Hasbro, what were you thinking?!

[LadyMoondancer]

Looks like you're right . . . the Year 4 brochure only shows PE, the Nursery, and the dance school.  No Dream Castle.

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Too bad, I always felt a castle trumps a house--even a large house.

[Galactica]

Hasbro, why did you make the flutter wings so brittle? It's almost as if they were designed to break.

Why did you stop the Moondreamers right before the cutest release ever?

What is up with the focus on ultra-cheap?  Whether it is ponies or the Equestria girls- the budget models are not good. Not good at all.

WHY Hasbro so much pink?  Girls like other colors too you know. And no, Purple doesn't count.

[josiekat]

^ The Moondreamers is a good point. They could have made a few more Fairy Tail birds too.......

[Snapdragon]

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

This is one that still baffles me - Hasbro pours all of this money into TF (huge reboot movies with big stars, Botcon every year, thriving comic series), and then acts surprised that we even exist and want recognition. :/ And even worse, after pouring money into another fandom, they look at ours and say "well, I mean, you aren't as big as the TF fandom, so it's not cost-efficient to make [exclusives, conventions, etc. etc.]" You know what would make the MLP fandom explode? Rebooting the series in a huge, star-studded movie franchise with a couple hundred million bucks for great writers and CGI, for starters!

I mean, I know why Hasbro doesn't give a darn about the MLP fandom (sexism), and why they only gave a hoot once the G4 fandom showed up (sexism again), but it's just so depressing. Even children's toy companies treat girls like second-class citizens. :/

[mlly]

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

This is one that still baffles me - Hasbro pours all of this money into TF (huge reboot movies with big stars, Botcon every year, thriving comic series), and then acts surprised that we even exist and want recognition. :/ And even worse, after pouring money into another fandom, they look at ours and say "well, I mean, you aren't as big as the TF fandom, so it's not cost-efficient to make [exclusives, conventions, etc. etc.]" You know what would make the MLP fandom explode? Rebooting the series in a huge, star-studded movie franchise with a couple hundred million bucks for great writers and CGI, for starters!

I mean, I know why Hasbro doesn't give a darn about the MLP fandom (sexism), and why they only gave a hoot once the G4 fandom showed up (sexism again), but it's just so depressing. Even children's toy companies treat girls like second-class citizens. :/

^Yep :/

Hasbro also decided to cancel one their most popular and well-known franchises, JEM, after only 4 years!
And then rebooted it either with zero care and effort(the movie)or only for a very small group of adults with a lot of disposable income(the Integrity Toys dolls)
I heard the comic is good? but I don't see it reaching outside of its comic form and into merchandise and toys, etc.

[LadyMoondancer]

Trust me, you do not want Hasbro trying to make a multi-million dollar movie franchise out of MLP.  The Bayformers movies make a lot of money, but they absolutely spit on the Transformers characters and the fanbase.

The movies were not made for Transformers fans.  The movies were made for horny teenagers who want to see Megan Fox's butt and lots of explosions.

[Leave a Whisper]

Trust me, you do not want Hasbro trying to make a multi-million dollar movie franchise out of MLP.  The Bayformers movies make a lot of money, but they absolutely spit on the Transformers characters and the fanbase.

The movies were not made for Transformers fans.  The movies were made for horny teenagers who want to see Megan Fox's butt and lots of explosions.

Would new, hot edgy Megan be played by Megan Fox?

*imagines creepy smooze being detonated by Bay-splosions carried by Sexy Megan and cyborg Wind Whistler*

[Jorgito93]

Trust me, you do not want Hasbro trying to make a multi-million dollar movie franchise out of MLP.  The Bayformers movies make a lot of money, but they absolutely spit on the Transformers characters and the fanbase.

The movies were not made for Transformers fans.  The movies were made for horny teenagers who want to see Megan Fox's butt and lots of explosions.

Yes... i don't wanna see again how they massacred Starscream on an mlp character.

[Leave a Whisper]

Trust me, you do not want Hasbro trying to make a multi-million dollar movie franchise out of MLP.  The Bayformers movies make a lot of money, but they absolutely spit on the Transformers characters and the fanbase.

The movies were not made for Transformers fans.  The movies were made for horny teenagers who want to see Megan Fox's butt and lots of explosions.

Yes... i don't wanna see again how they massacred Starscream on an mlp character.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXoYK4b_q24

[LadyMoondancer]

Trust me, you do not want Hasbro trying to make a multi-million dollar movie franchise out of MLP.  The Bayformers movies make a lot of money, but they absolutely spit on the Transformers characters and the fanbase.

The movies were not made for Transformers fans.  The movies were made for horny teenagers who want to see Megan Fox's butt and lots of explosions.

Would new, hot edgy Megan be played by Megan Fox?

*imagines creepy smooze being detonated by Bay-splosions carried by Sexy Megan and cyborg Wind Whistler*

Whoa now, does Wind Whistler really need to be in the scene?  Because CGI costs money, you know. Obviously having the movie set in Ponyland / Equestria would cost too much, so ideally the movie would mostly focus on Megan and her problems.  People go to pony movies to watch humans, right?  Anyway, the movie would be about Megan and her boyfriend and their family problems, and maybe the government or something, and once in a while a pony would run on screen and explode.

Wind Whistler can appear right at the end, though, and tear off someone's face. That's totally in-character for her!

[Leave a Whisper]

Trust me, you do not want Hasbro trying to make a multi-million dollar movie franchise out of MLP.  The Bayformers movies make a lot of money, but they absolutely spit on the Transformers characters and the fanbase.

The movies were not made for Transformers fans.  The movies were made for horny teenagers who want to see Megan Fox's butt and lots of explosions.

Would new, hot edgy Megan be played by Megan Fox?

*imagines creepy smooze being detonated by Bay-splosions carried by Sexy Megan and cyborg Wind Whistler*

Whoa now, does Wind Whistler really need to be in the scene?  Because CGI costs money, you know. Obviously having the movie set in Ponyland / Equestria would cost too much, so ideally the movie would mostly focus on Megan and her problems.  People go to pony movies to watch humans, right?  Anyway, the movie would be about Megan and her boyfriend and their family problems, and maybe the government or something, and once in a while a pony would run on screen and explode.

Wind Whistler can appear right at the end, though, and tear off someone's face. That's totally in-character for her!

Well then it can be her troubled brother Danny and cyborg Surprise! Gaaaw Quit being so stingy with the CGI budget! Fans'll love it trust me Director Moondancer. We'll save the Windwhistler scene for the directors cut then.

[Jorgito93]

Trust me, you do not want Hasbro trying to make a multi-million dollar movie franchise out of MLP.  The Bayformers movies make a lot of money, but they absolutely spit on the Transformers characters and the fanbase.

The movies were not made for Transformers fans.  The movies were made for horny teenagers who want to see Megan Fox's butt and lots of explosions.

Would new, hot edgy Megan be played by Megan Fox?

*imagines creepy smooze being detonated by Bay-splosions carried by Sexy Megan and cyborg Wind Whistler*

Whoa now, does Wind Whistler really need to be in the scene?  Because CGI costs money, you know. Obviously having the movie set in Ponyland / Equestria would cost too much, so ideally the movie would mostly focus on Megan and her problems.  People go to pony movies to watch humans, right?  Anyway, the movie would be about Megan and her boyfriend and their family problems, and maybe the government or something, and once in a while a pony would run on screen and explode.

Wind Whistler can appear right at the end, though, and tear off someone's face. That's totally in-character for her!

"give me your face!"
And the character everyone will care about will be Truly, because she's such an important character in G1.Gusty? Wind Whistler? Make them second roles, and make all the merchandising around Truly.

[Lore-Lei]

Trust me, you do not want Hasbro trying to make a multi-million dollar movie franchise out of MLP.  The Bayformers movies make a lot of money, but they absolutely spit on the Transformers characters and the fanbase.

The movies were not made for Transformers fans.  The movies were made for horny teenagers who want to see Megan Fox's butt and lots of explosions.

Would new, hot edgy Megan be played by Megan Fox?

*imagines creepy smooze being detonated by Bay-splosions carried by Sexy Megan and cyborg Wind Whistler*

Whoa now, does Wind Whistler really need to be in the scene?  Because CGI costs money, you know. Obviously having the movie set in Ponyland / Equestria would cost too much, so ideally the movie would mostly focus on Megan and her problems.  People go to pony movies to watch humans, right?  Anyway, the movie would be about Megan and her boyfriend and their family problems, and maybe the government or something, and once in a while a pony would run on screen and explode.

Wind Whistler can appear right at the end, though, and tear off someone's face. That's totally in-character for her!

10/10

[LadyMoondancer]

Trust me, you do not want Hasbro trying to make a multi-million dollar movie franchise out of MLP.  The Bayformers movies make a lot of money, but they absolutely spit on the Transformers characters and the fanbase.

The movies were not made for Transformers fans.  The movies were made for horny teenagers who want to see Megan Fox's butt and lots of explosions.

Would new, hot edgy Megan be played by Megan Fox?

*imagines creepy smooze being detonated by Bay-splosions carried by Sexy Megan and cyborg Wind Whistler*

Whoa now, does Wind Whistler really need to be in the scene?  Because CGI costs money, you know. Obviously having the movie set in Ponyland / Equestria would cost too much, so ideally the movie would mostly focus on Megan and her problems.  People go to pony movies to watch humans, right?  Anyway, the movie would be about Megan and her boyfriend and their family problems, and maybe the government or something, and once in a while a pony would run on screen and explode.

Wind Whistler can appear right at the end, though, and tear off someone's face. That's totally in-character for her!

"give me your face!"
And the character everyone will care about will be Truly, because she's such an important character in G1.Gusty? Wind Whistler? Make them second roles, and make all the merchandising around Truly.

That's good, that's good, but I think there should be a twist.  Like all the other ponies can speak English, but she can only neigh.

[Taffeta]

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

Things are definitely different now. I think you're mostly right, too. I think that the different Hasbros operated regionally. The packaging now suggests similar happens, since they have different Hasbro addresses on them. Plus, European/UK toys have to meet the safety guidelines of the EU/UK, which are probably very similar to the US or other ones but are identified on the packages with a different symbol. This was also true in the 1980s, so we had our own packaging here then too.

In a sense, therefore, all that is logical. But then again we also had a number of stores dealing with Hasbro in the US and importing ponies as exclusives in US packaging (eg Happytails ponies, Candy Canes including Lemon Treats and Mint Dreams who were not in our line of Candy Canes). And Hasbro UK sometimes were involved in this too, ie with the Apple Delight etc family sets, as they appeared on the Hasbro lists as well as in Woolworths as exclusives. This is still happening now, as some stores here turn out ponies with 'Target Exclusive' on the boxes. We don't have Target in the UK and some other ponies have appeared in Canadian boxes.

In my opinion, the EQG Doll line is really easy and logical to explain, too. Hasbro lost out with dolls once to Mattel in the 1980s with Jem. Jem was a colourful doll line but Barbie killed it off with Barbie and the Rockers. Hasbro merged the colours and, to some degree (Rainbow Rocks) the ideas of Jem and tied it up with the name, My Little Pony, which is an established brand. It's a very clever marketing ploy, as Jem would not survive a reboot, but its a way to compete in dolls (especially given that MH is very successful and Hasbro would want that market).

Hasbro also decided to cancel one their most popular and well-known franchises, JEM, after only 4 years!
And then rebooted it either with zero care and effort(the movie)or only for a very small group of adults with a lot of disposable income(the Integrity Toys dolls)

This is quite simply not the case in several respects. The Jem line was cancelled abruptly (after technically 2 full years and a brief foray into 88) and this seems to have been because of poor doll sales. Barbie and the Rockers sucked up the cheaper market and Jem dolls were not the same body size as Barbie, so could not easily wear their clothes like the Rockers could. There are a lot of JEM dolls and items, especially from 1987, still in circulation MIB. The Jem show is a cult classic and has remained so, but the actual doll line was expensive and didn't compete at the levels it needed to to survive long term. A whole bunch of stuff was planned for a 1988 line, but it never happened because of this (except for about 1000 Rockin' Romance dolls that slipped out).

The Jem community is really tied up with a lot of people who worked on various elements of Jem, and a lot of the preproduction stuff, including prototype dolls, fashions, scripts and so on are in the wider community. Jem has a thriving fandom, but it is a niche fandom. The IT line suits that fandom, albeit they are very expensive. The comic and such suits Jem's status as a niche cult storyline. There is no place in the mass market for Jem as a doll these days.

And I say this as a long term collector and fan Hasbro cancelled Jem because sales were too low and didn't compete, and for that reason, the show went too. It never came close to matching what My Little Pony was.

The IT dolls were tailored towards long term fans of the shows from the 1980s and were really attentive to show detail that even the original doll line omitted. I don't have a ton of disposable income, either, but I have managed to acquire the ones I wanted, and they are worth it to me. It's nice to finally have Regine and Astral and the Stingers after they were cancelled from the 1988 line. The only negative I would say is that the scalpers over dolls like Regine preissue were a big problem. A lot of Jem fans missed out on certain dolls because of a few IT members buying multiples to sell at double the price on ebay.

...We don't talk about the horror that is the movie.