The original line of My Little Pony began with Earth Ponies: chubby-bodied colorful horses that have a group of symbols on their haunches representing their names. The Earth Ponies were later followed by Pegasi and Unicorns. Flutter Ponies were much smaller and thinner than Pegasus Ponies and had fragile, translucent wings that featured a "fluttering" action. Windy Wing and Summer Wing Ponies were even smaller in size compared to the Flutter Ponies, but were proportioned in a similar way, and had larger,butterfly-like wings. Finally, Mermaid Ponies loosely resembled the mythological hippocampus. There were also male ponies that had slightly larger bodies and feathered hooves like Clydesdale horses.

Many different sets of Little Ponies were produced, starting with the Rainbow Ponies (which all sported rainbow-colored manes and tails) in 1983. Other variations included the So-Soft Ponies (which were entirely covered in flocking), Twinkle-Eyed Ponies (with small jewels in place of the eyes), Twice As Fancy Ponies (with symbols covering most of the body), and Brush n' Grow Ponies (which had a longer-than-usual tail stored inside the body that could be drawn out through brushing).

The first generation of My Little Ponies ran in the U.S. for ten years, ending in 1992, but continuing internationally until 1995. The final year of sales in the U.S. was marketed as the celebration year of My Little Pony.