We are all going about this the wrong way!!!

[BigBrotherPony]

Hi everypony,

I have just had an idea... We are going about this the wrong way!

We all want My Little Pony to survive don't we, we all want variety brought back into the line, we all want to spend our money on something other than the main six.


HASBRO do not listen to us directly.... But who would they listen too! Their retailers!!!!!

In stead of us wasting our time sending mails to Hasbro on what we do and don't want, and have our comments fall on deaf ears. We should instead be writing to the people in power... The head Girls Toy Buyer at Toys-r-us, Target and Walmart.... Even if we only manage to get one of those to listen , it would be a huge step for in terms of making a change, they are so influential that HASBRO have to listen.


Obviously little individual mails to individual stores won't cut
it we would need to go to the Top in mass!  And send a very clear picture of what we would buy, but at the same time be realistic....we should not suggest things that are too far out there that may be boarder line on whether little girls will want to buy it or not.

I think the one thing we are lacking is variety, of just even basic brushable ponies etc. I think there is so much stuff in the TV show that HASBRO are just missing the point on.

I think retailers aren't generally impressed with MLP at the moment, you can clearly see this in stores by the amount of shelf space allocated to a line. If something is selling well, they will give it more shelf space and have more products available.  MLP sections are pitifully small in most stores at the moment so they can't be flying off the shelves.


What do retailers want? To sell products! What do we want to do? Spend money on ponies, help make the brand we love thrive again.


I think it would be great if we could all pull together, and create a pony retail revolution, by sending an aligned message to the head buyer of each of these retailers. And we all
need to agree on what we should push for that is realistic, we could send them to a link on a thread here kind of like a petition.. But we would actually have to make sure our overall message is clear and it is not a thread filled with conflicting ideas, or unrealistic wishes... So it is probably best at this stage not to throw things like Sea Ponies into the mix as we know something like that is a huge leap away from the core line and would not be taken seriously!

I would love to head something like this up, but unfortunately I can't due to who I am employed by. But I care so deeply about this line that I just wanted to plant the seed.

Is there anyone out there who would like to give this a shot and head something like this up! All it wil take is one person who believes in this so much, and is prepared to put some time in and deal with professionally , I'm sure if one person would like to do that then we would all get behind this and do what we can to help!:)

Thanks

BBP

[Diamond]

Interesting idea, boycotts of products and stores has been tried before.  G4 at the moment is getting more characters then the end of the G3 line when they went bore 7 so I think it is a little soon to be going they are ending.

Also we are not the target audience for the ponies, as much as we would sometimes like to think we are.  Children are, children who in today's market do not stay with products as long as they did 5, 10, 15 or 20 years ago.  Hence the lack of variety to most lines.  So even if we say do not shop at Target, there are parents who are going to, so we do not make as much of a splash as you hope for.

As to the shelf space, many retail chains are doing resets, getting ready for spring and Easter so often that will affect what is out.  Also for many chains they have just finished there calendar year, and inventory's which will also affect how much stock they have on hand.

[lovesbabysquirmy]

It's a great idea.  The trouble is getting the letters to the right person.  Many of these people are kept private from the general public for this very reason.  :-p

[LadyMoondancer]

I like this idea! 

Sure, we aren't the target audience for MLP, but I remember what I wanted as a kid.   Blue was my favorite color as a kid, but I often chose ponies of other colors from the store because I wanted a diverse herd of ponies.   And I wanted a lot of different characters, no duplicates.  If I had straight-haired Firefly, I wasn't interested in curly-haired Firefly . . . they were the same pony as far as I was concerned, and I would much rather choose Medley or Applejack instead of Firefly #2.   

I have a hard time believing the kids of today want 30 Pinkie Pies instead of a variety of ponies.   They might want one of each main character, sure, but that's only six ponies.   Most little girls had more than six ponies in the 80s. 

[tulagirl]

Take it one step further and have children write the letters. They could care less about adults.  Its a toy for a kid and that is what the market is aimed at...not the adult collectors.  So send in a bunch of letters written by kids and presto you might just have a chance.

[n66x]

I think what we don't understand is that in the old days the creativity for the MLP toys would come first and then the MLP cartoons were a way to market these toys and connect with the children watching them so they would rush and buy the toys..nowadays the tables have turned, hasbro is a bit tied up/confused with what they should do with the sudden success of the MLP:FIM animation to a more mature audience. They still want to target their line to children yet they have all these adult people trashing them why princess celestia isn't white or why applejack's hat isn't brown etc...no wonder we don't see many new products if all they hear every time they release something new is how ugly(plushies) or how inaccurate it is. At the end of the day you have to remember these are not some limited accurate expensive toys from some fancy company that is targeting adult collectors but a fun loving company that creates cute stuff for kids..

 Also toys these days aren't as popular as they used to be, kids now grow up so fast and they prefer gifts such as ipads etc rather to dolls etc. not to mention hasbro has had the worst sale rates this year and it's been reported they're cutting down.

Also if you ask me G4 have a great appeal to me as an adult having that Japanese anime style going on but maybe i wouldn't find the toys just as cute if i was still a kid, my kid self would probably prefer G1 and G3 every day of the week cause i would perceive G4 as a bunch of fakies and not having that classic line quality..

[Dragonflitter]

A good idea but unless we somehow get this idea to reach outside the Arena, it's not going to do much... Because let's face it, the Arena is just a tiny little portion of the total number of MLP collectors out there, which is itself a tiiiiiny little portion of the total number of people who buy the G4 toys.

I agree that little girls (their target demographic) do not want 50 Pinkie Pies. But how do we get the word out there to tell these little girls (and their parents) about this idea and get them involved?

You could post a petition or something on the Hub or Hasbro facebook page, or post it on brony websites and message boards to spread the word ...but will that really help? Won't the majority of them just ignore (or, in the worst case, flame) an idea like this because they're not interested in the toys?

I think this would be a good idea if we could get more weight behind it, but I don't think there's enough collectors who care about the G4 line to make a difference, unfortunately, especially with the negative backlash from a lot of the G4 fan community in regards to the toys.

Case in point, I saw this post on a brony image blog recently:

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This just shows how they don't understand Hasbro or the toy market at all. Those pictures in this image would not be good toys for kids. Yes, they would be good figurines for an adult to display on a shelf. But good toys? No.

[RedKitsune]

I have to agree that even as a child, I would not want 50 something of the same character : / I wanted lots of ponies that were different. Unfortunately, I'm also in agreement that children need to be writing these letters, not adult collectors. We are just a tiny portion of the market.

The brony image of the fanmade toys is neat. I do not such high quality toys should only be intended for adult collectors. It is possible to make high quality toys and make them durable enough for kids. Hasbro's toy quality has gone way, way down from the 1980's. Also, give kids a little credit, even I would be able to tell at 6 years old my favorite character is supposed to be white, not pink..xP

[Galactica]

A good idea since it is the toy buyers not the manufacturer that dictates what will be sold-

So writing letters to the buyers may actually have some influence (whereas Hasbro doesn't care what you think, they only care what the Marts think)  - you can write that your kid wants them- which I agree would probably get more attention.

It is not hard to find the addresses of Girls Toys for Walmart, K-Mart, Target (the "marts" as they are called) - just go to linked in and do a search for "toy buyer".  I found a few in different areas and posted them in the thread about wanting Minty... 

[CupidStrikes]

I have to agree that even as a child, I would not want 50 something of the same character : / I wanted lots of ponies that were different. Unfortunately, I'm also in agreement that children need to be writing these letters, not adult collectors. We are just a tiny portion of the market.

The brony image of the fanmade toys is neat. I do not such high quality toys should only be intended for adult collectors. It is possible to make high quality toys and make them durable enough for kids. Hasbro's toy quality has gone way, way down from the 1980's. Also, give kids a little credit, even I would be able to tell at 6 years old my favorite character is supposed to be white, not pink..xP

This! I've also seen some complaints on Amazon, etc, from parents about their kids' disappointments that the ponies are the wrong colour, have the wrong hair, and have see several complaints about what the talking ponies say (eg, Celestia's lines being very out of character, and very self-centred). So it's definitely not just us being grumpy =P

[LadyMoondancer]

Well, a lot of people here have kids . . . Hey kids, who wants to do a LETTER WRITING FUNTIME PROJECT??? YAY!!!!

[partypony566]

Take it one step further and have children write the letters. They could care less about adults.  Its a toy for a kid and that is what the market is aimed at...not the adult collectors.  So send in a bunch of letters written by kids and presto you might just have a chance.

Agreed

[hathorcat]

A good idea but unless we somehow get this idea to reach outside the Arena, it's not going to do much... Because let's face it, the Arena is just a tiny little portion of the total number of MLP collectors out there, which is itself a tiiiiiny little portion of the total number of people who buy the G4 toys.

For me this ^ unfortunately. Although this is a wonderful idea.

We are a teeny tiny portion of the toy buying market. No matter how loud & high profile bronies get or how long & determined collectors have been, the fundamental truth is that the market for MLP is little girls. We are not and are not likely to be the core market for buyers. Especially national retail buyers whose job is to shift product - they are there to predict a market, buy cheap and sell big.

It's one thing to shout for different colours and different characters but when it comes down to a collectively writting a letter you will find lots of people want lots of different things - better quality, boys, sea ponies, bigger playsets [for a cheaper price] and so on. A lot of this is stuff will unfortunately wash off the backs of retailers and Hasbro - if such a "group letter" was to be addressed it would need to have a clear focus and pick up just one or two points. And those points would need to be such that they would not largely impinge on the end items being bought - i.e. brushable ponies in different characters fits the buying profile, extra playsets and show accurate figures would not.

It is a good point that shelf space for MLP is much smaller than it used to be...but that being said as a manufacturer it is possible to purchase aisle ends, eye level shelf space and promotional display space in store. For that though a manufacturer has to negotiate this with a retailer, pitch the product to a buyer as a big seller and most importantly pay money [through over riders or lower per product prices] in order to get that kind of attention. Although Hasbro did this at the start in stores like Tesco in the UK and most recently did something similar in the US with the Walmart displays, it doesnt seem to be something they have invested in at stores for some reason. 

Also its probably just me but I was thinking about the 50 Pinkie Pies argument and I wondered...as a little girl I had 3 Applejacks - 2 collectors pose and 1 shy pose - and honestly I didn't care that they looked the same. I was 5 years old and they were each a different My Little Pony to me. Although I am assured by my mum she did used to have the same conversation with relatives and school friends parents pre birthday or Christmas, the chances of ending up with duplicates were good. Yes as adults and sometimes as children variety is of importance but I personally dont recall it being a major no no to have the same pony again and again. So maybe Hasbro have a point...depressing thought but maybe they sell better and more with the same core characters as they do with multiple of different characters.

[rtattles]

Hmm I had 6 Sea Shimmers as a child. Don't blame me, they were birthday gifts from different people from different occasions. I still loved them all the same though!

[TrixieStix]

Take it one step further and have children write the letters. They could care less about adults.  Its a toy for a kid and that is what the market is aimed at...not the adult collectors.  So send in a bunch of letters written by kids and presto you might just have a chance.

It is a good idea but it would take a lot of children/parents and a lot of letters to do any good.

That SAID....

Let's just Andy Dufresne (Shawshank style) this thing! Write a letter every week from all those who can. Then up it to two letters a week. They'll want us to stop

I can totally see my nieces just writing letter after letter. Kids and parents are picky with their money and if Hasbro makes something pink and says silly things when she's actually a different color and quite intelligent...they won't want it.