The release of G2s would have coincided with the Yugoslav Wars, so I kind of doubt that any were released in Yugoslavia, though I wouldn't know either way. The wars themselves were terrible and would have had a profound economic impact on the former Yugoslavian States:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yugoslav_Wars (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yugoslav_Wars)
I keep finding more and more countries that I want to know about! I know that Poland had the cartoon and the 1986 film, so I am guessing they had the toys too.
I keep finding more and more countries that I want to know about! I know that Poland had the cartoon and the 1986 film, so I am guessing they had the toys too.
I don't think you should guess at the information.
So far confirmed Poland had the cartoon. Unknown if they had the toys.
And I think you should try to get information if it was a common toy in most areas or just only in big city toy stores.
I keep finding more and more countries that I want to know about! I know that Poland had the cartoon and the 1986 film, so I am guessing they had the toys too.
I don't think you should guess at the information.
So far confirmed Poland had the cartoon. Unknown if they had the toys.
And I think you should try to get information if it was a common toy in most areas or just only in big city toy stores.
“Because of trade embargoes in certain countries, a lot of the stuff was made during the Cold War,” Joseph Yglesias, a leading expert on Star Wars bootleg toys who is writing a book on the subject, tells Yahoo Movies. “So a lot of Soviet countries couldn’t get licensed products legally imported. For some reason, they could get the movies but they couldn’t get the toys. So to have something for the kid to play with, that was affordable for the average worker in say, Poland, a lot of these bootleg companies filled the gap.”
And actually, thinking about it, I don't think it's uncommon to have a TV show in several countries and its related toys only available in some of those countries.
I am very bad at tones though :/ I had to look them up >.> I couldn't say it out loud without swearing, most likely :(
The characters are not the same as Japanese for the most part as its simplified Chinese. Which also means its mainland China, not Taiwan...or I think Singapore because I think traditional characters are used there as well.
LM, do you have any scans up on these at all? I know you are selling them so it's a cheeky question, but it would be so much fun to try to read just a bit of it...
My Mandarin is very basic but it would be fun :/
Like MLP Tales being shown in the US and none of the toys being sold here . . . What a world! :PGlory. Medley. Moondancer. Powder. Need I continue? :P
Also poverty wouldn't be that big of a limit for pony distribution, cheap licenced ponies after all made their way to even Colombia, and some better ones to Mexico. Venezuela apparently was more stable then so not counting it.
QuoteLike MLP Tales being shown in the US and none of the toys being sold here . . . What a world! :PGlory. Medley. Moondancer. Powder. Need I continue? :P
QuoteLike MLP Tales being shown in the US and none of the toys being sold here . . . What a world! :PGlory. Medley. Moondancer. Powder. Need I continue? :P
Just imagine having the cartoon and no ponies at all! :O If I am right in my surmise that Poland and Russia had the cartoon but no ponies, I wonder if they had any fakies?
My latest titbit of European info: I was looking at auctions for some MOC ponies from a seller in Greece (Starlight Babies and Playschool Babies), and the cards have 'small print' on them in English, Portuguese, Norwegian and Greek. An unlikely combination, given how far apart those countries are geographically.
Hmmm, that is weird! Are you sure it is Norwegian and not Danish? I’ve never ever seen anything translated in Norwegian instead of Danish or Swedish....
Edit: and never ever anything MLP. We had all our backcards in English...
Hmmm, that is weird! Are you sure it is Norwegian and not Danish? I’ve never ever seen anything translated in Norwegian instead of Danish or Swedish....
Edit: and never ever anything MLP. We had all our backcards in English...
Here's a picture: https://imgur.com/a/trNxNKQ
It's only the bit telling you not to give it to children under 3, the interesting bits of the backcard that tell you about the ponies are all in English.
Thanks for pointing out it's Danish! So many things I need to double-check :blush:.
If I do ever manage to put together a website about European ponies, I wonder if I might track down some experts on pony distribution in certain countries to contribute overviews of pony history in their country.... Hmm, so many (probably over ambitious!) ideas and plans!
Also poverty wouldn't be that big of a limit for pony distribution, cheap licenced ponies after all made their way to even Colombia, and some better ones to Mexico. Venezuela apparently was more stable then so not counting it.
Do we know anything about the price points for Columbian or Venezuelan ponies or how affordable they were to the general population?
Thanks for pointing out it's Danish! So many things I need to double-check :blush:.
If I do ever manage to put together a website about European ponies, I wonder if I might track down some experts on pony distribution in certain countries to contribute overviews of pony history in their country.... Hmm, so many (probably over ambitious!) ideas and plans!
No worries! They are very similar after all ;) I’m impressed you recognized it as a Scandinavian language. Not sure many would have been able to do that!
Also poverty wouldn't be that big of a limit for pony distribution, cheap licenced ponies after all made their way to even Colombia, and some better ones to Mexico. Venezuela apparently was more stable then so not counting it.
Do we know anything about the price points for Columbian or Venezuelan ponies or how affordable they were to the general population?
Nope. Though I assume mexicans were pretty affordable, since they don't seem to be that rare at all. I know a site that has a scan of a colombian toy catalogue with ponies in it, but the picture is too blurry to read.
Also poverty wouldn't be that big of a limit for pony distribution, cheap licenced ponies after all made their way to even Colombia, and some better ones to Mexico. Venezuela apparently was more stable then so not counting it.
Do we know anything about the price points for Columbian or Venezuelan ponies or how affordable they were to the general population?
Nope. Though I assume mexicans were pretty affordable, since they don't seem to be that rare at all. I know a site that has a scan of a colombian toy catalogue with ponies in it, but the picture is too blurry to read.
Please don't assume things then if you have nothing to base it off of. :/
I can't help much with the other countries, but in the early 90s I had relatives in Hungary send me ponies in the mail. The year after I received a Vanilla Treat (with proper accessories and the normal pamphlet) in an English language Hairdo Ponies box.
Also poverty wouldn't be that big of a limit for pony distribution, cheap licenced ponies after all made their way to even Colombia, and some better ones to Mexico. Venezuela apparently was more stable then so not counting it.
Do we know anything about the price points for Columbian or Venezuelan ponies or how affordable they were to the general population?
Nope. Though I assume mexicans were pretty affordable, since they don't seem to be that rare at all. I know a site that has a scan of a colombian toy catalogue with ponies in it, but the picture is too blurry to read.
Please don't assume things then if you have nothing to base it off of. :/
With these things we often can only assume. Mexico as far as I know wasn't even back then all that welle conomicaly, so toys that there seems to be a fair amount of still around by sense probably can not have been too expensive. I know it's only a quess. I'm sorry.
I can't help much with the other countries, but in the early 90s I had relatives in Hungary send me ponies in the mail. The year after I received a Vanilla Treat (with proper accessories and the normal pamphlet) in an English language Hairdo Ponies box.
...You have my attention. How the heck did that happen? Very weird but very cool.
I'm from Budapest and the majority of ponies that most European countries had were available here. I'm also pretty sure that the alternate birthflower ponies were available here as well, because I used to find them regularly at the flea market.
The history of pony distribution is certainly fascinating....and often frustrating! :lol:that japanese part intrigued me... but i can't find anything on it! only fan subtitled ones (english audio track, i ). do you have a link to this page? looking into fullwiki, it claims to be a wikipedia alternative for research with sources (or similar, i haven't actually looked at it in a couple of days) the other language claims are interesting too, but that part in particular jumped out at me (for probably obvious reasons)
I've been Googling in multiple languages and looking through eBay-type sites in search of more information. I can't believe how much G4 I've seen, it's everywhere!
Anyway, here's my summaries so far. Of course some of it is just conjecture, so feel free to correct me if necessary.SpoilerThese European countries had G1 ponies: Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK.
These countries had the MLP n Friends cartoon, and may also have had other media such as the film, comics, books, but do not seem to have had any toys: Poland, Russia, Czech Republic and Slovakia, Lithuania, possibly Bulgaria.
The movie exists in Bulgarian, but I haven't been able to find out when it was released there.
It is possible that the Russian dub was also shown in Belarus and Ukraine.
I found a list online (only on a Wikipedia type site, "fullwiki" I think, so not sure how much faith can be put into it) claiming that MLP n Friends was translated into the following languages: Chinese, Czech, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese(?!), Lithuanian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish. I have definitely seen bits of it in Czech, Greek, Hungarian and Russian.
These countries probably had no G1 ponies: Albania, Bosnia, Croatia, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia.
These countries I don't know about yet, but I have my doubts about them having G1 ponies: Belarus, Estonia, Latvia, Ukraine.
My main interest is in G1, but I've been seeing other gens around too, and have reached the following conclusions, which, again, I'm up for being corrected on if necessary:SpoilerEuropean countries that had G2 ponies: Austria(?), Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK.
European countries that had G3 ponies: Austria, Belgium, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Macedonia, Montenegro, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Serbia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK.
Belarus MAY have had G3: I've seen a lot of G3 style fakies and some merch which looks genuine. Ukraine seems to have had a similar situation, this may be the gen that Taffeta remembers a Russian collector saying they had to import from Ukraine, but that's really just guesswork.
I've also never heard of G1 animation being actually aired in Japan in Japanese. G4 was, but not G1.i see! i think i've only seen some retro merch from japan, though i don't know if it was imported (i didn't recognise it) but since they have the mlp cafe and pop up shops often it's possible... but that's even further off topic, since it's more related to g4 at that point.
(Japan in spoilers as it is somewhat OT)*pretends Japan is now in Europe* XDSpoiler
When we were kids, and my mother was teaching Japanese businessmen and sometimes their wives, my sister and I often played with the kids. At least one of them was mad keen on ponies. She was the same age as my sister, so she'd be 31 now. The general consensus from the mothers of these kids was that there was no MLP in Japan. They didn't know about Takara either, but then given the age of this kid, she would've been too young anyway. But while there is a glut of G1 and G3 ponies up for sale on second hand sites like the Yahoo auctions, that has to be taken with a pinch of salt. A lot of Japanese families spend extended periods in other countries due to the business of mostly father (occasionally mother). One of my mother's former students lived here for four years, then in Texas, and is now back in Japan. The family I mention above were here for a spell of about 5 years, then went to China, and are now back in Japan (I spent some time with them when I was over there last year, and they've relocated around Japan as well since then).
So it's really quite normal for Japanese kids to pick up foreign toys and take them back. Maybe also foreign VHS, and an interest in G1. But I am not aware of there being any natively Japanese attempt to produce or transmit this stuff. I can understand why there'd be a G1 fandom in Japan, but I don't think it came from Japan. If that makes any sense at all!
And this really isn't Europe, but when I first had the Takara leaflet scans sent to me in around 1998 or 1999, I did try to find out if there was anything else. And since I learned Japanese, I have kept my eyes open - but I haven't seen anything like the Chinese books LM posted above.
It's not impossible and I would love to be proven wrong. But I feel like G1 interest in Japan came from outside in because of the way Japanese business works. Before the bubble burst, Japan was very economically viable and so a lot of Japanese companies and individuals ended up abroad. I feel like it's more likely a symptom of diaspora than anything else.
When I was in Japan there wasn't even anything G4 except the odd plush and some Pez toys. I saw Monster High in the second hand stores, but I didn't see MLP. I know MLP has been found there, but mostly in Tokyo, I think - I was in Kansai and mostly Kyoto, and I didn't see anything.
Regarding the Hungary information - I think the key thing is when did it start over there. We've got a range of dates for other European countries from 1983ish to around 1985. It would be neat to know if Hungary fit into that category.
Finding the BF ponies there is also interesting...in a completely random way. But then Vanilla Treat in a hairdo box is quite random, so.
For the record, we really still don't know even that much about Ireland. Bits and pieces every so often, but not anything properly coherent. Aware that isn't Eastern Europe, but just putting it out there to underscore that we have big European gaps.
And people wonder why I get so annoyed that people have spent 20 years focused only on the US system. Sigh.
We have wandered beyond Eastern Europe a bit now, but I really don't mind :).a quick search shows up with nothing, so it may be worth digging deeper.. i don't think it could be much, but hey, i might find something interesting along the way! i wonder where they pulled that name from... it doesn't have much of anything to do with mlp
http://www.thefullwiki.org/My_Little_Pony_%28TV_series%29#Overseas_Editions - Fullwiki's list of MLP n Friends in translation. According to them, the Japanese version was called Kun Dono Sotyou. I did do a bit of a double-take when I saw Japan mentioned! It seems so unlikely that I haven't liked to put too much faith in that list.
Meanwhile, the Polish translation sounds, um, strange: "A single voice artist translated all dialogue, over the still-audible American actors."
Ireland does seem a bit of an unknown. I mean, they had ponies, and that's about all I know so far! I realised earlier that I know more about ponies in Greece than in the country that's right next door to mine :lol:.
That's also horrible romanisation.tomodachi wa mahou ;)
Just saying.
I searched both in English and Japanese with the proper romanisation/in kanji/in kana and hit nothing MLP at all. The search term on that site only shows up that site, absolutely no others, so that doesn't add to it's reliability.
The Hasbro MLP page for Japan also doesn't mention it. It talks about an airing series, not one that's finished, so I guess that's FIM.
http://www.mylittlepony.jp/about/07/index.html
There are pictures of the G1 Rainbows on there but nothing we haven't seen before with retro stuff.
Japan did have some weird retro stuff in the 1990s, like the baby sugarberry keychain...I think that had a rainbow logo reflecting G2 if I remember rightly? It was definitely right at the end of the 1990s.
In any case, I think that any MLP in Japan would've been Mai Ritoru Ponii something. Takara ponies are, and so is FIM, albeit FIM is mai ritoru ponii yuujou wa mahou.
It could be the name of an episode, and it could be the name of an episode from a fansub that someone got the wrong impression of. I am sceptical, but I admit, mostly because I hate people who romanise chou as tyou.
Here in my mind I had an idea of a fansub/dub on a VHS...ah, don't know why that didn't cross my mind since i've encountered many from america and such... i feel like the videos i found have gone through an amount of reuploading, or were fetched from a lower quality source, because even the highest quality uploads had a visible fuzz around the subtitles (i'd expect the video itself not to be great quality yeah, but the subtitles themselves like i said looked lower quality, and usually i see a contrast between the quality of the subs and the video if older stuff is subtitled, but i also could be talking rubbish)
Here in my mind I had an idea of a fansub/dub on a VHS...ah, don't know why that didn't cross my mind since i've encountered many from america and such... i feel like the videos i found have gone through an amount of reuploading, or were fetched from a lower quality source, because even the highest quality uploads had a visible fuzz around the subtitles (i'd expect the video itself not to be great quality yeah, but the subtitles themselves like i said looked lower quality, and usually i see a contrast between the quality of the subs and the video if older stuff is subtitled, but i also could be talking rubbish)
but back to the point... i didn't look that much into it... but i didn't see much in the little time i searched. if this was a thing and there was discussion online then it's limited to maybe like, small forums which i didn't look at...
Here in my mind I had an idea of a fansub/dub on a VHS...ah, don't know why that didn't cross my mind since i've encountered many from america and such... i feel like the videos i found have gone through an amount of reuploading, or were fetched from a lower quality source, because even the highest quality uploads had a visible fuzz around the subtitles (i'd expect the video itself not to be great quality yeah, but the subtitles themselves like i said looked lower quality, and usually i see a contrast between the quality of the subs and the video if older stuff is subtitled, but i also could be talking rubbish)
but back to the point... i didn't look that much into it... but i didn't see much in the little time i searched. if this was a thing and there was discussion online then it's limited to maybe like, small forums which i didn't look at...
Ah I meant that I feel like whatever what distributed back in the 80/90s was on VHS and probably didn't make its way to the internet. (as by now, they could just rip a DVD and place subs on).
Ah I meant that I feel like whatever what distributed back in the 80/90s was on VHS and probably didn't make its way to the internet. (as by now, they could just rip a DVD and place subs on).woops >_<
It's dated 2015 but I don't suppose airing in Japan matters as the text says it is airing across the world. Present tense. Which is true. It doesn't mention Japan specifically in any way at all. Which is quite clever really, keeping the platform alive in case they want to use it again without telling any fibs...Ah I meant that I feel like whatever what distributed back in the 80/90s was on VHS and probably didn't make its way to the internet. (as by now, they could just rip a DVD and place subs on).woops >_<
taffeta, yup! the concept of friends itself is magic, lol... (also, FiM isn't currently airing in japan - only the first two seasons aired, starting in 2013, so i don't know why the website says that unless they just never update it)
Meanwhile, the Polish translation sounds, um, strange: "A single voice artist translated all dialogue, over the still-audible American actors."
I'm from Budapest and the majority of ponies that most European countries had were available here. I'm also pretty sure that the alternate birthflower ponies were available here as well, because I used to find them regularly at the flea market.
Oooh! Really? That is super excisting! I never heard that the alt.birthflowers were sold anywhere else than Denmark and Australia! Hmm, which countries do you think about when you say majority of Europe though? From my knowledge the European releases were a little all over the place and there are quite a lot of ponies that are exclusive to just a few countries. Someone mentioned baby Honeycomb? Do you remember if that baby set were sold in Hungary?
My Little Wiki is telling me they had European ponies too. I want to know which ponies they had (I'm starting to think 'European' is a bit of a vague term....).
. And I want to see the weird Polish cartoon with only one voice actor!
Unfortunately my Israeli friend is now back in Israel, so less easy for me to poke about stuff. I am not sure about the timeline, but I know from what she told me/remembered from her collection which she still has, she had the Apple Delight Family (Mum, Dad, Sister), SS Shady, and a winger...I think we decided it was a Windy Wing but I forget which one. She also told me a lot of these shows got to Israel a bit later. It sounds to me from what she said that the ponies they had were mostly from the US, so Powder makes sense, probably on US card.
The only Hebrew I can read is 'Shalom' and when I was over there I could make out signs that said Jerusalem while she was driving. Which isn't helpful for ponies.
@ allymer I hoped you would see this and post. Really interested to know more about ponies over there!!!
@allymer, ponies in Israel sound totally fascinating, I hope you get a chance to put together some pictures and facts for us to look at! :)
Allymer, that is an awesome amount of information, thanks for writing it all out!
There was a Hebrew sticker album?! I love MLP sticker albums, do you happen to have any pictures or other info about that? Also, were there any MLP story books in Hebrew?
I have seen a Hebrew story book before, but none of these :D
Is there any chance of being able to use that advert on my website or does the image belong to someone else?
I have seen a Hebrew story book before, but none of these :D
Is there any chance of being able to use that advert on my website or does the image belong to someone else?
YES, you can use it :) it's taken from a friend of mine who dont collect mlp but does end up keeping the sticker album :) so its ok of you to use those...
if you want write me (pm or here) your Email n ill send you the pics
Thanks for sharing the Israel part, I always wondered since I didn't grew up or go on holiday a lot. Unfortunately I can not ask my family over there to go look on the fleamarkets or shops. Must try next year when I go Eurovision :)