The Toys That Made Us

[Wind~Whistler]

Some interesting stuff I noticed in the background:
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Does that Snuzzle-looking pony have closed eyes? It looks like it, but her hair is in the way.

[Mermaid]

Some interesting stuff I noticed in the background:
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Does that Snuzzle-looking pony have closed eyes? It looks like it, but her hair is in the way.

I thought the same thing, and then I remembered the bbe adult Sunlight perhaps there were several adult bbe ponies created as tests?!

[Ponyfan]

I would have liked a brief glimpse at Dream Beauties especially because they were mentioning Fashion Star Fillies from Kenner and Petite Ponies.

Also a little more explanation about exactly what "old MLP cartoons" Faust watched where ponies "didn't go on adventures and lived in cupcake houses in a meadow" as G1 MLP ponies went on many adventures. The episode showed clips from Tales during that segment but that was probably done because it fit with what Faust was saying.

I would have also liked a little balance on RAMC as even though everyone was saying that wasn't what they had in mind. Couldn't they find at least one person who said it might not have been what thy expected but they enjoyed or that it was more popular than they thought it would be?   

I wonder if the Rainbow pony special was cancelled or scrapped after RAMC due to it being too scary as well and they went for something softer like escape from Catrina instead?

wasn't that animation actually from the TV advert for the rainbow ponies...? I've always assumed there WAS no "rainbow pony special", they just knew they'd be making another MLP cartoon in the future (or thought it was a safe enough bet that they would, lol) and used that animation because it was new/handy/whatever.

The rainbow pony animation is from the TV ad for rainbow Ponies. I always find it interesting that it shows 2 rainbow ponies sliding down the rainbow and rainbow ponies jumping off the cliff. Maybe they used some of the animation from RAMC for inspiration for the ad.


Ponyfan

[SaraMari]

Yeah I watched it again with my mom and noted Lauren Faust was specifically G1 animation when she said (the ponies) "didn't go on adventures and lived in cupcake houses in a meadow"

I would like to direct her attention to the following
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  haha!

and on the second viewing the "jokes" got more tiresome. Yeah I think blown up drama over who invented MLP will draw in more viewers but I really wanted just a couple minutes to hear about the prototypes and concept art that all the designers and artists had with them. And that whole "feed the beast" bit was a waste imo

[brightberry]

Also a little more explanation about exactly what "old MLP cartoons" Faust watched where ponies "didn't go on adventures and lived in cupcake houses in a meadow" as G1 MLP ponies went on many adventures. The episode showed clips from Tales during that segment but that was probably done because it fit with what Faust was saying.

I would have also liked a little balance on RAMC as even though everyone was saying that wasn't what they had in mind. Couldn't they find at least one person who said it might not have been what thy expected but they enjoyed or that it was more popular than they thought it would be?   

I think they broke up that part of the interview with Faust and showed it out of order.   She said she was given cartoons to review but it would make sense if they were 3.5 cartoons as that was the show she was suppose to be improving on. Because some point she’s also talking about how she sees Firefly as a ”bad ass” and that’s exactly how Firefly is portrayed on RAMC.  Plus, all the dragon fighting, mountain climbing and basic adventures makes it hard to understand how she’s criticizing RAMC as having cupcake houses.

[ponycake]

The rainbow pony animation is from the TV ad for rainbow Ponies. I always find it interesting that it shows 2 rainbow ponies sliding down the rainbow and rainbow ponies jumping off the cliff. Maybe they used some of the animation from RAMC for inspiration for the ad.


Ponyfan

Just an excuse to post a gif I made of it some years back

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A lot of the commercials did look more like Rescue at Midnight Castle than the episodes did.

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A well done and well illustrated tv series like RaMC and Escape from Catrina would have been fantastic. Guess they floundered back then with girls tv shows. Lady Lovely Locks didn't last long. Jem was a bit better.

[Sunset]

Also a little more explanation about exactly what "old MLP cartoons" Faust watched where ponies "didn't go on adventures and lived in cupcake houses in a meadow" as G1 MLP ponies went on many adventures. The episode showed clips from Tales during that segment but that was probably done because it fit with what Faust was saying.

I would have also liked a little balance on RAMC as even though everyone was saying that wasn't what they had in mind. Couldn't they find at least one person who said it might not have been what thy expected but they enjoyed or that it was more popular than they thought it would be?   

I think they broke up that part of the interview with Faust and showed it out of order.   She said she was given cartoons to review but it would make sense if they were 3.5 cartoons as that was the show she was suppose to be improving on. Because some point she’s also talking about how she sees Firefly as a ”bad ass” and that’s exactly how Firefly is portrayed on RAMC.  Plus, all the dragon fighting, mountain climbing and basic adventures makes it hard to understand how she’s criticizing RAMC as having cupcake houses.

I agree with this.  It doesn’t make any sense that Hasbro would have given her any G1 animation to watch but whatever they had been investing in most recently.  The show did clip in a picture of the retro DVD set implying that it was G1.  But then, to be generous, that may have been the closest DVD they had on hand to film that clip.  (I bet they did have to track that down to get clips of early animation for the show)  Would they have gone to the trouble of tracking down a DVD of the G3.5?  I don’t know, did DVDs of that even exist outside of coming with a toy?

But I agree, it would be nice to have these details spelled out.  But when they do release a dvd of season 3 I will buy it and let y’all know what extras there are.  I’m willing to make that sacrifice 😉

[Carrehz]

I adore the RaMC/Catrina/commercial art style, I wonder if it might have been too detailed to keep up for a regular TV series (instead of a one-off special) at that point, though. I know I've heard before about other cartoons simplifying extraneous details on their character designs to make it easier for everyone to draw, stuff like that. Especially back then, when the animation materials would have been shipped back and forth and communication between the US and Asian crews would've been harder... I can see that being a reason for them to lose some of the more intricate details (I'm thinking stuff like how the ponies in RaMC had different hairstyles to each other, the fluffier/more detailed hair, etc).

The more I hear about these interviews, the less I like them. It really sounds like they were edited to push a certain narrative, like others have said... I'm still not sure if I want to watch this or not. All that stuff about them bashing G2 (insects?!?!?) doesn't exactly thrill me, either.

(The "cupcake house" thing is hysterical, though. I have nothing against Faust, but I do wish she'd stop bashing the pre-FiM stuff in interviews with inaccurate comments like this... to be fair, I have no context for that statement, maybe there were some leading questions being asked or something.. Does G3.5 have cupcake houses, out of interest?)

[Prince_Sunbeam]

Prince_Sunbeam:  Is your pic in the show? wich one is yours?

And thanks for the congratulations 

Yes, the very first image in the credits. White bookcases lined with colored lights. I also recognized the photo of your collection and knew it had to be an arena member! 

[FiddlePhan]

Overall I'm really happy that they chose MLP to include for an episode.  They could have picked so many other toys instead.

They didn't seem to focus as much on design details etc as some other episodes, things about prototypes etc.  I haven't seen the rest of season 3 yet though so maybe that's just how they're doing this season.  More entertainment factor than being informative.   The other seasons had a bit more documentary feel but with a bit of humour here and there.

[brightberry]

Congrats both of you for the pics at the end! It was fun seeing your collections like that.

The more I hear about these interviews, the less I like them. It really sounds like they were edited to push a certain narrative, like others have said... I'm still not sure if I want to watch this or not. All that stuff about them bashing G2 (insects?!?!?) doesn't exactly thrill me, either.

It’s actually kind of heartwarming as the narrative is to highlight that little girls were the ones to see MLP’s potential while all the adults (even the creators) were left trying figure out what it was that made them such a hit.  MLP was an after thought.  Charmkins was suppose to be the big seller.

[Sunset]

Overall I'm really happy that they chose MLP to include for an episode.  They could have picked so many other toys instead.

They didn't seem to focus as much on design details etc as some other episodes, things about prototypes etc.  I haven't seen the rest of season 3 yet though so maybe that's just how they're doing this season.  More entertainment factor than being informative.   The other seasons had a bit more documentary feel but with a bit of humour here and there.

I’d say that both the TMNT and Power Rangers episodes where similar to MLP.  The story being more about “how did we get to the point of making these toys” rather than getting into the real nitty gritty toy design details.  It seems to me that the show is trying to draw in as wide of an audience as possible.  It needs to balance making it interesting to fans of that particular toy against making it entertaining to those who know nothing about the toy.  Perhaps they are more successful in some cases than other cases.  On the other hand, I only collect mlp so this is the first time I’ve watched one of these episodes (and I’ve seen them all) knowing more about the subject than the show goes into.

[achab1984]

I watched it last night and thought it was not to bad. I did not like that they kept bring up other toys though. That was time wasted that could of be put on more pony info!

[Ponyfan]

Also a little more explanation about exactly what "old MLP cartoons" Faust watched where ponies "didn't go on adventures and lived in cupcake houses in a meadow" as G1 MLP ponies went on many adventures. The episode showed clips from Tales during that segment but that was probably done because it fit with what Faust was saying.

I would have also liked a little balance on RAMC as even though everyone was saying that wasn't what they had in mind. Couldn't they find at least one person who said it might not have been what thy expected but they enjoyed or that it was more popular than they thought it would be?   

I think they broke up that part of the interview with Faust and showed it out of order.   She said she was given cartoons to review but it would make sense if they were 3.5 cartoons as that was the show she was suppose to be improving on. Because some point she’s also talking about how she sees Firefly as a ”bad ass” and that’s exactly how Firefly is portrayed on RAMC.  Plus, all the dragon fighting, mountain climbing and basic adventures makes it hard to understand how she’s criticizing RAMC as having cupcake houses.

I agree with this.  It doesn’t make any sense that Hasbro would have given her any G1 animation to watch but whatever they had been investing in most recently.  The show did clip in a picture of the retro DVD set implying that it was G1.  But then, to be generous, that may have been the closest DVD they had on hand to film that clip.  (I bet they did have to track that down to get clips of early animation for the show)  Would they have gone to the trouble of tracking down a DVD of the G3.5?  I don’t know, did DVDs of that even exist outside of coming with a toy?

But I agree, it would be nice to have these details spelled out.  But when they do release a dvd of season 3 I will buy it and let y’all know what extras there are.  I’m willing to make that sacrifice 😉

Thanks everyone. G3.5 animation makes the most sense but I guess it was the way that the clips were edited together that makes it seem like she's talking about G1 instead of G3.5 and the fact that she said "those ponies lived in a meadow." Dream Valley could be considered a giant meadow maybe?  I'm not sure where she got the cupcake houses though. 

I did like the story about Hasbro thinking Charmkins would be the big seller instead of MLP and then when the stores started calling them wanting more ponies they realized that MLP was a bigger hit than what they thought. 


Ponyfan


 

[Valerie]

Yes, the very first image in the credits. White bookcases lined with colored lights. I also recognized the photo of your collection and knew it had to be an arena member! 

Awwww that was one of the pics that I most liked!!! I adore to combine lights with the ponies, they give a special touch to the pony shelves 

Congrats both of you for the pics at the end! It was fun seeing your collections like that.

Awww thank you!