My Little Pony Media in the UK

Unlike later My Little Pony iterations, Generation 1 was always evolving year by year. By this I don't mean that later generations did not evolve, simply that there was a more robust plan in place by the time G3 and G4 happened which did not exist in the eighties and nineties. Hasbro were taken by surprise by the success of My Little Pony, and you can see by the toyline oddities that things were being designed, altered, tested out and changed as production went on.

The media is like this too. Different parts of the world had different experiences of My Little Pony - again, unlike later, more streamlined generations. Generation 1 had animation, spoken word books with cassettes, comics, other story books, backcard stories...and they were not necessarily consistent or available in all areas.

Comics, Annuals, Story Collections.

In the UK, the most dominant form of media was the comic, and the annuals and story books that ran alongside it. This ran from 1985-1993/4, and because of its predominance, I have given it its own section under lore, here.

In summary, the comics came in two forms - My Little Pony Comic (from 1985 through to 1993, totally 223 editions, plus one additional freebie) and My Little Pony & Friends (from 1987 till 1994, with upwards of 49 issues, though I am not quite sure what the final issue was). There were also occasional seasonal specials, and at least three 'poster' specials - one for Lullabye Nursery, one for Paradise Estate, and one towards the end of the line for Melody and the Rollerskates Ponies.

Lullabye Nursery Fold-out poster-comic
UK, 1986

The comic included almost all the ponies sold in the UK across the years spanned, as well as a few early ones that never quite made it here.

The annuals came out, as the name suggested, one each year from around 1986 through to 1993. They were issued around Christmas of the year before the book's date (so for example, the 1988 annual was released at Christmas 1987) and included ponies that had been available in the year just ending. These seem to have been unique to the UK, and included new stories not contained in the comic, but in a similar format.

The Favourite Stories Book was also produced around 1990-1, and it contained a compilation of comic stories up to that point. It is big and heavy, and not uncommon second hand.

Other Books in the UK

There was a wide range of other story books available for My Little Pony in the UK during the run. The oldest ones contained two stories each - one of which was entitled "The Man in the Moon". The earliest editions of these had some errors in pony names.

There were also a series of books with cassettes, intended as listen and read stories, and Little Owl books, which were the size of ladybird books and hard backed. These were also sold in translation in other countries.

One of the later book-and-cassette stories featured the Party Ponies, centering particularly on Dancing Butterflies (probably from 1988).

A smattering of other, more eclectic books appeared later in the line, including those with softer backs.

There were also bathbooks and cloth books.

Story Cassettes

"There are many My Little Pony characters who live in Ponyland, and they are all as important and special as each other. There are the sea ponies, who live under the ocean, the pegasus ponies who have a pair of feathery wings and can fly, the unicorns, with their magic horns, Moondancer and Moonstone, the Moon ponies, Seashell, the Beach pony, and the cheerful little earth ponies like Applejack, Pinwheel (?!) and Peachy."

 ~ "The Story of Skyflier"
My Little Pony Cassette Stories, Tempo, UK, 1986

There were also a few cassette only story sets that were released in the UK during the eighties. These came in one or two cassette sets and were not printed in book form. In general, these followed the same rough canon guidelines as the comics and other storybooks. They had occasional quirks, like calling Pinwheel an earth pony!

The Song Tape/Seven Songs and a Story Disc

In 1985, Hasbro released a record containing seven songs and a connecting story. The song lyrics were included with the record. This was released again in 1986, this time on cassette. The tape/disc included songs for the Groom & Style Ponies. More can be found about this here.

My Little Pony Picture Disc
My Little Pony Comic, UK advert

The Animated Series in the UK

Unlike in North America, My Little Pony & Friends did not air on television in the UK during the 1980s. Although anecdotal evidence suggests Rescue at Midnight Castle MIGHT have been aired here, the rest were released straight to VHS. The comic contained several adverts promoting these VHS releases between around 1987-8 and 1990, each time claiming that this was a 'new adventure', even though they had been aired some time earlier, and featured ponies either not sold in the UK, or no longer available. All of the episodes bar one were available on VHS in the UK. Why they were aired this way is unclear. It could be because Hasbro in the UK wanted to vet them for UK suitability first, but no changes were ultimately made. The more likely reason is that the products and names did not match the UK release well enough to be useful in promoting the toyline here.

My Little Pony the Movie (or The Film, as it was advertised in the UK) was in cinemas in July 1986 and continued to be promoted through sections of the toyline in 1987.