Who the Heck is TJ?

Please, for crying out loud, do not email me to tell me that TJ was in the cartoon. I know. This page is about the toy, not the cartoon. Enough already.

Somewhere in the darker corners of Pony Land is an unusual pony. She has no symbols, and is brown with white hair. Everyone calls the pony TJ, but no one knows the pony’s real name, or if the pony is male or female (for the purposes of this page, TJ is female). TJ is such a mystery that many believe the pony doesn’t exist. If ever a pony needed an official explanation from Hasbro, TJ does.

TJ Does Exist

TJ is very real, and very rare, which is why many doubt her existence. She was made in Macau, is a light brown color, and has white hair and sea foam green eyes. She has no symbols, but there are other TJ-type ponies that have Collector Pony symbols, which are usually pink or white. The most perplexing thing about TJ is that nobody is sure where she came from. She certainly doesn’t appear in any MLP catalogs. Was she included in a set? Was she a foreign release only? Was TJ intended to be a male pony? Almost everyone who has seen her has a theory, too many to include on this page. However, three theories in particular seem most probable.

Baby My Pretty Pony Theory

Some of the My Pretty Pony toys were packaged with a flat foot Butterscotch, who was intended to be a baby Pretty Pony. There are rumors that flat foot Peachy was included with the pink Pretty Pony, because they look similar. TJ looks remarkably like the brown Pretty Pony, right down to the green eyes. Is it possible that she was packaged with her as a baby? The only detail that doesn’t seem to fit is that TJ has concave feet, but Pretty Ponies were sold for quite some time, so she could have been included with the brown Pretty Pony after the traditional pose was reworked.

Were it not for her concave feet, one could argue that TJ was the first My Little Pony. The evolution of the MLP would start with this humble brown pony, and would then move up to brown ponies with emblems. Then the ponies would diversify, taking on all the colors of the rainbow. Keeping in mind that Butterscotch was included with Pretty Ponies, one has to wonder about this brown Butterscotch that appeared in Germany. Maybe if someone found a flat-footed TJ, the evolution theory would hold water.

Macau Syndrome Theory

Macau ponies are notorious for their irregularities. Unlike Italian ponies, which often have strange color or pose variations, the Macau ponies look like factory mishaps. There are Macau Blossoms with Butterscotch symbols, and Snuzzles with Minty symbols. Even the markings on the bottoms of their feet are a little sloppy. They seem to have been made willy-nilly by drunken factory workers, a condition I call the Macau Syndrome.

TJ, and all the other brown ponies, were manufactured in Macau. Considering the low quality of other Macau ponies, it is easy to dismiss the brown ponies as mistakes. The only way to prove TJ wasn’t a mistake would be to find her in her original packaging with a unique name. If, for instance, she were billed as “Butterscotch”, she would obviously be a mistake. Having a unique name would prove her status as an official MLP, and would solve some of the mystery surrounding her as well.

The Megan’s Place Theory

This mysterious brown pony is called TJ because she resembles Megan’s non-MLP horse that appeared in one of the My Little Pony cartoons. Some theorize that TJ was included with the foreign release of the Megan’s Place playset. This would mean that she was, indeed, intended to be TJ.

The World may Never Know

So who the heck is TJ? Until Hasbro authorizes an official collector’s guide, the MLP community may never find out. We can only debate the issue.

Do you have an interesting TJ theory, a picture of a brown Collector Pony, or (crossing fingers) a mint in package TJ? Can you prove that TJ came with Megan’s Place? Please email me at DizzyDava@aol.com and tell me about it. Useful tidbits will be added to this page, and hopefully will bring us closer to the truth about TJ.

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Special Thanks: Thank you to Lady Moondancer and the Delaneys for their information.

Picture Credits: TJ was provided by the Delaneys, the brown Butterscotch was provided by Uschi Schmidt, the brown Snuzzle and foot markings were provided by Helen, and the Pretty Pony was provided by Baby Moondancer. Used with permission.