I really don't see why Speedy can ONLY be into rollerskating.

Thanks for the reassurance! I was worrying if I was missing something there. I don't think it'd be too weird for Quarterback to play baseball with Slugger either, although it would be weird if it was in Quarterback's own backcard story. Likewise with Speedy, it would seem a bit off if her own story was about ice skating, but I don't see a problem with her ice skating in another pony's story.

BTW for anyone interested, I found scans of all the Romance Ponies' backcards here:
https://mylittleponyaccessories.weebly.com/page-5-rainbow-baby---so-soft-pony.html#
Sadly wasn't able to learn anything more about Prince Shy-One. But I was surprised to see Brandy and Spike appear in Love Token's story!

If Prince Shy-One could be either way, so could Skates. There's no real evidence either way though of course that also means you're free to believe what you prefer.

Of course everyone is free to believe what they prefer, have I ever said otherwise? I personally don't think Skates is meant to be a human or anything other than a pony, but you're free to if you like.

Likewise with Skates - there is no evidence this is Speedy.

I never claimed there was evidence, but there are a few things that point to it:
*The name is Skates. Speedy's symbol is a pair of roller skates.
*Speedy is one of the new characters that was introduced at the same time as Twist.
*There were LOTS of errors in how these particular new characters were portrayed on the backcards.
*It's odd to use an ice skating scenario for a pretzel pony if there also exists an ice skate pony.
*Wouldn't be the first time an early name was accidentally used for a pony.

I have argued why I think Skates is most likely an early name for Speedy. This is not the same as me saying this is absolutely the case. I like reading others' speculations, but I'd need to hear more arguments to be swayed more into believing any of the other explanations.

Although the idea that a not-real pony should not appear in a backcard story is kind of null and void when you consider "Bobby" (Sweet Kisses Ponies' card)

It's of course not impossible for Hasbro to add a "backcard story only" pony, but I don't think it's likely under these specific circumstances. For one thing, Hasbro UK stories from 1993-94 don't work quite the same as Hasbro US stories from the '80s. They weren't used to cross-sell ponies from other sets as much (but a few exceptions exist). The Sweet Kisses backcard story added a character to emphasize the romance theme (and there was no suitable toy at the time to be used as a love interest), not to advertise another toy. There is no need to invent a new character just for two ponies to go ice skating. Any pony could've worked, but I guess they thought Speedy was the most suitable of the upcoming releases at the time.

I don't think it's outside the realm of possibility for Speedy to be versed in ice skating as well as roller skating. Not every backcard story connects to the pony's symbol perfectly, and this story is meant to highlight Twist, not Speedy. But it's possible whoever wrote the story just picked "Skates" from a list of names and didn't realize the pony was roller skate themed.

Speculations are fun, and I understand it's more exciting to think we have another mystery pony on our hands, rather than just an alternative name for an existing pony. But it just doesn't seem very plausible to me. Having a pony named Skates and a pony with a roller skate symbol in the same set, and they're not the same pony... seems unlikely. Even having a roller skate themed pony and an ice skate themed pony at the same time sounds doubtful to me. Furthermore, why would they make Twist's story be about ice skating if there were plans for an ice skate pony? Shouldn't that have been the focus of her own story then? It's not impossible of course, but not the guess I would've gone with based on what we have.

The point of having different ponies interact with each other in the backcard stories was to advertise those other ponies to kids. It's extremely unlikely Hasbro would put in a "backcard story only" pony when they had 100+ actual toy ponies they could feature instead.

I'm 99% sure Skates is an early name for Speedy, or maybe even just a placeholder name. Her symbol is a pair of skates, so I find it unlikely there'd be another pony in the same set with that name. It seems likely they'd make sure to update Speedy's own backcard story, but forget to do it in another pony's story where she's mentioned (especially when there were so many characters to keep track of at this point).

The year 4 So Soft and Twinkle Eye sets are a bit special, since it was the only time Hasbro added more characters to a set in the middle of a release year and updated the backcard art for it. They might've been rushed out quickly to meet demand, which would explain all these errors, like how 4/6 of the new So Softs don't match up exactly to their toys on the edited backcard art.

It's always interesting to get an insight into the creation process behind MLP like this. Some have also speculated Bangles might've been a pegasus at some point in development since her backcard mentions her flying. Although I'm not so sure that would necessarily be the case.

Quote from: Carrehz on February 02, 2021, 07:58:40 AM

Also I don't get their name. They're still hard plastic, right? How are they "soft".

I have no idea. That's always puzzled me too.

I believe Ruth Bush (former Hasbro designer who's been a guest at Pony Fair) said they were originally intended to be flocked, which is why they're called "Soft Sleepy Newborns". This feature was removed before release, but the name was kept. 

The prototype wings for Medley and Firefly! Would've made them look so much nicer!
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The animatic looks fine to me, can't really determine what the final animation will look like based on it.

The concept is a bit weird though. While I get that FiM has been by far the most successful MLP tie-in cartoon, due to how long it went on the lore became very convoluted. I'd rather see a clean slate, a new world with new interpretations of the characters rather than the same ones. Especially if they want to introduce MLP to a new generation of children it doesn't make sense to have it be so rooted in the old universe. But it all depends on how they go about it. It could still work and they may not have to follow the rules of FiM's world so slavishly. I'm really hyped for it though! Hoping it'll be at least close to as well written as FiM was.

I love the animation used in the G1 commercials! It's so much more nicely animated than most of what could be seen on the TV shows! I'm glad people are making an effort to preserve them, because it would be really sad if these animations were lost. I wish the commercial for the first set of Rainbow Ponies was uploaded somewhere. The animation from it was also used to promote Escape from Catrina (most likely before any animation work had been done on it) on a RaMC VHS tape, which is why some people like to speculate that it's footage from an unreleased Rainbow Pony special (but I think it's fairly obvious the animation was made to be used in a commercial and nothing more).

Quackers really had an anime moment in this one
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Kinda amazed Toei was still creating animation for G1 MLP commercials as late as year 7 with the Fancy Pants/Baby Brother one (the backgrounds Toei made for their MLP stuff are unmistakable). Even if there were fewer and fewer as time went on.