[In the past] Why has MLP changed drastically each generation?

[~Scootaloo 440]

I have a question regarding the "generations" that the show has. To my knowledge there are four (or five)...

 

Gen. 1

Gen. 2

Gen. 3

Gen. 3.5 (is this one a myth or what...)

Gen. 4

 

Now to my actual question: why in each new generation did they change the show so radically? like changing characters around, art style, and more? were they just trying to get it right and find out what people liked, because I just don't why they changed it so much each generation my best guess is they were tying to find what worked.

[Homura Akemi 974]

Each were bound to be different. They revise old ponies for new generations for moar money $$$. I think it's rather simple. Why make a new character when you can redesign a new one?

[Red Diamond 549]

Well, to answer your question OP, technology is getting better, and better by the day. New stuff invented, and created, such as Windows 8(and you get the idea.). Animation is getting better too, so that's why they changed magnificently over the generations. Alot of stuff has improved over the years. I assume they want change.

[~Scootaloo 440]

Each were bound to be different. They revise old ponies for new generations for moar money $$$. I think it's rather simple. Why make a new character when you can redesign a new one?

Ya, ya, ya I know they're in it for the money why else would they be? because they believe in the power of friendship and magic?

 

Anyway I just wasn't sure if they were changing to see what people like or maybe because the previous generation failed in some aspect.

[Scootalove 10,689]

Each generation is suppose to be different from the other. Pretty much as time advances, technology advances along with it, the ponies start to become modified with every generation that passes, to advance along with the development of the show.

[Arylett Charnoa 4,919]

I think the reason they change things around is because they have to keep up with the times. Each generation was created in a different time period, so they have to update and revise them for the sensibilities of each new generation of little girls. A company constantly has to keep redesigning itself to fit in or it will fall behind.

 

There's also the fact that for each show they create in the various generations, they likely have a different set of writers and a completely different team producing the animation. Because My Little Pony is just to sell toys instead of to tell an actual story, they really don't care about updating and changing to new generations, changing story elements and reusing the various characters. It's not designed to be consistent. 

[Zygen 6,066]

I suppose its a combination of things, I mean its partly to do with technology, and partly to do with the times and whats popular and stuff, its partly got to do with the vision of the producers, and its also I guess because the generations do have to kinda vary in some way.

 

I also think they where kinda searching around for a place in what they wanted to do with the show, but I think G4 is by far the best of their attempts, its possible that G5 will be more in the style of G5, if and when it comes around. Just because of the success of G4.

 

Just some speculation though. I could be missing plenty of reasons, but the point is its a good bit of different ones I think.

[Mand'alor Dash 2,224]

I think it has to do with whatever they think little girls want at the time.

 

In the 80s, they thought girls wanted something akin to the boys' transformers stuff. A typical 80s cartoon with typical 80s production values and typical 80s themes.

 

In the 90s, they were still trying to appeal to the same girls that watched G1. As such, they made the characters grow up and deal with more teenage problems than they would before. Namely, boys, boys, prom, and more boys.

 

In the 2000s, Hasbro decided that they would just stop trying altogether. If it has a pink pony on it, some little girl is going to buy it and love it. Kids have low standards.

 

Then, in 2010, they had their big epiphany. Girls like good stuff, too. Boys aren't the only ones who can tell when something is shit, so why not treat the audience with a bit of respect?

[~Scootaloo 440]

I think it has to do with whatever they think little girls want at the time.

 

In the 80s, they thought girls wanted something akin to the boys' transformers stuff. A typical 80s cartoon with typical 80s production values and typical 80s themes.

 

In the 90s, they were still trying to appeal to the same girls that watched G1. As such, they made the characters grow up and deal with more teenage problems than they would before. Namely, boys, boys, prom, and more boys.

 

In the 2000s, Hasbro decided that they would just stop trying altogether. If it has a pink pony on it, some little girl is going to buy it and love it. Kids have low standards.

 

Then, in 2010, they had their big epiphany. Girls like good stuff, too. Boys aren't the only ones who can tell when something is shit, so why not treat the audience with a bit of respect?

Not that others here have not helped out however this really does make a lot of sense. They look for a trend and try to market towards it. That was surprisingly easy to grasp...

[Fhaolan 4,489]

Each generation had slightly different reasons, and it gets complicated because of the number of years that it all took place over, but they pretty much all boiled down to a tapering of interest (lack of sales), leading to Hasbro trying a 'reboot' of the franchise. Many of the reboots weren't that 'clean', with the toys lines and the companion animated series not happening at the exact same time, so there's a lot of fuzziness between the Gens. Which is why you're having problems with Gen 3.5, I think.

 

For information's sake, note that there was a Gen 0 as well called 'My Pretty Pony' in 1981. Hasbro produced that toy under license, and bought out the rights completely in 1983 changing the design quite a bit and renamed it to My Little Pony.

 

Gen 1 ran from 1983 to about 1992, with a lot of different variants like miniaturized versions, larger versions, non-horse versions, anthropomorphic versions, etc. Hasbro commissioned various animated movies and eventually a series. running from 1984-1987.

 

Still in Gen 1 (which I just recently found out myself, as I thought it was a different Gen), Hasbro and Disney worked together to do a reimaging of the animated series in 1992, called My Little Pony Tales. Only one season was made, and having watched it, I can understand why it didn't work. *shudder*

 

Sales of My Little Pony lagged, so Hasbro tried a redesign with more imbedded 'jewels', pose-able heads, etc. This was Gen 2. At about this time Hasbro was going through a massive growth spurt through acquiring many other toy and game companies, and started migrating all the manufacturing overseas. Due to some confusion as to how international copyrights and trademarks worked, they ended up selling off most of the molds and the like for Gen 1 to clear their inventory, and pretty much by accident sold off the *rights* to a lot of the character names and basic designs along with the molds. They apparently didn't notice this until much later, causing some problems when they wanted to use a bunch of the Gen 1 names for Gen 4.

 

Gen 2 didn't do so well in the 'States, so it got killed in 1999 in the US, though apparently it did well enough in Europe and Asia that they kept making them over there until 2003. There was no animated series for this generation.

 

In 2003, Hasbro decided to make another attempt at the US market with the franchise, and so Gen 3 came about. This time they aimed at the collectors market, so there were a lot more 'art figures' and the like in the line, and they made a bunch of direct-to-video animated movies to advertise the new toys.

 

There was a redesign again in 2008-2009, where the toy line got sliced down to just seven characters and an attempt was made at creating more detailed personalities and relationships between the characters rather than leaving it up to the child. Several animated movies were made for this sub-generation, and it was pretty obvious this was a period of experimentation as Hasbro was trying out different concepts on how to manage the franchise. There's some confusion as what exactly fits into this sub-generation, which is why it's sometimes called Gen 3.5, just to point out that people aren't completely sure about what happened there. Sales were supposedly not bad, but not stellar.

 

Enter Lauren Faust in 2010. Hasbro saw a chance to take what they had learned with Gen 3.5, and reboot the franchise completely, using an animated series as the flagship of the franchise rather than an afterthought. All new art designs, full multi-media as well as a different way of licensing products to make it easier to saturate the market with stuff like backpacks, T-shirts, games, etc. and moving the risk of producing this stuff off of Hasbro itself and onto the third-party manufacturers who hold the licenses.

[~Scootaloo 440]

Each generation had slightly different reasons, and it gets complicated because of the number of years that it all took place over, but they pretty much all boiled down to a tapering of interest (lack of sales), leading to Hasbro trying a 'reboot' of the franchise. Many of the reboots weren't that 'clean', with the toys lines and the companion animated series not happening at the exact same time, so there's a lot of fuzziness between the Gens. Which is why you're having problems with Gen 3.5, I think.

 

For information's sake, note that there was a Gen 0 as well called 'My Pretty Pony' in 1981. Hasbro produced that toy under license, and bought out the rights completely in 1983 changing the design quite a bit and renamed it to My Little Pony.

 

Gen 1 ran from 1983 to about 1992, with a lot of different variants like miniaturized versions, larger versions, non-horse versions, anthropomorphic versions, etc. Hasbro commissioned various animated movies and eventually a series. running from 1984-1987.

 

Still in Gen 1 (which I just recently found out myself, as I thought it was a different Gen), Hasbro and Disney worked together to do a reimaging of the animated series in 1992, called My Little Pony Tales. Only one season was made, and having watched it, I can understand why it didn't work. *shudder*

 

Sales of My Little Pony lagged, so Hasbro tried a redesign with more imbedded 'jewels', pose-able heads, etc. This was Gen 2. At about this time Hasbro was going through a massive growth spurt through acquiring many other toy and game companies, and started migrating all the manufacturing overseas. Due to some confusion as to how international copyrights and trademarks worked, they ended up selling off most of the molds and the like for Gen 1 to clear their inventory, and pretty much by accident sold off the *rights* to a lot of the character names and basic designs along with the molds. They apparently didn't notice this until much later, causing some problems when they wanted to use a bunch of the Gen 1 names for Gen 4.

 

Gen 2 didn't do so well in the 'States, so it got killed in 1999 in the US, though apparently it did well enough in Europe and Asia that they kept making them over there until 2003. There was no animated series for this generation.

 

In 2003, Hasbro decided to make another attempt at the US market with the franchise, and so Gen 3 came about. This time they aimed at the collectors market, so there were a lot more 'art figures' and the like in the line, and they made a bunch of direct-to-video animated movies to advertise the new toys.

 

There was a redesign again in 2008-2009, where the toy line got sliced down to just seven characters and an attempt was made at creating more detailed personalities and relationships between the characters rather than leaving it up to the child. Several animated movies were made for this sub-generation, and it was pretty obvious this was a period of experimentation as Hasbro was trying out different concepts on how to manage the franchise. There's some confusion as what exactly fits into this sub-generation, which is why it's sometimes called Gen 3.5, just to point out that people aren't completely sure about what happened there. Sales were supposedly not bad, but not stellar.

 

Enter Lauren Faust in 2010. Hasbro saw a chance to take what they had learned with Gen 3.5, and reboot the franchise completely, using an animated series as the flagship of the franchise rather than an afterthought. All new art designs, full multi-media as well as a different way of licensing products to make it easier to saturate the market with stuff like backpacks, T-shirts, games, etc. and moving the risk of producing this stuff off of Hasbro itself and onto the third-party manufacturers who hold the licenses.

@@Fhaolan, Alright... there is still one thing I don't quite understand. Why would Hasbro give the series so many different tries? usually if something fails once the company will move on not give it like 4 different tries. Right?

[Fhaolan 4,489]

@@Fhaolan, Alright... there is still one thing I don't quite understand. Why would Hasbro give the series so many different tries? usually if something fails once the company will move on not give it like 4 different tries. Right?

 

That's an excellent question, but since I wasn't actually in the room when Hasbro's management made those decisions, I can't say for sure. All I can do is speculate. But I'm pretty good at speculation, as I've been dealing with a variety of industries as a professional for many years. You pick up stuff over time.

 

First, I can point out My Little Pony is not unique in this. Hasbro and their main rival Mattel did this reboot/reinvention a lot. Transformers, GI Joe, Barbie, Hot Wheels, all have multiple generations. Basically these toy franchises did really well at first, but then sales slowly tapered off. The reboots would be an attempt to bring the toy back into popularity with a refreshed look, additional features, and likely a cheaper manufacturing process as technology had improved.

 

The toy industry seems to have more in common with the entertainment industry than other manufacturing industries. Reboots, rehashes, reimagining's are *normal* in that space. How many movies are sequels or reboots? That's really not as new a concept as people think, it's been happening for almost as long as those industries have been around.

 

Also, the 'failed' reboot is a bit of a misnomer. Due to the international nature of these companies usually the reboot *did* work, just in a more limited market than was hoped. My Little Pony Gen 2, for example, succeeded in Europe and Asia. It only failed in the US, and so only the US lines were cancelled. If it has failed completely, there probably wouldn't have been another try.

 

Then you get the fact that these reboots took *years* to get off the ground. The management teams were likely not the same people each time. They'd see the sales figures from the previous generation when that line was popular and say to themselves, 'You know, we could hit that again if we refresh the toys for the modern child.'

[~Scootaloo 440]

That's an excellent question, but since I wasn't actually in the room when Hasbro's management made those decisions, I can't say for sure. All I can do is speculate. But I'm pretty good at speculation, as I've been dealing with a variety of industries as a professional for many years. You pick up stuff over time.

 

First, I can point out My Little Pony is not unique in this. Hasbro and their main rival Mattel did this reboot/reinvention a lot. Transformers, GI Joe, Barbie, Hot Wheels, all have multiple generations. Basically these toy franchises did really well at first, but then sales slowly tapered off. The reboots would be an attempt to bring the toy back into popularity with a refreshed look, additional features, and likely a cheaper manufacturing process as technology had improved.

 

The toy industry seems to have more in common with the entertainment industry than other manufacturing industries. Reboots, rehashes, reimagining's are *normal* in that space. How many movies are sequels or reboots? That's really not as new a concept as people think, it's been happening for almost as long as those industries have been around.

 

Also, the 'failed' reboot is a bit of a misnomer. Due to the international nature of these companies usually the reboot *did* work, just in a more limited market than was hoped. My Little Pony Gen 2, for example, succeeded in Europe and Asia. It only failed in the US, and so only the US lines were cancelled. If it has failed completely, there probably wouldn't have been another try.

 

Then you get the fact that these reboots took *years* to get off the ground. The management teams were likely not the same people each time. They'd see the sales figures from the previous generation when that line was popular and say to themselves, 'You know, we could hit that again if we refresh the toys for the modern child.'

It still seems a bit foggy to me however here is what I think:

 

Hasbro probably wouldn't reboot if they were losing money though - so I guess they were making *some* amount of money. Also in your last paragraph you mentioned it did take years its not like Hasbro would do it over night which makes sense.

 

I would think now they are probably going to finish G4 up (eventually) and then adjust G5 to whatever they think will do well. I mean isn't the object of a company like that to grow and make more money than the last time? I'm going off of what I observe I don't any experience in the "business" (I mean really I work in my friends computer repair shop when he has spare work XD) at all so keep in mind I am just trying to get the best idea I can.

Edited March 16, 2013 by ~Scootaloo

[Goose 181]

Well, to answer your question OP, technology is getting better, and better by the day. New stuff invented, and created, such as Windows 8(and you get the idea.). Animation is getting better too, so that's why they changed magnificently over the generations. Alot of stuff has improved over the years. I assume they want change.

 

Generation 1 didn't have all bad animation...

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-Ll5zaPcIE#t=3m49s

 

It's not as smooth, but it has way more use of shadows, colour changes and the 3-dimensions.

 

The character design and plots... I haven't watched it so I can't comment on the plots or th character personalities, but I vastly prefer the G4 ponies.

[Fhaolan 4,489]

It still seems a bit foggy to me however here is what I think:

 

Hasbro probably wouldn't reboot if they were losing money though - so I guess they were making *some* amount of money. Also in your last paragraph you mentioned it did take years its not like Hasbro would do it over night which makes sense.

 

I would think now they are probably going to finish G4 up (eventually) and then adjust G5 to whatever they think will do well. I mean isn't the object of a company like that to grow and make more money than the last time? I'm going off of what I observe I don't any experience in the "business" (I mean really I work in my friends computer repair shop when he has spare work XD) at all so keep in mind I am just trying to get the best idea I can.

 

Yeah, Hasbro would not reboot if the line was 'losing' money, just when the sales dip below some arbitrary threshold where Hasbro says, "That's not as good as it *could* be!" And they decide that a refresh is in order.

 

Now there is a weirdness to all this, with respect to the toys. That Hasbro doesn't actually manufacture much themselves anymore. They've only got two factories of their own left, everything else is outsourced and manufactured under licenses. This is the reason why the various toys, plushies, and whatever often have significant deviations from the show. They're all individual third-party manufacturer's interpretations of the art-style. So, in my opinion, Gen 4 will probably hang on longer than older generations because Hasbro would need to move all those third-party manufacturers into shifting their production styles as well.

 

With respect to the show, however, that's easier to change. It is possible that the show may go through an animation art-style change relatively independent of the toys, if the popularity of the show wanes and Hasbro believes that a change in art-style will fix it.

[Mand'alor Dash 2,224]

It still seems a bit foggy to me however here is what I think:

 

Hasbro probably wouldn't reboot if they were losing money though - so I guess they were making *some* amount of money. Also in your last paragraph you mentioned it did take years its not like Hasbro would do it over night which makes sense.

 

I would think now they are probably going to finish G4 up (eventually) and then adjust G5 to whatever they think will do well. I mean isn't the object of a company like that to grow and make more money than the last time? I'm going off of what I observe I don't any experience in the "business" (I mean really I work in my friends computer repair shop when he has spare work XD) at all so keep in mind I am just trying to get the best idea I can.

Considering the lukewarm performance of previous gens, I would call it natural for Hasbro to re-invent MLP the way they did in G4.

 

G4 was a complete restructuring of MLP's marketing strategy. As Fhaolan pointed out, they had decided to make the animated series the basis of the toy line, as opposed to the other way around.

 

This is very similar to the way most licensed toys are marketed, and it was a very good strategy. For instance, Star Wars would always sell toys based on their movies, because kids wanted action figures of their favorite characters from their films.

 

Kids couldn't care less about characters pulled out of a marketing executive's behind, which is why Han Solo always outsold Jar Jar Binks around the holiday season, and why there were a trillion and one different varients of the Luke Skywalker figure. Hasbro only needed to realize this.

 

I would also like to credit the Michael Bay Transformers movies with the transition, as their success gave Hasbro the idea that they could turn their toy commercials into profitable ventures on their own. And in the case of the first film, the commercials could even be enjoyable.

 

In that regard, we really do owe the success of G4 to Michael Bay's over-budgeted explosion porn. Now, Hasbro's using this market strategy on pretty much every franchise they own. Care Bears, GI Joe, Pound Puppies, Littlest Pet Shop, alot of them are getting modern animated treatments in much the same fashion that MLP did. G5 will probably continue with this trend, but I doubt it will be as good.

 

I think I've rambled on enough. TL;DR, Hasbro needed to shake things up if they wanted to stay competitive, and the answer had been right in front of their faces the whole time.

[Shanks 10,816]

Because without some sort of change no matter how good the series is it would have eventually have grown stale and died off. G1 was an okay start there were several ways it could have improved but as far as "girls" shows wasn't that bad, the animated style was nothing special and made the ponies look pretty much the same at least to me anyway. Lauren Faust who grew up with G1 actually took a great deal of inspiration from that so in a way G4 is almost like a spiritual successor the G1, it is like she and the writers and animators went in salvaged the good parts, cut out the bad and made what is one of the best I have seen in a long time.

 

I guess for some reason they decided with each generation that that was in fact what little girls wanted, and as Fhaolan pointed out My Little Pony tales which was the second cartoon was still technically G1 though that series made changes that weren't exactly for the better. It basically took alot of the elements of the tired cliched of teen drama's except with ponies instead of humans though the sad part is it is still way better than most shows of that particular genre that are being aired today. It did well but not as well as the original, but G3 from what I hear which I confess I haven't seen seemed to really bomb so it seems like they thought little girls would like that and I guess were wrong.

 

Thankfully in G4 they turned it around and actually made the most successful generation so far as not only do the original audience of little girls like it but alot of teenagers and adult have come to like it as well. I think once G4 comes to a close they are going to keep this in mind for G5.

[TailsIsNotAlone 3,696]

Because old news doesn't sell toys. Each generation of kids you entertain wants something new, exciting and adjusted for their tastes. Sometimes Hasbro succeeds in this, sometimes they fail significantly.

 

This time, they hit it out of the park. ^^

[~Scootaloo 440]

Because old news doesn't sell toys. Each generation of kids you entertain wants something new, exciting and adjusted for their tastes. Sometimes Hasbro succeeds in this, sometimes they fail significantly.

 

This time, they hit it out of the park. ^^

Ya. Pretty much everyone else already said that, but in a slightly more or less detailed way. I wonder if G5 will turn out badly? or not do quite as well as G4.

[hawkflame 3,310]

Ya. Pretty much everyone else already said that, but in a slightly more or less detailed way. I wonder if G5 will turn out badly? or not do quite as well as G4.

I think that whatever they do with G5, they should really pick up the lessons learned from Friendship is Magic .  Make sure you have a person at the helm  who is a true artist with a vision.  Give them intelligent, talented people to work with.  Try to instill a character/story first mentality, even though the show is merchandise driven, And when there are certain characters or story elements that are dictated by marketing, give the writers enough flexibility to really work with them. 

 

To me, from G1's decent but flawed "Rescue at Midnight Castle" premiere to the unwatchable G3.5, every generation was taking a step backwards, and the direction only changed with Friendship is Magic.  Hopefully they continue that momentum with the next run of MLP. 

[Clover Heart 978]

To be completely honest, ponies gen 1-3, I cannot tell apart. Aside from the art quality (80's and early 90's cartoons being drawn and colored by hand, and late 90's-2000's cartoons being done on computer) I have no idea of the differences between these ponies. The art style really didn't change that much, in my opinion. Maybe gen 3 got a little more rounder and cutesy looking, but that's all I can tell.

 

As for the changing characters, I think this was to sell toys, honestly. Because if the characters never changed, really, how many Firefly dolls can one person own? No idea why they kept Apple Jack and Spike on so long, though. Not that that was a bad thing, but it seems like they'd've been axed with the rest of them, right?