Chronology of television and movie releases WIP

[Taffeta]

@aria_elwen, thank you! That is interesting and useful! I remember watching a lot of shows contemporary with MLP as a kid but neither my mother nor I remember MLP airing. But I was 4 in 1986, and I only really got totally hooked on MLP from 1986-7 so may not have noticed. I was very attached to Red and Mokey fraggle prior to that It's possible the specials aired but maybe MLP & Friends didn't.

The 1990s airing is the one I remember as well, that my sister's friend taped (as we didn't have cable) and then loaned us the tapes. That would've been in around 1995 I think. All of the episodes (unsure about Through the Door mind you) were aired in that airing, but I was really talking about the eighties on terrestrial TV, when I was a small pony-target-audience age kid (I was 13 in 1995).  MLP Tales was also definitely aired in this slot as well so I am pretty sure we are remembering the same thing. But that's obviously much later and I think after most of the VHS were released.

As a kid I had 2 VHS, one I bought myself and the other I had really early so don't remember getting it but played it obsessively. That one was Ice Cream Wars/Revolt of PE and the other was Sweet Stuff and the Treasure Hunt/Would Be Dragonslayer. I never saw any other episodes until carbooting and the Sky 1 airing in the middle 1990s so I always wondered what happened with airing the series here.

MLP The Movie (as you say, the Film as it was marketed here) is advertised as being in cinemas in 1986-7 but I was scared of the cinema as a kid so I don't remember if it actually was in the local cinema to where I was living! I would think that would make its vhs release at earliest around 1987, so if it was on TV around that time I'm surprised I never saw it :/ My sister and I would take over the living room on a saturday and sunday morning from really early till around elevenish to watch kids tv so if MLP had been on we'd have seen it. UNLESS if it was on ITV, it aired regionally...which is not impossible.

Aside Through the Door I am certain there are UK PAL Vhs tapes for every episode and for some more than one with different combinations of episodes. Except maybe the MLP Tales. NOt sure how much VHS they got, and even DVD. I kn ow there's a full series US DVD and maybe an aussie one, but not sure there's been a UK one. Just a selection of episodes. (Can't remember if they're on the Girl Power DVD compilations but perhaps they are).

[joeybuddy96]

I've worked more on the chronology. I'm lacking the release dates of Pinkie Pie's Special Day and Meet the Ponies. The mlp wiki gives their release years, but since they were shortpacked into toy releases, they don't have the usual thorough date documentation that one might find with TV and movie releases. I usually just give a placeholder date of January 1st if I don't have more precise dates. I'd like to be able to buy the DVDs apart from the toys, since I don't collect toys and since it drives up the price of whatever I'm buying.

The G3.5 webisodes Sweetie Belle's Gumball House Surprise and Pinkie Pie's Ferris Wheel Adventure apparently only appeared online and were never released to DVD. I've seen posts stating that they were included in the playsets, but eBay listings easily confirm that there were no DVD releases included. I'd like to find the Flash files as they appeared on the Hasbro website. They're on YouTube, but raster graphics don't have the same clarity as vector graphics. Again, the release dates are absent apart from the year they were released.

So Many Ways to Play and Over Two Rainbows were originally included as a DVD titled Once Upon a My Little Pony Time. I can't find more than one reference that says the DVD was included in a toy release. If it was, it would have been with a Newborn Cuties playset, not with a pony. I can't find any eBay listings for the DVD, but I have seen images of the outer DVD slipcase; I'm going to assume the DVD does exist. Even if the DVD does exist, it probably isn't going to include the Flash version.

Here's the link to the WIP. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/167f6JIrnf_aVNVDsWJuY5jOgiIzi5G3LvpkzajSsWoY
The most expensive videos to buy are via iTunes and directly from Shout! Factory. You get the highest resolution from blurays first (or really the original Flash files of anything), iTunes streaming second, DVDs third, and VHS fourth. It would cost about $475 USD to get everything from the list, not including the above mentioned shorts that apparently can't be bought anywhere.

[Taffeta]

Regarding the DVDs in playsets/not in playsets, there are sometimes toy releases of basically the same thing, some with and without DVD (like with or without breezie or other things) depending on time of release, region of release, etc - so it may be that they did come on DVD but that they only did so in certain regions or at certain times. That would mean that MIP items wouldn't always have a DVD included, but it doesn't rule out toys coming with DVDs. (I also don't really like DVDs with toys, tbh).

Also toy releases in the US at least have a pretty firm schedule of release or at least a planned one. Here in the UK it's all over the place but even then it is possible to nail down probably release times for certain things. It may well be that the information for the release of the DVDs you're uncertain about can be found with sites where the release of those sets is more specifically noted than the Wiki.

[Ponyfan]

I agree with Taffeta  I can confirm that when some of the early G4 ponies were released with the mini DVDs there were some that were packaged without the DVD. I really wanted a Wedding line Lyra Heartstrings without the mini DVD and found one. When I posted pics a lot of people were surprised that mine didnt’t include the DVD.

Ponyfan

[aria_elwen]

Well.... this was a weird find on youtube...

Incontrovertible proof that My little pony the movie was on ITV for Christmas/December 1987.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDH3C4apjiE Michaela Strachen doing the introduction/continuity for the film.