Saturday, November 2, 2013

Lala-Pony-Palooza Month: My Little Pony Generations


One of the things I really wanted to do this month was talk about the differences between My Little Pony generations.  To someone unfamiliar with MLP, the labels such as G1 or G4 can be rather confusing.  I thought it would be fun to give you a very basic beginner's guide to identifying the differences between the various types of My Little Ponies. :)

There have been four major releases of the My Little Pony line through the years (not counting the G3.5 line, which we'll discuss in a bit).  Each of these releases are referred to as generations.  The generations will often be referred to, especially on eBay, as "G1" (Generation 1), "G2", etc.  This is one of the easiest ways to label a pony for a potential buyer.  But what's the difference between these ponies, anyway?  Aren't they all the same?

I'm so glad you asked, my friend. ;)

Here are the four major types of My Little Ponies.  You can see there are some pretty major variations from generation to generation.

Let's begin with the first generation.

G1

The G1 ponies were the first My Little Ponies to come into existence.  They were produced by Hasbro in 1982, and continued production until 1994.  The ponies were very popular and quite collectible.  These were the ponies I grew up with as a child. :)  

Here are just a few of the G1 ponies in my collection.  Many of these are ponies I've kept since I was a little girl. :)

The G1 ponies featured earth ponies (like Sundance), pegasus ponies, and unicorn ponies.  There were also Sea Ponies who had MLP heads on bodies that resembled seahorses.  Most of the ponies were all vinyl with a cutie mark on both sides of their hindquarters.  Some, like Ribbon (the blue unicorn on the right), were covered with soft flocking.  They were called the "So Soft" Ponies.  

Here are pictures of both of Sundance's cutie marks:

There were many ponies who varied from the basic ones, such as Flower Bouquet, my Merry Go Round Pony pictured above.  Some of the other special ponies included Twice As Fancy (or TAF) Ponies, Twinkle-Eyed Ponies, Sweetheart Sisters, and Flutter Ponies.  There were even Big Brother Ponies who were male versions of the My Little Ponies.  I could go on, but there are so many different ones that it might take up the whole post. ;)  This at least gives you a basic idea of the wide variety of ponies that were produced.  For an excellent overview of all of the G1 My Little Ponies, you can check out Ghost of the Doll's web page about them HERE. :)

One of the things I loved the most about the G1 ponies was that most of them had matching baby ponies.  While there have been baby ponies in some of the more recent generations, they never match their mommies.  Here are Heart Throb and Baby Heart Throb with Ribbon and Baby Ribbon.  Heart Throb was a garage sale find, but the other three are all my ponies from when I was little. :)

Baby Heart Throb and Baby Ribbon were best friends in my pony world.  I shared many adventures with them through the years. ;)  The baby ponies were great because their small size made them perfect traveling companions for young girls.  You could fit three or four in a small purse and take them everywhere with you. :)  

I also loved the variety of baby ponies available.  Baby Heart Throb and Baby Ribbon were two of the many babies with "Beddy-Bye Eyes", meaning they opened and closed like a doll with sleep eyes.

Hasbro also offered exclusive mail order ponies, like my Pearlized Baby Cotton Candy pictured above.  One of the things I remember most as a girl was the excitement of getting the mail-order brochures and drooling over all the special edition ponies. ;)  My mom loved it because they were so inexpensive.  It was a win/win. ;)  

In addition to the regular-sized baby ponies, Hasbro released a line of Newborn ponies that instantly became my favorites.  As you can see from the picture above, they were a bit smaller than the Baby ponies.

This little gal is Wiggles, my absolute favorite baby pony of all time. :)


And as if the Newborn ponies weren't adorable enough, Hasbro also released the Newborn Twins.  Double the cuteness! ;)  

These two are Nibbles and Dibbles.

I could go on and on about G1, but I think we should probably head to our next category, the Generation 2 ponies.

G2

The G2 ponies were produced from 1997-1999.  These are the ponies I am the least familiar with.  At the time they were produced, I was in high school and not into ponies anymore.  I also didn't care for the way they looked. :}


The G2s are taller and skinnier with more rounded features than the G1s.  They still featured cutie marks on both sides of their hindquarters.  There were no pegasus or unicorn ponies released in the US, but there were several unicorns with wings released in Europe.  In fact, from what I could gather from my research on Strawberry Reef, most of the G2 releases were in Europe.  Out of the 187 G2 ponies listed on the site, only 10 of  them were US releases.  I don't know if this was because they were more popular in Europe or if there was another reason.  It does explain why there were so many G2s I'd never even heard of, though. ;)  There were prince ponies, baby ponies, and more that I'd never seen.  Interestingly enough, at least one of the G2s I've found at Goodwill was listed as a European release, so it's possible that some of them made their way over to the US. 

The G2s had "gems" in their eyes, and the standard G2s could turn their heads, unlike most of the G1 ponies.

Some of the G2s were made of harder plastic and featured special movement, like my Light Heart pony pictured above.  They were called "Magic Motion" Ponies.

As I said before, this is the generation I'm the least familiar with, so that's about all the information I have.  If you'd like to do a little more G2 research, you can see all of them on Strawberry Reef HERE.  Just click on a pony to get started. :) 


G3

After the G2s finished production in 1999, Hasbro did not release any ponies again until 2003, when the Generation 3 ponies were introduced to the world.  In the early 2000s, some of you may remember that many of the beloved toys from the 80s and 90s were revamped for a new generation.  My Little Pony got on the bandwagon like everyone else.  It was really fun for girls like me who had grown up loving these toys and could now share them with our children.  I was thrilled to introduce My Little Ponies to my daughters.  And while I still liked the G1s the best, the G3s were a definite improvement from the G2s (in my humble opinion, at least). ;)  These were the ponies my girls grew up with. :)

The G3 ponies were unicorn ponies (like Sunrise Song), pegasus ponies (like Twilight Pink), and earth ponies (like Morning Glory).  There were also smaller ponies called "Breezies" that reminded me a bit of the Flutter Ponies from G1.  No boy ponies were ever released in the G3 line.

There were baby ponies, however, such as my "Mochanut", pictured above with Sunrise Song.  The baby ponies were super cute, but most of them were larger in relation to the "grown up" ponies than the G1 babies had been.  Also, even baby ponies that came with an older pony usually had different coloring and cutie marks.  Of course, when I looked up Mochanut, she happened to be one of the ponies that did match her sister. ;)

And speaking of cutie marks, the G3 ponies only had them on one hindquarter (which I always found rather disappointing, to be honest).

The earlier G3 releases had magnets in their feet...

...which made them very fun to play with on the fridge or the washing machine. ;)

The earlier releases had heads that were stationary, but the newer G3s had heads that turned.  There was variety throughout these ponies as well.  Most of the standard ponies had small cutie marks, but there were some that had colors on their legs and cutie marks that ran all the way down one leg, called "Cutie Cascade" Ponies (these are the G3s I collect).  There were many other fun variations, too. :)  

If you'd like to see all of the G3 releases, you can browse through them HERE at Strawberry Reef or HERE at Dream Valley.  Just be aware that Dream Valley only covers the G3s up until 2006, so the last three years of releases are missing.

G3.5
"Cheerilee"

In 2009, Hasbro decided to give the My Little Ponies a "new look".  This short-lived attempt only lasted for one year (thankfully) and is referred to as the G3.5 line.  I have to admit, I was not impressed with these ponies.  I didn't care for their giant heads and thought they lost a lot of their appeal.  I actually don't have any of the adult G3.5 ponies since I have absolutely no interest in collecting them, so the only ones I have from this line are the Newborn Cuties.

I have to admit that these ones are pretty cute.  Still, I'm glad Hasbro moved on to bigger and better things.

If you're interested in seeing more of the G3.5 line, you can check them out HERE


G4

When the MLP G3.5 revamp was unsuccessful, I figured we'd seen the last of the little pastel ponies.  But lo and behold, in 2010, Hasbro came up with another redo: My Little Pony Friendship is Magic, or G4. :)

To be perfectly honest, I wasn't sure what I thought about these ponies at first.  They looked rather odd and were very different than the ponies we'd had before.  It wasn't until I got into the TV show (especially Seasons 2 and 3) that I started getting interested in this particular line.

The G4s include unicorn, earth and pegasus ponies, as well as a few alicorns (unicorns with pegasus wings). As a tie-in to the "Equestria Girls" movie, there have also been fashion dolls with pony features, which I've reviewed HERE and HERE.  

I feel like we've covered enough of G4 this past month that I don't need to go into as much detail on these guys. :)  If you're interested in finding out more about them, you can check out all of the releases so far HERE, or you can go to the MLP Friendship is Magic Wiki page HERE. :)

For a complete list of all of my favorite My Little Pony research sites, you can read my earlier post HERE

I thought I'd end this post with my overall thoughts on each of the Generations. 

G1 will always be my favorite generation.  These are the ponies I grew up with as a little girl, and just looking at them brings back all sorts of fun, nostalgic memories of the hours I spent playing with them and arranging them.  I think they have the sweetest faces of all of the generations, and I love the baby ponies and all of the unique variety within the line.

Aside from the G3.5 ponies (which I'm not even going to cover in this overview), :} the G2s are my least favorite.  I don't care for their molds as much.  In fact, when I first saw these ponies, I thought they were a knock-off brand. :}  Their limited release in the US makes them harder to find.  I enjoy them enough to have a few in my collection, but I'm not necessarily going to go out of my way to add others to my shelf.

As far as the ponies themselves (and not the TV shows associated with them), the G3s are my next favorite ponies after the G1s.  I think they come the closest to capturing the charm of the original ponies.  They are well made and come in all sorts of interesting colors and designs.

I do really enjoy the G4s as well.  While their design isn't my favorite out of all the pony releases from the past, they've grown on me. ;)  The clever writing on the show has made this generation all the more endearing.  Plus, the fact that they're currently available and I don't have to take to eBay to find them is fun, too. ;)

Sometime I would like to contrast the TV shows/movies from the different generations, but that's a post that will have to wait for a later time.

I hope this was helpful to you.  I always find it fascinating to see the differences between a toy's lines through the years.  

Now that you've seen them all, which Generation is your favorite?



This officially concludes our Lala-Pony-Palooza Month!  Thank you for making this month so memorable.  Would you like to see another themed month sometime, or do you like it best when I have a variety of posts?  If I were to do another themed month, what sorts of themes would you like to see?


23 comments:

AJ said...

G1! Nothing, to me, will ever compare to the variety of poses, the dual-sided cutie marks and personalities apparent in a G1 pony. I mean, you look at Mimic, her hoof held up proudly and looking slightly cocky. Firefly with her one leg up just had the air of "I'm Firefly and I'm AWESOME!" (Firefly is my girl)

G3.5 was a dark, dark time. I don't like the G2s as much, really love the G3s, but G3.5 is just... no. No no no.

And G4, I love. I think I've made that plain. Once I got over the fact that they look like deer, G4 and I get along just fine.

Hannah Prewett (beastsbelle) said...

Yay, another G1 girl! :) I loved Firefly and Mimic, too, although I never had either. My favorites growing up were Dancing Butterflies (a pony I need to find as I don't have her anymore), Flower Bouquet, and Tux 'n Tails. I still need to find his bow tie...it's in my house somewhere. :} I also love Bow Tie and Applejack (G1).

Lol, I've heard G4 compared to Chihuahuas, too. I think I like your comparison better. ;)

Thanks for stopping by...it was great to have your input this month. :)

Jasmine said...

The G1 ponies look so cute! I've never had a G1 pony, but I'll have to look for one =) That's neat how they have cutie marks on both sides.
G3 ponies are great! My favorite G3 pony is Aloha Pearl. G3.5 is kind of scary O.O ...haha

Long live G4!~ I really love the chibi look of the ponies, and the way they remind me of something in Japanese kawaii. And of course it helps that I love with Friendship is Magic. ;D (which resembles an anime too)

(Let's just hope that they start getting the colors right on the G4 toys. I can still hope for a blue Luna, right?)

Michele said...

I'm a little embarrassed to say this but I was leaving high school for college when those adorable ponies came on the scene! :} But I have enjoyed getting to know them through my daughter who has loved many of them. We have found a few G1 ponies along the way, and they are her favorites too. Even though, she is in her teens now, and doesn't ask for them anymore, I found a G1 unicorn at the Goodwill a couple of weeks ago for .99 cents, I couldn't resist and I was extremely happy when I gave it to her and she was thrilled.

And since we are on the subject of ponies, what do you think of the Lalaloopsy Ponies? They are Target exclusives and are rather adorable. I had seen the LalaOopsy ponies, but did not know they had loopsy ones till this Friday.

Chloe said...

I love how the G1's have two cutie marks and I like the head angle, I just really do not like their eyes. :} But I love the sea ponies and the baby G1's.

I clicked the "Big Brother Ponies" link and there is one that has the same coloring and such as Shining Armor! It reminded me of a photo I saw where it showed how the G4 ponies came to be, like what Lauren Faust had to base them off, it sort of showed how they "evolved".

Loved this month! I hope you do it again!

tt said...

This is really off topic, but apparently somebody on eBay had access to an American Girl GOTY 2014! Doll Diaries has an article up (and yes, her name is Isabelle). Just thought you should know, if you didn't.

Hannah Prewett (beastsbelle) said...

Hi Momo! I hope you find some G1 ponies for your collection. :) I've found a lot of mine at Goodwill, but you can find some of them for great prices on eBay. ;)

P.S. I would love a blue Luna, too! ;)

Hi Michele! I'm so glad you found a pony for your daughter and that she enjoyed it. :) I'm always thrilled when I find a cast-off pony at Goodwill. ;)

I think the Lalaloopsy ponies are really cute. I haven't had a chance to do a review yet, but I know my mom bought some for my girls for Christmas. I'm sure I'll manage to get a review in then. ;)

Hi, OurAGAdventures. :) I recently found an article about the G4 pony character development and found it fascinating! I thought it was really interesting that the ponies were originally all based on G1 ponies!

I'm glad you enjoyed the month. :)

Hi Lousia! My mom actually gave me the heads up about it yesterday. :) She's really cute, although it would have been nice to have a doll with a little more variety instead of another blonde classic mold. :} It will be nice to see a better picture of her. I love her name! :)

Unknown said...

I grew up with the g3, so those are my favorites, and I was disappointed with how much they changes it when g4 came out, but I really like g4 as well.

Hannah Prewett (beastsbelle) said...

It always takes a while to adjust when they change your childhood favorite...I completely understand. ;)

Anonymous said...

I REALLY like the G4 ponies I mean I'm ten so when I was younger it was the G3 ponies that I got and they were cute and all but I have to say the G4 ones are my TOTAL favorites!

Over and out,
Twily

Anonymous said...

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Katrina the Blogger said...

i grew up wiht the g3s

misspiggy=awesome said...

You know, because of the Lala-pony-palooza-posts, the G4 ponies are growing on me! I mostly had G3 and have a few G3.5s from Happy Meals. I was completely unaware of G2- you're right, they do look like knockoffs!

akasailorsea said...

The G2s are my favorite, but they were the ones I grew up with. I had a friend whose older sister would let us play with her old G1s, so I used to be familiar with some of them.

I enjoyed Lala-Pony-Palooza month, it got me to start watching Friendship is Magic. I'm still fairly early in season 1, but I'm enjoying it so far.

Hannah Prewett (beastsbelle) said...

Hi everyone! Thanks for stopping by. :) It's so fun to hear everyone's favorites.

Doll lover 25, I'd love to stop by your blog, but when I click on your name I can't get there. Could you leave me your blog address in the comments? I'd love to stop by and visit. :)

Hee hee, misspiggy=awesome...my evil plot has succeeded! ;) In all seriousness, I'm glad you're getting into the G4s. :)

Akasailorsea, I'm so glad you enjoyed the month and that it got you to try Friendship is Magic. :D As I've mentioned in earlier posts, I especially enjoy Seasons 2 and 3. Season 1 has important backstory and has some really fun episodes, but it has a lot more conflict between the "mane 6" characters than the later episodes. I really like it when they've gotten through most of their issues and have become a strong unit. :) I do love the fact that the ponies have such unique characters, especially after watching the G3 shows with my girls. :}

Anonymous said...

I just realized that I have a G2 pony around here somewhere! I had no idea she was a MLP because she was so tall and slim, but now I'm pretty sure she is one. Now I want to go dig her out of whatever box she's in to investigate! :D

I also have a few G3 ponies someplace around here, too. I like them, but I do think my favorites are G4. I was just kind of neutral on MLP until I started watching Friendship is Magic, and since the G4 ponies correspond with the show, they've really won me over. ;)

Thanks for this fun post! Now, to go find that G2 pony... ;)

--Kate :)

Hannah Prewett (beastsbelle) said...

Lol, I hope you find your G2 pony, Kate. :) Isn't it fun when you discover something like that? ;)

I'm glad you enjoyed the post! :)

Anonymous said...

Okay, so I haven't found my G2 pony yet (I'm pretty sure I know what box she's in, though), but I DID find a picture of her on Strawberry Reef. She's "Tipsy Tulip" and is listed under the orange ponies (though I think I named her "Jewel" or "Diamond" or something like that for her gem-like eyes :D). She has this knob at the base of her tail, and when you turn it, her head turns, too. Interestingly enough, SR lists her as being a European pony, and I know for a fact that my parents didn't get her from Europe (I got her for Christmas when I was about 6-7). They more likely got her from Target or Toys R Us. :D

Thanks again! That was a fun discovery expedition. :)

--Kate :)

Hannah Prewett (beastsbelle) said...

You're welcome, Kate! I'm glad you've been able to discover a little more about your pony.

It sounds like there definitely must have been some European crossovers to the US, since both your pony and mine were European releases. Interesting... ;)

Anonymous said...

I OWN SUNDANCE! well, my mom did, but it's all mine now! Mwa hah hah!
- Anonymous A.

Hannah Prewett (beastsbelle) said...

Sundance is a cutie. Congrats! That was nice of your mom to share her. ;)

Anonymous said...

G1 shall be my fav forever. They weren't the ones I grew up with, but ya know, mom had a few. One i really want is Princess Tiffany. She is so hard to find!
- Anonymous A.

Hannah Prewett (beastsbelle) said...

I remember Princess Tiffany! She was very elegant. :)