The MLP Arena
Pony Talk => Pony Corral => Topic started by: Dragonflitter on August 06, 2013, 10:02:10 PM
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Every time we get a 'core' group of pony characters for our tv shows, we're always missing this one color! (It's barely even a secondary or tertiary color like in anyone's mane or eyes or cutie mark...) Any theories on why?
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(Poor Minty, is this why Hasbro abandoned you..?)
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I've heard that green-themed characters are often considered "weird" or "wacky" or somesuchthing. Maybe green-dominant characters end up being less marketable for some reason?
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Even when I was a kid, I thought it had something to do with the plastic. That green or green coloring was trickier to mold/cast/make. Or that it wouldn't hold up as well as some of the other colors. Just my two cents.
Who knows honestly.
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Argentina made some lovely green G1 ponies..real green not aqua-green or mint green....
Granny smith is green..an ugly green but green nonetheless
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I agree that there is a seriously lack of green ponies. I hated green ponies as a kid but now I love them. I wish Hasbro would make some green pony brushables.
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I hated green ponies as a kid
You're probably not alone in this, and that's probably why there are so few of them. Additionally, green's kind of a hard color to get looking right, artistically.
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I would love to see more green; But as Silverrain says, pukeygreen is never far away...
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Green doesn't sell well to girls. That's about it, and why we get so many white/pink/purple dominated pony designs.
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I dunno but they seem to hate red and black ponies too. Sad :C Green is my favorite color too!!!
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Because, if Hasbro's turning Celestia and Twilight pink (almost pink in the latter's case) and sticking Pinkie Pie everywhere they can is any indication, apparently little girls loooooooooooooooove pink =P
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As green is my least favourite colour I will admit its not something which annoys me too much :P
I think there is an element of green not selling well to the target market for some reason - hence why we have lots of pinks, purples, yellows, whites and pale blues. Orange is an odd one to add to the mix though it tends to be a bit like green and not as popular a colour choice for female product lines. But I also think it may actually just be a palette thing and that these colours work well together and also that green is a major colour in a lot of background elements.
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I always though Bright Eyes was green? :blink: And Minty got her own special episode! As did Mimic! Perhaps they just see green as special! ;)
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Well I know with advertising, using a Green font is more costly then a lot of other colors. So maybe the dye to make the plastic green is more costly too?
Whatever the reason, they need to seriously start making more Green...It's my Fav!!
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Argentina made some lovely green G1 ponies..real green not aqua-green or mint green....
Yes they did :lovey: Argie ponies have the best colours!
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The idea that green is not popular with girls is by and large a falsehood. It has just as many fans as any other color (in fact, when/where I grew up it was the overwhelming majorities favorite color). My favorite color is teal blue*, but 3/4 of the girls in my class throughout my childhood, and even among my friends now as an adult, go gaga for green. I remember when we had a choice of something that came in a variety of colors, they'd fight over who'd get the green one. And in college, our bathroom was completely decorated in frogs and the color green (and it got complimented all the time when we had visitors, although I frankly find anything with eyes in the bathroom creepy... nothing like being stared at when you're trying to do your business). When I was young, I used to think green was just as "girly" a color as pink, which was good, because I don't like pink. It didn't take me long to learn otherwise, but still, the fact that I was under that impression for even a short time is telling. I don't know what kind of market research Hasbro does, but it's clearly incomprehensive. And then there's all the people whose birthstone is emerald. My family is always picking stuff out for each other based on the color of their birthstone.
I recently got the glittery Emerald Rays and I have to say, he's STUNNING! I wish they'd make a larger pony this color! I'm also fond of neon green, but realize how unlikely that would be. I'd definitely welcome a green main character, or even side character, in the show.
*This is gonna sound silly, but it irks me when people call ponies like Lyra teal when she's very clearly seafoam, and similar cases. Teal is not an encompassing term for anything remotely blue-green. It is a specific color!
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Green is my favorite color!
I always considered Bright Eyes to be a seafoam green and that's probably why she was my favorite. I also consider Ivy to be in the main group during G2 and same goes for Minty in G4. So that's something. Too bad G2 never got a show. I still wonder what it would've been like.
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To be fair, Lyra gets colored noticeably differently between digital images and printed ones.
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I don't think they hate green. They probably figure that most little girls love pink and purple, so they stick with those colors the most.
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Wow some great discussions in this thread, thanks guys! ^_^
I know there are some very famous green ponies, Fizzy and Ivy and Minty and Granny Smith, just to name a few! I was specifically referring to when Hasbro decides to put out a 'core' set of characters, like in the screenshots I provided. Yes we see some green in the side characters for these shows, but never in the 'core' set! This I always thought was very strange.
Also I know some people's tv monitors display colors slightly differently, so some ponies like Bright Eyes do appear to be blue-ish green to some people. (I've never seen her toy in person, is it pretty distinctly pale blue, or a light blue-green?) Sometimes this is in the eye of the beholder, I know. ;)
I would agree that green isn't a 'girly' color like pink and purple, which have always predominated the 'core' line, but then again, are pale blue and white and orange and yellow considered girly? Cuz they all get their chance to shine in each and every core lineup! And yet green...not even once.
After reading all the comments here, several people mentioned how green toys might be more expensive to make. I think this is getting closer to our answer. I remember when I was younger and moving into my own apartment for the first time, I spoke with someone in designing who pointed out the dark green carpets in the apartment and told me that green carpets were the most expensive to make, because of the green dye. For some reason, green dye is more expensive to get right than other colors. It seems that might be one reason Hasbro would shy away from mass producing a green character. (Might even explain why Hasbro dropped Minty from the lineup when they released the Core 7 G3's?)
I also think hathorcat (as always!) has hit upon a genius point: almost all MLP cartoons take place in a nature-filled setting with a lot of green! Even in Ponyville and the MLP Tales town, there's lots of trees and grass used in the background. Choosing contrasting colors for the characters makes them stand out more against green scenery!
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As a kid green was my least favorite color, and I know I wasn't alone. Perhaps the group within their research has a higher percentage of kids who didn't like green.
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I know it isn't actually ponies but Vinnie from Littlest Pet Shop is green and he is part of the main cast.
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To be fair, Lyra gets colored noticeably differently between digital images and printed ones.
Green can sometimes be a hard color to print, and bright colors don't work well with CMYK. Poor Lyra happens to be both. When the made the main characters, they took this into account and made sure they printed well. Not so much with the background characters who may never have been in printed work in the first place.
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My favourite colour :heart:
I don't consider Fizzy and G3 Minty green though, I find them so blueish :D
I've heard that green-themed characters are often considered "weird" or "wacky" or somesuchthing. Maybe green-dominant characters end up being less marketable for some reason?
I've heard this too. And that green is something people don't choose easily when there are other options available.
Even when I was a kid, I thought it had something to do with the plastic. That green or green coloring was trickier to mold/cast/make. Or that it wouldn't hold up as well as some of the other colors. Just my two cents.
Who knows honestly.
At least in the past green dye was the most difficult colour to make and the green dyes had a tendency to change into either blue or brown easily. Don't know if this has anything to do with today's MLP though. At least some "true green" G1s, for example Sky Rocket, Starglow, Argie rainbow Truly and Argie Rock pony discolour so easily!
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There has got to be a financial reason. I don't know if it's that green dye is more expensive, if green doesn't sell as well to the target market, or if it's a concern about ponies changing shades in different media, but there's either a reason, or an old reason that nobody's rethought.
Minty G1 is my favourite pony and Fizzy close behind; and Minty G3 got a lot of exposure, but overall, I think pink/purple followed up by white/blue are easier sells. There aren't a super ton of orange ponies, either.
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*This is gonna sound silly, but it irks me when people call ponies like Lyra teal when she's very clearly seafoam, and similar cases. Teal is not an encompassing term for anything remotely blue-green. It is a specific color!
And seafoam is a blue-green color. It bugs me when people say Lyra is green when she is not really green or blue. I love seafoam.
The idea that green is not popular with girls is by and large a falsehood.
As a little girl, emerald green was my very favorite color.
I think darks shades of colors are skipped in ponies so true greens, reds, bright oranges, and dark blues are out. But they have done some light greens, pinks, pale orange, and light blue ponies. It seems like dark jewel tones in general are not pony colors. I don't know why there are not more light green or light orange ponies though.
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Yeah I think green might be considered to be more of a background/environment colour and thus maybe also an "everyday" colour compared to pink, purple etc as magical/fairy-tale colours..?
There aren't many "true green" ponies in G1 but there seems to be more deep bright pink or purple ones; Caramel Crunch, Hula Hula, Piña Colada, Satin' n Lace, Melody, Pretty Beat, Sweet Notes, Shady, Up Up Away, Sherbet, Springy, Sunsplasher... :(
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In cartoons and similar media, green is an "evil" color. Especially a glowy green. Green is radiation, and mutating chemicals, and kryptonite. Green is Maleficent, and Shego, and the Wicked Witch of the West. If you were paying close attention to the flashbacks, Cadence's green magical aura was the first hint that she wasn't who everyone thought she was. About the only non-evil cartoon characters who can get away with being green are certain superheroes, and they have to be a bold primary green that wouldn't fit into the color scheme of any MLP incarnation.
-Tabby
the princess with claws
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According to my summer students, green is associated with boogers. At least, that's the word from today's sixth-graders.
I still love Minty, Fizzy, and Mimic, though, and my mom's favorite pony is Baby Frosting. We all love our booger ponies!
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Green's also a traditionally unlucky color onstage. There's all kinds of theories as to why, but I always thought the explanation that it's really hard to light made sense. Plus it's a really finicky tone, and the fact that we're all used to seeing Lyra in different colors proves it. I've got a Lyra, though she's still in her blister pack. She looks pretty green to me.
I'd like to see Minty brought back for something, if only because it would make so many people happy.
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I know from working with clay, that blue or blue green glazes. Are among the hardest to work with, the color is prone to wide variances. As well as being among the most expensive to produce. Because of the cobalt and other colorants added in. To give it the distinct blue and blue-ish colors.
G1 Sky Rocket is green? I've only seen them as an adult and the ones I've seen. Have been various shades of blue.
And of course people see colors differently. From appearance to what it means.
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I actually think Tabbyclaw is spot on as well - green tends to be used as a negative colour a lot of the time in some cartoons so perhaps thats a contributory factor.
While I don't doubt that many here had and have green as a favourite colour unfortunately its not a falsehood that it is unpopular with the target market. Having done the market research in order to design campaigns for this kind of market, it is judged to be one of the least popular colours along with browns, greys and navy blues [not black weirdly and not any other shade of blue]. For many it may seem superficial but companies spend serious money on this kind of research and it is continually proven that packaging and ad campaigns which most suit the demographics desires are sometimes more effective than selling the product than the product itself. If we have these guidelines for the packaging and campaigns, I am sure animators and toy designers have to work to a similar brief.
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Focus groups. I remember the g2 moulds were chosen because the Hasbro focus group children liked them best. I guess they must've picked any green ponies/alternatives as their least favorite
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Focus groups are also why we don't sea ponies from what I head. The lab rugrats thought the design was creepy.
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Green was my favorite color when I was little, but I was always too embarrassed to say so because it was a "boy color" :P So I said my favorite color was purple like all my friends even though purple has never been my favorite color XD Green fan all the way! ;)
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You know, all this discussion about green ponies make me want a green booger/slime pony! XD lol that remindes me of the Darkwing Duck episode where Gosalyn gets turned into living green goo! Best ep ever!
Truthfully, green is a hard color to work with, as an artist I can attest to that. It can look beautiful if you chose the right tone and the right accompanying colors, but if you are not experienced with greens attributes it easily becomes shrieky. But Hasbroken surely got people who knows how colors work so I doubt they will blame that.
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Tootsie was the color of mucus. She never appeared on television (perhaps her color is why) and the UK comic typically drew her in a more yellow color.
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Tuneful was also a dark green on MLP Tales and there were several G3 ponies outside the movies that were green I recall.
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I know from working with clay, that blue or blue green glazes. Are among the hardest to work with, the color is prone to wide variances. As well as being among the most expensive to produce. Because of the cobalt and other colorants added in. To give it the distinct blue and blue-ish colors.
G1 Sky Rocket is green? I've only seen them as an adult and the ones I've seen. Have been various shades of blue.
And of course people see colors differently. From appearance to what it means.
Umm i've had a G1 Sky Rocket since i was a kid, i remember opening her for christmas and she has always been blue...very blue.... i didnt know some of them look green?
i think the green thing just goes with the whole girls like pink thing... kinda like how celestia was pink for so long they thought little girls wanted pink ponies over white or any other color. but even my kids thought she should be white and were mad that she had a sun burn lol
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I think it's because it's not marketable to little girls. I am sure Hasbro has done plenty of studies to see which colors sell the best. And studies have probably shown green doesn't do very well. Hasbro doesn't even make that many red ponies either. I think kids also associate green with vegetables lol
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What happened to pink and green being a popular color combination? I've seen lots of little girls that love the two together and seeing as it's typically a lighter, pastel green that gets put together with pink, the green would fit right in with ponies.
Now that I think about it, there aren't many green characters that a aimed at little girls. The most popular ones that come to mind are Green Lantern, the Hulk, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I suppose there is Buttercup from the Powerpuff Girls but she's from the 90's so I guess she wouldn't be too popular with today's kids :huh: Oh and then there's Tinkerbell. She seems to be popular with little girls seeing as she got a couple of movies and she even has a doll line. But I guess it's just that people don't think little girls like green.
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It's so sad!
I want to see more ponies the same shade as Baby Splash!! :D
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Yeah is more likely that Habro thinks that girls only like pink, that's why I admire how Mattel pushes a lot green in their Monster High line mostly wit Frankie and that's a proof that little girls also like green. ^.^
I agree that tales Bright Eyes is green, she is the same color as Princess Serena ;)
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But MH is geared at a much older audience than MLP - a market which has a darker and wider palette choice.
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I will buy all the pink and green ponies!!! (Erm, within my budget...sorry, Nirvana Green Lickety-Split!)
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Probably because the target audience.
HASBRO LOGIC:
A lot of kids don't like their vegetables.
Vegetables are associated with green.
Green ponies = veggie ponies.
Little girls no likey.
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I wonder what kind of sample size the focus groups give them. If there are children who like pinks and purples and children who like those but would also like to see more greens and blues but your group only includes the first catagory, then that will be your answer.
It comes up every time this kind of thread is made, but there is the element of how much little girls love pink vs. how much they are taught to like it because so much of limited choices.
I wonder, how did Lyra do with the kids, anyway? Cherry Berry and Sunny Rays were the two I saw left on the shelves the most here, but there is the adult fan factor.
The green pony vs. background thing makes sense to me, so I wouldn't expect a major character to be green, but I'd like to see them pop up in the toy line every now and then. I don't think Hasbro is majorly concerned with how the toys will look them they are older, given that they use a pink that fades, tinsel that goes all wierd and crinkley with styling and see-through ponies as late as G3 that are having plasticizer issues. (Sounds super harsh, but I think the toys are made more for the Now)
Green costing more in toys would make sense, but other companies manage with the green MH dolls, Zelfs and whatnot make me think that it might not be a big issue these days.
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Good point about MH dolls. It seems like monster crossovers are the rage and I don't think green is seen as a bad thing. But we can't stop companies from sticking to stereotypes.
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I've heard that green-themed characters are often considered "weird" or "wacky" or somesuchthing. Maybe green-dominant characters end up being less marketable for some reason?
green mario.
but seriously, I have thought this same thing about green ponies
specially G4s
why can't they make a pony with a green like leaper? or mimic? or minty?