?

Of course G1 didn't get away without reusing some names too. So strange that they can have hundreds of different characters then suddenly there's a second pony named Yum Yum. No one in the company could suggest a new name for a pony with candy on her butt? Really?

All I can say, is I couldn’t collect G4 because every unicorn toy had “evil” eyes to me.  And they didn’t have these eyes in the cartoon show.  I did not like those eyes, so Hasbro did not get my dollars

Yeah, I never did like G4 unicorn eyes either (except Sunset Shimmer as mentioned above!) I don't know how they managed to make them look so bad. Same with Fluttershy. Even after they "fixed" her eyes she just looked like she was constantly terrified lol.

My own contribution here is G4 Applejack having eyebrows. Did anyone ever find out why she has them? It drives me crazy when I think about it. It's so odd!! Who decided she should have them? Why was everyone else involved with the final design okay with it too? Why was it only her and no other ponies??

[Ponyfan]

I've always wondered why so many G1 names sound like Hasbro made them up during a company cocktail party game.   Names like Woosie, Brandy etc...


Ponyfan

[lovesbabysquirmy]

I've always wondered why so many G1 names sound like Hasbro made them up during a company cocktail party game.   Names like Woosie, Brandy etc...


Ponyfan

Floater?  that's a great one!

[starbritesprinkles]

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."

They told us that on the HQ tour in 2008. We were all like...

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[Leave a Whisper]

I've always wondered why so many G1 names sound like Hasbro made them up during a company cocktail party game.   Names like Woosie, Brandy etc...


Ponyfan

You just answered your own question. Booze was mixed up with the naming committee. Brandy and Mai Tais for all! 

[WingedDragon]

What a dark time. I remember it.
Before Core7 reboot, there was Ponyville toy line which is exactly what Littles Petshop was. So, your point about LPS makes sense.

But I think G3 never had true main characters beofore Core 7. Most of us thinks of The Charming Birthday cast is the main characters thanks to toy release. They operate on a similar G1 principle, where anypony have potential to be the main character for a day.

Hasbro is never good at My Little Pony from day one. They never respect little girls enough to put in meaningful effort. The toys keep getting worse.

I still remember the day I was gifted Royal Rose, the first time I hold her and, feel her cold, hard plastic body. I will never forgive Harbro for this one decision.

[Leave a Whisper]

Polypropylene hair, enough said. Poor Avon ponies.

[shabbychicdee]

I've always wondered why so many G1 names sound like Hasbro made them up during a company cocktail party game.   Names like Woosie, Brandy etc...


Ponyfan

Floater?  that's a great one!

  you guys
don't forget pillow talk 

[Taffeta]

Adding Kiss & Tell to the list of names that should probably never have happened.

We could also talk about Kiwi Tart...especially as the first place she was found was in NZ.

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.