spoiler A potential shift in the market?

[Dark Qiviut 22,392]

One of its possible themes coming into season six is the Guardians of Harmony. Recently, toys were revealed. We don't know how they'll impact S6. Could they be season-long, only for an episode, or only a scene? We don't know.

 

But today, Hasbro revealed something else about GoH besides the logo.

 

Take a look at these three pictures, all I found on EQD:

 

 

 

 

Notice that two people are playing with the toys, one girl and one boy. Rather than just marketing the toys to one sex, Friendship Is Magic: Guardians of Harmony markets to a unisex crowd.

 

So, how important is this?

 

Very.

 

Over in the UK, Let Toys Be Toys tirelessly campaigns to have toy companies and toy stores market to all genders regardless of age. They have a very huge impact, including desegregating Toys R Us UK's toy aisles.

 

When the FIM movie was announced, a mom criticized Hasbro on Yahoo for not marketing the franchise to boys at all. There was a huge positive reaction by the fandom in response.

 

FIM is a gender-neutral, family-friendly show appropriate and entertaining for all ages. It's a great show that spits on the vile "kids' show" label. Observe how FIM's show attracts their audience over the toys. The toys are pandered to little girls via The Pink Aisle and Pink Package, implicating a very disgusting plague of sexism spilling from the toy industry. Meanwhile, FIM's show doesn't discriminate against any demographics. The show continues to support Bonnie Zacherle's vision and thus keep the show in its family-friendly roots.

 

Bonnie Zacherle founded My Little Pony as a unisex toyline. Even for one branch, GoH is attempting to break a barrier. To show boys and girls playing with toy ponies together tells us as a society and especially conservative parents that ponies are for everyone.

 

Bronydom has an impact. Bronies have a media appeal because they're loud and proud about their support of FIM in spite of sexism plaguing the market. The stereotypes of ponies and pink things should only appeal to girls and action figures and race cars should only appeal to boys deserve to be hied to the pyre. By being an FIM fan (a.k.a., brony), you're tearing down the stereotypes, even if you don't see it and don't think so.

 

The top-tier toy market is struggling. One of the biggest reasons why Hasbro and Mattel still salivate over the thought of a merger is to attempt to help make a profit. But boys' and girls' toys have been down lately. To broaden the market audience is a marketing strategy by Hasbro to experiment the process that boys can buy pony toys without social persecution.

 

To go beyond being a brony here. As a person, I take social justice very seriously. Gender norms and gender stereotypes are an enormous deal to me, especially when it comes to toys. Why do toys impact kids so much? Because toys become a reflection of themselves. They're role models. FIM's target audience (guardians) is responsible for keeping an eye on what their kids might play and decide which is appropriate for them. It's unfair to girls, boys, and kids of minority sex/gender to conform to stereotypes. Hasbro's pandering to girls is one key reason why I refused to support FIM first-party toys, and I've been very vocal about this problem for nearly three years now. If I was a guardian, I wouldn't buy a first-party FIM or EQG toy for my kid because of the unfortunate implications. But by broadening that market with Guardians of Harmony, if the toy quality is good, I might reconsider whether to buy a toy for them or if I ever became a parent.

 

Do you think GoH will potentially expand the market audience of FIM's toyline beyond just girls and potentially affect other toylines, both within the company and beyond? Please explain your thoughts.

[Limeblossom 482]

So they did start some kind of spin-off.

 

Hasbro does a better job in attracting the male audience than the competitor (and it's infamous Moschino ad).

Edited February 12, 2016 by Limeblossom

[Guest]

I think this is a good thing, but what I find interesting is that last part of the "expanding the audience" graphic that clearly shows older audience and just a concept art of some kind of fashion. Could this mean that Hasbro is going to also try and expand the stuff towards the older audience?

[Artimis Whooves 1,576]

Wow, so GOH wasn't a joke... I might actually buy one of those

[Goat-kun 2,527]

That is indeed a large step for the company, but is it also a large step for the consumer? I have been thinking about this ever since the GoH news and the conclusion eludes me.

 

Parents are one thing, but I don’t think children look at these things the same way. They won’t suddenly go: Hey look, H-Bro is catering to me and my opposite gendered friend also. Better tell my parents to buy that new pony merchandise! Children don’t give a shit unless they feel they’ll be socially isolated by their peers, which will happen no matter what H-Bro slaps on that label.

 

H-Bro has created a new cash cow, sure; but they have forgotten to make a stable first. Look at Marvel and Star Wars. Those darn Disney shekel machines have cool stories behind their toys while MLP: FIM has a successful show that can entertain girls as well as boys, but I am not fully convinced that it has what it takes to divert allowances of young male audience from starships, dinosaurs, giant robots, and Steam sales. Yeah, but girls … Yeah, but girls have always been a target audience and a toy bought from GoH line will be a toy not bought from another MLP line. Like it or not, boys will make or break this Guardians investment unless there’s a vast horde of girls just waiting for MLP action figures. INB4 individuals try proving all big companies wrong for marketing girly stuff to girls for generations with financial success.

[Dark Qiviut 22,392]

 

 

Children don’t give a shit unless they feel they’ll be socially isolated by their peers, which will happen no matter what H-Bro slaps on that label.

Children care a lot more than you think. Stereotypes are concepts we learn from the day we're born. They can feel uncomfortable when around a presence because there's a stigma stereotyping the toyline. There's a reason why TPU UK merged the Pink and Blue Aisles: to tell us as a people that kids should be able to play with any toy without fear.

 

Hasbro marketing any level of FIM to boys and girls will tell everyone, especially parents, that ponies are for everyone. It's a tactic seen in Europe, and hopefully it bleeds into other products.

[Goat-kun 2,527]

Children care a lot more than you think. Stereotypes are concepts we learn from the day we're born. They can feel uncomfortable when around a presence because there's a stigma stereotyping the toyline. There's a reason why TPU UK merged the Pink and Blue Aisles: to tell us as a people that kids should be able to play with any toy without fear.

 

Hasbro marketing any level of FIM to boys and girls will tell everyone, especially parents, that ponies are for everyone. It's a tactic seen in Europe, and hopefully it bleeds into other products.

Perhaps you’re right. However, don’t you think that those children who are inconvenienced by their parents’ opinions about the toys they want to play with are a minority? Clearly they could benefit from this slow and painful process that H-Bro has initiated, yet still I wonder about the efficiency of these new toys. Putting their valiant social wars aside, they still need to think about profit, and if they want to sell these toys, they’ll have to think about the needs of the majority. Appealing to the new target audience should be a priority, and no matter how unisex they want to make them seem, these are still just action figures in pony clothing. How many action figures do little girls buy these days? Besides ponies, what else can GoH offer to little boys that something like Transformers cannot? Will there be action? Cool stories? Nope, just IDW. In other words, the only children who are likely to buy these toys are those who were already really into ponies. I’m afraid the rest will still just zap around with Megatron or play dress up with conventional pony merchandise.

[Wind Chaser 4,768]

I'm glad they changed things up. In all truth, it shouldn't have taken them this long, as many of the products in this line have been heavily requested by fans outside the show's target demo since the beginning about five and a half years ago. It seems that some departments at Hasbro were more ahead of others, but commercial need makes it more important to catch up on emerging markets. It's a good move to not only move towards blurring the gender line that really stifles innovation in the traditional toy category, but also on improving the overall quality and market reach of their product line.

[Dolphanatic 298]

One of its possible themes coming into season six is the Guardians of Harmony. Recently, toys were revealed. We don't know how they'll impact S6. Could they be season-long, only for an episode, or only a scene? We don't know.

 

But today, Hasbro revealed something else about GoH besides the logo.

 

Take a look at these three pictures, all I found on EQD:

 

 

 

 

Notice that two people are playing with the toys, one girl and one boy. Rather than just marketing the toys to one sex, Friendship Is Magic: Guardians of Harmony markets to a unisex crowd.

 

So, how important is this?

 

Very.

 

Over in the UK, Let Toys Be Toys tirelessly campaigns to have toy companies and toy stores market to all genders regardless of age. They have a very huge impact, including desegregating Toys R Us UK's toy aisles.

 

When the FIM movie was announced, a mom criticized Hasbro on Yahoo for not marketing the franchise to boys at all. There was a huge positive reaction by the fandom in response.

 

FIM is a gender-neutral, family-friendly show appropriate and entertaining for all ages. It's a great show that spits on the vile "kids' show" label. Observe how FIM's show attracts their audience over the toys. The toys are pandered to little girls via The Pink Aisle and Pink Package, implicating a very disgusting plague of sexism spilling from the toy industry. Meanwhile, FIM's show doesn't discriminate against any demographics. The show continues to support Bonnie Zacherle's vision and thus keep the show in its family-friendly roots.

 

Bonnie Zacherle founded My Little Pony as a unisex toyline. Even for one branch, GoH is attempting to break a barrier. To show boys and girls playing with toy ponies together tells us as a society and especially conservative parents that ponies are for everyone.

 

Bronydom has an impact. Bronies have a media appeal because they're loud and proud about their support of FIM in spite of sexism plaguing the market. The stereotypes of ponies and pink things should only appeal to girls and action figures and race cars should only appeal to boys deserve to be hied to the pyre. By being an FIM fan (a.k.a., brony), you're tearing down the stereotypes, even if you don't see it and don't think so.

 

The top-tier toy market is struggling. One of the biggest reasons why Hasbro and Mattel still salivate over the thought of a merger is to attempt to help make a profit. But boys' and girls' toys have been down lately. To broaden the market audience is a marketing strategy by Hasbro to experiment the process that boys can buy pony toys without social persecution.

 

To go beyond being a brony here. As a person, I take social justice very seriously. Gender norms and gender stereotypes are an enormous deal to me, especially when it comes to toys. Why do toys impact kids so much? Because toys become a reflection of themselves. They're role models. FIM's target audience (guardians) is responsible for keeping an eye on what their kids might play and decide which is appropriate for them. It's unfair to girls, boys, and kids of minority sex/gender to conform to stereotypes. Hasbro's pandering to girls is one key reason why I refused to support FIM first-party toys, and I've been very vocal about this problem for nearly three years now. If I was a guardian, I wouldn't buy a first-party FIM or EQG toy for my kid because of the unfortunate implications. But by broadening that market with Guardians of Harmony, if the toy quality is good, I might reconsider whether to buy a toy for them or if I ever became a parent.

 

Do you think GoH will potentially expand the market audience of FIM's toyline beyond just girls and potentially affect other toylines, both within the company and beyond? Please explain your thoughts.

 

I want to agree with you, but you're overreacting to this. I've bought some mystery pack ponies before. Does that mean I'm somehow supporting sexism? No! If anything, I'm debunking it. The fact that guys like me are actively seeking and buying "girls toys" shows that they aren't necessarily exclusively for girls. Boycotting them, on the other hand, won't help. It'll only send Hasbro the message that ponies don't sell to guys.

 

Also, getting rid of pink aisles at Toys R Us won't solve any problems. What Let Toys Be Toys is doing is borderline SJWism. There's nothing inherently "girly" about the color pink, so why bother trying to stop the company from using it and thus, unintentionally reinforcing the stereotype that "pink is a girls' color"? Instead, why not fight the actual problem (the sexist bullying)?

 

P.S. Humans only come in one of two genders: male and female. There's no such thing as a "minority/non-binary gender". Those who say otherwise don't understand the definition of the word gender.

Edited February 23, 2016 by Dolphanatic

[MontagnaMagica 307]

I would say that boycotting the girly toys because they enforce gender stereotypes actually furthers that stereotype. Wouldn't it make more sense, as a male or an adult, to buy said toys without caring who is intended to own them?

 

On another note, why do bronies over-analyze everything? Why am I adding to this stereotype!?!

 

 

 

P.S. Humans only come in one of two genders: male and female. There's no such thing ass a "minority/non-binary gender". Those who say otherwise don't understand the definition of the word gender.

 

There is a third category; Intersex. It happens when people are born with ambiguous, non-binary chromosomes or genitals. Sadly, many are mutilated in infancy to fit one gender or the other, often leaving them sterile.

[Dolphanatic 298]

I would say that boycotting the girly toys because they enforce gender stereotypes actually furthers that stereotype. Wouldn't it make more sense, as a male or an adult, to buy said toys without caring who is intended to own them?

That's what I said!

 

There is a third category; Intersex. It happens when people are born with ambiguous, non-binary chromosomes or genitals. Sadly, many are mutilated in infancy to fit one gender or the other, often leaving them sterile.

Even then, it's still just a mix of male and female genes. Besides, I wasn't referring to physical deformations in my post, anyway. I was referring to those people who claim they need to "identify" as a certain gender, as if what they are on the outside automatically determines who they are on the inside.

Edited February 23, 2016 by Dolphanatic