My Little Pony

[RogueIce]

http://derpyhoovesnews.com/mcdonalds-po ... -in-march/

It seems that a new wave of McDonalds ponies are coming this March. Estaimted date is the 9th of March but this has yet to be officially confirmed. It is also expected that they are going to sell out quickly (since they sold so well a year ago) so you may want to keep an eye out at your local McDs and act quickly if you want them.

Also as we found out last year, most places offer a promotional set, meaning you can purchased the whole group at once. These are available to collectors, as there are people who of course collect McD toys, and of course people who are collecting specific things like My Little Pony or Transformers (also available as the boys toy). We’ll find out more information probably next month as the date draws closer.

Unfortunately this is only setup for the US McDonalds, other countries typically get them a month or two later (we’ll keep our ears open and let you kn0w).

Are you man (or woman) enough to order the girl toy for a Happy Meal?

Or will you bitch out and try to claim you have a little sister or niece?

Actually, from that pic (of what I'd assume is the last run) they look pretty good. Despite the criminal lack of AJ's hat and the usual Pink Princess. Oh and Rarity's hair is off-color as well.

[lordofchange13]

I would proudly proclaim that I want a pony toy! Why is there no Luna?

[Crossroads Inc.]

Ok new episode just finished with most amazing song ever

EP Break down:
Capitalism Drools
Communism RULES!!!

[Bright]

I don't see how Sweet Apple Acres isn't plenty capitalistic by itself. In fact, the idea that the consumer decides the worth of a product and where they want to spend their buck seems to showcase capitalism pretty well too.

Also, while it was a fun episode, I was disappointed that Applejack's presence was so minimal. Then again, she did get that high-larious friendship letter.

[lordofchange13]

[Zixinus]

Notes as I watch:

The Apple family should allow reserving some cider if there is such a big demand. That, and if what RD says is true.

Sapphire season? Hmm, more references that they can grow gems...

Holy, hell, they could brake the line into two.

Lol, Cherilee's expression after she drinks. Alcohol and teachers somehow always seem to mix...

I kind of like the song.
Though, there seems to be more more mares than colts which is weird with the male-song portion.

Poor RD, she only wants some cider.

Heh, silly granny! They just tricked you into giving away your apples FOR FREE!
Actually, you just bet your LIVELIHOOD! Not just your livelihood either, your ENTIRE FAMILY'S livelihood, without their consent! There is old age and senility and there is being an egoistic idiot.

Oh good! Applejack remembered her lesson!

Huh, they aren't making cider, just apple juice. I thought there was fermentation process involved. Instead, they just press the stuff.

I wish the brothers would have given what they told in writing. Technically, they still won the farm (I hope there will be no legal squabble over this though the ponies do not seem to be like that).

ROFLOL! "Ahem... I didn't learn anything! I was right all along!"

EDIT: A very fun episode, even if this was essentially an adventure episode rather than character-driven.

[lordofchange13]

Cider does require fermentation, the Apple family just seems to be making American Cider: room temperature-hot apple juice.

[Zixinus]

American beer: drinking water with a taste anywhere else in the world?
American cider: apple-juice anywhere else in the world?

EDIT: Two additional things:

1. I like the fact that they didn't go all General Ludd with the machine itself. It was made clear that it isn't the machine that is (necessarily) the problem, but those taking short cuts with it.

2. Am I the only one that interpreted everything in the following bits:
-did the brothers just stole apples from the Apple family to make cider (when they rolled into town the second time)?
- if the Apple family never agreed to the race and never sold the apples to the brothers, the brothers would have no apples to make cider out of?

[lordofchange13]

American beer: drinking water with a taste anywhere else in the world?
American cider: apple-juice anywhere else in the world?

EDIT: Two additional things:

1. I like the fact that they didn't go all General Ludd with the machine itself. It was made clear that it isn't the machine that is (necessarily) the problem, but those taking short cuts with it.

2. Am I the only one that interpreted everything in the following bits:
-did the brothers just stole apples from the Apple family to make cider (when they rolled into town the second time)?
- if the Apple family never agreed to the race and never sold the apples to the brothers, the brothers would have no apples to make cider out of?

Correct on all counts.

[Crazedwraith]

I think the ending could have been elaborated on more. Rather than just them being run out of town for bad cider. Have the bad cider barrels they created without quality control be disqualified and so the Apples actually won the competition fair and square.

But yes, best princess letter ever. Kinda highlights the problems I had with last weeks episode though.

[Zixinus]

I think the ending could have been elaborated on more. Rather than just them being run out of town for bad cider.

To be fair, the craetors may have been pressed on having not enough time...

[Crazedwraith]

Yes it would be an absolute crime to cut any of the music sequence or trim any of the other scenes.

Though feel sorry for RD, you think the Apples could run some kind of per-pony-glass limit. OR pre-order system so the same ponies didn't get left out everyday.

Also Fluttershy, you know how badly RD wants the Cider and you go ahead of her in the queue?

[evilsoup]

You'd think that Rainbow Dash, as AJ's best friend, would think to reserve some 'cider' ahead of time.
Gods, Granny Smith... AJ, really needs to talk with her about getting ownership of the farm soon.

Also, why did the flimflam brothers act as if they suddenly owned the farm when they 'won'? The bet was only for the right to sell cider... and why oh why didn't they AJ just try to renegotiate the proposed deal? When the flimflam brothers offered an unfavourable 65/35 split, why not just flip that on its head or something? Or hells, just have them driven out of town for stealing apples after the second appearance!

But the letter at the end, that's just the best letter of the series, easily. And it was good to see that AJ has learned the lesson of applebuck season and the last episode. Quite liked this episode, not one of the best but certainly good.

[SpaceMarine93]

Now that we are on the subject of Applejack and Capitalism:

http://www.overthinkingit.com/2011/02/2 ... l-economy/

[tim31]

Also Fluttershy, you know how badly RD wants the Cider and you go ahead of her in the queue?

I like to think Dash insisted; after all, she got her out of bed before dawn and... ahem... violated her privacy

[LadyTevar]

Question: was Flim & Flam's cutie marks apples as well? One whole with a slice out of it, the other hte missing slice?

[lordofchange13]

Question: was Flim & Flam's cutie marks apples as well? One whole with a slice out of it, the other hte missing slice?

yes, that was their cutie marks. Probably to really dive home that they are brothers.

[LadyTevar]

Twins, from the look of it.

From the cutie marks, they know their apples (and cider). Their machine works as promised (when not over-powered and ignoring quality control), so they could make an honest living out of this. However, the episode makes it look like they come in and flim-flam the local apple orchard into providing apples for the machine, then take the majority of the profits. If the brothers had not been in it for the quick money, this would have gone very different.

Instead of setting up as a competitor, the brothers could have demonstrated the machine to the Apples and offered to hire out the machine for a day or two of shared equal profits. Like the days when the farmer with the only tractor would take it around the neighbors farms, this sharing of labor would profit everyone in the long run.

[Kuja]

Another episode with a stealth moral: don't let your opponents change the rules in the middle of a game. They'll burn your ass.

[LadyTevar]

Another episode with a stealth moral: don't let your opponents change the rules in the middle of a game. They'll burn your ass.

There was actually very little that Unicorn magic and wings did, really. Fluttershy may have flown into the tree, but she was probably just shaking the higher branches. PinkyPie was rather tame catching apples, no reality warping. Rarity was using her horn to toss apples in the chute, but judging by eye. Dash was mostly out and out running, although after they said "HURRY" her wings were flapping. All Twilight did was seal and move barrels.

Now, if they had been in on it at the start, they'd have made a big difference. FlimFlam would still have more barrels, but cider too tainted to sell. If the Apples are smart, they'd offer the girls free cider to help them make enough all through Cider Season

[tim31]

Plus, you know, make a day of it rather than one hour.

[RogueIce]

More or less reposting this:

Poor Dashie. I felt for her, I really did. I mean, clearly she's an alcoholic a ciderholic and denying her her fix was just criminal.

Also, the "friendship report" is the best one EVER. I mean seriously. "I don't have anything to report because I was right all along and already knew my friends had my back" is pretty awesome. Doubly so coming from Bestpony aka Applejack. I also like it for the subtler touch: the fact that AJ feels she can send, in essence, a casual letter to the Princess at all says something about the relationship between Celestia and her Element Bearers, I think.

[lordofchange13]

Was a reason ever given on why they don't stock pile their Cider for a week or so before they planed sell it, so that supple could meet demand?

[Rossum]

Looking this over I can see several ways the Apple family could have handled things better:

1. Get some help. While the four Apple family members may do just fine for running things most of the year, things like Cider Season or Applebuck Season look like they need extra hooves to get things done in a timely manner. Even if they can't afford hired help for some reason or Applejack doesn't want to keep using her friends then I'm sure they could get Berry Punch or some pony to help out and just pay her in barrels of cider or something (Dang, that idea sounds slightly horrible for some reason).

2. Do the applebucking beforehand. Unless their cider requires squeezing the apples withing 10 minutes of their being picked then it would make sense to harvest the apples, sort them, and then press them all in one go instead of running the whole process at the same time. I'm not sure if the rules of their competition would have prevented the Apple family from bucking and sorting apples all evening and then having a stockpile to press during the competition but that could have helped speed them up for the one hour they competed.

3. Like lordofchange said, stockpile barrels for a week or so and sell them to the town. Or heck, just sell it by the barrel and not have the whole town stand in a huge line to drink mugs of cider at a little lemonade stand. If apple magic requires it to be drunk out of those wooden mugs then just sell the mugs along with the barrels. Or bottle it or whatever.

4. When the FlimFlam brothers showed up then the Apples need somepony skilled in negotiating deals. I suppose its because I'm a huge fan of Fallout Equestria but I keep thinking there is a "Barter" skill and Big Macintosh has that tagged. I think its because Lauran Faust once mentioned that originally Big Macintosh was supposed to own Sweet Apple Acres while Applejack handled the day to day stuff. Too bad Big Mac is a silent protagonist.

5. Even if the Apple family secret recipe for cider requires them to work slowly, there's no reason they couldn't have the FlimFlam brothers use the machine to make barrels of their stuff alongside it. Like, they have a small amount of Original Apple Family Cider which they sell for X bits and a larger amount of FlimFlam Cider which they can sell for cheaper. That way they can sell both ciders alongside eachother and even with the current (stupid) setup then someone like Pinkie Pie could grab a whole bunch of both cider at the start of the line, Berry Punch could get a lot of the cheaper stuff, and Rainbow Dash at the end is guaranteed at least a little bit of Original Apple Family Cider or she can get the FlimFlam stuff.


Other thoughts:

That machine is pretty cool. I doubt that the FlimFlam brothers have magic as powerful as Twilights (even combined) but they seem pretty good at incorporating their magic with technology, using it to control the machine. Make it drive around, control the apple harvesting funnel, and power it. It releases smoke so its probably uses some kind of fuel along with magic (unless the smoke is from it processing apples and all its power is really from unicorn magic).

In Applebuck season, Twilight was able to harvest apples from a whole mess of trees and people wondered if unicorns had an advantage over Earth Ponies when it comes to farming, looks like these unicorns got the idea. They may not be able to levitate a whole fields worth of apples like Twilight but their machine lets them do it just as well. They may not even have the alleged earth pony ability to grow plants but they sure can harvest them (and I'm guessing they can sell them thanks to their song and dance routine). Its pretty clear that they aren't members of the extended Apple family clan so these twins must have gotten their apple marks more as a result of them personally having an interest in apples and less on being members of a family whos business involves apples.

Also, according to Wikipedia the word "Nonpareil" is french for "without equal" and is also the name for little colored sprinkles. My personal headcanon is that when Pinkie heard the brothers call themselves "Traveling Salesponies Nonpareil", she was confused because she suddenly thought of little colored sprinkles used to decorate cupcakes.

[The Yosemite Bear]

maybe they stockpiled it for a week to ferment....