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Maybe having a great story and a great toy line together is not so sustainable? I’m having trouble thinking of something that has.
Well, the cartoon tried to be an encompassing canon for as long as it lasted, giving all the new ponies and playsets days in the sun throughout its run (although some only got one or two appearances because of how much there was to cover).I think the cartoon was in important driving force for G1's sales, but you're right that G1 MLP wasn't dependent on it like Transformers was.Regarding FiM: Frankly, the lack of cast variety in the toyline from how badly oversaturated the Mane 6 were makes it hard to build the official G4 world too. After all, the official G4 world isn't predominantly populated by an endless supply of Mane 6 clones.
Well, the cartoon tried to be an encompassing canon for as long as it lasted, giving all the new ponies and playsets days in the sun throughout its run (although some only got one or two appearances because of how much there was to cover).I think the cartoon was in important driving force for G1's sales, but you're right that G1 MLP wasn't dependent on it like Transformers was.
Quote from: MyLittleMillennial on July 18, 2020, 08:32:53 AMMaybe having a great story and a great toy line together is not so sustainable? I’m having trouble thinking of something that has.80s Transformers found themselves backed into a corner by the toyline/storyline conflict of interests. The established characters were beloved and iconic, but it was hard to keep squeezing in new characters as new toys were released. So... they decided to kill off all of those beloved characters in the theatrical film to make room for the new lineup. That uh... ended up being a controversial move.
Quote from: Nemesis on July 18, 2020, 01:43:19 PMQuote from: MyLittleMillennial on July 18, 2020, 08:32:53 AMMaybe having a great story and a great toy line together is not so sustainable? I’m having trouble thinking of something that has.80s Transformers found themselves backed into a corner by the toyline/storyline conflict of interests. The established characters were beloved and iconic, but it was hard to keep squeezing in new characters as new toys were released. So... they decided to kill off all of those beloved characters in the theatrical film to make room for the new lineup. That uh... ended up being a controversial move.I still find it wild that they thought that was the best way to replace their cast. Can you imagine if they'd done that for MLP instead of quietly disappearing previous ponies? "Hey look kids, it's your friends Firefly and Sparkler and Applejack running over to greet you--OH NO, MONSTERS JUST ATTACKED! DEAD, THEY'RE ALL DEAD! GRUESOMELY EXECUTED BEFORE YOUR VERY EEEEEYES!!! So anyway, this is Magic Star, buy her toy."
Quote from: ZeldaTheSwordsman on July 19, 2020, 06:01:48 PMWell, the cartoon tried to be an encompassing canon for as long as it lasted, giving all the new ponies and playsets days in the sun throughout its run (although some only got one or two appearances because of how much there was to cover).I think the cartoon was in important driving force for G1's sales, but you're right that G1 MLP wasn't dependent on it like Transformers was.That's also probably regional. I am pretty sure aside the movie nothing MLP (except MAYBE RAMC in the early eighties) aired on TV in the UK until after G1 had ended (in 1995). (LITERALLY closing the gate after a bolting horse!) And then it was on Sky1, I think...which was a cable channel. We had to borrow videos from a friend as we didn't have cable then.
^Mind you, given all the horrible monster attacks throughout G1 I've seen some people speculate that stuff like that happened off-camera.Quote from: Taffeta on July 23, 2020, 05:35:28 AMQuote from: ZeldaTheSwordsman on July 19, 2020, 06:01:48 PMWell, the cartoon tried to be an encompassing canon for as long as it lasted, giving all the new ponies and playsets days in the sun throughout its run (although some only got one or two appearances because of how much there was to cover).I think the cartoon was in important driving force for G1's sales, but you're right that G1 MLP wasn't dependent on it like Transformers was.That's also probably regional. I am pretty sure aside the movie nothing MLP (except MAYBE RAMC in the early eighties) aired on TV in the UK until after G1 had ended (in 1995). (LITERALLY closing the gate after a bolting horse!) And then it was on Sky1, I think...which was a cable channel. We had to borrow videos from a friend as we didn't have cable then. Well, yeah, it's a regional thing. You had said "The assumption G1 didn't have any overriding story canon is really true in America", and I was countering that in fact the cartoon tried to serve as one here (for as long as it lasted) as well as a sales-driving force.
I esteem the cartoon to be the primary canon for the US, at least through its run, because through its 1984-1987 run of 2 specials, a movie, and 61 eleven-minute episodes it incorporated as many of the ponies and playsets as possible into one big ongoing story and world, changing or overwriting backcard bios as it pleased (The Transformers did much the same). Cost, runtime, the need to advertise new product, and the sheer number of ponies limited how much each character could be fleshed out, of course, but it still managed to give life an personality to plenty of ponies and locales, and send them on adventures (like the comics did in the UK and elsewhere) before Griffin-Bacal capped it.