@Background Pony #04BA  
I kind of felt they were for a while, but it seems like they’ve throttled back on brony products lately. The old brony collectors toys seem to have been phased out in place of generic “collectors” toys aimed at the kids that they hope bronies will buy too.
 
 
Though, we did get power pony toys.

@Background Pony #04BA  
Couldn’t be more right.

@mrdoctorderpy  
Maybe Hasbro should worry less about who buys their toys and more about the fact that people would buy them at all.

@Beau Skunky  
Even if they did most likely parents would not buy them for their kids

@Beau Skunky  
That’s exactly why their sales are falling.

@Background Pony #04BA  
I doubt Hasbro plans on making a “bad future” toyline.

Yeah like all those unique alternate timeline models of pre-existing toys.

This thread is starting to make me sad :(

@Background Pony #A19C  
I think it was 2 years ago, not 3. I wouldn’t be surprised if the 2018 “movie” was the grand finale. (If that’s the case, I hope it’s a really good ending to such a great series that brought so many fans joy, creativity, & hope.)
 
Yeah, the whole pony-fad also seems to of died down a li’l. A lot of the famous pony “Ask Blogs” have died off, alot of famous fan-artists/animators left the fandom, and such too.  
While the fandom is still going strong, regardless (we get tons of pony pics every day on this site still, I can barely keep up with the site) it does seem we’re more then halfway through the show now, and that the series isn’t the huge cult-hit it was back in 2011.
 
While it saddens me a li’l, I remember what Hobbes from “Calvin & Hobbes” said during the last year of said comic strip.  

@Beau Skunky  
I think season 6 and the movie are probably the last myself. Its the extent of the time that hasbro pledged to continue toy production for FIM (they said 5 years of toys roughly 3 years ago), and there’s alot of staff members leaving the show or getting new jobs as of late.
 
Plus, with ratings plummeting and toy sales plateuing or even dropping, its not looking good for more.

Didn’t they have the cutie mark magic figures, though?

@Beau Skunky  

 
Stop that.
 
http://grammarist.com/usage/than-then/

@Background Pony #A19C  
Same…
 
Oh well, we knew it wouldn’t last forever anyways… We should at least have another season or 2 of this current gen’. We should at least be thankful the show has lasted as long as it has, (more then 100 episodes, and more then 5 years now) and it’s lasted longer then many other cartoon shows.
 
@ED-SKaR  
THEN! THEN! THEN! THEN! THEN! THEN! THEN! THEN! THEN! THEN! THEN! THEN! THEN! THEN! :P

@Beau Skunky  
The lack of MLP toys in stores is actually a pretty worrying sign of the show moving into its final season really. The shelve space for MLP stuff at my local stores is half of what it was 2 years ago at christmas.

I’d guess that the lack of pony toys in shops also relates to just how many bronies buy online.
 
Yes please on the goth ponies, more Moonlight Raven!
 
Also
 
@Beau Skunky

 

@ED-SKaR  
I think Hasbro gives the show-makers alot more freedom with the show, then we give them credit for. They may have some mandates, but they’re really not as strict as some other companies.
 
Also, honestly, despite some ex-fans complaining about how the show became “to much of a toy-commercial,” and such, (which soured some on MLP) honestly while I admit the MLP franchise is merch’-driven, I feel this show has been less “toy-etic” then most other modern shows/movies.
 
I honestly see more TMNT, Monster High, Poke’mon, & Frozen merch’ in my local stores then I do MLP. (In fact, I barely see any MLP merch’ nowadays. I think the “pony fad” is starting to die down a li’l, or at least with the younger fanbase.)
 
@hawthornbunny  
We need the “goth ponies” in the show, I say. :P  
…And AJ’s truck.

@orbsah  

 
Usually Hasbro make some suggestions to DHX, then they both go away and work on it. Toy turnover time is much faster than the episodes so we often get the toy of a thing before the episode of the same thing.
 
The DHX team have said that Hasbro don’t force them to include specific things, but that they manage to fit most of it in anyway.(MALarson said that at one of the cons with ACRacebest)

@JustTheBast  
but it’s had nothing to do with actual toys? How does that work for Hasbro?never understand how advertising works.

Its actually pretty weird.
 
Last season had the castle AND rainbow power. Season 3 had twilight as an alicorn and a playset to go with her being a princess.
 
But this season, there’s really no big toy for this christmas. Its pretty weird.
 
 
@hawthornbunny  
Hah, the PTSD stuff notwithstanding, I think Apocalypse dash toys would sell like crazy with bronies.
 
I mean, they made a nightmare night dash toy and that sold pretty well, yeah? A high quality collectible of dash with a prosthetic wing, her soldier garb and a scar over her eye would be nice.

@Beau Skunky  
There’s always that line of goth pony toys…

@JustTheBast  
I don’t know, it was pretty subtle last season too, I felt.  
The whole “Rainbow Power” toy gimmick last year was only really referenced in the S4 finale really, and we only see their Rainbow Power forms for less then 2 minutes.
 
Oddly, I remember seeing an ex-brony complaining about their rainbow forms prior to said finale, thinking they were going to be permanent redesigns oddly. (I never thought they were, especially, considering how brief their “Crystal Pony” forms were.)
 
Season/Year 2 we got the “Royal Pony wedding.”  
Season/Year 3 The “Crystal Empire/Pony” gimmick.  
Season/Year 4 “Rainbow Power.”  
Season/Year 5 “Cutie Mark Magic.”
 
I’m curious what we’ll see next year.

@JustTheBast  
That’s true. Why else would we see pulsating cutie marks on the pony’s flanks?

It ended without a blatantly forced toy plug at the last minute. The marketing support for the Cutie Mark Magic toy line was far more subtly woven in, throughout the entire season, rather than awkwardly jammed into one or two episodes.
 
It can’t have escaped your notice that the entire season (though obviously not every single episode) was cutie-mark-themed.

Season 1 ended with no toy plugs and season 3 began and ended with two different toy plugs.

Bur for real, Hasbro would have to be mega stupid to not make toys based of the different timelines.