Rescue at Midnight Castle Observations

[ember86]

While the finished porcelain First Born looks different from the mystery pony, her prototype is identical - same hair color/pattern, same symbol.  I think WildShadow has a pamphlet/booklet with the prototype porcelain in it.  I know she's shown the picture before!

Ahh, I know the photo you mean but I can't find it anywhere x_x; I know I've seen it before..

This is one of my favourite pony mysteries, hehe. I love how many mysteries G1 has.. but also I hate it since we'll probably never know the answers to all of them.. aaa.

Looks like we to make another G1 mysteries thread!

[Ponyfan]

I think she is called First Born because of her pose, although Newborn would have worked also.


Ponyfan

[LadyMoondancer]

First Born is the name of her porcelain "piece". Every piece has a name, like the one where Posey and Baby Blossom are touching noses is called "An Affectionate Moment."    I think the name of each porcelain is printed on its underside.

In terms of "why did they name the piece that", I wonder if they were trying to cash in on people buying gifts for baby showers?

[Ponyfan]

Another thing I just realized is  a lot of the ponies only get one or two lines except for Firefly, Bowtie, Twilight, Applejack and Ember.


Ponyfan

[LunaMoonCustoms1212]

Another thing I just realized is  a lot of the ponies only get one or two lines except for Firefly, Bowtie, Twilight, Applejack and Ember.


Ponyfan

yeah, this is what I thought when I watched the episode. I know that it was made for little kids, but they didn't really delve into the characters like they could have. I wanted to see the inside of dream castle, and I thought that they would have shown more of Tirek. I thought that Firefly had the best personality (she's a lot like Rainbow Dash from FiM) but I feel like that they could have given every character more depth if they just had the time.

[Al-1701]

Part of the problem is you only have 20 minutes, and there was a lot of cover.  It would have been nice if they got the three or five episodes Transformers and G.I. Joe got for their pilots.  Though, then The End of Flutter Valley showed how you can squander that kind of an opportunity.

[Ponyfan]

I think the Parade of Costumes at the end of Escape from Catrina takes place inside Dream Castle and I think there are two very short scenes in the movie where we see the ponies and animals trying to protect Dream Castle from the Smooze and also where the Smooze goes over the wall and inside Dream Castle.

Maybe Hasbro didn't want to use lines on ponies that spent most of the special as dragons in Midnight Castle but it's a little sad when you realize that Moondancer and Bubbles only got lines like "Oh! Help! and "Let us go!"  Cotton Candy got a few more lines than the rest of the captured ponies.



Ponyfan

[ember86]

Speaking of Bubbles, dose anyone love that she used her tail to wash her mane when she was bathing in the brook?

[Leave a Whisper]

Speaking of Bubbles, dose anyone love that she used her tail to wash her mane when she was bathing in the brook?

yup! always thought it was cute.

[Foxtale]

I love threads like this.

I haven't seen the prototype Porcelain baby pony but I would sure love to.

I never though about the mystery rainbow pony being the "original" peachy. But that is a super good hypothesis since she always carries around they cat. Maybe they wanted the Pretty Parlor to come with the rainbow pony but found that production cost at the time were too high for a "give away" pony so they use a Snuzzle recolor? The playset ponies were always pretty simple probably for that reason. Someone with more knowledge of of the release timelines for these will probably help debunk this theory.

As for the corresponding Sea Pony thing, I always wondered that myself since the blue and pink one had yellow bows like Bowtie. Glad I'm not the only one that thought that.

I still wonder to this day if they ever thought of making Scorpan or Tyrek toys.

[LunaMoonCustoms1212]

Part of the problem is you only have 20 minutes, and there was a lot of cover.  It would have been nice if they got the three or five episodes Transformers and G.I. Joe got for their pilots.  Though, then The End of Flutter Valley showed how you can squander that kind of an opportunity.

yeah they could have done that, I wish that they would have done that in FiM. Animation companies always want to have the pilot in a max of 2 episdoes, when they can extend it to however much they need.

[northstar3184]

I still wonder to this day if they ever thought of making Scorpan or Tyrek toys.

I wish they had. Just about every other toy line had toys of their respective shows' villains: Jem, Rainbow Brite, Strawberry Shortcake, Moondreamers, Care Bears, etc..... I would have loved to to have had Scorpan, Tirek, and Lavan as a kid.

[LunaMoonCustoms1212]

I still wonder to this day if they ever thought of making Scorpan or Tyrek toys.

I wish they had. Just about every other toy line had toys of their respective shows' villains: Jem, Rainbow Brite, Strawberry Shortcake, Moondreamers, Care Bears, etc..... I would have loved to to have had Scorpan, Tirek, and Lavan as a kid.

yeah, but they don't really match the "girly girl" likeness of the ponies. They don't seem to go together very well (at least i don't think so toywise) and maybe they thought that it would confuse kids who hadent seen the special.

[Leave a Whisper]

I still wonder to this day if they ever thought of making Scorpan or Tyrek toys.

I wish they had. Just about every other toy line had toys of their respective shows' villains: Jem, Rainbow Brite, Strawberry Shortcake, Moondreamers, Care Bears, etc..... I would have loved to to have had Scorpan, Tirek, and Lavan as a kid.

yeah, but they don't really match the "girly girl" likeness of the ponies. They don't seem to go together very well (at least i don't think so toywise) and maybe they thought that it would confuse kids who hadent seen the special.

So? It didn't stop kids from getting Discord, The Misfits or Queen Scowlene

[Al-1701]

That's true.  Rescue at Midnight Castle came out in the spring of 1984, and was in response to the popularity of the Year 2 ponies.  Tirac and Scorpan would have been released as part of Year 3.

Glow in the dark Lavan Demons and Ice Orcs would have been a fun toy to add to the Year 5 line.  However, I think they were an invention of Michael Reaves for the episode, so you had the same issue.  The show was always behind the toys, so any ideas exclusive to them were after the toys had already been out for almost a year.

Too bad Hasbro U.K. never used any comic characters.  The Weather Witch would have made a nice doll with her weather motif clothes (better than Megan in yet another white and pink dress).