Again Hasbro is Doing a Fan Built OC - but not MLP - Transformers

[Al-1701]

The thing is collectors would love to throw their money at Hasbro if they made something worth throwing money for.  G4 versions of G1 classic characters perhaps coinciding with the original series broadcasting on Discovery Family, that would make collectors and little girls alike flock to stores.  Hasbro's policy towards My Little Pony is leaving money on the table because they think they're doing "good enough" with the brand right now.

I still think there's someone at Hasbro who hates My Little Pony and grinds their teeth like Snidely Whiplash at its refusal to die despite how badly they treat it.

[Leave a Whisper]

The thing is collectors would love to throw their money at Hasbro if they made something worth throwing money for.  G4 versions of G1 classic characters perhaps coinciding with the original series broadcasting on Discovery Family, that would make collectors and little girls alike flock to stores.  Hasbro's policy towards My Little Pony is leaving money on the table because they think they're doing "good enough" with the brand right now.

I still think there's someone at Hasbro who hates My Little Pony and grinds their teeth like Snidely Whiplash at its refusal to die despite how badly they treat it.

 

[Dreamer]

I think if Hasbro saw adult collectors eagerly flocking to the new gens and snapping up the toys, then yes we would get a similar contest. But the majority of us, or so it appears, strongly prefer the older gens and have rather vocally in the past told Hasbro as such. Most of the money in collectible ponies is wrapped up in trading and selling G1, products that are ancient history to Hasbro at this point. They don't really have any say on the market value of G1's so they could not care less about collectors.

But if we suddenly ran out and started buying up G4 ponies? They'd notice because that's a sudden influx of money in their pocket. I think the reason they cater to bronies is that they're actively out there loudly promoting and buying the brand, whereas collectors are just overall "meh" on G4. If you were a company out to make money, you'd be tripping over yourself to hold the attention of free advertising and fresh brand loyalty.

I think Hasbro knows they've lost the collector market, and frankly they don't care. We don't make them enough money to bother with us. They're probably also trying to actively distance themselves from the brony community as more and more of the dirty underbelly comes to light. If you're trying to lure young girls and their families into buying your products, having an association in your audience's mind with the creepy comic book guy stereotype will NOT win you buyers.

 

[Bothvar]

Hasbro has done this kind of stuff before, they mostly reproduce toys for 'boys' because girls ' don't care for that stuff'

[flyawayraven]

The thing is collectors would love to throw their money at Hasbro if they made something worth throwing money for.  G4 versions of G1 classic characters perhaps coinciding with the original series broadcasting on Discovery Family, that would make collectors and little girls alike flock to stores.  Hasbro's policy towards My Little Pony is leaving money on the table because they think they're doing "good enough" with the brand right now.

I still think there's someone at Hasbro who hates My Little Pony and grinds their teeth like Snidely Whiplash at its refusal to die despite how badly they treat it.

I'd be all over G4 remakes of G1 ponies. But again I doubt it will happen.

My understanding is that Hasbro tried for many years before G4 to make collectors happy and the feedback they received was so contradictory that they gave up.

I saw in the thread discussing the 25th anniversary re-releases of the FF original six and rainbow ponies, that when Hasbro polled collectors most sa8d they'd realistically only pay around $5 a pony for the remakes. So Hasbro listened to that and came back with the underwhelming remakes and people were unhappy because the quality was awful. That probably infuriated Hasbro because from their POV they didn't have to do remakes; that was a kind gesture to collectors on their part. And they polled us for what we wanted, gave us what we said wanted and then we complained when they gave us what we wanted. If I were a Hasbro marketer I'd be more than a little ticked off after that.
Admittedly yes we were unhappy because those remakes were pretty shoddy in quality.

But a similar situation happened with the art, comic con, and fair ponies that were intentionally made for collectors. Those were very nice high quality G3's where a lot of thought went into the design, and ultimately very few people bought them. Last year during the dust up over the comic con exclusive and fair exvlusive being the same, the fair organizer pointed out she STILL had leftover old fair exclusives from four years ago.

Our not buying collector exclusives in the past made it pretty darn clear in Hasbro's mind that we're not worth the effort to create exclusives for. I think even if they changed their mind and started those again, the same story would play out.

[starrypawz]

I think Transformers has more stuff geared towards adult collectors, and the fact that Transformers tend to be more expensive as toys so I guess they see there's potentially more interest and money to be made. Since with TF you get the stuff aimed at the little kids, then you get the comics and more 'collector' pieces in general which cost more and I think TF stuff tends to be higher quality since there has been a bit of a quality drop when it comes to G4/FiM

[Galactica]

And it would be way easier with MLPs than with Transformers, since each Transformer has to be "engineered" so they turn into a vehicle.  Almost every Transformer has a unique mold, or a mold that is used for very few characters.

Unfortunately I feel like at this point, like Mrbrightsky says, there are so many popular yet inappropriate characters that some fans would try to "sneak" in that it would never happen even if Hasbro were interested.

I totally think this is the reason- there are a TON of inappropriate "OC" characters out there made up by the icky side of the brony fandom, and Hasbro needs to make sure that all of their toys are kid appropriate.  And some of the characters you would never guess until you did some digging.

FOR EXAMPLE- I bought this cute nurse-looking plush pony from ebay- she was so cute with a nursing hat and what looked like a medicine bottle symbol. I love nurse ponies and actually used to be an RN for a number of years, so how could I resist? She did come with this weird extra set of fuzzy globes that somehow could be strapped onto her somehow though-  I thought it was a weird factory mistake (she was one of those frontwinner ponies that makes OCs) but I looked her up and isn't really a NURSE pony at all- but a NURSING pony- and not like a nursing mare either- but a mare with human mammary glands that are inexplicably placed like a cow's udder?  Just.... no.  I wanted to ignore this new knowledge and just throw away the extra "bits" but I just couldn't wipe her "true" image from my brain, and ended up giving her away.

At any rate, ponies like THAT are why despite the MLP franchise currently bringing in the big bucks, there is no WAY that Hasbro is going to accept proposed G4 OC characters from MLP fans. Who knows what the inappropriate bronies would sneak in?

[starrypawz]

And it would be way easier with MLPs than with Transformers, since each Transformer has to be "engineered" so they turn into a vehicle.  Almost every Transformer has a unique mold, or a mold that is used for very few characters.

Unfortunately I feel like at this point, like Mrbrightsky says, there are so many popular yet inappropriate characters that some fans would try to "sneak" in that it would never happen even if Hasbro were interested.

I totally think this is the reason- there are a TON of inappropriate "OC" characters out there made up by the icky side of the brony fandom, and Hasbro needs to make sure that all of their toys are kid appropriate.  And some of the characters you would never guess until you did some digging.

FOR EXAMPLE- I bought this cute nurse-looking plush pony from ebay- she was so cute with a nursing hat and what looked like a medicine bottle symbol. I love nurse ponies and actually used to be an RN for a number of years, so how could I resist? She did come with this weird extra set of fuzzy globes that somehow could be strapped onto her somehow though-  I thought it was a weird factory mistake (she was one of those frontwinner ponies that makes OCs) but I looked her up and isn't really a NURSE pony at all- but a NURSING pony- and not like a nursing mare either- but a mare with human mammary glands that are inexplicably placed like a cow's udder?  Just.... no.  I wanted to ignore this new knowledge and just throw away the extra "bits" but I just couldn't wipe her "true" image from my brain, and ended up giving her away.

At any rate, ponies like THAT are why despite the MLP franchise currently bringing in the big bucks, there is no WAY that Hasbro is going to accept proposed G4 OC characters from MLP fans. Who knows what the inappropriate bronies would sneak in?

What on earth?

[Dreamer]

At least, look at the bright side, ponies are still customizable 

[Al-1701]

And it would be way easier with MLPs than with Transformers, since each Transformer has to be "engineered" so they turn into a vehicle.  Almost every Transformer has a unique mold, or a mold that is used for very few characters.

Unfortunately I feel like at this point, like Mrbrightsky says, there are so many popular yet inappropriate characters that some fans would try to "sneak" in that it would never happen even if Hasbro were interested.

I totally think this is the reason- there are a TON of inappropriate "OC" characters out there made up by the icky side of the brony fandom, and Hasbro needs to make sure that all of their toys are kid appropriate.  And some of the characters you would never guess until you did some digging.

FOR EXAMPLE- I bought this cute nurse-looking plush pony from ebay- she was so cute with a nursing hat and what looked like a medicine bottle symbol. I love nurse ponies and actually used to be an RN for a number of years, so how could I resist? She did come with this weird extra set of fuzzy globes that somehow could be strapped onto her somehow though-  I thought it was a weird factory mistake (she was one of those frontwinner ponies that makes OCs) but I looked her up and isn't really a NURSE pony at all- but a NURSING pony- and not like a nursing mare either- but a mare with human mammary glands that are inexplicably placed like a cow's udder?  Just.... no.  I wanted to ignore this new knowledge and just throw away the extra "bits" but I just couldn't wipe her "true" image from my brain, and ended up giving her away.

At any rate, ponies like THAT are why despite the MLP franchise currently bringing in the big bucks, there is no WAY that Hasbro is going to accept proposed G4 OC characters from MLP fans. Who knows what the inappropriate bronies would sneak in?

What on earth?

I would give in to the urge to make contact with my desk with my forehead, but it has this piece of metal on the edge.

I guess my strategy would be to cater to collectors through the main toys and not collector exclusives.  Make G1 as G4 ponies for general sale instead of very limited release collector packs.  MLP collectors seem to like collecting the mass produced ponies than the niche batches.  Hasbro should cater to that.

[LadyMoondancer]

Wow . . . gross, and super depressing that it was popular enough to become (if I'm understanding you correctly) an unlicensed yet mass produced factory plush.

[Shimmer Mist]

I think Transformers has more stuff geared towards adult collectors, and the fact that Transformers tend to be more expensive as toys so I guess they see there's potentially more interest and money to be made. Since with TF you get the stuff aimed at the little kids, then you get the comics and more 'collector' pieces in general which cost more and I think TF stuff tends to be higher quality since there has been a bit of a quality drop when it comes to G4/FiM

They have multiple lines and stuff geared towards collectors because it's making them money. The interest and market for the collector-oriented stuff makes enough money for hasbro to fork out the cash to keep them going. If all the sub-lines suddenly tanked and things like Generations or Masterpiece weren't selling I doubt Hasbro would continue making them. Especially so as it is so expensive to produce a Transformer figure. I've heard it takes easily two years or more for a character to get from a concept to a finalized state to be manufactured. From a business standpoint; why continue making something if it's not going to sell anymore?

As far as QC  goes.... Have you seen some of the issues that a lot of the Generations figures have had? Rattrap with brittle plastic, super flimsy hips on Rhinox, Blitzwing (and by extension probably the Doubledealer recolor) has a design flaw with his shoulders that makes them all floppy, Brianstorm's Headmaster gimmick not working right. Both Windblade and Brainstorm even have "fixed" versions that have come out recently just to doctor the issues they had. x-X And those are just well-known issues that plague certain characters. That's not accounting for all of the "two left feet", Loose/super tight ball joints, fudged up paint, ect, that individual figures could have while the rest do not. I know there WILL be mistakes and errors that happen, it's just a fact of manufacturing on a large scale but I've had more issues with my "collector- oriented" Generations figures than I have with my G4 ponies.

[MilkyTaroMochi]

At any rate, ponies like THAT are why despite the MLP franchise currently bringing in the big bucks, there is no WAY that Hasbro is going to accept proposed G4 OC characters from MLP fans. Who knows what the inappropriate bronies would sneak in?

Yeah, with that one OC contest Hasbro did a few years back, I'd say we got pretty lucky and no OCs like that one didn't get in. I guess that's why one of the rules IIRC was " the picture of the pony can't be posted before or during the contest", like it can't have "existed" beforehand.

[Snapdragon]

@Galactica...   

[gabumon]

To actually no surprise to anyone ... They Announced the Official Fan Built Transformers OC is Female, actually a set of combining Female transformers that form "Victorion"

http://www.tfw2005.com/transformers-news/generations-classics-44/fan-built-combiner-name-and-gender-revealed-182544/

Sign.. it's sort of lemon juice in my cuts...  not only do TF fans get official OCs, they turn out to be female.   

Does that mean official MLP OCs...would end up being male?  if Hasbro ever deigned to offer it.