Is anyone else really bored with G4?

[Star Spark]

In a word... YES!

At the risk of sounding like a broken record (I've brought it up a few times, but it really irks me as it does so many others) I'm sick of the same six characters and the only new ones being in expensive sets (that usually contain dupes of the Mane 6.) I don't have any interest in Equestria Girls dolls; I collect ponies and other animal figures (always have.) I would love to buy singles of new brushables (either those on the show outside of the Mane 6, call-backs to prior gens, or just unique looking original characters) but if Hasbro's not going to give me that option, my money is better spent elsewhere.

Sadly, our opinions generally don't matter, as adult collectors (bronies and non-bronies alike) aren't the target demographic. It'll only be when children and their parents stop buying these endless re-releases that anyone will notice, and even then it's a toss-up between whether Hasbro will correctly ascertain that the line needs more variety or will just assume that no one wants brushable ponies at all and end it entirely.

(On a related note, I was in TRU around the holidays and overheard a mother and young daughter talking in the pony aisle- the daughter wanted a set with Fluttershy in it and was adamant that she had a different amount of butterflies on her cutie mark and was thus "different" than what she already had; her mother assured her that they were identical and they left without buying anything.) 

[SeashellnBubbles]

All of this crap about ponies that aren't in the show...who CARES if they're in the damned show!? There were way more G1 ponies than were ever in the movies or TV shows and that didn't harm their sales at all! They were able to use a lot of the same mods but with different accents, like the TE ponies, TAf ponies, posey pose etc. I'm so sick of everyone always saying they have to be oriented to the show! It stifles children's natural creativity, just like they don't make regular amorphous Leggos now: they're all Star Wars or battle ships or whatever. I made a battleship out of Leggo when i was a kid...hell ya it looked like crap and was all kinds of different colors, but the ponies had some wicked battles against the Transformers and GI Joe on it! All it is is sheer laziness on Hasbro's part for not being more creatively broad in their designs and moulds. There. I said it.

[MorningGlorysParadise82]

For me I was sad to see the same 6 ponies on shelves when just 2 years ago they had like 12! I made a point to buy the masked sunset shimmer because she was NOT pinkie pie or twilight. My DD9 is really getting into ponys again but I am not buying her the same pony over and over. I wish she had gained this interest before now as buying her more would be easier...

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[HoustonCollector72]

Mrs Cakes , Minty and the new fillies


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[Al-1701]

All of this crap about ponies that aren't in the show...who CARES if they're in the damned show!? There were way more G1 ponies than were ever in the movies or TV shows and that didn't harm their sales at all! They were able to use a lot of the same mods but with different accents, like the TE ponies, TAf ponies, posey pose etc. I'm so sick of everyone always saying they have to be oriented to the show! It stifles children's natural creativity, just like they don't make regular amorphous Leggos now: they're all Star Wars or battle ships or whatever. I made a battleship out of Leggo when i was a kid...hell ya it looked like crap and was all kinds of different colors, but the ponies had some wicked battles against the Transformers and GI Joe on it! All it is is sheer laziness on Hasbro's part for not being more creatively broad in their designs and moulds. There. I said it.

Considering Equestria is supposedly a massive land with a population of millions, there should be no end to the possibilities for ponies.  However, with the brony craze making third party merchandise and molded hair figures popular, Hasbro seems to not be concentrating on brushables as much.  That seems stupid to me as it hurts the brand in the long term, but they don't seem to be thinking in the long term at the moment.

[Zapper]

Sadly, our opinions generally don't matter, as adult collectors (bronies and non-bronies alike) aren't the target demographic.

The Bronies have all the third party merch with their endless stream of molded hair versions of background ponies and popular ones. The SDCC exclusive being , a character that was made popular by the Bronies, also the Bronies get big fat recognition from the writers and animators of FiM and the explosion of IDW comics is also due to them. I wouldn't say the Bronydom's opinions doesn't matter to Hasbro.
The only thing the older fans got were the little callbacks to older ponies that went over the Bronies' heads in earlier seasons (for example Twilight's mother looking exactly like G1 Twilight), Minty finally getting a brushie and maybe the upcoming episode about Breezies (if it's really going to be the Breezies and not some G3 joke).

For Hasbro listening to the older fans most of us would have to get a sex change, because men are seen as buyers of figures and merch, not women. That's where the nerd cliché affects them positively. Nowadays, older fans are seen as parents and girly girls who'll buy the stuff that is geared towards the target audience of little girls. We don't have the "nerd" status that would make us power buyers in the eyes of a toy company like Hasbro.
I do think the Minty brushie was made because they were aware of her popularitiy amongst G3 enthusiasts. I think she was the G3 pony who was drawn the most in G4 style by fanartists.
So yeah, maybe we need to become louder and more obnoxious and shower Hasbro with angry letters to get a wider range of brushies again. But I doubt they'd want to cater to us as much as they want to cater to Bronies. The Bronies are a safe market to them by now but will probably go away once the show gets cancelled, the older fans are the ones who will always be there and be faithful to the franchise so why change that tactic?

[Star Spark]

That's the thing, though- all the brony merch is licensed out, without Hasbro having much to do with it except demand occasionally that a new toy be included in the show (there's actually a decent amount of third party G1 stuff out there, too- cups and shirts and even sundresses. Many of the comic people were also G1 fans growing up and have introduced classic characters into G4.) The actual first party toys are geared pretty much entirely toward children, and brony opinion doesn't matter to them much more than that of older G1 and G3 collectors. Vocal bronies who dislike brushables aside, there's still a lot who collect them and want more characters, and if anything dislike of the Equestria Girls dolls is even higher among bronies than other fans. And in the end, I think EQ was the biggest "problem" last year- the main line got ignored to pursue this different market that most adult fans of any stripe don't really care for. There may certainly be something to the idea that Hasbro didn't care as much about the adult market until bronies came along (though even then, the media helped make it something they COULDN'T just ignore) but all they've really done is hand the license out to third parties, anyway. And honestly, if "listening" to fans' desire for Minty was putting her in an expensive playset with multiple Mane 6 dupes, that honestly feels even more disrespectful- that we can only have what we want if we're willing to pay ridiculous amounts of money for a single pony.

[prancingstag]

Agree that Minty being released was a really half-hearted attempt to please collectors, even if it were truly their intention.

What's that you say? The fans would like to see their old favourites again? They'd like some variety and new faces in the toyline? Well, have I got just the treat for you! It's a new pony of a fan fave character! She comes with seven other ponies that you've already got and a bunch of recoloured accessories most people won't care for, so that we can minimise cost but still make a big set that we can slap a loaded price tag on. Also, the set is a store exclusive, so North American customers only please! Oh, and the store runs on a membership program, so unless you already have a means of access you're not allowed in the store. No, they don't care if you want to buy a pony, you're not allowed. As a final touch, distribution numbers are variable! Isn't that fun? Your local store may have continuing stock of this set. They may receive one shipment and never restock. Or they may never carry the set in the first place! Happy hunting!

To be honest, that felt like Hasbro saying "You want Minty? Alright, here's your flipping Minty. Go rip your hair out and never send us feedback demanding characters again."

[language edit ~ many thanks ~ hathorcat]

[CupidStrikes]

Hasbro have made it quite clear they don't give a flying unicorn about fans or markets outside North America, sadly 

[shockponie]

Yes, and my money is going directly to the competition. Last year I bought like 20-something Monster High Dolls from Mattel and 2 brushables from Hasbro. You snooze, you lose! Mattel will keep getting my money because they keep releasing cool new designs & characters. Hasbro should take a page from them.

[Al-1701]

Hasbro have made it quite clear they don't give a flying unicorn about fans or markets outside North America, sadly 

Which is ironic considering Europe is where G1 and G2 lasted the longest.

It would be interesting to sit down as an accountant with the people at Hasbro and learn what goes through their heads.  It seems like they're passing up potential revenue that would require minimal cost.  It's not like it costs that much extra to have some of a batch be new ponies.

Again, do you think a little girl will turn up her nose at a pony because they don't appear on a premium cable show?  No.  But mom or dad might be more willing to open their wallet to get a pony that isn't their seventeenth Pinkie Pie.

While the current model for MLP must be profitable, I highly doubt the brand is maximizing its earning potential.

[RainbowAlicorn999]

Little girls, collectors and bronies all want new brushable characters. Every time I get one of my little cousins a pony toy for Christmas or a birthday they tell me that they already have it and send it back to the store. They don't care that this one is rainbow or this is a through the mirror. They care about the CHARACTER. Not the stupid gimic they try to make them a little different. I am very disappointed in Hasbro for the lack of new ponies in the brushable line. I have stopped buying ponies and I am giving other toy companies my money.

[LuckyTwirlerina]

Another aspect of absolute BOREDOM I see with the constant rereleases of only the main show characters is that it saps the opportunity for imagination right out of the kids toys, because, well, they're already tv show characters. Sure, every generation had a sprinkling of show-characterized ponies, but the vast majority were left up to the imagination and for PLAY. I feel as though the lost opportunity for imagination could be incredibly detrimental to young children in the long run. Isn't that an important part of childhood play?

So not only does everyone get stuck with a dozen Pinkies and Twilights, they're also pretty confined to pre-made characters which honestly sucks for people of any age and gender who like to mess about with their ponies.   

[Zapper]

Hasbro have made it quite clear they don't give a flying unicorn about fans or markets outside North America, sadly 

Which is ironic considering Europe is where G1 and G2 lasted the longest.

Yeah, that's what I thought.
In the first year of FiM there were several Europe exclusive ponies and not just variants, exclusive characters. Even in Europe their prices skyrocketed!

Nowadays we don't even get in-show characters like the talking Nightmare Moon. I have never seen her in stores and online she was always an expensive import. We don't get the favorites sets even though Germany has the highest Brony population next to the UK. So they're even splitting one single target audience into "American" and "Other". It's just so weird.

Many toy companies are so behind on trends and the times in general. Equestria Girls were first marketed as dolls for older fans. They were showing cosplayers and humanized artworks when they pitched the idea and I thought EQG could turn out great. I constantly dfended the idea when other fans would complain.
But how did EQG turn out? Cheaply designed Monster High competition. They could have done something really cool with EQG had they really considered the older kids who love to cosplay. But they just wanted to cash in on Mattel's success.
It's like their "market research" is just sitting around and presenting the already made material to a bunch of kids who can then choose between Pinkie Pie A and Pinkie Pie B

[CupidStrikes]

Yeah, that's what I thought.
In the first year of FiM there were several Europe exclusive ponies and not just variants, exclusive characters. Even in Europe their prices skyrocketed!

I don't think a lot of Europe actually got them or got them widely, so that's why they're so expensive. At least US exclusives are fairly abundant so they re-sell for about retail if you don't buy them from scalpers. The UK never saw the Europe exclusives (I believe some showed up in a random store that gets leftover stock but I don't count that as a release) and my friends in Germany and the Netherlands were unable to find them in stores, either If you're gonna make something exclusive to a place, do it all together or not at all  (I do reserve my right to be bitter about the mountain of exclusive characters NA has had whilst we've had nothing )

And as for Equestria Girls...Ugh. Put them in their movie outfits at least, for the love of Celestia, and make them realistic or at least differing body types. Kinda ironic how the toys from a film that keeps saying "we're totally different and that's awesome!" all look exactly the same down to their creepy lipstick smiles...