Why won't Hasbro release new ponies?

[lovesbabysquirmy]

also remember, when Hasbro reps are saying "market research" and that adults are a small part of the market, what they are really saying is,

"Our biggest vendor is Wal*Mart.  Wal*Mart orders these units by the trillion for their Girls Toys department.  Since they place an order for about 80% of our production, we let them offer suggestions as to what types of product sells best in their stores.  Also - we are selling them through our Girls Toy department; we will presume these are TOYS and are being bought FOR children"  .... skewed market research from the start.

With Wal*Mart stocking a TOY department with billions of Pinkie Pies, there is no room for , "Nationally-Acclaimed Comic Chain Store With Adult Collectors" to have a say in the scant 4 cases of ponies that gets shipped to them.  I would imagine Toys R Us gets about 15% of the orders and smaller companies get to split the rest. 

[Majesty]

I haven't seen many new ponies recently, with the exception of the two princess ponies who are paired with one of the mane 6 I saw at Toys R Us.  I wish when there was a new episode such as the two parter we had recently Hasbro would make new brushables based on the ponies we saw most often.  They could make a Starlight one and Party Time, etc.

[Al-1701]

Please don't use vendor to describe Wal*Mart's relationship to Hasbro.  It irritates my inner accountant.  Vendors are who you buy from.  Customers are who you sell to.  Therefore, Wal*Mart is a customer of Hasbro.

I think skewed market research and an abdication of creative decisions is at the heart of the problem.  Wal*Mart has no brand loyalty.  If My Little Pony ceased to exist right this second, they would put something else in their place.  Therefore, they will not invest any time or money into forecasting future trends or assisting new ponies in penetrating the market.  They only care about what's selling now.

It's Hasbro's job to forecast future trends as well as sell their characters to their retail and individual customers.  Sadly, it seems like it's a job they don't do beyond Friendship is Magic which concentrated on a very limited cast.

[Sunset]

  They make toys not geared to developing brand loyalty, it doesn't develop brand loyalty, and their research says there's no brand loyalty.

What does their research say? As a whole, because toys are only a snippit of the brand.

I'm not sure what their research says exactly.  But G4 seems run specifically to not keep the attention of a customer for more than a year or two.  There has to be a reason.

And toy are THE brand.  With My Little Pony toys, we don't have anything else.

merchandise? Say what you want , but that is a part of it .

I get it you dont like the way g4 is run. But why are you making stuff up?

I think what Al-1701 is saying is that while merchandise is all well and good, the toy line while always be the heart and soul of MLP.  And it's for one simply reason.  "My Little Pony" was developed by and is owned by a toy company.  Merchandising makes Hasbro a little extra money but in the end they are going to focus on what they do as a company which is to make toys.

In terms of new ponies,  I do wish they would balance it more.  Though there do seem to be some more ponies coming out.  It seems to me that they could still have the mane six available at all times with out having the entire group of single be only mane six (or just one new pony).  For example, if Rarity is currently available as a FS then does she really need to be a playful single also?  Or if PP and RD are available in a Princess pack then do they also have to be available in singles?  Or really the princess ponies are popular enough that I think they could get away with using a new character as an extra instead of one of the mane 6.

[banditpony]

I think what Al-1701 is saying is that while merchandise is all well and good, the toy line while always be the heart and soul of MLP.  And it's for one simply reason.  "My Little Pony" was developed by and is owned by a toy company.  Merchandising makes Hasbro a little extra money but in the end they are going to focus on what they do as a company which is to make toys.

You are under estimating what licensing is about...

[Al-1701]

You are under estimating what licensing is about...

I think you're grossly overestimating it.

First, the licensing fee on merchandise is miniscule compared to the gross profit.  Better to make it yourself if you can.

Second, you have to keep your property you're licensing out relevant so third parties will want to buy rights to use it.

Merchandise is great, but My Little Pony is a toy brand first and must remain a toy brand first.  Friendship is Magic will end, and My Little Pony needs a way to separate itself from it so it's not dragged down with it.

[Sunset]

I actually don't think that we need to worry too much about the end of FiM being the end of MLP.  There might be a lull for a year or two but Hasbro will simply do a redesign as they have done before and the cycle will start over.

*****
I know Hathorcat knows a lot about marketing.  Maybe she will pop in and give us her insight on how much Hasbro makes on licensing in relation to their own product.

[banditpony]

You are under estimating what licensing is about...

I think you're grossly overestimating it.

First, the licensing fee on merchandise is miniscule compared to the gross profit.  Better to make it yourself if you can.

Second, you have to keep your property you're licensing out relevant so third parties will want to buy rights to use it.

I know what licensing is. I kinda have some insight to it. That's why I'm saying that the brand is more than just the toys. I'm not basing my comments on just my opinions, but some information I cannot share directly.

FiM is not the end of MLP. They will rehash out the line again after FiM, and we will call it G5. For now, they wanted something that revolved around a set core of characters-- and that's what we have. They tried it with G3, when the G3 line was on a decline. Didn't work out as well as everyone was tired of that. So they redeveloped it, and we got FiM/G4.

I get it, it isn't the typical model of a toy line that we saw in G1s and G3s. It doesn't make this model wrong. It's just different-- whether it is liked or not liked.

[Al-1701]

Have you actually looked at an income statement of a third party licensee?  Compare their license expense (which is how much the company providing the license makes in the transaction) with their gross margin.  The gross margin is much larger.

If you can make it without going to abnormal expense (like building a new factory), make it yourself.  Hasbro licenses out their brands for clothing, decorations, vanity plates, and media because they don't have the means to produce them; not because licensing is lucrative compared to in-house production.

Licensing has its place.  It's a way to have products made the company cannot.  However, especially when it's manufacturing company like Hasbro, it's to supplement the brand not take it over.

[Wardah]

I haven't seen many new ponies recently, with the exception of the two princess ponies who are paired with one of the mane 6 I saw at Toys R Us.  I wish when there was a new episode such as the two parter we had recently Hasbro would make new brushables based on the ponies we saw most often.  They could make a Starlight one and Party Time, etc.

I just saw Skywishes and Sweetie Drops at TRU the other day. A brushable Starlight was seen at Toy Fair and TRU is going to be getting a new Pony Mania pack featuring all new ponies and Target will eventually be getting a Mane-iac brushable.

[banditpony]

Licensing has its place.  It's a way to have products made the company cannot.  However, especially when it's manufacturing company like Hasbro, it's to supplement the brand not take it over.

See, we kind of agree after all Al-1701 Yay!

I never said that it was the main profit. I just said that it shouldn't be under estimated and that it DOES make money and help boost profits. Ponies are in so many places beyond the toy aisle. You are shopping for a new bathmat, boom, pony in your face. Buying a card for your little niece? OH hey! Why not get the pony card. Ponies everywhere, it's kind of like an advertisement.

[Al-1701]

But that doesn't erase the fact they MUST be in the toy aisle or you won't get any of those things either.

Ironically, G1 has come back as a license brand.  They don't make G1 toys, but they have licensed their likeness to just about everybody.  Makes me wish they either put the original G1 cartoon on Discovery Family or make a new show based on them to compliment FiM to take advantage of the nostalgia.  Perhaps even bring those characters into the G4 toyline for some added variety.

[hathorcat]

I disagree with a lot of the original comments unfortunately. As a collector I am completely on board with the fact that the main 6 are incredibly frustrating; the lack of variety and new characters is the most annoying thing about the G4 toy line. I am all there on that one.

However G4 did not come into creation because G3 and the bore 7 failed. It was just a natural progression and reinvention of the line. The core 7 in G3 was simply Hasbro showing us the direction they intended to take; they were simply making moves that the toy industry and their sector demanded. Which is toy lines becoming dictated by their media combined with the fact kids interest and attention span on 1 toy line is much shorter than it used to be. They dont need to release new characters every year because the kids who bought the ponies in year 1 have moved on to something else by year 3. They need to keep the characters on the shelves that the kids (and their parents) want - which is the main characters in the cartoon that introduces them to the toy line.

The continued investment in a cartoon (now into its 5th series) shows how successful this line has become. Its no doubt outshining previous generations. And its doing it all with pretty much just the main 6 available (in all manner of different ways) on shelves. The cartoon does not make Hasbro money, the toy line does. So it takes the toy line being successful for the show to continue. If the toy line was bombing no matter how adored the cartoon, it would have been cancelled.

G1 was successful because it was new and different. However as a kid who had multiples of the same pony when I was 4 and 5, I can tell you that really didnt bother me. I was not a "collector" at that age and the fact so many people had childhood collections of 30 or less ponies perhaps shows that neither were many kids. It was not about having so many different ponies, it was just about a cool toy that you could get in some degree of variety. At the end of the day 2 Applejacks and 3 Bow Ties made no dent in my enjoyment of the line and I dont even remember it being something that I considered at all.

[Al-1701]

There's a very wide range between "bombing" and meeting full market potential.  G4 is successful, but it seems like they're leaving money on the table.  I personally think the show is a little too insular with the Mane having few relationships outside of the clique besides family or professional.  If the media is pushing the toys, then it should be more populated with characters that serve more of a role than ballast.

[hathorcat]

I think unfortunately sometimes we forget we are not the market (unless for some of the aforementioned merch). Hasbro are not stupid and not the 3rd largest toy company in the world without knowing their marketplace.

I am not arguing the angles of the show, its content and the decisions it makes - could they do more with it? Perhaps. But its clearly a working formula so my opinion on it is more personal than one which commercially stacks up. However for the money continually invested in it; without a toy line that is making $$ and continuing to do so we would by now have been on repeats of season 1 and not a full out season 5 (with forthcoming movie). The show is nothing without the toys. Marketing and advertising budgets, no matter the industry you are in, are the first things to be cut normally. So to have a toy line with such continual and high marketing spend is proof that Hasbro can justify these budgets on the line.