Hasbro Makes it Hard to be an adult MLP Collector

[achab1984]

I'm going to sort of disagree. I feel Hasbro is giving adult collectors more attention than they ever have... but I don't like it. I collected toys, not collectibles. KWIM?

I have to agree with spottedslug on this one also. If you look back just a few years there was not so much pony stuff. 

[CupidStrikes]

Personally, I would rather they spent more time developing the actual G4 toy line than worrying about making special super duper ponies directed at me, just because I'm an adult. I have a wall of ponies directed and made for children, why does putting the word adult behind it make a difference to me as a long time MLP collector?

I have nothing against special edition ponies but I just do not buy every single pony anymore because it's a re-release of the same thing over and over.

I agree. If there was more available variety, rather than just the same old mane six all the time, then I think both children and adults would be happy as they could both expand their herds, and the increased availability of non-mane six characters would mean that they wouldn't be so hard to get hold of and sell for so much online.

[sweetstuff]

I'm probably echoing everyone else here, but first of all - back when G1 came out, it was a girls toy. There wasn't any adult collectors/fanbase. However when G1 Transformers came out - there were adults that bought them and collected them (same with Star Wars).

I think the problem is Hasbro really has no clue how to market MLP. G1 was short lived in the US when you think about other toy lines. G2 was even shorter. I think G3 started off on the right foot, but then they got into the whole Mane Core thing and decided Pinkie Pie was now the official MLP mascot and that went down hill.

I was thrilled for the Anniversary ponies because they were anniversary, but I never ever saw the Rainbow Ponies in any store and only managed to find the full set of the collectors pose.

I loved the art ponies and I was willing to buy them because they were different. I didn't think they were outrageously priced (compared to the "exclusives" for the G4)

So then g4 came out and somewhere somehow it become all about these Bronies. How when why, I don't even pretend to understand. I'm not saying MLP is only a girls toy, but I have issues with teen/young men telling me how ponies are supposed to be. What toys are supposed to be, what merch I should see in stores, how tv characters personalities are supposed to be. I also have issues with the fact that I have a 3 year old daughter who loves the show and who loves the few ponies she has and how sad she gets when we find blind bags that are torn open ever time we are at Walmart and Target, how ponies are ripped out of boxes or the shelves are empty because certain people feel they can do that because the show is so popular and in their minds kids shouldn't have them.

fact is fact - it's a *toy* line with a cartoon.

Now, I'd say a good majority of us are "adult" collectors because we had g1 as a child and we loved those ponies and we love that we have people who are as obsessed with MLP as we are. We liked the other generations for the way it reminded us of our childhood. We buy the current G4 because we have kids that love it or because "hey it's ponies".

I guess it bothers me that the line is lacking in variety. I'm used to lots of ponies. We didn't have 100 versions of Cotton Candy when I was kid. It also bothers me that somewhere someone in Hasbro HQ thinks that it's a good idea to have a gem encrusted light up pony for $50 because "it's a fan favorite". It's a statue, not a MLP toy IMO.

What I would love and would make me happy as a collector? First off better QC - and second. Make ponies Hasbro. Lots of ponies. Who cares if they are in the show or not. Ponies are meant for playing, for brushing, for pretending. Give my daughter ponies so she can play ponies, not PP's army of clones,.

[Ice Crystal]

yeah I wonder how the Takara relationship affects what TFs adult fans get.

Judging by MiRaja's post, I'm going to assume that Takara is to Transformers as Funko is to MLP.

To say the Funko line is not directed at adult fans would be silly. They are collector-quality, completely molded "show accurate" figures. A lot of G4-only fans complained about the lack of show accuracy in the main line of toys, complained about "HasbrOCs" (toy-only ponies), and out comes Funko with several quality figures based on fan favourite characters. It's definitely for adults, not kids, even if they are selling them at TRU now -- for a while you could only get them at Hot Topic and some Barnes & Noble stores, not exactly kid hangouts. And unfortunately it seems that Funko is more diverse than the Hasbro line these days, which isn't fair to kids or their parents.

[CoonhoundBetty]

So then g4 came out and somewhere somehow it become all about these Bronies. How when why, I don't even pretend to understand. I'm not saying MLP is only a girls toy, but I have issues with teen/young men telling me how ponies are supposed to be. What toys are supposed to be, what merch I should see in stores, how tv characters personalities are supposed to be. I also have issues with the fact that I have a 3 year old daughter who loves the show and who loves the few ponies she has and how sad she gets when we find blind bags that are torn open ever time we are at Walmart and Target, how ponies are ripped out of boxes or the shelves are empty because certain people feel they can do that because the show is so popular and in their minds kids shouldn't have them.

fact is fact - it's a *toy* line with a cartoon.

Now, I'd say a good majority of us are "adult" collectors because we had g1 as a child and we loved those ponies and we love that we have people who are as obsessed with MLP as we are. We liked the other generations for the way it reminded us of our childhood. We buy the current G4 because we have kids that love it or because "hey it's ponies".

I guess it bothers me that the line is lacking in variety. I'm used to lots of ponies. We didn't have 100 versions of Cotton Candy when I was kid. It also bothers me that somewhere someone in Hasbro HQ thinks that it's a good idea to have a gem encrusted light up pony for $50 because "it's a fan favorite". It's a statue, not a MLP toy IMO.

What I would love and would make me happy as a collector? First off better QC - and second. Make ponies Hasbro. Lots of ponies. Who cares if they are in the show or not. Ponies are meant for playing, for brushing, for pretending. Give my daughter ponies so she can play ponies, not PP's army of clones,.

AMEN!

My 4yo and your 3yo would get along smashingly!

[elish2]

I completely agree with Sweetstuff!!!

I do not think that we as collectors care that it is marketed to kids or adults...we just see ponies. That is why we are wanting more than the mane 6 characters, because we something new to buy. I personally do not care if I have an adult line to buy from. I buy the kids toys because they are MLP and that is what I love. Truth be told I would rather buy a $5 kids MLP toy than a $50 we designed it for an adult show piece. I do love the exclusive comic con toys and do own them, but I can't afford a continual $50 exclusive for adults...

Truth be told, I do not like the FiM Cartoon series at all. My 5 and 4 year old girls are banned from watching them. I feel that more and more "kids" shows are starting to become all adultesq. But I have bought my girls all the different ponies because, like Bonnie Zacherle told me, "It is all about a girl and her pony", and I couldn't agree more with that sentiment.

I buy G1 ponies because I had them, and I let me kids play with them, because they love them (unless they are really rare ponies, then mommy keeps them). I have G3 Ponies because I love the way they look and the variety...my girls have some too. I bought the g4 for my girls, because let's face it, they are the only MLPs available in stores that I can still get reasonably. If I could buy g1 I would rather do that. I still would love to see more variety, because I look at some of the sets and go, "nope my girls already HAVE those ponies" and like I tell my girls we do not need multiples of all the same ponies. If they had new ones I would be more than willing to add them to our collection.

[MiRaja]

yeah I wonder how the Takara relationship affects what TFs adult fans get.

Judging by MiRaja's post, I'm going to assume that Takara is to Transformers as Funko is to MLP.

To say the Funko line is not directed at adult fans would be silly. They are collector-quality, completely molded "show accurate" figures. A lot of G4-only fans complained about the lack of show accuracy in the main line of toys, complained about "HasbrOCs" (toy-only ponies), and out comes Funko with several quality figures based on fan favourite characters. It's definitely for adults, not kids, even if they are selling them at TRU now -- for a while you could only get them at Hot Topic and some Barnes & Noble stores, not exactly kid hangouts. And unfortunately it seems that Funko is more diverse than the Hasbro line these days, which isn't fair to kids or their parents.

That is not an accurate comparison.  Takara is a Japanese toy company that's been around for years.  They started producing transformable robot pre-transformers.  Not just in Japan, but a lot of these toys were produced for the Italian market.  The pride of my collection of TF ( which is really small, but whatever ) is one of these.  He's literally the same toy that would become Jazz, but he's from several years earlier than when Transformers came in.  It was then that Hasbro started licensing for the toys from Takara and other companies to produce a line.  ( Note: Takara made up the majority of the figures.  Other ones like Shockwave and Skyfire ( A Veritech toy, originally, from Macross!) came from other toy companies. )  They then produced the biggest commercial ever for a toy line, that being the original G1 Transformers cartoon.  Transformers actually becomes super popular even in Japan, and continues to do so, which leads to several Japan-only tv releases, and lots of Japan-only toys.  Takara makes boatloads.  And they continue to make lots of toys for both kids and collectors, some of which Hasbro decides to pick up and others not.  Like the Binaltech to Alternators, and then the Transformers Universe line was almost entirely all Takara remolds.  I'm not sure of the exact number with Generations as I stepped out the fandom during that time, but I'm guessing those are likely Takara too.  I was never into TF Animated, but I think they had a company in Japan make those, not Takara I think, but I could be wrong.

Also, Takara should be a familiar name.  Hasbro granted them rights to make their own My Little Pony line in Japan in the 80's.   

[Ice Crystal]

yeah I wonder how the Takara relationship affects what TFs adult fans get.

Judging by MiRaja's post, I'm going to assume that Takara is to Transformers as Funko is to MLP.

To say the Funko line is not directed at adult fans would be silly. They are collector-quality, completely molded "show accurate" figures. A lot of G4-only fans complained about the lack of show accuracy in the main line of toys, complained about "HasbrOCs" (toy-only ponies), and out comes Funko with several quality figures based on fan favourite characters. It's definitely for adults, not kids, even if they are selling them at TRU now -- for a while you could only get them at Hot Topic and some Barnes & Noble stores, not exactly kid hangouts. And unfortunately it seems that Funko is more diverse than the Hasbro line these days, which isn't fair to kids or their parents.

That is not an accurate comparison.  Takara is a Japanese toy company that's been around for years.  They started producing transformable robot pre-transformers.  Not just in Japan, but a lot of these toys were produced for the Italian market.  The pride of my collection of TF ( which is really small, but whatever ) is one of these.  He's literally the same toy that would become Jazz, but he's from several years earlier than when Transformers came in.  It was then that Hasbro started licensing for the toys from Takara and other companies to produce a line.  ( Note: Takara made up the majority of the figures.  Other ones like Shockwave and Skyfire ( A Veritech toy, originally, from Macross!) came from other toy companies. )  They then produced the biggest commercial ever for a toy line, that being the original G1 Transformers cartoon.  Transformers actually becomes super popular even in Japan, and continues to do so, which leads to several Japan-only tv releases, and lots of Japan-only toys.  Takara makes boatloads.  And they continue to make lots of toys for both kids and collectors, some of which Hasbro decides to pick up and others not.  Like the Binaltech to Alternators, and then the Transformers Universe line was almost entirely all Takara remolds.  I'm not sure of the exact number with Generations as I stepped out the fandom during that time, but I'm guessing those are likely Takara too.  I was never into TF Animated, but I think they had a company in Japan make those, not Takara I think, but I could be wrong.

Also, Takara should be a familiar name.  Hasbro granted them rights to make their own My Little Pony line in Japan in the 80's.   

My apologies then. I am very familiar with Takara from other toy lines I collect/ed but I know nothing about Transformers haha. Judging from your original post I assumed they were responsible for producing most of the current "adult collectible" Transformers, much like what Funko does for MLP.

[Tirac]

You know what we need? We need a token celebrity.
If we had someone famous with a lot of money and publicity as a MLP collector, Hasbro would be more likely to take notice, and the MLP collecting group would be more likely to grow.
I've always considered Hasbro's "girl toy marketing" to be crappy in comparison to their one for boys. It might be though because they make more money from the male oriented toylines than female ones though.
I will agree about the size of the Transformers fanbase though. It's huge compared to MLP.

[vortex1310]

This is definitely an interesting topic and one I've been thinking about for some time.

I agree with the sentiment that I don't necessarily need a special adult collector pony. It's most likely going to be a G4 fan favorite anyways which I don't have much interest in. I am grateful that the G4 brushable line doesn't exactly match the show look too significantly so they still look like "just ponies" to me.

But I do think the huge runs of the same character is stiffling. I don't mind that Hasbro wants the core group on the shelves but it'd be wonderful for kids and adults to have different ponies on the shelf alongside them. It's always disappointing to browse the toy aisles for months and see only 6 ponies being re-released and perhaps one (Sunshimmer) thrown in as a side note.

I have to say I even prefer the "Bore 7" to the current selection of ponies. At least when they re-released characters they would add leg fading, extra symbol details, a theme of some kind. But these new G4s are so tiny that when something is re-released there is barely any difference between the other releases, making it hard to justify purchasing essentially the same pony again.

I fully understand the bottom line is money. It costs more to develop, design, and produce more characters, especially if they can presently justify not soing so with all the new MLP line collectors. Why spend more money when you can "skate by"?
But my answer to that would be to keep a line, that has an immensely successful head start, going strong. Ponies are to play with (child or adult) and having more ponies promotes imaginative play to make up *your own* personalities for them rather than the canned personalities they give the show characters.

This will never happen but I just wanted to share, I'm of the opinion that they should re-launch the G1 line but with a new sculpt. Get a great designer to "update" their look but stay true to those big thoughtful eyes, decent sized snouts, and round bottoms! Lol!

So I guess in conclusion, more ponies please! More experimentation! G1 and G3 variety s'il vous plait!

[Pepinoreno]

I'm probably echoing everyone else here, but first of all - back when G1 came out, it was a girls toy. There wasn't any adult collectors/fanbase. However when G1 Transformers came out - there were adults that bought them and collected them (same with Star Wars).

I think the problem is Hasbro really has no clue how to market MLP. G1 was short lived in the US when you think about other toy lines. G2 was even shorter. I think G3 started off on the right foot, but then they got into the whole Mane Core thing and decided Pinkie Pie was now the official MLP mascot and that went down hill.

I was thrilled for the Anniversary ponies because they were anniversary, but I never ever saw the Rainbow Ponies in any store and only managed to find the full set of the collectors pose.

I loved the art ponies and I was willing to buy them because they were different. I didn't think they were outrageously priced (compared to the "exclusives" for the G4)

So then g4 came out and somewhere somehow it become all about these Bronies. How when why, I don't even pretend to understand. I'm not saying MLP is only a girls toy, but I have issues with teen/young men telling me how ponies are supposed to be. What toys are supposed to be, what merch I should see in stores, how tv characters personalities are supposed to be. I also have issues with the fact that I have a 3 year old daughter who loves the show and who loves the few ponies she has and how sad she gets when we find blind bags that are torn open ever time we are at Walmart and Target, how ponies are ripped out of boxes or the shelves are empty because certain people feel they can do that because the show is so popular and in their minds kids shouldn't have them.

fact is fact - it's a *toy* line with a cartoon.

Now, I'd say a good majority of us are "adult" collectors because we had g1 as a child and we loved those ponies and we love that we have people who are as obsessed with MLP as we are. We liked the other generations for the way it reminded us of our childhood. We buy the current G4 because we have kids that love it or because "hey it's ponies".

I guess it bothers me that the line is lacking in variety. I'm used to lots of ponies. We didn't have 100 versions of Cotton Candy when I was kid. It also bothers me that somewhere someone in Hasbro HQ thinks that it's a good idea to have a gem encrusted light up pony for $50 because "it's a fan favorite". It's a statue, not a MLP toy IMO.

What I would love and would make me happy as a collector? First off better QC - and second. Make ponies Hasbro. Lots of ponies. Who cares if they are in the show or not. Ponies are meant for playing, for brushing, for pretending. Give my daughter ponies so she can play ponies, not PP's army of clones,.

Its like you read my mind! I couldn't have said it better!

[lovesbabysquirmy]

You know what we need? We need a token celebrity.
If we had someone famous with a lot of money and publicity as a MLP collector, Hasbro would be more likely to take notice, and the MLP collecting group would be more likely to grow.

Celebrities we know of who collect MLP:

Beyoncé
Paris Hilton

Okay, that is NOT improving matters...  ;D

[Tirac]

You know what we need? We need a token celebrity.
If we had someone famous with a lot of money and publicity as a MLP collector, Hasbro would be more likely to take notice, and the MLP collecting group would be more likely to grow.

Celebrities we know of who collect MLP:

Beyoncé
Paris Hilton

Okay, that is NOT improving matters...  ;D

Really? :O
I never really paid attention to either of those celebrities, but cool.

[Shiromisa]

You know what we need? We need a token celebrity.
If we had someone famous with a lot of money and publicity as a MLP collector, Hasbro would be more likely to take notice, and the MLP collecting group would be more likely to grow.

Celebrities we know of who collect MLP:

Beyoncé
Paris Hilton

Okay, that is NOT improving matters...  ;D

Dude! I actually have a bit of a soft spot for Paris. For one thing, she's in my favorite movie and did damn well in it. She's also obviously much smarter than she likes to seem, and jokes about herself often. Now ponies?! Too cool.

[prancingstag]

Celebrities we know of who collect MLP:

Beyoncé
Paris Hilton

Okay, that is NOT improving matters...  ;D

Maybe that explains the glitter-bombed Swarovski-encrusted SDCC exclusives? And DJ's light-up stage box?!

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Now all the pieces fall into place! Beyoncé was the target audience this year.