Is Hasbro Trying to Kill the Fandom? · 4:15am Feb 10th, 2013
Blogger: http://blogofpony.blogspot.com/2013/02/is-hasbro-trying-to-kill-fandom.html
This has been an...interesting last couple of weeks, to be sure. So far our fandom has weathered Alicorn Twilight, the Friendship is Witchcraft and episode takedowns, and now Fighting is Magic has been Ceased & Desisted out of existence. And with this perfect storm of madness, a harsh line of thinking has begun to take prominence:
Is Hasbro trying to kill the Brony fandom?
Here's my answer in a single word: no.
The issue at hand isn't that these actions were done, but rather the timing in which they happened. Fans haven't had a chance to breathe before being tossed some new spore of madness, and without the time to get over whatever just occurred, things are going to start breaking people down. So let's just...look at the drama we've been handed and see what we can make of it.
Derpy's Gone
During the latter half of Season One and all through Season Two, Derpy was a fairly common background fixture of the series. One of the first things the fandom did was give her a name and identity, heralding many, many more to come. And the show's creators seemed to like her, so much so that she more or less became a mascot of the older fandom.
But then Derpygate happened. The show's staff took things too far and gave her a speaking role. They demanded that they use Derpy instead of Ditzy to pander to fans. Nobody told Tabitha St. Germain that she was a girl, and she voiced her as a boy. The scene unintentionally showed her as a mentally handicapped nuisance who casually destroyed town hall while making Rainbow Dash's life hell. And people were upset...that others were taking offense to this purely innocent act of pandering. And when Hasbro had the scene altered because people were legitimately offended, everyone went absolutely insane, as if their own child had been taken away and deemed “wrong.”
And that's really the crux of the issue. The fandom as a whole is kind of Derpy's mother. We created and nurtured her in fanworks, and her promotion to official status was like a child growing up and moving out to bigger and better things. So when something happens that threatens them, everyone goes to war to defend her. And when she seemingly stopped appearing in Season Three, everyone believed that she had been axed by Hasbro entirely.
Only that's not the case. She isn't in the show right now because...well, Derpygate. It wasn't the terrible scene that confined her to exile, but the fandom's whiny, death threat-laced response that would propel such a thing. Furthermore, much of Season Three's storyboarding (which was when Derpy was placed into scenes in Season Two) was done during the height of the controversy, thereby rendering her a total minefield.
But look beyond the show, and she's everywhere. WeLoveFine is still selling her shirts. There are Derpy collectibles, and she's apparently in the next fan favorites collection, along with several other background characters like Lyra and Octavia. She's still on official merchandise, so...why is she dead? Oh, that's right, not all the fans who watch the show look at the merch.
So no, Derpy is not dead. And if she is gone forever, so what? It was a nice gesture, but we as a whole kind of bit the hand that fed us. Does her presence or lack of presence undermine the show? Does it make the jokes less funny or the stories more contrived? No, it doesn't. The show isn't about Derpy, and we need to realize that, while it hurts to see what happened, it's not as important as many make it out to be.
The Episode and Abridged Series Takedowns
The fandom's early belief was that Hasbro didn't bother taking down episodes because they didn't care whether or not the show was profitable. All they were interested in were the sales of the toyline. And to a degree, that is true, but most certainly not anymore.
The Hub as a whole has been struggling to make itself known since it rose from the ashes of Discovery Kids. The fact is that it needs viewers and ratings in order to remain a viable option for Hasbro and its stockholders. (In fact, the Hub was apparently close to being axed by shareholders in its first year, but managed to hold on because it had a few hits like FiM, Pound Puppies and Transformers Prime.) And now that the show has proven to be very popular with a lot of different audiences, Hasbro needs to market the thing for all its worth. Thus, it has to sell the show into different regions and markets, including oversea ones, and...
Well, what it comes down to is the legal issue of defending their trademark. Technically, Hasbro doesn't have to block anything to keep a hold on their copyrighted characters, settings, and properties. But if they allow derivative works and illegal uploads to happen, despite knowing full well that they're going on, then it damages their legal ability to defend themselves should something more serious happen down the line. Throw in Google getting the rights to sell episodes for the Android, and you see the legal mess that is.
As for the Abridged Series, all of them are illegal. I have to say this again: all Abridged Series are illegal. While they are in some ways works of parody, they don't fall under the actual qualifications for Fair Use, which is to educate and inform the public. Simply taking out the audio and replacing the entire thing with a different script, characters, and setting effectively makes them a derivative work, and thus grounds for removal.
And on a personal note, that's actually why I never got into any of the FiM abridged series. Stuff like Dragonball Z Abridged and Yu-Gi-Oh: The Abridged Series are clearly parodies; they take the same characters as in the shows, flanderize them, and use that to mock the poorer aspects of their series while telling many of the same stories. But The Mentally Advanced Series and Friendship is Witchcraft simply sub in their own characters with the same names, or outright replace them as is the case with Sweetie Bot. So yes, that is a whole other mess of worms and I can understand why Hasbro had to take them down.
Fighting is Magic C&D
Okay, I admit. I overreacted yesterday. I should not have made a post like that, especially after the mess with the documentary. (Which isn't on this list because Hasbro had nothing to do with its shutting down.) But at the same time, this wound is still fresh, and a lot of fans are still up in arms over waiting for two years only to see the project die.
Well, here's the thing: Fighting is Magic was illegal since day one. Mane6 apparently never even tried to get the license from Hasbro, or negotiate with them, or do anything to appeal themselves to the corporation. And when the game starts reaching professional quality and gets pimped out at EVO, there is a real legal problem Hasbro has to deal with. It's...a mess, to say the least.
But, as many fans have pointed out, there are precedents for alternative resolutions. Capcom published that Mega Man vs. Street Fighter game, and the KQIX project got shut down twice before making a deal with the copyright holders and changing their name to The Silver Lining. So why can't Hasbro do that? Well, a couple of reasons:
A) Both of those franchises were effectively dead when it happened. Capcom has expressed zero interest in continuing Mega Man in any capacity, and just allowed the fan game to shut up angry fanboys clamoring for something to do on the franchise's anniversary. There was zero interest in another King's Quest as well. Since the franchises were effectively dead, that means there was only a token legal hassle to work through.
B) Both cases involved their creators eventually reaching out to the rights holders and finding workarounds. So far, Mane6 is trying the same thing, but we'll have to see how that develops.
C) Both of those works were well within the boundaries set up by their respective franchises. Fighting is Magic is about the Mane 6 beating each other up. Not a villain, not mooks disguised as them, but each other. So yes, Hasbro might take issue with that.
And in the end, Hasbro really didn't have a lot of alternatives. Again, not acting in a legal capacity could hurt them down the road. But why didn't they act earlier? Because most of these projects die out within a matter of months. It's the same reason Hasbro isn't going to shut down Equestria Daily or pursue every single piece of fan work; they simply don't have the money and resources to do so. Even Disney, copyright police that they are, don't go after everybody. It sucks that they had to go after Fighting is Magic, but as said before, there are possibilities. Plus, Lauren Faust has offered to work with them on original characters, something they had brought up as a backup plan in case things went south, so there's always that.
It sucks, but...it's the law. Write your Congressman/Congresswoman and get it changed. Write Hasbro and calmly tell them why they should take other options with Mane6. But it's really just a fangame, and in the grand scheme of things, it's nothing of incredible importance.
Alicorn Twilight
Oh boy, this again. The thing that REALLY kicked the storm off.
There's really not much more I can say on the subject that I already haven't, other than that apparently the decision wasn't solely made by Hasbro's toy department, but rather by the staff trying to find some way to liven up the show after three seasons. And admittedly, this season has a few marks of staleness on it. Most of the friendship problems have already been run through, and it's hard to do episodes like Season One's with the characters developed as they are now. I can remember actually being pissed when Justice League became Justice League Unlimited because it marked a total change to the series, only to end up enjoying the latter even more after I gave it a chance.
But here's the thing: Hasbro did not make Twilight an Alicorn to drive us off. They weren't even thinking about us. They were looking at little girls, the show's actual demographic, and what they might like. Just remember that, okay?
Conclusion
So, with all this, how can I say that Hasbro isn't trying to get rid of us? Besides the above, there are a couple of arching reasons:
Hasbro is very, very large - Hasbro is not just a single boardroom of business people stuffed away somewhere. It's a massive web of companies and manufacturers, marketing and legal firms, and various media branches. And quite often, the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing. Just because the show's staff supports us doesn't mean legal will, or just because marketing wants to make products for us doesn't mean that the manufacturers will do a good job of it.
Hasbro is making stuff for the older demographic - Things like the ComiCon Derpy from last year, the WeLoveFine shirts, and the fan favorites boxes are very much aimed at the older demographic as well as the little girls. The trading cards and comics are packed full of references to fan material and background ponies. They're even experimenting with an older demographic with another IP this year, although just how that will work out is up in the air.
Hasbro has given us a lot of leeway - It's easy to forget that Hasbro could be clamping down much harder than it has. Archie Comics has banned fanfiction of their characters. Disney sues anyone and everyone under the sun. Fox will take down your YouTube account if you have a .0000004 second soundclip from Family Guy on a video. And yet, all Hasbro has really done is shut down one or two fangames, removed episodes from YouTube, and attempted to expand their toylines to reflect newer markets. And yes, contrary to popular belief, everything we write for this site is illegal. Equestria Daily technically isn't (they just report news and provide links to content), but they are still allowed to remain up. Just...something to remember.
Hasbro doesn't care about you - This might sound like it's flying in the face of what I said, but it's true. Hasbro has stockholders to please, toys and games to sell, and money to make. They do not sit in a big room, rub their evil hands together, and plot new ways to destroy the Brony fandom. They aren't out to please you, but they aren't going to destroy you either.
So, what am I getting at here? There's a lot of legal technicalities and issues running around FiM these days, and it might seem that the fandom is trying to be wiped out. But that's not the case. It's more an unfortunate series of timings that have caused this disaster and nothing else. It's a sucky situation, and I understand why many are angry. But none of this really feels like anything worthy of throwing the show away like others have. I'm still angry over Fighting is Magic, but boycotting the toys and show aren't going to get it back. And Hasbro isn't out to get us or undermine us; they just have to make sucky decisions every now and then.
I am not defending Hasbro. I'm just saying we all need to take a chill pill and relax.
See, this is why I follow you.
Everytime I see someone whine about Derpy or rant about how Hasbro hates us, I'm going to point them at this blog.
Godspeed, you magnificent bastard.
In my opinion Alicorn Twilight is the biggest overreaction.
No fret, me brotha'. Sticky bun come soon!
Boycotting the series probably would backfire... and reenforce the presived stereotype of the Brony, being a bunch of immature man-children
I wish more people had your brand of thinking instead of freaking out like everyone does.
...
Eh, don't worry about it. It's only natural for us to be riled (including myself) by change, especially about something that our lives revolve upon.
I wouldn't say that Hasbro is "killing" the fandom, but other people have other viewpoints, and it's OK to think differently. That's what makes humans so...wonderfully un-ordinary!
(yes i made that up).
It takes balls to note one's mistakes, and we become better people because of it.
Thank you for this. It reminds each and everyone of us here that sometimes we just need a few moments to cool off before making assumption
What you said is totally correct, if somewhat depressing. While it is frustrating with all that has happened, it could always be worse.
like i said when i started a dumb fight over Django unchained, It was only enevitable that fighting is magic would go down in flames. Hasbro does not want their product to be related to a game that involved their characters, which are susposed to represent friendship and harmony (yet they physically fight in several episodes?) to be related to a fighting game, even thought it could be very fun.
Excellent blog post, everyone in the fandom needs to read it.
Agreed with all of the above. I hope that the Fighting is Magic people can work something out, but I understand where Hasbro is coming from. As for the other takedowns, it's unfortunate, but at the same time they WERE illegal, and just because they were tolerated for a while doesn't mean they shouldn't have stopped allowing it. Alicorn Twi is a completely different issue... we cannot and should not be involved in the creative process for the episodes, and while I love them listening to us and including fan shoutouts every once in a while, we have done a poor job of thanking them for that. Look at as you said the Derpy controversy, and look at how pissy so many people got after Magic Duel, simply because they thought it was the show pandering to us, if I was a Hasbro exec, I'd get a little frustrated too.
Anyway thanks again for being a voice of reason in the fandom.
813087
Agreed.
Hey, I learned something new!//dl.dropbox.com/u/31471793/FiMFiction/Twilight_Sparkle_lolface.png
Anyway, I totally agree with th-
Huh...
Why is it that you never see any of the overreacting posters in blogs like this?
The fandom itself is destroying the fandom.
Been saying that for a while now.
... IAH if what you were saying is true, all episodes of robot chicken would be banned. Do not spread misinformation.
813227
Three differences:
A) Robot Chicken skits are almost always incredibly short, lasting no more than thirty seconds or a minute.
B) Robot Chicken falls under parody a lot more than Abridged Series do, since it's actively parodying the works or people involved and not merely using the assets to create an entirely new work.
C) Robot Chicken (as far as I know) does not reuse animation from the shows it parodies.
813251
"since it's actively parodying the works or people involved"
"and not merely using the characters in a different setting."
uuhh how would you define that then? cause that looks like a proper definition of parody to me.....
Breathe in...
Breathe out.
813265
Let me put it this way:
When Robot Chicken mashes Mario and GTA together, it's still recognizably Mario and the setting is recognizably GTA. The skit pokes fun at the setting and nature of the works involved. That constitutes a legitimate parody, as it is about poking fun at the flaws inherent in the original work.
When Friendship is Witchcraft turns Fluttershy into a doomsday cult leader, her ultimate character is effectively replaced. She is, in essence, a completely new character. Thus, it doesn't count as a parody under fair use, as it's not directly parodying the original work but instead producing something entirely different.
The big things, though, are the issues of reused animation and running time. Fair Use only covers using small snippets of the work involved in a non-profit setting, and does not count reusing existing assets in a new work. Robot Chicken skits are short and use their own assets to produce the parody, and thus are considered to be an entirely different property. And even then, if I recall correctly, Robot Chicken doesn't always use stuff without permission. They frequently ask the actual holders, and if they don't get it, then they use other legal workarounds to make them acceptable.
Copyright law is a pain in the ass.
a drunken brohoof for you good sir
(/
hasbro has been very chill with us for a while, and (Luna willing) they will stay that way
813328
that's all (i assume mostly anyways) very true about robot chicken , but that's not the only example that can be used here to derive models from , and there's several concerns i have about that itself as well , however i've been practically sleep for the past hour so this can continue tomorrow v_v ..........
but for a heads up here i explain most of (what i assume anyways , again currently asleep) what my thoughts are on this whole subject on another journal entry discussing the matter.......
http://darkflame75.deviantart.com/journal/poll/3485925/
All to true. Still the time for generic C&D passed after the game started making major public debuts at conventions over the summer. Then against those major debuts were themselves part of what likely forced Hasbro hand as it generated quite a deal of media buzz (with even professional gaming magazines reporting on the game, leading to something of a false image of official endorsement). Still it would have made better PR to start with some form of negotiation instead of just dropping a legal sledgehammer
813134
Personally I think it was the near professional quality production value that was of greater concern than the ostensive message/content of the game. Most fan-games look like, well... like fan-games -- they are slapshot, crudely polished, and overall not confusable with actual licensed products. Sad to say, but Mane6's dedication to quality might well have been their own ultimate undoing, because the result looked like something all too "offcial".
813328
Yes, yes it is...
Granted there are some very good reasons for it's existence, but it can also be all to draconian at times. Still as bad as things might seem with Hasbro right now they are still small fires compared to something like Disney (which I will never entirely forgive for basically killing off Gargoyles and more or less sitting on the license for 16 years now, even though the guy chiefly responsible for creating the series still wants to tell stories in the setting).
Thank you for this post, it seems some people can think clearly.
813377
To be fair, C&D takes a long time to process. And we don't know if it was a C&D letter (which just means Hasbro asked them to stop before they had to pursue legal action) or a C&D order (which is a formal command to stop working or get in legal trouble). They're rather different in nature, as a letter could be used to stop work on the project while allowing for the possibility of negotiations, while an order is pretty much final. (The KQIX example got the C&D from Vivendi before they even started the negotiation process, so it's entirely possible that something can be worked out here. Not likely, but still possible.)
Oh God, Disney...
That's really the problem with Gargoyles. It doesn't fit with Disney's established mold, which was part of what made it a good show back in the day. It was Disney-level production values, but with much stronger writing and story development than they were willing to normally provide. But of course, it doesn't involve cute princesses (the only one was pretty much a bitch even after her character development), can't be marketed to preschoolers, and is solely the target of people old enough to remember it existed, so it gets to rot in obscurity for all eternity.
I was never worried, heck the thought never crossed my mind. After all, I know that 90% of companies and people really dont care about us ( the other 10% like archie, Anne Mcathey wich I dont get, what is her problem with fanfics? I would love to put elements of the pern series into my stories but I cant, and others just ask) . Well, its more like you said, they do...but 1) its too much work, and 2) sometimes its free advertising. Heck, I know of one company (Paramount) that has published fanfics in a novel form for Star Trek. Hasbro would only care for this site if we had begun to make money off it. We dont so its really no problem, heck even Disney doesnt give a fig about writers. Which is why I still read a good KP or Jake Long fic once in a while. Surprisenly, Hasbro has been kind to us in many other aspects.
I think I agree with what some has said and it does answer a question on my mind. Why mane 6 and not the following: Final Fantasy 6: pony, Pony Chronicles, and the other RPG coming soon. Because they are not as popular, didnt get entered into a match for all to see, and are not as awesome.
Personally, I cant wait for Season 4 and to see what responisbilities Twilight has to handle, new foes to take on, and how the girls will work together. I also like how it wasnt all Hasbro, but some ideas from the writers to explore new things with the character. I like that, and besides...I have seen other ways this has happened and you know what? KAmen Rider is and will always be-Awesome
To be fair I think originally the episodes were left alone to give the show publicity and because of limited access to the show... Now Hasbro has the publicity from the Bronies and enough methods to sell the episodes that youtube is now hurting them rather than helping them... which doesn't help the stable (closet) bronies or the poor bronies such as myself. But Hasbro is in this for the money... It pays for the show.
I might be very unhappy with their decisions but between what IAH says and what I know of the entertainment industry I can't help but understand and to a certain extent agree with their actions... even if I hate those actions.
I almost want to get Anthony Bordain to send them some of that Rainbow Dash.
813251
The problem is this IAH. I am not a copyright lawyer. Neither are you last you've told us. Neither are the people doing these takedowns. But you are presenting your opinion as if it were fact. When you make a statement about the legality of something, have the courtesy to preface it with "In my opinion, which is admittedly not fully informed, as even copyright lawyers could argue both sides effectively".
THE HORROR! THE HORROR!!!
...
Heh.
I'm not panicking. I will say this though, just like Blueshift pointed out in his recent 'Hasbro' blogpost, I don't think they'll be able to stretch this whole Pony Princess thing much longer. I don't know how many of these toys parents will be willing to buy... Pinklestia, Pinker Cadence, Purple Twilight, White Celestia... it seems every year they crank out another Princess Pony and at some point we'll reach the Bumblebee Wall of Yellow effect. I think FiM should start developping new characters to peddle as toys.
I think the fandom is running low on chill pills.
Oh who am I kidding, we never had any to begin with.
Actually, as a fandom we, dislike change, and what's different. We spook easily. We can be a flighty bunch, but also VERY stubborn. We can be fun to have around, but we are high maintenance....Oh my god, we are all horses.
813486
Fair point.
I always like reading your insights into such matters, as they're often clear-headed, concise, and logical.
Also, this:
"They weren't even thinking about us. They were looking at little girls, the show's actual demographic, and what they might like. Just remember that, okay?"
Emphasis added.
Point is, people need to realize it's not a big deal in the grand scheme of things.
813518
...Mother of God, I think you're right.
The thing to note about the YouTube takedowns is that 99% of the time it's an automated process. All a copyright holder needs to do is upload a parameter clip to the site, and from there on out the site automatically flags videos that are uploaded with that parameter.
I doubt anyone at Hasbro actually knows about those abridges' existence.
Also, news just broke that the reason Fighting got sent a C&D is because of the influx of attention it got when EVO announced it for their tournament. It would have been just fine flying below the radar if that never happened.
813421
...and thus illustrate all to perfectly the dark side of copyright/trademark laws. It's one thing for a company like Hasbro that is actively promoting their brand holdings to take measure to stop other people from using such and thus diluting the value of the property. Disney, however, is doing basically nothing with Gargoyles but milking it for reruns. I might forgive them if they would actually do SOMETHING with the product, even if that something was a nightmarish abomination that made me regret ever likening the show in the first place, but no. Instead they just sit on the property, even though the original creator would gladly still work with it and Disney could just rake in the residuals (small as they might be) for basically no investment of their own just by giving him permission to do so.
For a short time it looked like they'd finally wised up to that fact and we got the all too brief comic book run that continued where the original series left off. Granted, the run was plagued with pretty much all manner of production troubles, plus the fans while very vocal in their support have repeatedly proved hesitant to back that up with their wallets (or at least that's Disney's excuse for never putting out S2V2 on DVD), but still it was ultimately Disney that refused to grant a license extension -- or at least made it too difficult/expensive to bother trying.
Again if they took back the license to do something with it themselves, that would be different, but no. They continue to just sit on it, and so a mythos that had the potential to rival things like Marvel & DC continues to atrophy, never really given the chance to prove it's worth... ad there's not a damn thing anyone can do to fix that, because a system designed to protect individual artists/inventors is now gratuitously exploited by soulless corporate entities.
813479
Pretty much this, which is also a pretty common duality with most anime. It's the illegal YouTube uploads that give the media the public exposure that makes creating official dubs marketable, but of course once those dubs are actually being marketed, YouTube changes from the bastion of free advertising into a liability that drives down product value.
813490
I don't think that one allicorn per year (plus one more as a store exclusive like White Celestia or the upcoming delux Nightmare Moon) really put us in all that much danger of the Bumblebee effect, because ostensibly there is never more than one giant talking princess pony on the shelves at any given time. I only have my own local area to speak of, but I've never observed any of the princesses becoming shelf warmers, rather it's the rather questionable vehicle sets that no one really ever seems to be interested in purchasing.
813518
Arguably the flightiness and resistance to change comes from the awareness of the brands previous incarnations (notably G3.5) which give a not entirely unreasonable fear that the show is only ever a half step away from turning into unwatchable dretch. Personally I still think we should give the show's production team -- and even Hasbro -- more credit than that. MLP has turned into a smash hit, one of the pillars keeping the HUB alive as a viable network; there might be some stumbling along the way, but that is not the kind of success any profit minded company is likely to screw with.
You make some good points dear sir
The reason I put up with so many random blog posts per day from you is that every single one of them helps point my opinion on various happenings to more educated levels. You are very wise, my friend, and reading every one of your blog posts is actually a valuable experience. With stuff like this, it helps put perspective to things when things go to hell, and in this case, I feel a heckuva lot more respect for hasbro. Keep writing, dude.
In all honesty, none of this really phased me except for Fighting is Magic. That really took the wind out of my sails. I just can't seem to enjoy anything pony as much as I used to. Maybe I'll get better, maybe not. I know for sure I'm no longer looking forward to any high quality pony games anymore.
It's funny, you know. Before I became a brony, I was gonna play FiMg no matter what because it was a top notch fighting game, even if it had ponies. Now that the project's only hope is to be reincarnated with Faust's kind gesture, I can't see myself playing it because of ponies. It's all so cruelly ironic.
813604 Okay so the Princesses aren't really going the way of Bumblebee, but it still begs the question: would a parent actually buy more than one of those for the period of time their little girl is interested in My Little Pony? They're more expensive than basic brushables of figurines and they're pretty much just recolor of the same stupid "My wings are SO pretty!" dumb toy.
Ya know, I know how Hasbro could expend their brand: My Little Pony Kre-o! With new Pony Kreons with actual articulation! In scale with the figurines already on store shelves. Now THAT would sell better than the stupid cars and trains! LEGO Friends is apparently successful enough to warrant multiple waves (which didn't really happen, as far as I know, with LEGO's previous foray into girly stuff) so Hasbro should step up and compete!
813604
You mean like The Goliath Chronicles?
But yes, they screwed the comics run over pretty badly. At least, from what I understand, the reason things ended like they did is because Disney was charging more for the license than they were willing to pay. Which makes sense, considering how Disney tends to operate. If they know they have something that'll be popular, they will charge through the nose for just the right to look at it for but a few seconds.
That, and part of the reason behind the Bumblebee Effect, as I understand it, was that it was the toyline based on the movies, which had a much smaller cast to work with and fewer characters that would sell. FiM doesn't have that problem, and even with new princesses and all that, there are other characters and avenues for them to market towards. That's why I'm both dreading and curious about the new IP. It could either be really good, or a total disaster. But it'll be interesting finding out.
Although I did check out the video demonstration of Princess Twilight and...please don't do that to her, show. Don't scoop her brains out and replace them with Pinklestia's.
813688
Perhaps not, but at the same time it brings out more products for the kids to beg for. Back in "Bringing Up Blueblood," there was a small scene where Gusty was adamant that Lofty not get the same toys for her birthday that she already had. It's stupid, but that's how a lot of kids actually operate. It's a matter of what toys you can bring to the table, and nobody wants to bring the exact same one as everyone else. They have to be unique enough that they get attention. And thus, one girl has a Celestia, another has a Luna, still another has Cadance, and the fourth has Twilight. They all get princess, but they all have different ones.
In short, it's not a matter of getting the same people to buy the same toy. It's a question of putting more toys on the shelf to encourage the marketing cycle.
I have never used Kre-o in my life, but since LEGO will never happen for obvious reasons, any kind of building blocks would work. Although when I worked retail last Christmas, we were buried by Kre-o Optimus Primes, so I don't know how viable the brand actually is.
I agree, what else can be said?
Hasbro isn't the fandoms big problem. The fandom is the fandoms problem.
There are those who go many steps beyond what many of us would ever consider. The Brony doc to me is a excellent example of that, a botched plan that crumbled at the seams. Much like several members in this fandom are...don't take it too seriously, its a cartoon show after all.
The one thing that has always bothered me about the whole Derpy issue is this: Why did they feel the need to change the episode if only a very small number of people actually complained? To me, that's giving in incredibly easily, and that's why I'm mad at them for that. It's not the "What?" that bothers me. It's the "Why?" Why change because a couple people got upset? Trying to please everyone will please no one.
So there's my two cents that may or may not make sense.
And other than quibble, I agree with about everything you said. And if not, I can at least follow your reasoning.
813721
Unfortunately, we live in a very litigious society. Hasbro had to cover themselves lest any of the people complaining actually bothered to get a lawyer and a suit going on. It's stupid, but it's also fairly standard operating procedure for something like the Derpy incident, especially for a children's show.
The giant bugbear about IP laws, in my layman's opinion, is that all the people who can litigate about it conflate Trademarks, Copyright and patents. Also muddying the issue are the 800-lb gorillas called Disney and the Music industry.
At it's basest level, a Trademark is intended to let you know that something has an expected quality. Branding, more or less. In FIM's case, it's "The name 'Twilight Sparkle' refers to a purple unicorn with the following distinguishing characteristics ... (snip pedantic description.)" *This* is what most of the "copyright" wars are really about. A bootleg "Twilight Sparkle" toy produced by one of the factories in China that lost the Hasbro contract or stole/splashed molds hurts sales of the genuine toys. So roughly anything we can use to identify the ponies counts. This requires registration of some sort or other, iirc.
Copyright is "I did this, so I should reasonably expect to earn some form of monetary compensation for my work." In FIM's case, it's specifically the Writers, Composers, and Artists. You can copyright the specific occurrences of the upcoming season finale, and the specific dialogue. You cannot, however, copyright a mind swap plot. In fact, due to recent copyright laws EVERYTHING EVER automatically has a copyright to it. IAH holds a copyright to the blog posts made here. At the actual, reasonable base of the law, this means that if someone makes money off of the work done composing and typing it up, IAH gets a lion's share.
Where it gets sticky is, as the 20th century has made entertainment less ephemeral, media companies (hello Disney and Record Companies!) have lobbied quite successfully to claim all of their "bread-and-butter" as effectively permanent property, instead of the limited time deal it was intended to be before a work falls to the public domain. The latest source year for anything in the public domain that was not intentionally put there is ~1927 or so, and nothing will fall to the public domain until 2047. The real kicker is that due to oddbal riders, ALL recorded music has a copyright date no earlier than 1978. So, because Disney wants to earn money off of Steamboat Willie forever, what was intended to help an artist/writer for his lifetime, now extends into his great-grandchildren's, but the author more than likely doesn't hold the rights anymore because one of the folks who jiggered the copyright law hold them...
Then there's patent Law. Rigid term, the big companies haven't fought very hard for this one, since it lets folks like Apple and IBM produce competing products in a timely manner. As far as My Little Pony is concerned, the patent on the underlying toy (which resulted in G1, by Bonnie Zacherle) has been expired since the late '80s. In fact the "bootleg" and "knock-off" market is using a lot of G2 molds and a few early G3's. Additionally I've seen knockoffs of the 1980s Transformers toys in cheap Easter baskets. I'm presuming there are newer patents in the current toylines, likely involving the "My wings are so pretty!" Chips and so on.
Bah way early in the morning and I'm rambling.
Kudos for the original post. Would read again.
813251 okay, completely unrelated to your comment, but can you please tell me what an IP is. I have no idea and of course, most searches into browsers come up with "How can I hide my IP adress?" and similar stuff.
813756
Intellectual Property. What it means in this case is that they've got some kind of new brand or extension for My Little Pony, but we currently have no idea what it is.
813704
Yes actually.
As terrible as that was at least it was Disney doing something with the property, a horribly misguided something wherein they tried to repurpose the show as a generically inconsequential Saturday morning action series so as to compete with the likes of *Power Rangers*, but at least it was doing something with the brand other than just letting it stagnate indefinitely
* No offense meant to Power Rangers; I've rather enjoyed that series in most of its incarnations, but it's not the kind of thing a more intellectually engaging show like Gargoyles should ever have been measured against. *
Compared to LEGO, Kre-O might as well be non-existent, not that any building block brand really could be said to adequately compete with the LEGO juggernaut. Still, within its own niche it's popular enough, based on my admittedly limited understanding. Not so much for the building sets, but for the Kreon mini-figures (wherein one of the Transformers products shipping with the wrong Kreon was considered something of huge deal within the collector base of the fandom, or something like that).
813736
This, and it sort of makes me sick sometimes to think about the fact. That whole 120 year gap in things getting added to the public domain is pretty telling of just how abused the system has become.
813604
Speaking of Disney cartoons, why do they give us the first two seasons of all the old saturday morning cartoons, but no the last one? I WANT MY TALESPIN GODDAMIT! I WILL GIVE YOU MONEY DISNEY, LOTS OF IT!
Ahem.
I can confirm, at least in my area as well, that it's the pony vehicles, not the talking princess toys that warm the shelves. Assuming any retailers around here bother to stock Hasbro toys to begin with. Indiana Y U NO LIEK HASBRO.
And yeah, a lot of Bronies are a bit paranoid about the direction the show might take. But a fair number of bronies like older gens as well, with G1 being the most liked. There are even a few that like gen 3. Although, does anyone here actually know anything about G2? Anyway, I stand by my previous assessment tough.
813814
There was no G2 cartoon. Rather, there were two G1 series ("My Little Pony and Friends" and "My Little Pony Tales"), with the second often being labeled as G2 by mistake. The toys were pretty much a flop in the US (just like the G2 of another Hasbro franchise), but apparently did pretty well in the UK, lasting until Hasbro ceased producing all the previous generation stuff out to start G3 with a clean slate. Other than that, I really don't have much information; the toys never made it into the mainstream and since there was no show, I have no way of really looking into the generation.
813814
I can attest to being one of those fans that enjoyed previous generations (original flavor G1 to be precise, and old enough to have actually watched it when it was new); that's actually pretty much the main reason I ever bothered giving FiM any chance at all. Arguably that's why I'm also fairly trusting of both the staff of the show and even Hasbro, though admittedly my trust of the latter is mostly based on how well they generally handle their other longstanding franchises, namely G.I.Joe and Tansformers.
I wouldn't want to see series backslide or anything, but the older gens get more hate than they deserve, with the amount of openly professed venom being rather disconcerting. It's one thing to joke about killing all the G3 ponies with fire, it's quite another to genuinely preach that concept. That period of pony history was hardly to my tastes either, but we shouldn't just write it off either. Besides some of the more popular memes wouldn't exist without it, and we'd all live in a sadder world if we couldn't joke about Rainbow Dash dressing in style.
Yeah, it's rather telling when a company literally has so much money they stop caring about potential profits below a certain threshold.
The least they could do is take the WB approach, where by the make all there old IP that isn't viewed as viable for wide release and make it available for purchase on a "made to order" basis.
813825
Which coincidentally enough also did pretty well in Europe right up until Hasbro ceased production to move onto their next product line.
Aye. I couldn't have said it better myself IAH. Well done.
you know, you're right, with alicorn twilight, we keep seeing problems and expecting the series to become something we probably won't like,
but then tell me bronies... who was sceptical about liking the show before they watched it?