Where are the toys?

[Veylon 255]

I think we've mostly agreed that the purpose of this odd spin-off movie is to sell human-shaped pony dolls.

 

Logically, they should already be on the shelves so that prospective viewers can see them, want them, and want to go the movie. In turn, movie-viewers can exit the theater knowing what they want to buy. There's apparently a book in the works which won't be available until the bafflingly far-off month of October. For a movie in June. There's a synergy that usually takes place that, for some weird reason, has been completely abandoned.

 

Anybody have any idea why they are releasing the movie now, when the stuff they want to sell isn't available to be bought? What sense does this make? The Superman stuff has been out for weeks.

[~StatesTheOblivious~ 1,795]

Because they will tell us that simultaneously to FiM season four there will air the Equestria Girls spin-off-series. Ugh...

 

No, I think that they will make... "bundles"? Sell the DVD together with a doll. And charge three times the money. Sounds like Hasbro.

[Fhaolan 4,484]

Agree. Something very odd is going on with Hasbro's marketing and distribution departments.

 

Hasbro doesn't make anything themselves anymore, so they're dependent on their suppliers in China, Russia, et al. to get their lines up to speed and produce stuff. What we saw with Princess Twilight was that whoever is talking to the suppliers aren't able to get info to them in time to spin up lines. At the toy fair, we saw two or three winged Twilights, and a lot of stuff still using the older unwinged model. This seems to be the same thing. The actual manufacturers aren't ready. Looking at the prototypes we've seen, and some of the promotional stuff, *somebody* probably realized they're using the wrong character models and are desperately trying to modify the lines so that they vaguely match the actual movie.

 

So why is the distribution people pushing this movie so hard, if the product lines for it aren't ready yet?

 

This really feels like 'left hand/right hand/no speakie'.

[MelancholicMemory 2,027]

  On 2013-06-13 at 2:59 PM, StatesTheOblivious said:

Because they will tell us that simultaneously to FiM season four there will air the Equestria Girls spin-off-series. Ugh...

 

No, I think that they will make... "bundles"? Sell the DVD together with a doll. And charge three times the money. Sounds like Hasbro.

 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

 

Anyway, I think that is a very reasonable possibility, but still, it seems that Hasbro isn't doing there best to cash in on this venture. They could do that with one kind of doll, and be selling others now. Plus there's houses and cars and clothes and stuff for the dolls they can be selling. The OP is right. Hasbro isn't working as hard as they usually do to make money off of the movie

[Starflower 323]

I'll agree with the so-called "bundles" but I do believe they'll still sell the movie separate, as well as the dolls. It'll probably be much cheaper buying the bundle rather than separate. 

[Fluttashy 325]

I was actually wondering this myself. There's no happy meal toys, dolls, or clothing available. I thought since they're trying to make this movie a "big deal" they would at least put forth the effort and cash out some random merchandise before the movie premieres.

[~StatesTheOblivious~ 1,795]

Prepare for being... I don't know what...

 

http://www.equestriadaily.com/2013/06/equestria-girls-dolls-appear.html

 

This Information originates from a german blog (might be legit, we germans usually take care in terms of that ;P).

 

I have to say, they look even less show-accurate (movie-accurate?) than the usual pony-merch from Hasbro.

 

And the second one comes with a DVD, so I was maybe right with what I assumed before about selling them together.

 

But maybe they are fake.

[Sir.Flutter Hooves 2,953]

 

This is one, apparently Sunset Shimmer and Twilight are sold together.

 

 

 

Below you will see Applejack. I actually don't have any thoughts about them. There not as bad as the first ones, but not as good to. They look like Monster High dolls to me, but I think they're ok, not the best, not the worst.

 

 

 

[Spring Storm 276]

Wow, you're right, Veylon. I hadn't thought much of it, but now that I have, it is strange. A possible explanation could be that they're bringing out the book (and, presumably, dolls) in October because Equestria Girls is slated to make its Hub debut in fall of 2013.

 

Loads of things about this reek of weird, though. Like how it's only being shown in select theaters on select dates and at select times. I really want to see it in theaters, but after trying to find one near me, I'm doubtful that I'll be able to. I know they probably have their reasons, being a bit doubtful of how well an MLP movie would do, but they've lost my money, and I wonder how many others really want to see it but can't. Oh well, there's always the August 6th DVD release