My Thoughts to Hasbro on MLP

[Twilight Pink]

I am a mother to a six year old girl.  She keeps asking me "when will new ponies be out?" and all I have to offer her this year so far has been Sunset Shimmer, the promise of a few "blind bag" sized sets, MAYBE the Mrs. Cake and baby set, and the fan favorites set coming out this fall.  She's not into plushies, she wants brushable ponies with new looks/designs.  She is a patient little girl, but she'd rather have more available to buy NOW.  If I could find her something besides a core pony, she'd probably have it.  But I refuse to buy 5 or even 2-3 versions of the same few ponies.  Variety is the spice of life.  There are so many ponies on the show or even just made up that they could produce...

Send the letter, please.  Make copies or a petition and I'm sure many of us would willingly sign it.

Hasbro makes more blind bag ponies then they do actual, brushable ponies :/ its like it flipped: Previous generations actual pony figures-high, Molded figurines-low
G4 brushables-low, molded figures-high 

I am not in favour of the repeat characters again and again but unfortunately there are 2 factors which make this kind of technique popular with toy lines - 1) using cartoons as the focal advertising strategy with repeat characters who retailers demand are always available and 2) the fact toys in this price bracket are for many people disposable and cycle through much quicker than toys used to.

I kinda don't mind the repeat of the Mane 6 ponies because Hasbro is just giving me more ponies to customize  (heck, I need a Celestia mold and a Cadance mold told customize )

[banditpony]

There's no advantage of focusing the toys solely on the toys popular with bronies.

Quite honestly, if there was no advantage to it-- they wouldn't do it. The line would absolutely fail, they'd lose money, and they'd start with a new idea. For right now, their research indicates that this is where the line should be right now.

While there are a lot of repeats, which I think is very understandable...  they are going after people who might not "collect", and want their favorite show character. Maybe it's someone who just got into the show.  It would be very upsetting to me, if I was very attached to a character, and I couldn't go to the store to get her. (Like Applejack).  AND yet, people complain that they didn't get a FS Applejack, and they wished she was released again.

[gabumon]

I just wish Hasbro would give MLP the same treatment as their Transformers line, in two particular aspecs:

#1  Masterpiece Line:  They make these highly highly accurate Transformers specifically for collectors.  They are pricey, usually starting at $60 and up.

#2  Generations Line:  This is a line of cheaper Transformers that are based on prior lines (G1, G2) but get new treatment as new figures.   This line is for collectors, but also kids too.

They run these two lines concurrently with their latest releases ("G4s" of TFs).

Hasbro please do this with My Little Pony!  You're sitting on a pile of my Pony Money that I want to spend, but can't!

[rayedelsol]

I think the "running multiple lines" is the best idea I've heard yet. Although I collect dolls now, more than ponies, I see the advantage to having your "Mane 6" on the shelf at all times. These are the ponies the kids see on Saturday morning. These are the 6 your kiddo would "HAVE to have, Mommy!" I understand the need to have them on the shelves.

But I also really see the need to include other characters and sizes/styles!!! After you've got the Mane 6, then what??  I think the multiple lines idea would be a life-safer for this.

[Majesty]

Hasbro makes more blind bag ponies then they do actual, brushable ponies :/ its like it flipped: Previous generations actual pony figures-high, Molded figurines-low
G4 brushables-low, molded figures-high 

I know.  I can't understand why Hasbro has all these ideas for blind bags but still sticks to the mane 6 for brushables.  Why not turn the blind bags into actual ponies with brushable hair?  The reason is the bronies probably wouldn't like it and they would lose money as someone had already mentioned.  Hasbro wants to keep the bronies happy, not the collectors (or little girls for that matter).

[hathorcat]

I just wish Hasbro would give MLP the same treatment as their Transformers line, in two particular aspecs:

#1  Masterpiece Line:  They make these highly highly accurate Transformers specifically for collectors.  They are pricey, usually starting at $60 and up.

#2  Generations Line:  This is a line of cheaper Transformers that are based on prior lines (G1, G2) but get new treatment as new figures.   This line is for collectors, but also kids too.

They run these two lines concurrently with their latest releases ("G4s" of TFs).

Hasbro please do this with My Little Pony!  You're sitting on a pile of my Pony Money that I want to spend, but can't!

What always makes me wonder about #1 here, is that as collectors we were asked by Hasbro what our price point for "collectors" items was several years ago. The consensus at the time was $5-10 per item/pony.

I think too many collectors would rather pay $50 for Red Roses than $50 for a modern collectors item. And unfortunately I think Hasbro know that. I really do believe we are a very different market than a line like TF.

[banditpony]

We kinda had a start of another line that was geared toward collectors. Wasn't what those art ponies were? (Not sure that's the correct name, but like the Junko one).

I wanted to like those so bad, but I personally just wasn't into the G3 mold. But wouldn't we of seen more if they were a hit?

I also don't think Bronies are the main buyer of the main toyline. I think they are more interested in the stuff that Funko is spewing out. (From what I read, it seems like they like more show accurate toys, and do not like brushable hair).

[Twilight Pink]

We kinda had a start of another line that was geared toward collectors. Wasn't what those art ponies were? (Not sure that's the correct name, but like the Junko one).

I wanted to like those so bad, but I personally just wasn't into the G3 mold. But wouldn't we of seen more if they were a hit?

I also don't think Bronies are the main buyer of the main toyline. I think they are more interested in the stuff that Funko is spewing out. (From what I read, it seems like they like more show accurate toys, and do not like brushable hair).

That highly explains why there's more blind bags than brushables :/
Hasbro just needs to stop listening to bronies that whine about show accuracy in my opinion and spew out the brushables if they don't like it well...they needa deal with it 

[Majesty]

We kinda had a start of another line that was geared toward collectors. Wasn't what those art ponies were? (Not sure that's the correct name, but like the Junko one).

I wanted to like those so bad, but I personally just wasn't into the G3 mold. But wouldn't we of seen more if they were a hit?

I also don't think Bronies are the main buyer of the main toyline. I think they are more interested in the stuff that Funko is spewing out. (From what I read, it seems like they like more show accurate toys, and do not like brushable hair).

Yeah hasbro did the art ponies for collectors and stated that at one point that's who they were for.  Then, they stopped making them.

I thought I heard someone say here that blind bags were geared towards bronies too.  That's why you suddenly see them in stores that never used to sell MLP.  Plus, the have molded hair.

[banditpony]

I think blindbags are geared toward a general population. There are many sorts of other lines that have blind bags as well. They are cheap to produce, they somewhat offer variation, trading, and they also offer the ability to collect a set of things.

Nothing about them screams "Brony" to me (and I don't notice Bronies talking about them way too much). But, the figure set like the one with the cake babies-- where they are specific show characters... then those, maybe just a bit more. But really, everyone can enjoy them.

[Al-1701]

Let me clarify something.  How Hasbro is operating works for the short term.  However, it's going to come back to bite them in the long run when Friendship is Magic has run its course.  Many of the bronies will disappear when the show comes to an end and the decisions Hasbro made to cater to them will have not developed valued customers but just fed a short term craze.  Meanwhile they had snubbed collectors and the parents of little girls who are going to be there when Friendship is Magic is over.  Just because you do market research doesn't mean your research is correct particularly if you're only interested in short term gains.

[goddessofpeep]

Sadly, I think it's down to the numbers with Hasbro. 

First, Hasbro is the world's biggest toy manufacturer by a *wide* margin.  My husband has done some work for a toy company, and while he was there, he saw a chart or something that showed the market share of most of the major toy makers.  I always thought Mattel was on about equal footing with Hasbro with Barbie and all its popular lines.  It's not even close.  Hasbro had some really profitable lines to start with(GI Joe, Transformers, etc), and it's been buying up other toy companies for years.  It bought Kenner to get Star Wars, and it dominates the board game market.  It's so big, it's branched into owning its own tv network.  THAT'S how much money Hasbro has. 

Mattel treats its collectors right because they are a significant source of revenue.  They have to pay attention to their collectors because they really need them.  Hasbro pays attention to its most profitable collectors(Transformers, Star Wars, GI Joe).  The collector communities for those brands are huge, so they get the respect and the exclusive figures. 

MLP has always been a moderately successful brand, but not a run away hit, so we've always struggled to get Hasbro's attention.  Up until recently, it hasn't been one of their really big money makers.  Then the bronies came onto the scene in force, and they like to spend money.   Pony collectors are a very devoted, but very small community.  It's true that we each tend to buy a lot of ponies, but we just don't have the numbers.  We are outnumbered by at least 100 to 1 by the bronies, probably a lot more. 

If you want to see how badly we're outnumbered, just look at our main event(The My Little Pony Fair) vs. pretty much any of the many brony-centric events around the country.  I heard this year's Fair attendance was around 800(which is awesome that it's grown so much!), and it's been going on for 10 years and is the only big event we have in the USA.   Don't forget some of the people attending were probably bronies after the exclusive.   In comparison, there are LOTS of brony cons around the country, and 2000+ per convention is not unusual from what I've read.   I think I read about one convention with 10,000 in attendance, but I'm not sure that's true.  Still, the scope of the brony thing is staggering.   In the past couple years I've bumped into A LOT of bronies while just running errands.  I don't think I've just run into another MLP collector since I started collecting over 15 years ago.  It's true the bronies are easier to spot because it's easier to get tshirts with ponies on them now, but there just aren't that many pony collectors to begin with.

Hasbro will continue to listen to them as long as they continue to be a huge source of revenue.  Hasbro will probably continue to ignore what WE want whenever it conflicts with what the bronies want as long as the bronies have the numbers and the money.  We just aren't big enough to get Hasbro's attention.  Hasbro has done some items that were for collectors only, but they were usually pretty slow sellers.  The only thing at the SDCC Hasbro booth that you didn't have to wait in line for used to be the MLP figure for that year, and you'd see it sitting up on Hasbro's website for months afterwards before it sold out.  Last year's FIM pony was one of the first things to sell out every day.  It's not hard to see where the money is.   

We do get some benefit out of this.  Adult sized clothing for one, and a lot of the other merchandise that's geared towards adults is a nice benefit.  Sadly, whenever we diverge from what is popular in the brony community, we will probably get the short end of the stick.  If the brushables aren't popular with the bronies, Hasbro's going to cut back.  If the blind bags are, that's what's going to be produced.  I like the blind bags, but I really miss real ponies!

If the brony community ever shrinks or stops spending money, Hasbro might start looking in our direction again.  Until then, I'm not holding my breath, and I'll be spending my money on ebay getting G1s:p 

[shabbychicdee]

oh man i love your letter, nearly even bought a tear to my eye, yes agree full the gap, send the letter please.

i have loved these little things since the very first flat foot 6 and i love the g4 line but sadly it isn't doing half as well in NZ as the G3 toy line did, i hear other parents (non collectors themselves) buying for their kids, finding them boring, bad quality and the marketing for them here is shocking and i am so scared as i see the mlp aisles space getting thinner and thinner.

i have been sooooo eagerly awaiting the 30th anniversary since the beginning of the g4 line just to be slapped in the face with a dolly. no offense they are cute but really?, that is it.

[Al-1701]

The vast majority of the bronies will disappear when Friendship is Magic finishes up.  That's the problem.  Collectors might be smaller in number, but they're more likely to be there when it comes time for the next generation.  They also spend more money with Hasbro proper while bronies tend to buy more from the licensees.

[kirei_na_sakura]

Send the letter, please.  Make copies or a petition and I'm sure many of us would willingly sign it.

This!!