G2 gender difference

[Clockwork]

I know the general consensus is that male and female G2s are identical in every way, but I just acquired my first two: Clever Clover and Cupcake. And right away, I noticed a difference. Clover has one row of plugs. Cupcake...has two. I only own these two. Can anyone confirm with other G2s?

Also, Cupcake has a...like...metal dot on her snout. What's it for? Can I cover it? She has bite marks, so I'll be covering those.

EDIT: Also, Cupcake has curlier feathering on her hooves than Clover has. But that might just be her.

[Calico_Star]

I just grabbed a few of my G2s to check. Sky Skimmer and Clover both have only one row of plugs, but Sky Skimmer's hoof feathers had a little more curl to them. But I picked up Tipsy Tulip and her feathering was the same as Clover's. She had two rows of plugs. I think the plug rows must just be random,and the hoof feathers are based on the mold, not the gender

Unless Tulip is a boy and no one told me

[Clockwork]

Awww, bummer. That's really weird that some have one row and others have two... Wonder what the reason is?

[Vintergatan]

Yup, the hair rows in G2's vary :S Quite to my annoyance. My CC had two rows but Ivy has one, and then I found one Ivy that's exactly the same but has 2 rows. How lazy!

We were discussing at some point that it might have something to do with European vs US editions? But I don't remember any conclusion. In any case both my 1r Ivy and 2r Clever Clover are bought in Europe so I guess it doesn't matter.

[ElleJay]

I'm not sure about the differences between male and female G2s, but the dot on Cupcake's nose is a magnet. She used to come with a cake that when her nose touched it got bigger (like, more tiers appeared).

[Chrissytree]

There are a few that come in two versions one with one plug and the other with two. I can't remember how many but it's the earliest ones.

[Astralwing]

Wait, so G2s vary between one and two rows of hair plugs? A couple of my ponies have one line, and all this time I thought it was a factory defect! Shame, though, because I really prefer the ones with full hair.

[LadyMoondancer]

I am pretty sure all the earliest released US G2s come in the one-row-of-hair / two-row-of-hair variations.  I don't think it was a US vs. Europe thing.  More likely something Hasbro changed over time.

[Bag of Magic Food]

I'm not sure about the differences between male and female G2s, but the dot on Cupcake's nose is a magnet. She used to come with a cake that when her nose touched it got bigger (like, more tiers appeared).

Wow, they had nose magnets?  I had only heard about G3's hoof magnets, and I had wondered where the magnets all started.

[LadyMoondancer]

Some G2s had nose magnets, but not all.  It depended on if a pony had a particular magnet-based accessory.  I think Cupcake's gimmick was that she had a cake she could magically make "grow" into a multi-tier cake.  IIRC, there was also a pony who had birds you could stick on her face. 

[MANIMAL!]

The first year G2s were released they were manufactured by Kenner, who was owned by Hasbro or something. When Kenner tanked, Hasbro went back to two rows of hair. This is unless I remember incorrectly.

[Clockwork]

Ohhh, really? I have some old Care Bears poseables by Kenner! o:

[rtattles]

The first year G2s were released they were manufactured by Kenner, who was owned by Hasbro or something. When Kenner tanked, Hasbro went back to two rows of hair. This is unless I remember incorrectly.

I don't think Kenner ever tanked since it was bought out by Hasbro. Describing them as being fully absorbed or integrated is probably more accurate. Hasbro did that to get dibs on some of the brands Kenner had access to like Littlest Petshop and Care Bears, but Care Bears weren't Kenner's core creations, so eventualy lost rights to produce them. I guess Kenner was having a bit of trouble, and Hasbro was more than happy to buy out a competitor with some significant brands they can leverage on.



I think there was some politics involved during the takeover, and Hasbro assigned Kenner a low priority brand to keep the Kenner staff busy, and of course they weren't too happy about it, and completely screwed Hasbro over, hence why G2 look the way they look. lol Of course, the ponies found fans over the years, but I do think in the initial years, they were quite clearly hated for being MLPs. If I recalled properly I think I heard from some Hasbro staff that by the end of 1998, most of the Kenner staff who worked on MLP left the company... so oh well I guess that was why the MLPs were cancelled in 1998 in the USA under the excuse that Hasbro had to cancel the G2s due to extreme unpopularity. Probably an ugly blemish in Hasbro history that they never want to remember or talk about ever again (lol), probably also why Hasbro had conveniently left out the G2s out of the MLP Timeline in 2008 when they were presenting the history of MLP for their 25th Anniversary at the MLP Fair. One lady claimed it was an oversight on their part but I personally think it's more than meets the eye!



Anyway I was all there when the G2s first came out. They were slated for an early1998 release, but were already available by mid 1997. The first batch of releases all had 1 row of hair, the 2 rows of hair only kicked in about 2-3 months down the road, so I guess you can say it's a batch difference. I would definitely say the 1 row haired G2s are the earliest poineer batch of ponies.



As for Cupcake having a magnet is because she was meant to be a gimmicky pony. The G2s had 4 distinct catergories when they first came out.



-  Secret Surprise Friends - these are our "single" normal ponies, and they just come with small accessory pieces to fit their character. The ponies are plain and do nada except turning their heads, but their cool accessories more than make-up for it.



- Magic Motion Ponies - gimmicky mini playset ponies. They come with larger pieces of accesories almost equivalent to a mini playset, and the ponies have an action figure selling point to them, so they all can do some kind of "action" trick. Like swishing their tails, kicking their leg or magnets that "pick" things up or perform "magic".



- Themed mini playset ponies - These are actual smaller playsets like Light Heart with bed, Ivy's Pretty Parlour and Dainty Dove with wedding chapel. They normally open to play a scene and pack up to be sort of a clever carry case for 1 pony.



- Large playsets - heavy weight stuff like castles or the forest playset...etc

[hathorcat]

Everytime I read more about G2s I just love them a bit more!!!

A magically growing cake? Awesome!!!