Does anyone remember those read-along storybooks with the book and cassette tapes that they used to sell back in the day?

I was thinking about them last night for some reason, which led to me remembering the Ember's Dream cassette that came with the star version of Baby Ember.

As a child I loved listening to the story, but I was always kind of bummed that the tape never came with a book too.

I'm an artist/writer. And I think I have the G1 Hasbro art style down pretty well. I'm attaching a sample of some blank pony drawings I made a few months ago.

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So, I'm wondering, if I were to create an Ember's Dream read-along illustrated storybook, would anyone be interested in supporting that as a project?

I would love to make an actual printed book if possible, but I would definitely need some financial backing for that, because you have to pay to get something printed up front-- unless maybe I do it as a Print On Demand book, but that's usually more expensive for people to purchase (like, usually double the cost of a typical book, especially if it has full-color illustrations). But maybe I could open up a Kickstarter or something like that?

Of course I wouldn't put the MLP logo on the book, but I think it could be a cool fan-supported project for those of us "in the know", haha 🦄🌈✨

I'm a long-time community member (since 1998 but if you don't know me, that's okay, I'm not a big name but I've been around long enough to remember when we all used to post on alt.toys.my-little-pony and people sent money orders through the mail to pay for ponies because Paypal wasn't a thing yet👵👴). I'm also a long-time Top-Rated online seller (many of you have bought from Good Boy Toys over the years on eBay, Etsy, or Mercari). And I regularly post my art on my personal Facebook page, so I'm confident I have the work ethic and the responsibility to see the project through to its completion.

I'd love to hear people's thoughts about it. Is this something anyone else (besides me I mean 🤪) actually would want enough to support?

That's true of every year up until Year 6. All ponies produced in Years 1-5 had unique poses that were only used for that year (unless they were rereleases of a previous pony and also some of the Sea Pony poses were reused).

Year 1: Collectors Pose
Year 2: Applejack Pose, Bubbles Pose, Glory Pose, Moondancer Pose, Firefly Pose
Year 3: Posey Pose, Tootsie Pose, Powder Pose, Gusty Pose, Heart Throb Pose, Baby Blossom Pose, Baby Ember Pose, Baby Cuddles Pose, Baby Glory Pose, Baby Firefly Pose
Year 4: Magic Star Pose, Shady Pose, Buttons Pose, Lofty Pose, Wind Whistler Pose, Baby Shady Pose, Baby Gusty Pose, Baby Heart Throb Pose, Rosedust Pose, Honeysuckle Pose
Year 5: Crumpet Pose, Sugarberry Pose, Mimic Pose, Dancing Butterflies Pose, Baby Tic Tac Toe Pose, Baby Quackers Pose, Baby North Star Pose, Milkweed Pose, Tumbleweed Pose, Sniffles Pose, Snookums Pose, Dibbles Pose, Cloud Puff Pose, Wingsong Pose, Tex Pose, Slugger Pose, Quarterback Pose

But in Year 6 Hasbro started reusing previous poses. There were still some new poses produced in Years 6-10 but it wasn't all brand-new poses every year like it was during the first 5 years.

When I was new to collecting in the late 90's, we didn't have all of the resources we have now for IDing accessories. I mean, back then it was a big deal when the seller even had pictures in their eBay listing, that's what time period we're talking about here.

Anyway, I received a Eyelash Princess cape and crown, plus a Secret Surprise plastic heart bracelet in one of the big G1 lots I bought off of eBay. You know how accessories in random secondhand pony lots are-- there's usually at least a few non-pony accessories mixed in. Since I had never seen these particular accessories before, I assumed they weren't MLP and threw them away. And back then, I couldn't just snap a quick picture on my phone and ask on Facebook or something, because yeah, none of that existed yet. Digital cameras were thousands of dollars and during this time the hot spot for collectors was the newsgroup alt.toys.my-little-pony or the Ponypeople email list. Yes, I'm THAT old, haha.

Years later when we all started to put together more information online I realized what I had done and I wanted to cry... especially that Secret Surprise necklace! Those are so hard to find now. And no wonder with people like me just throwing them out...

[edit] Never mind, I have Gingerbread now. But thanks for looking!

Blue G3 Midnight Dream! I mean, come on, this pony was practically calling to be blue, and what did Hasbro do?

Make her pink, of course. *shakes fist*

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Yeah, I haven't seen any mention of it in any of the pamphlets I have either... I don't have my original childhood ones anymore, but I do have a big stack of them I've saved from eBay lots over the years and nada. So maybe you're right, and it was tied to the mail order program somehow. I wish I had a clearer memory of where I actually heard about the contest, but I was still just a kid so I guess it's not too surprising that I don't remember anymore.

Maybe I can try to ask my mom and see if she remembers anything else. She took the pictures of me with the ponies and she probably helped me fill out the entry form too.

Here's my picture of me and my ponies, by the way. I also have a Halloween pumpkin bucket next to me, so it must have been pretty close to Halloween.

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I remember that contest too and I entered it as well... but my "paltry" 50 or so ponies were not impressive enough for me to win, haha.

I'm not sure how I heard about it... it might have been through the TV after school, because I remember one of my friends was over the day that the picture was taken, and we were preparing my ponies all afternoon for their "photo shoot" by cleaning them and doing their hair. We always had the TV on in the background while we were playing together, and there were always loads of pony commercials. Or it's possible I read about it in a comic book or magazine. I'm 90% certain it was some random thing and it was never officially announced in a pamphlet or anything like that. Because Hasbro.

I do know it was approximately October of 1988 when I entered the contest, because I have still have a copy of my contest entry picture. The back of the picture is dated 1988, and it has my Halloween drawings all over my closet doors in the background (I loved to do different drawings for the holidays! ), so it must have been around Halloween time or thereabouts.