WEBVTT Kind: captions Language: en 00:00:00.400 --> 00:00:01.350 So... 00:00:01.350 --> 00:00:08.170 Ever since My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic got insanely popular back in the early 2010s 00:00:08.170 --> 00:00:12.960 that popularity also extended to all of the merchandise and toys 00:00:12.960 --> 00:00:15.570 that were made based off of the show. 00:00:15.570 --> 00:00:20.200 (which, in of itself, was of course literally made to sell toys.) 00:00:20.580 --> 00:00:26.110 Pony stuff was very abundant in toy isles, especially in the 2010s, 00:00:26.110 --> 00:00:31.210 so it doesn't come as much of a surprise that, if you're a fan of MLP, 00:00:31.210 --> 00:00:35.760 then there is a pretty likely chance that you own or have owned 00:00:35.760 --> 00:00:39.200 some type of My Little Pony merchandise or toy. 00:00:39.480 --> 00:00:43.020 When you think of MLP merch or toys as a whole though, 00:00:43.020 --> 00:00:47.120 I'm willing to bet that some of the stuff that first comes to mind 00:00:47.120 --> 00:00:51.610 are things like the various different plastic figures of the characters, 00:00:51.610 --> 00:00:53.840 perhaps some of the toy sets, 00:00:53.840 --> 00:00:58.200 and maybe even things like the miscellaneous official plushies 00:00:58.200 --> 00:00:59.500 that can be of... 00:00:59.500 --> 00:01:01.690 ...questionable quality sometimes. 00:01:01.880 --> 00:01:05.760 One thing that I believe you might not have immediately thought of, however, 00:01:05.760 --> 00:01:10.610 are the little hundreds of official My Little Pony trading cards. 00:01:10.610 --> 00:01:12.100 Yeah, that's right: 00:01:12.100 --> 00:01:17.360 these do count as official merchandise, as they were licensed by Hasbro. 00:01:17.360 --> 00:01:21.190 And I've noticed that a number of people within the MLP fandom 00:01:21.190 --> 00:01:25.160 don't even know that they exist, which is sort of a shame 00:01:25.160 --> 00:01:29.840 because there are some legitimately pretty interesting things about these cards 00:01:29.840 --> 00:01:31.800 that are often overlooked. 00:01:31.800 --> 00:01:35.250 But I think I'm getting a little ahead of myself now, 00:01:35.250 --> 00:01:38.230 so let's start at the beginning. 00:01:38.230 --> 00:01:43.460 I'm going to take a quick look at some of these MLP cards that I find cool 00:01:43.460 --> 00:01:47.920 and also talk about the general history of the cards as a whole. 00:01:48.350 --> 00:01:52.110 So, before I talk about the actual cards though, 00:01:52.110 --> 00:01:57.060 you may be wondering who is even behind creating them in the first place. 00:01:57.060 --> 00:02:00.000 Well, the answer to that is Enterplay, 00:02:00.000 --> 00:02:04.170 a company that focused on making collectible merchandise. 00:02:04.170 --> 00:02:09.060 They first started working with the My Little Pony brand in 2012 00:02:09.060 --> 00:02:15.600 and in July of that year they released the very first set of the MLP trading cards, 00:02:15.600 --> 00:02:18.330 appropriately named Series 1. 00:02:18.570 --> 00:02:24.020 This first set of MLP cards of course introduced a lot of the core aspects 00:02:24.020 --> 00:02:28.400 of the MLP trading cards in general, among other cool things. 00:02:28.660 --> 00:02:31.660 If you have a look at some of these you will quickly see 00:02:31.660 --> 00:02:37.400 that there are a huge variety of cards here, spanning several different topics, 00:02:37.400 --> 00:02:44.020 with there being ones about characters, locations, and even specific moments from the show. 00:02:44.020 --> 00:02:46.760 And along with the cards themselves 00:02:46.760 --> 00:02:51.450 there are also other things included in the booster packs that they came in, 00:02:51.450 --> 00:02:55.010 such as stickers and temporary tattoos. 00:02:55.320 --> 00:03:00.490 What I personally like most about the MLP trading cards in general 00:03:00.490 --> 00:03:06.160 are usually all of the unique descriptions specifically written for them placed on the back 00:03:06.160 --> 00:03:09.770 that give details on what the card is about. 00:03:09.770 --> 00:03:13.570 While some of the things here may seem like pretty obvious stuff 00:03:13.570 --> 00:03:16.500 to anybody who has actually watched the show, 00:03:16.500 --> 00:03:20.960 I still think the way that most of them are written is pretty charming. 00:03:20.960 --> 00:03:23.040 And, if you take your time to look through them, 00:03:23.040 --> 00:03:26.100 you can even find some interesting pieces of trivia 00:03:26.100 --> 00:03:28.430 in these descriptions as well. 00:03:28.430 --> 00:03:30.200 Like, for example, 00:03:30.200 --> 00:03:34.910 did you know that Princess Luna, in addition to raising the Moon, 00:03:34.910 --> 00:03:39.130 is also apparently responsible for filling the night sky 00:03:39.130 --> 00:03:43.370 with beautiful stars, comets and constellations? 00:03:43.370 --> 00:03:45.280 Pretty cool stuff, isn't it? 00:03:45.760 --> 00:03:46.950 Anyways though, 00:03:46.950 --> 00:03:52.480 after the first series of MLP trading cards were released by Enterplay, 00:03:52.480 --> 00:03:58.190 they shortly proved to be fairly successful and popular among MLP fans, 00:03:58.190 --> 00:04:04.290 with many people purchasing booster boxes and booster packs from stores with excitement 00:04:04.290 --> 00:04:08.040 in order to eagerly see what cards they would pull. 00:04:08.040 --> 00:04:10.600 And, as some of you may have already guessed, 00:04:10.600 --> 00:04:18.080 one of the biggest reasons why the MLP cards quickly became so popular in the first place 00:04:18.080 --> 00:04:20.740 is due to the rarity system. 00:04:20.740 --> 00:04:24.570 As with most other trading card games of this nature, 00:04:24.570 --> 00:04:28.500 some cards here are simply just rarer than others, 00:04:28.500 --> 00:04:32.180 with common cards obviously being the most common 00:04:32.180 --> 00:04:37.440 and with super rare, gold rare and convention-exclusive promo cards 00:04:37.440 --> 00:04:40.060 being a lot less common to find. 00:04:40.060 --> 00:04:43.140 and as you know, the more uncommon something is, 00:04:43.140 --> 00:04:48.050 the more likely it will become increasingly sought after and expensive. 00:04:48.050 --> 00:04:49.760 So, because of this, 00:04:49.760 --> 00:04:56.860 an aftermarket emerged of people selling the rarer MLP cards that they managed to pull 00:04:56.860 --> 00:04:58.860 on websites like Ebay. 00:04:58.860 --> 00:05:01.290 And, depending on how rare it was, 00:05:01.290 --> 00:05:08.810 the prices that these pony cards were selling for ranged from maybe 25 to 50 US Dollars 00:05:08.810 --> 00:05:13.680 to as much as several hundred or even a thousand US Dollars. 00:05:13.680 --> 00:05:18.840 At a glance, some of these prices may seem downright absurd to some of you, 00:05:18.840 --> 00:05:22.430 but keep in mind that this was 2012. 00:05:22.430 --> 00:05:29.560 the MLP fandom and G4 of MLP as a whole was already very popular at this point 00:05:29.560 --> 00:05:36.090 and many MLP fans alike wanted to get their hands on pony merch and toys. 00:05:36.090 --> 00:05:40.390 So, some of these fans, especially people like collectors, 00:05:40.390 --> 00:05:47.450 were very willing to pay top dollar for things such as rare and sought-after pony cards. 00:05:47.680 --> 00:05:52.170 Some of the most expensive MLP trading cards out there 00:05:52.170 --> 00:05:55.600 are things like the various unique promo cards, 00:05:55.600 --> 00:06:00.500 because these were only ever available in very limited supply 00:06:00.500 --> 00:06:03.600 at specific My Little Pony conventions. 00:06:03.810 --> 00:06:11.320 Probably the most notable example of this would be the BronyCon 2012 Rarity promo card. 00:06:11.320 --> 00:06:14.950 Not many of these things were handed out during the convention 00:06:14.950 --> 00:06:20.880 so, as a result, they are exceedingly rare and expensive to find for sale, 00:06:20.880 --> 00:06:25.100 especially if it's been preserved and is still in good condition. 00:06:25.100 --> 00:06:26.260 And, even then, 00:06:26.260 --> 00:06:33.190 these promo cards still aren't the most absolute expensive MLP trading cards out there, 00:06:33.190 --> 00:06:38.720 because that honor technically goes to the various specific cards 00:06:38.720 --> 00:06:44.250 that have been autographed and signed by the actual voice actors from the show. 00:06:44.250 --> 00:06:46.820 Along with a few of the promo cards, 00:06:46.820 --> 00:06:52.320 some of these tend to be almost considered as Holy Grails among collectors 00:06:52.320 --> 00:06:55.440 because that's just how sought-after they are. 00:06:55.440 --> 00:06:58.630 So, if you happen to be in possession of any of these, 00:06:58.630 --> 00:07:00.370 then good for you. 00:07:00.370 --> 00:07:03.330 But, anyways, I think you got the point: 00:07:03.330 --> 00:07:08.890 these pastel-colored horse trading cards quickly became fairly popular 00:07:08.890 --> 00:07:13.040 and Hasbro and Enterplay definitely took notice of this 00:07:13.040 --> 00:07:18.520 because, in April of 2013, Enterplay released the Series 2 set 00:07:18.520 --> 00:07:25.140 with about one hundred and eighty-six brand new MLP trading cards being featured in it. 00:07:25.140 --> 00:07:29.730 And, in addition to this, later in August of that same year 00:07:29.730 --> 00:07:34.990 they also announced that they were launching a completely new line of cards 00:07:34.990 --> 00:07:41.090 called the My Little Pony: Collectible Card Game, or MLP:CCG for short. 00:07:41.330 --> 00:07:43.670 As the name would suggest, 00:07:43.670 --> 00:07:50.530 in MLP:CCG you could actually use a deck of the cards to play against other people 00:07:50.530 --> 00:07:55.560 due to the cards all having their own attributes and abilities attached to them. 00:07:55.810 --> 00:08:02.910 The MLP Collectible Card Game in of itself is more or less its own separate rabbit hole. 00:08:02.910 --> 00:08:09.250 because, after the first premiere set of them were released in December of 2013, 00:08:09.250 --> 00:08:13.550 they quickly became equally (and then even more popular) 00:08:13.550 --> 00:08:16.160 than their trading card counterparts 00:08:16.160 --> 00:08:21.580 probably because you could actually use them to play a game instead of just... 00:08:21.580 --> 00:08:25.230 looking at them... [chuckling] ...like with the trading cards, I guess. 00:08:25.500 --> 00:08:26.520 Anyways, 00:08:26.520 --> 00:08:31.150 after the premiere set was released and proved to be successful, 00:08:31.150 --> 00:08:36.830 MLP:CCG would get an additional eleven whole new official sets of cards 00:08:36.830 --> 00:08:42.960 throughout 2013 to 2018, with over two thousand cards in total 00:08:42.960 --> 00:08:46.460 and with many tournaments of people playing against one another 00:08:46.460 --> 00:08:52.920 often being hosted at places like MLP fan meet-ups or conventions during this time. 00:08:52.920 --> 00:08:56.990 And as with the trading cards, it isn't much of a surprise 00:08:56.990 --> 00:09:03.390 that the aftermarket value of some of the less common cards for MLP:CCG 00:09:03.390 --> 00:09:06.100 could also get quite expensive. 00:09:06.520 --> 00:09:10.200 Anyways though, the collectible card game put aside, 00:09:10.200 --> 00:09:18.230 after Series 2, the third series of the MLP trading cards were released in February of 2015 00:09:18.230 --> 00:09:24.790 and the fourth set was released a little under two years later in January 2017. 00:09:24.790 --> 00:09:28.920 It's worth nothing that, aside from these main releases, 00:09:28.920 --> 00:09:32.100 there were also two other spin-off sets released 00:09:32.100 --> 00:09:37.560 that could be primarily found at stores like Dollar Tree in North America: 00:09:37.560 --> 00:09:42.840 one with cards exclusively about the 2017 My Little Pony movie 00:09:42.840 --> 00:09:50.120 and another one named Equestrian Friends, a smaller set with only about eighty-one cards, 00:09:50.120 --> 00:09:54.670 which was notable for being the only set released by Enterplay 00:09:54.670 --> 00:10:00.100 to actually feature cards with Equestria Girls stuff on some of them. 00:10:00.100 --> 00:10:04.400 With that being said, with all these sets having been released, 00:10:04.400 --> 00:10:11.640 that of course also means that there are quite a few interesting and unique cards to look at here. 00:10:11.640 --> 00:10:16.700 For example, beginning with Series 2, puzzle cards were introduced 00:10:16.700 --> 00:10:20.920 where you would need to find multiple different matching cards 00:10:20.920 --> 00:10:23.290 in order to complete a full image. 00:10:23.290 --> 00:10:29.850 And, in addition to this, something called "standee cards" were also introduced in Series 2. 00:10:29.850 --> 00:10:32.170 These are pretty cool in my opinion 00:10:32.170 --> 00:10:37.590 because, as the name may imply, the ends of the standee cards 00:10:37.590 --> 00:10:43.530 were actually specifically designed to be bent in order to sort of stand them up on their own 00:10:43.530 --> 00:10:45.670 once you placed them down. 00:10:45.670 --> 00:10:50.930 (which, even though it is a gimmick, it's still is a pretty fun idea if you ask me.) 00:10:51.300 --> 00:10:56.670 Another really cool thing about specifically the fourth set of trading cards 00:10:56.670 --> 00:11:04.570 that I don't see brought up a lot is the fact that, from August 26th to September 12th of 2015, 00:11:04.570 --> 00:11:09.320 Enterplay actually hosted a "Create-a-Card Contest" 00:11:09.320 --> 00:11:14.460 where artists would submit artwork that could potentially end up featured 00:11:14.460 --> 00:11:17.540 on an actual a card within the set. 00:11:17.540 --> 00:11:23.060 Once the contest was over and all of the winners and artwork were selected 00:11:23.060 --> 00:11:27.340 about forty-one total cards featuring fan-made artwork 00:11:27.340 --> 00:11:30.150 were put into the series' fourth set. 00:11:30.150 --> 00:11:33.900 And honestly, from a mere visual standpoint, 00:11:33.900 --> 00:11:40.970 these forty-one fan-made cards are probably my personal favorite MLP trading cards in general; 00:11:40.970 --> 00:11:45.410 serious props to all of the artists that contributed their art here 00:11:45.410 --> 00:11:52.700 because the artwork featured on these cards are all very unique and charming in their own ways, 00:11:52.700 --> 00:11:58.890 and a part of me honestly sort of wishes that the rest of the MLP trading cards 00:11:58.890 --> 00:12:06.820 had this same aesthetic mix of throwing together various distinctive art styles into the same set, 00:12:06.820 --> 00:12:12.600 instead of just using the same normal screenshots or vectors from the show, 00:12:12.600 --> 00:12:18.720 but I'm nevertheless still glad that we at least got to enjoy these cards. 00:12:18.720 --> 00:12:21.070 And, while we're on this topic, 00:12:21.070 --> 00:12:28.710 take a quick look at this one card of Maud Pie that was submitted to the contest by a young kid; 00:12:28.710 --> 00:12:35.530 it's honestly pretty cute and awesome that Enterplay selected it to be a part of the set. 00:12:35.850 --> 00:12:38.680 Anyways, with that all having been said though, 00:12:38.680 --> 00:12:44.350 I think I should now talk about what even happened to the MLP trading cards 00:12:44.350 --> 00:12:47.580 and, by extension, the collectible card game. 00:12:47.580 --> 00:12:55.720 What exactly caused Enterplay to eventually stop printing new sets of cards sometime after 2018? 00:12:55.720 --> 00:13:01.950 Well, truthfully, I don't have a 100% solid answer to this question, 00:13:01.950 --> 00:13:07.320 but I believe I do have two probably accurate theories as to why: 00:13:07.320 --> 00:13:10.360 Firstly, it's the financials of it all. 00:13:10.360 --> 00:13:16.570 Keep in mind that it costs money to do things like employ people to design the cards, 00:13:16.570 --> 00:13:20.330 actually print and package the cards themselves, 00:13:20.330 --> 00:13:25.440 and finally transport them to retailers where people can buy them. 00:13:25.440 --> 00:13:28.920 And, due to the trading cards seemingly having reached 00:13:28.920 --> 00:13:35.140 their peak of general popularity sometime between 2013 to 2015, 00:13:35.140 --> 00:13:41.600 it's not too far-fetched to assume that by 2018 Enterplay probably just realized 00:13:41.600 --> 00:13:44.940 that, despite some people still buying them, 00:13:44.940 --> 00:13:51.480 it was no longer a financially viable option to continue printing new MLP cards, 00:13:51.480 --> 00:13:56.040 as they were simply not making as much money as they used to. 00:13:56.040 --> 00:14:00.640 And the second probably accurate theory as to why they stopped 00:14:00.640 --> 00:14:07.560 is simply due to Generation 4 of MLP as a whole beginning to come to an end. 00:14:07.560 --> 00:14:11.208 It was pretty clear at this point back in 2018 00:14:11.200 --> 00:14:15.980 that MLP:FIM was going to end within about the next year. 00:14:15.980 --> 00:14:20.256 So I can imagine that from the perspective of Enterplay 00:14:20.250 --> 00:14:26.152 it wouldn't make much sense to invest more time and money into making cards 00:14:26.150 --> 00:14:32.696 if the thing that those cards are based off of is going to end relatively soon anyways. 00:14:33.168 --> 00:14:37.624 What's even more interesting about the conclusion of these cards 00:14:37.620 --> 00:14:43.888 is that later, in October of 2019, Enterplay actually made a post on Facebook 00:14:43.880 --> 00:14:49.976 revealing they had already designed the entirety of a fifth set of MLP trading cards 00:14:49.970 --> 00:14:56.456 that were approved by Hasbro ages ago, however they just simply never printed them. 00:14:56.450 --> 00:14:59.144 But luckily, in the same post, 00:14:59.140 --> 00:15:04.208 they were also generous enough to share images of all of the cards, 00:15:04.200 --> 00:15:08.640 so at least we know what a fifth set would have looked like. 00:15:08.640 --> 00:15:11.712 It's honestly sort of odd looking at these cards 00:15:11.710 --> 00:15:16.968 knowing that they never actually got to see the light of day on store shelves, 00:15:16.960 --> 00:15:23.512 especially when you consider they are all fully finished and ready to be printed. 00:15:24.312 --> 00:15:27.432 But, well... Yeah... that's it. 00:15:27.430 --> 00:15:34.464 After Enterplay released the series's first set of MLP trading cards in January 2017 00:15:34.460 --> 00:15:40.016 and the Friends Forever collectible card game set in December of 2018, 00:15:40.010 --> 00:15:46.168 There were no further MLP cards of any type officially printed or sold by them. 00:15:46.408 --> 00:15:53.376 It was, admittedly, kind of an underwhelming end to such a popular piece of merchandise 00:15:53.370 --> 00:15:55.880 within the MLP fandom. 00:15:56.368 --> 00:16:00.688 So, as for what happened to Enterplay the company though, 00:16:00.680 --> 00:16:04.648 well, they haven't had much activity ever since 2020 00:16:04.640 --> 00:16:11.600 and I legitimately couldn't find anything as to if they had potentially closed down or something, 00:16:11.600 --> 00:16:15.744 so who knows what exactly is going on with them right now. 00:16:15.740 --> 00:16:20.296 And ever since G4 ended Hasbro, so far at least, 00:16:20.290 --> 00:16:27.784 hasn't dabbled much into future MLP trading cards of any sort with Generation 5 or anything, 00:16:27.780 --> 00:16:33.128 so it seems as though an era truly well has mostly ended 00:16:33.120 --> 00:16:36.824 in terms of this type of MLP merchandise. 00:16:36.820 --> 00:16:40.512 But there is one notable exception to this: 00:16:40.510 --> 00:16:48.440 in early 2022 Renegade Game Studios, a company that usually makes tabletop and card games, 00:16:48.440 --> 00:16:52.000 announced that they had gotten a license from Hasbro 00:16:52.000 --> 00:16:56.480 to make an official My Little Pony RPG deck-building game 00:16:56.480 --> 00:16:59.760 and, later that year, they officially released it 00:16:59.760 --> 00:17:04.912 and have been steadily releasing several expansions for it ever since. 00:17:04.910 --> 00:17:07.072 So it seems as though, 00:17:07.070 --> 00:17:12.080 despite it being quite different from something like MLP:CCG 00:17:12.080 --> 00:17:15.592 in terms of how the cards look and how it's played, 00:17:15.590 --> 00:17:22.920 it's still doing a good job at filling in the market of modern-day MLP-related card games, 00:17:22.920 --> 00:17:25.400 which is certainly nice to see. 00:17:25.664 --> 00:17:28.536 However, with that all being said, 00:17:28.530 --> 00:17:34.288 Enterplay's impact on MLP G4 definitely shouldn't be understated: 00:17:34.280 --> 00:17:40.920 they provided two legitimately very fun and interesting pieces of MLP merchandise 00:17:40.920 --> 00:17:45.680 that were enjoyed by tens of thousands of pony fans alike. 00:17:45.680 --> 00:17:47.272 And it's worth noting 00:17:47.270 --> 00:17:52.808 that, even though the communities are now considerably smaller than they once were, 00:17:52.800 --> 00:18:00.536 both the trading cards and collectible card game still have many dedicated fans to this very day. 00:18:00.530 --> 00:18:05.160 I think it's great that, even though they've been officially discontinued, 00:18:05.160 --> 00:18:09.608 these cards still receive love from a fair amount of people; 00:18:09.600 --> 00:18:15.192 and all the unforgettable memories that these cards helped create for these people 00:18:15.190 --> 00:18:19.704 is truly a big part of what I think makes them so special. 00:18:19.700 --> 00:18:23.720 So, if you have any cool experiences or memories 00:18:23.720 --> 00:18:30.728 with either the MLP trading cards and/or the collectible card game that you want to share, 00:18:30.720 --> 00:18:35.968 then I would definitely love to hear about them in the comments down below. 00:18:36.328 --> 00:18:40.568 Anyways though, with all of that finally having been said, 00:18:40.560 --> 00:18:47.560 that has been this retrospective about the My Little Pony trading cards. 00:18:51.712 --> 00:18:52.480 So... 00:18:52.480 --> 00:18:57.736 if you enjoyed this video then consider doing all of the normal stuff, 00:18:57.730 --> 00:19:02.616 such as leaving a like and/or sharing it around with your friends. 00:19:02.610 --> 00:19:09.168 Doing those things are the best way to support me because it can show my videos to more people. 00:19:09.160 --> 00:19:15.744 While you're at it, you can also check out my socials, such as my Twitter and Discord server. 00:19:15.740 --> 00:19:18.696 Anyways, I want to say that I had a lot of fun 00:19:18.690 --> 00:19:25.472 looking into the stuff about the MLP trading cards and whatnot for this video, 00:19:25.470 --> 00:19:30.824 so I hope you also had fun watching me ramble on about it for a little while. 00:19:31.150 --> 00:19:37.688 Well, anyways, I don't really have anything else to say here in this outro now, 00:19:37.680 --> 00:19:40.472 so, I will see you... 00:19:40.470 --> 00:19:42.264 ...whenever I see you.