Are bronies a fad fandom?

HOLD UP!
 
This isn’t a generic thread from early on when bronies were first on the scene, nor is a attack on bronies.
 
I was looking at hasbro’s stocks and something hit me, “Friendship is magic may be the last generation of mlp”. . . Hold on, before this turns into a shit storm let me explain. The last few years toy sales on average have been taking a huge shit financially because electronics are replacing them. Kids these days want less and less Barbies, G I Joe and instead want the latest iphone/xbox/ps4/wiiu/3ds and games for it instead of actual toys. Toy sales have been continuing to go down across the board and hasbro is no exception. The single thing that is holding up hasbro’s stocks from plummeting into the abyss is mlp. For the foreseeable future chances are hasbro is going to continue friendship is magic and continue to sell toys related to it; so don’t worry. . yet.
 
The problem arises from the question of well if say five years down the line friendship is magic’s popularity and viewership declines? What exactly does happen then? Hasbro isn’t stupid, but their recent attempts at making lightning strike twice aren’t working at all and don’t understand why FIM became such a phenomenon.
 
In other words: What’s going to happen to hasbro when the current show starts to lose popularity?

It’ll evolve, beyond the fandom it was a minute before. Little by little, it advances a bit further with each turn.
 
I mean, there’s no stopping Hasbro from just… transitioning their IPs to more popular outlets, right?

@Psyga315  
That would probably kill off the hub. The hub is a huge money pit.
 
They could potentially strike a deal, but that would be a trainwreck and a half.

only time will tell. but for the sake of arguing, most people following are indeed a fad and the numbers will obviously diminish once it’s all over, or maybe even sooner, much like any other fandom that existed before this.
 
I’ll change my interests in music from time to time, so it’s no mystery that most people will start looking for new things.

Yup. I guess at least 40% of the people in it, are actually only in it because they saw some images on the Internet and decided to be Bronies but do not actually like the show and just go on forums and stuff faving memes on Cheeseburger and going on Tumblr.

I don’t know if its just the winter or what, but I’ve noticed a large decrease in the amount of meet-ups and episode discussion this season in my city.  
I think there’s still plenty of fans, just a diminished amount of community. The forums and image boards are slowing down, artists are branching out more into non-pony territory or dropping pony entirely… Hasbro is bizarrely cracking down on fan works, then suddenly reversing their decisions slowly on certain things.
 
So basically: the market hasn’t diminished, but the community has. I predict even less brony meetups and maybe reducing the amount of pony conventions to maybe two or three major ones in the states per year.

Most people here have no lifes so yeah

@Background Pony #BBEB  

 
Any mods here can tell you that isn’t true. And even with Jan out, we still have a lot more animators than we did before.
 
And I don’t think MLP is not going anywhere anytime soon. It’s a franchise, and it consists of more than just toys. Hasbro seem to have noticed, and are shifting their focus from toys to media.

@Grieffon  
Compared to earlier, I’m saying it’s slowed down considerably. Visiting places like ponychan or /mlp/ or even these forums, people aren’t as active in discussion and hanging out on sites. People have made their connections, mostly Skype or facebook etc.  
I used to not be able to keep up with my tumblr dash, but now it barely gets about 5 posts a day, 15 or so over the weekend.

“Fad fandom.”  
We’re what? 3 and a half years into this and people still want to call this a mere fad? It’s laughable.
 
Almost as laughable as these people who get these rather large statistics of people who don’t watch the show but are just in it for the “meme”

My prediction is that in a few years the fandom will still exist, just that it will probably be smaller. Some people will lose interest, and I don’t think we should begrudge them that. Tastes change after all, and there isn’t anything wrong with that. However I think there will be a hardcore of fans who stick around for a very, very long time because there is something in this show that genuinely does speak to people.

@uc9  
Look at the Star Wars fandom or the Star Trek fandom. Regardless of the movie or show, the fandom took on a life of it’s own. Bronies are their own community now and regardless of the show will continue to make more pony art and other content and there will still be conventions.

@someguy111  
As eternal as the Sun and Moon that shine above us.

@someguy111  
maybe for a little while anyway, but I don’t see any possible Star Trek legacy coming out of this.. You have to understand one thing, Star Trek’s popularity is of completely different reasons than FIM’s, one such reason being that the world it has expanded for decades and the only thing coming close to compare with it isn’t even Star Wars, something that now is somewhat in a decline, it’s more likely Doctor Who.

@Background Pony #BBEB  
I used to post on PonyChan a LOT in the early days (back in 2011), but then I was unemployed and had nothing better to do. They even offered me a mod position back then (which I declined). I got a job working weekends, and only just now have weekends off.
 
In the interim, I discovered Twitter and spend most of my time there.
 
I have been doing some musing on this. I think folks just get tired of certain people on certain sites, and move on to find a community they do feel they can participate in. It was fun for a time, but I think I just got tired of some folks’ attitudes.
 
I think some of the novelty has worn off. It’s not exactly the shiny, new, somewhat innocent fandom someone folks wanted the fandom wanted it to be. (I was rather drawn in at first because it helped reawaken that feeling of awe and wonder that I thought was dead.)
 
I think there’s also the bit that drama has been exceptionally bad in 2013. If folks feel it’s inescapable, I’m not surprised if many folks would simply withdraw from participating in the community/fandom but still watch the show. I think there are a lot of people still present, just not quite as active/fervent as they used to be.
 
Being that a lot of folks in this fandom are in their teens/early twenties, I also blame college/work. :)
 
 
@gasmaskangel  
This, pretty much. The fandom will go on in a diminished form, but it’ll keep going. I knew about the show because of MLP collector friends. Heck, I’ve been a fan of MLP since the 80s, and it wasn’t because of the cartoons (then). I’ll probably still be a fan of ponies in the end.

I don’t think so. We seem to be still going strong, despite what some will tell you. There doesn’t seem to be much diminishment so far either.

I won’t rest until Ponies become the law of the internet!
 
In her honor.  

 
Muahahahha!!!!!
 
sarcasm
 
_{Obviously wishful thinking and not possible. If you can’t take bluffs, GTHO}