Every single major anniversary Occasionally we got some half-hearted “special” release, but if you look at what some of their other toy lines got(Transformers, GI Joe, etc) for their major anniversaries, it’s shocking how little effort Hasbro put into MLP.I don't know what the other generations did, but one thing that shocked me was that Equestria Girls was created as an anniversary celebration. This makes no sense, as not only does it only focus on G4, it barely even focuses on ponies!
Same with only having Christmas and Valentine%u2019s Day ponies. Imagine what neat Halloween ponies we could%u2019ve had! (This one prob just didn%u2019t fit their aesthetic).
OK, now G1: Holiday Themed Ponies. I can count the ones who exist on the fingers of one hand: Merry Treat, Felicidades (SP), Lambaditsa & Paschalitsa aka Ladybird. Two for Christmas (one a Nirvana), & two for Easter who are both Greek nirvanas. Where were Halloween Ponies, Valentine Ponies (they could have been couples as well), more Christmas & Easter Ponies???Don't forget Stockings and her unofficially-related baby!
OK, now G1: Holiday Themed Ponies. I can count the ones who exist on the fingers of one hand: Merry Treat, Felicidades (SP), Lambaditsa & Paschalitsa aka Ladybird. Two for Christmas (one a Nirvana), & two for Easter who are both Greek nirvanas. Where were Halloween Ponies, Valentine Ponies (they could have been couples as well), more Christmas & Easter Ponies???Don't forget Stockings and her unofficially-related baby!
But yeah, G1's seasonal ponies were pretty lacking. Stockings was basically a Birthflower with a new symbol (we have fourteen ponies with the same body, hair, and eyes!), and the unnamed Rice Krispies baby just reused her symbol.
G2 had Baby Sweet Snowflake, but I really don't like how her colors work together. There's something off about them.
I could've sworn she had green, red, AND blue in her hair... I guess she doesn't, looking at her now, though her green is less Christmas-y and more aqua, so it kinda clashes with the red, and the colors blend in her tail, making it... poopy-colored. Merry Treat has the same issue with her tail, though, and whenever I have mine off the shelf, I find myself trying to separate them. I think Sweet Snowflake would look better with a solid green tail, but I guess she's not as bad as I remembered.
Post Merge: November 15, 2020, 03:31:17 PMOK, now G1: Holiday Themed Ponies. I can count the ones who exist on the fingers of one hand: Merry Treat, Felicidades (SP), Lambaditsa & Paschalitsa aka Ladybird. Two for Christmas (one a Nirvana), & two for Easter who are both Greek nirvanas. Where were Halloween Ponies, Valentine Ponies (they could have been couples as well), more Christmas & Easter Ponies???Don't forget Stockings and her unofficially-related baby!
But yeah, G1's seasonal ponies were pretty lacking. Stockings was basically a Birthflower with a new symbol (we have fourteen ponies with the same body, hair, and eyes!), and the unnamed Rice Krispies baby just reused her symbol.
G2 had Baby Sweet Snowflake, but I really don't like how her colors work together. There's something off about them.
White/green/red aren't Christmassy to you?
G3 Boys = none unless you Customise. G3 pegasi were too few, wi unicorns being FAR too few!!! And Spike. Can't forget Spike.
G2 Unicorns & pegasi, again too few. And could they not find a way to permanently attach wings to G2s??? At least you can gender-bend G2s. My Her (His) Majesty Star & Snowball are both male.
G4: agree wi everybody. Where were half the Ponies??? Where were most of the Changelings & ANY of the bright changelings??? Where were most of the hippogriffs & ANY of the griffons, yaks & kirins???
For ALL of the above: SEA PONIES!!!! Why were there pretty much NONE??? G2 had NONE. G3 Had Bore 7 Blind Bag mermaids. G4 had Mane Six & two more.
Also Pony Wear. Why sell it ONLY attached to the Pony??? Serious missed opportunity there.
OK, now G1: Holiday Themed Ponies. I can count the ones who exist on the fingers of one hand: Merry Treat, Felicidades (SP), Lambaditsa & Paschalitsa aka Ladybird. Two for Christmas (one a Nirvana), & two for Easter who are both Greek nirvanas. Where were Halloween Ponies, Valentine Ponies (they could have been couples as well), more Christmas & Easter Ponies???
On the subject, a variant of an existing Pony does not a themed Pony make. Why did G2 cop out with Easter Sky Skimmer, instead of giving us an actual new G2 Pony with an Easter Theme??? Same goes to G4 & their Mane Six adjusted for X season Ponies.
One other thing: not giving the G3 Easter Ponies rabbits, the G3 Halloween Ponies black cats & treat buckets, the G3 Valentines Ponies heart cushions & doves, & any of the castles a G3 Spike was a huge missed opportunity.
I can moan until I'm blue in the face about a lack of G3 Spike figure...
The handling of the G4 line and it's failure to tie into to the show.
The show is clearly meant to be an advertisement for the toyline-fine, typical. But what sense does it make to introduce so many characters and then just...not make those characters? We don't have a Mayor Mare!
I do like towards the Explore Equestria line we saw more background characters become pearly ponies. Yes, more of that please, but all the time, and with accessories that let kids act out the scenes from the show.
No villains? How are kids supposed to act out a playscene between the CMC and not give them Cozy Glow to be the sassy bully? I know we had DT and NMM but I mean beyond that, we had so few.
The school...Yona? Hello?
I wish G1 would have had more baby ponies that matched their mothers. I know it would have been too much for every adult to have a matching baby but I never understood why Moondancer and Glory got babies but Twilight and Sunbeam didn’t.
I wish Petite Ponies would have had a longer run. It seems like they didn’t last too long.
In G4 I thought for sure there would have been more major characters released as toys. I’m surprised that Hasbro only released Sandbar and Silverstream out of the students even though it was heavily implied that Sandbar and friends would eventually become the future holders of the Elements of Harmony.
Ponyfan
G1: Not following the RaMC art style into the show, not keeping Megan as a cowgirl.I agree.
And I'll just echo what others have said about more boy ponies...in every gen. G1 Big Brothers were introduced as my interest in MLP was waning (as a kid anyway!) and I never got any. We always had to pretend girl ponies were dads, brothers, etc.
Rats, sorry!!! Yep, Stockings & "Socks" as well.OK, now G1: Holiday Themed Ponies. I can count the ones who exist on the fingers of one hand: Merry Treat, Felicidades (SP), Lambaditsa & Paschalitsa aka Ladybird. Two for Christmas (one a Nirvana), & two for Easter who are both Greek nirvanas. Where were Halloween Ponies, Valentine Ponies (they could have been couples as well), more Christmas & Easter Ponies???Don't forget Stockings and her unofficially-related baby!
But yeah, G1's seasonal ponies were pretty lacking. Stockings was basically a Birthflower with a new symbol (we have fourteen ponies with the same body, hair, and eyes!), and the unnamed Rice Krispies baby just reused her symbol.
G2 had Baby Sweet Snowflake, but I really don't like how her colours work together. There's something off about them.
I have yet to find a brushable Silverstream.G3 Boys = none unless you Customise. G3 pegasi were too few, wi unicorns being FAR too few!!! And Spike. Can't forget Spike.
G2 Unicorns & pegasi, again too few. And could they not find a way to permanently attach wings to G2s??? At least you can gender-bend G2s. My Her (His) Majesty Star & Snowball are both male.
G4: agree wi everybody. Where were half the Ponies??? Where were most of the Changelings & ANY of the bright changelings??? Where were most of the hippogriffs & ANY of the griffons, yaks & kirins???
For ALL of the above: SEA PONIES!!!! Why were there pretty much NONE??? G2 had NONE. G3 Had Bore 7 Blind Bag mermaids. G4 had Mane Six & two more.
Also Pony Wear. Why sell it ONLY attached to the Pony??? Serious missed opportunity there.
OK, now G1: Holiday Themed Ponies. I can count the ones who exist on the fingers of one hand: Merry Treat, Felicidades (SP), Lambaditsa & Paschalitsa aka Ladybird. Two for Christmas (one a Nirvana), & two for Easter who are both Greek nirvanas. Where were Halloween Ponies, Valentine Ponies (they could have been couples as well), more Christmas & Easter Ponies???
On the subject, a variant of an existing Pony does not a themed Pony make. Why did G2 cop out with Easter Sky Skimmer, instead of giving us an actual new G2 Pony with an Easter Theme??? Same goes to G4 & their Mane Six adjusted for X season Ponies.
One other thing: not giving the G3 Easter Ponies rabbits, the G3 Halloween Ponies black cats & treat buckets, the G3 Valentines Ponies heart cushions & doves, & any of the castles a G3 Spike was a huge missed opportunity.
I can moan until I'm blue in the face about a lack of G3 Spike figure...
Yes to G3 Spike.
They did release Skystar, Novo, the 8 babies, Haven Bay and a blue one. But their handling of it was ****-poor.
Prototypes, definitely. I will forever be sad the dolls meant to go with the Pony Friends never came to be. :(
Speaking of dolls, they should've made a doll of Danny! I hate only having 2/3 of the kids - call me sentimental but I always hate only having part of a family :P
If Hasbro ever considered making a Danny doll I'm less certain of, but I do find it conspicuous that they came out with a "Big Brother" pony set around this time, a theme that would've gone suspiciously well with Danny. This was also when they released figures of the Bushwoolies, which was a clear cartoon tie-in.
I guess Hasbro hadn't anticipated what a big success G4 would become, so they played it safe with the toys in the beginning. Years later when they started putting some actual effort into them, it was a bit too late and the hype had mostly passed.
I already considered Tropical Surprise to be a boy due to the colors. There were lots of other ponies in G3 that could have been boys too.
G3 potentially had two male characters, but Gossamer was never referred to with pronouns, so I'm not sure.
If you count G3.5 as a part of G3, there were a few boy ponies in the background of Twinkle Wish Adventure, with shorter hair and no eyelashes. None of them had toys, obviously, and their symbols are reused from other ponies, but they do exist. If you look closely, the background ponies in TWA tend to be somewhat alphabetized; the boys tend to appear late in the Bs, but before ponies like Bumblesweet, which implies their "names" may have just been "Boy," potentially followed by an identifying letter, number, etc.
On that note, did you know that Star Flight and Heart Bright appear in TWA? They're earth ponies, only shown at a distance from which their symbols aren't visible, but the colors and position in the aforementioned alphabetized crowds give away their identities!
Gossamer is Storybelle's dragonfly assistant from Two for the Sky, not a pony. I also thought the firefly from Come Back, Lily Lightly was possibly male at one point, but if you pay attention, it's a "she." So that's Spike, maybe Gossamer, and G3.5's unnamed boys.G3 potentially had two male characters, but Gossamer was never referred to with pronouns, so I'm not sure.
If you count G3.5 as a part of G3, there were a few boy ponies in the background of Twinkle Wish Adventure, with shorter hair and no eyelashes. None of them had toys, obviously, and their symbols are reused from other ponies, but they do exist. If you look closely, the background ponies in TWA tend to be somewhat alphabetized; the boys tend to appear late in the Bs, but before ponies like Bumblesweet, which implies their "names" may have just been "Boy," potentially followed by an identifying letter, number, etc.
On that note, did you know that Star Flight and Heart Bright appear in TWA? They're earth ponies, only shown at a distance from which their symbols aren't visible, but the colors and position in the aforementioned alphabetized crowds give away their identities!
I have a strong feeling that Hasbro at one point intimated (maybe via a rep at a meet) that they weren't interested in doing boy ponies for G3, like it was unnecessary in the market they were aiming at. Someone can correct me if I'm wrong about that.
For me Brights Brightly is a good candidate for a boy, because that name is just...yeah. I don't really care too much about G3 not having boys though it is weird since all the other generations do. I don't know how/if they would've differentiated, but tbh G3 doesn't have enough character detail for so many of the line that it's easy to designate x pony to be male if so required.
Just that I am pretty sure Hasbro actively didn't make male ponies in G3, so by default they are all officially girls.
Meh, I hate the gendered pink for girls and blue for boys trope, although I can't pretend Hasbro didn't use it for Noodles & Doodles.Not a huge fan of it either, but it was the "norm" back then (and still kind of is).
We had Snookums (from Sniffles & Snookums, the unicorns) as a boy here don't forget. I think that's the only officially unicorn boy in G1-3...at least in an English speaking context.
There are more in Italy. Italy has some fun names...
Rats, sorry!!! Yep, Stockings & "Socks" as well.OK, now G1: Holiday Themed Ponies. I can count the ones who exist on the fingers of one hand: Merry Treat, Felicidades (SP), Lambaditsa & Paschalitsa aka Ladybird. Two for Christmas (one a Nirvana), & two for Easter who are both Greek nirvanas. Where were Halloween Ponies, Valentine Ponies (they could have been couples as well), more Christmas & Easter Ponies???Don't forget Stockings and her unofficially-related baby!
But yeah, G1's seasonal ponies were pretty lacking. Stockings was basically a Birthflower with a new symbol (we have fourteen ponies with the same body, hair, and eyes!), and the unnamed Rice Krispies baby just reused her symbol.
G2 had Baby Sweet Snowflake, but I really don't like how her colours work together. There's something off about them.
Tales in general, Hackney, Ace, Teddy & Lancer in particular. Customised so many Tales characters tbh, mostly the males
Post Merge: November 16, 2020, 01:42:33 AMI have yet to find a brushable Silverstream.G3 Boys = none unless you Customise. G3 pegasi were too few, wi unicorns being FAR too few!!! And Spike. Can't forget Spike.
G2 Unicorns & pegasi, again too few. And could they not find a way to permanently attach wings to G2s??? At least you can gender-bend G2s. My Her (His) Majesty Star & Snowball are both male.
G4: agree wi everybody. Where were half the Ponies??? Where were most of the Changelings & ANY of the bright changelings??? Where were most of the hippogriffs & ANY of the griffons, yaks & kirins???
For ALL of the above: SEA PONIES!!!! Why were there pretty much NONE??? G2 had NONE. G3 Had Bore 7 Blind Bag mermaids. G4 had Mane Six & two more.
Also Pony Wear. Why sell it ONLY attached to the Pony??? Serious missed opportunity there.
OK, now G1: Holiday Themed Ponies. I can count the ones who exist on the fingers of one hand: Merry Treat, Felicidades (SP), Lambaditsa & Paschalitsa aka Ladybird. Two for Christmas (one a Nirvana), & two for Easter who are both Greek nirvanas. Where were Halloween Ponies, Valentine Ponies (they could have been couples as well), more Christmas & Easter Ponies???
On the subject, a variant of an existing Pony does not a themed Pony make. Why did G2 cop out with Easter Sky Skimmer, instead of giving us an actual new G2 Pony with an Easter Theme??? Same goes to G4 & their Mane Six adjusted for X season Ponies.
One other thing: not giving the G3 Easter Ponies rabbits, the G3 Halloween Ponies black cats & treat buckets, the G3 Valentines Ponies heart cushions & doves, & any of the castles a G3 Spike was a huge missed opportunity.
I can moan until I'm blue in the face about a lack of G3 Spike figure...
Yes to G3 Spike.
They did release Skystar, Novo, the 8 babies, Haven Bay and a blue one. But their handling of it was ****-poor.
But cheers for supporting the Get G3 Spike Made Campaign xxx
YES TO THOSE THAT SAID DANNY!! We 100% needed a Danny doll and I wish Megan would’ve been released with her iconic coveralls from the series.
It came on the second UK release as well, albeit missing the pony shoes.YES TO THOSE THAT SAID DANNY!! We 100% needed a Danny doll and I wish Megan would’ve been released with her iconic coveralls from the series.
they did release Megan's coveralls, as a separate outfit set :)
http://mylittlewiki.org/wiki/Country_Jamboree
I already considered Tropical Surprise to be a boy due to the colors. There were lots of other ponies in G3 that could have been boys too.
Would you have been angry if they had made G3 boys but they were all pink or purple? :lol:
Meh, I hate the gendered pink for girls and blue for boys trope, although I can't pretend Hasbro didn't use it for Noodles & Doodles.
Every single major anniversary Occasionally we got some half-hearted “special” release, but if you look at what some of their other toy lines got(Transformers, GI Joe, etc) for their major anniversaries, it’s shocking how little effort Hasbro put into MLP.this!!!!! with every single collectors transformer they come out with their collector pulse line I end up ranting to my bf about it like why can't we get that for ponies!
Actually...interestingly...there was a period about 10 years or so ago where it seemed less intrusive. But now the pink aisle is back with a bang, not helped by all the pink packaging that girls' toys tend to come in. One plus point for MH because that rarely happened.
So I think maybe even though we've got more accepting of gender fluidity and people's different gender identities, the same old binary pink blue tropes are in play as much as they were or more years ago.
Slightly off topic but when I was doing my MA - which was 8 years ago now, admittedly - one of the articles we had to translate was about pink and blue gender stereotypes in Japan and how traditionally they are the other way around (since pink resonates to sakura, and thus the warrior) but the influence of the West has now made pink more feminine. And other things I can't remember because it was a while ago.
Here's a missed opportunity compliments of my 5-year-old son: he thinks they should have made the Grundels as toys. (Not sure how he remembers them; we watched that movie together almost a year ago, but he randomly brought them up tonight!) Personally, I can't really see them selling that well on their own, but maybe paired with another pony character from the movie as an extra (much like the Bushwoolies with the princess ponies) it might have worked.
IIRC, there was a massively successful ad campaign in the 40s with the tagline "pretty in pink" that kicked the whole thing off, but I could be wrong.Actually...interestingly...there was a period about 10 years or so ago where it seemed less intrusive. But now the pink aisle is back with a bang, not helped by all the pink packaging that girls' toys tend to come in. One plus point for MH because that rarely happened.
So I think maybe even though we've got more accepting of gender fluidity and people's different gender identities, the same old binary pink blue tropes are in play as much as they were or more years ago.
Slightly off topic but when I was doing my MA - which was 8 years ago now, admittedly - one of the articles we had to translate was about pink and blue gender stereotypes in Japan and how traditionally they are the other way around (since pink resonates to sakura, and thus the warrior) but the influence of the West has now made pink more feminine. And other things I can't remember because it was a while ago.
Actually, if you study the history of fashion in America, back when stores first started carrying "store bought clothing" for babies, pink was for boys because it was a softer shade of the very masculine red. It slowly transitioned to being a "girl" color--my guess is because of the feminist movements that happened through the various decades as women tried to prove that they were just as good as men and deserved the same "strong" color palette. (The things I learned in the History of Musical Theatre :lol:)
Brown collector's pony? Like Macau Jenny? She was by no means a universal release, nor was she intended to be a "real horse" (she had Snuzzle's heart symbols), but I've seen people (incorrectly) refer to her as TJ, and I'm sure at least one child owned her, saw TJ, and made the connection also.Here's a missed opportunity compliments of my 5-year-old son: he thinks they should have made the Grundels as toys. (Not sure how he remembers them; we watched that movie together almost a year ago, but he randomly brought them up tonight!) Personally, I can't really see them selling that well on their own, but maybe paired with another pony character from the movie as an extra (much like the Bushwoolies with the princess ponies) it might have worked.
I'd have bought the Grundles.
With the slime craze lately they could have made some money selling purple smooze and marketing it with the G1 artwork alongside clear green smooze with the G4 artwork.
And with the anniversary releases, they totally could have sold movie sets for the original movie instead of the collector's pose all over again. They could have packaged Wind Whistler, Spike, Baby Lickety-Split and Molly in one and Shady, a Bushwoolie, Rose Dust and Megan in another (or something like that).
And they totally should have created a Danny to go along with Megan and Molly. And what about Megan's horse, TJ? He should have come with her stable set. And what about the horse Molly was riding in the movie (when Danny was teasing her about not being able to ride)? They could have made that for the stable as well. But maybe those two bordered too close to "real" and didn't follow the fantastic designs of the ponies. Though, a brown collector's pose (much like the original My Pretty Pony) would probably have been accepted by kids as part of Megan's world.
Brown collector's pony? Like Macau Jenny? She was by no means a universal release, nor was she intended to be a "real horse" (she had Snuzzle's heart symbols), but I've seen people (incorrectly) refer to her as TJ, and I'm sure at least one child owned her, saw TJ, and made the connection also.
For as many mane 6 variants as we got, a complete, matching GoH set wasn't one of them! No GoH Rarity whatsoever, and Fluttershy's only wide-release version had non-removable pirate garb.GoH was my favorite line and it was sad to see it killed so short. Obviously as an adult not the target audience apparently seeing as they just sat on the shelves. I sold off all my g4 brushables and picked up the GoH line it was super exciting to get articulated figures!
More merry-go-rounds in other generations. I'd love a bigger set with detailed ponies and a proper carousel like the matchbox carousel animals.
This!!! So this!!!More merry-go-rounds in other generations. I'd love a bigger set with detailed ponies and a proper carousel like the matchbox carousel animals.
Imagine a rotating carousel with slots for all the G1 Merry Go Round ponies. <3 That would have been the best MLP playset ever.
The greatest missed opportunity of all: not keeping the amazing tone and stylings of RaMC for the entirety of the series. X3 RaMC was MLP at its very finest, IMO.
Which leads into... We need more villain toys! G4 was the first time we received any at all, if I’m not mistaken. Tragically, we still don’t have a single representation of Tirek or Scorpan, despite them making it into FiM.
The greatest missed opportunity of all: not keeping the amazing tone and stylings of RaMC for the entirety of the series. X3 RaMC was MLP at its very finest, IMO.
Which leads into... We need more villain toys! G4 was the first time we received any at all, if I’m not mistaken. Tragically, we still don’t have a single representation of Tirek or Scorpan, despite them making it into FiM.
You and me both, sister.
I honestly admit I sometimes get a little sad thinking of RaMC or the Rainbow Brite pilot in the sense that girls cartoons would have probably went a different direction had they been not exec-meddled with.
I am trying to remember if we ever had a "dark" girls cartoon in the 80s? Sailor Moon had some real bad stuff happeneing but that was the 90s and a Japan import.
The darkest I can think of from the 80s was Jem. I'll never forget watching the episode where Minx tries to kill herself :blink:
And nobody suggest Last Unicorn, as that was a full movie and based on a fantasy novel for adults, not a show with the target audience girls :P
Nowadays the closest I can think of to RamC would be The Owl House. And only because it has dark magic and monsters. But the tone is very tongue-in-cheek with references for adults. Just like with Star VS Evil, they are not playing it straight.
In the 00s, maybe W.I.T.C.H.? These kinds of shows are really not that popular with marketers, it seems.
Farthing Wood was probably the beginning of the 90s. I remember I'd read A Fox Cub Bold before the series began, and I also remember my sister watching it as well. She would've been four or five, probably, so early 1990s seems probable?Thanks for the clarification Taf. I like to call it NatGeo, if animals could talk. :D I've been watching episodes here and there when I can find it.
That wasn't dark so much as reality I guess... Albeit the shrike bush? That's pretty grim. And the pheasants? Also pretty grim.
And there are some other grim things in the later stories too...all of which were more or less animated.
We had some drama series that were pretty cool around then too. Some from Australia (will always love the Girl from Tomorrow, that was 1990, and they wiped out the whole Northern Hemisphere O.o, some based on stuff here (like Demon Headmaster, Worst Witch...the latter probably not too actually dark mind you,Demon Headmaster - definitely a bit dark). THose were not as gendered though. Nor was Farthing Wood.
There was also the Silver Brumby and the Watership Down series (which I didn't really like) in the same 'real' vein.
@ all, I was talking about girls cartoons. As in "targeted towards girls only". I thought I had made this clear.
Yeah, I guess I forgot about She-Ra and for today the She-Ra reboot. I don't even know why I did not think of it :P
Okay, here's my wantlist.visitors can't see pics , please register or login
G1. There weren't US releases for some of the MLP Tales ponies, were there? I thought that was odd. I would have liked it if more of the Tales ponies had been made. I also wanted a Nightshade and Tirek. :lol:
G2: Honestly I had no idea that G2 existed until I got into collecting as an adult... Don't have many opinions about them. They're cute though!
G3: Boys. Spike. More unicorns. Specifically a regular sized Cheerilee (purple unicorn). I would have LOVED that. And a non gimmicky Lily Lightly. I also would have loved to see the Mochanut and Dance Around molds used a lot more. They are darling. Another G3 regret is that they stopped the whole collector/art pony thing because some people were mad about their very existence. That really hurt.
G4: More boys. More variety in the poses. More unique characters, related to the show or not. The G4 movie style toy poses are cute and lively but before that we had what, a raised hoof? Yaay. Better hair quality. The hair on the toys towards the end (especially the movie style ones) was awful.
This!!! So this!!!More merry-go-rounds in other generations. I'd love a bigger set with detailed ponies and a proper carousel like the matchbox carousel animals.
Imagine a rotating carousel with slots for all the G1 Merry Go Round ponies. <3 That would have been the best MLP playset ever.
What's interesting about Rescue at Midnight Castle is that there isn't really anything dark in it (except Tirek's casual threats of beaheading :biggrin:), it's all in the presentation, the visuals, music and voice acting. The witches from the movie do and are implied to have done much worse stuff than Tirek, but since everything else about them is so goofy, it never really comes off as dark.
What's interesting about Rescue at Midnight Castle is that there isn't really anything dark in it (except Tirek's casual threats of beaheading :biggrin:), it's all in the presentation, the visuals, music and voice acting. The witches from the movie do and are implied to have done much worse stuff than Tirek, but since everything else about them is so goofy, it never really comes off as dark.
I'd never thought about it before, but wow, you're right! That's an interesting way of thinking about it... I love it. It is curious how the presentation of something can change how it comes off...
I have to say I think enslaving ponies/other creatures, oppressing them, chaining them to a chariot of darkness etc is a bit dark.
As far as dark 80s/Early 90s cartoons, does anyone else remember an episode of Captain Planet where Linka's boyfriend/brother gets high, jumps through a window, accidentally slitting his wrists and dying? I remember being very shocked as a childI actually saw this episode mentioned on a list of disturbing cartoon episodes just today. I think it was her cousin...? His name was Boris. It's called "Mind Pollution," and I'm pretty sure he ODs on "bliss" (the fictional drug) after downing most of a bottle at once. I had minimal exposure to Captain Planet as a child (saw one or two episodes in school from the TV with a built-in VCR on wheels), so wasn't scarred for life by this.