Equestria Girls: The History of Hasbro's Beautiful Mess

in 2010 Hasbro would launch the fourth

generation of the popular toy franchise

My Little Pony subtitled friendship is

Magic and the rest is history but today

I want to focus specifically on the

Equestria Girls spin-off a fashion doll

line and accompanying movie series that

focused on the main characters as human

teenage girls rather than you know

horses it's something I actually

remember following pretty closely back

when it was first being released so I

thought it would be fun to look back to

go over its Inception the movies and

just the general background of

everything I have

absolutely no idea how long this is

going to be but we're already here in

this chair

talking

so let's do it the history of My Little

Pony G4 and its rise to fame is a pretty

well documented thing so we're not going

to be spending a lot of time on that all

that's really important to know is that

My Little Pony not only successfully

cornered the market of young girls that

they were originally aiming for but an

extremely significant audience of adults

as well this would result in an entire

subculture being born the ever

ubiquitous Bronies which again are very

well documented so although they're

important here I won't be rehashing like

their entire history so we're gonna fast

forward to 2013. Friendship is Magic has

finished its third season to pretty

immense success it's one of the largest

most lucrative franchises in the world a

fourth season hadn't been officially

announced yet but it kind of went

without saying that it would be

happening in the meantime Hasbro was

free to do to honestly whatever they

wanted the only place to go was up so

perhaps it was time to bring My Little

Pony to new lengths to venture into

Uncharted territories and conveniently

as all this was going on there was

another toy Market that was quietly

exploding into popularity with both

children and adults nay they weren't

just interested in little plastic horses

but little plastic women as well thanks

to the introduction of Monster High by

Mattel also in 2010 the fashion doll

Market was seeing a huge surge in

popularity and more importantly money by

2013 Monster High was worth an estimated

1 billion doll hairs with a B and thanks

to them Mattel was seeing their profits

practically quadruple I imagine that

it's a Hasbro their next move was pretty

obvious so while My Little Pony's

dedicated audience was eagerly awaiting

the fourth season Hasbro would give them

something new this is spin-off franchise

was pretty lightly teased all throughout

early 2013.

looking at the news fan site Equestria

Daily it seems that all fans knew for

the longest time was the trademark

itself Equestria girls that it was

rumored to be a fashion doll line and

that it would be primarily focusing on

the teen girl demographic and although

the first movie wouldn't be officially

announced until late spring it would be

around March that we got our first look

at the character designs

to a fairly mixed reaction I actually

remember when these were first announced

I wasn't really in the My Little Pony

fandom I was way more so in the Monster

High crowd and as you can imagine we

were all pretty interested in these two

however after seeing the initial images

I think public interest on both sides

The Faded considerably hopes for

Equestria Girls as a franchise were not

extremely high going in the general

consensus was that this was a soulless

cash grab on Hasbro's part with no

thought or effort put into it just

another toy to put on the shelves and

keep in mind at this point we hadn't

even seen the Dolls yet Equestria Girls

unfortunately just had a lot working

against it My Little Pony had a huge fan

base of adult men and although it wasn't

uncommon for them to buy the toys or the

merchandise they were like a paradox

toxically averse to it being a fashion

doll brand and felt alienated by the

fact that it seemed to be aimed more at

young girls than adult men which

obviously I have nothing against adults

who buy and collect toys but with

Bronies specifically

usually adult collectors have a kind of

self-awareness that we're not the target

audience but Bronies tended to have the

attitude that they should be the target

audience and anytime Hasbro made toys

that were overtly girly it did not go

over well and people on the fashion doll

side were already pretty Discerning into

what makes a good fashion doll so they

weren't really interested in what

appeared to just be a cash grab the

general public too was pretty averse to

these at first there's an article

written by Amanda Marcotte for slate

where she criticizes Hasbro for giving

into the demands of Bronies and turning

the ponies into quote imitation sexy

anime characters which

yeah sexy yeah okay Amanda do you have

something you'd like to share with the

class I wonder and to be honest I wasn't

too interested in Equestria Girls either

after seeing these designs for the first

time and I do think it's important to

talk about the initial designs and why

they're

they're not horrible they're really not

all that bad but they could have been a

lot better I think Hasbro was

approaching these from the standpoint of

it being a movie first and a doll line

Second which is always kind of been

Hasbro's philosophy as far as toys go

and I guess it worked pretty well for

them up to this point so they gave the

characters pretty simplistic designs

that were easy to animate and recreate

for promotional materials

so they all have almost identical

outfits and Silhouettes which for a

fashion doll lineup is really just not

that interesting another thing is the

fact that they have skin tones which are

the same but just slightly lighter than

the color of their horse selves which I

have gotten used to over time but I just

remember seeing these for the first time

and thinking it was kind of strange and

off-putting the artworks and the dolls

which are upcoming usually did have them

depicted as anthropomorphic with the

horse ears and all but in the movies

they are fully human for the most part

and even referred to as such and I think

there's two big reasons for this one is

obvious it's very derivative of Monster

High and they're unnatural skin tones

another reason was that bronies were

kind of racist at this point it was

pretty common to see fan art of the main

characters in My Little Pony reimagined

as humans which Hasbro actually cited as

a partial inspiration for Equestria

Girls it was also common for anyone who

drew the characters visibly as women of

color to be harassed and insulted for it

this was a pretty significant pretty

constant discourse that followed the

fandom basically anywhere it went so

that was a problem for Hasbro right I

mean it shouldn't have been but it was

they couldn't make the main characters

all white because that would be a

terrible lack of diversity but they

couldn't make any of the characters not

white because that would anger their

precious adult man fan base character

designer Cora kosika did share what she

mentioned to be the very first piece of

Equestria Girls concept art which does

depict Twilight Sparkle with a dark skin

tone but the decision to have the

characters all have fantasy skin tones

appears to have been made pretty early

on if not immediately after this I think

safe is the operative word here Hasbro

was playing it very very safe which is

just not the best move if you want to go

up against Monster High who was

successful due to being pretty

controversial and risky compared to

everything else in the Toy Market at the

time nonetheless the first movie would

Premiere in June of 2013 to a pretty big

Fanfare the plot involves Twilight

Sparkle from Friendship is Magic

pursuing a new villain Sunset Shimmer

after she steals her crown and escapes

to an alternate Dimension with no magic

where everyone is human Twilight learns

to act as a teenage girl and befriends

the human counterparts of the other main

characters introducing magic to the

human world and saving the day in the

process now just like its first reveal I

do think the first Equestria Girls movie

is a kind of a rough introduction to the

franchise again there was just a lot of

weird decisions being made made some

good decisions too like carrying over

the main Show's writing staff and Voice

team story editor Megan McCarthy would

be brought in as the lead writer and all

primary characters would retain their

voice actors they also brought in the

show's primary songwriter Daniel Ingram

so if nothing else it could be

reasonably assumed that the movie would

carry roughly the same quality as the

show this was rooted in Hasbro's desire

to maintain continuity with the primary

franchise

not a bad thing but I do think they took

it a little too far rather than treating

Equestria girls like a spin-off

franchise they instead chose to treat it

more like an extension the Twilight

Sparkle we see is the main character in

Equestria Girls is actually the same

Twilight Sparkle from Friendship is

Magic the premise involves her traveling

to another dimension where everyone is

human and so she just takes human form

this in my opinion just a massively over

complicates thing there really wasn't

any reason to tie Equestria Girls Into

The Story of Friendship is Magic

and they do find some clever ways to

play around with it later on in the

franchise but just speaking to this

first movie is just something that was

kind of difficult to get around and you

can tell they kind of struggled with

incorporating the logistics of

everything into just one film the movie

itself well it was fine I despite my

complaints up to this point I don't

think it's a bad movie I'm not gonna

give like a detailed plot summary

because well if I do that for all of

them then we'll be here literally all

day it's a pretty standard High School

drama fair that takes itself a bit too

seriously you know the villain is the

typical stock mean girl character

everything hinges on a school dance

twilight gets a boring jockey High

School love interest which is I another

thing the ages of the Pony characters

and friendship is Magic we're always

kind of ambiguous but it was somewhat

understood that they were adults I mean

they had jobs and mortgages and

everything so horse Twilight is an adult

but human Twilight is a high school

student Who develops feelings for

you know let's not get too deep into

that anyways

all that said the big appeal of

friendship is Magic is the main cast and

their personalities and Dynamics and all

of that is on display pretty wonderfully

in this movie too maybe Equestria Girls

wasn't attracting a large amount of new

fans but it was definitely something

that established fans could find

something to enjoy the music was great

it had a really interesting finale

sequence all together not bad at all it

was around the time of the first movies

Premiere that we would finally get a

good look at the Equestria Girls dolls

and they were

and not great the style of the animation

just really did not translate well or

maybe vice versa so the dolls were

pretty uncanny the clothing was very

cheaply made and the designs were

honestly pretty lazy too there also just

wasn't any kind of effort to have a

continuity between the doll designs and

the movie designs which is a trend that

will continue mostly throughout all of

Equestria Girls live and something I

think was pretty common with friendship

is Magic too actually but the good news

is the movie and the dolls were

successful enough to Warrant continuing

the franchise from what I understand

Hasbro never really intended for there

to be more than one movie Megan McCarthy

actually confirmed that she wrote the

first one with zero idea of a sequel in

mind I think they just wanted this first

movie to promote and I guess explain the

existence of the Equestria Girls

characters and then turn their focus

solely to the dolls but his fate would

have it we demanded more horse girls in

late 2013 Equestria Girls would release

their second batch of Mainline dolls

titled Rainbow Rocks these were music

themed and I did not make any

significant improvements on the first

line though they did expand the roster a

little bit releasing dolls of fan

favorite minor characters from

Friendship is Magic like Octavia and DJ

Pawn 3 also Amethyst Star whoever that

is they would also start releasing dolls

with articulation making them slightly

more competitive with Monster High

criticisms were pretty consistent with

all the dolls the fabric quality was

papery and pretty bad the designs were

either uninspired or completely

nonsensical that hair quality was

atrocious and difficult to manage but

the dolls were also relatively

inexpensive easy to collect and were

backed by what was already a huge media

franchise so although they would never

quite reach Monster High's level they

would find a pretty dedicated audience

according to mlpmerch.com Rainbow Rocks

is the largest collection with around 50

or so dolls I say 50 and not 52 like it

says on the website because they do also

count the pets that some of them came

with as individual dolls the Rainbow

Rocks line would continue into 2014

where we would also see one of my

personal favorite lines it's called The

Rock and hairstyle lion and although

they still have a lot of the same

problems as the previous dolls

I don't know something about them the

designs just have a lot more personality

and fun compared to everything else in

the Rainbow Rocks era they're honestly

pretty cool they would also release a

Comic-Con exclusive doll in 2014 of

maniac Mayhem which a presence at

Comic-Con shows that Hasbro did care at

least a little bit about attracting the

attention of adult doll collectors in

February of 2014 it was officially

announced that a Rainbow Rocks movie was

in the works then from March to June of

2014 Hasbro would upload a series of

animated shorts to promote it officially

they serve as sort of a prequel to the

movie itself but I think they just

figured out they were missing out on the

engagement that Monster High had been

getting with its webisodes the movie

itself would officially release in

September of 2014 and I'm pretty

comfortable saying that it's the best

one which is not at all an unpopular

opinion Megan McCarthy would be brought

back as the lead writer and Daniel

Ingram of course for music which rainbow

rocks being a music themed collection it

followed suit that the movie would not

just contain musical numbers but be a

musical with 11 songs featured in the

full movie and let me tell you the music

is great like it's incredibly good I

still revisit this soundtrack to This

movie specifically to this day the plot

of this one revolves around the

introduction of a new villainous Trio

the sirens who use their songs to

manipulate everyone into fighting so

they can feed on the negative energy

Twilight returns and the group must

learn how to harness the magic they

gained in the last movie to defeat the

sirens before they get too powerful

through song of course I think with this

movie they managed a kind of level off

the weirdness from the first movie and

focus more on crafting an original plot

and it really works you can tell they

had a lot more fun with this one and it

is also the only movie that is in my

opinion not overtly formulaic almost

every Equestria Girls plot follows the

exact structure of the first movie a

character finds a magical object becomes

corrupted in some way by its influence

becomes evil but is saved and Redeemed

by the power of friendship it's very by

the numbers

Rainbow Rocks however has the benefit of

having some of the most iconic villains

in the entire franchise and that's

including friendship is Magic too the

sirens Adagio Sonata and Arya are just

some incredible standouts they're also

not redeemed or really sympathized with

in any way in this movie they're just

evil girls who are causing problems on

purpose and we'd love to see it the

movie also had some really good

character moments with Sunset Shimmer

the antagonist from the first movie

she's on a big Redemption Arc in this

film but it's one of the few times that

it's done really well we actually see

her struggle with the consequences of

her actions from the first movie and

deal with the problems she caused so

even though the dolls weren't the most

exciting things on the market it could

be said that it is really at this point

that Equestria Girls is really finding

its footing as its own independent thing

even the initial negativity it faced

from Bronies when it was first in

unveiled had pretty much disappeared if

I recall friendship Is Magic's fourth

season left a lot of the fandom pretty

disappointed with the direction of the

franchise but there was still a fair

amount of hype and excitement revolving

around Equestria Girls I also think that

with this one the movies developed a

sort of self-awareness they knew that

they were kind of weird and that the

premise made zero sense but almost

completely to their benefit because had

they tried to take themselves as

seriously as the first movie did I think

the quality would have dropped massively

but no they let themselves have more fun

with what was inherently a pretty

strange concept and I appreciate that

the Rainbow Rocks movie actually ended

with a post-credit sequence that

featured the human Twilight Sparkle as

in the Twilight Sparkle that was born in

the human world not the transformed Pony

Twilight see it's unnecessarily

Complicated by the way I don't think

I've mentioned this yet but Sunset

Shimmer is originally from the Pony

world 2. she started Living in the human

world prior to the events of the first

movie

and it's never explained what happened

to the real human Sunset Shimmer I don't

think and it could have been as simple

as just saying she lives in another city

but they do not address it so we're just

left to draw our own conclusions the

simplest being that Sunset Shimmer must

have killed and replaced her but that

would bring us to the next era of

Equestria Girls 2015 Friendship Games

the Friendship Games doll collection is

considerably smaller than Rainbow Rocks

clocking in at 34 according to

mlpmerch.com and I'm just gonna level

with you guys the Friendship Games dolls

are

a kind of awful visually they're an

absolute mess and I see what they were

going for but it did not work obviously

this is a sports theme collection so

there was a bigger emphasis on the more

articulated bodies which is nice

but man these designs they're something

hi editing me here oh hold on a moment

okay that's better anyways while editing

I noticed how mean I am to these dolls

and I stand by everything I said but I

also want to say that my issues with

these dolls really do not extend to the

designers who worked on them I should

have made it clear that almost all of it

is aimed at Hasbro themselves I don't

think I'm allowed to share all of it but

there's prototypes and concept art out

there that shows the Equestria Girls

team working on the dolls had a lot of

really cool ideas but Hasbro wasn't

really on their side and there just

wasn't the means to implement these cool

ideas so we ended up with what we have

and that just adds to my disappointment

with the doll line overall

okay back to the video but hey

Twilight's love interest got a doll in

this run and he looks oh okay let's move

on uh basically every previous issue

with the dolls persists in this

collection too The Collection does

introduce a lot of new characters

however in addition to the main six

which includes Sunset Shimmer instead of

Twilight on the Wonder Cults team

there's a rival team from another school

called The Shadow bolts which includes

human Twilight you know the one from the

credits not the pony one you get it by

now so basically characters who are

being set up to be Rivals to the main

characters always the fun concept and a

good lead into the upcoming movie and

thankfully these new characters are not

nearly as but ugly as their dolls or box

art would have you believe the

Friendship Games movie would Premiere in

September of 2015. it revolves around

human Twilight this time Pony Twilight

only making a small appearance at the

very end and Sunset Shimmer now fully

stepping into a leadership role it also

introduces us to the aforementioned

Shadow bolts who the movie immediately

sets up to be foils to each of the main

characters the opening credits even puts

them all side by side so you can see

specifically who parallels who

I remember being so incredibly excited

for those concept but

unfortunately it was incredibly

underutilized or more accurately not

really utilized at all the shadow bolts

are all relatively minor characters the

main antagonist is actually their

headmistress who is an okay villain in a

Disney kind of way she even gets a

pretty solid villain song but it just

feels like wasted potential watching it

back to see all these cool characters

just not be used in the way they should

have been you do get little bits and

pieces of it you see that sugar coat is

a foil for Applejack's honesty in the

way she's blunt without care for other

people's feelings hi sugar coat that was

a really bad speech you should consider

not speaking in public she's my personal

favorite by the way is sour sweet sort

of parallels Fluttershy sweetness but in

a toxic over-the-top kind of way Indigo

zap is hyper competitive like Rainbow

Dash the other two I mean I can guess

how they foil Pinkie Pie and rare 30 but

I'm really not sure because they're just

really not in the movie and the group as

a whole just really aren't that plot

important I think they just really

misunderstood the entire appeal of a

character focused fashion doll line

because who's going to want to buy dolls

of these characters if they hardly

appear in the movie and don't even look

anything like they do in the movie you

know Friendship Games is also the first

movie not to be written by Meghan

McCarthy who is working on the My Little

Pony movie at the time instead it was

taken over by Josh Haber who was a

regular writer on friendship is Magic

and responsible for some pretty good

episodes at least by the standard of the

later Seasons the movie doesn't really

properly utilize its plot setup or its

new characters but I can at least say

it's not boring I think it could have

been improved in a lot of ways but it

just focuses a lot more on the action

set pieces and the tension building up

to the big finale which I think is

altogether not a bad move considering

this is a movie focused on a competition

after all so all that said I still don't

think it's a bad movie I think Rainbow

Rocks just set a very high bar and while

Friendship Games didn't quite get up

there it's still pretty fun there's some

solid action sequences the finale and

human Twilight's character development

and short stint as an antagonist is

pretty good and Sunset Shimmer really

grew into an awesome core character here

too and although the shadow bolts didn't

live up to their potential their

introduction did at least open the door

for some pretty cool fan content which I

think the general consensus was that

although Friendship Games wasn't quite

as good as Rainbow Rocks we were still

pretty excited for what was coming in

the future movie-wise at least I had

almost entirely stopped paying attention

to the dolls at this point which is

saying something considering I went into

this franchise primarily as a doll

collector but the same was true for a

lot lot of people too and I think Hasbro

was kind of taking notice of that 2016's

collection Legend of everfree would be

the smallest of all four core

collections with only 16 dolls and

primarily focusing on unarticulated

budget releases

I don't think these were very widely

distributed either because although I do

remember finding plenty of Friendship

Games dolls when I went out shopping I

don't actually recall seeing these in

stores at all they're also like a

weirdly expensive on eBay which does

lead me to believe they were produced in