Rainbow Ponies Cartoon?

[Taffeta]

There's one UK release VHS which has a commercial for the Crimp & Curl Hair Salon (with Fifi) on it, I wish I could remember which. That might;ve added to confusion on other discs. The party pony commercial here is the same video and song as the US except for the lyrics changing (party ponies) - but it is in a similar style and from the same time as the CCHS. Though it may be there's a vhs out there with that commercial as well.

[Carrehz]

I just checked my videos and this one (Tambelon/SS Treasure/Pony Puppy) has the Crimp 'n' Curl salon ad, followed by a competition advert to win either that or a MLP video The Somnambula tape doesn't have any adverts on it.

What particularly puzzles me about that video is that they even went out of their way to correct all the terminology to the proper UK terms - Party Ponies not TAF, Adventure Boys not Big Brothers - so it does feel like they were actually putting effort in and not just rushing it out quickly... weird. but it's so hard to imagine the TAFs being in the cartoon, their symbols would be a nightmare to animate xD

That is a little odd about the Party Poines/TAF ponies being mentioned in the Great Rainbow Caper.  It reminds me a little of the descriptions for the RaMC Viewmaster reels.  There's some stuff in there that looks like the person who wrote either had an early draft with some of the ideas that were eventually cut or wasn't really paying attention to plot of the special.

Oooh, I don't think I've ever seen the Viewmaster reels :O

[Ponyfan]

Here's the description from the Viewmaster reels package.

"Dark shadows descended over a happy day in Ponyland. A spiadon raid captured two little ponies.  At Midnight Castle, the spiadon leader Scorpan presented the captives to evil tyrant Tirek, who demanded two more ponies to pull his chariot.

In the meantime Firefly flew to Earth to get the help of a little girl who loved ponies.  Megan wan't sure she was brave enough, but with the help of the friendly Sea Ponies, Megan and her new friends went to Mushroom Land.  There Mr. Moocheck gave them a magic charm called the Rainbow of Light.

Back in the castle, Tirek was unhappy with the second spiadon raid.  They'd captured ponies who wer too small to pull his chariot as he spread Darkness over the the world.  Tirek, through Spike, the baby dragon into prison as a hostage. Scorpan could stand no more evil. He released Spike and the captured ponies just as Megan entered the castle.

Tirek flew out of the castle with the power of Darkness. High above the towers Scorpan tried to stop him, but was thrown to the castle below. Megan on Firefly soared to the mighty chariot. Firefly snatched the Rainbow of Darkness, but it was knocked to the castle floor where a great battle began between the Rainbows of Darkness and Light.  The Rainbow of Light destroyed the Darkness and its owner Tirek.  Back home, the ponies and Megan discovered that Scorpan had been under a spell. Now he was a prince -happy in Ponyland.



Ponyfan

[Carrehz]

(Sorry for the late reply, been out of town for a few days)

Ponyfan - thanks so much for sharing that! I love obscure stuff like this, especially if it's about the best MLP cartoon

Interesting that they spelt it "Tirek" here, I don't think I've seen that spelling used on anything official before (for the G1 character, I mean - I know that's how FiM spelt it for their Tirek character). I do wonder if the various differences/oddities were them working off an earlier version of the story or if they just goofed!

[MJNSEIFER]

No idea who the blue pegasus in the concept art is meant to be. My first thought was maybe prototype Sprinkles? That or a miscoloured Medley, maybe. It's hard to say since there's so many other odd things going on, like the army of gargoyle dudes and Habit looking completely different to how he did in RaMC (to be fair he did end up having three different designs in the end, so I guess this was just the start of that?).
(God I love those gargoyle-looking dudes, though. The amount of detail in this art just blows me away.)

Sorry I'm late, but yeah, I can see her being Sprinkles, or just another pony (such as Medley, as you said) with incorrect colors - the lack of a symbol makes it hard to tell (kind of tempted to use the design for something, so wanted to see how "canon" she was...)

Agree on the gargoyle characters - especially as they pretty much all look unique from each other in their own way...

Another identification question; is the old looking character on the My Little Pony 'n Friends next to what I think is a dragon (I don't think it's a stratadon) supposed to be anybody specific (including non-pony shows, since they include Glo Friends and The Potato Head Kids here, but I have yet to watch those shows.)

Interesting that they spelt it "Tirek" here, I don't think I've seen that spelling used on anything official before (for the G1 character, I mean - I know that's how FiM spelt it for their Tirek character). I do wonder if the various differences/oddities were them working off an earlier version of the story or if they just goofed!

I was late to the party (started watching G1 in 2012), but I'm seen it spelled "Tirek" before the G4 version existed - I think it went back and forth, and I've seen other lesser known spellings too, I'm sure.

I do feel like I'd already gotten used to the spelling "Tirek" back when he was only a G1 character, despite "Tirac" making more sense phonetically, in hindsight.

[Carrehz]

Oh Tirek was in use in the fandom for years, but I don't recall seeing it used anywhere else officially :p

No idea who the dragon and wizard-y looking dude are. (but I like them!)

[Taffeta]

It must have been from conversations in the community, but I always imagined it as Tirek *lol* perhaps I'm just odd. The c never looked right to me.

[Ponyfan]

The back of the RaMC VHS spells it Tirac.  Maybe there was some discrepancies in the scripts on how to spell it?


Ponyfan

[Carrehz]

I could see that being the case. I've seen Moochick both spelt as that and as "Moochik" in official documents, for example.