Does anyone know how rare the vintage MLP VHS tapes are?

[reanna-mator]

Now I want to start watching thrift shops for vintage pony VHS tapes, just for fun. I have the G1 DVD set, but I don't think I could resist the retro charm of VHS, and I do still have a VHS player in our bedroom...

[Ponyfan]

That is strange about the baby ponies animation repeating in Catrina especially since it doesn't appear in original edited version. I'm convinced that Hasbro either lost or threw out the uncut masters for Rescue at Midnight Castle and Escape from Catrina since the only way to get an unedited version is to find a VHS copy.

Ponyfan

[Carrehz]

That is strange about the baby ponies animation repeating in Catrina especially since it doesn't appear in original edited version. I'm convinced that Hasbro either lost or threw out the uncut masters for Rescue at Midnight Castle and Escape from Catrina since the only way to get an unedited version is to find a VHS copy.

Ponyfan

I think so, too. I mean, there's obviously interest in them, you'd think they would've re-released them by now if they still had them..

Revolt of PE also has some cut/repeat/something in the middle on the DVD I think...

:O That's interesting, I hadn't heard that before! I have VHS and DVD copies of that one, I think, but I haven't watched either of them in a while.. I'll have to check them out soon

[scarletjul]

Trying to figure out why the UK released VHS called it "Dreamland..."   

Now I want to start watching thrift shops for vintage pony VHS tapes, just for fun. I have the G1 DVD set, but I don't think I could resist the retro charm of VHS, and I do still have a VHS player in our bedroom...

I already do that.    Very rarely find anything, though.  I think I've found one Golden Video VHS with a few episodes and the 1980s release of the MLP movie.  I'm also always on the hunt for the record release of the movie soundtrack. 

[Taffeta]

I watched revolt of PE so much as a kid that I pretty much know it by heart. I remember watching it with sister on the DVD some months back and I'm sure there was a scene in it that isn't on my childhood VHS. The VHS version I have is the one with ice cream wars, in the cardboard sleeve. I think they may be extra because of splitting the episode...or mine is missing because of splitting the ep...not sure, can't quite remember. It's not a big scene but I am sure it is there (or I'm going mad )

Dreamland - why not?

I'm not sure that MLP ever aired on TV in the 1980s in the UK, does anyone from here know if it did? I always feel like all MLP eps came to us on VHS not on TV because I watched a lot of kids cartoons as a kid and never MLP. It was played on one of the cable channels in the middle 1990s, I think Sky 1 - because a friend of my sister's had that channel and recorded them all and my sister borrowed the videos...but I don't remember it ever airing before that. (Or maybe because I was a comic kid i wasn't interested, but I doubt that because I was obsessed with Revolt of PE and Ice Cream Wars at one point).

Movie came out in cinemas here, but I don't recall the actual series. So it might be that when they went to VHS - and all the VHS here seem to have been put together by different organisations - there was some information missing as to what it was about (or they thought dreamland sounded cuter).

As for the DVD errors -  the Jem DVD has soundtrack errors in the World Hunger Shindig episode and, I think, Starbright 1. Doesn't surprise me that the pony one has animation ones.

[Ponyfan]

The description Carrehz posted of the UK VHS tape of Rescue at Midnight Castle is a pretty close match to the original US one except for  calling Dream Valley Dreamland and not mentioning some of the ponies that appear in the special.

I think in the US the MLP VHS weren't widely available. I remember Rescue at Midnight Castle and Escape from Catrina being available to rent. I have seen a few with price stickers though so maybe they were a few that you could buy new. I never saw the Little Golden Book ones.


Ponyfan

[Carrehz]

For comparison purposes, here's the back of the original US tape Anyone know what the back of the Firefly's Adventure video says? Is it the same text or is it different?

visitors can't see pics , please register or login

[Sunset]

I have the original "My Little Pony" special, aka RAMC, on vhs.  I also even have a vhs player and every so often will put it in and watch it.  Every part of it hits my nostalgia buttons since that was the one special that I adored and always wanted to watch as a kid.  Even the commercials before and after!  I really wish I had a way to convert it to DVD.

[Ponyfan]

I'd love to see the description for the Firefly's adventure tape also.  I was really excited when I got my VHS copy of Rescue at Midnight castle and the Children's Library balloons came on since I remember them from watching the video at my grandparents house.

Ponyfan

[Stormness_1]

I have the equipment to do it, but I can't decode my VHS to play US or UK tapes, so it wouldn't work, unfortunately. It was never released here, so there's no way for me to convert it, or I'd totally copy it and make a few copies for members with a VHS copy that can't watch it anymore!

[Ponyfan]

Does anyone have the decriptions from the Little Golden Book videos? I think it's funny that Catrina's box says she kidnaps Baby Surprise instead of Baby Moondancer.

Ponyfan

[Foxtale]

I have all my VHS tapes but I still really wish they would come out with the transfers from these on DVD or Digital. I love the original versions much more (because they were what I grew up with). To me I see a vast difference between the DVD box set versions of the first two specials and the VHS transfers, not just because of the missing songs but  because of all the other cuts they make in it.

[FairyDust]

I watched revolt of PE so much as a kid that I pretty much know it by heart. I remember watching it with sister on the DVD some months back and I'm sure there was a scene in it that isn't on my childhood VHS. The VHS version I have is the one with ice cream wars, in the cardboard sleeve. I think they may be extra because of splitting the episode...or mine is missing because of splitting the ep...not sure, can't quite remember. It's not a big scene but I am sure it is there (or I'm going mad )

Dreamland - why not?

I'm not sure that MLP ever aired on TV in the 1980s in the UK, does anyone from here know if it did? I always feel like all MLP eps came to us on VHS not on TV because I watched a lot of kids cartoons as a kid and never MLP. It was played on one of the cable channels in the middle 1990s, I think Sky 1 - because a friend of my sister's had that channel and recorded them all and my sister borrowed the videos...but I don't remember it ever airing before that. (Or maybe because I was a comic kid i wasn't interested, but I doubt that because I was obsessed with Revolt of PE and Ice Cream Wars at one point).

Movie came out in cinemas here, but I don't recall the actual series. So it might be that when they went to VHS - and all the VHS here seem to have been put together by different organisations - there was some information missing as to what it was about (or they thought dreamland sounded cuter).

As for the DVD errors -  the Jem DVD has soundtrack errors in the World Hunger Shindig episode and, I think, Starbright 1. Doesn't surprise me that the pony one has animation ones.

I heard from other Jem fans that the first Rhino release of Jem DVD set were remastered by Rhino but Rhino thought they had the master tapes but it wasn't so there is video and audio flaws through out it.

[Motion-Paradox]

Hmm, the one about Revolt of Paradise Estate is curious; I knew about Rescue at Midnight Castle & Escape from Katrina both having a song cut to fit the format of the other episodes for T.V broadcasting, but they even altered the episodes that started out as T.V. episodes too?

This actually makes me wonder if "The Glass Princess" was ever released on VHS; I know the song (and probably a bit of dialogue) from the last part of it was cut after the first airing and the audio for the song eventually ended up on youtube, but I wonder if there's a recording of the visuals somewhere as well. In particular I was thinking of a situation like what happened with "The Last Round-up" where the episode was altered after the first broadcast and in most of the releases, but there was a home video release of the episode already in production when the episode aired which it was left unchanged.

[LadyMoondancer]

Kim Shriner used to have the audio of "Hurry!" (the song cut from "The Glass Princess") on her website back when she was doing "MLP song of the week" (or month?) on her site.  I think she ripped the songs from her childhood, home-recorded VHS tapes.  So it must have been on TV at some point, even if it wasn't released on VHS.

I think she also had a description of the scene, which was the ponies and bushwoolies weaving a "fake" magic cloak on Porcina's loom.

Here's the audio:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4jPBKVShFg