NY Toy Fair 2012 (This Week!)

[Reverend Strone]

I think the mistake perhaps being made here is in thinking that it's the coming of Bronies that has made a difference, as if that is all that has changed. I don't think that's the case at all. What has changed has been the unparalleled success of G4 and the tv show that promotes it. It's not that there are Bronies now, it's that the market and audience they are reaching with this property has expanded. An expanded market is a more powerful one. Where the adult market for ponies might have been a certain size before, Brony or not, it's undeniably bigger now. That's the difference. there are simply more folks buying the stuff so it behooves Hasbro (see what I did there?) to pay attention now much more than they needed or could afford to before. The numbers have changed - that's all.

While of course anyone can sympathize with someone who feels they haven't been engaged with in twenty years of collecting, now that it is happening, there's very little point in being twisted up about it or taking it personally. There are just more folks interested in buying these toys now. G4 has reached a bigger and broader audience. That's good!

 

[MonsterIceCream]

I don't want to start a flamewar over this, especially in this thread, but here's the way I see it: (feel free to shoot me down if I'm wrong on any of this)

We (the original fandom) BEGGED BEGGED BEGGED Hasbro, to stop Core 7.

We BEGGED them to include boy Ponies in the original G3 line.

We begged for other things (seaponies, etc); never happened. We got newborns, which everyone loathed (except me, hehe) toward the end of the G3 (or G3.5, can't remember)

We balked at G3.5

We begged for a decent cartoon that had a decent plot with G3s.

Then G4 happened, and suddenly we have this "invasion" (for lack of a better term) of guys who were NOT old-school collectors, who loved the show to pieces, and is now, from what I can see, getting stuff out of Hasbro that we couldn't hope to get before even if we groveled and we kissed their feet. I think that's what puts a sour taste in the mouths of those who were here when G2 & G3 were around. We were vocal back then, but they didn't listen to us. The Bronies come in, and suddenly we're getting characters from the show, instead of the show having characters that were toys.

I'm not mad at the Bronies. I'm mad at Hasbro for not listening to a *very* dedicated group of people who have been supporting them since 1983. I'm glad we're getting the toys, but I'm sorry that they couldn't say "Hey, let's listen to the fans who have been collecting since before some of us were born and see what they have to say."

I'll point out that we are NOT, and NEVER will be, their target audience, as we're old now. Sad but true. Our kids age 3-10 will be. We're buying them, and that's just a bonus to their profits.

Back on topic: Yay! New Ponies!!

QFT to this.