The MLP Arena

Pony Talk => Pony Corral => Topic started by: Desert Rose on June 16, 2012, 03:50:43 PM

Title: Why is Princess Celestia pink?
Post by: Desert Rose on June 16, 2012, 03:50:43 PM
I've been wondering this for a while. How come Princess Celestia is always pink as a toy when she's white in the tv show? I know TRU will release a white Princess Celestia soon (read that here somewhere on the forum).
But does anyone know why Hasbro made the toys of Celestia pink to begin with? O.o Just curious about it :P
Title: Re: Why is Princess Celestia pink?
Post by: GloriaFan on June 16, 2012, 03:53:25 PM
To appeal to girls more, perhaps?  :lol:
Title: Re: Why is Princess Celestia pink?
Post by: OctoberFlash on June 16, 2012, 04:03:11 PM
I've heard that it's because Hasbro felt pink would appeal more to little girls. Similar reasons made her a princess - Lauren Faust wanted her to be Queen Celestia, but Hasbro felt that because of things like Disney, "queen" has become an evil thing to little girls, so they made her a princess. xD
Title: Re: Why is Princess Celestia pink?
Post by: Desert Rose on June 16, 2012, 04:04:45 PM
Yeh I can see why it would be more appealing to little girls with a pink pony, but it still doesn't explain why they suddenly had a change of heart and made her white on the TV show :P Odd they didn't keep her pink in the show aswell for the same reasons.
Title: Re: Why is Princess Celestia pink?
Post by: Raindrop on June 16, 2012, 04:38:06 PM
Hasbro wanted to make money selling toys to the preschool girl "princess" market, and pink is a popular, "safe" color for a little girl toy.  It's pure economics and has nothing to do with the show.
Title: Re: Why is Princess Celestia pink?
Post by: Rion on June 16, 2012, 04:58:14 PM
Celestia is actually what appears to be a very, very faint tone of pink, which just so happens to look much more white. I guess they ended up deciding to... really make her pink though.

The same thing kinda goes with Vinyl/DJ Pon3 though, she looks white but is actually very faint yellow. Oddly enough, Hasbro has made her toy white though. Guess she's not getting the Celestia treatment, lol.
Title: Re: Why is Princess Celestia pink?
Post by: Dibbles on June 16, 2012, 06:48:54 PM
Celestia is actually what appears to be a very, very faint tone of pink, which just so happens to look much more white. I guess they ended up deciding to... really make her pink though.

The same thing kinda goes with Vinyl/DJ Pon3 though, she looks white but is actually very faint yellow. Oddly enough, Hasbro has made her toy white though. Guess she's not getting the Celestia treatment, lol.

They both look white to me. Vinyl is a little more cream-colored, but I didn't even notice until you brought that up.
Title: Re: Why is Princess Celestia pink?
Post by: Cucco on June 16, 2012, 07:01:25 PM
I believe Lauren Faust addressed this somewhere -- apparently companies are more willing to buy a toy if it's pink. Something like "We'll buy 100. But if you make it pink, we'll buy 500."
Title: Re: Why is Princess Celestia pink?
Post by: MANIMAL! on June 16, 2012, 07:13:54 PM
Hasbro said it was to avoid accusations of racism. Kinda like how our President is now pink. HA! Just kidding, I'm nuts for Obama, he's great!

I believe Lauren Faust addressed this somewhere -- apparently companies are more willing to buy a toy if it's pink. Something like "We'll buy 100. But if you make it pink, we'll buy 500."

Yeah, they said it's what the stores are willing to buy the most of.

[slight edit for language ~ hathorcat]
Title: Re: Why is Princess Celestia pink?
Post by: Phekzhen on June 16, 2012, 08:17:35 PM
I believe Lauren Faust addressed this somewhere -- apparently companies are more willing to buy a toy if it's pink. Something like "We'll buy 100. But if you make it pink, we'll buy 500."

Yes, this is true.

Look at Pinkie Pie EVERYTHING on the shelves. Even though Twlight is the main character, we see PP everywhere. And G3 collectors know all about the influx of Pinkie.

Big retailers still see MLP as a little girl's thing, which is why they demand toys marketable at them. That's why toys for "collectors" are sold at Comic Con, because everyone knows collectors will be there, not little girls.

And could you imagine how hard it would be to get Celstia's faint pink as a plastic? It would fade and get wicked dirty.
Title: Re: Why is Princess Celestia pink?
Post by: Fanimusmaximus on June 16, 2012, 08:33:08 PM
I believe Lauren Faust addressed this somewhere -- apparently companies are more willing to buy a toy if it's pink. Something like "We'll buy 100. But if you make it pink, we'll buy 500."

That or is was a decision made before the show came out.
Title: Re: Why is Princess Celestia pink?
Post by: Dibbles on June 16, 2012, 08:35:16 PM
I believe Lauren Faust addressed this somewhere -- apparently companies are more willing to buy a toy if it's pink. Something like "We'll buy 100. But if you make it pink, we'll buy 500."

Yes, this is true.

Look at Pinkie Pie EVERYTHING on the shelves. Even though Twlight is the main character, we see PP everywhere. And G3 collectors know all about the influx of Pinkie.

Big retailers still see MLP as a little girl's thing, which is why they demand toys marketable at them. That's why toys for "collectors" are sold at Comic Con, because everyone knows collectors will be there, not little girls.

And could you imagine how hard it would be to get Celstia's faint pink as a plastic? It would fade and get wicked dirty.

This. Twilight is purple, though, so I don't understand why she doesn't get more merch. Not all the ponies can be pink.
Title: Re: Why is Princess Celestia pink?
Post by: Phekzhen on June 16, 2012, 10:45:02 PM
I believe Lauren Faust addressed this somewhere -- apparently companies are more willing to buy a toy if it's pink. Something like "We'll buy 100. But if you make it pink, we'll buy 500."

That or is was a decision made before the show came out.

The collectors set with the fully molded characters was made to promote the show, and that was our first foray into pinklestia. And since the show only exists to promote the toys, I wouldn't be surprised if the toy department decided to ignore Faust's color pallets for the toys.
Title: Re: Why is Princess Celestia pink?
Post by: hathorcat on June 17, 2012, 05:58:57 AM
As others have mentioned - although I dont quite believe its just the retailers who make the condition - Hasbro are not silly and are primarily in the business of making toys and making money - pink ponies must sell better than white ponies...if they didnt they would have changed the predominantly pink tendencies of the line by now.
Title: Re: Why is Princess Celestia pink?
Post by: Zapper on June 17, 2012, 06:47:04 AM
Hasbro wanted to make money selling toys to the preschool girl "princess" market, and pink is a popular, "safe" color for a little girl toy.  It's pure economics and has nothing to do with the show.

Came here to say this.

(Sorry, little rant about "girls toys" coming up ;) )

That's also the reason why Princess Cadence and her wedding with Twilight's brother was made into such a big thing on the show. Hasbro was planning a wedding set because gender stereotyping has made girls and young women obsessed with that kind of thing.

From an early age girls get told that the most important thing in life is "finding your true love", marrying him and - at best - having a bunch of babies with him.
Also weddings should be only about you, not your lover, you get to wear a nice dress and be the center of attention.
Weddings get marketed to little girls like war gets marketed to little boys. If you think about it, it's a really manipulative and sexist thing.

And of course they had to create a new character for that wedding set. One that would fit the love theme perfectly - Cadence was created. And of course she had to be pink and her power had to be "love" - and yet another "princess" character.

Now I'm not saying that the wedding set is horrible or the wedding episodes were horrible *g*
In fact I really liked the wedding episodes and I also have nothing against Cadence (even though I think her character design is really over the top).

Little girls wouldn't love pink that much, or weddings, or whatever - if it wasn't so shoved into their faces by society and toy manufactures.

So with Cadence being a canon character now, Hasbro probably felt it was "safe" enough to finally make a show-accurate Celestia.
Btw, little girls are not stupid and they surely must have realized that the Celestia toy didn't look like the Celestia they knew from TV. Just because something is pink doesn't mean girls will like it better.

This clip is probably well-known by now (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyUFnQlaN7Q) ;)
Title: Re: Why is Princess Celestia pink?
Post by: Desert Rose on June 17, 2012, 07:12:18 AM
So with Cadence being a canon character now, Hasbro probably felt it was "safe" enough to finally make a show-accurate Celestia.
Btw, little girls are not stupid and they surely must have realized that the Celestia toy didn't look like the Celestia they knew from TV. Just because something is pink doesn't mean girls will like it better.
This clip is probably well-known by now (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyUFnQlaN7Q) ;)

Yeh this is what I ment. Even kids must realize that the toy Celestia doesn't look like the Celestia on the show since she's a different colour.
And if Hasbro were so concerned with shoving pink on little girls it makes no sense that she's white in the TV show to me :P

Oh well, I'm just happy they're releasing a white Princess Celestia now. Never wanted to get the pink one since that's not what she is on the show :P
Title: Re: Why is Princess Celestia pink?
Post by: gustystarr on June 17, 2012, 07:31:40 AM
 The first thing I would've thought as a little girl is that celestia was'nt the same pony and that this pink one was just her evil twin whose trying to trick everypony into thinking she's there ruler! :lol: But I never did like pink ponies as a kid(and still have an over reactive imagination :biggrin:.) Thats why I use to drool over the G1 cartoons I saw, the ponies were mulitcolor ponies and the whole epsidoe didn't focus around the pink pony. But I guess not every little girls like that.
Title: Re: Why is Princess Celestia pink?
Post by: IBroughtTheDerp on June 17, 2012, 07:32:42 AM
Because Hasbro doesn't know how to make their toys. :I OR maybe... It's a grown-up Princess Candance and it was early foreshadowing? o:
Title: Re: Why is Princess Celestia pink?
Post by: frizzycat on June 17, 2012, 07:42:35 AM
Future FiM plot twist: Turns out that Celestia is really Cadence...FROM THE FUTURE. Time traveling ponies!
Title: Re: Why is Princess Celestia pink?
Post by: IBroughtTheDerp on June 17, 2012, 07:43:17 AM
Future FiM plot twist: Turns out that Celestia is really Cadence...FROM THE FUTURE. Time traveling ponies!
Makes sense. :I
Title: Re: Why is Princess Celestia pink?
Post by: Desert Rose on June 17, 2012, 07:51:36 AM
Because Hasbro doesn't know how to make their toys. :I OR maybe... It's a grown-up Princess Candance and it was early foreshadowing? o:

Actually when I first decided to start buying the G4's (after watching all the episodes of FiM) I saw the pink Princess Celestia in the stores and kept thinking it was Princess Cadence for the longest time XD It wasn't untill after a while when I actually stopped and read the box that I realized to my surprise it was Princess Celestia O.o
Title: Re: Why is Princess Celestia pink?
Post by: IBroughtTheDerp on June 17, 2012, 07:59:17 AM
Because Hasbro doesn't know how to make their toys. :I OR maybe... It's a grown-up Princess Candance and it was early foreshadowing? o:

Actually when I first decided to start buying the G4's (after watching all the episodes of FiM) I saw the pink Princess Celestia in the stores and kept thinking it was Princess Cadence for the longest time XD It wasn't untill after a while when I actually stopped and read the box that I realized to my surprise it was Princess Celestia O.o
That's just what they WANT you to think.
Title: Re: Why is Princess Celestia pink?
Post by: keikokukien on June 17, 2012, 08:07:50 AM
Hasbro said it was to avoid accusations of racism. Kinda like how our President is now pink.

I'm sorry to be that girl, but can you please change your wording? I have been called this before in a hateful environment and know it is offensive language. That aside, I have heard this before, too. My sister brought up a conversation about pink celestia toys. She's still a kid and sometimes her ideas are refreshing. She said celestia MUST be pink because Hasbro wants to discourage bronies while encouraging little girls to buy her toy. It was a new perspective, but not sure how far it is from the truth behind her being pink.

[slight edit for language ~ hathorcat]
Title: Re: Why is Princess Celestia pink?
Post by: Neon Sparkle on June 17, 2012, 08:31:27 AM
My sister brought up a conversation about pink celestia toys. She's still a kid and sometimes her ideas are refreshing. She said celestia MUST be pink because Hasbro wants to discourage bronies while encouraging little girls to buy her toy. It was a new perspective, but not sure how far it is from the truth behind her being pink.

Well, Bronies didn't really exist yet when the molded hair gift set came out, which is the first appearance of Pepto Celestia.
Title: Re: Why is Princess Celestia pink?
Post by: keikokukien on June 17, 2012, 08:52:27 AM
Well, Bronies didn't really exist yet when the molded hair gift set came out, which is the first appearance of Pepto Celestia.

Was that the first sign of the pink Celestia? I didn't know that, but now I'll tell her and see how her mind works with that information. :) While pink Celestia is pretty and purple Luna is adorable in toy form, it would just be nice to have at least one of each in show accurate colors.

As others have mentioned - although I dont quite believe its just the retailers who make the condition - Hasbro are not silly and are primarily in the business of making toys and making money - pink ponies must sell better than white ponies...if they didnt they would have changed the predominantly pink tendencies of the line by now.

There are alot of younger girls that have predominantly pink rooms and toys. A few years ago, that wasn't "in fashion" or something, but now I know so many young girls (high school friends have had many children by this point in my life. ^^; ) who have either pink or purple or some color in between for their rooms. As redundant as that color is in the G4 line, you are definitely on the nose here, Hathorcat--they must make more money off of the pink ponies at this point.
Title: Re: Why is Princess Celestia pink?
Post by: ashes on June 17, 2012, 02:50:37 PM
I really wouldn't worry about it.  I have four daughters, ages 7, 5, 3, and 1.  And yes, while they love ponies and like pink, they also like dinosaurs and cars and have clothes in every color of the rainbow.  Even when they draw and color they use a myriad of colors, and not just pink or purple.  And my oldest constantly tells me that her favorite activity is reading (which she does on her own everyday), so I'm not worried about my girls becoming silly creatures obsessed with one color.

However, I do like that Celestia is being released with a white body color.  I think she just looks better that way!
Title: Re: Why is Princess Celestia pink?
Post by: Taxel on June 17, 2012, 03:06:26 PM
Big retailers still see MLP as a little girl's thing, which is why they demand toys marketable at them.

It is not "seen as" a little girl's thing, it IS for little girls! I don't care how many older collectors or bronies there are, I am sick of them saying FiM/MLP/G4 is for them. Its not. FiM is a show for little girls, and MLP is a toy for little girls. You don't have to be a little girl to enjoy them, obviously, but its marketed at them by Hasbro, not just the evil boy-hating stores.
Title: Re: Why is Princess Celestia pink?
Post by: StarLite on June 18, 2012, 05:22:55 AM
FIM is a show for little girls, and MLP is a toy for little girls. You don't have to be a little girl to enjoy them, obviously, but its marketed at them by Hasbro, not just the evil boy-hating stores.[/center]

The toys definitely are, yes, but I wouldn't say the show is. From the beginning,  Lauren Faust said she was trying to make a show that the parents would enjoy watching with their kids, and with all of the references being made by the team now, it's more marketed towards bronies than little girls.
Title: Re: Why is Princess Celestia pink?
Post by: Visage on June 18, 2012, 01:30:59 PM
I absolutely agree with Starlite!
Title: Re: Why is Princess Celestia pink?
Post by: xXCosmicBurstXx on June 18, 2012, 09:03:33 PM
FIM is a show for little girls, and MLP is a toy for little girls. You don't have to be a little girl to enjoy them, obviously, but its marketed at them by Hasbro, not just the evil boy-hating stores.[/center]

The toys definitely are, yes, but I wouldn't say the show is. From the beginning,  Lauren Faust said she was trying to make a show that the parents would enjoy watching with their kids, and with all of the references being made by the team now, it's more marketed towards bronies than little girls.

No, it's not. FiM is a show for little girls. Lauren Faust said, " I don't think there's enough out there for girls, and when things are aimed towards girls... a lot of it just turns into poor quality stuff, and I think it's people being a little too precious about what's appropriate for girls or being a little short-sighted about what girl's interests are. I want to change that, and I want there to be stuff for girls on TV and in the movies that they like and that they're proud to like, and that they don't stop watching by the time they turn seven." Plenty of cartoons marketed towards children have adult references. It still doesn't change the fact that FiM is a show created for little girls. :/
Title: Re: Why is Princess Celestia pink?
Post by: Mintymints on June 18, 2012, 09:37:14 PM
I hate how stereotyped the colour pink is. I'm extremely embarrassed to get anywhere near the dolls and ponies at stores, because of the pink packaging and little toddler stereotypes that come with that aisle. Sometimes I'll even fake call somebody and be like, "Which pony you want for her?" And stuff, if there's someone else around.  :blush:
It's been that way since I was really young too, I'd always ask my mom when I was 7, "Which one would she like." If someone passed by... :cool:
Title: Re: Why is Princess Celestia pink?
Post by: Dragonflitter on June 19, 2012, 09:45:47 AM
I'm tired of people saying FiM is aimed at the brony and/or adult communities because of the in-jokes. There have been adult references and 'in jokes' in cartoons for little kids since the dawn of time. FiM is NOT the first to do this. Heck, look at some of the cartoons from the 80's and you'll find tons of such references, including even political jokes (which surely would not have made any sense to little kids!)

FiM is just one cartoon that is cashing in on the current internet phenominon - the fact that it is now VERY easy for entertainers to communicate with their fans, and visa versa.


As for Celestia, this topic comes up on the Arena from time to time and I hear the same things each time, that the retailers want a pink pony, or that Hasbro thinks pink ponies sell better. I'm still confused though. Out of all the characters from the show that they have made toys of (all 6 of the mane cast, the 3 CMC, Luna and Celestia, and all the blind bag toys) Celestia is the ONLY toy they decided to change from white to pink. They didn't decide to do that with Rarity, and she's white! So I dunno, I just don't buy the whole 'they changed her so they could sell her.' Because following that logic, wouldn't they have made every character from the show pink? :P And she's not even one of the main characters, it's not like she appears in every single episode like the mane 6 do. So changing her in order to sell toys doesn't seem to make much sense when they could have changed someone else who appears more often, Rarity for instance.

Maybe that's why Hasbro felt they could change her without too much backlash from their buyers? Because she doesn't appear in every episode? (Although she technically does if you count the opening, so now I'm stumped again...)

*shrug* I think this is one of those "the world will never know" sort of things...
Title: Re: Why is Princess Celestia pink?
Post by: gustystarr on June 20, 2012, 09:21:24 AM
 I think the reason Rarity is white is because they already have a pink pony, pinkie pie, in the main six.And if you notice pinkie's almost the main character as the shove her in almost every set. Pinkie's always got all the attention in pervious lines, starting with G3, and I'm pertty sure thats because she's the pinkest pony they could create so they naturally think girls will like her more. I don't get how they don't see that  in lines like G1 that lasted for a decade the ponies where every color of the rainbow. Now sure almost every set had one pink pony but there was also a blue one, a green one, a yellow one, and maybe a orange one. The deal of why Celestia pink is because she's a specail "princess pony" which in there minds means she naturally needs to be pink. Plus if they think they sell more pink ponies, then the big more expensive pony should be pink in there logic so they'll sell more. The reason they sell more pink ponies is'nt nessicarly because thats what little girls want, it very well could be that almost every other pony they make is pink so to get a set or another color pony you have to buy the pink one as well. >_< ( alright rant over)
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