WTF, Hasbro? · 7:58pm Dec 22nd, 2012
I thought I might buy some nice MLP plushies for my nieces for Christmas. So I looked on Amazon to see what's available.
WHAT THE FUCK, HASBRO?!
From what I hear, My Little Pony is the ONLY thing holding Hasbro's head above water. They've had three years to come out with some toys that look like the new, non-revolting G4 ponies... and they're still pushing these horrid bulbous-headed G3.5 monstrosities? No, they've REMADE THE FiM G4 PONIES AS G3.5 PONY SLUG-BABIES! And what is that thing on the right, anyway? A shaved rat?
Whatever. There are NO G4 plushies available from Hasbro on Amazon. I almost found myself liking the G2/G3 ponies. They're at least non-revolting.
Then go to Gift Heaven and search for "pony". They have beautiful G4 plush ponies that LOOK LIKE OUR PONIES.
Why can a few hobbyists do better design work than a giant multi-billion dollar corporation, make beautiful hand-made plushies, AND sell them for the same price as the ugly, mass-produced "jumbo" plushies of comparable size?
Ponies, in order of popularity, as indicated by Gift Haven price:
Derpy Hooves
Pinkie Pie
Fluttershy
Rainbow Dash
Octavia
Dr. Whooves
Yeah, it's absolutely ABSURD isn't it. Making a plushie isn't rocket science. All I can think of is they subcontract the plushies out and already had a deal in place.
But still, when you see the insane amount plushies go for on ebay, surely you would want a piece of that pie!
- Friedrich Nietzsche
Our problem is nothing new, although this quote doesn't exactly explain the phenomenon, it's at least comforting to know it isn't something new.
Eh, give them time. Back after season one had just ended most of the fan-made plushies had this awful yarn hair. The Funrise ones are a great improvement over those.
Yeah... it's frustrated me, too, mostly because I could NEVER afford the stuff that goes on eBay, and nopony will sell patterns for me to make my own, which I totally would.
What child would even enjoy those things? I mean I'd understand thsm not being brony ideal, but I can't imagine even the target demographic accepting that garbage. And they wonder why the MacDonalds toys are more popular than the brushies...
They could mass produce a lot of things and they'd sell well, not only plushies. Why they don't do this is beyond me.
Personally, I think they should go for a Ty beanie baby sort of thing, but that's just me. Those would look nice.
Overall, all of their pony products could use a massive makeover.
Well... for a matter of open perspective, Hasbro is a toymaker company that when it comes to the MLP brand, that its market towards little girls as it was originally intended on doing. Even if they did make accurate representation of their characters (to which, mind you, is only limited to characters that interacts with the show, not BG pnies), people will still be pissed that they dont make toys about their favorite BG ponies and would go to whine about how the bio in the back of package saying "OMG they don't follow what my fandom say and therefore im very grump /humph".
Its one that you make toys for the intend market, its another if they release merchandise that does fan-pandering, to which it will only add more fuel to the flame about fans and their "self-entitlement". To which sadly is what third-parties are doing a great job of with fan art, fan-made merchandise, and even other companies that uses the very fandom material in order to tap into a potential market like Hot Topics below.
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Therefore, it is fine that Hasbro releases merchandise that's originally intended for a specific target market and don't go beyond that. Lets face it you wouldn't want to see transformers toys (or GI Joe and what have you) that are aim for little girls, complete with comics and cartoons, with pinkish like-color and have shape with cute adorable animals right in the boys section, why do it?. What worries me is the third party that exploits the material that will further enforce that 'Fandom=Cannon', to which its not the case, and will go further in fan-pandering territories that will suck if other manufacturers(besides Hot Topic) picks up this tactic.
Plushies are usually a tertiary market when it comes to kids. When I was a little girl (around G2), the only plushies I had from cartoons were Care Bears. My ponies were all brushables. (I will admit that I now have a Dash plush from Hasbro, with the fabric strip hair. She looks better in person, her face is really good for something that cost $10, though I'm thinking of fixing her mane.)
As to why they can't make anything (except the blind bags) look right, the problem is that you're thinking of it the wrong way around. I had to explain this to my husband, too.
Okay, for things we, as grown up geeks, are used to looking at toys for, the toys are made to resemble the property. Star Wars starts out as a movie, and the Lucas Empire makes toys that look like the movie to cash in on that. The toy is supposed to look like the character from the movie. The same is true of Disney merchandise- the movie comes first, even if Disney is well aware that movies=toys.
When it comes to cartoon tv show marketing, it's the other way around. Hasbro had some toy lines sitting around on shelves, MLP, Littlest Pet Shop, Transformers, etc. and they hired people to make a half hour commercial for the toys. Faust is actually the one who did it "wrong" in this equation, by making a commercial that makes the toys look way more awesome then they are. However, in the history of marketing this is rarely a bad thing, kids will demand the toys, and parents will get them. Kids are mostly going to use their imagination anyway, so very few six-year-olds are going to stop asking for ponies just because Pinkie doesn't look like she does on the show, and if they do, their parents will explain that toys don't always look like the things on TV. And as I pointed out to my husband today, there are probably a lot of little girls who prefer pink Celestia, for example.
Then you have bronies. The companies out there marketing to bronies- Hot Topic, We Love Fine, the handmade market, etc- these people are doing things the way we're used to, taking an entertainment property and making toys and merchandise to resemble that property. They know that the people they're selling to care, so they do it right.
So that's the deal. Hasbro doesn't understand the brony market, and they're probably smart not to focus on it too much. After all, if the show were to jump the shark, all the bronies would disappear, but six-year-old girls are their market forever. And unless ponies get "Disney movie" big, to the point where they're considered "classic," Hasbro isn't losing anything by making ponies that don't look quite right. They'll toss a bone every now and then to the bronies, as long as it doesn't cost them too much, but for the stuff that looks good to us, don't look to Hasbro.
I am pretty sure Transformers is still highly profitable.
Though Hasbro shows some odd choices there too. NO MOAR BUMBLEBEE GODAMMIT! 
Ahem.
Also, those plushes, while not NEAR as expensive as I have seen some hobbyists sell them for, are still, on the whole, more pricey than the retail toys. Worth it though. Oh so very worth it. Might have to buy the Octavia one.
640139 Warning: Reviews of the Octavia plushie says she falls over onto her face because of her raised forehoof.
638675 It's not a question of being aimed at boys or girls or adults or children. It's a question of having toys that don't correspond to the show. Kids are no more forgiving about that than adults.
639418 Most of the reviews of Hasbro plushies were written by bronies. So maybe bronies are buying most of the plushies?
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I was actually thinking that. Kids rarely play with plush toys, but I don't think many of us older fans are looking for toys to play with on a regular basis. We mostly want something to sit around and look cute. (Your mileage may vary, of course. I don't know how much time any individual person here spends playing with their pony toys.
Eugh
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No, all that means is that bronies write most of the plushie reviews.
The plushies made by Hasbro are more than suited for girls.