People seem to dislike the Gen directly before the current one.

[Silver_mirror46]

the G3 ponies were actually quite popular, compared to the G2 ponies who were even described as mules or pubescent ponies back then (tho I personally adore them), the G3s brought back the cute faces and chubby bodies that we missed from G1 plus longer manes and other things

I agree that it's the G4 fans and those who didn't get to know the older gens like us dislike them so much, though the G3 line did drop horribly on its last years... shame, the first three years and some of the Crystal Princess line were truly dazzling... I miss them


the core seven line was a disaster, I remember how many of us were disappointed by the whole "no new ponies" business and the re-design of G3s into big chibilike ponies... brrr

For me it seems to be the opposite, the more popular G4s get, the more I am interested in completing my G3. Just because I am discovering how truely beautiful and creative their designs were in the beginning. G4, I don't know, they look cute from certain angles, but they are so tiny, the styling ones are too big, and so far most of their designs are boring, nothing special. I love the new male ponies though, because they do look different with their new hairstyle.

I totally agree, the G4 ponies are very charming... but boring. The ponies themselves, except for the main characters who have these amazing color schemes and designs, don't really differ from each other, of course this too is because the line is fairly new and perhaps soon I will find a character that I find more ehh memorable


But I was picking a few for a wishlist and couldn't fall in love with many as much as I did with the G3s plus I HATE the regular pony size, too small compared to the other ponies and that includes G2s who are already pretty small. I guess I'll end up buying the styling versions of my favorites and complete my older ponies' sets


Oh well, at least I'm glad that we have  more male characters, that's one thing we begged Hasbro to give us and they didn't


it's not all black and white though, the G4 cartoon I think is a huge step for girly animation and it's characters are far more interesting, memorable and inspiring than most of the G3s, as much as I love the "darling" on the old RD the new one has a much deeper character development (marketing I guess, we collectors are never completely satisfied lol)

[RAMChYLD]

People don't like G3 because the cartoons sucked. So, it's just the cartoons, not the toys.

Different strokes for different folks. In fact, my love for the ponies hit full-force because of Tales and was rekindled by G3. G4... I love the toys, but I don't want to talk about the TV show.

I don't think G3s are unpopular, just easy to come by.  There were a lot more adult collectors by the G3 era than there were when G1 and G2 were around so there are more mint condition G3 ponies around too.  I doubt G3s will ever be as valuable as their predecessors, but that doesn't mean people don't love and collect them...just that most of them were excessively mass produced so there are far too many of them still floating around out there at the moment!

Well, G3.5s are still pretty common, but you'll be hard pressed to find a G3 today. They're just that hard to find new in box on store shelves now, at least over here.
 

The cartoons were aimed at very young children. There was even one on learning how to count.
They didn't really suck all that much (just check other cartoons aimed at that target group). The problem is just that for some reason people think these toons should entertain a bunch of teenagers and adults.

THANK YOU!  Someone else understands!  The animation in some of the later G3 webisodes was a bit lazy, I admit, the stories were simple but still entertaining (and sometimes educational) to the young audience they were aimed at.  The voice acting in G3 was just as good as in FiM (half the cast are the very same people, for goodness sake!), and yet just because it's "childish and girly" (uh, hello?!  It's a cartoon aimed at young female children...) people will write it off as being "rubbish" or "made by amateurs".

I'm sorry some adults are not entertained by a pre-school cartoon.  How terrible of everyone involved in its production not to think of an audience they never expected to be watching it in the first place!  Let's wish death on them and attack them with pitchforks! >.<

I'm with both of you. Well said Malicieuse and Lancer. Well said.

[LadyMoondancer]

As much as I like the G3 toys--second best generation, IMO, in terms of toys--I did think the shows were really lacking.  Yeah, they were aimed at very small children, but . . . so is Sesame Street, and they have some personality conflicts.  At least they did when I was a kid.  I felt they were underestimating the capacities of even very young children.


"A Very Minty Christmas" was very well-done, though.  That was definitely the best of G3.  Great songs, too.


Anyway, getting back on point, I think some newer fans who became interested in MLP because of the G4 show don't really get that for a lot of MLP collectors the toys are sort of "separate" from the cartoons in terms of collecting.  The Newborn Cutie flash animations were roundly awful, but that doesn't matter if you happen to like the Newborn Cutie toys.   They aren't intrinsically linked in my mind;  you can like one but not the other.