The Downfall of Ponies and Transformers

[Rafa Stary 3,202]

Hi everyone, It has been a long time since my last thread in the forum, I admit I was reluctant about posting this as a thread, especially because I thought someone else could appear with a better thread talking about the same subject. But this subject is so complex and intriguing, so concerning and important, that I had to make a thread, so more people could see it and share their thoughts, and I wouldn't like to wait for someone to do it, I feel that I had to post this now, I think that's truly important and I would like to see everyone's comments on this, because I know there are not only MLP fans here but also a few Transformers fans. 

I could very well just talk about MLP here, but I'll be talking about Transformers too, not just because I like it, but also because it's from Hasbro, and its current situation share similarities with MLP, and especially, it was something that happened recently with Transformers that made me write this text, so I want to dedicate this text mostly to MLP, but also some parts to Transformers, so please, even if you don't have interest in Transformers, read this post in full because I believe the parts where I talk about it are important for the parts where I talk about MLP and Hasbro, don't worry, I'll avoid talking too depth on Transformers so everyone who'll read can understand my points.

Warning: if you like MLP and Transformers, or just MLP, and believe or want to believe thst the two franchises are in a good state, then don't read this poet, or else you'll be disappointed 

And before I began, I must warn, this is not a DOOMPOST, that's not my goal here, I never had any intent of making a doompost, not even in my threads where I talk about G5, no, doompost have the sole purpose to be completely negative and maybe even hate on something. This is a WORRYPOST, I'm truly concerned about the future of these two franchises just like how I was worried about G5's future, I said positive things about G5 and what could bring hope for it, and that's want I want to repeat here, a lot of this will consist of my personal opinions, based on stuff I saw from the fandoms, sites, videos, reports from fans and a few researches I made, so I really can't promise that what you'll be reading here is accurate, completely or partially, I simply want to share my thoughts on stuff I saw, which I believe may be true, but if you know anything that can contribute to what I'll say here, more information, or even correct something I said, please, share it, especially when it comes to stuff like statistics and toys, I believe there are people who are more “hardcore fans” here and may understand these things more than me, so please, share what you know so what was said here can be enriched with more knowledge and information.

Also, as always, this text will be really long, please read everything first if you are interested to comment. Anyway, I'll start.

The Current Dark Age of the Two Franchises 

For me it's really sad to see that just like MLP, Transformers is also going through a very hard situation

Rise of the Beasts had the worst performance in the box office of all the Transformers live-action movies, with the box office it got likely not being enough to pay its costs, or at least to generate profit.

Transformers One despite the great reception it got, flopped in the box office, definitely wasn't enough to pay its costs.

EarthSpark wasn't a well received show and it was cancelled.

And now the more recent of them that already opened 2025 with a punch in the face of the fans, Transformers Reactivate, a high production videogame that was in development since 2018, has officially been cancelled, and that was just the official announcement in 2025, I heard that the game was actually secretly cancelled in early 2024.

That all just reminds me of MLP situation, it's not exactly the same but it's bad as well. G5 wasn't well received by a lot of the fans and a lot of people didn't want to watch it, Tell Your Tale was secretly cancelled months before the official announcement and there was no new 3D show. And the supposed new show that would mix G4 with G5 was also cancelled.

I was already thinking in 2024 that MLP was in a dark age, and now looking at Transformers I think the same about it as well.

You can think that I'm exaggerating or being too pessimistic, and well, yeah, maybe I am, I'm a pessimistic person after all and there's the fact I'm more of a casual fan, and not a hardcore fan of the two franchises, so I really can't say that a know a lot about what's going on.

But, I know there's some truth to what I’m seeing because from time to time I check out videos from Transformers youtubers, and also posts from the TFW2005 forum, and I swear, ALL OF THEM SAY THE SAME THING, that the franchise has been hitting its lowest point since the early 90s or something like that, it's really hard for me to say what exactly they say in detail, but all of them or at least 90% of the fans pretty much say the same thing about the franchise being in a very bad era, and a lot of them are hopeless as well, either just sad or hating on Hasbro.

When did this start?

Now, a interesting thing that I heard from some of them is that the franchise started to decline slowly after 2014, the movies made after that year didn’t go well in the box office, The Last Knight from 2017 was the first of the live action films to be considered a flop, and the shows made from 2015 onwards all received mid receptions or were generally poorly received. I think that makes sense, and I think that it's actually a very curious parallel with MLP.

The latter part of FiM wasn't as well received as the first seasons, and I don't need to mention what came after it. 

I know a lot of people love Season 5, but let's be real, it was with Season 5 that the show started to lose its popularity, I heard a lot of people saying this, which for me makes sense as I remember that when I was a kid, I stopped seeing ponies in the internet starting from 2015, and I also heard that Season 5 had problems with writers but I'm not sure about how accurate that is, but I truly believe in Season 5 in 2015 starting to show a loss of popularity, Google Trends do show that the final peak of searches about My Little Pony was in 2014 with Season 4, since 2015 it just keeps falling, with only the 2017 movie raising the thing a bit again for a short time, but after that it never recovered, with not even the G5 movie hitting high.

Spoiler

Google Trends for "My Little Pony" searches.

With Transformers it's very similar, google trends also show that 2014 was the final peak of searches about the franchise, with it since then just being in free fall.

Spoiler

Google trends for "Transformers" searches, note that the searches here are still low in 2018 due to the Bumblebee movie not having "Transformers" in the title, if you search for "Bumblebee" in Google Trends, you'll see a peak in 2018.

I'm not saying that 2014 was a perfect year for the two franchises, no, after all, trends show that there was no more huge peak during the rest of 2014 for MLP, only in the beginning of that year. Transformers during the time of Age of Extinction didn't hit so high when compared to the years of the first 3 movies, and the box office of that year was lower than Dark of The Moon, but what I'm saying is that until 2014, everything was still alright for them, where they were still very popular, they still were a big success, it was a time when the majority of people still cared about them.

Age of Extinction was the last Transformers movie to hit 1 billion and be considered a big box office success. Transformers Prime, which ended in 2013, was the last Transformers show that was well received by everyone.

The Ending of FiM's Season 4 was crazy and Rainbow Rocks is considered the best Equestria Girls movie or production ever made, Ponies were still very popular.

So what made these two fall so much? Why did they lose so much of their popularity?

The Casuals don't care about the two anymore

Transformers thanks to the movies were extremely popular like The SuperHero movies or the big franchises we see nowadays, making the toys and tv shows explode, and Ponies were literally an internet phenomenon.

What about now? The two were pretty much forgotten. 

What made the G4 be such a hit compared to the first generations? And especially, why the Michael Bay Transformers movies were such a success despite them always being a critical failure?

Simple, the casual viewers, they showed interest in watching them. You can say that the fans have their importance, I understand that, a lot of people who watched the Transformers movies and G4 when they arrived were already Transformers fans and My Little Pony fans. But these fans just can't compare to the casuals, fans alone can't lead a series to success, the casuals are necessary.

The Michael Bay Transformers movies were a success mostly because of the casuals, a big part of the people who went to the theaters watch them were people who weren't even aware about what was Transformers, they didn't know that Transformers was already a thing before the movies, why so many people became fans because of the movies? The marketing for these movies was strong, it helped the cartoons and toys a lot, people who didn't know what Transformers was had the interest to watch them.

The same applies to My Little Pony, I think everyone here knows what made the G4 be such a hit. In the early years of G4, MLP was a literal internet phenomenon, the ponies were everywhere, grown men talked about them, people who had no interest in MLP talked about them. A huge part of G4 viewers thought that G4 was the beginning of the franchise, they had no idea that there were previous generations, and that apparently is still a thing to this day, a lot of new fans show up because of G4, so the viewers of G4 consisted of kids, fans from previous generations, new fans and casuals, everyone watched G4, everyone was introduced to it.

Now tell me, did the same happen to G5? Did this same large varied audience talk about it?

Exactly, this didn't happen to G5, people who watched G5 of course consisted of the intended audience of little kids, but what about the casuals and older audiences? Well, that's the problem, the only other audience that watched G5 was fans of the previous generations, people who grew up with G4 or the early generations, it's from these people that the critics about G5 came from, the older audience of G5 consisted only of the fans who were already there, but what about the casuals? Did G5 get an audience that started watching it without knowing what My Little Pony was? Without knowing that previous generations existed? Did it get new viewers?

The popularity of Ponies and all that phenomenon it was is long gone, people forgot that MLP exists, these people had no interest in G5, were they even aware about G5? 

That's really problematic, plus the fact that a big part of the fans disliked G5, and a lot of them had no interest in touching it at all, you know, people who didn't watch it because it's not G4, who didn't even want to give G5 a chance, who thought that G5 was bad without even watching it.

This was one of the reasons that G5 failed. 

The same applies for Transformers, why aren't the movies getting those high box offices anymore? Why did Transformers One flop? Who went to the cinema to watch it? 

Everyone complains that the marketing or that the first trailer for the movie was terrible, that the first trailer made people think that the movie was going to be a comedy and childish movie with no serious story development etc. Who was the major part of these people? Exactly, the casuals were affected, yes a lot of fans had these thoughts as well and didn't want to watch the movie, but the movie mainly flopped because casuals didn't go watch it, these casuals were interested in other movies. 

I know everything has a rise and fall, nothing is extremely popular forever, just look at the superhero projects. The difference is that the superhero movies and shows are still popular, they still have their place in pop culture, just look at how many people are still talking about them, look at how much hype there is for the next Marvel and DC movies, this is what I’m talking about, losing popularity, but not being forgotten, not losing its place, Superheroes aren't in the same situation as MLP and Transformers because their fandom isn't so divided and a lot of casuals still care about them.

Fans alone can't save both series, especially if a big part of them dislike or show no interest in the product.

Also, now that I'm talking about the fans

The Fans themselves are a problem

The two franchises already have their problems with their fandoms that is nothing new for anyone. I'm not very aware of how exactly it's going on, but as far as I know, MLP's fandom is very divided due to G5 and fans from different generations (mostly G4) are being toxic to each other. People who, like I said above, don't like new MLP content because it's not G4 or because they don't accept anything new, people who hated on G5 for nothing, people who complained about it without even watching it, G4 fans who complain about fans who like G5. 

I heard that with the Transformers fandom it's similar, I keep hearing that the fandom is also divided, and that a lot of G1 fans are being very toxic and problematic, fans of other generations like the movies also hate on other fans and new productions for nothing because it's not what they want, toxic G1 fans act like that it's bad because it's not G1, or the “true Transformers”.

So what do these fans want? They just can't accept a different or new view, I know it's not everyone, there are good fans, but I'm talking about the fans who are toxic, and we know that unfortunately they are a big part of both fandoms, they can't open their minds, imagine how many people decided to not watch G5 because of what these fans said, because these fans told these people to not watch it, this can take news fans and viewers away, it's already hard to introduce new viewers to the two, Transformers has a lot of reboots, and the movies already got 2 / 3 continuities. MLP latest project is a continuation of G4 that has a completely different cast of characters and visuals, which can confuse a lot of people.

Hasbro is the Main Problem

Now, while the situation with Transformers Reactivate, as far I know, has nothing to do with Hasbro, as it was confirmed by some of the developers, it was more of a problem with the development studio. I do believe that the rest it's all Hasbro's fault.

I remember that I already said this months ago in 2024, but it was more of a random opinion I had, now I'll repeat with big concerns.

Seriously, especially when I look at MLP's part, the way how they managed G5 is just outright unimaginable for me.

They secretly cancelled Tell your Tale and only announced it months later.

Because of that they changed the release schedule of the episode without giving an explanation.

Episodes released out of order and on wrong dates. Who remembers when they released an episode of Tell your Tale spoiling the events of Make Your Mark's final chapter, before the release of the Make your Make chapter?

They let leaks of the supposed new show surface on the internet like it was nothing, angering fans a lot.

Also, cancelled TyT episodes keep getting leaked, what the hell????

The first generations of MLP are pretty much ignored, I don't see anything official about G1 or G3 on Youtube.

In the case of Transformers One, I really don't know if it's Hasbro fault that the first trailer gave such a bad impression to the viewers, but in case it was, then the marketing for the movie was terrible, man, I barely saw anything about it, did them even make any effort to make people interested in watching this movie? The marketing for the Michael Bay films used to be crazy, now they treat these new movies like they were minor productions, that's why so many people who liked One didn't even care to go watch the movie in the theaters.

Toys

This is the part where I'll need to apologize to you all, because it's literally the blood of these two franchises and I almost know nothing about it. I'm very bad with this part, all I can say is that I heard from some that the G5 toys sold poorly. While for Transformers toys, I still haven't seen anyone saying that the toys aren't selling well, but I did hear that they fell in quality, which I think could be due to low sales? I really don't know, because I also saw some upcoming toys and I think they look really good with some of the fans really praising them, so I really don't know how accurate the former statement is, and apparently they're being really hard to be found in stores.

But in a personal and superficial point of view, I believe Transformers is at least still not so critical in the toy part, low points can be recurring, but from time to time there are surprises that can really bring some joy to fans and collectors. 

MLP on the other hand though, things for me feel stagnant, I never heard anything about new G5 toys anymore, which makes sense since the generation is over, but apparently nothing new is coming from Hasbro, just some new G4 merch from China?

The comparison between the two in this part leads me to talk about the following subject. 

Transformers is, at least, in a better situation

I can at least say that Transformers is kinda in a better state than MLP, as, aside from some nonsense criticism from toxic fans, and the failure in the box office, Transformers One was very well received, by both fans and the casuals who had interest in it, this was a good shoot for the franchise that for a while has been getting audiovisual productions that kept being divisive for the fandom, so TF One was finally a event that could unite all of these viewers and make them agree that this was a moment of hope for the franchise.

As I already said before, new toys were announced (or even leaked), and they look really good, and saw some fans really praising them.

And the most important of them that convinces me that Transformers isn't as bad as MLP, even though there's still nothing new about the movies, no announcement about a TF One sequel, still no updates about Transformers Live-Action Movie 8, at least a new show is already in the works, sorry for my ignorance, but I have no idea if there's already something official about it like a announcement or anything, but I keep seeing the fandom talking about this new animated project and that it will be called Transformers Cyberworld, I really don't know how are fans’ expectations and hopes for it and I don't know advanced in production this new show is, but they also showed new art and character designs for this new show, and for me they look really good and I think fans like it as well.

I really don't know if it'll be bad or not, bust the fact that Hasbro is still not slowing down with the Transformers IP tells me that Transformers's situation isn't as bad as MLP.

I know you can say that quality content demands time to be worked on, I said this multiple times in 2024 when criticizing TyT, I’m aware of that, but my point here isn't related to development, but about planning, Cyberworld may take a time to be released, but all these things about it and the other things mentioned like the toys, show that at least for Transformers Hasbro still has some planning, new things to come out.

While for MLP? G5 was a failure, it divided the fandom a lot and was cancelled, so MLP was already problematic in its most recent production, and worse, as far as I know, nothing, no new show was announced, Tell your Tale was cancelled nearly a year ago and the supposed new show was also cancelled. Anything new? Nothing, no new announcements, not even rumors, I'm sure about that because if there were rumours about a new animated project, someone would've already posted it in the forum. So there's nothing new about MLP.

So this a summary of the problems with the two franchises:

Many Projects aren't a success or aren't well received, and some of them are cancelled, like Tell your Tale and Transformers Reactivate.

The Popularity of the two have been declining since a decade ago, in all kinds of media, including the toys.

No planning for their future (in case of Transformers, the movies at least)

Hasbro's terrible management

The division and toxicity in the two fandoms.

The Two Franchises lost the Casuals and their place in pop culture.

MLP is a less profitable franchise than Transformers, so it wouldn't surprise me if Hasbro decided to put it in the fridge, there's a user in the forum who said multiple times that we might not even see a G6, at least not in the next few years, and I strongly believe that is possible.

Now, just because Transformers already has a new show planned, it doesn't mean it'll be good, there's a chance of this new show failing and then leading to Transformers being in the same situation that MLP is now going through. But there's no way we can predict the future, so let's wait and see, also talking about the future.

What Can Save Them?

Now, while I remember when I criticized G5 in 2024, I said that it was likely doomed and wasn't going anywhere (and I was right, the generation was cancelled), that was because I had really no hopes, I had some ideas of what Hasbro could do to save the generation, but I didn't thought that they would try to do any of them (and they indeed didn't, G5 was already secretly cancelled after all), 

I said those things not because I hated G5 or anything, yes I disliked Tell your Tale, but I wasn't hating on it, I was simply sharing my thoughts on why things were getting worse for G5, I was worried about it.

But now here, I still have some hope for the two franchises, mostly for Transformers, I think Hasbro considers it their most valuable franchise (if they don't, then I don't know which one they consider the most valuable), so for me there are higher chances of Hasbro not giving up on Transformers or putting it in the fridge, especially now that TF One was the first Transformers Movie to be universally acclaimed.

With MLP I'm unfortunately less optimistic, I think that maybe Hasbro may think that it's not worth investing in MLP anymore.

But now I must say something, something I've been thinking about, and it can be kinda controversial.

I feel that there's a big chance that Hasbro's next MLP project will be a G4 reboot, as their “final attempt” in making a MLP show of success. 

Now, I know that can make people mad, I know that a lot of people here are against the idea of making a G4 reboot, but please, let me explain why I think this COULD be the franchise's last hope.

G4 was and it still is the most popular generation of MLP, Twilight and the other characters pretty much became the Optimus, Bumblebee, Megatron of the MLP franchise, they gave a new face for the franchise, like I said before, they made the franchise become popular among people who didn't even know that the first 3 Generations existed. G5 has its fans, but we need to accept that it didn't come even close of replicating half of the success G4 had, the general public don't know or don't care about the G5 characters, they remember G4 at best because that was a internet phenomenon 10 years ago, aside from the current generation of kids and the fans of previous gens, G5 simply had no place for the casuals, they looked at it and for them it was just another random preschool kids cartoon like any other. 

That's one of the reasons why I think a G4 reboot would be good, because it would not only call the attention of the modern kids (because a lot of kids watch G4 in Youtube, so they recognize the characters), the old fans, but also the attention of those casuals who forgot about MLP, who saw Twilight and the others 10 years ago.

Second, Hasbro, since G4 ended, has been showing interest in reusing G4 characters and elements. 

G4.5 / Pony Life was technically a G4 reboot. 

G5 is a continuation of G4, bringing cameos and some characters back. 

The cancelled new show was going to have G4 characters along with G5 characters.

So yes, at least until 2024, Hasbro did show interest in bringing the G4 characters back, I don't know if that is still valid in 2025, but given how the contract with Discovery Family is about to expire (a contract that holds the rights for G4 characters, which ended up messing up the use of them in G5), I think that is now even more likely, as they can use the characters as they want.

So I can very well expect that the next MLP project will be a G4 reboot. Now, before you say that it's going to suck, let me ask you, how are you so sure that it'll be bad? And other, have you ever seen a G4 reboot before? A G4 reboot was never made.

Yes, G4.5 was a rebooted G4, but that was entirely a comedy show, it had no intent of telling the kind of stories FiM told, it was shorter, simpler and cheaper, it just hadn't the same goal as FiM, so it just can't be considered, it was a silly transition show made to fill the gap between G4 and G5.

Yes, the reuse of G4 characters in G5 was very disliked by a lot of fans, but that's a different problem, it has nothing to do with rebooting G4, G5 used Twilight and made her just have a few cameos that have little relevance for the story, the rest of the Mane Six only show up in a short opening of the 2021 Movie, Celestia and Luna show up in a short flashback with no dialogue, Spike was the only character who truly returned, but he was completely changed and this displeased a lot of fans. 

Now, I don't think that making a different incarnation / depiction of the same character is a bad idea, that can work, the problem with Spike is that he was meant to be the same Spike we see in G4, and that's the problem of the reuse of G4 characters in G5, they made G5 canon to G4, almost everyone complained that this messed up the continuity of G4, that they ruined the characters who already had they story completed, that G5 could've been better as its own separate continuity, people didn't ask G5 to be connected to G4, and I do understand and even agree with these complaints (despite me actually enjoying the connection) but the thing is, when I talk about a G4 reboot and reusing the G4 characters, it has nothing to do with what G5 did, I'm talking about making a full new story from scratch, with no connections.

You can say that MLP doesn't need that and all they need to do is make a full new generation with no connections and with a new cast of characters, but now, why can't they also make a G4 reboot? Because G4 is over and they need to move from the past? Well, let me talk a bit about Transformers.

For nearly 40 years, Transformers keeps rebooting its story over and over, throughout multiple generations, and I swear, 95% of the Transformers reboots, always bring back the exactly same characters, Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, Megatron, etc, and they always bring back the same core elements of the series, like Cybertron, The Matrix, The Primes, The AllSpark, The Quintessons, etc.

So, why can't MLP do the same? Why can't they make a new story with new rebooted versions of the G4 Mane Six?

“But I don't want to see the same story, G4 already told us what he had to see”, well, I once again use Transformers as example, the countless reboots this franchise got always tell a different story. I know that they always have the same story elements returning, like Orion Pax becoming Optimus Prime, the war between the Autobots and Decepticons, the origin of the Cybertronians with Primus, etc, but what makes each reboot distinguish itself from the other are the different contexts and concepts that are worked on, they tell the “same stories’ but with different contexts, different events happen, different characters appear, characters are depicted differently, it's never the same thing, you never see Optimus and Megatron with the same Autobots and Decepticons alongside them (well okay, maybe only Bumblebee, Arcee, Starscream, Soundwave and Shockwave)

These reboots always have something different and new to offer, new visuals, new style of storytelling, that's why the fans love to see them.

Now, why can't MLP do the same? Why can't it tell the story of the Mane Six and Equestria with new concepts and different events? With new personalities and ideas for the characters. With new characters or even rebooted versions of characters from previous generations.

“But I don't want to see that, I want a generation with a new cast” well, I think what we should do is wait and see, I think it we shouldn't judge a ideia before seeing it being worked on, I seriously say this because it has been a while that I keep seeing users in the forum saying that G4 reboot shouldn't be made or that they should move away from G4 characters, but I never understood why they think that way, especially when you have Transformers doing the opposite for 4 decades.

“Most of the Fans don't want them to reuse the G4 characters” I ask, who are these fans? If they really exist, then I think they aren't the true good MLP fans, they're simply people who hate on anything that isn't G4, and don't want Hasbro to touch those characters again because they think that any new generation will be bad because they hated G4.5 and G5, and I believe a lot of these people are the toxic G4 fans I mentioned before.

I can make sure that a lot of G4 fans (me included) would like to see a reboot of it, with good storytelling and new versions of the characters made from scratch, they know the potential it has.

If there are people who aren't toxic fans and still don't want them to reuse G4 characters, then I believe they simply don't think that is a good idea because they still haven't seen a legit G4 reboot.

I know I'm suspect for saying all this while I'm someone who would like to see a G4 reboot, but seriously, let's forget this, and just give it a chance, I know that after what was done to G5 you probably struggles to trust Hasbro and think that anything they'll try to do will likely fail, I do feel that way too, but again, look at Transformers One, look how it was praised by fans of different generations, fans of G1, fans of Beast Wars, fans of the the Live Action Movies, etc.

It is possible, it can still happen, so please, if Hasbro announces the next MLP show, and it is revealed to be a G4 reboot, please, don't hate on it, wait to see it first, it can be bad, it can be a nostalgia bait, but it can also be good too, it can tell good stories, don't go the “I don't need to see it to know that it'll be bad” route, a reboot can bring hope for the franchise, it can unite the different audience of fans from different generations, including the casuals, it can bring back casuals who'll see new versions of the Mane six and remember that pony series they saw 10 years ago and they later forgot that it existed.

Now, other way to solve the problems, end Hasbro's terrible management, one thing I think we can all agree here is that Hasbro managed G5 horribly, they started the generation with a movie in a streaming service, then they continued it into two separate shows with one being available for free on Youtube and the other one being stuck behind a paywall in same streaming service as the movie. I know that Tell your Tale was originally not meant to be important to watch and that you only had to watch the Movie and Make your Make to understand the story, the problems is that they later continued the story into Tell your Tale, so you need to pay the streaming service to see what happened before TyT Season 2.

I’m aware that they're apparently trying to upload the Make your Mark episodes on Youtube, but the damage has already been done, and what about the movie? As far as I know, there's still no official upload of it on Youtube, movie was the start point of this generation and they aren't making it available on Youtube like the rest of G5 content? Wtf??? I really hope this has something to do with a contract with Netflix that doesn't allow them to upload the G5 3D content in full on Youtube, they just can't be this incompetent.

The next show needs to be in just one place, if not, at least in one virtual place and in a TV channel. Yes, I know TV channels are falling in popularity, but there are still people watching them, part of these people are kids. Don't separate the generation into different shows, focus on one show, if they would like to make another show at the same time, then they should make something like Equestria Girls, a separate spin-off series that doesn't affect the events of main series. Don't start the story with a movie, start with the show, normal episode format, make things clear and simple again, do the basics.

Also, don't make another 3D show, I liked Make Your Mark's visuals and animation, but if one of the reasons they decided to end the show and not make a 3D sequel series but continue the 2D one was because the 3D was too expensive, then just don't try that anymore, stay with the 2D vector animation, it's a lot cheaper and I already proved this multiple times in the forum, the entire Season 1 of Tell your Tale was already completed in 2022 while they were still working in the last two chapters of Make Your Mark in 2023.

Other, the episode release format of Netflix is just not good, releasing multiple or all episodes of a chapter all at once in the same day for me is just bad, do the basic, one episode per week, then a break, I don't know if that is a rule of Netflix and all exclusive shows from it need to have a entire “Season” released in a single day. If that's the case, then change the streaming service, if they are willing to continue on putting show on streaming service.

And to finish it, I think they should make the art style be like G4 again, the G4 art style (or, Lauren Faust's art style) was acclaimed by everyone, then G5 arrives and they decide to change it completely. A lot of people disliked the 3D and the 2D art style of G5. I know I said before that it's good for every reboot to have its own visual identity, but you don't need to change the things so much when it comes to that, they could very well use G4's art style as inspiration and still manage to create a different and original art style that is unique but doesn't deviate too much from G4, MLP fan artists are the biggest proof of this, how many of them have their art styles completely inspired by G4, but still manage to deliver arts that look very different from FiM?

One of the reasons G4 caught so much attention from people in the early 2010s was its art style, people loved it, they wanted to see more of those cute ponies with the large eyes.

I can very well imagine that a lot of people didn't want to touch G5 because they thought that the 3D or the 2D or both didn't look appealing, or they just thought it looked bad. MLP needs that cute moe-like art style back, I believe that's one of the things that could make people want to watch a new MLP series. Because I only watched shows like Tell your Tale because it was My Little Pony, the art style for me is not good. 

For Transformers, I don't have much idea of what can be done, but in the case of the movies, I think I know what they could do. As much as I'm hyped for the next live action movie, I personally believe they should take a break from them, the box office for these movies just keep declining, and their costs just keep getting higher (Bumblebee 2018 was exception due to the shorter length, less use of CGI and characters)

I know TF One flopped but the critical success of the movie tell me that they should focus on the animated movies now. I believe one of the reasons One was so well received was that the movie made everything that the fans asked for, more focus on the Transformers, more accuracy to the cartoons. As much as I love the Michael Bay films, I admit that they deviate too much from the cartoons, I believe those movies succeeded in the first 4 because it was something new, again, casuals were introduced to the franchise throughout them, so a lot of the people who made those movies be a success didn't really care about the movies being too different from the cartoons. 

Nowadays, this strategy doesn't work anymore, as casuals don't care about Transformers anymore, the fans are the ones who are still there, and a lot of them want something different from the live action movies, they want more of what was seen in TF One, that's why I think they should focus on more animated movies, and put the Live Actions in the fridge, because those movies don't get any less expensive, things changed, try to deliver something good and appealing without wasting too much money.

Now, if not even this works, well, then, for me the two IPs should be sold to some other company. I already said this before in other posts, but I used to say this just because I didn't like how Hasbro treated them, now I repeat it because I believe that's the only hope for them, if any of the next productions really fail and keep their terrible management and insane incompetence.

Seriously, I'm not saying that Hasbro should go bankrupt or anything, no, yeah, I don't care about them, they only care about money. But I feel that this company is…maybe cursed, and that it may not be able to break itself from this curse. I really don't expect anything from them anymore, especifically now that I saw that they supposedly are starting to use AI generated arts to make packaging of some of the Transformers toys (again, supposedly, I don't know if it's true)

I really think that another company buying the two IPs could be their salvation, and hey, I'm actually being optimistic when I say this, because I also believe that there are big chances that even if another company bought them, they could still fail, because I believe that SOME of the reasons these two franchises and Hasbro themselves are failing so much, have nothing to do with Hasbro, these reasons are bigger than Hasbro, they are problems that are related to the entire current state of the toy market, and especially, the Western entertainment industry.

But that is a whole different story and separate subject that if I start talking about this text will just become even bigger and will deviate too much from what I want to talk about here which is My Little Pony and Transformers.

And honestly, I don't care if G6 or G4 reboot comes out and I end up not liking it, for me that doesn't matter, what matter is for it and its toys to be a success among the fans and the casuals again, similar to how G4 was in its first years, I'm not saying that the franchise needs to be the success it was in early 2010s, no, I already said before that I don't believe that is possible, I believe there were things specifically in those years of 2011, 2012 that made early G4 be such a phenomenon, like the rise of the internet popularity for example, I don't think that can be repeated.

What I do think is possible is for MLP to find its “place” again, that can make it be a success again without being the phenomenon it was, but keep being profitable, keep being loved and keep being followed by a loyal audience of fans and keep the interest of casuals. The same applies to Transformers, one of the main things I think is really hurting these two franchises is that the two lost their “place” for the general public, they lost their place in pop culture.

I think that maybe Transformers wasn't forgotten, at least not yet, but the general public doesn't care about it anymore, they don't think it's interesting anymore. My Little Pony on the other hand, I fully believe the general public forgot about it, as I said before, the viewers of G5 were little kids and the old fans of previous generations only, that isn't enough, not if we want MLP to be amazing again. 

I think things like the Ponycons still exist only because of the old fans, MLP isn't bringing new fans, Transformers despite the struggle at least can still bring new people in because of the (remaining) popularity of the movies.

The two have a lot of potential, they deserve to find their place in pop culture again, I think Transformers is so much more interesting than a lot of things we get in the cinema, it should be as popular as franchises like Marvel & DC and Jurassic Park. My Little Pony should still be one of the most popular cartoons for little kids, and not stuff like Paw Patrol.

I really have no idea what the future awaits for these two, if MLP will indeed go to the fridge, I'm really not sure what's going to happen to the Transformers movies given how Hasbro already said they won't be financing anymore movies of their IPs, and Paramount (owner of Transformers license for movies) apparently is also in a very bad state, I really hope the movies don't come to an end, that I'll make me really sad because I love them and they introduced me to the franchise, since 2007 they are the main media product of the franchise, so I hope for the best, and I hope fans can see a new amazing Transformers game in the future, I'm really pessimistic but I really want to try my best to be as optimistic as I can, but without overlooking reality.

Anyway, please share your thoughts about this, what are your opinions on the current state of two franchises, what are your opinions on the way I feel, feel free to disagree with my opinions and say that you think i'm exaggerating or that I'm wrong too, (I seriously hope I am), but I also like like to see actual information, evidence, again, sorry for the lack of information in many parts, if you can provide more info, if you know something or stuff that can show that I'm wrong or that parts of the text are wrong, or simply want to add more material and info to what I wrote, please, share here, that is very well welcomed. Thank you ~☆

[Metemponychosis 1,262]

I don't believe fans have the power to make others not like something. G4 would not have been 'successful' if that was the case. Because that is the only way to explain this logic that some fans hating on G5 is somehow related to it failing. If it really can be said that it failed. What happened to G5 is that it didn't relight the magic of G4. Everyone was willing to give it a chance; after it came out, people realized they didn't like it. Things like the weird, non-committing connection to G4, like it is a distant family relation, they're embarrassed by. And when the following projects came... Come on. Opaline? An evil alicorn? FFS. They had a perfect and original villain in Sprout. If they had built on that, they wouldn't have alienated the people that they managed to gather with the first movie. The people who stayed didn't stay because of the story or the setting; they latched to the characters, and you can see that in the lack of exploratory fanfiction that G4 and G5 lack.

You can't put these things in an Excel spreadsheet and expect results to confirm or deny your interpretation of the 'data', either. Hasbro didn't ruin everything. They took a chance, which is what every content creator does whenever they toss an idea out there. If it works, they follow it up with something. This is exactly what happened in G4 (which they tried to prolong with Pony Life)

Also, remember that time keeps ticking, and people move on. Eventually, people will grow up, or simply want new things. Transformers made an absurd amount of money before it started to lose steam. It's not that it is in a bad place. It simply ran its course. And if Hasbro made any mistakes, it was trying to cash in G4 nostalgia before it even became nostalgic. Finally, G4 was lighting in a bottle. I don't believe it is ever coming back. The entire environment is different. People will just call it woke or something and move on. Remember the clowns that mentioned Celestia was white and had a phallic symbol on her head, or how the 'girls' have cutie marks? Multiply that by a hundred today.

As for Transformers, it still has so much potential for parallel ideas like the original cartoons that it could work. But they need to move on from 'sensory overload' to coherent storytelling and make characters that don't bastardize themselves.

[OverTheStars 91]

I don't have anything meaningful to contribute, I just want more Transformers 

Maybe if I buy enough toys...

[Misty Shadow 7,914]

It's the downfall of Hasbro. They are Hasbroke right now and not putting as much effort into marketing the content meant to sell their toys because everything now is about cutting costs. They are looking at toys not selling like they used to and trying to have more and more of their toys produced by other companies with a license while they bank on video games, which are more popular than toys. I don't get why so many people still don't understand that not only can low-quality content succeed if it's well-marketed, high-quality content doesn't guarantee you success at all today. 

[ZiggWheelsManning 10,673]

@Rafa Stary

You feeling OK or is this blowing off steam?  You surely broke a world record addressing the 2 franchises in many paragraphs of such a topic.  Perhaps if Warner Bros. took notice and bought Hasbro, we'd have a Transformers / Looney Tunes crossover.  I'd like MLP to be under the roof of Warner Bros.  I regrettably have several Bayformers movies in my collection and haven't gotten hold of the 2 non-Bay movies to collect or watch.  The franchise would surely be worse if Adam Sandler were cast in the lead human role.  I don't think Steven Spielberg would know how to handle Transformers if he were in charge of the director's chair 100%.  I understand you want to move on from the Transformers franchise.  Sad Equestria Girls couldn't get its magic satisfied grand finale.  I'd like MLP G4 to be on a different channel with loads of 90s weekday afternoon cartoons.  People can love stuff in a franchise and other people can hate stuff in it.  An establishment can't win over everybody.  Best to play old fashion Hasbro board games.  

[Rafa Stary 3,202]

5 hours ago, Metemponychosis said:

I don't believe fans have the power to make others not like something. G4 would not have been 'successful' if that was the case. Because that is the only way to explain this logic that some fans hating on G5 is somehow related to it failing. If it really can be said that it failed.

I partially agree with that. When it comes to G4, of course there were a lot of MLP haters during its run, but the fans were even bigger, they had a voice, remember how extremely popular Bronies used to be? A lot of people who didn't know about MLP were introduced to G4 throughout the Bronies, Bronies were popular enough to the point of making their own conventions about the fandom, I'm not saying they are the only reason, but that they are ones of the reasons G4 became popular, why so many people talked about Ponies and started seeing products about them. 

The Same didn't happen to G5, that's why I think fans hating on G5 or ignoring it was one of the reasons why G5 failed, or else, G5 would've been more popular, and these fans would've bought the toys, but that didn't happen, a lot of fans hated it, and fans are one of the necessary things to call the attention of casuals, I believe that's how G4 succeeded. I said fans can't lead something to success alone, but they are necessary.

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What happened to G5 is that it didn't relight the magic of G4. Everyone was willing to give it a chance; after it came out, people realized they didn't like it.

I agree with that, but only if “everyone” refers to the fans and the kids, I really doubt that G5 convinced a lot of casuals to watch it like G4 did. I consider the people who didn't like it to be a big part of the fandom and very, very few casuals, though I also think there's a chance that some kids didn't like it either, that some of them thought that G4 was better, we can't expect kids to like everything made for them, but that is harder to say when compared to the older audience. In case it happened, then it just adds to the lot of fans and few casuals who had no interest in G5. If there were casuals during the arrival of the 2021 Movie, then I think they dropped right after and didn't stay for the two shows that came right after. I think casuals didn't even notice G5 when it started.

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Things like the weird, non-committing connection to G4, like it is a distant family relation, they're embarrassed by. And when the following projects came... Come on. Opaline? An evil alicorn? FFS. They had a perfect and original villain in Sprout. If they had built on that, they wouldn't have alienated the people that they managed to gather with the first movie. 

About that I really can't say much, as I think that way it could still have failed, I believe that even if G5 was just its own thing and not connected to G4, it could've still failed, I think it just wouldn't be hated like it is because people mostly hate on it because of the G4 connections. I believe these people would just ignore it if G5 was 100% original, and that somehow is even worse as you would have less people talking about it. Of course I'm saying all this imagining if a original G5 was bad, it could be good, but it would be a success, I really don't know.

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The people who stayed didn't stay because of the story or the setting; they latched to the characters,

With that I agree, but again, only if these people are some fans and kids, I really doubt there were casuals who cared about these characters, or else they would be more popular. Of course I can be wrong, but so far in this decade, I only saw casuals referencing G4 when mentioning MLP, I still didn't see any of them referencing G5, some of them even reference G1, but not G5.

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and you can see that in the lack of exploratory fanfiction that G4 and G5 lack.

Based on what I saw, I think it depends from fan to fan, back in 2023 when I used to be part of MLP facebook groups, I saw a lot of fans telling fanfictions and stories that connect G4 with G5, like their own version of the connection and a lot of them went even further on it, since Hasbro couldn't really do it due to the limitations.

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You can't put these things in an Excel spreadsheet and expect results to confirm or deny your interpretation of the 'data', either.

I don't think if I really get this part, if I didn't, sorry. But well, as i specified, most of the text would consist of my personal thoughts and that I could be wrong, I warned that some of what I would say would be based on what I saw, and I said that what i saw was that people started to lose interest in MLP starting from 2014/2015, but that could be wrong, so I used Google Trends in order to see if there was at least some truth to that belief, just like how i went to Transformers forums and channels to see if people were truly worried about the franchise's future. It's part of a research, that's why I recommended others to do the same, so it can collaborate to it and bring more information, Google Trends alone can't confirm what I said, it can collaborate, that's why I used it. If you made researches too, I would be glad if you shared them here, because they can collaborate, I don't expect them to confirm or deny something.

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Hasbro didn't ruin everything. They took a chance, which is what every content creator does whenever they toss an idea out there. If it works, they follow it up with something. This is exactly what happened in G4 (which they tried to prolong with Pony Life)

Partially agree with that, like, the part about Pony Life, I think Pony Life was meant to be just a very minor production that used G4 characters to save time because they weren't focused on it, but in working on G5, I don't think it was made to prolong G4, especially because at the time G4 itself was already with a lot of its popularity lost, so if they really tried to recover that, I think it would be with a big production, which I think it was G5, also, I do think Hasbro did ruin everything, the way they managed things during the run of G5 was simply chaotic. G4 was simple, it started as a TV show, then it later had a parallel spin off series and the comics running at the same time. G5 started as a movie on Netflix that later continued into 2 shows separated by two completely different platforms with completely different methods of accessibility, then one show ended and its story continued into the show of the other platform. That is terrible management, G4 didn't have that.

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Also, remember that time keeps ticking, and people move on. Eventually, people will grow up, or simply want new things. Transformers made an absurd amount of money before it started to lose steam. It's not that it is in a bad place. It simply ran its course. And if Hasbro made any mistakes, it was trying to cash in G4 nostalgia before it even became nostalgic.

Agree with that, everything will lose its popularity, everything has a rise and fall, the problem is, like I said, MLP and Transformers lost their place in pop culture, a lot of casuals literally forgot that they exist or simply don't care anymore. It's different from what happened to other franchises like Marvel and DC, Star Wars, etc, a lot of people stopped following them because they thought most of the latest productions weren't good, but see how many people are hyped for the next Superman movie, the box office for Deadpool & Wolverine, the many people who still talk about Star Wars, though it's mostly negativity due to the latest shows and movies being very divisive, but they still talk about it, many of these people criticize it because they still care about it.

I think this happens because they still have their place in pop culture, Transformers and MLP lost their place, a lot of people stopped caring about them.

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Finally, G4 was lighting in a bottle. I don't believe it is ever coming back.

Well, Hasbro disagrees with that because as I said, in the last 5 years, they tried to “bring back” G4 three times, they did show interest in that, at least until 2024. And now starting from April they'll be free to use the G4 characters as they want. But they can change their minds, but I really think that is very unlikely, especially because we can't expect what they think, they can very well look at G5 and think that it failed because of something that isn't really one of the reasons behind its failure, that's why I think G4 reboot is so likely to happen, they probably want to bet on what's safe for them, which they actually already “tried”, now they can try it for real, that's why I think if a G4 reboot fails, it will be the end, because they'll likely look at it and I think that was the final hope for the franchise.

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The entire environment is different. People will just call it woke or something and move on. Remember the clowns that mentioned Celestia was white and had a phallic symbol on her head, or how the 'girls' have cutie marks? Multiply that by a hundred today.

That is a very complicated subject, I agree with that, but that's why I mentioned haters as well, we would be too ignorant if we assumed that there aren't people in the fandom who think that way. The problem is that the western entertainment industry is trying to force agenda and politics into a lot of multimedia productions, making people paranoid. They need to focus solely on entertainment and avoid drama, controverses. Disney and many companies are showing signs that they want to stop with that. If they avoid stuff like DEI, Sweet Baby Inc, etc, if they they stop forcing these themes into their entertainment products, I can guarantee that the only people who'll remain to complain, will be the people who think that everything is woke, and I can bet that these people aren't enough to make a boycott work. That will apply to MLP if Hasbro simply avoids these themes.

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As for Transformers, it still has so much potential for parallel ideas like the original cartoons that it could work. But they need to move on from 'sensory overload' to coherent storytelling and make characters that don't bastardize themselves.

Agree with that, and that already happened, they just need to focus on it from now on, that's why I said that even though I love the live action movies, they keep being divisive and not succeeding in the box office, they need to put them in the fridge and focus on what worked, even though One was just a critical success, they need to focus on it and understand what made it flop, which can be hard for them to recognize, I guess.

Anyway, thanks for your comment, I understand your “be glad that it happened” way of thinking, but it's because of stuff like Transformers One that I believe there's still some hope for MLP, if you look at the Transformers fandom, despite how disappointed they feel, the majority of them said that One gave some hope. So I think that can happen to MLP too, or else, I'll be as pessimistic.

4 hours ago, OverTheStars said:

I don't have anything meaningful to contribute, I just want more Transformers  Maybe if I buy enough toys...

It's okay, for me it's already good enough that you read the text and commented, thanks. For Transformers, as I said, they already announced the next toys and cartoon. Now unfortunately for the movies, I really have no idea what they are planning, I didn't see any update on the next live action movie since 2023, and the only thing I saw about a sequel was that the Director or one of the production members want the sequel to happen, but that doesn't mean anything.

The only true “update” on the movies that I’m aware of is that Hasbro won't be funding any new movies, which can affect them for sure, but that doesn't mean they'll end.

4 hours ago, Misty Shadow said:

It's the downfall of Hasbro. They are Hasbroke right now and not putting as much effort into marketing the content meant to sell their toys because everything now is about cutting costs. They are looking at toys not selling like they used to and trying to have more and more of their toys produced by other companies with a license while they bank on video games, which are more popular than toys. I don't get why so many people still don't understand that not only can low-quality content succeed if it's well-marketed, high-quality content doesn't guarantee you success at all today. 

Agree with all that, that's why I think they should put a end to their terrible management, that's one of the things that doomed G5, there's no point in making a good story work if the marketing is terrible, TF One was the biggest proof of that, many complained about the marketing.

3 hours ago, ZiggWheelsManning said:

@Rafa Stary

You feeling OK or is this blowing off steam?  You surely broke a world record addressing the 2 franchises in many paragraphs of such a topic.

I'm okay Zigg, don't worry, I just had a idea and I thought I had to share it

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Perhaps if Warner Bros. took notice and bought Hasbro, we'd have a Transformers / Looney Tunes crossover. I'd like MLP to be under the roof of Warner Bros. 

I think I agree, unlike Hasbro, Warner Bros doesn't need to rely on toy sales, Warner's focus is on media like video games, streaming and movies, I think it could be good for the two franchises, especially because I think they have more money to invest.

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I understand you want to move on from the Transformers franchise.  

I don't want to move on from Transformers, I love the Michael Bay movies, the Two reboot universe movies and TF One, I just didn't see the latest cartoons. I just think that they should put the live action productions in the fridge, because they aren't working anymore, I think they should focus on animated movies like TF one because that was at least the critical success the franchise needed for nearly 20 years in the theaters, the movie did what people want to see.

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Sad Equestria Girls couldn't get its magic satisfied grand finale. I'd like MLP G4 to be on a different channel with loads of 90s weekday afternoon cartoons. People can love stuff in a franchise and other people can hate stuff in it. An establishment can't win over everybody.  

Agree, but I think that even hated by many, it can still be very popular. That was the status of the Transformers Movies 10 years ago, all of them were a critical failure, but they were a success because people were still interested in them, it was still new for most people. I think Hasbro needs to give a new face for them, a new face that can be appreciated by old viewers and new viewers. I feel that only the old viewers stayed for the two and that's not good, because some of them will move on or even pass away.

Anyway, thanks for you comment ~☆