Musings on G1

[Taffeta]

I esteem the cartoon to be the primary canon for the US, at least through its run, because over its 1984-1987 run of 2 specials, a movie, and 61 eleven-minute episodes (not counting the 2-episode split versions of the specials) 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.

I tend to think of the backcard stories on either side of the pond as supplemental canon (at least where not contradicted by the larger story material); a set of brief "Who's who" stories for each pony.

I think if the series had run for longer then it probably would've done the same job as the comic. Although its cast was a lot more limited in the same time frame as the comic was, it did still try to incorporate new stuff into the later eps. It just didn't resonate to me as a British kid when half the ponies had the wrong names/wrong personalities or 'didn't exist' (not sold here). And was not quite as accessible overall.

There are some really good eps in the G1 series and then there are others. I guess we'll leave it as that.

But better than FIM.

The irony is that a bunch of the early personas in the UK comic are based on US backcards xD.

[ZeldaTheSwordsman]

Probably because of how truncated the UK backcard blurbs were until the later years. The Flutters were particularly bad from what I've seen - most of it is copypasted between them, with only one unique line. And not many lines in total, so not a lot of information to work with.

I understand about the cartoon not being accessible in the UK, what I'm saying about it only applies to the US. I think it basically did the same job here as the comics did for you, it just wasn't allowed to do it for as long. And of course, we didn't get a comic here... Stupid US comic market.

FiM at its best is decent... But boy howdy are so many episodes sub-par.

[Taffeta]

Eh, I love the flutter pony poems. As a kid I knew them all by heart (please note, I was 5 when I had the fact file. Don't judge me). Now I can only remember the one from the pony I actually owned, but I thought they were cute.

Though I have one MIB Flutter from the US and she has a proper story. And so do my French boxed ones.

I still prefer the poems though...

[ZeldaTheSwordsman]

Sorry for coming off so harsh. The poems are pretty, they just don't give much information about the individual ponies for a writer or artist to work with.

I've seen some people question why Majesty never appeared in the cartoon, and I think I have the answer (beyond the factor of Megan also supplying a leader role; she didn't start that way after all). The answer comes to me from the production bible for sister series The Transformers, where the character Buzzsaw had a note saying he was to be used sparingly; this is because he was bundled in with Soundwave and thus didn't need to be advertised.
Majesty is in a similar boat - between Dream Castle itself being advertised, and the other pack-in character Spike being advertised, she didn't also need to be worked in. I'm fairly sure the same applies to Sundance and Baby Sundance's minimal screentime.

My headcanon for the in-universe reason is that she was away on a quest that kept her busy for a few years.

[LadyAmalthea]

By the time the show aired, the Dream Castle (and subsequently, Majesty) was no longer available in stores, at least where I lived. Therefore, nothing was to be benefitted by featuring ponies that couldn't be purchased...even the movie was a big fat promotion for the Paradise Estate, and the TV show featured other, newer playsets and the ponies that came with them, i.e. Baby Half Note and the Baby Bonnet school of dance, as well as Scoops and the Satin Slipper. I'm actually surprised that Spike was so heavily featured, when there was no way to purchase him at that point (although he did become available by mail order somewhere in those years).

[Carrehz]

Wildshadow posted some pics of her copy of the series bible at one point, and IIRC that actually does list Majesty amongst the other characters (and Peachy, I think?). So she was considered for the cartoon. I assume they didn't go with her because of what LadyAmalthea said - no point in advertising her.

[ZeldaTheSwordsman]

Where's the thread for that? That would be interesting. And actually, she did get a mail-order rerelease, but I believe it was after the show ended.

By the time the show aired, the Dream Castle (and subsequently, Majesty) was no longer available in stores, at least where I lived. Therefore, nothing was to be benefitted by featuring ponies that couldn't be purchased...even the movie was a big fat promotion for the Paradise Estate, and the TV show featured other, newer playsets and the ponies that came with them, i.e. Baby Half Note and the Baby Bonnet school of dance, as well as Scoops and the Satin Slipper. I'm actually surprised that Spike was so heavily featured, when there was no way to purchase him at that point (although he did become available by mail order somewhere in those years).

I think it's because he was one of the few male characters as well as a non-pony character, and thus gave a little extra cast variety. He became a mail-order at the time of the movie.

Rescue at Midnight Castle and Escape from Katrina are part of the cartoon, and they both feature Dream Castle; it was on the shelves when they originally aired..

[Lilja]

I've seen some people question why Majesty never appeared in the cartoon, and I think I have the answer (beyond the factor of Megan also supplying a leader role; she didn't start that way after all). The answer comes to me from the production bible for sister series The Transformers, where the character Buzzsaw had a note saying he was to be used sparingly; this is because he was bundled in with Soundwave and thus didn't need to be advertised.
Majesty is in a similar boat - between Dream Castle itself being advertised, and the other pack-in character Spike being advertised, she didn't also need to be worked in. I'm fairly sure the same applies to Sundance and Baby Sundance's minimal screentime.

I think this is the most likely reason. Especially since no other playset ponies are featured in the first two specials either, even though most playsets were. And even if Majesty had been on the cartoon, she may not necessarily have been the queen/leader figure she was in the UK comic and US storybooks.

This is very much pure speculation on my part, but I suspect for the specials the ponies were mostly written as blank slates and it was up to Hasbro which ponies they wanted to feature in them.

Maybe when Escape from Catrina was originally written, some of the roles were intended for ponies from the first special. It would've made sense if Firefly was the one to bring Megan back to Dream Valley rather than Skydancer (who was basically just a cameo), and Sundance could've originally been Applejack, continuing the bonding between her and Megan from the first special (and being clumsy and jumping for apples both relates to Applejack's backcard story). But then this role had to be filled by Sundance to better tie in with the toy release.

Then again, Bow-Tie was the pony who was good at jumping in the first special, so maybe I'm ascribing more thought to the writing process than there actually was. But Bow-Tie being given this ability seems pretty random, right? Nothing about her toy or backcard story relates to jumping. If any pony was going to be portrayed as a good jumper it should've been Lemon Drop! (but of course, no playset ponies allowed)

[Taffeta]

It would be interesting to know what would have been in any episode that might have included y2 rainbow ponies. If that was ever more than just animation for the commercial, which I am not sure is confirmed.

DC was still in stores here when all of the MLP series aired xD We had it through till maybe 1987 or even at a push 1988. I know it was still in some of Europe in 1988. But that wouldn't have influenced the US animators of course. She had a much greater presence here.

I still think that Majesty might have been left out because of all the difficulty of how to patch her into the story. Would she be custodian of DC? Would she be a Queen or a ruler figure? But that role basically got given to Megan and you get the impression they're completely hopeless without little humanoid running in to the rescue.

I also feel that the mystery rainbow pony may have been sort of Peachy but not Peachy. Not necessarily a prototype but maybe originally designed to be Peachy and then animated out to something else. Maybe even a nod to the animation company, given the symbol. Again, Grooming Parlour was still sold here in blue till 87 but I think it stopped fairly early in the US.

BowTie jumping is a bit odd, maybe just random for the story - or another edit in to remove a playset pony. Over here it would've been Butterscotch, as she was apparently supposed to be the clear round pony, but...I guess it gave her a role in the story which otherwise she would not have had.

@ZeldatheSwordsman - it's fine, the flutter poems on their own are just cute poems. (Though they are cute xD) But the stories happened in the comics, so it balanced. Although I suspect that the characters in the comic may have been influenced by the US cards, it happened a lot back then. I only have Morning Glory for the US packaging though and I was never that interested in the first set as a kid. Only the second.

[LadyAmalthea]

Where's the thread for that? That would be interesting. And actually, she did get a mail-order rerelease, but I believe it was after the show ended.

By the time the show aired, the Dream Castle (and subsequently, Majesty) was no longer available in stores, at least where I lived. Therefore, nothing was to be benefitted by featuring ponies that couldn't be purchased...even the movie was a big fat promotion for the Paradise Estate, and the TV show featured other, newer playsets and the ponies that came with them, i.e. Baby Half Note and the Baby Bonnet school of dance, as well as Scoops and the Satin Slipper. I'm actually surprised that Spike was so heavily featured, when there was no way to purchase him at that point (although he did become available by mail order somewhere in those years).

I think it's because he was one of the few male characters as well as a non-pony character, and thus gave a little extra cast variety. He became a mail-order at the time of the movie.

Rescue at Midnight Castle and Escape from Katrina are part of the cartoon, and they both feature Dream Castle; it was on the shelves when they originally aired..

True...I guess I didn't see them until they aired alongside MLP and Friends on TV a few years later, and they were all mixed up together and in random order, so as a kid I assumed they were all part of the same show. Perhaps when those 2 specials aired they weren't as sales-focused as they became in later years.

I just looked, and I have the pamphlet (printed 1987) where Spike is available for $2 + 1 horseshoe point! Wish I could still send that in and get him now! Pretty Parlor was $7, baby buggy $9. So cheap!

[ZeldaTheSwordsman]

Oh, they were totally sales-focused when the specials aired, hence why none of the RaMC ponies show up in EfC. They probably had a tighter limit on speaking and action parts, especially since the specials were made with more expensive animation than the series.

$7 is a markdown from the Parlor's original price of $11.99, which would be almost $30 in today's money.

@Taffeta Hey now, there are adventures where things get done without Megan's help and leadership, or the magic weapon they entrusted her with. I think the times where she was visiting already for social reasons (so may as well have her along) outnumber the times they specifically went to get her to help by a significant margin.
In any case, Majesty and Dream Castle were old product by the time the regular episodes started.

[Carrehz]

I've always thought the rainbow pony *had* to have been originally scripted/boarded/whatever as Peachy, and then switched to the mystery pony halfway through production (the best theory I've heard is that Hasbro knew they were making rainbow ponies and wanted to promote 'em, but didn't have any finalized designs yet, so they just told the Sunbow designers to make something up). I mean, why else would she have Twinkles the cat? I don't think it would have been particularly difficult to just swap one model out for another. Wouldn't surprise me if one of the RaMC unicorns started off as Majesty and got switched for w/e reason, either.

[LadyMoondancer]

Great point on "Buzzsaw Syndrome"!

I think this would also explain why Lemon Drop wasn't in the special.  IIRC Megan's home resembled the Show Stable.  So . . . job done, it's been advertised!  No need for Lemon Drop.

And then they made that store exclusive of it that was literally called "Megan's Place."

I sort of wonder if the "mystery pony" in RaMC was originally going to be Peachy (since she's carrying Twinkles the cat) but then Hasbro said, "Wait a minute, you need to put a Rainbow Pony in there."  But maybe they didn't actually explain what that meant or provide any character models so the show people just drew the most rainbowy pony they could imagine: rainbow hair with a rainbow on her butt.

I know some people compare Mystery Pony to the First Born porcelain but I think it's a coincidence.  White pony + rainbow hair is just a popular, generic design.  (Whisper the Winged Unicorn, Lisa Frank unicorns, Starlite, etc.)

[Lilja]

I'd assume the first special began development at the same as Hasbro was planning out the second year of the toyline, which would explain why there are some discrepancies (like the generic rainbow pony). I don't think the writers were looking at the finished ponies and deciding their personalities based on their designs. The very first outline probably described the characters along the lines of "pony #1 the one that jumps", "pony #2 the one who gets captured", "the pegasus who brings the heroine", "the unicorn who uses magic" etc. I think Hasbro decided (or at least had a lot of influence over) which ponies would be put into those slots.

It makes sense that the main pegasus and unicorn became the pink ones, Hasbro probably thought they would be big sellers because of their color. The two most prominent earth ponies are the ones that were newly released for that year and were in a more conventional pose. Bow-Tie doesn't make sense as the athletic, jumping pony based on her design, but still got put into that role. Twilight having wishing magic does make sense with her star symbol, but it would've made even more sense for Glory with her shooting star symbol. But of course, Glory is not pink, so she is in the background as the rollerskating pony (also a very random choice for her).

Similarly I don't think the Show Stable and Pretty Parlor were high priority because they were released in the first year and not "hot new products" at the time (Megan's stable looks similar to Show Stable, but it's on screen for a very short time) . Dream Castle on the other hand was new (and the most expensive playset) for 1984 and thus features very prominently. The Waterfall technically isn't in the special, but a lot of focus is put on clouds and the rainbowed colored water fall, so it's kind of there in spirit. Megan and Firefly's song number where they play around in the clouds seems to evoke the idea of playing with foam in the bath, or maybe that was just my interpretation as a kid. xD

[Taffeta]

Rollerskating - rollerskating outfit nudge? Or too early? I am not sure what year ponywear happened in the US.

@ZeldatheHorseman - I just can't stand Megan. xD. She was blissfully absent from 95% of the comics. It was wonderful. The ponies got to save each other themselves.