She created ponies that “were all exactly the same as the original My Pretty Pony, which was a palomino, and just shrunk down,” she said in 2015. She envisioned toys that looked like real animals-“appaloosa, dappled grey, palomino, pintos”-and would be played with by preschool girls and boys. The bright ponies we know and love were not what Zacherle initially had in mind. My Little Pony was initially supposed to be a gender-neutral toy for preschoolers. Muenchinger, a sculptor at Hasbro, turned Zacherle’s drawings into a physical form that could be reproduced D’Aguanno was the General Manager of Research and Development at Hasbro at the time. There are three inventors listed: Zacherle, Charles Muenchinger, and Steven D. Hasbro filed a patent for My Little Pony in August 1981 it was granted two years later. So that’s how it got to be that small.” The new ponies were 5 to 6 inches tall and made of much more snuggly vinyl. “So, consequently he took his wife’s advice-smartly-and came back to me and said, ‘Listen, I want you to make exactly the same toy, only shrink it down and make it soft and, you know, combable hair, and don’t change a thing about it.’ I didn’t even redraw it, I think I just shrunk the original drawings. “She said, ‘Well, it’s good, I guess, but I think it should be small and soft, have combable hair, and played with like a doll,’” Zacherle recalled. United States Patent and Trademark Office // Public DomainĪfter My Pretty Pony’s moderate success, Hasbro’s vice president of marketing brought one of the toys home to his wife and asked her to evaluate it-and she had some feedback. A marketing executive’s wife suggested tweaks that led to My Little Pony.Īn image from the My Little Pony patent. My Pretty Pony was relatively successful, selling a couple million units. The more than 10-inch-tall toy was made of hard plastic and had a lever under the chin that made the toy’s ears wiggle, its eye wink, and its tail swish. And he wants to make it big and have all these extra mechanical things in it.” Zacherle was asked to sketch a design for the pony. In 2014, Zacherle recalled that, a year after she had given up on her toy horse design, a friend of hers at Hasbro told her, “You know, Bonnie, our boss has this idea and it’s really the same as yours only it’s not a horse, it’s a pony. … Until eventually, a higher-up asked for a pony toy. They like to cook and clean and iron,’” Zacherle said, “and I’m like, ‘You must be kidding me.’” 3. “My boss, and probably several others, shot it down, saying, ‘Bonnie, little girls aren’t like you. She pitched a horse toy-which she imagined would be cuddly, with a combable tail and mane-for three years, but was turned down every time. When the card company was sold in the late ’70s, she left to join Hasbro full time. Īfter getting her degree in illustration from Syracuse University, Zacherle worked at a greeting card company and soon found herself doing freelance design work for Hasbro in the evening. Zacherle pitched a horse toy to Hasbro for years without success. “They were chubby because, I think because my pony was a little chubby,” she said, “and I think a lot of ponies get that way because they’re short in stature-they’re not long-legged thoroughbreds, you know.” 2. Zacherle never got her horse, but Knicker would stick with her. Also, you won’t be able to take vacations or go away to college.’ Or, have friends, in other words.” Her father said, ‘You can have a horse, but you’ll have to get up early every morning and come home right after school to take care of the horse. By the time he retired from the Army, however, Bonnie was in high school. As Zachlere recounted about herself at My Little Pony Fair 2008, “Bonnie’s father promised her some day, she would have a horse, or a pony, of her very own. Sadly, when they left Japan, they couldn’t take Knicker with them. Zacherle particularly loved a chubby little Korean pack pony named Knicker. A real-life pony inspired creator Bonnie Zacherle.Īs a child, Bonnie Zacherle and her family lived in Japan, where her father-an Army Colonel and a veterinarian-cared for quarantined animals entering and leaving the country. Here are a few things you might not have known about the toys, the TV shows they starred in, the Bronies they inspired, and more. My Little Pony-one of Hasbro’s most recognizable and beloved toy lines-has been flying off shelves since it debuted in 1983.
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