Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Lesson 10: My Little Pony G3's Animated Features

Previous Lesson: Lesson 9: My Little Pony G3, toy line.

My Little Pony G3 is a series of Direct-to-DVD movies, specials, and shorts released throughout the turn of the millenium. There were eleven of them in all.


Lesson 9: My Little Pony G3, toy line

Previous Lesson: Lesson 8: My Little Pony G2'a PC Raising Sim Game: Friendship Gardens.

MLP G3 began in 2003, and much like previous gens, Hasbro only released Earth Ponies early on, later adding pegasi and unicorns by 2006. The line lasted for 6 years, ending in 2009, at which point G3.5 began. The toy line was the second incarnation to set the ponies in Ponyvile (the first being My Little Pony Tales), which was also home to Celebration Castle.

Pictured Above:
Celebration Castle, the playset that made Dream Castle look freaking butch!


Lesson 8: My Little Pony G2's PC Raising Sim Game: Friendship Gardens

Previous Lesson: Lesson 7: My Little Pony G2, toy line.

My Little Pony: Friendship Gardens is a video game for the PC in Europe.


It was released during the Generation 2 era (1997-2003), it's a Raising Sim game—you raise and care for your own Little Pony.

Not to be confused with My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, which is the G4 cartoon.

More after the jump!

Lesson 7: My Little Pony G2, toy line.



My Little Pony G2 was first released in late 1997. It ran up until 2003 when it ended and G3 began. G2 was released worldwide initially, but it was discontinued after about two years in the U.S. and Canada due to poor sales. The toy line would live on in Europe, where it was actually quite popular. Despite this, G2 managed to design and develop a whooping 200 different models of pony in the seven years it ran.
They also had other merchandise, such as bean chairs and other things.
The setting for G2, in the U.S., was called Friendship Gardens, but retained it's previous name, Ponyland, overseas, for reasons I don't think even Hasbro understands.

Get more details after the jump.


Recommended Reading, part Deux

There's a site called My Little Pony Lexicon, which while mostly dedicated to posting fanfictions, does have an interesting section, called Canon, in which long time pony fan Lady Moondancer (and former site admin of the long passed but not forgotten site, Moondancer's Dream), posts scans of MLP coloring books, comic books, and more, that have been issued by Hasbro, for any generation.

Especially interesting are the scans of the European comic books, such as Baby Ponies Comes From Mirrors.

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Minor Correction

It seems the original photos I had of the first six Little ponies ever made weren't of vintage ponies. Tulagirl, of MLP Arena, and Nonnavlis were kind enough to make me aware of this, and offered up an image of the actual original ponies. These images belong to Faerie-Star.

Monday, May 21, 2012

Recommended Reading

If you want a complete rundown of G1 Pony toys, look no further than Dream Valley - A Collector's Guide to My Little Pony. It also has a list of accessories and links to other useful sites. So if you're a MLP toy enthusiast, then that's the place for you.

Lesson 6: My Little Pony G1.5's Animated Feature: My Little Pony Tales

Previous Lesson: My Little Pony G1 Animated Features, part 3: My Little Pony 'n' Friends.

Released for TV in the early ninties, My Little Pony Tales is the second TV series based on the toyline by Hasbro. Unlike the previous incarnation like My Little Pony 'n' Friends, which was a fantasy/adventure series, this was decided to give the ponies a slice of life angle, and removed most of the fantasy elements. As the result, the only breed of pony in this series are Earth Ponies. You milage will vary on whether this was a good thing or not. The show was set in a town named Ponyville which is somewhere in Ponyland. The name of the town would later be used in G3/G3.5 and Friendship is Magic.

Lesson 5: My Little Pony G1 Animated Features, part 3: My Little Pony 'n' Friends

Previous Lesson: My Little Pony G1 Animated Features, part 2: The Movie.

"Come to where the magic is...where the rainbow ends
Follow, follow My Little Pony...My Little Pony 'n' Friends
Through the clouds and past the stars...where the river bends
Follow, follow My Little Pony...My Little Pony 'n' Friends
Where you find heart's desire...where, that all depends
Follow, follow My Little Pony...My Little Pony 'n' Friends
My Little Pony 'n' Friends"

-The opening theme for the series

My Little Pony and Friends is an animated TV series that was released by Claster Television, inc. and producted by Marvel Productions and Sunbow Productions, in the 1986 and ran until 1987. This came out a few months after The Movie. This series ran for two seasons. The series was an Animated Anthology, featuring quarter hour shorts. The first half of the show would have an episode of ponies, and then the second half would feature an episode of their Friends: "Glo Friends", "Moondreamers", and "The Potato Head Kids". Yes, the series was very Merchandise Driven. As the result, the pony episodes often ran as television serials, as did the other shorts.

Lesson 4: MLP G1 Animated Features part 2: The Movie

Previous Lesson: My Little Pony G1 Animated Features, part one: The TV Specials.

My Little Pony The Movie was released in theaters in 1986, by Hasbro. And oh boy did they do a few things to greatly anger fans over the years. But we'll get to that later.

Lesson 3: My Little Pony G1 Animated Features, part 1: The TV Specials

Previous Lesson: MLP Gen 1, Toy Line.

Hello, again, pegasisters and bronies alike, and welcome to another addition of MLP-History, this time brought to you by Professor WeirdRaptor. In 1984 and 1985, Hasbro worked with Marvel Productions and Sunbow Productions to create a pair of half-hour TV specials, titled My Little Pony and My Little Pon: Escape from Catrina. At this point, they were largely testing the waters to see if anyone would be willing to sit through a televised program of pastel-colored running through fields and battling the forces of evil. Well, no sense in wasting time, let's get right into it.

Lesson 2: MLP Gen 1, Toy Line

Previous Lesson: Bonnie Zacherle and My Little Pony.

The toy line made its official start in 1982 as a set of six earth ponies named Butterscotch, Blue Belle, Minty, Snuzzle, Cotton Candy, and Blossom. They were considerably smaller than the original Pretty Pony, and were easily characterized by by their silk-like manes which were brushable, and by their flank symbols. They were sold with flat feet, wih imprint of their manufacturing more visible on the bottom of the hoof.
The setting for G1 MLP is called Dream Valley.

Lesson 1: Bonnie Zacherle And My Pretty Pony

My Little Pony began as a toy brand in 1982 developed by it's original creator, Bonnie Zacherle, and published by Hasbro. Information on Zacherle can be found on this Wikipedia article, and this article on About.com "Inventors".

Welcome and info bits

Hello everyone, welcome to to my blog, MLP-History. This blog is a companion piece for a group on deviantART that I'm a member of, MLP-History, which was started by Faerie-StarV. Credit also goes to Fearie-Star for compiling most of the research this blog will cover.

This blog, along with the original devART group, have been created to educate all of you about the history of My Little Pony Franchise! As you probably don't know, ever since My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic aired two years ago, almost none of the new fans even know about the previous generations, or if they do, their knowledge of it is very limited. Well, time to remedy that.

On with the history lessons! Bonnie Zacherle and My Pretty Pony