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Did The Fandom Save The Show From Cancelling Early?


ChB

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I've asked this in another forum, but I'd like to ask here for some more input.

I've heard many times that Hasbro originally intended to stop at Season 3, because of the 65 episode syndication. Supposedly, a 65 episode series would give one episode per weekday for the whole summer, so that children would finish the whole series before going back to school. 

My question is: Is it true that the Brony fandom played a big part in convincing Hasbro to continue the series, after Season 3? I've heard it many times, but don't know if it's true, as I haven't even joined the fandom, until 2015. I would think that it was rather toys and merchandise that played a primary role, but that's just speculation on my part with no hard facts.

What do you all think?

Thanks.

 

Edited by ChB
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Did the fandom carry MLP since 1982?

I'm no expert but, MLP FiM is the biggest thing Hasbro has ever done. I believe they love it as much as we do, and will do anything in their power to keep it alive.

They got 65 million for a movie - that must have happened in what, 2014? Knowing it would take at least 2 years in development, Hasbro and its supporters seem optimistic I'd say.

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Hasbro definitely kept this iteration of MLP alive because of the money, and I definitely think bronies played a somewhat significant role in that, because the show started to acknowledge the brony fandom more in later seasons. From what I recall from EQD's summary of investor calls, the toy sales for MLP have been outperforming all their other "female" brands, though the growth has been slowing down. I think if the movie performs well at the box office, Hasbro will milk it for a little while longer before the next reset.

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@ChB

I'm going to try to remember what I said before from the other forum:

 

I think the reason MLP:FiM continued passed Season 3 had more to do with Hasbro making a lot of mony from selling MLP merchandise &  

 

almost nothing to do with the "brony" section of the fandom.

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While I'm not too keen on how Hasbro limits their shows via episode length, I will say the show certainly went up in quality when Lauren Faust left at the end of season 1 (however she did play a role in scripts and story concepts during season 2); season 3 was when she truly left the show.

Although something good to note is that the first Bronycon was in the summer of 2012, before season 3 ever aired, which was in November of 2012.

I'm going to bet here that the unbelievable amount of popularity that blew up surrounding MLP, which created such a wide phenomenon over a show about cartoon ponies, and that it was something that nobody could see coming, caught the eye of Hasbro.

So I think it's safe to assume that the mass explosion in popularity helped curate MLP to an elevated status above other typical shows that broadcast from Hasbro.

Good timing on the fandom's part to really show to Hasbro that they had something more than just a cartoon on their hands.

Edited by Tazool
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We show our love to the show, and Hasbro realized that and they spend their money for the show. As long as we keep showing our love by buying merchandises, Hasbro will keep making episodes for us. Who saved the show, Us or Hasbro? Both of you, because your opinions mean shit if you dont buy merchadise, and Hasbro is the one who can decide to turn off the life support machine anytime they want, mutual relationship, we are not the only one who save this show.

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Yes, definitely. The amount of support the community has showed has been amazing, and it's still going. 

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We can only guess what would have happened if us Bronies hadn't come along, but I'm willing to bet we've elongated the show's lifespan to some degree. The real reason this show ran longer than past iterations of MLP is simply because of the extra effort put into it. The show is more attractive to both us bronies and the little girl target demographic, because you can tell that the writers are out to create a great show rather than just sell toys. Because the characters are fleshed-out and appealing, the girls buy the toys- if you bought a little girl a pony toy back in the early 2000s, it was just referred to as "the pink pony/horse", because the character had so little depth on the TV show- however, today every little girl who plays with pony toys knows who Pinkie Pie is. Great content has lead to better sales, and better product recognition, for Hasbro. It's a win-win.

 

You know, it's funny, we've lasted longer than a LOT of shows. For example, I've recently been finishing off a boxed set of MacGyver (the old one, new one sucks),  which was THE big show on ABC back in the 1980s. Guess how long that show ran for? Seven seasons. My Little Pony is about to outlive one of the longest running shows of the 1980s, all just because someone decided to put some effort into the reboot. Who would have ever thought?

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  • 2 weeks later...

If we weren't the sole reason somehow, then we were at least a big part of it. The fandom, at its peak, was a massive phenomenon. To this day we still are getting big conventions with merchandise being made and sold, and there is a lot of this merchandise that was clearly made with the fandom in mind. Sure, the fandom is not to the height that it was in the past, but back then, there is no way that we did not have some type of influence on it continuing to what it is now.

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Well, as far as i know, the show was supposed to end in season 3 with Twilights crowning. But then Hasbro pushed for more seasons because of the shows surprising success.

Would i say it's just because of us? Not really. Not all bronies buy the merchandise, infact some hate the official merchandise. But i would say we where part of that fact, considering we build the cons, giving the normal public exposure to the show.

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The answer is yes the brony community saved the show from ending. Mlp fim was ordered with exactly the same as transformers prime. 2 full seasons 1 mini series and a film. Transformers prime was very popular but did not have the same amount of drive from fans cause unlike mlp it did not explode way outside of its target demo. So mlp would of ended with that film if not for this community exploding.

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My gut tells me that the adult fandom may have been the tipping point to continue the show, yes. The primary merchandise consumers have been and are still parents, but the additional revenue and exposure from Bronies changed the paradigm for Hasbro. 

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Lol no. The fact that it has continued to be highly profitable for it's Target Audience, aka little kids, is what has kept it going for 30 years. And it's not even Hasbro's biggest and most profitable franchise.

That honor goes to Transformers plus their Target Audience and their older fans spend way more and get better merchandise and get continuous reiterations, old and new. MLP is likely it's second biggest though.

 

 

@Attack of the Pwns

The Simpsons

Transformers

Edited by Leave a Whisper
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There isn't major evidence supporting that, though with more viewers it definitely helped some. It just became a popular enough show to continue. MLP is quite well known, though I don't know.

Edited by Foxy Socks
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On 9/2/2017 at 6:01 PM, Leave a Whisper said:

That honor goes to Transformers plus their Target Audience and their older fans spend way more and get better merchandise and get continuous reiterations, old and new. MLP is likely it's second biggest though.

Having read their investor relations sheets and prospectus, I am curious if you know what the profit participation deal is with Transformers and if it extends to merch? We know they accept a fee for all licensed brand usage, but Goldner always make a distinction between the Transformers IP and Jem or Pony which is classifies and wholly owned. It's a key distinction becaise they do foot the bill on production costs in some of their completely owned IP's, and even though the change a licensing fee for Transformers, they always stop short of saying they don't share merchandise profits with that one. 

I'll have to drill down into their other SEC filings. 

 

Regardless, the value distinctions between IP's seems like it isn't related to whether fans of this iteration of My Little Pony played a role in boosting visibility and sales enough to warrant going past the syndication threshold. Also, drawing a clear distinction between the current state of the brand with the legacy decisions allows you to properly factor out changing variables in marketing and consumer tastes. Though there is always certainly a nostalgia boost with some properties as the original consumers wield the almighty power of disposable income, it rarely eclipses the results that come from getting your product in front of new eyes. 

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Nah, the show probably would have survived for a few seasons and been commercially successful without bronies by virtue of catering well to its target audience. I'm pretty sure young girls have always liked cute, colourful unicorns and are always going to ask their parents to buy toys of them. The real question is whether the show would have lasted this long and got movie without bronies.

It's hard to say. It's true that FiM is probably the longest running MLP animated series. I don't know if I'd say that this is explicitly because of bronies, but I'd say the show's success among adults helped sustain it. Unlike kids, we have more disposable income to spend on toys/merchandise. That's got to count for something!

Edited by Tiny Hoofs
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Saw M.A. Larson at Bronycan last week. As he had been before, he was pretty clear about the fact that the third season was originally slated to be the last (which was why Twilight became an alicorn). Then the board of Hasbro heard about a thing called "bronies", and subsequently ordered a fourth. Everything since the third season has been because of the fandom and the merch and toys that fans have bought in support.

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On 9/3/2017 at 9:15 PM, Jeric said:

Having read their investor relations sheets and prospectus, I am curious if you know what the profit participation deal is with Transformers and if it extends to merch? We know they accept a fee for all licensed brand usage, but Goldner always make a distinction between the Transformers IP and Jem or Pony which is classifies and wholly owned. It's a key distinction becaise they do foot the bill on production costs in some of their completely owned IP's, and even though the change a licensing fee for Transformers, they always stop short of saying they don't share merchandise profits with that one. 

I'll have to drill down into their other SEC filings. 

 

Regardless, the value distinctions between IP's seems like it isn't related to whether fans of this iteration of My Little Pony played a role in boosting visibility and sales enough to warrant going past the syndication threshold. Also, drawing a clear distinction between the current state of the brand with the legacy decisions allows you to properly factor out changing variables in marketing and consumer tastes. Though there is always certainly a nostalgia boost with some properties as the original consumers wield the almighty power of disposable income, it rarely eclipses the results that come from getting your product in front of new eyes. 

Well said Jerric. :)

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  • 4 months later...

I think My Little Pony friendship is magic is doing great I don't see a reason they would do another reboot but I could be wrong knowing there doing another reboot in 2020 which really bothers me knowing all are favorite ponies from G4 we have come to love will be lost and the fact Tempest will also not be coming back and right after we were just starting to get to know her they discontinue that too that's even more disappointment we can add to the collection

 

 

 

 

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Once they reboot the show in 2020 My Little Pony friendship is magic and Tempest Shadow will be no more its very disappointing to me and probably many other fans too hopefully Hasbro will reconsider not switching generations and these pictures wont become a reality but only fans can step up and make that decision to prove to Hasbro they don't want Gen 4 to end

Edited by NathanW200
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1 hour ago, NathanW200 said:

We were able to stop the show from being canceled in 2013 but I don't know if we can stop it from being canceled in 2019 

Where did you get information about the show being rebooted/canceled possibly sometime in 2019? 

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