Hasbro’s Missed Opportunities

[Taffeta]

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?

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.

[Zapper]

@ 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

[Leave a Whisper]

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?

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.

Thanks for the clarification Taf. I like to call it NatGeo, if animals could talk. I've been watching episodes here and there when I can find it.

Post Merge: November 25, 2020, 02:09:02 PM

@ 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

I know. And I acknowledged that girls cartoons didn't get dark anymore then boys and neutral toons did, aside from an episode here or there.

[Pokeyonekenobie]

Years ago Disney had a "Build Your Own Pony" and "Build Your Own Potato Head" setup in their stores where you'd get a box and fill it with accessories. They also had specific ponies that you could put in your box.  Since they were at Disney, they had exclusive Disney pieces--Like Mickey Sunglasses and Mrs. Potts/Chip tea party pieces for your pony.  I think they should offer "Build Your Own" options at HasbroPulse.  You just add items to your "Box" and then they mail it out to you. So if you're someone who wants to have a massive tea party setup for your ponies, you can fill it with tea party items but if you prefer outfits, you can fill it with hats and shoes.  They could set it up so that each item had a point value assigned to it and each box was worth so many points.  How you fill your box is up to you but it would cost $9.99 or something.

To be honest, if they had this for Mr. Potato Head I'd definitely use it.

[Tropical_Sunset]

Okay, here's my wantlist.

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. 

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.

[Ponybookworm]

Okay, here's my wantlist.

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. 

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.

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There's my custom Knightshade. I've also made G3 Boy Customs, as well as many Tales Boys.

I want a G3 Spike too, &
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There's my Cheerilee normal-sized

[Lilja]

Those are nice markings for Knightshade! 

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 ), 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. But I think the short runtime of RaMC is actually one of its strength. As a result it's very tight, intense and action packed. It also leaves a lot to the imagination, which G1 at its best generally did. If it ran for much longer it might have felt padded out like the movie and End of Flutter Valley. The downside is that the ponies don't get much development, it's mostly just Megan and Scorpan. But at least the ponies help drive the plot forward, which they didn't really do at all in the following special, Escape from Catrina.

Another missed opportunity was that the Tales toyline never had a hair salon or ice cream parlor playset, since these were both prominent places the main character hung out at in the show. And Hasbro had previous molds they could've reused for this. They had already done four different beauty parlor playsets, but not a single one during the Tales era, even though there were two sets of ponies with a hair styling theme.

But the tail end of the European G1 toyline was pretty small scale and didn't do big playsets (the school was reissued from previous years). A hospital playset would also have been really cute for the nurse ponies, but no dice. Compared to the European G2 toyline which had so many different playsets! Maybe Hasbro should've invested in a cartoon for that, rather than the final years of G1.

[IceCrystal02]

Knightshade is beautiful! 

[Ponybookworm]

Cheers you two, sorry, edit three, LAW!!! I gave Knightshade a Pony shadow for his rumpmark due to the story about the shadows being stolen. I never made a Zeb, but I think he was portrayed as bipedal

[Leave a Whisper]

Knightshade looks great!

[Nemesis]

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.

This!!! So this!!!

I have seriously considered trying to DIY my own carousel for my Merry Go Round ponies out of a rotating spice rack and some dollhouse building materials. XP

[Leave a Whisper]

If you do that carousel, please show it off.

[Carrehz]

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 ), 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...

[Taffeta]

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 ), 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.

But most of the 'dark' in G1 is implied in the other stuff around what's actually happening. The implications of the characters and what they are doing, rather than necessarily the scenario on screen.

Think about the complete lack of water in the Magic Coins. Think about those dried out baby sea ponies. Not very nice, is it, when you really think about the implication of absolutely NO water?

And so on.

When you stop and THINK about these things properly. This is the bit people sometimes miss with G1. Even the not so dark stories are actually packing some serious implications.

I mean, G4 has some serious implications too ,but from what I've seen they're fairly often intiated by the main cast rather than the villains, who are too busy making friends with everyone to last more than an episode or two of threat (perhaps excluding Sombra, Changelings, but in general, I think the M6 are more dangerous than most of the rest of the G4 cast)

[Lilja]

I have to say I think enslaving ponies/other creatures, oppressing them, chaining them to a chariot of darkness etc is a bit dark.

That's true, but by fairytale standards (which tend to have stuff like child abuse and cannibalism) it's not so bad. But the point being that I think when people call RaMC "dark", they're talking about the presentation and atmosphere more than the story. A pony being transformed into a dragon in a fairytale-like setting shouldn't be that huge of a deal, but the staff really went out of their way to make the transformation sequence as horrifying as they could probably get away with. Keeping Tirek in shadows for the first half of the episode was also a great move. Everything just came together really well in this special, in a way it didn't for later G1 animations (which of course also had some horrific implications when you examine them closer, but people rarely call them dark like they do for RaMC).

On the topic of a carousel playset, that is such a great and obvious idea for horse-themed toyline. But there are a lot of complications that probably would've made it difficult to make into a feasible product. Especially in G1 when the ponies were bigger, which would necessitate a bigger playset. Also, since the ponies came in many different sizes and poses, it might be hard to come up with a good way fasten them onto the carousel. One might also expect it to have electronics in order to spin. In the end you have a big, expensive playset, which is beautiful to look at, but otherwise doesn't offer much play value for the price and its size.

Even though it's rather narrow and doesn't fit a lot of ponies, Rarity's carousel playset for the G4 toyline otherwise handled the concept pretty well. Since it doubles as a fashion runway, that adds some extra play value. And also, lots of the early G4 ponies came with saddles for their tiny animal friends to ride on their backs. Which means not only can the ponies ride on the carousel, but the animals can ride on the ponies, riding the carousel.