The 80s, a time of bad hair, loud music, and if you were a kid at the time, marketing. Toys were, for the first time, marketed as entire universes, and had narratives and conflicts. These were used to drive toy sales, by creating brands, and virtual monopolies, because while any company can sell you a doll, only Mattel could sell you a Barbie.

During these times, no company was better at it then Hasbro. Transformers, G.I.Joe, and My Little Pony were all popular cartoons, and successful toy lines, and they all had a universal appeal…well, except for My Little Pony.

Now, I’ll be honest, while I’m sure I watched all three of those shows, I don’t actually remember them. So the following paragraph will all be from information I got second-hand. So, while Transformers and G.I.Joe were actually watchable for anyone with a soul. My Little Pony was a different story. One dimensional characters, and flat, uninteresting plot lines, but with enough colour and shiny things to hypnotize the small minds of its target audience.

But one thing about history and human nature, is that we never expect anything to really change, and sometimes we resist or deny it. This is what causes some conspiracy theories to develop. So when I first heard about My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, the new My Little Pony TV series, I was skeptical. I thought it would have the same amount of appeal the old series had, that being zero. Continue reading →