My Little Pony: 40th Anniversary Special, initially referred to on online bookstores as My Little Pony: 40th Anniversary Celebration, is a one-shot comic book published by IDW, scheduled for release on July 12, 2023.
As of March 2023, the comic appears to be G1-centric; however, the 2nd story of the 3 is said to involve G5 characters, with Pipp Petals likely to also feature in the 3rd story.
Synopsis (Initial, likely for Story 1)[]
"Forty years ago, Butterscotch, Blue Belle, Minty, Snuzzle, Cotton Candy, and Blossom galloped onto the shelves and became an instant hit!
My Little Pony has played a role in the lives of countless kids since the toy line first appeared in 1983, and each fan has their own favorite generation of characters.
Now, MLP superfans Sam Maggs and Keisha Okafor are joining forces to craft a story about the children who bought the original My Little Ponies, in a tale full of friendship, magic, and toys! Plus, bonus stories by My Little Pony legends Tony Fleecs and Jeremy Whitley."
Synopsis from GamesRadar[]
The standard edition is set to contain 3 stories.[2]
Story 1 is "set in the decade that gave birth to the Pony phenomenon: the 1980s. In it, four young girls (plus their G1 Ponies) must bond together and use their imaginations if they're going to save their local stable from closing."
In Story 2, written by Jeremy Whitley and drawn by Amy Mebberson, "Sunny Starscout and the rest of her G5 friends must learn about the history of Equestria and the first ponies."
Story 3, by Tony Fleecs and Brianna Garcia, "is set in the present day and sees an aunt and her niece having to rely on some old and dusty G1 My Little Pony toys for entertainment during a power outage."
Plot[]
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Development history[]
During the comic's reveal in late March 2023, there were some confusion in the fandom about whether 40th Anniversary Celebration and 40th Anniversary Special were the same book or different books.
The G1 pony names in Celebration synopsis, matched with the pony toy names shown on an "RI" Special cover; and human girls appeared in the Celebration synopsis and on the "A" cover.
On the other hand, Celebration was planned to be a 92-page hardcover planned for December 12, 2023. IDW single-issues were typically softcover and noticeably shorter than 92 pages, even when considering the increased RRP of US$9.
In early April 2023, Celebration's cover was revealed and shown to say "40th Anniversary Special: The Deluxe Edition",[3] seemingly contradicting the name of the store pages at that time.
On 17 April 2023, GamesRadar published an article about the comic, where the synopsis for story 1 of Special's standard edition was a pretty close match to Amazon USA's synopsis for The Deluxe Edition.
Trivia[]
- The "B" cover was shown publicly first, prior to the various "A", "C", and "RI" covers.