I Blame DGD For This One · 6:11am Aug 13th, 2014
God, if I had known the hipster goth fad could become popular enough to become a fashion trend for toys made for little girls, I would've cashed in on that shit years ago. Also, there is something unbelievably cute about Celestia trying to dress up dark and grim but instead making herself appear so cuddly.
Don't believe me? TESTIFY!
Forget about adorable, it's fucking endearing is what it is!
Although, truthfully, the actual toys themselves look hella unappealing.
Don't lie, you still dumped money into it.
Pony Mania may look like a bunch of halfcoherent bullshit made to make a quick buck off a toyline, and for that thinking you are 100% right and you're an adult now. Enjoy that knowledge. It shall serve you well into life. Next time you spot an MLP toyline trending towards crystals and spacetech dress-spacesuits, you'll know. Oh yes, you'll know.
*Finishes the rest of his beer and throws it in an ever growing pile in the corner.*
Shit, what the hell happened to Applejack?
Huh, I didn't even begin to think Luna was missing in the picture. Don't know whether that's a good or bad thing...
Well, at least they were spared a fate worse than death. Going to Hot Topic. Which, for whatever reason, smells like weed and pinesol. Every. Fucking. Time.
Oh well, at least we know Celestia is definitely a wannabe goth. There are worst fates than that (not that I could think of any), but I'm sure it's just a phase. Just wait until she's into steampunk! Also, I wish I can link the artist's tumblr here, but his name is DRAGON DICKS and yeah you can kinda see where I'm going with that.
Hey I would climb into the car with them to go to hot topic, heck. They have imagine Dragons and John Cena T-Shirts.
We had a great story explaining why Applejack wasn't at McDonald's, now we need a story explaining why the these ponies are dressing like Death Cab for Cutie groupies. Changling infiltration mission gone wrong? Twilight tries to appeal to her fans but mistakes them for OTHER Twilight fans? This is what happens when the Rainbow Power is put in reverse? The world must know!
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I'd go for the John Cena t-shirts definitely.
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I got it!
Applejack had a small shred of self-respect left in her body.
The end!
Steampunk and MLP would probably look cool. Also, it could be worse, Celestia could be a regular hipster, with their tank tops and their baggy jeans, or....she could be a fan of the Twilight series.
Lol, I've never felt bad fort Shining Armor before. Great comic.
Applejack must be having one heck of a time playing gold fish with Luna.
This one time I was with my Boy Scout Troop in St. Louis. I was walking around the mall in my Scout uniform and went into Hot Topic. Got a lot of strange looks. But you know what's funnier than that? Emo kids with Missouri accents.
2366557 Makes sense, but then why not Luna? That's a mare who once dressed up as the physical manifestation of her most painful regrets so foals would like her... also free candy. Huh, guess I answered my own question, Hot Topic didn't offer Luna free candy.
2366557 huh, surprised you knew who "Super-Cena" is.
Wasn't goth fashion "in" like 5 years ago? Fuck they missed the trends by a mile.
Also why no skeleton/undead ponies?
I have bad feeling about this. They are gonna announce "Goth ponies" the movie any day now.
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memegene.net/media/created/w7pa7o.jpg
YOU'RE DAMN STRAIGHT I DO!
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A pricey negotiator if I ever saw one. A bit risky as well. 8 bits? I would've given her 6.
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Equestria Girls 3: Undead Abomination Fashion Show.
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Did you feel compelled to punch them in the face like I would have?
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[shipping intensifies]
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She's STILL got it!
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Now the question is whether a wannabe hipster is worse or better than a real hipster...
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Shhhh, no tears, not yet.
2366602 that meme!
Dat Celestia looks like she's ready for something alright.
Something CLICHE! I'm callin it!
I did pick up one of those swanky Spike hoodies there, though, the one with the spikes all down the back.
Screw the Vinyl one, the horn looks like a dildo.
Of course, that's just what they want you to do
~Dash The Stampede
2366602 Oh, Bob. Nothing ever stops you from shipping ponies. Next thing you know, you write a story about Luna and Applejack playing a round of gold fish while intoxicated.
boston.com/blogs/news/opinion/bostoncomment/im-an-adult.gif
Also, this.
i.imgur.com/IWI7I3i.jpg
This is already in my possession!
Aren't my lace stockings sexy?
Yeah, so I arrive home to find a box big enough to hold a dorm fridge in!
Toys-R-Us must have used half a roll of pillow packing, cause there were only 5 items in there! The "Goth ponies in socks" set, the "Hasbro gets the lines of a talking toy right: Chrysalis", the "Giant set of blind bag ponies I already own, but it HAS LUNA" set, the "
Chinese New YearPinkzilla is so huge she gonna crushTokyoBeijing", and finally "That's not the cutiemark from the show Photo Finish"...In a box that could HOLD one of Hasbro's alleged target demographic "children".
Words can not express how much I want these ponies. They are just so damned tacky they're fabulous!
I have been trying to convince my wife we need to buy the Ponymania Chrysalis, because BRUSH MY HAIR, DEAR MINION!
My wife is opposed to the idea because they couldn't even get Chryssy's horn right, and we shouldn't encourage Hasbro's shitty toy lines (her words)
I may have to secretly purchase her, along with Nightmare Moon. So kitschy!
Why does this really remind me of My Immortal?
Oh, because of the Gothic trips to Hot Topic.
I love that last comic so much. All of them are pretty funny, really, but that last one just speaks to me. Given the sheer power levels of Twilight and Shining, their family home life must have been exciting.
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They fucking have some merch of Chryssie?!
Where.
2366679 Your voice is best herd by Hasbro if you HAVE dropped the money. Lemme explain:
1: No merch: "Hay Hasbro, X is not right and you should do Y a certain way."
Sorry, we can not take unsolicited product ideas. For legal purposes your message has been deleted.
2: Bought merch: "Hay Hasbro, I bought X, and Y was not right. Just wondering if you have a version where Y is fixed?"
Sorry, we don't have that at the moment, but we can relay your interest to the appropriate departments.
So, you see, Merch continues to support Hasbro, while giving you a channel to complain about said merch's sulkiness and TOTAL inaccuracy!
2366902 Toys-R-Us has it on their web store.
There's a tall Talking Chrysalis. She LITERALLY uses the SAME mold as the Pinklestia, Whitelestia, Cadance and Nightmare Moon talking toys. They even failed to change the rred LEDs to green. Really Hasbro...
Still, it's their best voice work on one of these toys to date!
There is also a Multi Pack available (or not.. Not sure, it was last year's product, so you'll have to see if it's in stock) that packs several pony figures together, including Derpy and Queen Chrysalis!
Finally, there is an EXCELLENT blind bag size version of her, with a crooked horn. Comes in one of those Three Packs. Not available through them right now, but Hasbrotoyshop.com had them, and Amazon and ebay both work too.
I imagine Steampunk ponies will become a thing at some point. Heck, they already are to some degree, given how many Steampunk cosplayers there were in the Cosplay Contest at Bronycon this year.
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Oh, we still buy plenty of merch. She just has a thing against ponies in stockings.
Them ponies be so cute, they make goth look cute. Except for the toys. Ewwwwwww.
Hot Topic has some chill shirts though. And once they even sold Odd Future CD's. Can't totally hate them with those pros.
aannndddd you put a bad image of dash in my head
2366942 I would mention to your wife that, yes, many people did buy the pink talking Celestia toys, and the pink brushable figures... And you know what? They had enough feedback AND enough sales to justify the recoloring to a white version.
You see, what she needs to understand, is if there are no sales of the "Hasbro's shitty toy line", then they will not come out with followups, no matter how outspoken the voices are for correction. Hasbro trusts that if there is great quantities of feedback to go with great quantities of sales, then the feedback is worth hearing, as people are willing to spend money, even when the product wasn't to their particular liking... It tells them it's a sure fire investment. Hasbro's not gonna look twice on a product with low sales, not even if HOARDS are telling them what to fix to make it right.
I took one look at the toys and...
[youtube=umDr0mPuyQc]
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Spoken like someone who has an excess of disposable income.
As someone who lives with not overly a lot of disposable income, she (and myself) could spend that same amount of money on the official (or licensed third party) items that are already out there that we do like. We have a tonne of things we need to spend our money on: food, rent, bills, diapers/food/sundries for our daughter, heating, electricity, internet (yes a luxury), fuel, loan debts, etc.
First off: You took my first post way too seriously. My wife does think the toy sucks, which is why she will not buy certain ones. And that's her choice. She doesn't go online to bitch about how she thinks they are shitty. She doesn't complain to Hasbro to make them right. She just made an offhand joke about not encouraging them by buying the 'shitty' lines. For herself. I still buy them, where I can. And we've bought a few of the 'shitty' little brushable barely-even-looks-like-the-characters ponies for my daughter (she likes it when I put on a little puppet show with them) without batting an eye.
The thing stopping me from buying those two toys (in truth, rather than joking around) is a prioritizing of my own personal spending allowance.
True story: I have $50AUD a month disposable income to spend on myself. Out of that, I spend $8USD (about $9AUD with fees) every month on the MLP comics. I might buy one or two blind backs, totalling another $8. I might keep a little aside for a few months so I can make a WeLoveFine order (bare in mind, not everything I get from there is pony related)
My wife tends to order from WeLoveFine, or alternately, ordering the Funko vinyl statues, which in her opinion, are of high enough quality that she chooses to spend her money on them.
On top of that, if I want a new game for the PC, or say I want to go to the cinema's with my wife or a friend, or I want to buy snacks for a D&D game… or what ever. That has to come out of my $50 per month personal allowance.
Prioritizing my own budget on personal items is kind of more important to me than spending money on a product I don't want just so that the company might one day make the product I do want. You can do that, if you so choose, but me, I like to spend my money on things I like.
Now… that said: I do want to buy those toys (Chryssy and NMM), because they are kitschy: I love how bad they are. But at $30.00 a pop for something that I want because I find it 'so bad it's good' has to be weighed up against the fact that in doing so, I would pretty much wipe out my monthly entertainment expenses.
Your method might work in a world where we have infinite income and zero expenditures, so that we are free to commerce our way to perfection. Sadly, I don't live in that world
Goddamn I wish I lived in that world…
I thought I was doing awesome saving money and refraining from buying hardly any pony merch outside of DVDs and some T-shirts; then they come out with a CCG and:
Followed by:
i.imgur.com/s7L0a4D.jpg
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No... Spoken like someone who's actually paid careful attention to how retailers and manufacturers and lawyers and customer support and seasonal changes all work, in a big toy distribution network, to snag me the best bargains at the right times...
But seriously dude, I too wish I had disposable income. I just have little interest in going out to eat or see movies, so I basically limit my spending to gaming, my electronics hobby, vintage calculators and other electronics (usually acquired at thrift stores), and of course, ponies!
I'm not harping on your wife or nothing. I'm just saying it how it is. I DO like to add to my merch collection, but I also have payed VERY close attention to the times stores restock, and how businesses do their, well, business.
It lets me know when clearances are likely. I will often wait for clearances to make a move, and only jump at stuff WHEN i know from experience that waiting will result in no merch for me. The Chinese new Year Pinkie Pie... that thing used to be over $30, but I got it for $9. I once got the Target exclusive Canterlot shine bright Luna set that was normally about $42, for $15. I Even waited to get my talking Chrysalis and goth Tia sets when they were on sale (though not marked clearance).
The only ponies I've hit up at full price are the little sets (like the Soaring Pegasus Set and Royal Surprise Set that has Derpy and Chrysalis, respectively, in blind bag size figures) that are already relatively cheap, and the limited stuff, like the Comic-Con limited edition Mane-iac figure. I saved up for that one, knowing it would pop up for only a short window.
Mind you... In getting these, I won't be doing anything that isn't free and on the internet, or dirt cheap. I can take some gadget apart and salvage parts from it for my parts bins, or try restoring an old 1960s calculator, or look through my parts surplus to see if i have what I need to build a Nixie tube clock or a robot... But since those are all things I have on hand... They are effectively free hobbies for me, and since I do a lot of salvage... More freebies.
I just find it odd that you jump to "huge disposable income", for me simply telling you how corporate america thinks. I'm not the one making decisions at hasbro. I've just been spending the past 3.5 years learning how their system seems to work, how the toy retail system works, and how companies respond to consumers.
I feel like you got all defensive, simply cause I quoted what you said your wife said. You used the word shitty, I only repeated it, built my statement around that statement. I was just pointing out the corporate mentality of how Hasbro reacts (or rather does not react) to such opinions. That was all. The advice that I offered was only advice on how to snag the cheapest AND most accurate Chrissy... But definitely was not meant to be negative, and definitely was not an order to buy, buy, buy! Sheesh!
I know enough about corporate "thought process" to know it rarely makes sense...
Case in point... As one of my three jobs... I work for Gamestop!
Dum dum dum
Anyway, for me, this conversation never left the realm of informative with a dash of LOL, as far as I saw it. I was only hoping to share my own learned experience with you, and everyone else that read my posts. Nothing more. I just spent the early years of this fandom dealing with A LOT of people who spoke JUST LIKE THAT... Saying they won't spend a dime on "shitty merch", till Hasbro can get it right. I only explained how Hasbro sees those arguments, and how that attitude hurt the chances of good merch ever following the bad merch.
Still, you don't ACTUALLY have to buy the "shitty" merch to email or write a letter to Hasbro.
You only need to SOUND like you bought it!
The ONE KEY is that you NEVER tell them what they should do... That is defined by their fancy team of expensive lawyers as solicitation, and they delete those messages with a vengeance, never letting the content pass to the people who matter. You must ALWAYS ask it as a question, and always reference existing merch, and simply make plain statements of where do I find X, or why is X's Y wrong. Examples of past statements that i've used, include "Why is Celestia the wrong color? On the show, she's white.", or " I love the Princess Celestia toy I got, but I can't find her sister. Where can I find your Princess Luna toys?", or the ever classic "I got a talking Queen Chrysalis, but there aren't any holes in her legs. Is my toy defective?". ALWAYS play the "ignorant" consumer. NEVER let them know you are "suggesting" things. They can typically only respond that "X is not currently available, and there is no timeframe for when X might become available." or they may say "No, your product is not defective. That is how it normally appears". The point though, is that they are INFORMED that people are NOTICING the erroneous details, without being solicited on what to actually do. That can and does lead to product changes, such as the White Celestia toys, or the release of Luna toys. maybe it will result, someday, in a Chrysalis WORTH owning, and not for some kitsch value.
Again, I'm only trying to share my experience. Yes, I do have a lot of merch, but that's because I've been collecting, AND finding bargains, for three and half years.
Disposable income...
Try not to take things too seriously...
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Ahh, the internet, where tone can never be conveyed.
I wasn't trying to be defensive, but re-reading it I can see how it seemed that way. Though I guess I did get a little defensive, as I had originally read your post (as it came off to me) as lecturing. Then the second post continuing to hammer the same point after I said we still buy plenty of merch.
Also, lines like "You see, what she needs to understand" certainly sound a bit like a lecture.
And on the disposable income, between a username of RICHfiles, and talking about buying products so a company will be more likely to make what you want…
That last comic killed me
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I love you for giving me this information, man.
2366602 INDEED.
BALD...BALD...BALD...
MY EYESSSSS!!!
But, in all seriousness, I actually like the comics, so at least some good out of it. Even if the toys give me nightmares.