Has Hasbro ever officially used the term G3.5?

[Ragamuffin]

I feel like I remember someone from Hasbro (or maybe someone involved with FiM?) using the term "G4"/"G5" a while ago? maybe in the leaked G5 stuff? but I don't recall them ever referring to the other gens by name. Officially they've always just been "My Little Pony".

Yes!! I was going to say that earlier but I wanted to provide evidence but couldn't find it. I remember it was from the slideshow presentation, and I think they might've even brought up "G3.5".

[TheBeatlesPkmnFan42]

I've never understood the whole G3.5 thing....Why .5? Because they have big heads? Why weren't they just G4? Because they had some of the same characters? Heck, G4 still has Applejack, so does that make them technically G1.4? G3 reused characters too, so it's obvious that doesn't influence the naming.

I legit don't understand. It just makes no sense no matter how I look at it.

I remember looking through the Arena archives a few times and found stuff from when G3.5 came out where someone from Hasbro said themselves that it wasn't a new generation, I think?

I found people talking about it here, haven't found the thread it originated from though. Navigating the archives is a bit tough haha.

http://www.mlparena.com/archive/Forums/viewtopic/t=212729.html

[Ragamuffin]

Found it!

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This site compiled everything from the leaks all together. If you want to avoid spoilers on anything the original post has things hidden. Ctrl+F and go down to "Презентация 5-го поколения" for the full slideshow.

They use the term "G5" in another graphic as well, so they are using the "generation" terminology.

... but this is also supposed to be internal information. That we weren't meant to see. So maybe that muddies your definition of "officially".

[LadyMoondancer]

Okay, I must eat my words because it turns out Hasbro DID use the term "Generation 3" on something official at least once, in this timeline:

https://mylittlepony.hasbro.com/en-us/parents

^  Go to the page, search (or scroll down) for "History", and click "Explore the Timeline" to see the timeline.  They don't refer to G1, G2, G3.5 (which isn't on the timeline at all), or G4, but it does say:

"2003 - Relaunch of brand with Generation 3 Ponies"

Edit:  Oh, that leaked graphic is really interesting!

[Loreofyore]

IIRC there was a debate at the time if it should be "G3.5" or "G4" and it was only -really- settled when G4 came around? but yeah, basically what LadyM said. Different style but too similar to G3 to properly be seen as an entirely seperate generaton.

I feel like I remember someone from Hasbro (or maybe someone involved with FiM?) using the term "G4"/"G5" a while ago? maybe in the leaked G5 stuff? but I don't recall them ever referring to the other gens by name. Officially they've always just been "My Little Pony".

I wasn't ever privy to insider Hasbro stuff but I remember some conversation here. If I am recalling correctly I think the whole pro-'call it G3.5' thing was basically about it being the same pony characters as in G3 only younger and with mommies this time, bubble shaped heads reflecting their youth, & more juvenile series. And yeah, some people were for calling it G4 because of the design change and the new series. So for a while FIM was G5. And yet on ebay I have noticed that a lot of people STILL just list G3.5 as G3 ponies. It was a brief lived and confusing transition and sometimes I believe that it was just to get consumers used to the more rounded heads for FIM.
Over the years, as is obvious, MLP has more importantly had less and less of a snout, and of course there wasn't much of one to begin with... Equestria Girls were of course the shortest of these, (seem to never consider counting that as one of the gens for whatever reasons besides it being the most drastic design change Hasbro has ever put MLP through), but any smaller sniffer and the nose on the pony is just going to be a dot folks... I have to wonder how we'd react to dots to breathe through?

[Carrehz]

Ragamuffin - yesssss that's it!! I knew I'd seen something like that before!
Loreofyore - haha the "shouldn't EQG count as G4.5??" argument seems to come up a lot in threads like this, actually...

Personally I think it only counts as a new generation (or half a gen - I consider the reboot G4 ponies to be G4.5, I know not everyone does though) if it completely and totally replaces the previous gen. Saying EQG should be G4.5 is silly since they were a companion to the main G4 line; it'd be like saying G3 Ponyvilles should be considered their own gen, or G1 Sweetheart Sisters should be G1.5, etc etc. At least in my opinion, heh.

[Sparkle Pony]

Found it!

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This site compiled everything from the leaks all together. If you want to avoid spoilers on anything the original post has things hidden. Ctrl+F and go down to "Презентация 5-го поколения" for the full slideshow.

They use the term "G5" in another graphic as well, so they are using the "generation" terminology.

... but this is also supposed to be internal information. That we weren't meant to see. So maybe that muddies your definition of "officially".

Ah, this is what I remember seeing it on!  Thanks!  I suppose since it is an internal document it isn't "official" by some definitions, but I still find it fascinating that Hasbro picked up those terms from fans and used it themselves.

[Wardah]

No, Hasbro has never used G3, G3.5, or any of the Gx names for MLP, they are only used by fans. 

The G1 / G2 etc terms were cribbed from the Transformers fandom.  In the early 90s Hasbro had a line of toys labeled "Transformers: Generation 2".  The idea being to convince Radical 90s Kids that these Transformers were somehow better than previous Transformers, because they were new.  (Even though all the Generation 2 Transformers were literally the same TF molds as before, just with gaudier colors and cheaper plastic.)

Anyway, since Hasbro called those toys "Generation 2", Transformers fans then retroactively called the earlier Transformers "Generation 1".

So anyway, in 1997 Hasbro made a new generation of ponies.  Pony collectors called them "the new ponies" or "the '97 ponies" (because they were first sold in 1997) while G1 ponies were called "the old ponies" or "80s ponies."

Then in 2003 a new set of ponies came along.  Everyone debated what to call them because if G2 ponies were "the new ponies" then what were these new ponies . . . "the new-new ponies"?  Confusing!  So pony fans started using G1 / G2 / G3.

That was interesting, thanks!

I wonder, was G2 ever presented at the NY Toy Fair? Or did it just pop up in stores, out of the blue? I would be fun to see some of Hasbro's promo works announcing G2, if it exists. I know of the four petite pony versions of G2 characters, but other than that, I don't remember anything about the launch of the second gen.

They probably showed up at Toy Fair but back then there wasn't much media presence like there is today. Toy Fair was mostly a retailers only event. From what I have heard people didn't know what was coming out until it appeared in stores or if they were really lucky maybe in a wishbook.

[Taffeta]

Personally I think it only counts as a new generation... if it completely and totally replaces the previous gen. Saying EQG should be G4.5 is silly since they were a companion to the main G4 line; it'd be like saying G3 Ponyvilles should be considered their own gen, or G1 Sweetheart Sisters should be G1.5, etc etc. At least in my opinion, heh.

I agree with this. The thing is that EQG has to be considered part of G4 because it begins in Equestria with Twilight Sparkle in the G4 realm, and goes back to that theme even as recently as the rebooted episodes with Sunset Shimmer going back through the mirror. Since the core of G4 is not the toy style/line but the animation, then the world is essentially the same one and thus they're the same. It would be exactly as Carrehz said, just segregating them on species is a bit strange. We don't call Cutesaurus etc G1.5 because they're not pony but part of the pony line. And timeline wise EQG fit in with G4, just as the pony friends do, and Megan, and Molly, and ultimately different shapes like SHS, but also mermaids, sea ponies, and so on.

A new generation is a whole new world to me as well. There can be some overlap names or characters but the key for me is that it's mostly new - different toys, characters, designs, world, concept, and also logos and artwork styles. All those things make a new generation.

The leaked material wasn't leaked from Hasbro I don't believe, it was a secondary company involved in the animation, or am I wrong about that? So that table is not Hasbro but a linked organisation.

Hasbro referring now to older G terms on their website is interesting but I think it's still a post-G4 symptom, in that they now care about what their adult audiences think more than they did when they marketed those old lines. It's all part of building the brand now in a different way from how it was before. Although there have been closer links in the US with the community and Hasbro through the old Pony Fair so who knows.

As for the old idea of gaps between generations, such things are determined and always have been on the dates and systems used in the US because MLP is a US toy originally. Annoying as that can be to work with, at the time it was put forward it made some form of sense. There were 5 years between G1 and G2 in the US and then a similar gap of time between G2 and G3 I think? It only started getting messy when Ponyville stuff happened.

I'm keeping in reserve the G4.5 label, honestly, because for me if the reboot (if there is one) is recycling G4, it's 4.5 and not 5. Even if Hasbro were to sell it as G5, I won't recognise it as Generation 5 unless it meets the criteria Carrehz mentioned. And I think that's also the issue that existed with 3.5. It wasn't new enough to be a new generation, but it was different enough not to be the previous one.

All the leaked material so far suggests this future "g5" fits that precedent.

[Leave a Whisper]

Found it!

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This site compiled everything from the leaks all together. If you want to avoid spoilers on anything the original post has things hidden. Ctrl+F and go down to "Презентация 5-го поколения" for the full slideshow.

They use the term "G5" in another graphic as well, so they are using the "generation" terminology.

... but this is also supposed to be internal information. That we weren't meant to see. So maybe that muddies your definition of "officially".

Pity they haven't bothered to update the animation part since 3.5 onward.

Okay, I must eat my words because it turns out Hasbro DID use the term "Generation 3" on something official at least once, in this timeline:

https://mylittlepony.hasbro.com/en-us/parents

^  Go to the page, search (or scroll down) for "History", and click "Explore the Timeline" to see the timeline.  They don't refer to G1, G2, G3.5 (which isn't on the timeline at all), or G4, but it does say:

"2003 - Relaunch of brand with Generation 3 Ponies"

Edit:  Oh, that leaked graphic is really interesting!

Huh. Interesting. 

[Loreofyore]

Personally I think it only counts as a new generation... if it completely and totally replaces the previous gen. Saying EQG should be G4.5 is silly since they were a companion to the main G4 line; it'd be like saying G3 Ponyvilles should be considered their own gen, or G1 Sweetheart Sisters should be G1.5, etc etc. At least in my opinion, heh.

I agree with this. The thing is that EQG has to be considered part of G4 because it begins in Equestria with Twilight Sparkle in the G4 realm, and goes back to that theme even as recently as the rebooted episodes with Sunset Shimmer going back through the mirror. Since the core of G4 is not the toy style/line but the animation, then the world is essentially the same one and thus they're the same. It would be exactly as Carrehz said, just segregating them on species is a bit strange. We don't call Cutesaurus etc G1.5 because they're not pony but part of the pony line. And timeline wise EQG fit in with G4, just as the pony friends do, and Megan, and Molly, and ultimately different shapes like SHS, but also mermaids, sea ponies, and so on.

A new generation is a whole new world to me as well. There can be some overlap names or characters but the key for me is that it's mostly new - different toys, characters, designs, world, concept, and also logos and artwork styles. All those things make a new generation.

The leaked material wasn't leaked from Hasbro I don't believe, it was a secondary company involved in the animation, or am I wrong about that? So that table is not Hasbro but a linked organisation.

Hasbro referring now to older G terms on their website is interesting but I think it's still a post-G4 symptom, in that they now care about what their adult audiences think more than they did when they marketed those old lines. It's all part of building the brand now in a different way from how it was before. Although there have been closer links in the US with the community and Hasbro through the old Pony Fair so who knows.

As for the old idea of gaps between generations, such things are determined and always have been on the dates and systems used in the US because MLP is a US toy originally. Annoying as that can be to work with, at the time it was put forward it made some form of sense. There were 5 years between G1 and G2 in the US and then a similar gap of time between G2 and G3 I think? It only started getting messy when Ponyville stuff happened.

I'm keeping in reserve the G4.5 label, honestly, because for me if the reboot (if there is one) is recycling G4, it's 4.5 and not 5. Even if Hasbro were to sell it as G5, I won't recognise it as Generation 5 unless it meets the criteria Carrehz mentioned. And I think that's also the issue that existed with 3.5. It wasn't new enough to be a new generation, but it was different enough not to be the previous one.

All the leaked material so far suggests this future "g5" fits that precedent.

I'm afraid I don't understand the pony design logic you are using. I only ever remember G1 dolls being humans... in the supposedly real world G1 Megan is fetched from, ponies can't talk so humans... (like every last one of us in the real world) is logically one species of primate. It's only a toy design change in the species that repeat so if humans are equines that is new and something different than bovine centaurs of G1... I think unless Megan repeats in EQG or there is a G1 story or comic I didn't read. Did they bring Megan into EQG? Puzzled now... Honestly, I think that logic creates worse chance of confusion than before especially if we count transformation within different episodes of the same series, such as when a gargoyle-like Scorpan becomes a prince.
Okay...
Just reread and am still confused though... what if they do revamp for fans of EQG but bring back all gen versions of Spike as room-mates and alternates of himself? With a cartoon so much blending is possible but when we have a toy we only have to figure out gens again when new releases leave the factories... we don't seem to widely consider retro ponies a new gen so it doesn't go quite chronologically... but it'd be hard in that case to figure out if G3 spike is now G7 spike someday...
Actually that would have to be G1 spike unless they give us a retro G3 spike toy... I am really starting to get confused!

[Carrehz]

Loreofyore - Honestly I'm kinda confused by most of your post (I thought my/Taff's posts were pretty straightforward) but Megan did get a cameo in one of the recent EQG things (dunno which):

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(screenshot borrowed from this thread)

(edited to fix grammatical error >.<)

[Loreofyore]

Loreofyore - Honestly I'm kinda confused by most of your post (I thought my/Taff's posts was pretty straightforward) but Megan did get a cameo in one of the recent EQG things (dunno which):

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(screenshot borrowed from this thread)

Whoa! There she is!

[Taffeta]

Loreofyore - Honestly I'm kinda confused by most of your post (I thought my/Taff's posts was pretty straightforward) but Megan did get a cameo in one of the recent EQG things (dunno which):

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(screenshot borrowed from this thread)

I think it's in the Rollercoaster of Friendship. I have this feeling she appears twice, though I don't know why I think that way...she certainly appears once. But it's just a random easter egg moment.

I also don't really understand the problem. In any case, the fact that Twilight Sparkle follows Sunset Shimmer through the mirror from Equestria into Canterlot High irrevocably connects G4 to EQG. And even though EQG has gone through some reboots in the toy terms, the most recent episodes (based around this reboot, given the outfits), also have this connection. Sunset Shimmer goes back to Equestria when she's trying to figure out why nobody can remember her, and goes back into being a pony. Meantime, events that happened in FIM between when Twilight first went to Canterlot High and this episode have still clearly been taking place, making them parallel continuities.

I don't think horses can speak in EQG either, in the human world, so I'd say going through the mirror is the G4 equivalent of going over the rainbow, albeit with some genetic alteration along the way (it is the 21st century!). It's more a parallel world kind of thing? But although in the first episode Spike goes with Twilight to Canterlot High (thus can speak), SciTwi's dog Spike can't speak until exposed to all the magicky stuff going on around Canterlot High.

There's also cross-references as there's a scene in that Sunset Shimmer ep I think where Luna(pony) comes out with something really long and complicated, and then Sunset comments that she's more used to hearing Luna (human) telling students not to park in the staff lot.

So yeah, I don't get the confusion either. EQG is a spinoff of FIM. Nothing else makes sense.

And the points we made before still stand. Other species of non-pony in G1 aren't 1.5 and nor are Megan and Molly. I am not really sure why Megan being in EQG matters, tbh, because it's just a random inclusion and it's not G1 - but anyhow...

[Leave a Whisper]

Loreofyore - Honestly I'm kinda confused by most of your post (I thought my/Taff's posts was pretty straightforward) but Megan did get a cameo in one of the recent EQG things (dunno which):

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(screenshot borrowed from this thread)

She looks awfully jaundiced.