Hasbro, what were you thinking?!

[Dragonflitter]

Sometimes Hasbro has me so confused. I see some of their choices and can't make sense of them at all. Of course I'm sure there's information we the public aren't aware of, going on behind the scenes, but sometimes it just seems like they make choices that even a simple person could tell is a bad decision from the standpoint of a company trying to make money.

So here's a thread where we can all wonder why Hasbro would do some of the crazy things they do that seems to make no sense!

Most of my thoughts when I think about this topic are for the G3 days... Like, Hasbro, only Earth ponies for three years!? What were you thinking!? Who told them unicorns and pegsi wouldn't sell, when they were part of the brand since G1? And making a brand new mold for a baby pegasus pony and then only using it ONCE? What's up with that? The babies in the G3 line were so popular!

Anyone else wonder about Hasbro decisions sometimes? Share here!

[Jorgito93]

Yes, i love how they released rarity first to see if little girls would like unicorns.Was "no" even a possibility?

Personnaly, i still don't understand why Majesty isn't in the G1 cartoon.It's like if FiM had no celestia.
Also, some sets in the last years from g1 are really strange.I still don't understand the colorswirl ponies.

[LadyMoondancer]

I was just thinking the other day about the lack of unicorns and pegasi in G2 and G3.  There were only SEVEN unicorns in G3, same number in G2.  (And that is if you count multiple versions of Silver Swirl as "different" ponies.)   And NO pegasi at all in G2!   Don't talk to me about those clip-on wings ponies--those are not pegasi.  Those are accessorized earth ponies.

I don't get it!  You're making magical horses, but for some reason you skimp on the two most classic types of magical horses??   IMO a MLP line should be 25% unicorn, 25% pegasus MINIMUM.

[Pokeyonekenobie]

I want to know why we haven't seen more male brushables (with actual hair) with G4.  There are SO many boy characters in the show and I know that I would snatch up as many brushables as I could for customs. Let's face it, that troll hair they put on Shining Armor didn't exactly make us want him and the fact that you could only get him in expensive sets didn't make him very buyable.

I also think they should re-release the G1 Boys like they did with the 25th anniversary collectors sets.  I'd buy those up, too.

[Taffeta]

Yes, i love how they released rarity first to see if little girls would like unicorns.Was "no" even a possibility?

Personnaly, i still don't understand why Majesty isn't in the G1 cartoon.It's like if FiM had no celestia.
Also, some sets in the last years from g1 are really strange.I still don't understand the colorswirl ponies.

The cynic in me has always explained Majesty's lack of use in the US cartoons vis a vis her prominence in the UK comic as a reflection of the different attitudes on each side of the atlantic to the idea of a Queen. I may be wrong, but it's always how it seems to me.

G1 has a lot of things that make me go huh? But one of the biggest is lavender Woosie. And, as a continuation of that, the weird Princesses including Princess Woosie.

Seriously Hasbro...what?

[Leave a Whisper]

Honeybuzz and her sunglasses turned wings

Every jointed pony ever created

The lack of Mountain Boys in the states

Continual snubbing of older pony fans, even though they spoil Transformers fans of every generation rotten

The G3.5/G4 designs

Focusing on the main set of characters

shrinking ponies

BBEs

DnP

Soda Sippins  unfortunate mouth placement

The lack of species in G2

The lack of boys, babies and small selection of unicorns in G3

[Taffeta]

The lack of Mountain Boys in the states

I'm pretty sure that one isn't so much a "huh" Hasbro issue as a regional design issue. I'm fairly sure that Mountain Boys were the brainchild of Hasbro UK as a potentially less US-centric line to the Big Brothers (as many of the themes/sports are not popular/well known in the UK) but in the end they just decided to do both here after all.

I doubt Hasbro in RI ever really even knew about them. But I guess you can put any national exclusive under the huh banner really...? Since it seems like a bunch of extra work...

I forgot to add earlier - creating new poses in 1993-4 and then cancelling the line

[Sugarberry]

G1: Flutter wing attachments and "Princess" eyelashes...
G2: Non-existent US marketing.
G3/3.5: Names (or words) scrawled all over pony's sides, as if they didn't remember their own names.
G4: Ponymania - and the only semi-acceptable word that comes to mind with that is still vulgar. 

[Jorgito93]

G1: Flutter wing attachments and "Princess" eyelashes...
G2: Non-existent US marketing.
G3/3.5: Names (or words) scrawled all over pony's sides, as if they didn't remember their own names.
G4: Ponymania - and the only semi-acceptable word that comes to mind with that is still vulgar.

Well when you see the intelligence of the g3 ponies in the cartoons, i think it's not a bad idea...

[VanillaBean]

The Eyelash Princesses.
G3 Green Apple having an all-pink colour scheme. The sight of her makes me want to facepalm. 

I totally agree about the lack of G3 unicorns & Pegasus ponies. As soon as the new line appeared, I was wondering where the heck they were. Then they were finally produced years later when I'd temporarily 'outgrown' MLP. 

[Wardah]

The lack of Mountain Boys in the states

I'm pretty sure that one isn't so much a "huh" Hasbro issue as a regional design issue. I'm fairly sure that Mountain Boys were the brainchild of Hasbro UK as a potentially less US-centric line to the Big Brothers (as many of the themes/sports are not popular/well known in the UK) but in the end they just decided to do both here after all.

I doubt Hasbro in RI ever really even knew about them. But I guess you can put any national exclusive under the huh banner really...? Since it seems like a bunch of extra work...

I forgot to add earlier - creating new poses in 1993-4 and then cancelling the line

Interesting thing about toys is usually companies don't manufacture the toys until they have orders. Any shelf sitting or lack of stock is due to the stores buyers overestimating or underestimating an item's popularity. That's also why sometimes there will be things in toy catalogs that never get made. So a lot of things Hasbro gets blamed for are really the faults of the retailers.


I think the different Hasbro branches would order directly from the factories. Usually they would use the same specs but on rare occasions the different branches would give different specs. I'm pretty sure the different branches still order directly from the factory because it would be rather wasteful to ship them here and then redirect them to other countries however thanks to technology everything has become more centralized with all designs coming from Hasbro US. The occasions where we get "international exclusives" now are really just because Hasbro US won't bother with a wave if the stores don't order enough units (because shelf sitters usually) but meanwhile the UK shops didnt overorder and need more to fill the shelves so they will order that wave.

Now I do think Hasbro did shoot themselves in the foot with the retro repros. Bridge Direct got the retro rerelease thing right with SSC. While I don't think there was anything wrong with the idea of a 3 pack they should have started with a nostalgic parent impulse buy friendly single Cotton Candy release and then expanded to add more things.

[LadyMoondancer]

Oh yeah, the late G3 / G3.5 ponies with their names written on them were really cringey.  "GEE I WONDER WHAT MY NAME IS, LET ME JUST LOOK AT MY LEG, OH RIGHT IT'S SCOOTALOO."

Let me add to the list Core 7 Easter Cheerilee.

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It looks like someone peed on her leg.

[BlushingBlue]

The Glittery Sweetheart Sisters' names are irritatingly non-intuitive. The one with hearts is Starflash, the one with stars is Sunblossom, and the one with sunflowers is Twinkler?! C'mon Hasbro...

Similarly, the 2007 winter G3s, where they had Jolly Lolly (formerly known as Mittens), Mittens #2 (formerly known as Snow'el) and Snow'el #2 who was a new pony altogether. Many jimmies were rustled that Christmas.

[Sapling]

Personally I don't like g4 pegasus + unicorn mutants! And any pony with a dodgy mechanism puts me off like the twirl and dance ponies and the ponies with hair that 'grows'. I love the boys and want g4 brushable boys too. And why didn't we ever get bushwoolies in the UK they are awesome! And why was paradise estate so poorly made that it literally crumbled into plastic detritus after minimal play? All I have left is the furniture as if it was subjected to a hurricane.

[Carrehz]

Personnaly, i still don't understand why Majesty isn't in the G1 cartoon.It's like if FiM had no celestia.
Also, some sets in the last years from g1 are really strange.I still don't understand the colorswirl ponies.

I don't have the link to the original thread on me at the moment, but a while ago Wildshadow posted some photos of her copy of the MLP series bible, and IIRC Majesty was actually listed in the character list.

I'm 99% sure she didn't show up in the end because, well, she was a playset pony and the show was made to sell toys. I'd imagine they were more focused on selling Paradise Estate than Dream Castle at the time the series was made (especially since DC had been written out in the movie and all. Come to think of it, was the Dream Castle even still in production when the series was being produced?). Same reason why everyone from the first special (except Spike, Megan and the Moochick) never showed up again.

Of course, I could be wrong.. but that's my theory, anyway. :B