Hasbro Has Its Copyright Back · 2:45am Aug 20th, 2014
I was in the bookstore today, and I saw something amazing and awesome: Adler's Ten Philosophical Mistakes and Aristotle for Everyone are back in print!
But besides that, I also saw a tiny little box containing a figurine of Firefly, the G1 pony, for sale with a miniature storybook. The current, official Hasbro label was on the back of the box.
I also recently saw this on Amazon:
This DVD, promising to contain the "complete" G1 (unsure at present whether that includes the movie or TV specials) is set to release in September. This is a great thing for old-school pony fans, since DVDs of the old shows are all out of print and quite expensive. The DVD is being released by Shout! Factory, which, if I'm not mistaken, also prints some of the G4 DVDs.
Perhaps this is old news and I'm late to the party; though I like My Little Pony stories and art, I pay no attention to the doings of voice actresses or Bronies or whatnot. But even though I don't know the ins-and-outs of the legal issues that caused Hasbro to lose rights to most of the G1 material, I can't imagine how these things would be coming out if Hasbro hadn't somehow purchased or otherwise regained its copyright.
If Hasbro once again owns G1, that could mean good things. It would mean, at least, that they can reuse some of the old, good pony names instead of creating further abominations like "Banana Fizzy" and "Sweetie Drops." It also means they can now go ahead with creating G5: Equestrienne Girls.
But it means something else more important. I care not if Hasbro has rights to Firefly or Heart Throb or Wind Whistler.
But if Megan doesn't appear in Season 5, I'm gonna flip a table.
Oh.
Oh shit, I will buy the hell out of that. :D G1 is awesome, and not just in the "so 80's toy-commercial bad it's good" way either.
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Some parts of G1 are great, but I admit even I suffer through almost every musical number, with rare exceptions. "Nothing Can Stop the Smooze" and Crunch's song, whatever it's called, are about the only G1 songs that are bearable.
But I love Megan. I will endure anything to see Megan.
I hope Megan is badass, she doesn't need to come in, wearing a load coat and shooting a dragon while wielding twin revolvers, but that would be badass. She killed a demo good like, Satan looking being, and it exploded!
For your future table flipping needs
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Crunch's song was amazing, yes, and the rest are pretty terrible (except the one Posey sings). I have yet to start season 2, but as season 1 went on, it just got better and better.
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I once read a funny post making Megan the Chuck Norris of Ponyland. I don't remember all the entries, but the best was, "Celestia doesn't raise the sun. She coaxes it out of hiding from Megan."
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I personally still consider "The Ghost of Paradise Estate" the best of G1, but I seem to be in the minority. Most choose "Rescue at Midnight Castle" or "The Return of Tambelon."
Season 2 is, in my humble opinion, largely inferior, though it has some good stories. The one in which Heart Throb helps a lovesick gnome besiege a flying castle is excellent. The last episodes, focusing on the Baby Ponies and Newborn Twins, are lackluster. The series went out with a whimper.
Man, Megan sure dressed in ugly clothes. Look at those frills? What the heck was she thinking?
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I know, I know. This does vaguely resemble one of the outfits available in the toy line, but it is easily the ugliest and most absurd one. Her doll's "base" outfit, however, was a quite lovely white dress with pink lace, which I think she also wore in "Escape from Catrina." Unfortunately, the ugly overalls, or whatever they are, became her standard outfit starting with the movie, and she never changed clothes again.
Personally, I think she should have worn riding clothes, since she's riding ponies. She wore sensible Western gear in the first TV special, but I would prefer to see her in English garb, which is more elegant and seems better suited to a fashion doll line.
It begins. Hasbro might be able to do some good things with the show.
Someone call up IDW and get them to make a crossover miniseries.
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I dunno. They weren't allowed to do "Mars Attacks My Little Pony," even though that would have been AWESOME!
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...And now I have images of Equestria being saved by a yodeling Big Mac...
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That too would have been awesome.
I don't think they ever lost the copyright, just the trademark?
After reading some of the descriptions of Faust's interactions with Hasbro, I get the sense that she is rather business illiterate. There are a couple reasons Hasbro didn't want to use her ponies.
First, the toy side of things were still on a Core 7 kick and wanted to continue releasing toys of them and have the show use them. Since Hasbro is a toy company first and only uses shows as extended advertisements, the toy side will typically win a dispute. Faust was actually able to gain ground to not have Cheerilee be part of the Mane 6.
Second, copyright are practically immortal, especially when you're a corporation. However, Trademarks have to be renewed every ten years. You can do this forever, but you have to prove you're using or intending to imminently use the trademark. Many of the G1 trademarks lapsed in 2006 from a lack of use, so to restore them, they would have to start from scratch which is more expensive than renewing and changing existing trademarks. Faust probably heard this and figured it meant they lost the rights.
The Firefly book showed up in April and we heard of the DVD's back in either May or June. I'm hoping the DVD's are the original broadcast version. That would be awesome.
As for bringing Megan back, I would like to see humans return. Though, I don't want a teenage girl becoming the ponies' den mother again.
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This does not surprise me.
I like Ghost for its worldbuilding, but was otherwise nonplussed. My favorites are Crunch the Rockdog and Mish Mash Melee. (I was shocked, a one-shot? But I love it because it has all my favorite characters
making outinteracting with one another.) Tambelon is, in my estimation, somewhat lacking.2385447 Tambelon suffered from ONLY having 4 parts. It could have used the 10 parts given to The End of Flutter Valley.
My personal favorites are Crunch, Mish Mash, and the Magic Coins.
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Yeah, I thought the typical story floating around the Internet about Hasbro's loss of copyright to everything but Applejack and Spike sounded suspicious, but I have no idea where to go for the straight scoop. I know only the barest basics of copyright law and nothing of trademark law, so I thought maybe it had something to do with the bankruptcy or them selling the rights off or something.
One way or the other, it appears that Hasbro does have the rights and is interested in using them. The little Firefly is a Hasbro toy, and that upcoming video has the G3 MLP logo on it, which Hasbro is apparently using for "classic" My Little Pony videos.
As for "Mish-Mash Melee," I have never understood its appeal. I thought it was dumb. But none of the G1 ponies appeal to me much except Heart Throb and Firefly and maybe Galaxy. I'm more interested in the human characters.
Never understood why some don't like Megan as a maternal figure, either.
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Hey, you're a gun aficionado, right? Would you be interested in vetting a novel for accuracy in firearm depiction?
2386461 Because she's a teenaged girl from a completely different world. Why would she be better equipped to lead than the ponies that have lived their entire lives in this world? Spike and Sparkplug on Transformers were able to strike a balance of being of use while not overshadowing the titular characters.
I think The End of Flutter Valley was the worst case of this. Original viewers spent the first full week of the series and Monday of the second watching the ponies being completely impotent so Megan can swoop in save them.
And people like Mish Mash Melee because it features the four ponies who had the most development in the series. The actresses did a great job of voicing their altered states. And it was biggest solo the professional singer in the cast got. My complaint was it was too short as a standalone because it was an idea that they could have done more with.
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You can find out a bit of the reason for me, anyway, here. (The short answer is, I got really into a few of the pony characters, and all of them appear in that episode.)
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While I agree that "End of Flutter Valley" was a mess, I still don't think I grasp your point. Why shouldn't she swoop in to save them? The idea that there is something somehow wrong with this utterly confuses me.
2386627 Because they shouldn't need someone to swoop in and save them. They should be the ones swooping in and saving people. My Little Pony was the female counterpart to the Transformers. The Transformers took care of business, it was expected the ponies would too.
And why shouldn't they? They have several magic users and aerial supremacy. There are a number of specialists within their numbers. Why should they have trouble with they idiot witches of all their adversaries until there's a teenage girl present?
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Well, no. They were the other big toy line, it's true, but they weren't simply distaff transformers. Transformers were fighting robots who punched and shot stuff. The ponies were magic horses who chased butterflies. Transformers came with guns and turned into powerful vehicles. Ponies came with hairbrushes. Transformers focused on blowing stuff up. Ponies focused more on nurturing. So, naturally, the human protag was an audience stand-in, who was, naturally, a nurturing figure.
2386812 I mean in terms of age demographics. The Transformers and My Little Pony show were targeted at younger children while G.I. Joe and Jem were targeted at older children.
And Megan was not seen as more overbearing than nurturing by the audience. Many people who are long-term fans hate her. It's probably because many of them also watched the Transformers and wanted to see their ponies kick ass and take names too. The unicorns have magic and the pegasi can fly, so they have similar tools as the Transformers only on a different scale.
Now I'm wondering what Transformers fans would have thought if the toys came with mini car sponges to wash them.
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You're missing my point. Whether Megan is a well-depicted character or not (I think she's great), she is not a Transformer, nor are the ponies. Their "power" relative to the Transformers, however that might be measured, is irrelevant. My Little Pony was about nurturing, and Megan and the ponies typically, with exceptions, solved their problems by talking things out or appealing to enemies' better natures. Transformers solved problems by hitting and shooting stuff.
To summarize, My Little Pony is feminine and Transformers is masculine. They were designed that way on purpose.
2386939 I'm telling you why Megan is so widely hated. This is why. Spike didn't order around the Transformers, so why should Megan order around the the ponies? The Transformers could handle their enemies, so why shouldn't the ponies be able to handle their enemies? Why should the toys for boys be heroes while the toys for girls are victims? Even if the ponies use their words to talk down some of their enemies (good diplomacy can be an effective weapon), they shouldn't need Megan to save them when the shit hits the fan.
You have to look at this from the eyes of a little kid who is tuning in to watch PONIES. You like the human characters, but the vast majority in interested in My Little Pony because of the ponies. They want to see the ponies win the day, not Megan with the ponies as basically cogs in her machine.
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There is no comparison between the two. Why do you insist on making one? Megan taught and encouraged and instructed the ponies because pony toy lines as a rule are focused on taking care of something, because ponies in real life are high-maintenance animals, which is probably part of the reason so many girls like them.
Do you understand what My Little Pony is? It's a horse-grooming simulator. It's about brushing hair on horses.
Listen, youngster, I watched the show as a child. I liked it then, I like it now. I didn't tune into My Litte Pony to watch Transformers Lite.
A better question might be why you think the opposite of "soldier" is "victim." Neither Megan nor the ponies are victims. But their methods of dealing with their problems are feminine, whereas the Transformers' methods are masculine, because the Transformers were designed to appeal to boys and the ponies to girls, and to the parents of the same.
You are simply trying to make the franchise into something it's not and was not meant to be.
I will be honest: behind the distates for Megan, I always suspect is lurking a distaste for motherhood or a distaste for femininity.
P.S., your vulgarity is not welcome on my blog. Tone it down.
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Because many made the comparison when they were little kids.
Which doesn't translate into a show well. That's why the show was a high fantasy adventure series.
Congratulations, so did I. It's not so much wanting Transformers Lite as wanting the titular characters to be leading on the adventures.
I'd call being trapped in a net for half a 90 minute story until you're saved being a victim. I'd call just waiting around doing nothing (on Megan's orders no less) until you're turned to glass being a victim. The series got its act together by the time The Return of Tambelon rolled around and Michael Reaves became heavily involved in the series, but two of the first four stories of the series accounting for almost a third of the first season portrayed the ponies as being helpless.
Actually, it's a distaste for femininity being portrayed as weak, passive, and needing someone to come in and care for you because you can't handle it.
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When you're absolutely bent on finding something to gripe about, you will of course always be able to find it. You could just as easily complain (in fact, I've seen it done) that Transformers depicts humanity as weak and helpless and needing to be rescued by giant robots. Or I could complain that the Autobots are depicted as weak and helpless and needing to be rescued by their computer. Or by the Dinobots. Or by whatever it is this week.
The complaint hinges on the assumption, which comes from Bizzaro World or Dimension X, but which makes no sense in the normal universe, that being rescued from danger is somehow undignified or demeaning, and that the proper response to it is resentment rather than gratitude.
In storytelling, any story is about somebody trying to get something he wants badly while facing something else that stands in his way. Having the hero's enemy menace somebody the hero loves is an easy and effective way to establish plot, so it naturally shows up frequently.
Further, criticism of any work, even a low work such as those we are discussing, ceases to be useful criticism when it recommends changes in essence rather than changes in accident. My LIttle Pony is the story of a girl caring for the ponies she loves, as was established in the first made-for-TV movie. That is the essence of the story. If that's not to your taste, that's your business; simply go watch something else. But it is not a serious criticism to say the story ought to be changed utterly.
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Of course humans are weak and helpless compared to GIANT ROBOTS! Kind of like how an ant is weak and helpless against us. We expect the humans to be weaker in this situation. What we shouldn't expect is a group with magic users and fliers in their midst who have lived their entire lives in a world needing a teenage girl who just arrived to save them from that world.
This was explained by the series. The Autobots are a milita while the Decepticons are professional soldiers. And Teletran One and the Dinobots are products of their engineering.
Being rescued when you're in over your head is fine. I'm not too proud to scream for help if I need it. However, the more experienced and capable (which the ponies are) shouldn't need to be CONSTANTLY rescued by the less experienced and capable. Hell, when I rewrote G1, I reversed the dynamic with a naive and inexperienced Megan needing protection from the ponies while she learns how their world works. Part of the problem is Megan doesn't grow into her role as leader, she just is.
Which can be applied to My Little Pony with the titular characters being the ones having to protect/save those they care about. It's their show for crying out loud.
No. My Little Pony is about the ponies of Dream Valley facing those who would do them harm. They have allies like the bushwoolies, Spike, the Moochick, and the Williams siblings, but it's again THEIR SHOW! It's My Little Pony, not Megan's ponies. Megan being their den mother was a cheap attempt at connecting with the viewers who really didn't care about her. I've actually read the part of the writer's guide describing Megan's role. She's a female Wesley Crusher.
Interesting discussion.
I've actually also noticed this about G1 MLP. There are a number of situations where our female characters seem to lack any initiative in solving their own problems, or even if they try, they end up being somehow not up to the challenge, and so need to be saved by some outside agency.
Even Megan herself falls into this category at times; in the PILOT no less! Megan and her little pony band would have been screwed if Scorpan had not conveniently chosen to switch sides when he did. And he was the one who did all the physical fighting against Tirek. All Megan ultimately did was open a locket to release their deus ex machina.
Another classic example is the climax to Fugitive Flowers. Both Megan and the ponies were totally subdued and helpless at one point and needed a "masculine" hero figure, in the form of the Crab Nasties, in order to save the day there.
So I think I understand where Al is coming from here.
I don't hate Megan at all. Like I said, she has her own moments of "feminine helplessness", as do the ponies. I think it is a hallmark of the times, and the impression that is generally given of girls. I don't think Megan is depicted as some kind of Mary Sue "savior" of the ponies quite enough to garner the kind of hate you are suggesting here.
She does take on a leader role in some of the more prominent episodes. That's the obvious self-insert fantasy for the "little girl" audience. And what's wrong with that? Bronies certainly haven't been shy about writing their own self-insert fanfictions.
But there are also episodes in which Megan is not present at all. The ponies have their opportunities to have their own episodes; such as Mish Mash Melee and Flight to Cloud castle. End of Flutter Valley is the only really obvious offender when it comes to making the ponies look useless, and everyone seems to agree that that episode was a mess.
So I would agree with Davidson on the point that Megan is primarily a nurturer of the ponies, and that that makes sense for a girls show. I don't think it's "sexist" for me to say that. There's nothing wrong with girls "tending" to have more of a nurturing side. Certainly you get different personality types in the real world, but that is the general trend.
I think that the issue with G1 was not that the ponies or Megan were too "nurturing" or too "feminine". The problem was that that generally ended up meaning that the characters were washed out, bland, undeveloped bores, with only superficial distinguishing features. There were a few notable exceptions of course. That was the problem that Lauren Faust set out to solve with her new vision, and obviously she succeeded wonderfully. The new G4 is much more character-driven than G1. Because of that, G4 naturally no longer gives the impression of the ponies simply being passive recipients of whatever happens to them, and there is much more to them than just being "nurturing" or caring, although that is in there too.
So in summary, I can see the "females are weak" trope show up in a few places in G1, but I personally don't see it as THAT problematic overall, nor do I see it as being a "Megan-centered" issue.
2389651 I know the person who runs Heckyeahponyscans hated Megan starting with Escape From Catrina. Her problem was more Megan was too idealized and perfect starting at that point. The person who created the My Little Pony Scrapbook hated her from almost the first second she appeared in Rescue at Midnight Castle because she immediately inserted herself into the narrative with no rhyme or reason. Megan failed as the audience insert. That's because the audience wanted the ponies to guide them through their world, not be dictating to them.
And you have to remember The End of Flutter Valley was two weeks long (and a full fifth of the first season). And this was after two years of waiting for a My Little Pony series. So, enduring the slog that is The End of Flutter Valley was particularly unbearable to pony fans.
I guess they should have kept Megan as the matron saint of the baby ponies. That way she would be nurturing while not seeming overbearing.
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I admire your persistence. One moment you are complaining that the show depicts femininity as weak because it depicts a highly feminine character as a heroine and protectress, and the next you're actually claiming the show depicts its female characters in need of male protectors, which, considering the show has almost no male characters who aren't villains, certainly must have taken some effort. In the case of the crabnasties, Megan and the ponies actually defeated them in physical combat. The point of the episode was not to show who was tougher than whom; it was about failure to listen and failure in judgment. It was because they resorted to physical aggression that the ponies ended up in a pickle.
The major characters in this show are, all of them, female, and feminine. The reason they don't engage in much physical combat is because feminine strength is not physical strength. A woman's strength, which is more subtle and therefore more powerful than a man's, lies in persuasion, reconciliation, allurement. A woman can destroy a man with a word. This is better understood in G1 than in G4, and is reflected in the way the characters deal with their problems.
I am utterly flummoxed whenever anyone suggests it is somehow offensive for male characters to be depicted defending female ones. Putting yourself in harm's way to defend women, is part of what it means to be a man. That's what men are built and equipped and hardwired for. That's one of the few reasons our brutish natures are tolerable.
What ultimately underlies this, the lurking hidden assumption, is the Postmodern worship of power. it originates with Marx, who imagined all of the power in the hands of an imaginary class he called Capitalists, and he reinterpreted the mutually beneficial partnership of labor and management as one of inevitable exploitation and envy. Third-wave feminism is simply Marxism applied to human sexuality, with the mutually beneficial partnership of men and women reinterpreted as a relationship of exploitation and envy. This power-worship acknowledges only the most obvious or rough forms of power, like brute physical strength, and reimagines envy as a virtue instead of a vice.
This is very clever and very diabolical, since envy, of all the deadly sins, is the one that offers nothing. Unlike sloth or lust or pride, it promises no pleasure. It offers nothing, yet is strangely tempting anyway.
2390943 I actually had no problem with them needing the crabnasties to fight the flories. It was a "Call on Godzilla" moment if you get the reference. I wouldn't expect them to be able to take on 30 foot plant monsters without either some heavy technology (which they don't have) or help. I suppose if Powder was still around she could have frozen them, but she wasn't in the series.
Again, calling in someone more capable of handling a situation you can't isn't a sign of debilitating weakness. It just means you have your limits. My question is what can a teenage girl do that a bunch of sapient ponies can't aside from pick things up better. About the only thing I can think of where they would need her to save them is if they got attacked by killer pickle jars.
As for persuasion, reconciliation, and allurement, why can't the ponies who have lived in this world their entire lives not use these tools? Why does it have to be Megan? And this doesn't really apply to the worst "Megan saves the day" offender because the witches are dead set on the ponies' extinction. And it was Rosedust who reconciled with Bumble which she could have done without Megan's presence. All Megan did was get the furbobs to work with the stonebacks, but they plot was so stupid (especially her contribution to it), it's not even worth mentioning.
As for your last three paragraphs, I could write a master's thesis in response, but this really isn't the forum for it.
I have the DVD :D It's awesome!