A large figure came first; the little ones followed.

My Little Pony started out bigger. English Wikipedia says Hasbro introduced a pony figurine called My Pretty Pony in 1981, created by the illustrator Bonnie Zacherle and the sculptor Charles Muenchinger, citing Hasbro’s own “My Little Pony History” page from 2012. Wikipedia also names Steve D’Aguanno alongside them as a developer of the first toys. It describes My Pretty Pony as a ten-inch hard plastic figure that could wiggle its ears, swish its tail and wink one eye, followed by a version with a smaller “baby” pony and then by pink and yellow versions bearing a symbol on the hindquarters.

The smaller format gave the line its name. Wikipedia says that after the relative lack of success of My Pretty Pony, Hasbro introduced six smaller, colourful versions of the toy in 1982, sold under the title My Little Pony. That symbol became the line’s signature: Wikipedia describes ponies with colourful bodies and manes and a distinct symbol on one or both flanks, which recent incarnations call “cutie marks”.

Stories followed the toys. Wikipedia lists mid-1980s animation that accompanied the first line: the animated special Rescue at Midnight Castle, My Little Pony: Escape from Catrina, the 1986 feature My Little Pony: The Movie, and a My Little Pony segment within the My Little Pony ’n Friends anthology series, with My Little Pony Tales arriving in 1992. Wikipedia says this first incarnation ended in the United States in 1992 but was marketed internationally until 1995.

Generation numbers came from the collectors, not the box.

The brand’s timeline is usually told in generations, and the labels are unofficial. Wikipedia says the 1982 line later became known among collectors as “Generation One” or “G1”, and it uses the same collector numbering for each relaunch that followed.

The second relaunch changed the body. Wikipedia says the 1997 incarnation was marketed by Hasbro as “Friendship Garden” and designated Generation 2 by collectors, with redesigned poses, jewel eyes and turning heads, on ponies that were smaller, slimmer and longer-legged than the 1982 figures. It says the line was discontinued in the United States in 1999 but continued in Western Europe, where the main location was called Ponyland, and that a PC game, Friendship Gardens, appeared in 1998.

The third looked back. Wikipedia says Generation 3 began in 2003 with toys more closely resembling the original line, and that the revamp was aimed at a younger audience than before, citing Marketing Week of 10 July 2003. It says the generation ran until 2009, with at least two minor revamps and a series of direct-to-video animated films mostly produced by SD Entertainment.

The fourth was built around television. Wikipedia says Generation 4 launched in 2010, set in a land called Equestria, with characters including Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy and Spike, accompanied by the series My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, which Wikipedia dates from 10 October 2010. It records the spin-off My Little Pony: Equestria Girls from 2013, a theatrical My Little Pony: The Movie in 2017, and the comedy series My Little Pony: Pony Life in 2020. Wikipedia says the era also drew a fandom among adults, a following the Gainesville Sun reported on in January 2014.

Design and documentation.

The brands in this group all make dolls, plush animals or character toys: playthings built around a named figure, a family of characters or a ritual of choosing and dressing a companion. Doll and character-toy brands sit at many different points in the trade, from names that began with a single designer or a single shop to labels that now belong to much larger toy, greeting-card or entertainment groups, and a single character can be licensed to several different makers over the years.

A character-toy brand’s identity is usually carried less by a single product than by a name, a face and a familiar set of colours on the box, because the company behind the character may have changed hands, licensed it out or moved its production far from where it started. That makes the questions behind each name worth asking plainly: who created it, who owns it now, and where its toys are actually designed and made.

Each guide separates what independent sources record from what the company says about itself — its founding story, its owners over time, where its toys are made and how its marks have changed — and marks plainly what rests only on the company’s own word.

A fifth generation, a new town and a streaming premiere.

The fifth generation kept the old world rather than replacing it. English Wikipedia says Hasbro announced Generation 5 in February 2021, with a 3D computer-animated film produced by Entertainment One and animated by Boulder Media, and a follow-up television series. Unlike earlier changes, it says, the new generation built on the world of Friendship Is Magic with a jump forward in time, introducing new lead characters including Sunny Starscout, Izzy Moonbow and Hitch Trailblazer.

Distribution moved to streaming. Wikipedia says the film, My Little Pony: A New Generation, was originally meant for a theatrical release by Paramount Pictures but was sold to Netflix, which released it on 24 September 2021, citing TheWrap. It says the film was followed in 2022 by a special and then a streaming series, My Little Pony: Make Your Mark, in May and September respectively, and by a seasonal special, citing Animation Magazine; Wikipedia also lists the online series My Little Pony: Tell Your Tale.

The owner has stayed the same throughout: Hasbro has owned My Little Pony since the first figures of 1981. Among Wikipedia’s sources is a Hasbro press release distributed on Business Wire on 7 October 2010, datelined Pawtucket, Rhode Island, at the start of the fourth generation. In the Hasbro portfolio the line sits alongside brands such as Playskool and Play-Doh.

Wikipedia describes the ponies in general terms as having colourful bodies and manes and a symbol on the flank, while its account of the 1997 relaunch records changes to poses, eyes and proportions. The article’s infobox shows the My Little Pony logo as of 2026.

For a design guide, My Little Pony shows how a toy line can reset its proportions and stories several times while keeping a few fixed signals — colour, a mane and a mark on the flank — that tie each generation back to 1982. Compare its Hasbro stablemates in our Playskool brand guidelines and Play-Doh brand guidelines. For this guide we use pony pink, lavender and sky blue with a rounded sans, an unofficial interpretation; no product or logo is reproduced.

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