New G4 pony toy designs

[Leave a Whisper]

Do you think Trasnformers fans would suffer this?  Sure, there are chibi versions of them, but they compliment the main lines, not take them over.

I don't know.

[gabumon]

Transformers at least under John Warden is very careful with the brand,  they see the adult toy collectors and consistently produce toys directed to that audience at the same time they are making TF toys for kids.

It’s completely different with MLP.  Hasbro cares so little about adult MLP collectors that can’t even be bothered to make retro ponies.  They’d rather Basic Fun do it.  (Let Alone actually spend resources to design new G1 true toys - like they do for TF.) It’s unbalanced and unfair.   MLP = Kids only.  is how the current regime is running it.

[NightGliderSA]

They are looking less and less like ponies. These ones look like... cats? Or at least more like cats than ponies in their faces to me. Oh dear: I WAS hoping that the new toys would be more pony-ish rather than less. As they are supposedly ponies.

[Zapper]

Hasbro cares so little about adult MLP collectors that can’t even be bothered to make retro ponies.  They’d rather Basic Fun do it.  (Let Alone actually spend resources to design new G1 true toys - like they do for TF.) It’s unbalanced and unfair.   MLP = Kids only.  is how the current regime is running it.

Yep. This is the company that crashed and burned their Jem line even though there was a lot of nostalgic adults and girls interested in a proper reboot. What Hasbro did was to give the liscense to Integrity Toys to make limited and expensive as heck dolls for Integrity collectors.
It was such a pain for me to aquire my favorite characters that I gave up after I finally had two.

And then that godawful movie was made that had all fans angry at Hasbro. And instead of going "oh crap, maybe we should take Jem more seriously and launch a widely available reboot line" they just made MLP Rainbow Rocks and forgot about Jem alltogether. Cancelled the comic and everything.

TF is their golden child. It's like Barbie to Mattel. TF collectors and fans have been getting multiple lines, shows and comics since forever. As an ex-TF collector, I was spoiled.
There was always a big array to choose from. Even during 2007-2009 if you hated the cartoony style of Animated you could turn to the Classics line or read an IDW G1 comic or watch Bayformers.
MLP always replaces one gen with the next and if you don't like it... so what. Buy expensive and uneasy to aquire third party stuff.

I wish Basic Fun ponies were more widely available. They are not even in stores here. It's the Integrity dolls all over again where you have to find a specific online retailer who'll ship to you. That's not how you make use of nostalgia. It's like they want to keep new customers away from their products

[Al-1701]

I think greed and bad advice is what pushed their strategy with Jem.  They figured Jem fans would be so desperate for new material they would pay through the nose for it.  They also figured they would be so desperate that they would just accept making Jem more "marketable" to the general public by making Jerica's rise similar to Justin Bieber's.

With MLP they figure their old fans are all house wives with no control over the pocketbook, so they shouldn't waste their time and money catering to them.

We're dealing with a company that is stuck in the past in terms of its mindset and worldview.  They literally have to be shamed to embrace progressive ideas.

[gabumon]

Yep.  this is 1000% all true.

Hasbro is Dr Jeckle and Mr Hyde.  MLP gets the monster who thrashes about randomly and TF gets the savvy gentleman. 😥


i feel a teeny bit guilty for supporting the TF side.  😰

[Lilja]

I mean, to some degree Hasbro NEEDS to put more resources into Transformers in order for it to work as a concept, right? Every character transforms into a different vehicle (with some recolors/retools of course), and it takes a lot of engineering to make those transformations work and make them appealing and easy to handle for children.

With MLP they just need a basic body mold and they can recolor it forever into different characters. And pretty much all MLP fans are ok with this, because it's just how the brand works. Whenever anyone has a problem it's mainly that they don't like the aesthetic.

Basically I think MLP and TF are a bit too different to be compared. TF has also always put a lot more focus on story and characters, which they just started to do with MLP recently (and a lot of adult fans seem to think this is unnecessary). We can imagine a world where we have several MLP toylines in various styles running concurrently, with comics, cartoons, video games and big budget Hollywood movies, but I'm not sure anyone would benefit from that really. Neither Hasbro, kids or adult fans.

[gabumon]

The fact that MLP are more simple to produce and design makes Hasbro look even worse

[Leave a Whisper]

Yep.  this is 1000% all true.

Hasbro is Dr Jeckle and Mr Hyde.  MLP gets the monster who thrashes about randomly and TF gets the savvy gentleman. 😥


i feel a teeny bit guilty for supporting the TF side.  😰

Ah don't feel bad about that. Its a good metaphor for Hasbro. Ahahaha! Hey, at least we have 3rd parties who are willing to do things right by fans.

The Integrity Jem dolls look incredible and, I say that as someone who is not a doll person. They were a bit rich for my blood though.

I occasionally come across MLP merch, but I don't bother because I don't care for ankle socks and we've got too many cups in this house.

Running Press Glory was super cute, though the fakie moulded Firefly was a dirty trick and the mini art books that came with are lovely pieces of memorabilia.

 The Loyal Subjects stuff was cuter then expected.

 The hallmark ornaments are great. Makes me wish mine was still around.

Basic Fun has knocked its repro line clear outta the park.

[Lilja]

The fact that MLP are more simple to produce and design makes Hasbro look even worse

I think Hasbro is putting as many resources as they need into MLP to keep it profitable. But from the perspective of adult fans who prefer G1/G3, Hasbro is putting those resources into the wrong places. Those fans would prefer to see differently shaped ponies with more color variations rather than fewer but more defined characters, animated shows/movies and all the various gimmicks.

Right now it seems like Hasbro is trying out many different things to see what will sell to the general public. What with these new designs, the retro Mane 6 etc (and I'm sure they're keeping an eye on how the Basic Fun ponies are doing as well). Possibly the success or failure of these products will determine what G5 eventually ends up looking like.

[TJgamer]

But are they worse than the Funko Pops?
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I'm just relieved (for now) that this likely isn't the official design for G5 or whatever.

[Zapper]

The fact that MLP are more simple to produce and design makes Hasbro look even worse

MTE
Also, TF never had more story than MLP. That's something they added later on in the 80s comics to make the basic premise of "robot faction A is fighting robot faction B over resources" more intresting. They realized they needed to offer more so boys won't outgrow the franchise.

I think it's perfectly fine to compare Hasbro lines to eachother because it's all made by the same company. If that company can pour resources into one line it begs the question why another line doesn't get that treatment. Especially when that line is - according to Hasbro's in-house reports - a valuable cashcow pony.
It just reminds me so much of Mattel, who downgraded their own Monster High because at a point it cannibalized the Barbie sales. They realized that MH was doing better than the Golden Child so instead of taking advantage of that and building MH up, they decided to cancel the planned movie, decided to reboot the line for pre- and elementary school kids and toss the 14+ demographic to the wolves because "teen girls buy phones and make-up and no dolls".

Teen girls these days have embraced geekiness much more than the previous generation. They have more disposable income than ever before. Why not build MLP up as a line that engages older kids, too? I don't need it to be for me. Just think Hasbro is sleeping on its potential in favor of their other franchises.

[Lilja]

Also, TF never had more story than MLP.

It was my impression that the backstory was integral to the TF brand in its inception, since robots transforming to vehicles on its own wouldn't make much sense to western consumers at the time. Meanwhile MLP could exist on its own as a pretty colorful horse you could style and take care of, without any need for a backstory. G1 MLP books and cartoons seemed more like bonus advertising. Most iterations of TF have had its story told in cartoons, comics or movies, while many iterations of MLP have been without it, and maybe not really needing it in order to sell toys. Although personally I love that MLP finally got a cartoon series that was entertaining and had mass appeal.

I really don't intend to defend Hasbro, since I certainly think they could do a better job. And there is some sexism in how boys' brands get a lot more care and attention than girls' brands (but that has also been the case since the '80s). But MLP and TF are two very different things aimed at different demographics. Meaning people don't generally want the same thing out of TF that they would want out of MLP.

As it was mentioned earlier, I think Jem is a brand that is more tied to its story and characters than MLP ever was. And it's been treated terribly by Hasbro even though the original cartoon is loved by so many. Shouldn't be too hard to create something with it that could appeal to the older tween crowd (since MLP skews a bit younger), but Hasbro just barely even wanted to give it a try.

[tailrustedtealeaf]

While we're dunking on Hasbro can I just chime in with how upset I am that Hasbro Pulse doesn't sell ponies aside from the one SDCC exclusive? It makes no sense to me and just makes it very obvious that Hasbro only cares about their boy brands at the moment.
Looking at the higher-ups I'm not surprise.

[Galactica]

I thought these were from Taobao when I first saw them-  but the box art DOES look legit.

They are odd. They definitely appear to have cat heads? I like the hooves and leg shapes?  I don't love the huge head.  But my son likes cats so.... I guess he'd like these better than ponies, haha

I thought they looked familiar too... I can't remember what all is still in the Target toy isles but I looked up the "poopsie" ponies (which are etched into my mind) and sure enough they are very similar, don't you think?
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I found this in a google search too-  also similar design.

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I don't know if Littlest Pet Shop is still around anymore- but they also seem to have more than a passing resemblance to these...

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They aren't as ugly as G 3.5 but they aren't anything i would ever want to collect. I hope they go with a different design, but I have e feeling it will look something like the above if all of the "pony" toys currently look more like cats with horns than equines.


So I am reading that the ponies are Lauren Faust's design ? If that is true it is kinda funny because I'm positive the bronies will notice that these look a lot more like G3.5s than their beloved FIM ponies, and don't they still kinda worhip Faust?  So their goddess is giving them G 3.5.2s  haha