• Project: Merch Surveys Are Complete!

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    The merchandise surveys everyone took a while back are finally complete!  Purple Tinker has created a bunch of graphs detailing the interests of 1500 bronies.  You can find a powerpoint presentation of all of it below!

    Merch Surveys Complete! 

    Now off to Hasbro/Hot topic with it! 
    Tuesday, April 19, 2011 op
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    42 comments:

    1. AnonymousApril 19, 2011 at 10:02 AM

      In your face, Hasbro!

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    2. AnonymousApril 19, 2011 at 10:08 AM

      I just wonder who those 2,1 % others are under gender? Thought it only existed two genders o_O

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    3. Livi70590April 19, 2011 at 10:09 AM

      The skeptic in me is screaming that Hasbro won't read this. Sorry everyone.

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    4. AnonymousApril 19, 2011 at 10:09 AM

      2.1% are ponies

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    5. NaxtsApril 19, 2011 at 10:24 AM

      I honestly would die if I ever got a plushie of Applejack.

      Applejack <3

      A few things stuck me as weird though. 2.1% of you guys aren't male or female? And why do so many guys want jewelry?

      I can't stand jewelry myself, but whatever you bronies like!

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    6. AnonymousApril 19, 2011 at 10:25 AM

      Brony products soon coming to a store near you

      Also for some reason my comments won't post unless there are 2 lines...

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    7. AnonymousApril 19, 2011 at 10:31 AM

      Why do so much companies have to consist of out-of-touch bureaucratic old geezers.. IF ONLY THEY'D LISTEN!

      You'd think there is at least one marketing person working at Hasbro who knows about the older fanbase? Here's hoping they DO see the results of the survey! :>

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    8. Rainbow BriskApril 19, 2011 at 10:33 AM

      "Other" will refer to people who do not wish to disclose their gender for one reason or another. Transgender, cis, etc.

      Though i kinda like the 2.1% are ponies idea. I WANT TO BELIEVE.

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    9. AnonymousApril 19, 2011 at 10:33 AM

      Also MFW I wrote "much" instead of "many"

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    10. SparkleLikeABossApril 19, 2011 at 10:35 AM

      @Livi70590
      Along those same lines, 1,500 is a lot of people, but I don't think Hasbro would address it unless the response was much greater. Besides, even as devoted as this following is, not all of the respondents will actually buy the merch or more than a couple of items.

      But I can't fault the effort at all. You can't get anywhere without trying, and the older fanbase is still growing.

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    11. Adrian BronyApril 19, 2011 at 10:36 AM

      @Livi70590

      you're right, they won't. if you recall, we were sending this to Hot Topic and some other stores. Hasbro listens to stores because that's who they work with.


      Little disappointed that it didn't specify "Improved" or "show accurate" figures or plushies in the results as it did in the survey. now the recipient will think the stuff you find at ToysRUs is the stuff we wanted.

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    12. AnonymousApril 19, 2011 at 10:45 AM

      Yes, I really think it should specificy "show accurate"/"improved"... it could be awkward/bad if that sort of thing isn't communicated...

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    13. Colonel SandersApril 19, 2011 at 10:54 AM

      @Adrian Brony
      Well The company probably will be shown the survey itself too. But I agree it should've been more like what we saw in the survey.

      ReplyDelete
    14. AnonymousApril 19, 2011 at 10:55 AM

      Gender, like so many other things humans attempt to categorise into a few choices, is not as simple a Male/Female.

      You have people born with a variety of intersex conditions, people who feel their gender identity does not match their biology (and who may or may not attempt to reconcile that through medical and surgical interventions) and even simply people whose gender expression does not match societal expectations (feminine men, masculine females) — as well as all manner of combinations of the above (an extreme example could be an intersex individual, designated male at birth, but who later identified as female, while still displaying tomboyish traits.)

      Or @Anonymous could be right and the ponies are among us.

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    15. AnonymousApril 19, 2011 at 11:04 AM

      HUGE props to Purple Tinker for taking on this project. It's really professionally done and shows a lot of effort. Once again, bronies impress the hell out of me with the stuff they create.

      Hopefully it will get into the right hands. I think what will impress them just as much, if even more, than the numbers, though, is the amount of care and work that went into this.

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    16. obeycelestiaApril 19, 2011 at 11:10 AM

      I JUST got done contacting a rep with Hot Topic about producing brony merch-- and here's what I learned:

      Hasbro has the property rights, they license the rights to a person/vendor, who is in turn authorized to produce merch on their behalf. (tell me if I got this wrong, but that's what I gathered from the lovely lady at HT.) However, Hot Topic already has a vendor for MLP stuff, but from what I understand likely they will reproduce stuff directly from the show, or original art sanctioned by Hasbro-- not likely to be fan works (unless anypony has been contacted, in which case speak up cause I wanna buy it in support!)

      I want to be able to showcase the myriad great talents that have come together for FiM and give bronys a chance to own the fandom in some form or another. I figured it couldn't hurt to give a college try and contacting some large companies with already established reputations and supply chains.

      Next I'm going to try direct contact with Hasbro or find a vendor licensed to produce MLP merch and see if they would be interested in 'commissioning' some of the great art here for t-shirts, etc...

      Let me know if there's anything anypony can think of to help me penetrate the bureaucracy because I want to make this happen! (You can contact me at obeycelestia@derpymail.com or obeycelestia@gmail.com)

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    17. AnonymousApril 19, 2011 at 11:12 AM

      Wish I'd known about the "survey/been to Equestria Daily" earlier. I spend more time at MLPA. My demo "over 35 female" is pretty sparsely represented in the survey and I actually shop at Hot Topic --though not as much as I used to--lack of good weird stuff. Bought a necklace and a pair of earrings in the last two weeks.

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    18. PhoeApril 19, 2011 at 12:09 PM

      You know, the thing that surprises me the most looking at the data is how little interest there is in Pony shoes. It's not so much the fact that there's a low level of interest compared to other types of merchandise (that's to be expected, I think) so much as it is that there's such a level of *specific disinterest* among female voters. Like, jewelry being the number one thing the guys go out of their way to avoid fits right in line with what you'd expect, but for almost the exact some level of "yuck no" to come from the other side and be directed at footwear is... puzzling. I would have expected hats to fill that gap.

      Then again, I think I was one of the ones saying I didn't want shoes. I DON'T KNOW!

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    19. ToonNinjaApril 19, 2011 at 12:40 PM

      Seriously, Hasbro? Hot Topic? Whoever I'm talking to, we WANT to give you our money. All we want in exchange are readily available quality pony goods. And maybe a little Fluttershy plushie for when I need to boost my self-esteem via snuggling.

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    20. AnonymousApril 19, 2011 at 12:54 PM

      Dear Mr. Hasbro

      Make a quality Sweetie Belle plush and you get all my money.

      That is all.

      ReplyDelete
    21. AnonymousApril 19, 2011 at 1:55 PM

      @Phoe

      As someone who managed to snatch up a pair of ShoeBrony's Rainbow Dash shoes before they were taken down, I am all for more shoes being made. I was kind of saddened when I saw how many fellow bronies didn't share this feeling though.

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    22. JaxsonJaguarApril 19, 2011 at 2:07 PM

      I'm sure it is only a matter of time before we see officially licensed adult sized MLP:FIP shirts at Hot Topic and/or cons. My money is on Hot Topic around the time the DVD/Blu-Rays start comming out.

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    23. Bachspeare ManihooveskeyApril 19, 2011 at 2:32 PM

      I would pay so much money for a Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, or Scootaloo plush doll. Or all of them.

      ReplyDelete
    24. AnonymousApril 19, 2011 at 4:05 PM

      @Adrian Brony

      You're right! It SHOULD specify "improved"/"show accurate" in the results. I will modify them accordingly.

      ReplyDelete
    25. AnonymousApril 19, 2011 at 4:38 PM

      Done. All graphs denoting product interest now specify IMPROVED figurines and IMPROVED plushies. Plus I added a new slide, slide 3, explaining persistent brony requests.

      ReplyDelete
    26. chinlampApril 19, 2011 at 5:37 PM

      Sigh, I'm gonna have to ask bronies to buy this stuff for me and ship it to Australia if it does get made aren't I?

      Thank god for PayPal.

      ReplyDelete
    27. Adrian BronyApril 19, 2011 at 8:16 PM

      @Purple Tinker

      You're Awesome. but we all already knew that.

      ReplyDelete
    28. AnonymousApril 19, 2011 at 10:29 PM

      @Natxs

      Or 2.1% are gender variant, who don't believe they accurately fit into the gender binary.

      Though that is personally how I identify, I wouldn't be surprised if a hunk of that 2.1% were people who were just going, "hur hur hur 'other,'" not realizing that it is a real option for real people.

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    29. aimeeApril 20, 2011 at 3:14 AM

      I replied about this stupid Hasbro mentality of thinking that every single one of their customers is a 3-5 year old girl who wants to be the mother to a pink sparkly horse-like object in another thread. But since I always like to complain about their dismissiveness towards their other demographics, I'll highlight here.

      These are the people that invited a whole cadre of adult fans to tour Hasbro headquarters in 2007 when the first My Little Pony Fair happened, set up basically the equivalent of an extended version of their Toy Fair booth for us, and then had a Q&A with all of us. And then not only admitted that the folks in charge of the toy line did not have favorite ponies from when they were children, but that basically they just test market their stuff to 3-5 (or 6, I forget which ages exactly it was) year old girls and take their findings from there. Now think for a minute. What kind of parents are going to sign their kids up to test-market something called My Little Pony. Only girly-girls who obviously don't understand that they can never mother a magical horse. Because the parents of tomboys, girls who roll their eyes at Barbie and just BOYS, even boys whose tastes skew feminine won't, and the boys probably wouldn't be accepted into a focus group anyway on the grounds that they have penises.

      But to make a long story short, they basically ignored us all, told us right there and then in the Q&A that they were going to ignore us and make the line even more babyish (the g3.5s and that evil freaking singing Pinkie Pie. Anyone outside of their target demographic got the handful of art ponies and the blank ponies. And a few graffiti style teeshirts.

      I hope they read this, but they ignored 50 people from all over the country staring them right in the face. Even though people pointed out that bringing nostalgia into it would encourage parents who grew up with it to share it with their children. Even though people pointed out if they moved away from what they were doing their demographic actually might be interested longer, they still only care about that brief 2-3 years of a preschooler's life, where ONLY girls that age can relate to the toys.

      FiM is a step in the right direction. But they're still stuck in this mentality when it comes to all merchandise. Maybe they'll wake up when they see how stupidly high LF's sketch of Derpy is on ebay thus far.

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    30. aimeeApril 20, 2011 at 3:20 AM

      Oh, the OTHER thing about the folks who were marketing for Hasbro at the time. They weren't old geezers. They were younger women than most of the fans, only a few years out of college. Born after (or during) the first few years of My Little Pony when it was huge. Or if they were a little older, they didn't have the nostalgic connection. None of them had a favorite pony as a child (because of course we asked). It was kind of disconcerting. They were almost all Barbie fans as children.

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    31. AnonymousApril 20, 2011 at 3:33 AM

      You tell 'em, aimee! Seriously, I don't know why Hasbro does stuff like this. :(

      ReplyDelete
    32. aimeeApril 20, 2011 at 3:44 AM

      This comment has been removed by the author.

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    33. aimeeApril 20, 2011 at 3:49 AM

      @Purple Tinker The only possible explanations are a deep seated gender role bias...and greed.

      But seriously. If you look at what any typical collector has they have enough invested to buy the current line several times over. And there are a freaking LOT of collectors. Thousands. You'd think that adult fans would count for more than, well, nothing.

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    34. aimeeApril 20, 2011 at 6:33 AM

      @MizuTakishima But you're not the marketing manager for My Little Pony :). I actually know a lot of folks like you who liked the more realistic horses more (because really, MLPs do not really look like horses, at all, if you are a horse fan, and if they were real in those proportions they would be HORRIFYING).

      I definitely see the appeal of the knockoffs, though. I LOVE fake ones, but I tend to like the really horrible fakes as opposed to like Dream Beauties.

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    35. WolfenbargApril 21, 2011 at 1:18 AM

      Good to know such a well made survey was put together. Let's hope these guys listen to our pleas for merch!

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    36. DarclordApril 21, 2011 at 3:38 AM

      Anypony else in the 35+ demo? I'll be 40 this Dec. I just spent more time this past weekend in Wal-Mart's toy isle than I have previously my entire life. I got all six mane cast and my wife is teaching me and our son how to comb their hair properly. Squee!

      I wish the playsets came with a survey, so I could personally shove my opinion of pink Celestia up their...demographic.

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    37. AnonymousApril 21, 2011 at 8:05 PM

      @Anonymous

      Well I chose that too for the same reason, so there's 2 of us

      ReplyDelete
    38. AnonymousApril 21, 2011 at 8:34 PM

      DERPY PLUSHIE!!! GIMME!!!!!

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    39. AnonymousApril 25, 2011 at 11:50 AM

      AWESOME! This presentation looks incredible. Here's hoping for the best.

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    40. MerlotMay 6, 2011 at 10:31 AM

      @Anonymous

      Seriously. When I saw the shoes awhile ago when they were still up I was ECSTATIC. I promised myself that I would buy a pair with my first pay check from the job I was about to get. Well last night, debit card in hand, I was about to order a pair of Rainbow Dash shoes and was horrified when they were nowhere to be found. Does anyone know what happened with that? Copyright issues?

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    41. AnonymousMay 6, 2011 at 1:46 PM

      Shoe Brony's store was taken down, supposedly because the BBC complained about the use of a TARDIS on the Dr. Whooves shoe (of all things!).

      I've since made a new store, but the new shoes don't have cutie marks. (You'd have to add your own.) This should make them relatively copyright-takedown-proof.

      See here for the new store.

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    42. YomandudeMay 11, 2011 at 4:10 PM

      I love this idea so much.
      It's just incredibly sad to see this bureaucratic (you keep using that word) system, where a company can basically ignore all constructive criticism and turn a blind eye to huge fans of their franchise. Man, if I could do anything to help advance this movement... but I can't =(

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