G1 Media Retrospective: Rescue At Midnight Castle

[Lilja]

As others have mentioned, it really bothered me how we never saw Majesty.  They showed Dream Castle and Spike quite a few times but no Majesty.  That's weird, because that was her home.  She must have just been a comic book thing or something but why make a playset if she never appears on screen?!

Her only screen time was the animated commercial for the castle. T.T  I want think they made a new commercial with Megan in it but that memory is very vague T.T because I remember seeing a commercial on one of my old 80's tapes in the mid 90's and I was excited over it but then I fear I might have taped over it with something stupid cause I wanted to tape something and thought 'oh I don't need this superhero cartoon! lets tape over it!' not realizing all the commercial potential I was taping over T.T Dumb kid me =P

which I was looking on youtube for commercials and so many of them had GREAT animation T.T

ALSO ABOUT MAJESTY, I wish the Writers Guide still had the omitted/edited pages because they mentioned Majesty but I guess they didn't want to ad her in the show D= I so badly wanted to know what her character sheet was supposed to be...

I don't know if it was Hasbro or the writers who decided which ponies should be featured in the specials. Either way, I'm pretty sure they knew they had to put the Dream Castle in there, since it was the biggest playset at the time. Majesty they probably saw as just a bonus pony with the castle, so there was no need to put any special emphasis on her when there were so many other ponies they could feature instead (notice that there are no playset ponies in either of the first two specials). I don't know if they used Spike to further advertise the Dream Castle (he is a dragon, so that makes him stick out more than Majesty would), or if they just put him in there because there was a role that fit him. It doesn't make much sense for him to stick around with the ponies afterwards. I guess the only reason he does is because he is a toy character.

As for why the writer's guide indicate that Majesty would appear in the MLP 'n Friends TV series... maybe Hasbro were planning to bring her and the Dream Castle back for another year? In any case they probably scrapped her character when they realized she wasn't being produced any more. The toys really dictate everything when it comes to the G1 cartoon.

[Taffeta]

The US release timeline is probably the biggest reason for Majesty's cut out. I mean, we see Twinkles, briefly, but we don't see Peachy (unless unknown pony is Peachy in an early design...)

BUT let's not forget Majesty DID come back as a Mail Order. Was that significantly later than the MLP & Friends ending? I guess it must have been.

Baby Half Note, Baby Tiddly Winks and Scoops all appear in the MLP cartoon so it's not a vendetta against playset ponies.

Majesty was still on sale in Europe up till maybe 1987 or 1988...but America seems to have been very ruthless with playsets. It seems to have been more a case of, this is out this year, done with it now, next. Whereas things ran on and over into other years in other places, it's struck me with G4 as well. When they've reached the end of their shelflife they're clearanced and replaced with other stuff.

So I would think that probably IS the biggest reason Majesty was scrapped. Although I still wonder whether the Queen figure idea didn't really resonate with an American public. In Europe, there are a number of states with monarchies still - that kind of symbol makes more sense in a way in those places. I mean, even if you aren't political about it, if you live in a country where there's a king or queen's head on the currency, it makes sense that your pony castle unicorn is the queen and therefore is nominally in charge. But Dream Castle isn't the White House xD, and the animation already had a surplus of unicorns. I mean, we already commented on the weird lack of Sunbeam in RaMC.

Interesting fact. The comics feature the playset released ponies. All of them, pretty much, except one. Cascade. She appears once in the 1985/yellow annual, but that's it. Sprinkles, on the other hand, appears often. Both of them were available in and around 1984-1985, and it seems like Sprinkles took over from Cascade based on the datestamps in my boxes and the product codes, but that may be wrong.

Sprinkles, of course, is also omitted from Rescue at Midnight Castle. I am actually trying to think  whether the Waterfall itself is featured in that animation??

[Lilja]

Baby Half Note, Baby Tiddly Winks and Scoops all appear in the MLP cartoon so it's not a vendetta against playset ponies.

As I said, that only applies to the specials. When they got a TV show they could feature more ponies than when they only did one half hour special a year. They may also have realized by that point that having playset ponies in the cartoon could make kids ask their parents for the playsets just to get those particular ponies.

Information is somewhat scant when it comes to release years for mail order ponies, but I'm fairly sure the playset pony set came after the TV series has ended. That's not to say Hasbro didn't have plans to release Majesty as a mail order at some point, and that could be the reason they wanted to have her on the cartoon.

Sprinkles, of course, is also omitted from Rescue at Midnight Castle. I am actually trying to think  whether the Waterfall itself is featured in that animation??

Well, there were lots of clouds in the animation. Rainbows too. Probably a sun at some point. So... arguably...?

[Ponyfan]

Backcards, books and comics here largely intersected but yeah, the cartoon world was totally separate.


I think Tirek is the right level of bad guy to put in context with other shows at the time. Maybe not Skeletor, because let's face it, he was hilarious but not that scary - but I think that Thundercats went for it a bit with MummRah. Now you might think that this is gender divide territory, but I think that RaMC competes pretty well as a scary kid's tv show that isn't actually gendered one way or the other. As I said way earlier in the thread, it's the ultimate proof that G1 MLP didn't have time for tea parties. They were too busy saving existance from eternal darkness and being enslaved and stuff.

I agree that the backcards, books etc.. are seperate from the cartoons.  One thing I really like about the US storybooks is the fact that Moondancer and Baby Moondancer can both glow in the dark. This is never mentioned in the cartoon but is mentioned in at least 2 books.

I also agree that Tirek fits in with other villians from the time ( I still find Mommy Fortuna a little scary in the Last Unicorn) and agree that G1 ponies were much too busy trying to avoid being enslaved or to save their world to really have time to stop and have a party.

WildShadow is that the prototype of First Born in that brochure you posted?
She looks very much like the Mystery Pony.
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Ponyfan

[Taffeta]

I've always thought of Mystery Pony as being First Born, ever since I knew the ceramics existed, but when it came up in the Celestial discussion, the general consensus was that it was a coincidental resemblance. BUT I agree with Ponyfan. That looks a lot like Mystery Pony to me. O.o.

[Wildshadow]

I agree that the backcards, books etc.. are seperate from the cartoons.  One thing I really like about the US storybooks is the fact that Moondancer and Baby Moondancer can both glow in the dark. This is never mentioned in the cartoon but is mentioned in at least 2 books.

WildShadow is that the prototype of First Born in that brochure you posted?
She looks very much like the Mystery Pony.

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Ponyfan

I forgot about Moondancer's glowing =D That is a nice touch!

It could be? I didn't realize the name was over the back on the real ones until I looked it up today it was from a order catalog =D

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The ceramics and mugs:

Spoiler

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NEVERMIND the catalog says 1985 and the special was out in 1984, so they maybe made the ceramic like the pony in the special because they had most of the other's as ceramic statues? Hard to say

[Taffeta]

More likely she was going to be a pony, never made the production cut because they decided to go with a more traditional rainbow colour scheme for the original rainbow set and then decided to reuse her design for the ceramic offer later.

[Wildshadow]

More likely she was going to be a pony, never made the production cut because they decided to go with a more traditional rainbow colour scheme for the original rainbow set and then decided to reuse her design for the ceramic offer later.

OH yeah! There are rainbow ponies I got caught up in other trivia and information that it was the furthest from my mind!

[Taffeta]

Given her name (ceramic), you almost have to wonder if she was a very early concept idea...right back when they decided to make the ponies pastel.

[Sunset]

My personal opinion re: First born's name is that that is the name of the ceramic piece not the character.  For example, other ceramics have names for what is happening in the scene, not necessarily the names of the characters depicted.  "First born" to me definitly comes across as the little kind of trinket you get for an expectant mom/newborn baby to commemorate the occasion.  Along the same lines as ornaments labeled "Baby's First Christmas."

[Taffeta]

Wildshadow's book suggests more that it might have been the lost leader nature of the ceramic as a giveaway, sort of an encouraging nod in the direction of starting a collection of ceramic ponies. BUT that said, it's a funny name to give something like that. Born suggests concept and idea rather than just purchase.

I don't think there's anything to link it to babies.

Also, I don't think it's the name of the ceramic. I think it's the name of the pony and always have. Ceramic single ponies tend to be known by their names. The tableaux have scene names, but First Born isn't a tableau. I think First Born is her name...but whether it signifies anything more is going to have to stay in the realm of speculation.

Either way, I still think of Mystery Pony as being First Born.

[Sunset]

To me the entire line looks like the kind of thing meant to decorate a nursery.  Especially since it's based on a "new" toy line aimed at young children.  (So they can't be relying on nostalgia to sell the line.)  And, imo, "first born" doesn't sound at all like an early g1 name.  I think it's just as likely that the ceramic company named it if Hasbro didn't.
 
So, I guess we will have to agree to disagree.

[Ponyfan]

I just realized the Stratadon that grabs Megan does so before she has a chance to try to stop them from capturing the ponies. I guees a Stratadon will try to grab anything that moves and not just the ponies?

Ponyfan

[Sunset]

Well, they started out as birds and butterflies so I'm going to guess that they don't have very high IQs.

[Shatyr]

Here's something I've always wondered. If Tirek took over Scorpan's kingdom, where is it? Midnight Castle disappeared when the Rainbow whomped Tirek. Did he just up and move everyone on a whim? Did they not have horses in Scorpan's kingdom?

Catrina, at least, was given options and decided she wanted "those little ponies" and who can blame her? We've spent the last 35 years trying to get "those little ponies" ourselves. But Tirek? The guy was The Big Bad, with Stratadons and Lizard Guards and coming within a pony hair of actually succeeding.

Also, they kept visiting Megan, but no one ever visited Scorpan? Not even Spike?