okay. first and foremost, there's so much my little pony stuff to be learned! i like to reference the mylittlewiki, the mlp merch database, and folks over at the mlp trading post, plus random other sources (naturally). i love to talk about ponies, and i love to listen to other people talk about ponies!
here, i'll just be highlighting some of my favorite bits of the my little pony history.
g0the first instance of my little pony was the toy My Pretty Pony in 1981, followed shortly by My Pretty Pony and Beautiful Baby. Pretty Pony came with accessories: a blanket, a hat, hair ribbons, and grooming accessories. Notable features of My Pretty Pony are the large size (11 inches tall), the comparative lack of stylazation, and the "natural" coloring. The Beautiful Baby was actually a G1 Butterscotch! Even in this iteration, often called "generation 0," there were manufacturing and aesthetic differences between waves—the parent pretty pony has white spots where the regular pretty pony does not! The second wave of My Pretty Pony showcased Peachy, a pink pony adorned with the classic rump markings we think of for My Little Pony (frequently called "cutie marks")
g1My Little Pony proper was released in 1982! there were initially 6 colorful ponies; yellow Butterscotch (included in G0 as Beautiful Baby, too!), lavender Blossom, pink Cotton Candy, grey Snuzzle, green Minty, and blue Blue Belle (i have a magnet of the first 6 on my fridge ♡). every generation of pony has certain-country exclusives, mail-order exclusives, variants in poses and colors and flat-footedness vs concave-footedness, waves of new ponies, repackagings, etc. there's a whole fuckin lot of them and i love them all!!!!
to me, this generation is mostly the movies and tv show that came along with the toys. My Little Pony: the Movie was released in 1986 (i can watch this movie with my eyes closed, start to finish). i think i had this on on dvd!