It was 80's cheese. I believe Beverly Hills Teens was out at the same time - late 80's wasn't real big on depth in children's cartoon storylines.
Rhino did a real disservice to both Jem and My Little Pony while they had them. The sets were horribly overpriced and incomplete and hoping for them to release more was like pulling teeth. If it wasn't Transformers or Gi Joe, seems they didn't give a crap. The box art for MLP was wrong on top of everything else... that show needs a re-release too, it was also left unfinished and without the "N Friends" cartoons like Potatohead Kids and Moondreamers. I'm pretty sure there's no release of the two original television specials either in their unedited forms... then again, not sure if Shout is gonna release the unedited Jem movie. There's a few extra minutes in the version that wasn't chopped up to air as the first five episodes.
Is there a difference between the Rhino Transformers set and the Shout Factory one episode wise? I'm sure the bonus content is different but I'm not big on rebuying a set unless there are major differences in the episodes themselves. I saw Shout got rights to the Japanese shows which is a huge "YAY" in my book.
Shout Factory is, in general, a YAY in my book though. They got Punky Brewster, Captain N and a lot of other nostalgia shows.