Separate releases / Country exclusives [MERGED]

[Esbayne]

I mean, I get that Hasbro does country exclusives and they have variants for different countries, especially in G1- But why? What are the reasons behind this? Why wouldn't exclusives just be international, and what causes weird color variants or molds (like piggies) to come into play? Not to mention how every country has their own McDonald's set (or so it seems), when the two franchises, McDonalds and Hasbro, are the same regardless of country?

I'm wondering.

[hathorcat]

Its because releases are not all set by Hasbro US. Every country that carries Hasbro toys has a Hasbro subsidiary - sometimes those are actual Hasbro companies and sometimes they are third parties. Sometimes Hasbro subs cover a wide range of countries and some weird combinations of countries. Its those Hasbro subs that decide what is applicable for their market.

It really is the best way to operate. In this multi national world, it is impractical for Hasbro US to know what retailers in every single country in the world want to carry, to know what local market trends are, to know what suits a market or what may be inappropriate in a market. Therefore local Hasbro subs work with core lines that they can carry but they also have the flexibility to order lines that suit their specific market (sometimes you see Hasbro US then go on to take up that line - i.e. blind bags).

As for things like nirvanas; those are third party licensees who bought the "license" to sell MLP toys; they then worked to create as close a version as they could (or as they wished) within the licensing guide lines. Obviously for their own marketing reasons, creating their own sets etc (again depending on local markets...look at the lack of unicorns in Brazil) there was a lot of variation.

[ValeofSpring]

Hathorcat--This is very enlightening! I've always wondered why for instance Argentina didn't just get the US ponies. I assumed the somewhat low quality of some of the international ponies (Central/South American, Italy, etc.) had to do with the ponies needing to be produced and sold less expensively there.

[shimmlight]

Maybe this is a really obvious question, but I was thinking earlier and wondered why there were country exclusive ponies in G1. For example, ponies like the mountain boys and the rollerskate ponies were UK exclusives, and many other G1's were exclusive to the USA. Why was this? I would have thought that it would have been easier to have the same ponies going to different countries instead of making separate ponies for each? Was it cultural differences or something? I can't quite pinpoint what it might have been.

[Merging with existing identical topic ~ Kiwi]

[hathorcat]

Hathorcat--This is very enlightening! I've always wondered why for instance Argentina didn't just get the US ponies. I assumed the somewhat low quality of some of the international ponies (Central/South American, Italy, etc.) had to do with the ponies needing to be produced and sold less expensively there.

That is no doubt part of it. The Hasbro licensee in each country was manufacturing within their own factories (or suppliers factories) - while they would be using Hasbro supplied moulds; the manufacture process, how they extrude the plastic and convert the finished item will be down to their materials, their suppliers and their processes. No doubt why we see so much variety.