Trivia / My Little Pony

• Accidentally-Correct Writing: G1 featured many, many mares and fillies but only a handful of stallions and colts. In the toys and UK comics, the non-married males live separately from females, while in My Little Pony 'n Friends the males are on a racing trip together. This is actually accurate to real feral horse herds. They consist of females, their foals, and at most one or two full-grown stallions. Stallions leave their herds at a certain age and most live separate from females.
• Channel Hop: Applies to the franchise’s animated series.
  • My Little Pony 'n Friends aired in syndication.
  • My Little Pony Tales aired on the Disney Channel.
  • My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic aired on Discovery Family, formerly The Hub.
  • My Little Pony: Make Your Mark and My Little Pony: Tell Your Tale, the two animated series of G5, are being released on Netflix and YouTube respectively.
• Content Leak: Days before the official announcement of G5, a Czech website that sold bedding leaked the designs of the characters.
• Kids' Meal Toy:
  • In 1984, McDonald's gave out bookmarks of the original six ponies.
  • G2 got 3 Happy Meal toys in 1998.
• Milestone Celebration:
  • The 20th anniversary of the franchise in 2006 rereleased reproductions of the first six ponies in sets of three.
  • Starting with the 35th Anniversary in 2018, the first six were released again and followed by other ponies released after them. Unlike the 20th anniversary, these were packaged to resemble their original release (though in boxes rather than on blister cards), complete with combs, tail ribbons, and stickers. One of the playsets, the Pretty Parlor, was also released, and the first six were followed up with the Unicorns and Pegasi collection (which included the first pegasi and unicorns; the rerelease was scented) and Rainbow Collection (which included the first multicolored rainbow ponies). More Generation One ponies continue to come out, but without the anniversary markers.
  • The 40th anniversary in 2023 again released the first six, but also include a line of plush ponies that are sold only on Amazon and a release of then never-before-produced Celestial Ponies, which became popular through the fandom.
• No Export for You:
  • The biggest case of this is with Japan. While semi-averted in both G1 and G3 (toys only), it didn't apply G2, G4 outside of the show, or G5. The G1 Toys by Takara didn't sell as well in Japan as in the West (and in a What Could Have Been moment, the baby versions were intended to be released there but were cancelled). G3 suffered from this too; Takara Tomy re-licensed the series in 2006 and released the toys up to the G3.5 line. It didn't sell well either and Takara Tomy decided to pull the plug on the license in 2012 and shut down the official Japanese website for good. The company, having had enough with low sales, switched their focus to Transformers: Prime. The main reason for ending the franchise in Japan is because it can't keep up with three other, stronger competing girl-oriented franchises that could crush them: Pretty Cure, Hello Kitty and surprisingly, Jewelpet (from Takara Tomy's competitor Sega Toys). Even if Friendship is Magic has a decent storyline, characterization and toys that had potential in the Japanese Market, Hasbro and Takara Tomy decided not to release any further My Little Pony items in Japan. Not to mention that the fanbase of these three franchises in Japan is as solid as iron compared to My Little Pony overall.
  • Strangely, "My Little Pony Tales" suffered from this only when it comes to the toys. Though a US-produced series, the toys were produced everywhere but the US.
  • Any MLP toy packaged inside Kinder Surprise Eggs can't be sold in the United States due to a law banning any non-edible objects inside food.
  • Averted with Friendship Is Magic; in January 23 2013, Bushiroad brought the animated show to Japan after a three-year wait with the cast from Bushiroad's Tantei Opera Milky Holmes franchise brought on to voice the main characters. (Also counts an example of Marth Debuted in "Smash Bros." since the show was the first in the franchise to be dubbed in Japanese.) There was a dub for the G1 TV series but it was treated like a Japanese anime, due to it containing animation from Toei.
  • None of the first three generations ever officially made their way into South Korea like most Japanese cultural products until between 1998 and 2004. It wasn't until Generation Four when any My Little Pony toys were released there.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Word of God is the series was originally supposed to be unisex and aimed at both girls and boys. Hasbro instead decided to targeted it exclusively at girls.
  • Bonnie Zacherle wanted the ponies to only have realistic colors.
  • Baby Truly is an unreleased Beddy Bye Eye pony.
  • To go along with the Pony Friends there were meant to be human companions. Only the animals came out. Megan and Molly are the only humans in the G1 toyline.
  • The Fairy Brights/Celestial Ponies◊ were meant to be released, but never were.
  • The Irresistibles◊ line◊ was announced in a 1991 catalog but ended up completely unreleased. They were more realistically proportioned (similarly to G2 ponies and Dream Beauties) than other G1 ponies.
  • Tuneful was originally an Earth pony instead of a unicorn. She still appeared as an Earth pony in My Little Pony Tales.
  • Sprinkles was originally blue instead of white. Merchandise still depicted her as blue.
  • Bubbles was light blue instead of yellow. The only known prototype is possessed by Hasbro and they sometimes take it to fairs and conventions. It is hand-carved using wax and hand-painted.
  • Hippity Hop was originally a unicorn instead of a pegasus. Official art on the back of her card still depicts her as so.
  • One Toyless Toyline Character appears in Rescue From Midnight Castle that is believed to be an unreleased pony. Some believe she is the porcelain-only "First Born".
  • Fiesta Flair is an unreleased character who appeared in the My Little Pony (G3) cartoons but never in the toys. She was reworked into Candy Apple due to worries that she was too stereotypically Mexican.
  • A G3 pony meant to promote breast cancer awareness was created but never formally released. Prototypes have ended up leaked nevertheless.

---