As a classic cartoon produced by Hasbro in the United States, "My Little Pony" was once featured on domestic TV platforms such as CCTV Children's Channel in 2013, telling the story of a group of cute ponies with different personalities learning magic and protecting their homes. After the cartoon finishes, the pony fades out of the children's sight, but does not cause a strong response. However, more than ten years have passed, and this anime IP has exploded with the hot sales of its peripheral product Pony Polyca. The reporter's investigation found that after the Ultraman card, the Pony Baoli card has become a social "hard currency" for primary school students, and this circle of love cards is called the "horse circle", and the "circle people" are keen to buy, collect, and exchange, and some people collect cards as many as hundreds, spending thousands of yuan for this. Why are small cards so popular? What is so appealing about them? In the face of children's enthusiasm for collecting trucks, what should parents do?
phenomenon
Small cards are popular both offline and online
On the afternoon of May 14th, Xiao Ying (pseudonym), a sixth-grade student at Keelung Road Primary School in Qingdao, walked out of the school gate and went straight to the stationery store next to the school. "I buy one or two Fun Movie Packs at a time." Xiaoying said that she has bought it many times, and she can't remember how many cards she has, "Anyway, there is a big stack, no less than 60." Subsequently, the reporter visited two other stationery stores in the vicinity and found that the shopkeepers put my little Pony Polycard in the most conspicuous position in the store. The owner of the Chenxiyuan stationery store told reporters that since my little Pony Borica became popular among elementary school students, her store has been stocking. Although the profit per order is relatively small, "there are quite a lot of children who buy", so the total profit brought by it is quite considerable. In addition to cards, the store also sells card holders for children to store their cards.
Xiao shows off the SSR card he drawn. Photo by Guan Haoran
In the two stationery stores opposite Qingdao Zaoshan Primary School, the reporter saw that there were also bags of colorful pony bolica on the shelves in the C position of the store, instead of stationery. "My Little Pony card has been popular since the beginning of this year, and many kids come to the store to buy it." Mr. Yu, the owner of a stationery store, said that according to his observations, most of the buyers are children in the fourth and fifth grades, as well as junior high school students, and the children who are keen on collecting cards have brought a lot of traffic to the stationery stores around the school.
The reporter randomly launched a questionnaire survey among the young reporters of Qingdao Evening News, and the results showed that 60% of the children or their friends had the behavior of collecting Pony Pauli.
My Little Pony has not only formed a buying boom in offline physical stores, but also online popularity. The reporter searched for "Little Pony Polycard" on the Xiaohongshu platform, and there were as many as 710,000 related notes and more than 140,000 products. There are also some vloggers who open cards live and can attract thousands of onlookers just by opening a dozen packs of cards every night. On the shopping network, there are many stores with a monthly sales volume of more than 20,000 pieces of Pony Polycard, and some stores can even sell 2 million pieces of cards a month.
The stationery store places my Pony Paulica in the C position. Photo by Fan Shengyao
survey
The price is expensive, and it is easy to draw a good card and it is addictive
"How many cents a piece?" "A pack of cards, it's not expensive." …… The reporter randomly interviewed some citizens about the price of Pony Polycard, and found that citizens who do not have a baby at home and do not know about this kind of card usually "underestimate" their "value". Those citizens who have baby love cards at home are very clear about the "gold content" of these cards, and even some parents bluntly said: "Cards are very 'money-burning'." ”
The reporter saw in the offline stationery store that a pack of Pony Paulie cards is packed in a box, usually sold in a package, interesting shadow, rainbow, bright moon, twilight and other packaging, each package is priced from 2 yuan to 10 yuan, the most expensive twilight bag is 50 yuan a board, 4 packs per board, only five or six cards per pack, and the cards are also divided into different grades such as R, SR, SSR, etc. Every time you buy a card, it's like drawing a blind box, and the children often carefully select for a long time, and then open it carefully, expecting to draw the card they want.
"Most children use their pocket money to buy cards, only one or two packs at a time, and then come back in a few days to buy a pack or two. Some parents will accompany their children to buy a whole box as soon as they buy it. According to the owner of Dongxin Weimin Stationery Store in Shinan District, the price of a whole box of Pony Baoli cards is expensive, and the price of a whole box of Huiyue bags ranges from 180 yuan to 488 yuan. The reporter learned that the whole box of buying cards in the "horse circle" is a "very faced" thing, and this behavior even has an exclusive noun, called "end box".
It's also a pony Polycard, why is the price several times different? Isn't it more cost-effective to just buy the cheap ones? In fact, the rarity of the cards drawn in packs varies depending on the price range, and the higher the price, the higher the probability of drawing a high-level rare card. In order to get rare cards, children will keep buying them. In the discussion of the topic of "how much money did you spend on my little Pony Polycard" on the online social platform, it is very common to spend hundreds or thousands of yuan, and some parents complain that their children have "thrown" tens of thousands of yuan in order to buy a card.
Elementary school students go to the stationery store after school to pick up my pony Polycar. Photo by Guan Haoran
sound
There are two camps for support and opposition
"I have 50 yuan of pocket money a week, 10 of which is used to buy my Pony Polycard." During an interview at a stationery store near Zaoshan Primary School, the reporter met Xiao who came to buy a card, and her height was a little "abrupt" among the primary school students who picked the card, because she was in her first year of high school this year. Xiao said that there are very few high school students around her who play cards, but this does not prevent her from buying cards every week, "Everyone is interested in hobbies, and my favorite thing now is collecting cards." ”
About 20% of the young reporters because they like the characters in the cartoons, 30% because the cards are beautifully designed and attractive, and 20% of the young reporters want to have a common language with their classmates, because "their classmates all play, and if they don't play, they will be out".
Pinduoduo's online store, Pony Polycard, sold more than 2 million pieces.
Do the kids approve of collecting my pony? Judging from the results of the questionnaire, the young reporters are clearly divided into two camps. "Collecting cards can relax your mind, and it is also very rewarding to put together a certain set, and find an outlet to relieve the pressure of studying." Wan Yixuan clearly expressed her approval. Xia Yanchen believes that as long as you don't indulge in it and don't affect your studies, you can collect cards. Yan Jiahang said that collecting cards is actually a kind of feeling, and it is also a good memory to look at these cards when you grow up. Yang Minghan believes that collecting cards is not interesting, and the money from buying cards can be used to buy books to broaden his horizons. Wang Junhao also disapproves of playing cards, he is worried about distracting his energy and affecting his studies.
Parents of young reporters also have different opinions on the behavior of collecting trucks. "On the premise of not affecting normal learning and life, children can be allowed to collect cards according to their preferences, but parents should guide them correctly, so that they can learn to consume rationally and refuse bad temptations." The neutral views of young reporter Chen Yufei's mother are quite representative. There are also parents who explicitly support their children's card collection, because they have collected a lot of things in their childhood, and they can still feel that pure happiness when they recall it. There are also many parents who completely disagree, mainly because they are worried about "losing their minds with playthings", "wasting time" and "over-indulging".
suggestion
Preventing addiction can't be done all at once
"When it was popular to collect Ultraman cards, our class had a special class meeting and organized children to discuss this matter together." In the view of Liu Mingxuan, an excellent class teacher in Shinan District and the head teacher of Class 4 of the third grade of Qingdao Taiping Road Primary School, Pony and Ultraman cards are essentially the same, and they both have the attribute of drawing blind boxes, which may indeed attract some children to indulge in them. However, parents and teachers should look at this problem rationally, and should not directly characterize the child's collection of cards as a wrong behavior, and block this behavior with a strong "no no, no allowment", but should guide the child to think deeply about what the purpose of selling such cards is, how to do it correctly, how to prevent addiction, and not to compare indiscriminately. If your child is already showing signs of addiction, parents can try to help them divert their attention, such as spending more time together on outdoor sports and reading, and looking for more positive hobbies.
Wang Kewei, an advanced individual in mental health education in Shandong Province and director of the Psychological Growth Guidance Center of Qingdao No. 58 Middle School, believes that the "My Little Pony" cartoon spreads the concept of truth, goodness and beauty, and there is no problem for children to like such an animation IP. Wise parents may wish to "play cards" with their children, and inspire their children to think about what they have learned and thought of through anime IP in the process, so that they can understand that the pony's bravery, kindness, sincerity and other qualities are really worth paying attention to.
According to Wang Kewei's analysis, children who are overly addicted to collecting cards often have the same as children who are addicted to games - in real life, they are overly suppressed and denied, lack a sense of value, and obtain a little "achievement" by playing games and collecting cards to achieve self-psychological comfort. To prevent children from indulging in entertainment activities such as collecting cards, parents should first find out the reasons for themselves, give their children more attention, understanding and affirmation, and help them achieve positive self-management.
Guanhai News/Qingdao Evening News/Pocket Qingdao Reporter Zhang Yan Trainee Reporter Guan Haoran Lu Jiqing Intern Fan Shengyao Little Reporter Xia Yanchen Li Jinai Yang Yujia Yan Jiahang Yang Minghan Wang Junhao Wan Yixuan Chen Yufei Yi Qingran Yang Zihang Yu Yuehan