Would fans prefer if Hasbro returned to their roots?

[Nightmare Muffin 3512]

By which, I mean, their formula that they gave to the toyline of generation 1- releasing a wide variety of pony characters in a "gotta collect em all" style, rather than sticking to their g4 pattern of re-releasing 6 ponies with new gimmicks every few months. There's a TON of unreleased g4 characters who never have and will never get to be in toy form, after all. Would you guys buy a wider variety of characters, if their toys were made? Do you think the target audience would?

[Nye 1701]

7 hours ago, Nightmare Muffin said:

By which, I mean, their formula that they gave to the toyline of generation 1- releasing a wide variety of pony characters in a "gotta collect em all" style, rather than sticking to their g4 pattern of re-releasing 6 ponies with new gimmicks every few months. There's a TON of unreleased g4 characters who never have and will never get to be in toy form, after all. Would you guys buy a wider variety of characters, if their toys were made? Do you think the target audience would?

Of course we should have more ponies to collect, I don’t need 40 Raritys. I’d buy more stuff if there were more options, and I am sure kids would feel the same way.

Edited Friday at 11:18 AM by Nye

[Dabmanz 749]

32 minutes ago, Nye said:

Of course we should have more ponies to collect, I don’t need 40 Raritys. I’d buy more stuff if there were more options, and I am sure kids would feel the same way.

Yeah there are a lot of background ponies with potential to be marketed.

[Denim&Venom 6823]

The only problem I see is difficulty marketing. That diverse of a line up. They tried that with the G3 series and it wound up being a looseley connected series of episodes, shorts and a movie before core 7 reboot, the G3.5 re-reboot and then the new born cuties catyclism. 

I don't really see how you can have an ongoing series with developed characters if the focus keeps changing to the latest toy line. 

[Fhaolan 4034]

They should go all the way to their roots! I mean, who doesn't want leftover upholstery fabric?

Yeah, that's how the company started; 'textile remnants'. They'd take the leftover ends of bolts of fabric and resell them. Not exactly a big business model now-a-days.

Honestly though, it's a toss-up. If they go 'collect them all' then they would have a serious temptation to having the media releases also being disjointed and far more toyetic than we've gotten used to. Like @Denim&Venom says the G3 'series' was like that. It's a matter of where the focus is to be: the toys or the media, and to be fair to Hasbro the toys are their core business. Though there are rumors that the media income has significantly overtaken the toy sales at this point. Whether that's because the toy quality has declined, or the toy market itself is shrinking, that's up for debate. (Mainly because I don't have a source of numbers right now for facts.)

[Nightmare Muffin 3512]

26 minutes ago, Fhaolan said:

They should go all the way to their roots! I mean, who doesn't want leftover upholstery fabric?

Yeah, that's how the company started; 'textile remnants'. They'd take the leftover ends of bolts of fabric and resell them. Not exactly a big business model now-a-days.

Honestly though, it's a toss-up. If they go 'collect them all' then they would have a serious temptation to having the media releases also being disjointed and far more toyetic than we've gotten used to. Like @Denim&Venom says the G3 'series' was like that. It's a matter of where the focus is to be: the toys or the media, and to be fair to Hasbro the toys are their core business. Though there are rumors that the media income has significantly overtaken the toy sales at this point. Whether that's because the toy quality has declined, or the toy market itself is shrinking, that's up for debate. (Mainly because I don't have a source of numbers right now for facts.)

their priority- as a toy company- should be the toys. The show is just to market them, no matter what any fan of the current generation says.  Hasbro made a killing off of g1 ponies, which were full of variety and less 'repeat character with gimmick # 2625, and it WORKED for them. They still had a tv show, but it was mostly episodic, and again- it worked, because the toys and product placement were the main focus. No fan or kid wants to buy 6,000 of the same pony 6 group, which is what Hasbro is doing in this current gen, for the wrong  reason of aiming at "first time purchasers". .

[Lord Valtasar 3685]

while a wider variety of toys would be appreciated by those who collect em all, the vast majority would still only buy the main characters, making the rest a waste of resources, lets not kid ourselves, how many people would actually buy a minuette or a silver spoon figure, some will, and be ecstatic about it, but the numbers  aren't in their favor. G1 may have done that successfully, but it is not the 80s anymore. and G4 success can't really be questioned either, though i'm not so sure about the toy line, the franchise as a whole sure makes them profit enough to not change it dramatically

[Fhaolan 4034]

1 hour ago, Nightmare Muffin said:

their priority- as a toy company- should be the toys. The show is just to market them, no matter what any fan of the current generation says.  Hasbro made a killing off of g1 ponies, which were full of variety and less 'repeat character with gimmick # 2625, and it WORKED for them. They still had a tv show, but it was mostly episodic, and again- it worked, because the toys and product placement were the main focus. No fan or kid wants to buy 6,000 of the same pony 6 group, which is what Hasbro is doing in this current gen, for the wrong  reason of aiming at "first time purchasers". .

My point of 'their roots' being in textile remnants is that the focus of the company has changed considerably. They went from remnants to making pencil cases out of those remnants, to plastic pencil cases and school supplies, to plastic toys, to 'collectible' plastic toys, and now they've bought out a variety of game companies plus divesting themselves of nearly all their actual manufacturing facilities. Like any reasonable company, they followed the money and changed what they sold depending on what the markets bore.

With the media and tie-ins making supposedly making so much money relative to the toy lines with G4, I wouldn't fault Hasbro for following the money again and changing the MLP focus, having the toys be just one product in the entire MLP IP 'franchise'.

[Khoufu 12]

The mane 6 can interact with lots of different characters  (they already do) and make more toys of them. Easy peasy. Blindbags are pretty popular, they could easily make more character toys, even ones not seen in screen much if ever.

[Steve Piranha 15513]

12 hours ago, Lord Valtasar said:

while a wider variety of toys would be appreciated by those who collect em all, the vast majority would still only buy the main characters, making the rest a waste of resources, lets not kid ourselves, how many people would actually buy a minuette or a silver spoon figure, some will, and be ecstatic about it, but the numbers  aren't in their favor. G1 may have done that successfully, but it is not the 80s anymore. and G4 success can't really be questioned either, though i'm not so sure about the toy line, the franchise as a whole sure makes them profit enough to not change it dramatically

For real, while I’d love for more variety of characters like past gens, and how it was at first G4, it’s not really marketable. You could argue that the show could focus more on side characters, but people don’t buy toys as before