G5 Is G5 over?

Flitter

Flitter

VanilleNell
Joined
Jun 15, 2023
Messages
269
I was thinking about this. There is no pony section in my local stores even with the holiday season upon us, not that many new G5 toys available online even, and FiM is featured on the My Little Pony YouTube channel just as prominently (or maybe even more so) as Make Your Mark and Tell Your Tale.
Is G5 winding down? Do you think we will see G6 or a reboot soon? Will MLP be abandoned for a while?
I know MLP didn’t perform very well as per the Hasbro investor reports earlier this year (and I’m not surprised) and their strategy seemed to indicate to focus more on their few still successful brands than to try to build up ones that were failing but, what do you think, or hope, will happen next for G5 and for MLP?
 
At this point I kind of don't really care much. If hasbro is gonna continue to be lazy and phone it in, that's entirely on them. There's other toy horse brands, some very nice fakies, and older generations to collect that doesn't revolve strictly around the same 5-7 toys year after year.

Perhaps a hiatus is needed for them to get some proper business sense knocked back into their heads? Or they need a toy department with fresh ideas? It will probably never be good again. It hasn't been good in a long time now.

Is G5 dead? I dunno. Do expect hasbroken to continue to try and milk this fossilized cow for as long as possible though.
 
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I think the shows are done, and it seems like the toys are too, probably after the mini world toys tanked. The toy line was such a missed opportunity, there were so many characters they could have made toys of and they just dropped the ball. Like the only Sprout was the bigger size? They could have made Sunny's dad, Sprout's mom, Posey!! So many side and background characters. It's a shame they just kept releasing the main 5 over and over
 
I think G5 is pretty much done and dusted as far as toys goes because when it got to the stores around here it just sat there forever before they finally shoved it into the clearance areas where it continued to just sit there, I think the only reason it's not still in the stores is because they got sick of looking at it and sold it to one of those resale places, and now where ponies once were dolls have take over.


No idea on the show front as I never watched any of it, and probably wouldn't as the 2D stuff looked pretty bad.
 
I somewhat liked the story of the show, but I hated the CGI animation and the style of the ponies. I have a hard time accepting they are horses. The toys are not enjoyable with the hard plastic and molded hair on some of them. But I do like certain ones too.
I find them in thrift stores almost every time I visit, seeing them in thrift stores so soon tells me its failing too.
 
They have so many pretty designs kids and longtime pony fans would like to see. And their latest release is a dragon. Which is something new sure! But give us new ponies, sold separately.
 
Aw I hope not, I’m not caught up on the show cause I’m watching it with my brother and we cant always find times to watch it but it seems cute so far. I like when shows have an overall story arc but also you can watch a random episode and still pretty much get what’s happening.
As for the toys I like the brushables and those tiny Polly pocket like ones but I think they’d do better if they’d not put out the main cast so much, there’s a lot of characters in the show that they could do instead (still waiting for a Thunderflap) and that would make kids, collectors and the company happy cause they’d make more money
 
No, they renewed Tell Your Tale (the Youtube shorts) for another full year. They do appear to be discontinuing Make Your Mark, which makes me sad. I was very skeptical of CGI ponies at first, but I think the final designs were so cute. But from what I've heard, TYT did better with kids in their testing or ratings or however that works.

The toyline does seem weirdly sparse, but . . . *shrug* I don't know why that is, but G5 is continuing for at least another year.

Oh, Hasbro also indicated there will be four longer specials next year. Also, the new directive for TYT is that episodes have a "strong emphasis on hairplay", so they will probably be pivoting away from the more action-figure type figures. (This is all from a Hasbro investor presentation.)
 
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Draco said:
I find them in thrift stores almost every time I visit, seeing them in thrift stores so soon tells me its failing too.
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Okay, I'm not trying to single you out or anything, but I do need to comment on this because I see this logic sooo much. ("I saw it in the thrift store, the toy must not be doing well.")

During the 80s you could easily find G1 ponies at garage sales (and presumably at thrift stores, but I didn't go to thrift stores as a child) and during G3 the thrift shops were PACKED with G3 ponies. That doesn't mean kids were going "UGH, get this stupid G3 pony away from me! I hate it!" It means that a little kid, who played with toys, grew up into a big kid, who lost interest in toys. And so their toys were donated. (When I was a kid this happened around age ten. I found it very disorienting because I DID still like toys, but over summer break all the other girls had completely lost interest them--at least as far as they would admit to anyone--and were obsessed with boy bands instead.)

When a toyline is in the most trouble you will never see their toys in the thrift shops, because no one bought them, so no one had them to donate.

Edit: Whoops, I was trying to add this on to my previous post, not sure why it made it a separate post.
 
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I've always felt that if Hasbro wanted G5 to be done, it would be done. This is rather critical, but they are so half-hearted about MLP at this point in time that there feels like no point in trying to continue the brand if its not profitable, regardless of what may happen with it in the future. While things are quiet on the toy front, it is possible G5 is more popular in clothing and activity-type toys (or, things Hasbro can collect licensee revenue from). That's just my own speculation, but something to consider, as I do see a bunch of cute MLP clothes for young people.

LadyMoondancer said:
When a toyline is in the most trouble you will never see their toys in the thrift shops, because no one bought them, so no one had them to donate.
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I've never thought of it this way, but that makes a lot of sense. I only saw G5 at my local thrift store one time. It was a budget Sunny, those ones with about five whole pieces of hair. I kind of regret not buying her, because a budget pony like her would be perfect to try and break open :rofl:

I understand why we sometimes start speculating if G5 is ending. However, as LadyMoondancer pointed out, we have heard good news (well, depending on how you feel about G5, LOL) from the investor presentation. Sunny was featured on The Toy Book cover featuring Hasbro and celebrating 100 years of the company. Tell Your Tale is also prominent in their licensing material. If we suddenly get no Tell Your Tale episodes for several weeks, that might be a good time to start worrying. For now, I think we will still see G5 for some time :happyhearts: Even if what we see is less toys, and more other types of merchandise.
 
LadyMoondancer said:
Okay, I'm not trying to single you out or anything, but I do need to comment on this because I see this logic sooo much. ("I saw it in the thrift store, the toy must not be doing well.")

During the 80s you could easily find G1 ponies at garage sales (and presumably at thrift stores, but I didn't go to thrift stores as a child) and during G3 the thrift shops were PACKED with G3 ponies. That doesn't mean kids were going "UGH, get this stupid G3 pony away from me! I hate it!" It means that a little kid, who played with toys, grew up into a big kid, who lost interest in toys. And so their toys were donated. (When I was a kid this happened around age ten. I found it very disorienting because I DID still like toys, but over summer break all the other girls had completely lost interest them--at least as far as they would admit to anyone--and were obsessed with boy bands instead.)

When a toyline is in the most trouble you will never see their toys in the thrift shops, because no one bought them, so no one had them to donate.

Edit: Whoops, I was trying to add this on to my previous post, not sure why it made it a separate post.
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good point!
 
ponyville said:
I've always felt that if Hasbro wanted G5 to be done, it would be done. This is rather critical, but they are so half-hearted about MLP at this point in time that there feels like no point in trying to continue the brand if its not profitable, regardless of what may happen with it in the future.
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I don't know if anyone else remembers Transformers Prime, the CGI show from 2012-ish, but it was very popular with fans, very widely loved.

So the showrunners wrap up the second season of the show with a cliffhanger: oh no, Megatron has found the Autobots' secret base!! He bombed it to smithereens while Optimus nobly operated the machine to teleport the other Autobots to safety! Megatron is so powerful, who can stop him? Is Optimus DEAD?

Very exciting stuff! But behind the scenes Hasbro went to the showrunners and was like, "Great job on Transformers Prime, we loved it! Anyway, TFP is over now. We can't wait for you to start a whole new cartoon based on these new Transformers we made!"

Hasbro was 100% willing to just end the cartoon on the note of "Megatron won", lol. The showrunners had to beg Hasbro to let them do a third season of TFP. If you've ever watched TFP, you may notice an abrupt pivot in the third season, where suddenly there are a lot of fetch quests to get Predacon fossils; that's because the Predacons were the new toys Hasbro wanted to push.

That was an entire decade ago (oh no, I feel old) so I don't know if Hasbro would still be willing to end a toyline / show abruptly like that. But I could believe it, lol.

All this to say that I agree, I think Hasbro is making money off G5 somewhere. If not the toys, maybe merchandising. Personally I enjoy the G5 show (mostly MYM), but I also really want G5 to succeed because if not, Hasbro is likely to think "Oh, the problem was we didn't have Twilight Sparkle, Pinkie Pie, and Rainbow Dash in there" and then they will be the main characters of G6 and we will never be rid of them. And let me tell you, I was already sick of Pinkie Pie by the middle of G3.
 
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Flitter said:
I was thinking about this. There is no pony section in my local stores even with the holiday season upon us, not that many new G5 toys available online even, and FiM is featured on the My Little Pony YouTube channel just as prominently (or maybe even more so) as Make Your Mark and Tell Your Tale.
Is G5 winding down? Do you think we will see G6 or a reboot soon? Will MLP be abandoned for a while?
I know MLP didn’t perform very well as per the Hasbro investor reports earlier this year (and I’m not surprised) and their strategy seemed to indicate to focus more on their few still successful brands than to try to build up ones that were failing but, what do you think, or hope, will happen next for G5 and for MLP?
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I've been thinking the same thing too because I've been seeing the toys at budget stores like dollarama. My local one only gets name brand things like that when they don't sell well in regular retail stores.
 
I think it's more that G5 has just not been as successful as previous gens. There's been good points already made, but I don't think it's over, it's just not as profitable right now. I also agree with others that the toy selection has been poor - I've been casually trying to find a Hitch figure, but all I ever see on shop shelves are Izzy, Pipp and Sunny.
I can't think of any stores off-hand that still have all of their G5 toys at the full price - nearly all of them have seen massive reductions, some of them about 75% off, and most of them only stocking one or two lines. Only things like books and stickers seem to be full price at this stage, at least where I am.
 
Thanks for your thoughts, everyone. It will be interesting to see how the next year goes for sure. What prompted me to ask is the big retailers like Walmart and Target here have absolutely no MLP product, except I saw a few Izzy toys in the clearance aisle, and I thought that was so crazy. I feel like the MLP has so much potential and Hasbro is just failing it.
 
My local Ollie's is loaded with G5 ponies and playsets. The discount chain buys stock other stores are getting rid of so that matches with people not seeing them in other stores.

I was going to take a couple pics to share, but there was a little girl that ran over to look and I didn't want to be in her way. Her dad asked her "Do you still like little ponies?". Little girl in exasperated tone " Yeess, I still like My Little Ponies".

Cute.
 
My Target NEVER stocked G5s well, not even when it was brand new and the #1 kids movie on Netflix. This does seem to vary from Target to Target, as others in my area had a better selection. But I do think distribution is a problem, especially with Toys R Us being no more in the United States. IMO this is also something Hasbro has to grapple with, because a lot of times what makes a child want a toy is seeing the toy in person. Out of sight, out of mind.

In a broader sense I think the resurgence of fashion dolls has negatively impacted every girl-marketed toy that isn't a (humanoid) doll. Not to be a hater, but yeah I'm a hater, I would like some of the doll brands to fail so more shelf space is freed up.
 
LadyMoondancer said:
In a broader sense I think the resurgence of fashion dolls has negatively impacted every girl-marketed toy that isn't a (humanoid) doll. Not to be a hater, but yeah I'm a hater, I would like some of the doll brands to fail so more shelf space is freed up.
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I love that. I honestly don't think the solution to this is for other doll brands to fail, but for Hasbro to beef their stuff up. The market is being overwhelmed with lots of glamorous dolls with unbeatable mugs and trendy fashions and recognizable brands. A little girl that's not into fashion could gravitate to MLP! but not when the toys are not that great, they only have the same characters, the distribution isn't great, I've never seen any marketing for it, and they don't seem to have a strong identity that little girls would want to latch onto. Like sure, the My Little Pony name is recognizable, but nothing about the packaging or the aesthetic of the brand right now really says... anything? It's purple? It's really not that eye-catching.
I do think that the doll world rn is on fire, and that's tough competition for sure, but I don't think it's *only* competition that's bogging down G5. And if they don't try to change it they're going to continue to get eaten up by Barbie and Monster High and Rainbow High and... Whatever else that's on shelves frankly. I think they would be struggling no matter what the competition was tbh.
 
I am sorry for sounding mean but I sure HOPE G5 will be over soon, I do my best to ignore it nowadays but I still feel embarrassed about how hopeful I used to be for it... And I only care about Sprout and Phyllis from it nowadays but they may as well be ghosts now. Truly disappointing :(

Merchandise like books and stuff has always sold better than the toys themselves in my country. Lately merchandise sales seem to be slowing down a bit however? Either way, I never see any MLP toys in my town besides the show your sparkle Izzy stuffed in a corner in Target, and the mini world magic keychains in Woolworths. Littlest Pet Shop toys are making a comeback in 2024 and my kid sister cares way more about those than pony toys even though she watches Make Your Mark sometimes. I don't think MLP stands much of a chance against the LPS comeback.

As long as kids are enjoying stuff, that is all that matters I suppose. But when Generation 6 comes out in 2026 or something, I hope it has more heart and consistency haha.
 
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