Hasbro's Most Baffling MLP Decisions

[LadyMoondancer]

Once I was looking for trademarked MLP names and I found a record of suing another toy company for using a pony name.  The pony name: Cotton Candy.  The toy that was being produced:  a toy that produced real cotton candy.

The really interesting thing was it occurred after G1 and before G3.  It might even have been before G2.  So that baffles me.  They lost the lawsuit, obviously.

Maybe the purpose was intimidation?  Like, smaller toy companies probably don't want to go to court even if they know they'll win, because they'll have to pay lawyers.  So maybe this was some weird warning, like "You'd better double-check that you don't use a pony name from over a decade ago or WE'RE COMING FOR YOU."

[Leave a Whisper]

Once I was looking for trademarked MLP names and I found a record of suing another toy company for using a pony name.  The pony name: Cotton Candy.  The toy that was being produced:  a toy that produced real cotton candy.

The really interesting thing was it occurred after G1 and before G3.  It might even have been before G2.  So that baffles me.  They lost the lawsuit, obviously.

Maybe the purpose was intimidation?  Like, smaller toy companies probably don't want to go to court even if they know they'll win, because they'll have to pay lawyers.  So maybe this was some weird warning, like "You'd better double-check that you don't use a pony name from over a decade ago or WE'RE COMING FOR YOU."

Seriously?  That's super petty of hasbro. I seriously hope they were laughed out of court.

[Taffeta]

On the subject of canon, I think the word simply didn't exist prior to G4. It's a byproduct of a world in which now canon and non-canon is normally discussed (or theorised about, or argued over) online in fandoms, which in the past didn't happen. So I guess what I mean is that the bronies determined canon and non-canon, rather than multiple canons as a thing.

Different nuance I guess.

Aside the movie on the Movie Star backcard, the G1 TV show/animation was very little promoted in the UK. Some adverts in the comic about the movie, so probably some promotion then. But otherwise, not. Probably because (aside maybe the first special) it didn't actually air on TV here till around 1995. It was all VHS release till then.

This is me going back to geekdom but I still find the name changes in G1 interesting. Not just the difference between US and UK releases, but also how individual ponies changed through the process.

I can see that Storm and Frosty would've been harder to trademark than Thundercloud and Ice Crystal. But all the weird with the Sundae Best names both here and in the US raises questions about how many of the UK release names were original names Hasbro US ditched and how many were designed for a UK release for other reasons? Suspect some of them were easier to trademark just in the UK or Europe than overall, so that may be a reason. Some are cultural (you wouldn't have a pony called First Base in the US, for example - but since baseball was a non-thing here (still is really), the closest was rounders, and thus a universal term was chosen (ignorant of US slang! LOL).

The Sundae Best are odd though. Cherry Berry is a US name. We have proof of that. It was reused in G4. But before the Sundae Best were released, the name was changed to Crunch Berry (and possibly the designated pony was also changed, judging by the advertising photo.) And the US cards, some of them have capitalised names and some not. In the UK, there was a lot of confusion about which one was which as well, both on Hasbro inserts and in the comic.

If Cherry Berry was a US name that was changed for some reason over there but not here, how many more are like that? I wonder a lot about the Tropical Ponies, and whether it was just cheaper for HAsbro US to use the Fairy Tail names instead of trademarking original ones.

[LadyMoondancer]

The word canon was used in fandom prior to G4 times. I don't know when it first became a thing, but Transformers fans argued about canon when Beast Wars was airing (late 90s).  Or they would argue about the origins of the Constructicons in the G1 cartoon.  In the TF show bible they said "The origins of the Constructicons, who form the giant robot Devastator, are a mystery", so three different writers took that to mean "Oh, I should invent an origin for these guys" and of course all the origins contradict each other.  #1: Megatron built the Constructicons.  #2: The Constructicons built Megatron.  #3: The Constructicons used to be Autobots but Megatron turned them into Decepticons with his Turn-Evil Ray.  Technically all these origins are canon since they were in the show which just goes to show that just because something is canon doesn't mean it has to make sense.

Oh yeah, pony names!  The name "Tootsie" is very confusing to me because no one in the US uses tootsie as a generic term for candy (unlike some states using "Coke" to refer to any soda), it's specifically used for Tootsie Rolls and Tootsie Pops.  And those were named after the company founder's daughter, so it wasn't a generic term in The Old Days either.

Also, her symbol doesn't look like Tootsie Pops.  Usually they are wrapped in a patterned, waxed paper wrapper.  (There are a few different patterns and when I was a kid there was a rumor that if you found the wrapper with a boy shooting a star with an arrow then you could turn it in for a free Tootsie Pop.  As far as I know this rumor was false, ha ha.)  And when you do unwrap Tootsie Pops they're never light pink. They're very dark colors and they have a kind of raised band around them.

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So like.  Why call her that.  Why not "Lollipop" or "Candy"?

[Carrehz]

I think Taffeta's point was more that while the term "canon" has existed + been used in fandom circles forever, it wasn't really something that pony fans really concerned themselves with until G4? If that makes sense. There weren't great debates about if this book or that comic were canon, for example.

[Ponyfan]

Adding to the multiple cannons discussion, there's at least 2 ways Tempest's backstory is told.  One version is the movie prequel comic and the other is in a book.  Both versions contradict each other though at one point though because in one version Tempest meets a pony trying to sneak aboard a train or something and in the other she gets on board without meeting him.  I remember it being discussed about which version was "correct" since they differed on that point.  Neither one was really relevant to the events in the movie that I recall so it didn't really matter, but there was a lot of arguing over the versions being different instead of it being accepted as "this is the way it was in the book" vs "this is the way it was in the comics."


Ponyfan

[Taffeta]

I think Taffeta's point was more that while the term "canon" has existed + been used in fandom circles forever, it wasn't really something that pony fans really concerned themselves with until G4? If that makes sense. There weren't great debates about if this book or that comic were canon, for example.

That exactly. I know it existed - I've been involved in other fandoms online since before FIM happened. But it wasn't something discussed in the pony world in the way that G4 brought in. The idea of something being canon and non-canon was anathema to My Little Pony because we all just followed our own stuff and nothing was considered universal. FIM changed that.

Also, these days you hear pony fans talking about 'the dark origin of the TE ponies' as though it was some kind of universal origin story 'in pony canon' (I have seen people talk about it like that on other sites/platforms), when in fact it was a pretty obscure story even here in the UK, as it was in such an early comic. It wasn't on a single pony backcard, and only really gathered momentum when (later arriving) people started to try and patch together all the bits and pieces of old MLP into something more 'canonical'.

I grew up with the UK comic, and in a sense that was my childhood 'canon' -  but I find it ridiculous when people take things (like the TE origin, or Majesty's depiction or whatever) and try and make it some universal fact that all G1 pony kids grew up with. Even though I grew up with the comics and stuff, and thought about the ponies' abilities based on those things, the pony games I'd play with friends or my sister were never based around anything except our own imagination. We'd keep their names but everything else was our own.

 By the same token, I'm not massively keen on most/any of the characterisations in the G1 animation.

I find it pretty peculiar honestly. You have things like the TE backstory (comic, UK) and then you have the original Movie (US made)...and there are people out there talking about both as if they were part of some overall collective 'canon' we all grew up with.

The more stupid thing about it is that in many cases the US backcard stories got used in the UK comics more than they got used in the US animation (eg the concepts behind Shady's sunglasses was all over the UK comics, whereas the animation just took the mention of her being a bit insecure and turned it into a monstrosity - without any balance.) What makes this even more stupid is that in the UK Shady doesn't even have a backcard story. In fact, on her backcard is just a short line describing her in the way the movie depicts her - which is completely contradictory to the way the UK comic does.

But back in the eighties and nineties, literally nobody cared about this. Because nobody was trying to put it all together. And because up until G4, most of the people in the online community grew up in the eighties and nineties, nobody thought about trying to make it make sense.

[Leave a Whisper]

Putting ponies in an expensive multi-pack  with only 1 or 2 new ponies. Or worse, all old ones.

[cowboyopossum]

the thing that urks me with g4 is the switch from the beautiful boxes with the window to the boring cards... they did that in 2013 i believe, my nib g4s are from the 2012 waves. i understand it was changed to save money on packaging, but its just so boring on my shelf! its not as sturdy as my boxed ponies either, poor cherry berry is peeling off her card. i dont think they were as popular with kids either, even the special playsets were packaged a lot more boring than the early ones. _{i also do not like the reboot era/g5 3 inches... theyre getting so skinny!}
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[Leave a Whisper]

Not making more unicorns in G2, G3 and G5. Not making more pegasus in G3 and G5.

Giving ponies clip-on wings in G2 and G4 is lazy and tacky. The changeable tails in G2 look awful. The removable symbols in G5 is idiotic. Kids lose those kinds of things. Pieces of the body are not accessories Hasbro.

Who decided on those sorts of necks in G2? Haven't they ever seen any other jointed animal toys before? It makes the ponies look like giraffe weevils.

[BlackCurtains]

I don't know if this has been covered yet, but all the articulation in G5. There's always been a little bit in other gens, but I've been trying to find a regular solid bodied Sunny to no avail. She comes in sets that way, but I just want her in a bigger size.

[Carrehz]

Mm, I don't like the articulation but I can understand it. Lots of points of articulation are common in toys now so I guess Hasbro is trying to compete. I just wish they'd compete a little less since I think ponies look weird with articulated legs

[Leave a Whisper]

I don't know if this has been covered yet, but all the articulation in G5. There's always been a little bit in other gens, but I've been trying to find a regular solid bodied Sunny to no avail. She comes in sets that way, but I just want her in a bigger size.

I saw some at the 99 Cent Store yesterday. Try checking there.

[LadyMoondancer]

The gimmick of the G1 Sunshine ponies is that their one hair stripe color-changes in the sun, but several of them have the pink hair that fades in the sun.

Maybe Hasbro was just unaware of this?  They probably didn't take their prototypes outside a lot.

[VanillaBean]

I always found it baffling that G3 took so long to introduce pegasai & unicorns to the line. I was 10 when the generation launched & I remember reading an annual at the time with the line: 'Kimono loves to tell stories of the days when the woods were filled with unicorns.' I couldn't understand why earth ponies were now the only race. I'd grown up playing with G2 toys & watching G1 videos, so the absence of the other two races was really obvious to me.
I do quite like the way the pegasai of Butterfly Island were eventually introduced, followed by the unicorns. Although it's a shame there were so few of them in comparison to the others; feels like a big missed opportunity.

Hasbro's questionable name choices are hilarious. My family held quiz nights on Zoom during lockdown, & I drafted a round where they had to guess which pony names were fake & which were genuine. Nobody got any of them right. I had to show them proof that somebody had actually named a children's toy Pillow Talk.