toy canon #2: my little pony gen 1 - the mane cast

24-Feb-2025

The majority of my Gen 1 My Little Pony collection were thrifted by my mom throughout the 90s. Many had frizzy unkept hair that I avoided brushing as much as my own. Some were given haircuts by former salon owners who felt a buzzed mohawk might suit them better. Since they weren’t purchased on card, I didn’t know most of their names so I made them up based on a combination of what sounded familiar from the My Little Pony Tales TV show, information from eBay listings, and context clues from their color palette/cutie mark.

While I could catalogue all of the ponies I owned, most of them didn’t have meaningful names or personalities. I had two giant Sterilite tubs full of ponies and there was still overflow in other toy bins and buckets. If I needed a large crowd, or wanted to rotate some "extras" around, they might be plucked from their slumber. However, I had a cast of core characters that I focused on for the majority of my tales distributed between my brothers and me.¹

For this first entry into the Toy Canon, let me introduce you to the six core families that were the “series regulars” whenever we played: the Mane Cast.

Family 1 - The Unicorns

Glory and Rainbow² were my favorite of all the ponies. The kid pony molds fit more easily into my tiny hands and the kinds of stories they would become embroiled in were more relatable to me. Plus, the color and designs of these two, in particular, just fit my personal Lisa Frank-loving aesthetic.

Naturally, I decided the pair were siblings: Rainbow was just a touch older than her fraternal twin brother and the two had a competitive rivalry—especially at school where they were often vying for the top spot in their grade.

I recall Rainbow being quite bossy (not unlike myself at that age) and not necessarily popular with the other ponies at school due in part to her laser focus on academics. She wasn’t there to “make friends,” as they say on RealityTV. Glory, on the other hand, had quite a few friends who I will introduce later on, and was even liked by the adults who found him less intense. This only fanned the flames further since Rainbow felt jealous that such things seemed to come more naturally to Glory despite him not really trying to be affable or studying nearly as hard as her.

One of my earliest memories playing with ponies featured Glory and Rainbow living at the She-Ra Crystal Castle³ with their mother, Princess Bloom. The unicorns were basically local celebrities and fabulously wealthy; though Glory was embarrassed about this heritage, Rainbow was a proud Princess-in-Training. She pushed herself to be the best at everything, while Glory was more interested in making friends with "normal" kids, like his best friend Whirly who had the opposite upbringing (single father, trailer-park home, etc.)

It was during one of these early sessions where Glory sheepishly showed Whirly around the castle that the twins learned they would be attending public school alongside everyone else. Rainbow was aghast at the news and had a chip on her shoulder about consorting with those she deemed lesser; Glory heaved a sigh of relief knowing that he would have at least one friend who he trusted to keep his true identity a secret.

I know they also had various extended family members (aunts⁴, cousins), lots of visitors to the castle (Princesses and Prom ponies looking to get an “in” with the royal family), and one talking green dog who moonlighted as a secret agent. But that’s a story for another day!

Family 2 - Tex and the Flutter Ponies

Tex was the first “big brother” pony my mom bought me and he was the aforementioned toy with buzzed down hair. Since he was supposed to be a cowboy, I wasn’t really fussed over it and let his appearance direct some of his personality. In my town, Tex was a single father to three boys. Unlike the unicorns, Tex wasn’t exactly wealthy. He lived on the outskirts of town in an imaginary trailer. In retrospect, he gives me Greg Universe vibes: kind-hearted, mostly down-to-earth, but still whimsical and silly at heart. Still near his hometown, Tex would regularly hang out with his buds every now and then a la King of the Hill (minus the alcohol and smoking), but he was also hardworking at whatever his job was and cared a lot about his boys.

The eldest son was Whirly who at some point only had one wing since the thin, clear plastic was really fragile. His tail was in a long, tight braid and he boasted bobbed hair. Whirly was also one of the smart kids at school, though not necessarily a “nerd.” He was a bit more athletic, aloof, and a fiercely loyal friend who visited Glory’s house so often that he might as well have been a third child to the Princess, though he was occasionally self-conscious about not belonging there. Despite being a smart kid, Whirly was not interested in academic competition; he did well with the least amount of effort and left the accolades to those who wanted to the others.

Eventually, a couple of Whirly’s cousins, from his mom’s side of the family, moved in and one of them, Cloud Puff (often misnamed “Cream Puff” by teasing family, friends, and the occasional teacher), became a close confidant. Lily and her sisters, however, were a pain in his small blue behind. There were also Buzzer and his younger brother, Little Flitter, who became permanent fixtures at the school—though in different friend groups than the ones Whirly inhabited. Another cousin, a darker blue flutter pony who still had both of his wings, moved in much later to live with Tex, but I don’t remember as much about him off the top of my head—less of a bookworm, more introverted.

???⁵ - I'm sorry to admit that I have no idea what the middle-child's name was, but I can't help fixating on just how much he looks like Tex’s color scheme, which was usually something that prompted me to pair ponies together. Even though I don’t have total confidence this is the house he belonged to, for now this is where I am placing him in my memory. I do know that he would have been in the same age category as some of his cousins (Stockings and Bubbles) rather than the slightly older elementary kids (Glory, Rainbow, Whirly).

The youngest wasn’t a Hasbro pony at all but this small pink vinyl pony with a star design on it that I named Starburst. He was a wimpy little thing, a tagalong brother. They had different friend groups as a result of their age, which I’ll get into later. Starburst is a shining example of how I would mix toys in my play sessions. It really didn’t matter that he was ridiculously small compared to the others or had no rooted hair and an entirely smooth vinyl body. He was a pony so that meant he made total sense in Ponyville. He was awkward but didn’t let the way other kids thought about him affect him. As long as he was having fun with the friends he did have nothing else really mattered. And as a fellow member of the Shorty Squad, Whirly was often somewhere nearby in case anyone tried to pick on Starburst.

Finally, I would be remiss not to address the oddity of Whirly’s mother. This was a huge plot-twist that I concocted one day and it just feels so absurd looking back. One Christmas, I was gifted this big Barbie-sized, flimsy pink carriage that was pulled by a huge white horse with a long wavy mane. Wouldn’t it be so interested if it turned out this magical, huge, goddess-proportioned horse turned out to Whirly’s mom? And that he actually was secretly royalty? But since she had to live faraway, she left him in the care of his kind-hearted father? I remember Tex meeting and talking with her every now and then, but I don’t know how often I had her visit since it was hard to keep her standing upright on the carpet of my room.

Family 3 - The Odd Balls

Technically, Munchy is a “girl” pony, but do you really think my canon was bound to any gender norms after hearing about all these flutter pony boys? Keeping with the sibling rivalry themes, Munchy grew up constantly compared to his older brother Scoops — the successful golden child who ran the ice cream parlor with his wife, Lickety Split.⁶ Munchy felt like nothing in his life was going to stack up against Scoops until he bumped into his childhood sweetheart: Cherries Jubilee, a gorgeous redhead who taught at the schoolhouse.

There was this one awkward family dinner episode I did with his mother, coming in town to visit with big confrontations. Eventually, Munchy and Scoops were on much better terms and their kids were often in one another’s company. After marrying, Munchy and Cherries moved into the 1980s Strawberry Shortcake Berry Baking Shoppe (sans all the accoutrements, because thrifted), and raised a family together.

Cherries Jubilee was usually fairly even-tempered, but deeply protective of her children. She was best friends with her sister-in-law, but very frustrated by her mother-in-law, especially due to how her husband was treated. At work, she was the favorite teacher. Everyone was attentive and on their best behavior in her class — a very stark contrast to the other instructors, including Teacher Barbie. Her own mother, Strawberry Surprise was a much kinder, warmer presence; just the MIL that Munchy needed to develop his confidence.

Valentine was the oldest child and clearly took after her mother (literally in terms of aesthetics - look at that hair color match!) At school, she tried hard to pretend that she didn’t even have younger siblings and tried focusing on leadership instead. Her mission was to make something of herself by getting out of Ponyville come what may. I remember her being a slightly later addition to my collection so I’ll need to have a think about who her closest friends were, but I do recall her being in the same grade as Glory.

Shady felt like she was the center of the universe. She wanted to stand out in a crowd (not hard with her fuchsia body and neon green hair) and was constantly chatting during classes. An actrice at heart, but not the brightest kid, Shady couldn’t really relate to the smart kids and was constantly falling behind in class. Unlike my more bookish characters, Shady was more determined to fall in love. I’m pretty sure that she had a one-sided, unrequited Helga Pataki crush on Stockings—much to his chagrin. Playing with Shady and her ditzy group of friends was one of my favorite plot beats.

Tappy was the baby brother: short with ringlet curls and a piggy snout. He was best friends with Zig Zag, Little Flitter, Starburst, and a few other town ponies. Despite being quieter than his sister at home, Tappy also had lofty ideas and a big imagination, especially when left alone to express himself. He also wanted to be a movie star, and a pop singer, and a dancer! More importantly, nobody could convince him otherwise.

Family 3: The Ice Cream Crew

So what was the golden boy, Scoops actually like? Fairly responsible, well-adjusted, often the voice of reason attempting to reign in the schemes of his best friend, Salty. In contrast to Munchy being down-on-his-luck in terms of career paths, Scoops ran a successful parlor with his wife. They had a pretty good relationship, too, as I recall.

In some ways, this made him feel a bit boring to me. The kind of character that my younger brother would refer to as “The Chalky”—a nod to the athletic do-gooder from Nickelodeon’s Doug. He also reminds me a bit of Drew Pickles from Rugrats. The more buttoned-up brother, focused on finances, trying to make practical decisions. But when he got together with his high school friends, all bets were off the table and he would get dragged into their silly schemes.

Unlike Cherries, Lickety Split was somewhat feisty—deeply opinionated and certainly not afraid to give her mother-in-law a piece of her mind whenever she was in town. She also did her best to reign in the girls when they would go off-the-rails with giggling and procrastination; a much needed quality during the many road trip episodes I would have with the girls causing a raucous in the backseat. While Munchy and Cherries wanted their kids to have a relaxed life at home, Lickety Split was constantly trying, rather unsuccessfully, to get her kids to shape up.

Snowflake was a highly impressionable airhead who was very close to her cousin in ways that sometimes (okay, often) blew up in her face. Although she liked to think that her dreams for life were just as large as Shady’s, Snowflake was more of a follower than a leader. Sometimes she would go along with the silliest of plans just because Shady said so.

These next two… I’m honestly not 100% sure that they belonged to this household but like Tex’s middle child, it just feels right to place them here since I remember them being featured so prominently in our play sessions.

Cuddles⁷ was much less giggly than the other two girls, and tried to separate herself from their friend group when she could but was often paired up with them anyway. I recall her wanting to do more traditional kid stuff: play hopscotch, eat ice cream after school with friends, maybe join a club. She wasn’t interested in the fame and boys that Shady obsessed over.

Freckles was Cuddles twin brother, but they were pretty different. His sister was fairly subdued, soft-spoken, and preferred a small but tight-knit group of friends. Freckles wasn’t a troublemaker per se, but trouble did seem to follow him—mostly by way of his fellow bad luck friend, Applejack. Despite often finding himself in detention and trying to talk his way out of getting grounded, Freckles had a pretty lackadaisical outlook on life.

Family 5 - The Christmas House

As a kid, I had a lot of fun coming up with ways that the adults knew each other back when they were growing up. To complement Scoops and Munchy, Salty and Tex were another pair of brothers. Tex was cool, friendly, and grounded—especially compared to his class clown of a sibling. While Scoops was popular because he was an overachiever involved in all kinds of school activities, Salty’s was more likely do to schmoozing his way out of detention despite being the epitome of a class clown.

If there’s one thing I need to impress upon you, however, it’s that Salty was also a massive dork. He’s the kind of pony who totally thought he was one of the cool kids back in high school, and still looks fondly on those days, but he was 100% Tex’s goofy younger brother. That energy carried forward with him as an adult: the the first one to start cracking dad jokes, to show up at parent-teacher conferences to embarrass his kids, the one looking forward to their high school reunions.. Also, he was secretly Santa Claus. That last fact isn’t as random as it might seam on face value. Since Salty’s wife was Merry Treat, my brain was tickled that a minty green pony covered in present cutie marks would be the Santa to her Mrs. Claus.

Merry Treat was actually one of the most popular ponies when this generation was in high school. Pretty, compassionate, and creative, there was something effortless about her. She was best friends with Cherries Jubilee and they were both well-known for being as kind as they were pretty. As an adult, Merry Treat was the toy maker developing all of the presents for Salty to deliver. Sometimes, work kept her away from home, especially during the off-season, and her oldest son was such a mama’s boy that he always missed her terribly when she was off at the North Pole. When she would return to town, it was like a full moon brightening the sky.

Stockings was also a pony who had bad luck. He was always tripping over his own hooves and getting picked on by the local bullies, especially when secrets about his baby blanket leaked (scandalous!) But at the end of the day, he had something that some of his cousins didn’t: a brother he genuinely got along with. They shared all the same friends (Applejack and Bouncy come to mind) and that made the worst moments of his life more tolerable. One reason why I was interested in that narrative is because I had such a close relationship with my own brothers and even if I had trouble maintaining friendships at school, I knew I could count on them to be in my corner at home.

Bubbles was a little more adventurous than Stockings. He didn’t want to stay cooped up at home all the time and was often the one who pushed to go outside, meet up with their friends, get into a little trouble every now and then (though it sometimes escalated beyond their means.) They were nerds in a truer sense of the word: not booksmart, but interested in fantasy, games, and comic books. Looking back, I was clearly very attached to Bubbles as a character. Even though Glory started off as my first MLP OC, stories within Bubbles friend group were always my favorite. After all, my brothers and I were also nerds who played JRPGs, wrote fan fiction (on paper no less), and used to play pretend in our living room—completely normal when you are a child, but in a way that would likely be referred to as LARPing if we had been adults.

Overall, I really loved playing with the Christmas ponies. It was fun to conduct Christmas episodes and have all the kids get excited trying to stay up past their bedtime to catch a glimpse at Santa, and for Salty to nearly blow his cover several times. They were super silly, but also had a tight familial bond; both qualities that I still value.

Family 6 - The Applejacks

Did I mention that I am really not all that creative with naming ponies? Here’s a classic example. I had the original Applejack pony, so I named him Applejack. As noted earlier, he was best friend’s with Munchy in their nerdy clique alongside Bouncy, Firefly, and a few others (not to be confused with the friend group with Tex, Salty, and Scoops who were in the "cooler" kid group - at least comparatively speaking.)

To be honest, I have no idea who Applejack’s wife was… she might have just been the other Apple Jack model for all I know. But I do recall the three kids he looked after: Applejack, AJ, and Starflower.

Here’s how we got here: my mom thrifted me a translucent earth pony that had this galactic cutie mark pattern. Since the pony was orange and had short-clipped blonde hair, I named him Applejack and gave him to Applejack as a son. Only… later on, my mom thrifted me the “legit” Baby Applejack. That wouldn’t do. Suddenly, I had TWO kids named Applejack? And then my mom thrifted me a second Baby Starflower pony, only this one had full-length yellow hair. So clearly she was a girl and needed to be Applejack’s sister, but the naming scheme of this family felt so complicated!

Here’s my best guess: Applejack, the um, the one that looks like Applejack became AJ — an athletic kid who loved to play soccer and was liked well enough for his presence. He wanted to be a cool kid who could skateboard, but he wasn’t really on that level. In a lot of ways, that made him kind of like his dad, but he thought of himself as much cooler than that!

Applejack (AKA short-haired Starflower) was constantly getting into trouble at school even though it wasn’t his fault! He resembled Todd from Wayside School by Louis Sachar in this regard. He wasn’t exactly a class clown like Salty, but he did have a habit of saying something that would make the class laugh and, as a result, get in trouble for being disruptive even if that wasn’t his intent. At least he had Freckles to keep him company after school.

Starflower, in comparison, was a straight-A student who was vying for the top seat right up there with Glory, Rainbow, and Whirly (remember them? It’s been a while since their group was mentioned.) She was running for student council up against Rainbow and Valentine. Unlike her future royal highness, Starflower was from a working-class background and put in a lot of hard effort to improve her grades and get involved with the community. Her peers could feel that, too, since she was much more likely to offer homework help and support whereas Rainbow couldn’t care less as long as she was excelling. I vaguely recall a budding crush between Starflower and Glory, which is a sure sign that she was one of my darlings.

There are more parallels between Applejack/AJ and Munchy/Scoops, but the key difference is that Papa Applejack loved all three of his kids and didn’t treat them any different. If anything, Starflower was the odd one out for succeeding in ways that were foreign to people in their part of the neighborhood, but Applejack still loved her even if he couldn’t relate to her determination.

Earlier, I included a few of the random playsets that I used when playing with ponies, but I somehow neglected to include the massive structure that was the Barbie A-Frame Dream House. Mine was missing the plant boxes and a good number of balcony railings since it was acquired in a beat-up box at a swap meet, but it had most of the windows and so much real estate to fill in for adventures. I usually had it set up so that the side parts were facing forward so that I could reach in to arrange everything as desired. Sometimes it would be a big party house for slumber party adventures. Other times, it would be a haunted mansion that they had to escape from before a monstrous lion—aka She-Ra's lion, Clawdeen—could sink her teeth and paws into them. Sometimes their escape would be done with the assistance of Dash Rendar, Princess Leia (in her Boussh disguise), and Luke Skywalker (in his stormtrooper disguise.) No one pony family lived in the house; anyone could come and go.

More to Come

Honestly, I'm not even scratching the surface with the pony population. I had dozens of school kids, extended family members, random townies, and extras who only occasionally graced the stage to fill up space. In the future, I’d also like to chronicle some of the most common “episodes” that I can remember. For now, I hope you enjoyed reading about the ponies that were primary fixtures in my toy canon. Until the next entry,

Thank you for reading! ʕᵔᴥᵔʔ

If you would like to share your toy canon histories with me, or share your thoughts on this post, please feel free to reach out to me via email.

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#my little pony #nostalgia #toy canon