My Little Ponies are brightly coloured plastic horse toys, with brushable manes and tails. Most have symbols on their sides, which usually relates to their name. Due to the success of My Little Pony, many imitations were made, and are still being made today, though meant to be serious imitations, many of them look like they were designed to be monsters in a low budget horror movie.

A Little History

The predecessor of My Little Pony was My Pretty Pony. The first My Pretty Pony looked very much like a normal horse and the last was pink, with a symbol on its rump, much like a My Little Pony. In 1982, the first versions of My Little Ponies were produced. These were:

• Snuzzle
• Minty
• Cotton Candy
• Butterscotch
• Bluebelle
• Blossom

The originals were all 'ordinary' ponies, but unicorns and Pegasi¹ were introduced later on. As time went on, a whole variety of new types were produced. Some had symbols covering their whole body, some had tails that twirled around, others had hair which changed colour in the sun - Sea ponies, baby ponies, and male ponies were all introduced. In total, there were about 1,000 different ponies made. There was also a lot of related merchandise, such as books, comics and ceramic models. As well as all this, there was a My Little Pony cartoon series, and a movie.

Production of the ponies first stopped in America, in 1992. Europe continued producing them for a few more years after that, even though they were no longer in production, many people continued to collect My Little Ponies.

In 1997, My Little Pony was relaunched. The new ponies were smaller, thinner, and had more rounded faces. These new ponies did not do particularly well in the USA, and were discontinued in 1998. However, they are still being made in Europe.