Hasbro's Most Baffling MLP Decisions

[DreamvalleyMLP]

Not connecting FairyTails to MLP. It had a lot of potential imo

[MJNSEIFER]

Not connecting FairyTails to MLP. It had a lot of potential imo

I know it's not the same/doesn't count, but I actually want to connect them in my fanseries, so thanks for the reminder.

But yeah, FairyTails would have fitted in with the MLP world perfectly, or failing that at least give them a show (if they did have a show and I missed it, feel free to say.) I'm sure some of them had the same names as some G1 Ponies too, or one got the unused names of the other? (Might check later...)

[Kitcatepic]

why are all the birthflower ponies in the same pose with the same colors??? it drives me crazy!

[lalalei2001]

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.

I wrote a fanfic about why that was and it turned out to be (sort of) the reason G5 used to separate everyone--a  bad guy did it

[Leave a Whisper]

Where did all the other species go in Tales? Yeah, we got the Glow n Shows, but surely unicorn and pegasus would still be around.

I hate Store Exclusives.

[Taffeta]

I'm also not a fan of store exclusives. I know they can be a pain for folk in the US - they're even worse when the exclusive ends up not being translated overseas into any store for whatever reason.

At least G4 mostly fixed that gap issue by assigning Target, Walmart exclusives etc to equivalent stores here, but G3 was a nightmare.

I wouldn't have wanted Fairy Tales to be part of MLP, but maybe I'm just jaded from years of seeing people trying to sell them as such

The names are also overlapped on the US release of the tropical ponies, though not here, where the pony names are original.

[Leave a Whisper]

Twins: Sniffles and Snookums
Twins: Sticky and Sniffles

Playset: Baby Cuddles
Drink n Wet: Baby Cuddles

BBE: Baby Gusty
Sparkle Baby: Baby Gusty

Brush n Grow: Ringlets
Rainbow Curl: Ringlet
 

[Shadowperla]

I wouldn't have wanted Fairy Tales to be part of MLP, but maybe I'm just jaded from years of seeing people trying to sell them as such

The names are also overlapped on the US release of the tropical ponies, though not here, where the pony names are original.

I saw a fairytail listed under random MLP name two times. I was ebaying pony, then halaboom, fairytail with her name.

[MJNSEIFER]

The names are also overlapped on the US release of the tropical ponies, though not here, where the pony names are original.

That'll likely be what I was thinking of earlier - Yeah, I remember it being the Tropical Ponies that had the same names, thinking of it (can't remember for if I knew they had different UK names, though...)

[Leave a Whisper]

Hasbro likes reusing names, even across franchises. They sure did like the names Spike and Danny

[DreamvalleyMLP]

Going through the costly process of creating poses that only end up being used twice or even just once. (G3 Bath time Sweetsong was such a lovely pose, but we never saw it again.)

[Taffeta]

The names are also overlapped on the US release of the tropical ponies, though not here, where the pony names are original.

That'll likely be what I was thinking of earlier - Yeah, I remember it being the Tropical Ponies that had the same names, thinking of it (can't remember for if I knew they had different UK names, though...)

We call the unicorn Sail Away, the earth pony with the palm trees is Hula Hula, the yellow one is Summer Heatwave and the pegasus is Surfing Days.

I like the name Pina Colada, but honestly don't understand why Hula Hula is the unicorn in the US. I feel like that was a mistake somewhere, given the swaying palm trees motif...

I really don't know if this was a case of the UK just using different names or if it was like with at least one of the Sundae Best where the names were established then changed in the US (like Cherry Berry --> Crunch Berry).

I wish we had more info on that.

While we're on name repetition, though, there was very little in the UK because we either didn't have every release of pony with a certain name or we had our own names for at least one of the offenders (eg Twinkler/Moonshimmer). We did have both Sky Rockets, and we had baby Half Note and adult Half Note. I am struggling to think of any others though. We didn't have SS Fifi...or TAF Buttons, so those didn't apply here.

BUT...we had one name overlap the US did not have. Candy Cane with the gingerbread symbol is officially Gingerbread here. Although...because of US imports she was sold under both names Gingerbread and Molasses...LOL

[DreamvalleyMLP]

Why did the UK even go through the process of renaming ponies to begin with? Anyone know? It's so curious.

[Carrehz]

I assume for the same reason anything else gets renamed when it arrives in a different country? It's hardly a MLP-exclusive thing.

[Taffeta]

Why did the UK even go through the process of renaming ponies to begin with? Anyone know? It's so curious.

I think in the case of some it was cultural. I do think we originally had the Mountain Boys ahead of the Big Brother Ponies (here, Adventure Boys) because weather was more 'British' than some of the themes in the Big Brother set. But they released those here eventually anyway, just with name changes and set name change.

The name thing is interesting though. There's not a lot of name changing in the early stuff. There are sets missing, like the early unicorn/pegasus ponies, but they appear in our comics with the same names as the US. There's that one Sea Pony but who knows whether that was just a coincidence, since the accessories, rest of the set, everything is different...

The definitely deliberate first name change I can think of is Sweetie (for Sweet Stuff) and that would have been 1986, since that set was out here in 1986. That one seems linguistic, just something British kids would make more sense out of.

It's after that that things go a bit crazy on the name front.

If it was just a case of 'one of those things that happens' when things go international, you'd expect it from the beginning, but this doesn't happen. We have 'Cotton Candy'. That term does not exist in the UK. We call it Candyfloss. But the pony's name is not changed.

And then even in 1987, where you have wholesale changes (eg all 6 Princesses, 4/6 TAFs, 4/6 Big Brothers, set names of both the latter)...we had Tic Tac Toe under that name (and baby Tic Tac Toe) although the game here is Noughts and Crosses. Maybe Hasbro thought it sounded nice for kids tongues? Not sure, but always wondered why Tic Tac Toe and not Quackers in the UK set, given the name thing?

I think in some cases where the Uk names are original and the US ones aren't, it's down to copyrighting as well. It's easier to trademark a name for a localised area than a global one. There are quite a lot of name changes between 1987 and 1991, which could easily be put down to just local custom, preference, ease of trademark, whatever. But then there are those weird things like the Sundae Best, with 'Cherry Berry' used in the UK but advertised originally in the US. And the Tropical ponies as mentioned before, were they always those names?

We'll probably never know why and there may be multiple reasons involved. It is interesting, though, since it should be fundamentally unecessary to change the names for an English-speaking market. Translating them for other language markets is one thing (and let's not forget Canadian french names and French names weren't always the same either...eg Shady as Incognito/Petit Ombre) but to do it for some US-ish names and not others, at certain times and not others I think is more about the individual marketing plans over successive years (and the reach of Hasbro UK as a company) than it is just a random state of affairs.

I'm glad, because aside the silly over Molasses/Gingerbread, it's nice not having a lot of double names to deal with. But it's also sad because most UK collectors don't use the UK names, not even those who grew up with them. So the advantage of having additional names for ponies that double up is kind of gone now.

Also, if you put it into the bigger context, G3 and G4 do not have name changes for ponies in the UK release. Even when the boxes are European, the names are not changed (correct me if there is an exception but I can't think of one right now).

G2 has one, but then the end of G2 is different anyway, with European releases, some only having names in French or Spanish, etc. But at the start of the release Sundance (US) is Sunsparkle in the Uk and Europe. The name Sunsparkle continues beyond the death of G2 in the US. But aside the names that shift because of translation etc, I think she's the last official time a pony in the UK has a name different from the US.

So from 1986/7 to 1997/8, this is a thing. And then it isn't.