[Idea] When Hasbro sells the MLP franchise.

[CloudFyre 848]

Recently there has been quite a fervor over Disney acquiring Lucasfilms, and the natural direction to take such a conversation is towards speculations of Disney acquiring Hasbro (and MLP within that).

 

For me personally, I don't believe Hasbro would sell out any time soon. Think about it; what's the draw for Hasbro? In all of the years that they've been in business, they've attained their most popular show ever just two years ago - they still have years of projected growth and earnings before things begin to level off.

 

But follow me on a journey. I'd like to pose a theoretical ending to this story.

 

 

The year is 2017. After seven years of growth, the MLP franchise has hit it's peak, and is slowly settling down. Hasbro is looking to sell.

 

They have many options, and each one will be highly lucrative. In fact, even the "lesser" offers will be incredibly appealing. It's only a matter of time until the power shifts, the administration changes, and the fans suddenly become disconnected from the "powers at be" and must adjust to the new ones. Rules will change, and misunderstandings will occur. It's just part of the transition.

 

But what if, say, we bought the MLP franchise? What if a fandom collective bought the rights to the very show they follow so closely?

 

It would be incredible.

 

Where would our limits end? We could create the show ourselves. If there's a new trend in the fandom, we could make it canon. If someone writes a fanfic that spreads like wildfire, we can throw in references to it. Best of all: as long as we own the rights to the show, restrictions on fanworks would disappear. Nobody has to worry about infringing on copyright laws, nobody has to censor their YouTube uploads, and the artists that create the epic paintings that sit on our walls and the adorable plushies that adorn our bedrooms could sell their works without fear of lawsuits.

 

It would be the first open source story to grace screens across the globe.

 

Will there be any restrictions? Of course. There must be. For example, we should leave the episode drafting to a select few, and simply give them influences - since the mystique and "newness" of every new episode is what gives the show it's "draw". If everyone knew what the episodes would contain, they wouldn't be nearly as fun to watch.

 

And if someone suddenly starts making their millions off of a franchise that wasn't started by them, it wouldn't quite sit right with me. The solution? Well, we would need a way to continue funding the essentials of the franchise - so why not hire on the artist's creative genius?

 

But aside from keeping the core show creation afloat, there would be little need to monitor the fandom's actions. It would spark unbounded imagination! If millions of dedicated fans suddenly received a sky with no limits, we'd see a creativity unparalleled by anything else.

 

Now don't get me wrong, I wouldn't trade the current staff for anyone on planet Earth. In fact, I'd rather they keep MLP safely in their hands for right now. But when the time comes and they want to retire from the business, I believe that there are countless minds who have the talent to pick up their legacy where they left off.

 

I would buy the MLP franchise. Would you?

 

*EDIT: Apparently there's some misunderstandings as to what I said, so I'll break it down into very simple sentences.

 

No, I don't think we could ever feasibly buy MLP.

 

No, we shouldn't suddenly hand total writing control over to the fandom. I agree with you, it would quickly turn into the world's largest collection of shipping stories.

 

Ownership would be an issue, although there are legal frameworks that one can set up before hand to level the playing field.

 

I'm saying that we keep the old staff (if possible), and simply let them throw in little references here and there. (NOT shipping.) The only real difference in mechanics would be how fan works are handled. The show would be written the same way, animated the same way, etc., but perhaps we'd see more head nods from the dev team.

 

This was only an idea I had for fun...that probably won't happen...ever...no need to stress over it...

Edited November 8, 2012 by CloudFyre

[Shanks 10,816]

That is actually a really good idea and if it happens I will be happy to be a part of it, but how will we accomplish it? There needs to be massive movement that in unprecedented in entertainment history to pull this off, big media companies like Disney for example have billions of dollars it would be difficult though not impossible to overcome that. MLP has a lot of very enthusiastic fans and there is a good chance that the show staff might actually support this idea but in order to pull this off we will need to really step up our game and grow the fanbase even more.

[CloudFyre 848]

That is actually a really good idea and if it happens I will be happy to be a part of it, but how will we accomplish it? There needs to be massive movement that in unprecedented in entertainment history to pull this off, big media companies like Disney for example have billions of dollars it would be difficult though not impossible to overcome that. MLP has a lot of very enthusiastic fans and there is a good chance that the show staff might actually support this idea but in order to pull this off we will need to really step up our game and grow the fanbase even more.

 

I agree - this is all in theory. I'm not sure that any fanbase could could compete with a multi-billion dollar superpower.

 

But you never know. If they want to make something like this possible out of goodwill...then it wouldn't be so far fetched.

[duidamasterXD 9,627]

Of course we would have to raise enough money to buy the franchise, figure out how to go about doing this and it would spark a virtual fandom civil war over how to run the show, how to portray characters, who gets to write for it and how to stay loyal to the primary demographic. I don't know if we are collectively prepared to handle that.

Hate to be a buzz kill but it's hard for me to picture a fandom actually creating the thing they are a fan of, imagine letting Harry Potter fans write the last Harry Potter book. The shipping alone would have gotten violent and that's not even considering anything that actually happened

[CloudFyre 848]

Hate to be a buzz kill but it's hard for me to picture a fandom actually creating the thing they are a fan of, imagine letting Harry Potter fans write the last Harry Potter book. The shipping alone would have gotten violent and that's not even considering anything that actually happened

 

Those are all good points. It's simply an idea.

 

If anything like this were to happen, I say that we keep the original writers on board. The only influence the fans would have is suggesting allusions to viral topics within the fandom.

 

If we can't keep the original writers on board, we'd need to hold some sort of "test" judged by the former writers to see who's writing style closest fits the show's - that way there's less danger of foreign ideas slipping by. (That's what I meant by "a select few".)

Edited November 7, 2012 by CloudFyre

[DireDoe 48]

Ack. No, no, no. If the fandom as a whole bought the show, it'd be terrible. Just the shipping alone would cause so much infighting and disagreements that nothing would get done. Best to keep the ownership to just one company where there's a chain of command and everything is decided by a small internal group. Disney has a fairly hands-off approach to their properties - you can see that pretty much nothing in Marvel changed after their buy-out, and that's because the people who ran everything still ran everything, and Disney is keeping their distance. If fandm got involved there would be too many people who are too invested in the show demanding conflicting ideas.

[Dusty Soul 2,611]

nope. I highly doubt the fandom buying out mlp would be good. I honestly think we wouldn't be able to do anything, because the whole thing would turn into a power struggle. People that are on top of the fandom now would be in control of it. I just can't see that working out.

[Wingnut 6,992]

It's a thought provoking idea, but it ain't gonna happen. Even if enough fans could pool together the millions it'd cost, they'd never agree on how to move the franchise forward.

[Nocive 39]

It's be a massive disaster. I know that the fandom represents 'unity' and all, but that doesn't mean our opinions will come together and manage a whole show. Remind that there are still some... uh, how should I say this... nutjobs in the fandom. As in, they'd go completely against everyone else when the show is bought, throw completely ludicrous opinions on the plans in attempt to overthrow whoever you may have hired to be the main staff representing the fandom, and will cause massive havoc as it is.

 

Hate to say it, but when the day comes that Hasbro has to sell off MLP:FiM, I'd prefer anyone except the fandom to manage it.

[ponywise 78]

(cleaning up old posts! ignore please. )

Edited September 3, 2016 by ponywise

[SongBrony 419]

I like the idea, but I would probably end up stop watching the show if the fandom bought the franchise. Mainly because of the shipping that would be involved. Don't get me wrong, I like some of the shipping. But since it's only a fan thing and not incorporated into the actual episodes, to me, it's a fanbase only deal. But the idea is great, but I'd hope the show would keep the shipping out.

[CloudFyre 848]

This is surprising...I thought people's responses would be different.

 

Apparently there's some misunderstandings as to what I said.

 

First off: this is simply wishful thinking. No, I don't think we could ever feasibly buy MLP.

 

And let me re-iterate: I wasn't saying that we should suddenly hand total writing control over to the fandom. I agree with you, it would be disastrous. (e.g. the "shipping" arguement).

 

I'm saying that we keep the old staff (if possible), and simply let them throw in little references here and there. (NOT shipping.) The only real difference would be how fan works are handled. The show would still be written the same, animated the same, etc.

[himanuts 165]

How a fandom can buy a franchise is beyond me as fandoms are composed of large amounts of people.

 

Hasbro won't sell the MLP franchise independantly. If MLP is up for sale, it's because Hasbro itself is part of that sale, including it's other franchises.

[Zygen 6,066]

Honestly as cool as it sounds people have different opinions, so therefore we'd have a giant mess of people fighting for whos in charge.

And we would need the millions of dollars and stuff. It takes quite alot of money to run a business.

Again there would be the arguement about whos in charge of what.

In short I think hasbro would do a better job at actually making the show, it would be fine to have us suggest stuff that they atleast consider, but hasbro is doing an amazing job.

 

I think if the show gets to the point where its reached its peek, hasbro will just stop making it.

[Bucky McGillyCuddy 956]

If the MLP fandom bought the franchise that would probably be the worse thing to happen, everyone would own like .001% or less of the shares and would have people would be fighting over the decision making. What if some rich person had the most shares and the most say in what happens but had absolutely terrible story ideas. I think it would result in quite the ugly death of MLP, not to mention the fact that the fandom probably could raise the money in the first place.

[CloudFyre 848]

*Sigh* I think I'm just going to drop the conversation, since I'm obviously not communicating the idea as I wanted to. Perhaps I need to re-word it...

[Proctra Music 335]

That'd be.... I don't even know. So many things could go right. But everything else would be so wrong. I hae to enlighten, as I hate to rant. But it wouldnt work for, the brony community would make to many things canon, and remove the magic of background ponies and such things.

[RD82 28]

My plan: NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HASBRO SHOULD NEVER SELL IT!!!! GEESE THE THOUGHT JUST SCARES ME :0

 

 

 

 

Plus reading the idea seems to hurt my eyes...

[poniesforfun 716]

There's a difference between a fan and the creators of the cartoon. Personally I prefer it if the creators do not take suggestions from the fans and instead stick to their own plans because if they took a suggestion from some fans, other fans that didn't want it to happen that way would be pissed, there would be a kind of favoritism going on.

 

Second of all you would already know what would happen in future episodes... because you have read everything on the suggestion box and that is no fun.

 

Third of all there are different parties of bronies, bronies that want to make the genre more dark, bronies that want to make it more adult, bronies that want the series to send out different messages that conflict with the beliefs of others. It's better when done with a neutral creative crew (the original writers of the show). I do not want MLP becoming an internet meme filled cartoon suddenly and also don't want it to shift it's theme from "intended to little girls" to "intended to older men" that would change a whole lot of different things. And I'm sure a lot of bronies would leave at the idea of MLP becoming something more testosterone-like and predictable.

 

I mean I'm all for fanfics and fan based shows on MLP but when it dies I would like it to be left in the memory of what it was before.

Edited November 9, 2012 by poniesforfun

[SBaby 660]

There's a difference between a fan and the creators of the cartoon. Personally I prefer it if the creators do not take suggestions from the fans and instead stick to their own plans because if they took a suggestion from some fans, other fans that didn't want it to happen that way would be pissed, there would be a kind of favoritism going on.

 

Second of all you would already know what would happen in future episodes... because you have read everything on the suggestion box and that is no fun.

 

Third of all there are different parties of bronies, bronies that want to make the genre more dark, bronies that want to make it more adult, bronies that want the series to send out different messages that conflict with the beliefs of others. It's better when done with a neutral creative crew (the original writers of the show). I do not want MLP becoming an internet meme filled cartoon suddenly and also don't want it to shift it's theme from "intended to little girls" to "intended to older men" that would change a whole lot of different things. And I'm sure a lot of bronies would leave at the idea of MLP becoming something more testosterone-like and predictable.

 

There's a problem with that though. They've already been influenced by the fanbase, from character names to entire plot points. I'm not saying that one of us literally went to them and asked for the Canterlot Wedding 2-parter to be made. But our fanbase is affecting the franchise because we are who we are.

Edited November 9, 2012 by SBaby

[TailsIsNotAlone 3,695]

CloudFyre, this is a very exciting idea and I congratulate you on making a (hypothetical) case for it. The idea of controlling our own destiny as a fandom and protecting the show in the most direct way possible--owning it--has undeniable appeal.

 

But thanks to you, I've realized something: the fact that we don't own the show, and we know it won't respond to most of our latest trends, twists and fan works, is actually a kind of freedom. In fact, it's as much freedom as we could hope for.

 

Because My Little Pony is created by others, it represents certain ideals we can look up to and a way to channel our creativity anonymously. If we somehow owned this ourselves, it would become a heavy responsibility, a source of major controversy within the community, and most of all: a business venture. It's because we don't have that responsibility that we can enjoy My Little Pony the way we do. Not only that, the show's creators--and Hasbro--have been wonderful to us. Unless we're trying something silly and obviously wrong (like charging $), our fan works know no bounds. It's an inspiration and a joy. The worst thing that could happen to MLP for us is if it became a job. And that would be the case here, no matter how much we tried to limit our role.

 

Chances are Hasbro won't look to sell the franchise at all, just put it on the shelf for several years and bring it back when the time is right. Just like they did with G4. ^^

Edited November 9, 2012 by TailsAlone

[dad george 105]

I don't know whether or not it would work, but it sure would be lots of fun to have a ton of adult guys somewhere producing a children's cartoon for their own enjoyment. Don't think it would work, just because you can't gather the whole fanbase in a studio and have them discuss stuff and stuff.

[Nothing&NoOne 695]

I don't think there'd be much love and tolerating if the fandom bought the show. I think it'd just turn into an adult show, then certain people would get offended..then we'd have lawsuits..

 

XD

[AlexanderVulpes 1]

You know, I've actually put a little thought into this myself. (Warning: long post ahead!) I mean, what if Hasbro decides to do something really stupid, or what if Disney buys it up and puts an end to G4? (Or what if we just want Derpy back really really badly?) Would this actually be possible? I think that, crazy as it sounds, it would be. (Not practical, mind you, but possible.)

 

First, how much is the MLP franchise worth? I recall hearing Hasbro sold the gaming rights (and then bought them back) for around $100 million, so that puts an absolute lower bound on the value of the franchise. (Since the gaming rights to MLP isn't going to worth more than all of MLP.)

 

On the other hand, Hasbro has roughly $4 billion in assets. Because (as far as I know) Hasbro is the sole owner of MLP, that puts an absolute upper bound on the value of the franchise. (Since Hasbro's total assets (not their net worth, just their assets, which excludes liabilities) are worth more than just part of their assets.)

 

So, we can be almost positive MLP is worth between $100M and $4B. Let's just do a geometric mean and say it's around $650M, because I'm not a good pundit and this is all just a rough estimate.

 

So, $650 million. That's quite a lot of dough. Now how many bronies are there?

 

Estimates vary widely, but I believe that last Brony Census calculated that the population was on the order of 10 million people. So if each and every one of us ponied up (hehe, pun) $65 or so, we could indeed buy the franchise outright.

 

However, this scenario is unrealistic. Every brony? Yeah, not gonna happen. So then, suppose less than 1% of us actually decided to put some money into this. In that case, we'd need around $10,000 each. And that's a lot of money to pay, considering each purchaser only gets 0.001% of the franchise.

 

So, conclusion: it's impractical, it's unlikely, it's implausible, but it's not impossible. And that's what amazes me: If we really needed to, we could actually freaking do it.

 

And as for what to do afterwards, I too would keep the original animators. I'd say give them near-complete autonomy, let them make the seasons as long/short as they wanted, etc.

 

Okay, my comment is almost as long as the original topic post, so I'll quit yapping now.

 

Edit: Does anyone ever read the tags? I do!

Edited January 17, 2013 by AlexanderVulpes