Mane 6 toy exhaustion

[ManaMinori 4,145]

It seems like that's all there is to g4- mane 6 with gimmick #12658, etc.  Honestly, it really feels exhausting just seeing the same 6 faces representing the toyline, when there was much more variety in ponies and characters in past generations. This, for me, is especially felt when I'm, thrift shopping. I go looking for past treasures, and all I pull up is oodles and overabundances of mane 6. Even at big box  stores- the shelves are lined with the mane 6. There's no variety as there was in years prior, which disgusts me. I really do hope there is a change with the next gen (or g4 reboot)

[Jeric 46,852]

12 minutes ago, Nightmare Muffin said:

It seems like that's all there is to g4- mane 6 with gimmick #12658, etc.  Honestly, it really feels exhausting just seeing the same 6 faces representing the toyline, when there was much more variety in ponies and characters in past generations. This, for me, is especially felt when I'm, thrift shopping. I go looking for past treasures, and all I pull up is oodles and overabundances of mane 6. Even at big box  stores- the shelves are lined with the mane 6. There's no variety as there was in years prior, which disgusts me. I really do hope there is a change with the next gen (or g4 reboot)

The best way to determine if there is market fatigue on any product is to examine the sales or production metrics.  Starting with production -- do you know the MRP (materials requirement planning) breakdown? Usually if you follow materials procurement you can make a health determination. MRP outputs (order releases and such), examining BOM (bill of materials) can be illuminating. I don't believe that Hasbro is using fixed-period ordering, likely lot-for-lot. I do know that Hasbro has a MRP II system it uses which allows synergistic analysis with marketing and sales which is why I always say -- chase the materials procurements. Some of the line is assembled (mostly packaged) in Waterford, which receives its materials shipped into Newport. ITDS (another acronym that us business and ops management types that have dealt with PoE inventory nonsense know about) shows that while there is a small decrease in the Newport sample container volume, it wouldn't me enough to show that Hasbro is adjusting production to change with demand, something they can very well. Looks like the primary demographic of parents buying for kids is still holding up.

Curiously, the lack of variety may indicate a cool and uplifting idea. That parents may be more aware of the characters on their children's fav shows enough to recognize the character in the toy isle. This would lead to higher purchase levels of Mane Six characters which would indicate to Hasbro these characters had the greatest chance for sales. When I was growing up, my parents would not know the difference between Optimus Prime and Megatron. Now-a-days parents generally know a bit more about what their kids are interested in. My kids generation and younger are being raised by Gen X'ers who grew up geeks. 

Of course the above presupposes that your OP wasn't based on any subjective ideas and you genuinely were asking about product fatigue and operations management from a place other than, "I don't like this because I am not getting what I want and therefore I'm right and the company that employs people smarter than me are wrong."

[Ganondorf8 11,321]

Considering that the Mane Six are the principle characters of My Little Pony, from a business perspective, it makes sense for Hasbro to market them as much as possible to the point of milking it for whatever it's worth.

[SaburoDaimando 1,196]

I'll have to agree.  As tiresome as it is to see the MAne Six get more toys, it makes alot of sense since they are the most recognized characters.  Interestingly, Starlight is also starting to get a few more toys lately due to her recent appearances.  Maybe if we're lucky, we'll see more toys of the villains.

[碇 シンジン 27,431]

The fact is that already established characters sell better than characters that are not established or as established so I think it's pretty natural to use the most established characters in the show to flagship pretty much everything. If it doesn't sell with the mane 6 it's pretty clear that it wouldn't sell with any other characters either.

If it sells super well with mane 6 they might throw in some more characters to test the waters further.

[ToastedScone 397]

Personally, I'm a sucker for the constant streams of Mane Six stuff; I love having hundreds of pieces of merchandise for the same character, so I suppose this kind of merchandising choice from Hasbro works for me. BUT, as someone who had a lot of G3s growing up, this overabundance looks weird with the MLP brand? As a child, I had a vast array of ponies and stores had a lot of variety...but I suppose Hasbro are just rolling with whatever style of merchandising works at the current time, and at this point in time the constant Mane Six stream very much is!

[Megas 27,695]

tbf, whenever they do give different ponies toys they tend to be shelfwarmers. I remember when Guardians of Harmony came out, Spikezilla, Shining Armor and Cheese Sandwich sat in clearance bins for ages. Heck, even some of the mane 6 had some shelf warmers(poor Applejack). I think whenever starts a new toyline, they should always start off with the mains before branching out, something I wish they did more often(I really wish they made EQG minis of the rest of the Dazzlings or the Shadowbolts)

[Shigaraki 270]

I do get tired of that when they keep releasing the same characters every second, but what can you do they're the main characters of the show. Anyways I'm sure hasbro doesn't want to make the collection even BIGGER, by releasing new ponies of new characters and it can be too much after awhile. Also another problem, when there is a store that has different pony characters besides the mane six and in few days they're almost gone and then they never restock them. I'm cursed