Well, my pony friends, after many years of torturous writer's block, the dam broke and a torrent of words poured through.

Behold (possibly with terror, possibly not) Canterlot Follies, a farce based on P.G. Wodehouse's Jeeves and Wooster characters.  (Readers are strongly encouraged to imagine the voices of Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie as they partake.)  It's also illustrated!

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The chapters to date:

Chapter1: The Aunting Hour
Chapter 2: Canterlot, City of a Thousand Something-or-Others
Chapter 3: Fillies, Fiancées, and Fiancés
Chapter 4: A Cousin in Need Is a Cousin Indeed
Chapter 5: Loose Lips Sink (Relation)ships
Chapter 6: The Tangled Webs We Weave
Chapter 7: Dinner and Chocolates, Not in That Order
Chapter 8: In the Soup, Split Pea or Otherwise
Chapter 9: Rhymes and Other Forms of Torture
Chapter 10: Down the Garden Path


Oh, and although this is in the FIM universe, I've also thrown in some occasional references to G1 and G3 ponies, so don't be too surprised if you hear mention of a racing pony named Skedoodle or a grande dame named Cloud Dreamer. 

Well, if the question is "why weren't they popular in the MLP community?", that's a different question than "why did the toyline fail?".

Remember, they were released in 1997.  There were, like, ten people on the Internet.

Okay, there were more than ten people, but you get what I mean.   There were not enough My Little Pony collectors around for Hasbro to care what they thought.


Ultimately it was parents not buying the toys and/or little girls not liking them (in the US) that sunk the line.   Why in the US and not in Europe?  Again, I must point to my previous answer of "just one of those things."   Like how American football is popular in America while soccer/football is popular everywhere else.

I think it's just one of those things, where for whatever reason they didn't sell well in the US but did overseas.

The same thing happened with Keypers, IIRC.  They were kinda-sorta popular in the US, but REALLY REALLY popular in the UK.


They also had really poor, almost nonexistent marketing, and the few US commercials for them featured freaky CGI ponies.   Transformers look good in CGI . . . Ponies, not so much.

Quote from: SheRa-dude on February 05, 2012, 05:20:08 PM

BTW, did anyone notice the spelling of the name on the box? It's says CADANCE instead of CADENCE. Are both correct ?

They might have decided her name would be more distinguished if it was a mixture of two words, "cadence" and "dance".

More likely Hasbro can't spell.    ("Marshmellow Coco" was a previous pony.  Urgh.)


Well, I like her wings much better than big-size Celestia's.  And at least this pony is meant to be pink.  Now that they have her to be their big pink alicorn, maybe they'll make some white Celestia toys.

I've been part of the online collecting community since 1997, so that's . . . wow, 15 years?!


I remember when Dream Valley, Dream Castle, and the Trading Post were the only major sites around . . . Everything else was small personal websites.


I don't really buy ponies any more, but I still enjoy being part of the community.  One of the things that really makes me happy about FIM (aside from how good the show is) is that people seem to be writing fanfics again.  I remember when EVERYONE seemed to be working on a little story (or an epic story!) of their own in "the early days" and was very sad to see that get superceded.

Actually, I would say the brony community in general gave her a more palatable personality than Studio B did.  Sure, you had a lot of " Pony is dumb/silly/clumsy" fanfics and such, but also a really large percentage of fanfics where she was perfectly intelligent, she just happened to have crossed eyes or aphasia, or ones where she and Dr. Whooves went off gallivanting in the TARDIS together, saving the world.

This fanfic, for example.

This makes it especially disappointing to me that Studio B decided to go with a straight out "dumb and destructive" characterization.   If fans want to get up in arms about her being changed, they should blame Studio B for choosing the worst possible route to begin with.  I mean, this was easier to see coming than the housing bubble collapsing. (No offense to Studio B peeps who might be reading.  99% of what you do is great, but someone really dropped the ball on this one.)

Frankly I think they should've left Pony as a nameless "where's Waldo" character.

After seeing the hateful responses at EQD aimed at "the anti-:muffin: Pony brigade", otherwise known as "people who don't appreciate seeing an apparently mentally retarded character being shouted at by a main character without repercussions", I have no sympathy for the "bronies" on this one.


They need to ratchet down their sense of entitlement about five notches.  Reminds me of the mass freak out when Lyra's blindbag toy was named "Heartstrings."  Oh, the humanity.


I don't want to see the pony in question erased from the show, but I will be quite relieved if that particular bit of "Last Round Up" is redone to make it less cringe-worthy and the pony renamed.

I hope it's a G3.  I love the G4 cartoon, but the designs that look so wonderful on the screen don't translate well into toys, IMO.

Especially with the dreaded head / body mismatch . . . Convention ponies cost too much to put up with that.