Will MLP survive the next few years in it's current form?

[Sapphire-Light]

What about Transformers?

No, Transformers (and Hasbro's boy toys in general) are the poorest performers! If Hasbro ditched the boys lines of toys they would stand a much better chance.

True!!, there's an article about some boy lines not doing as expected    

http://m.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/ii-iii-and-iv-the-meanest-supervillains-facing-toy-makers/article18955123/?service=mobile

[Katika]

I, personally, don't think that G4s will continue much longer, but it has nothing to do with the current financial side of it.  I think that the FiM line has topped out in its popularity with the non-collector adult fans and that as they lose interest, a lot of the merchandise and novelty sales will begin to drop, which will show up as the line starting to perform poorly and they will discontinue or revamp G4s.  Heck, even in the collector community, a healthy chunk of people are getting irritated over the lack of variety. 

So, no, I don't think that MLP will "survive" much longer if they keep down the path that they're heading.  They can only revamp the same pony so many times before they run themselves into the ground.  It's what they did with G3s when they went with the Core 7 and completely what happened with G3.5s when they STILL didn't add new characters.

[achab1984]

Nah...

Hasbro are not loosing money - I think a lot of people read the top lines issued by analysts [or people who dont know what they are talking about] and make assumptions from those without actually reading the details. There are plenty of business websites and publications and blogs which you can get accurate information on Because something goes down [negative growth] does not mean it makes a loss, it usually just means it makes less profit.

Every company goes through ups and downs; especially product heavy companies like toy mass market toy manufacturers. The girls toy line has done better than ever in the last couple of years, the boys toy line has dropped a little [but actually recovered towards the end the of the year] and its its games brands remained consistently the strongest and most popular in the market. A company can not always grow in every market, it has to except contractions on occasion and then grow again [hopefully each time growing a little bit more]. Doing that is something Hasbro are very good at - its the reason their lines go through generations and so many have been about for decades - the line does well, it grows, then it starts to contract, the line is retired, redesigned and then released again with a forward push and so on. Right now Hasbro makes money on all of its lines - if it didnt, it would retract, redesign and then relaunch them.

However its still a 4 billion $ gross company and last year profits were around $30 million mark - maybe not Apple or Google but still pretty impressive in a very competitive market. Sure, last year Lego, finally over took Hasbro as the worlds 2nd biggest and most profitable toy brand but many would say its inevitable that Lego will go on to pull in Mattel as well [in fact last year it made more profit than Mattel just not more gross turnover]. Thats Legos phenomenal world take over than anything Hasbro have done.

I am sure as styles and trends change over the years, Hasbro will have more and more online or direct customer engagement channels, however good old fashioned "hold them, touch them" toys? They are not going any where soon - sure kids have ipads and kindles now, but its human nature to "play" with something other than a screen.

Now, will there always be MLP? Hmmm...thats hard to say. I would say for certain G4 is not its last incarnation - its too popular just to shelve it and I am sure G5 will turn up at some point in the next decade or so. But whether in 30 years we will be celebrating 50 years and G8, who knows. There has been a desire by children to play with toy animals and horses forever - dolls representing animals have been found at prehistoric archaeology digs - and I dont see that innate desire disappearing for no reason. Therefore, be it MLP or something a little different I am sure animal toys are around to stay. We can all just hope those animals are colourful little plastic ponies.

That is very good! I liked how you worded it all. I do also remember reading about how the pony market is very good for them right now

[Khema]

I can't say it would bother me if Hasbro ditched the G4 line and maybe went back to a pony model that actually looks like a pony. (hint, hint, bring back G1/G3)

[Flitter]

Negative growth doesn't mean they are not making $. It's just they made that much less than the previous quarter.
Now if you ask me if MLP will continue growing, I'd hesitate to say yes. All their "key drivers" for the brand seem to end up as shelf warmers lately. The toy line is just not that exciting to collectors. The popularity of FiM might be wearing off a little and I don't imagine any subsequent pony series will reaching that level of popularity. A lot is going to depend on the health of the economy. I'm not really sure about kids but to me it seems like they only expect kids to be into ponies for a season or 2 then aim to appeal to a new batch of 3-10 year olds following. I'm not sure how well that actually works compared to a model that would promote lifelong collecting but that seems to be what Hasbro thinks is best and in reality it probably does. Most people get bored of the same exact things after a few years. The model doesn't seem to aim for longevity but for creating a hype, riding it as long as possible, then re-vamping once it starts to not be quite as profitable. They'll drop G4 well before they begin to lose $ on it. I'm not sure they'll ever drop MLP altogether though. I think it's always going to be one of those toys that will appeal to little girls as long as there is a market for toys at all, and maybe it's just because of the circles I run in but "nerdy" things like toy collecting & enjoying cartoons seems to be getting more and more popular amongst adults too.

[Mermaid]

Negative growth doesn't mean they are not making $. It's just they made that much less than the previous quarter.
Now if you ask me if MLP will continue growing, I'd hesitate to say yes. All their "key drivers" for the brand seem to end up as shelf warmers lately. The toy line is just not that exciting to collectors. The popularity of FiM might be wearing off a little and I don't imagine any subsequent pony series will reaching that level of popularity. A lot is going to depend on the health of the economy. I'm not really sure about kids but to me it seems like they only expect kids to be into ponies for a season or 2 then aim to appeal to a new batch of 3-10 year olds following. I'm not sure how well that actually works compared to a model that would promote lifelong collecting but that seems to be what Hasbro thinks is best and in reality it probably does. Most people get bored of the same exact things after a few years. The model doesn't seem to aim for longevity but for creating a hype, riding it as long as possible, then re-vamping once it starts to not be quite as profitable. They'll drop G4 well before they begin to lose $ on it. I'm not sure they'll ever drop MLP altogether though. I think it's always going to be one of those toys that will appeal to little girls as long as there is a market for toys at all, and maybe it's just because of the circles I run in but "nerdy" things like toy collecting & enjoying cartoons seems to be getting more and more popular amongst adults too.

This.

The current trend in the toy market aimed at girls and boys ages 3-10 is 1-2 years of "collecting". Most kids I know start getting toys like ponies at the age of 3 and are already done with them by the age of 5. By this time they are on to another more "adult" toy such as eq girls and monster high, which most will play and collect with for 1-2 years. And then they move on to the next bracket of marketing which is your young adult genre such as one direction, twilight, hunger games, fault in our stars, tumblr, iPad and such. 

Hasbros marketing is spot on. Kids just don't play with toys like they used to. Back in our day, it wasn't uncommon for teens to buy and play with toys up to high school (some even through high school. I'm guilty.) but you just do not see that much anymore.

[brittney_rochelle]

I, personally, don't think that G4s will continue much longer, but it has nothing to do with the current financial side of it.  I think that the FiM line has topped out in its popularity with the non-collector adult fans and that as they lose interest, a lot of the merchandise and novelty sales will begin to drop, which will show up as the line starting to perform poorly and they will discontinue or revamp G4s. 

I agree with this.

[Flitter]

Hasbros marketing is spot on. Kids just don't play with toys like they used to. Back in our day, it wasn't uncommon for teens to buy and play with toys up to high school (some even through high school. I'm guilty.) but you just do not see that much anymore.

Heck, I'm even a few years older than you and at age 11 or 12 I gave nearly all my things to my little sister and became only concerned with music/bands, drawing, hanging out with friends & school. I don't think I had any interest in any toys from then until I was 20 and bought a BJD. I only started collecting play-line toys 3 years ago. To me it doesn't even seem much has changed except there wasn't so much of a tween market then.

[ValeofSpring]

Hasbros marketing is spot on. Kids just don't play with toys like they used to. Back in our day, it wasn't uncommon for teens to buy and play with toys up to high school (some even through high school. I'm guilty.) but you just do not see that much anymore.

Heck, I'm even a few years older than you and at age 11 or 12 I gave nearly all my things to my little sister and became only concerned with music/bands, drawing, hanging out with friends & school. I don't think I had any interest in any toys from then until I was 20 and bought a BJD. I only started collecting play-line toys 3 years ago. To me it doesn't even seem much has changed except there wasn't so much of a tween market then.

I'd agree with this--of course it's all perspective, but none of the girls I was friends with growing up (born 1976-79) played with toys past age 11 or 12--at least not where others could see   I think children usually have a pretty short attention span, and the 80s was certainly all about the next big thing--lots of advertising, lots of flash, lots of color.  I was the exception--I played with toys past 12 and I really stuck with certain lines.  I remember around 1984-85 (2nd-3rd grade) everyone was crazy about MLPs, but nearly all the people in my peer group had moved onto other things by 1986.  In other words, lots of people with Cotton Candys and Bow-Ties laying around, but not So-Softs and Flutter Ponies  

I would strongly expect Hasbro to keep making My Little Pony (with some gaps in time) for years to come--everyone has heard of "My Little Pony," so the name recognition itself is worth a fortune.

[spottedslug]

I'm fairly sure the line will continue. It seems to be doing fine.

[Silver_mirror46]

while I do think the impact on children of things like club penguin and, more recently, formulas like skylanders will push hasbro into digging a little deeper into the virtual experience they'll still probably stick a large part of their funds into what has made them money through all these years

[gemini_pony]

What about Transformers?

No, Transformers (and Hasbro's boy toys in general) are the poorest performers! If Hasbro ditched the boys lines of toys they would stand a much better chance.

I sincerely doubt that. Transformers is still doing great. I fail to see any solid proof they are loosing money.

[shimmlight]

I think it has potential to, yes. If they release a bigger variety of characters. Children do still enjoy collecting things. Of course they'll always need the Mane 6 out for new fans, but having more characters beside them would help. When I was a kid, I played with Sylvanian Families. If they had just continued to release the same few families over and over again in say, different clothes or something, there's no way I would have played with them for as long as I did! I played with them from about 6-13 when I eventually decided I was bored and now they're in the loft. But my children are definitely going to inherit them! I think what would help My Little Pony appeal to children more also would be if they released more playsets, like houses and buildings for the ponies to be in. That was what made Sylvanian Families so great, how much stuff you could buy for them to live in and how many accessories they had. I'm not saying MLP should start copying them but a larger variety of things would definitely help boost sales in my opinion.

[RustyGusty]

I can't say it would bother me if Hasbro ditched the G4 line and maybe went back to a pony model that actually looks like a pony. (hint, hint, bring back G1/G3)

I agree. I hope the G4 ends very soon, it looks... not so good. And Equestria Girls, noooo!!! It's obvious they want to make a new Jem line, but are disguising it as a pony line. And bring back the G1 shapes, or G3 with alot more pegasuses and unicorns and why not flutter ponies and sea ponies?

I especially would like to see Hasbro create some characters and stick to them, and keep releasing them in different poses. Like they've done with Applejack. Most other toylines have recognizable characters, MLP needs more of that too!

[Zapper]

I will never understand where this "MLP is Hasbro's only fanchise that makes them money" came from. Yes, MLP is popular right now, that doesn't mean it's Hasbro's only source of money. If Transformers was dying I'd know, but they're currently pumping out more lines than any other of Hasbro's franchises and they are planning on making at least three more horribad action schlockbusters because that sells like hotcakes. If it was unpopular they'd stop making so much of it. But there is yet another TV series in the makings, Rescue Bots is still getting episodes, the comics are there. Heck, they're celebrating 30 years of TF as if it was a national holiday. What did MLP get for its anniversary? One G1 collector pack. One. They treat TF like their star brand and G.I. Joe gets worked into it once in a while.

I wish they'd treat MLP like Transformers. Not one generation after the other and milking them until they die but different gens all at once with more variety in the toys and different groups of characters with different kinds of adventures.