@Zennistrad
 
Ah, see, the problem with that line of reasoning is that it doesn’t stand up as well as you think.
 
You see that while older audiences are usually less than the target audiences, older ones have their own money. It is much, much easier to get an older fan to buy a product because said older fan has nothing but themselves between them and the purchase - children (and to an extent the merchandiser) usually have to convince their parents to pay out if they want to purchase… parents who often have their own objections against the products (that it’s cheap rubbish, that it’s not appropriate, that it’s too expensive, etc, etc).
 
So while you may have less older fans it is often true that those older fans will simply buy a lot more than any given child will, in essence one older fan is equivalent to a fair number of children in sales.
 
Furthermore children are fickle and will forget about many lines of merch pretty quickly (simply put: they either grow up and lose interest, or become attracted to the ‘next big thing’) - research I’ve done in the past indicates that most tie-in line sales to children degrade quickly around six months after a series comes to a complete end (which makes that a really good time to bring out a new season BTW, to restore marketability of the IP). Older fans meanwhile will keep buying long afterwards - look at collectors of original MLP merch for instance - and goods marketed more towards them (such as the vinyl ponies) have a much longer viable selling life than goods directed at children.
 
So yeah… the whole issue of merchandising an IP is a complex one that, sadly, is often run by people who only see the immediate profits rather than the greater profits they could make over a longer term by producing, for relatively little cost, stuff aimed at elder fringe audiences (and aging target audiences - since not every child is going to fall out of love with a series… and nostalgia is one hell of a marketing strategy after a while) too.

@Bunny
 
I highly doubt that, since bronies still only make a small portion of the audience.

@lackey_h  
Words of wisdom. Hasbro probably could have made just as much money selling high quality figures to bronies. With Equestria Girls, they seem to be doing more harm than good to the existing fandom.

There seem to be 2 different version of these doll.  
1 where their tops are painted on, another like this where the top are actual cloth.

@Zennistrad
 
Eh… yes and no. While bad merch doesn’t directly affect the quality of a show it can affect the animation studio itself over a longer term. After all a number of smaller studios are dependent on merch (or right to produce merch) sales for funding later projects… and it can be rather hard to convince a new merchandiser that your last IP’s merch sold like shit because the previous merchandiser screwed up the merch itself.
 
Plus, on a more personal level, it just irritates me when a merchandiser pulls such a slapdash job like this when they could really be raking in the money if only they actually paid attention to what the IPs audiences actually are and want. For the record Hasbro isn’t too bad with this - they did after all allow those vinyl ponies to be made and let IDW make the awesome comic, so they’re at least throwing older audiences some bones rather than outright deny we exist like some IPs did (i’m looking at you Avatar: The Last Airbender. With your known main viewership of over sixteens, your target audience of twelve year olds and almost all your merch aimed at six year olds… you really screwed the pooch all over the place there.)

@lackey_h
 
I suppose you might have a point.
 
But a bad toy doesn’t make the show it’s based on bad, contrary to what some might think.

Whelp….there’s finally an answer to, “Ferrotter, is there any Rainbow Dash merchandise you DON’T obsessively want?”

@Background Pony  
Without any milk?

@Zennistrad  
I point out that other comparable doll lines, such as Monster High, have proven capable of having a variety of makeup styles applied to different dolls (both those with different and those with identical head moulds). Claiming that automation itself is behind an RD doll having makeup is a bit silly - rather it’s the fault of the people (designers and execs) who put the order in that the production line produce it that way.

Other than Sunset Shimmer, this might be the onyl EqG doll I actually want to own. She looks adorable!

I’d rather cum inside a box of nails…

@Trickquestion
 
The lipstick and eyeshadow are likely painted on by means of an automated assembly line, I’d imagine it’d be difficult to not apply the same to every doll.
 
@Background Pony
 
Yes, because Hasbro has never ever made shitty toys of FiM, and having one shitty toyline totally ruins the show. </sarcasm>

Protip: If you’re a jock, society will shun you as a “fake” if you decide to one day wear lipstick and a skirt.
 
Good to know.

@Zennistrad  
Isn’t the template for the body shape? Makeup and lipstick are the results of the applications of paint.
 
Of course, I’m not knowledgable of the production procees behind these dolls, but I assume it’s a paint thing.

They killed Dashie, fuck you, Hasbro.

@Trickquestion
 
I’m pretty sure this is because all the dolls are made from the same template.
 
Remember, custom manufacturing is expensive, especially for an extremely large toy brand.

That’s totally Rainbow Bright right there.

>Lipstick and makeup  
>On Rainbow Dash  

Oh my god! The toys look bad!
 
This is the most shocking news in the history of MLP! There has never been an MLP toy that was inaccurate to the show or otherwise lacking in quality!