This doesn't bode well. · 11:40am Mar 2nd, 2013
Oh boy, a NYT article.
Hasbro has used its multiplatform, multigenerational strategy as a template for other brands, including My Little Pony, a 30-year-old property for girls ages 3 and up. In 2010, the company revamped the brand with a television series called “My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic.”
The series attracted legions of adult fans to the My Little Pony franchise. They obsessed about the characters in fan-generated fiction, artwork and videos. Adult male fans, who call themselves Bronies, even bought ad time on the Hub, a cable television channel co-owned by Hasbro, to thank the company for producing the show.
In response, Hasbro expanded My Little Pony as a lifestyle brand, with 200 licenses in 15 categories, including publishing, apparel, bedding and digital gaming. To celebrate the brand’s 30th anniversary this year, the company plans to introduce a new extension this fall called Equestria Girls.
Really now? Well okay, maybe this will be enticing for 24 year old me. I wonder what it will-
... it looks like those grade-school-level folders that have the dolphins jumping out of the sparkling water and excessive bloom.
And aren't they adults? With businesses and stuff? Why the high school angle?
Hasbro... this is not looking very enticing to the average brony/ponyfan like myself.
I mean, yeah, sure, I'll keep it steady until the official reveal at Comic-Con, but this is not looking like something I would watch.
Ragestorm ahead.
880427
I'll contain my actual rage until I see it in action.
But yeah, worrying is on tap for the next few months.
880434
So will i, but the rest of the fandom...yeah.
I say that if it has the same writers as FIM, then we can trust those writers. They got us through Alicorn Twilight, after all. I'd say it doesn't look like it would appeal to me, but neither did FIM at first.
880526
None of the FIM writers or even the voice actors have known about this.
Tabitha tweeted today that she never knew this even existed, and MA Larson said that he knew nothing about it a couple weeks ago, before Unicon.
I'd set my expectations pretty low if I were you.
881798 My expectations will be low, but I'm willing to give it a chance. I didn't know about that, however, so it looks like Hasbro is going rogue. I'm starting to get more and more upset at Hasbro over the last few months, and believe that they are losing track of how they got this fandom in the first place.
881872
Oh yeah, I'm waiting to actually judge it until I see it in action, but my expectations are pretty low already given what we've seen.
As for Hasbro, It goes back to that press release that they put out back when they tried that Care Bears reboot, talking about how they're aiming to create a fanbase like the bronies for that show. Afterwards they came out and apologized for such a remark, but it still stands.
The problem is that you cannot generate lightening to strike twice like it did with us and FIM. This hole thing comes off as being linked to that, and they still have no idea what they're doing.