Looking down the road: Fanmade MLP items

[lonewolf]

 While at work a few days ago, I got to thinking about the fanmade items in the fandom. At no point in the history of My Little Pony has there been so much fanmade stuff, of quality equal to, or even exceeding the quality of official merchandise. And I have to wonder: What value will it all have 20 or 30 years down the road when MLP is up to Gen. 6 or 7, and the G4 fanbase has moved on (or sadly passed on)?

 Look at all of the custom brushables, sculptures, and blind bags there are. And plushies. Oh man the plushies. I'm sure the amount of custom ones made is now in the 5 digit range, in sizes from tiny to life size, and from one offs to mass produced ones like White Dove's. Some OC characters even have mass produced plushies now like Snowdrop,  Fluffle Puff (Fluffle's creator sold over 160 of his plushies at Bronycon earler this year, plus many more before then), and Dustykatt's OC Overhaul *hugs his examples of the first 2*. And even the Onlyfactory bootlegs come into play.

 Then there's the  other items. Woodcrafts,  art, Silver Slinger's stuff, buttons, models of buildings, clothing, etc. etc.. And of course all of the one of a kind items made for convention charity auctions (including stuff I made) that have sold for hundreds or even thousands of dollars.

 Will any of this stuff still have value in the future generations? Could they wind up in the category of folk art antiques/collectibles like many handmade items from the early 1900's have become? Many of us won't be around long enough to find out, but it's something to think about.

[Purpleglasses]

Oh man, I have thought about this! Surely someday people will be nostalgic for the brony fandom, and perhaps they will want to collect the hand made objects from their time in it, much the way other pony fans collect official toys. It makes sense! I think that many kinds of toy collecting are rooted in nostalgia and the desire to have objects that remind you of a happy time in your life. Plenty of people have good memories of their time going to brony conventions and the friends they made there. I think that handmade brony memorabilia collectors may well become a thing. There are so many things to collect! Hand made plush, sculpted figures, even those brony ties.

 I visited BABScon this past April, and there's this one booth there that always sells hand made plush muffins with the off kilter eyes of a certain very popular grey pegasus painted on. I'm always tempted to buy one, because it's such a bizarre object. It has a clear meaning within the context of a brony convention and brony fandom, but nowhere else, and would only exist and make sense in that context, sort of like an archaeological object. Still, I can't bring myself to buy one. It's funny and adorable, but perhaps I don't need to purchase things to remind me of a really fun time I had with friends in a convention center one weekend. Maybe  some objects only make sense in context, and it should be that way.

But hey, if collectors of fan made brony memorabilia become a big subset of pony collecting in the future, it'll make me feel kind of warm and fuzzy inside.

[Snapdragon]

The only thing that, to me, won't last, will be the "Brony famous" (or "big name fan", as they are known in most fandom circles) types of goods. I think in 30 years a lot of people won't understand why there's a pony plush with a handlebar mustache kicking around in random pony lots on eBay. Most of the designs I see aren't particularly cute either, so those items will probably depreciate in value very quickly, except maybe to devoted fans of that 'persona'. (I've never gotten the appeal of BNFs, personally, since most people don't become popular for being nice.)

That said, from what I've seen, the handmade Care Bear/Cabbage Patch Kid plush from the 70s are almost worthless among collectors, except for the occasional fans; many people only want to collect things that are "legit", and officially stamped as company-made. That said, the 70s didn't have a lot of professional, high-quality plush like we see now, so only time will tell I think! I'll be curious to see how this changes as years pass.

I wonder, too, how many of these super-expensive plush will hit the secondary market; a lot of them are custom-ordered designs, and most people aren't willing to pay $1000+ for someone else's persona! And since many people don't want to sell something at a loss, I wonder if we might start seeing the plush popping up in Goodwill before we see them popping up on eBay for $5?

[Purpleglasses]

That said, from what I've seen, the handmade Care Bear/Cabbage Patch Kid plush from the 70s are almost worthless among collectors, except for the occasional fans; many people only want to collect things that are "legit", and officially stamped as company-made. That said, the 70s didn't have a lot of professional, high-quality plush like we see now, so only time will tell I think! I'll be curious to see how this changes as years pass.

This is a good point, but, as far as I know the cultural context is different. So many people see (or saw) brony as an identity, to an extent. As I understand it these Care Bear/Cabbage Patch items weren't made to appeal to a large adult subculture, but were made by parents for kids? Please correct me if I'm wrong, I didn't even know such things existed.  The future collectors I picture are nostalgic ex-bronies. Perhaps a good indicator is to look at if a market exists for fan made Star Trek memorabilia, perhaps?

To be honest I'm less interested to know if this stuff will become pricey, and more if people will simply want it and why.

[LadyMoondancer]

Well, I think it depends on the item.  Like those very elaborate music boxes with moving parts, I could definitely see those being worth a lot.  Whereas I do not think a brony-themed mug or blanket will sell for much.  The plushes, I think will depend on the character.

In general, I think anything relating to the Mane 6 or background characters who were also official toys will retain (or gain) the most value.  Because they will appeal to the new collectors who watched the show / played with MLP toys as little kids.  I don't see brony-specific (as in, only able to be understood within the context of the brony community) stuff retaining value as much, simply because most of them are not toy collectors and I don't see that changing as they age.

In other words, while there are X amount of bronies who are / were willing to spend a lot on sculptures and toys, I think that number will decrease as time goes on, becoming (X-Y).  So I foresee less competition for the same items.  This will drive prices down.

[drusilla]

0 dollars

for any generation of ponies, anything custom made and not officially made from hasbro is worth 0.  it is only worth what the person is willing to pay for it at the time.  all those crazy expensive plush ponies for example were only worth that much cause someone wanted to pay that, in 20 years if they resell it they will not get that money at all. it will just be labeled knock off.

[hathorcat]

Unfortunately in the future, I actually think G4 is going to have the least value in most ways. While all other generations were of course mass produced, this is the first generation to have achieved pop culture status in many ways - in scale (if counting everything "official" its probably miles ahead of the earlier gens).

The majority of fans are of an age that they can purchase what they want and keep what the want; they are already adults. Earlier gens success is with those of us when we become adult and can look back...looking back to your childhood is very different thing to looking back at what you were doing in early/mid adulthood.

I do agree that there are some special items which may be considered art or just have such impressive craftsman ship in limited numbers, that they will always have value. But in general I think most things will have 0 value worth the fandom moves on.

[Wardah]

G4 is very different than anything that has come before. The majority of fans that are making and buying handmade stuff are adult fans who expect a higher level of quality than a mass produced toy. The children who might collect G4 out of nostalgia when they get older are still children. I think a lot of it will depend on quality. A well made plush or a detailed statue of a beloved character, especially when it looks more true to the cartoon, might actually be in more demand than the official stuff that only bears a passing resemblance to the character.

[Skeen]

I doubt the toys will be worth anything, like the G3's.  But the ancillary things, the LE exclusives, they'll hold their value better, and the hand-made OOAK pieces will be the most expensive.  What those prices will be remains to be seen. 

[FantasticFirefly]

I would think anything highly detailed, of very high professional handmade quality depicting characters of wide appeal to children now watching TV series (+and low hasbro made availability of anything of close quality) would keep value. There will be new hobbyists who remember FiM as children to replace the old (and man, when those kids start posting "I played with these when I was three!" I will feel ANCIENT).

Mind you, there are still G1-G3 customs collectors kicking around who hope to own a "Woosie" or a "PoniesYeah" made pony one day! Also not official "Hasbro" stuff!

 The children who grew up watching g4 will have a group that will start collecting as adults. for most of the current adults collecting now who got into FiM/g4 as their introduction to MLP- for the most part it'll be a fad that will be replaced with the next hot thing, and many of these treasured pony collections will eventually end up dumped on the second hand market. Of course, even within that group they'll be a couple die hard collectors who will never lose the passion. Most will though. Remember how BONKERS people went for beanie babies in the late 90's or cabbage patch in the 80's. (honestly, the damand for G1 also increased with this new FiM group. I don't see my own stuff (all G1) "maintaining" current values/market damand for years going forward- don't buy g1's as a strict investment kids! risky risky!.)

[Taxel]

I really do wonder how well G4 ponies will hold up over time. A little while after I first got into the show I got some G4 ponies. Within 1-2 years, or less for some ponies, they all (excluding white ponies) developed very noticeable head-body mismatch. I stopped giving money to Hasbro but kept up with things for a while. Horrendous quality control was just the norm. I doubt things have changed.

But either way, I agree that G4s will be largely worthless. They're collected en masse and even random people might buy some because of the pop culture things, even if they don't care about ponies, the show, etc. Most stuff is just the same re-releases of the mane six we've been getting for years. The mane six will be so much worse than any other commons like G1 Peachy, G3 core/commons, McDs, etc. They'll be a horrible infestation that no one wants. The more interesting releases (like the butterfly-looking winged ones), rare color palettes, and other characters will likely hold some value, even if its only to customizers (if they stay stable enough to customize for that long).

I agree with whoever mentioned the extremely brony specific stuff. I think all of that will be worthless. Extremely high quality things might have some value but no one is going to care about the brony jokes or "celebrities" or any of that outside of die-hard brony fans who continue to collect G4 stuff down the line. The kids who watched the show and want to re-live that in some way won't be interested in those things, or even know what they are.

As far as general G4/canon character stuff, if its high quality I think it will still hold some value. G4 is a very different beast and Hasbro has completely dropped the ball on official merch over and over and over and over. Characters aren't produced, don't look like themselves, have terrible quality... the list goes on and on. Some of the G4 stuff is pretty bad but the same can be said for all generation's (and all fandom's) fanmade things. G4 has spawned an incredible amount of very high quality handmade merch. The good stuff can't be compared to Hasbro's at all. There's really just no contest. Official plushies are all totally laughable compared to what the fans are creating. So I definitely think those kinds of things will keep some value.

However I definitely don't think people will be able to resell things for the hundreds/thousands of dollars they originally paid. The double edged sword of fanmade is that you can always find someone else to commission (or another seller for more popular types of items, like an Applejack plushie, or things with multiple copies, like art prints). Prices will deflate massively. I think there'll be a huge crash when FiM ends and people mostly in it for the show/comics sell off and leave. It'll keep up as the brony community naturally withers and people either leave & sell or join the collector communities. Values will continue to plummet on most things until the kids are old enough to want a piece of their childhood back. After that, who knows! I'm sure some things will rise back up a bit and others will have no takers even at thrift but its anyone's guess exactly what will happen to very specific items.

[Al-1701]

I think G4 is the first truly disposable generation of My Little Pony which is a shame.

As for the fanmade stuff, I have to agree some things will retain value but the initial cost of these items makes it impossible for them to appreciate.  Also, so much of is either a character that is common as dirt or based on some meme that will die with the show.  Either way, they're not very good collectors' items.

Fanmade stuff is also typically made to order rather than mass produced.  They're more niche which is also a knock against them.

Basically, G4 is not as much of a collector's generation.