My Little Pony has officially galloped its way to greatness.
The pastel ponies were inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame on Tuesday alongside another form of action figure — Transformers — and the Phase 10 card game. To achieve the feat, the three toys had to rise above the nine other finalists that the Strong National Museum of Play considered for the annual honor, beating out other fan favorites like the card game Apples to Apples, balloons, Pokémon Trading Card Game, trampoline and remote-controlled vehicles.
Though he said that all three toys were "very deserving," The Strong's vice president for collections and chief curator, Christopher Bensch, said this was "extra validating" for My Little Pony, as this was the seventh time the toy was a finalist before finally notching the top title.
Hasbro created My Little Pony in 1983 with six different characters. That soon snowballed into other horse figures and places for them to stay, like stables and castles, going out to the marketplace. There have also been various storybooks, a movie, TV shows and more.
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My Little Pony was discontinued in 1992 after Hasbro sold more than $1 billion worth of merchandise, but the company relaunched the products in 2010 and 2021 into today.
The other two Hall of Famers were also born in the 80s. Phase 10's inventor, Ken Johnson, convinced Kmart to begin selling the game in 1982, and by 2010, Mattel began licensing it. Since its inception, more than 4 million copies of the game are sold each year, which is only second to the card game Uno, according to the National Toy Hall of Fame.
Transformers also came by way of Hasbro in the early 80s, when the brand premiered the toy with a story developed by Marvel Comics about the war between the Autobots and Megatron. From then on, the story catapulted into various other toys, live-action and animated films, TV shows, comic books, video games and more.
Fans voted on the three to win this year, but anyone can submit a toy for the nomination. The Strong then identifies 12 finalists, and a committee counts the ballots.
