Her concept is really pretty! And kinda makes me want to give her a hug too. I love the white freckles and everything, she looks decorated in stars which I assume is the point.

(you mentioned you'd got into the comics, I wonder if those are the ones you mean)

Probably, yeah. They're definitely not US comics. I found someone uploading them online, they don't have all of them so I've been reading what's available. Honestly, as it stands I may be inclined to agree with you about the comics feeling more natural. One way or another, I seem to be able to pick up on individual character traits and personalities more easily with the comics. I haven't gotten that far into them yet, but so far I love comic Twilight. ^^ Taking stars and granting wishes is pretty incredible.

Yeah, Shady.... Shady is one of the few that I can say with certainty, if I'd had to go by just her toy, I would not have given her a personality even remotely similar to what the show gave us.

Sounds like you got short changed pretty hard though. I'm sorry to hear that. I can slightly relate, G2 was actually my introductory generation thanks to the game, but I don't believe I ever saw any of the G2 figures in stores. I'm having to start collecting them now second hand, so I've only got two and a McDonald's toy.

(oh geeze I'm wordy x.X)

Oh please, don't worry about it! I am loving every moment reading what everyone has to say haha. I've ended up staying so disconnected from fellow older gen fans for so long that getting to learn about you and the others is an absolute delight! ^u^

I guess I was too old for MLP Tales when it came out, i never liked the scenario with them being too human-like with buses and what not so I never got into it and I don't understand how it's so loved (maybe it had good stories, didn't bother to watch it enough to tell :p), so in that way I can understand you about the G1 animations.
RAMC still the best pony animation through all the gens though despite its too quick and easy ending.

In a weird way I found them being so human-like both its greatest strength and its greatest weakness. It was easier to stick them in more modern, relatable situations. Though I have to admit, fanfiction did a lot to improve my perspective of them as what I read brought some of the magic back into the world.

I bought the MLP Movie and later the boxset for my daughter and I to watch. I still enjoy going through it, as I do several other childhood cartoons. Never did find the Tales boxset anywhere, but I watched a few eps on Daily Motion and it still holds up fairly well.

I thought you could buy it online? Granted, I don't know if it's specifically a boxed set, but I believe I've seen most of that stuff, including Tales, available on Amazon. I'd like to get the boxed sets myself, but alas I'm a bit short on funds to do it with.

I'd really have to put a lot more time into the show before I could definitively name my favorite episodes/arcs, but certainly a few on your list are ones I like too, from both main and Tales. c: ....Pun not intended. Certainly I quite like Tirek, the witches, Grogar, and Somnambula as well though. ^u^ I loved how effective Grogar and Somnambula in particular were with their plans.

Rescue at Midnight Castle captured my heart when it came out.  It was easily the best thing I'd ever seen before and for many years after.  There just wasn't anything like it at the time.

Honestly that's probably going to be a big takeaway for me from all of this. Between this sentiment and some of the stuff I've found myself discovering lately, I think it's starting to make sense to me what kind of atmosphere this show was introduced into. I've never gone back and watched any other 80s cartoons, at least not unless they were still airing when I was a kid, so I've had very little sense of what people had to pick from so no sense of how new an idea MLP might have been. I've heard that a lot, but it's one thing to hear people say it and another to actually have some context for it.

~~~

All of this said, I definitely share sentiments with the others here who have mentioned wanting to escape to the pony world. I was very much like that growing up with G3. Everything seemed so nice all the time, nobody ever really hurt anybody else and they all accepted each other, quirks and all. Plus they only ever seemed to have fun and eat sweets, even managing to have fun doing stuff that generally wasn't fun because they did it with friends. Of course, having G3 as my main gen didn't stop me from wanting to be a twinkle-eyed flutter/fairy pony hahaha

I'm excited to have gotten so many replies to this already! Thank you guys so much!

It's cool that most of you seem to agree so far that it was the ponies themselves that did it, rather than the animations. Honestly that makes a lot of sense, and seeing as I have and adore plenty of (especially G3) ponies that were never a part of animation, I can completely understand. Kinda paints a different picture on why the animated series including that of MLP have changed so much over the years though. I was born in '94, so I missed all of the 80s stuff and never got to experience people's opinions for things at that time.

Honestly if I were to name some of my own favorites from the shows, I'd have to say that from My Little Pony Tales there's Sweetheart, Teddy, and Clover.    For the rest, I love the sea ponies but never became attached to a specific one. I'm a lot more in love with the twinkle-eyed ponies and some of the flutter ponies, namely Honeysuckle and Morning Glory. To pick a top favorite from them, I'd have to go with Galaxy for her intuition which is only matched by Wind Whistler's intelligence.

This does all make me realize however that I've probably been too wrapped up in the "official" content, once again. I don't really remember being a kid very much or the things I used to do, as far as I can remember I may have spent more time brushing their hair or trying to get them to look "perfect" than actually playing with them haha. I came up with a lot of my own characters and made stories for them which I still remember, and I remember spending hours looking at everyone's customs and wanting greatly to make my own. So I may have simply always had more of a focus on creating new characters to match the personalities I wanted, instead of changing personalities of existing characters to fit my tastes.

So I didn't exist when G1 was around. By the time G3 was out, perhaps in its late years, I was going back and watching G1 myself, but I.... don't really feel like I ever really understood it. There are a lot of things I like about it, but I don't feel like I see the same things in it that everyone else does. I never really understood how people fell for Firefly the one time she ever showed up, or why everyone seemed to like Gusty so much even though she generally just seems to be a grouch in the show from what I can tell.

I love G1 and a lot of what it has to offer, I've especially been getting into the comics lately, but I want to understand how and why people got into the show the way they did. It's something I've been curious about for years. o: Is it all nostalgia? What do/did you like about G1? Who are your favorite characters, and what about them makes you like them so much? Do you like them only for what you saw in the show, or do you see something more in the characters? And, I pose these same questions for the world itself, too, if you really like the world the ponies live in. c:

I'm so curious about the minds of those of you who had the opportunity to be fans of G1 while it was first being aired. I would absolutely love to hear anything you have to say about it!

Wow, your style looks so.... free and refreshing! I love it!

Thank you both so much <3
Making new friends would be wonderful, and to achab1984, -hugs back- ^u^