[mordae]

I feel that the previous generation of MLP with Twilight Sparkle was actually pretty good. Despite being made by a company who wanted to sell toys.

Most cringe episodes are the first and last two of the season, but the slice of life in the middle are more often than not golden.

But yeah, creating a curated library and not leaving it to chance would probably be a good idea.

[iraldir]

Yeah for sure, MLP friendship is magic is there in the list of high quality show. It's unavoidable that toys are sold on popular francises, I just don't want show that are obviously just 20 minutes long advertisements with little substance.

[bmacho]

There are not many cartoons made to sell toys that I know of. There is MLP, and .. Star Wars maybe?

And MLP is indeed a quite good show, fans ranging from Miley Cyrus to Gabe Newell.

Also I don't know how is it considered bad if characters are lovable (MLP has 50+ different, but lovable characters by design), or that if objects around her (clothes, mugs, toys, other merch) make her feel good?

[red-iron-pine]

For a good 20-30 years most if not all kids shows were planned with toys in mind.

Some, like Transformers, were essentially toys that were given shows.

Even Sesame Street, a PBS (public broadcast) show, still has significant toy tie-ins -- anyone remember the Tickle Me Elmo crazy years ago? My 2 year old has a big-ass plush Cookie Monster.

[ben_w]

Famously, Transformers. Was Yu-Gi-Oh in this category? I only know that show from the "Abridged" parody dub[0]. Pokémon?

[0] https://www.youtube.com/@LittleKuribohChannel

[bawolff]

GI joe? Various barbie cartoons? Transformers? There are a ton of such cartoons, at least in the 80s and 90s.