2024 is already looking like a disaster for the franchise

[FirePuppy 735]

The way I see it now, 2024 has now become the new most disastrous year for My Little Pony. Within the entire first half of this year, we only got a total of 97 minutes of new content out of the planned 328 (just 15 out of 48 episodes and 1 out of 4 specials for Tell Your Tale Season 2). Episodes from both seasons 1 and 2 were to be available on Netflix this year, but so far, we only have the first 56 episodes of the first season on there, and the last 14 episodes of that season still not have been announced.

Friendship is Magic is still on Discovery Family, except now, they're removing all the Equestria Girls movies and specials and any other non-FiM content all at once on weekends to make room for Summer Camp Island, and they've even removed two timeslots of the show from weekdays. Worst yet, we still have to wait at least 7-9 months from now for Generation 4, Equestria Girls and Pony Life to get more streaming options, since Discovery Family's contract with Hasbro is still in effect for that long.

And even worse from there, Hasbro has still not announced any plans for My Little Pony in 2025, although last year, their plans for 2024 were announced in June 2023.

[Otaku-sempai 457]

Given the cancellation of Make Your Mark, I don't think the plight of MLP animation is that bad yet. The franchise is, as well, still being supported by comics and children's books. The more alarming development, as I see it, is the lack of new MLP toys from Hasbro. It's especially notable that there were no Secrets of Starlight toys. 

[ZiggWheelsManning 10,253]

7 hours ago, Otaku-sempai said:

Given the cancellation of Make Your Mark, I don't think the plight of MLP animation is that bad yet. The franchise is, as well, still being supported by comics and children's books. The more alarming development, as I see it, is the lack of new MLP toys from Hasbro. It's especially notable that there were no Secrets of Starlight toys. 

Question being, are the toys on just the drawing board?  

[donutmasterjoe 201]

8 hours ago, Otaku-sempai said:

Given the cancellation of Make Your Mark, I don't think the plight of MLP animation is that bad yet. The franchise is, as well, still being supported by comics and children's books. The more alarming development, as I see it, is the lack of new MLP toys from Hasbro. It's especially notable that there were no Secrets of Starlight toys. 

Have an entire special showing the ponies in exclusive styles and different hairstyles/accessories clearly looking exactly for toys, which there haven't been any yet. Brought the seaponies back, but also no toys. What was the last G5 main toy again? Right, the dragon set from last year. Seriously, what is Hasbro doing? The series are fine but the toy gimmicks will end being too late and that doesn't call attention to the kids watching, expecting new toys from what they're seeing.

[Otaku-sempai 457]

4 hours ago, ZiggWheelsManning said:

Question being, are the toys on just the drawing board?  

Possibly, but who knows? Secrets of Starlight came out last November, just in time for holiday shopping, and toys connected to the special could have been in development early enough to be out right then. But it's many months later and still nothing! What we should be expecting from this year's Toy Fair is a Boardtrot playset and maybe a Destiny Seapony figure at bare minimum. 

EDIT: At least something new is coming out. New Pony Toys Appear - Izzy Rainbow Styles and Tell Your Tale Pony Wave.

Edited June 29 by Otaku-sempai

[HedonismBot 239]

Plus the contract between Hasbro and Discovery Family (giving them partial rights to Friendship is Magic) is set to expire next spring. Hopefully, this will result in the G4-G5 connection being used more intelligently.

[FirePuppy 735]

11 hours ago, HedonismBot said:

Plus the contract between Hasbro and Discovery Family (giving them partial rights to Friendship is Magic) is set to expire next spring. Hopefully, this will result in the G4-G5 connection being used more intelligently.

But like I said, they removed all the Equestria Girls specials and movies from weekends, so now our chance of seeing these specials and movies again is pretty unlikely.

[Otaku-sempai 457]

3 hours ago, FirePuppy said:

But like I said, they removed all the Equestria Girls specials and movies from weekends, so now our chance of seeing these specials and movies again is pretty unlikely.

Not entirely, the Spring special with the yacht is airing this very morning.  

[FirePuppy 735]

1 hour ago, Otaku-sempai said:

Not entirely, the Spring special with the yacht is airing this very morning.  

But then after that, then they will remove them all for good.

[Otaku-sempai 457]

8 hours ago, FirePuppy said:

But then after that, then they will remove them all for good.

Maybe, maybe not. I guess the episodes are still being shown on weekdays. 

[KPackratt 275]

I wonder if Discovery Family will do a marathon of every My Little Pony cartoon they have the rights for when it gets close to their contract expiring, I guess that could be the best way for them to get the most out of it while they still can.

Hopefully the G4 cartoons stay on a streaming service for good after Discovery Family loses the rights to them, Netflix would be the ideal place for them since that's the streaming home of the G5 cartoons. In the meantime, the Equestria Girls specials are all on YouTube, so it's not like they'll be gone forever after Discovery Family preempts them. I don't know if the movies are available on streaming, but they were released on DVD and Blu-ray.

[ZiggWheelsManning 10,253]

3 hours ago, KPackratt said:

I wonder if Discovery Family will do a marathon of every My Little Pony cartoon they have the rights for when it gets close to their contract expiring, I guess that could be the best way for them to get the most out of it while they still can.

If they plan reality stuff, that'll be the end of it  

[Rafa Stary 2,986]

On 2024-06-28 at 8:37 PM, Otaku-sempai said:

Possibly, but who knows? Secrets of Starlight came out last November, just in time for holiday shopping, and toys connected to the special could have been in development early enough to be out right then. But it's many months later and still nothing!

That specifically is a lot weirder when you consider that the Auroricorns, Allura and the Starlight Ridge designs for the Mane Six were already all made for Tell Your Tale way back in 2022, I repeat, 2022! Same thing with the Dragons, so they definitely could've prepared the toylines based on these stories a long time ago, there's surely something wrong going on 

And I agree with FirePuppy, I'm used to say that this year is being a disaster only for G5, but I guess "for the franchise" makes sense too, I just don't agree very much with the "No Plans for Tell Your Tale in 2025", putting my heavy criticism towards that show aside, actually there are plans for it in 2025, first, the most obvious, it was confirmed to continue after 2024, 2: the 2024 episodes were very likely all made in 2023, so they're probably already working in the episodes that are going to be released in 2025, they probably already have the schedule and that could be one of the reasons for the delays.