MLP quality control....

[Portobella]

The early G4s were quite alright - decent-looking packaging, and very nice hair. But I think the newer brushables (since the new mold with shinier plastic) are substandard, especially their nylon hair. Manes are usually fine (disregarding neck hair), although they do require a shampoo and condition to straighten and soften it up. But all the tails seem to have a lot of frizz these days, at the ends... sometimes it's so bad. My ponymania Celestia has a tail that is 100% frizzy nylon - how does new nylon even get this bad?! Makes me so mad. Better quality control definitely needed.

I know ponies are cheap toys, but there's been a noticeable decline in hair quality since the new G4 molds. I also don't like the shiny new plastic, nor the unsightly seam lines on the pony's faces. ...yet I don't stop collecting 

[sweetapple]

It's sad that about a year ago the quality was waaaaaay worse for G4 ponies and they've actually improved a lot.

Well that's good to hear, I haven't yet noticed any improvements but I haven't gotten any G4s from this year yet. My newest is Octavia and her plastic is the worst looking I've seen :/
When I look at my G4s I find myself wanting to sell off all the newer ones cause they just don't look so nice. That would be from about Mrs. Cakes onwards, when they began with that new head mold.

Neck hair never bothered me, it's plenty common even in G1s. Just snip and all is good

[Carrehz]

At least your Lyra doesn't have misprinted eyes?

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Carrehz, who is the girl to the far right? Is she a fakie?

Nah, she's just a Taobao oddball/hybrid/whatever you want to call them. :B Like the Trixie/Fluttershy hybrid in my sig..

[Princess Lala]

I miss the waves that feathermay, flitterheart, blossomforth, diamond rose, plumsweet, etc all came in. Their quality was soooo much better. WHAT happened!? Hasbro ponie's hair went from silky soft to dry and crusty over the past years.

Ive also recieved a TON of ponies with the dry tail syndrone and neck hair LOL. Maybe its the nylon!? Maybe Hasbro started buying cheaper nylon suppliers?

[Leave a Whisper]

Quality Control? What's that?

Something Hasbro needs to quiz their factory workers on 

IKR?

[Mirnyj]

Ah, I dunno.
I don't expect much for a toy that's under $3. To be fair, there are a lot worse flaws out there. I believe G1s also suffered from neck hair.

See the thing here is that these toys are internationally released and what is a cheap less than $3 toy for you is an expensive more than $10 toy to me. I get the same crappy quality for triple the price. And with each wave coming out the prices are getting higher, as the same time quality is falling lower.

[banditpony]

Ah, I dunno.
I don't expect much for a toy that's under $3. To be fair, there are a lot worse flaws out there. I believe G1s also suffered from neck hair.

See the thing here is that these toys are internationally released and what is a cheap less than $3 toy for you is an expensive more than $10 toy to me. I get the same crappy quality for triple the price. And with each wave coming out the prices are getting higher, as the same time quality is falling lower.

I feel your pain, but if they were lets say $10 in the states, then that means your price would be even higher.

It doesn't change the fact that in Hasbro's eyes they are a cheap toy... And they are interested in making money, and cut corners to do so.

I imagine if quality control was higher, it would be reflected in the base price. And then they would be a hard sell to consumers

[Jordan]

Ah, I dunno.
I don't expect much for a toy that's under $3. To be fair, there are a lot worse flaws out there. I believe G1s also suffered from neck hair.

See the thing here is that these toys are internationally released and what is a cheap less than $3 toy for you is an expensive more than $10 toy to me. I get the same crappy quality for triple the price. And with each wave coming out the prices are getting higher, as the same time quality is falling lower.

I feel your pain, but if they were lets say $10 in the states, then that means your price would be even higher.

It doesn't change the fact that in Hasbro's eyes they are a cheap toy... And they are interested in making money, and cut corners to do so.

I imagine if quality control was higher, it would be reflected in the base price. And then they would be a hard sell to consumers

but honestly I'd pay the extra $2 again to get the old packaging and toy quality. I'm glad I have a few spares of some mane 6's

[Taffeta]

Ah, I dunno.
I don't expect much for a toy that's under $3. To be fair, there are a lot worse flaws out there. I believe G1s also suffered from neck hair.

See the thing here is that these toys are internationally released and what is a cheap less than $3 toy for you is an expensive more than $10 toy to me. I get the same crappy quality for triple the price. And with each wave coming out the prices are getting higher, as the same time quality is falling lower.

I admit I haven't spent a long time looking, but I haven't seen most all of the ponies being named in this thread here at ALL in the UK, so I dunno - is good quality/no stock better?

I don't collect G4, but I pick them up when I travel, but even in the city I went to before Easter, there were only the see through glittery snowglobe type ones, the mane six ad nauseum and Photo Finish (who looks quite nice but I haven't taken her out of her box...).

Aside from Harrods having I *think* FeatherMay and some orange one with bees, I don't remember seeing most anything else here that isn't a rework of one of the Mane 6.

Though they are pretty much discounted at release - currently normal ponies are about £3.75 which is $6-7?

[Mirnyj]

Most ponies that were mentioned earlier came out years ago. I have a vague memory of seeing them, but can't tell for sure since I wasn't that into G4 at the time (the first ponies I bought were wedding singles). What I do remember is that then the normal price for a pony was something around €7 and sometimes you could get two for the price of one if there was a great campaign going about. Now a single pony costs nearly €10 which I think with the lowering quality isn't quite justified. :/

[Sparkle Pony]

It's sad that about a year ago the quality was waaaaaay worse for G4 ponies and they've actually improved a lot.

Well that's good to hear, I haven't yet noticed any improvements but I haven't gotten any G4s from this year yet. My newest is Octavia and her plastic is the worst looking I've seen :/
When I look at my G4s I find myself wanting to sell off all the newer ones cause they just don't look so nice. That would be from about Mrs. Cakes onwards, when they began with that new head mold.

Neck hair never bothered me, it's plenty common even in G1s. Just snip and all is good

It could still improve a lot, but the snowglobe ponies I got recently had perfectly fine hair, which is a huge improvement from the ponies from before like my Rarity whose tail was a giant matted frizzy mess from right out of the box.  Oh Hasbro, lower our standards and then make us excited over slight improvement, classic...

[Taffeta]

Most ponies that were mentioned earlier came out years ago. I have a vague memory of seeing them, but can't tell for sure since I wasn't that into G4 at the time (the first ponies I bought were wedding singles).

They weren't here then, either. Over the last five years it's been pretty much the same story, because I periodically spy on Entertainer and such to see what's around. I have seen them when travelling in Europe, but not here in the UK. Though it could be my significantly crappy distribution area at fault. I have two I bought in Lille (I cannot remember names for the life of me) which were supposedly out here, but I never saw them here...Starswirl (?) and...someone else (blue, unicorn, pink in her hair...)

I actually never saw them in the Uk before I found Rarity, Applejack and Lily Blossom, and that was in Porvoo, I think... in July 2011. (I don't remember how much they cost though. Probably the amount you said )

[thecakeissisley]

When I got my Diamond Mint I thought it was just me being more picky than an average 5-year old, but apparently the quality (especially the hair) has certainly dropped. Not to mention the tails. My Diamond Mint came out of the box with a slightly frizzy tail, so I barely even touched it, but my sister's Rarity and Twilight have tails that are beyond repair, since she plays with them (I tried restoring them, but it's hopeless). I really really wish Hasbro cared more about the hair, because, speaking from a child's perspective, when your favorite toy has ugly matted messed up hair, it's not much fun anymore.

On the price topic, it's even more sad since I paid €12 for Diamond Mint (which is absolutely insane) when back in the day I used to get G3s for half of that price that were twice the size and had soft, silky hair. (I never bought G3.5s or earlier G4s so I can't really tell anything about the quality of those).

[hathorcat]

I am of the same opinion unfortunately - its a mass market toy, designed to be used and quickly moved on from at a pocket money price. These are not collectors items and personally I wouldnt want to pay a collectors price for them. A higher price point on them would put them out of the reach of a lot of the market that pick them up as well which decreases purchase-ability.

Its frustrating I completely agree but they are far from the poor quality of a lot of other toys and products out there. You simply get what you pay for nowadays and for $5 a pop my expectations are pretty low

[Kittywhiskers]

I've also had a Lyra with misaligned eyes, as well as various ponies with hair that was frizzy at the ends so the comb wouldn't go through all the way, hair that was rooted wrong, and some mysterious paint in places (and sometimes colors) that make no sense. Even my beloved talking Ponymania Queen Chrysalis hasn't been immune - she was the one with the badly rooted hair. It's not at serious risk of falling out, it's just awkward. And the minifigures/blind bags seem to be getting wonkier every year, with even more paint errors and awkward molds.

As awesome as some of the ideas for toys have been, the quality problems have gotten bad enough I've actually been considering giving up on buying more G4s entirely.

As pointed out before, these things aren't really cheap for everyone, and even the bigger, "fancier" ones can get hit by this. If things really have been improving again, maybe I'll consider a couple more... otherwise, I think my money's going to Nintendo instead of Hasbro now. For the price of a new video game, I should get something better than awkward, wonky ponies with strange paint flecks, no matter how awesome they may look in the stock photo.