why is celestia white in the show but pink in the toys?

[Stormpony6]

i find it kinda wierd. does anyone know why, its kinda strange to have her white in the show but then all the toys that are released she is pink what the?

[hathorcat]

I believe when the uproar started on this when the toy was released...the line from HB was a combination of the "retailers would only buy a little girl toy which is pink" [which sounds ever so slightly like a way to off load blame] and "pink sells better in a toy line to this age group" [which I am inclined to believe more].

I really don't think there is anything overly complicated about it - its a toy manufactured and marketed to little girls. Is it stereotyping to think girls = pink and boys = blue? Yes...but check out any toy aisle in any shop to see the pinks and purples and yellows on one side and the blues and greens and browns on the other. I work in advertising and the amount of money which will have been put into product design and research for this line will have been crazy - with the end conclusion that pink sells to the market they are after.

Personally I like pink! I am a girly girl though so it works for me...but I know its a contentious issue for a lot of people.

At least to the people who it matters to, there will be the white Celestia @ TRU later in the year! Maybe thats what we should focus on - HB listened and it looks like they are going to deliver!

[partypony566]

I like pink too but I must admit I was gutted when I saw the actual toy wasn't white! I cannot wait for the white version of her is on sale! I want a whole army of them

[Dragonflitter]

I remember when the show first came out there was a blog post made on a popular site about women's trends that said MLP FiM was racist. Because the ruler was white and all powerful, and her 'guards' were black (and also 'evil' Nightmare Moon was black). The blogger said we were teaching children that black people can only be slaves or villains while the white people are always in position of power, and the blogger also made a lot of nasty implications about teaching children that learning is bad and making lots of friends is the only thing that matters (because the first episode deals with Twilight Sparkle 'putting down books and making friends') and also that Rainbow Dash was an implied lesbian, blah blah blah.

Lauren Faust herself even came out and made a blog post in response to this person, because she was so offended about what was being said about her creations.

I always assumed that because of this big online fiasco, Hasbro thought pink would be better for Celestia rather than white, but I dunno, I think that was just my assumption linking the two events together lol.

Post Merge: May 09, 2012, 07:30:54 AM

Original article from Ms Magazine:

http://msmagazine.com/blog/blog/2010/12/09/my-little-homophobic-racist-smarts-shaming-pony/

Lauren Faust response:

http://msmagazine.com/blog/blog/2010/12/24/my-little-non-homophobic-non-racist-non-smart-shaming-pony-a-rebuttal/

[PonyPancake]

It was because the retailers requested Celestia to be pink so she would sell more. However, a white Celestia is coming to TRU this fall.

[Dragonflitter]

I dunno, a lot of people are saying "They made her pink because pink sells better" but I don't know if I believe that theory. Firstly, Hasbro has a long tradition of liking white bodied ponies. In fact, there are almost more white G3's than there are pink G3's! (Pink is most common color, white is a close second.) There are also tons of white G1's, especially unicorns.

Second, why just Celestia? There ARE white G4's. Is it because she is a central character who would be seen on the show regularly? But Rarity has never shown to be a pink pony! Yet Celestia is consistently pink, in all 4 or more of her releases (including the McDonalds Celestia toy and all the ones with molded hair, as well as the large talking one).

Yeah I could see making her pink for the large talking one, as that is one toy that stands out on the shelves when little girls walk down the 'girl' aisle of the toystore. Hasbro could want the first MLP they see to be a big pink one. But why make ALL her releases pink, even the McD toy?

Hmm, a guess: Maybe her original design was going to be pink and Lauren Faust was able to change the character design to white for the production of the show, but the original design was preferred by the Hasbro toy team so they left it pink for the toys? Who knows!

[Opalescence]

It's kinda sad that the inaccurate toy made an already unpopular character even more unpopular.
She should be white with pink details/whatever it's called to emulate her pinkish outline in the cartoon. But entirely white is probably the best we can get.

[mlpfan]

i like the white celestia,

[lovesbabysquirmy]

Because she's the Princess!  And Princesses are stereo-typically PINK!  ;D  Did they need another reason besides the stereotype?

[LadyMoondancer]

Basically the same reason Swiftwind (She-Ra's horse) was white in the show and pink in toy form. 


I find it disappointing because, to me, there is just something classic about a white unicorn.  (Or in this case winged unicorn, but still.)  Also because she looks stunning with a white coat and just kind of "bleeeeh meh" in pink.   They also gave her hair colors that were totally off, go Hasbro.


I don't think it had anything to do with that blog article.  Hasbro probably never even saw it.


Okay, kind of funny sidenote . . . I did a quick google search to make sure I was remembering Swiftwind's name right, and I came across [size=78%]t[/size]his She-Ra message board post about how Mattel was going to remake Swiftwind and were letting fans vote on if they wanted it to be "classic" Swiftwind (pink body) or "royal" Swiftwind (white body).


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And most of the comments were things like "white!  Please, white!" 


Edit:  And it looks like they got their wish!


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[Dragonflitter]

o.0 What stereotypical princesses are you referring to? G1 MLP Princesses? Disney Princesses?

Looking at Disney art right now, each princess has her own color scheme... the only really pink one is Aurora from Sleeping Beauty. Cinderella is baby blue, Tiana is spring green, Rapunzel is lavender, Belle is yellow, Jasmine is cyan... There is not really a "predominantly pink" vibe from the Disney lines at all.

Actually now that I think of it, the last time I was in the toy aisle, I noticed most other girls toys are NOT as pink as the MLP line! I've actually trained my eye to find the bright pink boxes of the G4's specifically because they stand out so much against the other packaging of the 'girl' aisle. Most other girl toy boxes do have pink on them but they're not ALL bright hot pink like the MLP toy boxes are.

Perhaps that is the reason they choose Celestia to be pink instead of white? Maybe Hasbro intends to use pink as 'their' color so they over-saturate their pony line with this color on purpose.

[Bag of Magic Food]

Looking at Disney art right now, each princess has her own color scheme... the only really pink one is Aurora from Sleeping Beauty.

And that might only be to set her apart from Cinderella, since in the movie, Merriweather turned Aurora's dress blue half the time.   

[Faerie-StarV]

I've wondered that myself and I remembered that 'pink will sell better than the white' reason. Pink is not bad on Celestia but I prefer her being white. On the plus side, at least she's got a variation like the G1's have. Remember Ember and that she came in three colors; pink, purple, and blue? Little girls loved it for having three different color options and it works out for other girls.
If I could recall, Majesty didn't have a pink body nor pink hair since she was released as white body with blue hair and girls loved it. :3

[butterflybuttons]

Sadly, the stereotype that little girls like pink more is true. My two year old girl loves pink it is her favorite colour, even though I've always encouraged her to like other colours besides pink (I'm not very fond of pink)

So that reasoning is correct. Personally I can't wait to see the white celestia!

[babystarz]

Because Hasbro is silly! I kind of wonder if this was a result of poor communication between their cartoon branch and the toy merchandising branch of their company. It's happened before. Also they probably hadn't realized by that point how many fans would be bronies and want the toys to be show-accurate. I think they've started paying more attention to this since then.