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Author Topic: Generational names  (Read 970 times)

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Offline Mana Minori

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Generational names
« on: September 20, 2020, 09:30:04 AM »
This has been something that I have pondered for a while- every generation thus far has had a name tagged to it, except for g2 because it never received an animation, and g3 not having one just seems a bit odd to me. Or maybe I’m just not aware that it does have one?

For example:
G1- My Little Pony/ MLP & Friends/ My Little Pony Tales
G2- none
G3- My Little Pony
G4- MLP Friendship is Magic/ Pony Life

What additional titles would you give to gen 2 and gen 3 to allow them their own identifying names?
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Offline Taffeta

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Re: Generational names
« Reply #1 on: September 20, 2020, 09:35:37 AM »
So I see where you are coming from but I don't think you're right with the tags...

The G-terms were things introduced by the collectors (ie us, on forums like here, not Hasbro or anyone official) to denote pony toy lines up to G4, inclusive, not television media (which was peripheral or nonexistent in most cases) The idea of the tv show being involved is a bit of an anachronism.

We already gave them their own 'identifying name' in a sense in 2003, when we started calling them G1, G2 and G3 ;) Up till then with G1 and G2 it was just 'old ponies' and 'new ponies'.

G1-3 are toy-defined with supplementary media such as tv specials in some cases.
G4 is tv show defined with supplementary toy and franchise releases.

Each generation has it's own location name(s), sure...
G1 - Dream Valley (US mostly/animation), Ponyland
G2 - Friendship Gardens
G3 - Ponyville
G4 - Equestria

I think that's as much as you can say about that.

G1 is also not just one tv series, it's a bunch of specials, a movie, MLP & Friends and MLP Tales. The only thing those have in common is that the pony toys that each one advertises use the same moulds. Which also underscores toy-line dominant.

As a kid growing up with G1 the idea of defining it by MLP&Friends honestly would not have even registered. I had only a passing knowledge of the tv series anyway, and it seemed full of what I thought were mistakes (regional differences) so I mostly ignored it.

« Last Edit: September 20, 2020, 09:41:01 AM by Taffeta »
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Offline lovesbabysquirmy

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Re: Generational names
« Reply #2 on: September 20, 2020, 10:01:03 AM »
fans call it "generation".  fan term.  the company had to adopt it to communicate with fans, but they didn't create it.

Hasbro probably refers internally to those time periods by the names of whoever was in charge of the department, "that was back during Dave Days".  Or more likely, it never comes up in conversation.  they would probably call G2 "Kenners" because that is who designed them for Hasbro.

but I am just fine with G1/2/3/4/5, I never really watched the show and could really care less if it had an animated component to it. 
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Offline Mana Minori

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Re: Generational names
« Reply #3 on: September 20, 2020, 10:20:41 AM »
So I see where you are coming from but I don't think you're right with the tags...

The G-terms were things introduced by the collectors (ie us, on forums like here, not Hasbro or anyone official) to denote pony toy lines up to G4, inclusive, not television media (which was peripheral or nonexistent in most cases) The idea of the tv show being involved is a bit of an anachronism.

We already gave them their own 'identifying name' in a sense in 2003, when we started calling them G1, G2 and G3 ;) Up till then with G1 and G2 it was just 'old ponies' and 'new ponies'.

G1-3 are toy-defined with supplementary media such as tv specials in some cases.
G4 is tv show defined with supplementary toy and franchise releases.

Each generation has it's own location name(s), sure...
G1 - Dream Valley (US mostly/animation), Ponyland
G2 - Friendship Gardens
G3 - Ponyville
G4 - Equestria

I think that's as much as you can say about that.

G1 is also not just one tv series, it's a bunch of specials, a movie, MLP & Friends and MLP Tales. The only thing those have in common is that the pony toys that each one advertises use the same moulds. Which also underscores toy-line dominant.

As a kid growing up with G1 the idea of defining it by MLP&Friends honestly would not have even registered. I had only a passing knowledge of the tv series anyway, and it seemed full of what I thought were mistakes (regional differences) so I mostly ignored it.
i didn’t intend to ruffle any feathers. I actually thank you for reminding me that the g’s were coined by collectors and that Hasbro only recently started using the term themselves, as I do at times forget. I actually was explaining that to someone on another board a Few days ago. I apologize if I have the memory of a Goldfish. XD  i know it makes more sense for the toyline to be classified and named by the toys that made it, obviously by the people who collect them, yeah, so a topic like this wouldn’t make much sense now that I think about it (I apologize again if I don’t always think that far ahead) XD
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Offline LadyMoondancer

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Re: Generational names
« Reply #4 on: September 20, 2020, 10:31:55 AM »
That time that Hasbro sued Simba (the brand, not the lion) over pony toys, Hasbro referred to each generation by where the fictional ponies were located.  (Dream Valley ponies, Friendship Gardens ponies, etc.)

However pony fans adopted the G1 etc terms because they're short and sweet. :)

I do wonder if the Gx labeling will eventually be replaced by descriptive names, if Hasbro continues having shows with taglines with each gen (FIM, Pony Life).  Like the way the latest Transformers shows are called "Siege" and "Cyberverse" not . . . G22, or whatever gen they would be at this point.  I guess it's a little different with TF though, since they often have multiple series running at the same time with completely different universes and casts.  (Rescue Bots Academy versus Cyberverse, for example.)  I just feel at some point it'll be easier to remember the tagline names rather than "which MLPs were G7, again?"

Edit:  Probably depends how long future pony gens run.  G4 ran for a long time--9 years or so?.  But if we got a bunch of two-year long gens in a row, that's when I could see it getting confusing.  Transformers does often have two- or three-year runs, I guess we'll see if it ever starts happening with MLP.

*puts on history glasses*  Technically Hasbro did create the G2 term--but not for ponies!  They made a set of Transformers called "Generation 2", to show kids how NEW and EXCITING!!! their new products were.  (Even though a bunch of them were just recolors, but that's marketing for you.)

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With Hasbro calling these new TFs "Generation 2", Transformers fans started calling the previous run of TFs "Generation 1".  MLP fans borrowed the Gx system from Transformers when the 2003 ponies (G3) debuted, because simply calling the toys "old ponies" (G1) and "new ponies" (G2) was no longer sufficient.
« Last Edit: September 20, 2020, 10:37:13 AM by LadyMoondancer »
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Re: Generational names
« Reply #5 on: September 20, 2020, 10:42:10 AM »
With Hasbro calling these new TFs "Generation 2", Transformers fans started calling the previous run of TFs "Generation 1".  MLP fans borrowed the Gx system from Transformers when the 2003 ponies (G3) debuted, because simply calling the toys "old ponies" (G1) and "new ponies" (G2) was no longer sufficient.

aha. I wondered about this! I knew it wasn't completely pony specific.
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Re: Generational names
« Reply #6 on: September 20, 2020, 10:44:05 AM »
I think Pokemon fans adopted it too, because sometimes I've searching blog tags for "G1" or "G2" and Pokemon come up!  Although they also use the names of the games or the regions (Sinnoh region, Hoenn region, etc).  The regions are really confusing for me, the only ones I can remember without looking them up are Kanto, Alola, and Galar.

Off topic, but instead of saying "Ash x Misty" for shipping, PokeFans are like:  "Pokeshipping!  And that other ship is Amourshipping!  And that ship is BlueAngelShipping!  And that other ship is LuckShipping!"

Urrrgh, just write "Dawn x Ash" or whatever!

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« Last Edit: September 20, 2020, 11:04:38 AM by LadyMoondancer »
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Offline Taffeta

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Re: Generational names
« Reply #7 on: September 20, 2020, 11:17:21 AM »
@ManaMinori - at least in my case, you didn't ruffle any feathers, I just wanted to clarify :) Sorry if you thought otherwise.

NOw if you had suggested Tales was G2 I would be there with the pitchforks ;)


Yeah, I remember the G names were inspired by what the TF community did. It also influenced MH's reboot, they get talked about as G1 and G2 now as well. But for Pony I think it was just..well...we can't say old ponies, new ponies and even newer ponies. We need something else...

But then it got fine tuned for 3.5 and then 4 happened, and hence all the discussion about whether PL is 4.5 or if it's the movie reboot that's 4.5...and so on. We didn't have those layers of detail to look at G1 and G2 when G3 came out...so there was never any kind of attempt to separate them (and to do so now would be odd)

Edit: I have a vague thought that maybe for a while G1 were referred to as DV ponies...but I may have imagined that. I just remember them most as 'old ponies' and 'new ponies' till 2003. If you rootle around in archive material you can sometimes still find discussions about them in those terms, prior to 2003. I stumbled onto some old newsgroup discussions a year or two back where that was the case.

LM - this is way off topic, but no word of a lie, there is an actual war in the Daiya fandom about whether to call Miyuki x Sawamura Misawa or Miyusawa. I kid you not...
« Last Edit: September 20, 2020, 11:33:42 AM by Taffeta »
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Re: Generational names
« Reply #8 on: September 20, 2020, 04:49:09 PM »
That time that Hasbro sued Simba (the brand, not the lion)
:silly:

isn't the concept of a "generation" kind of different for TFs anyway? I've seen multiple TF things marked as "gen one" for example... it's confusing! But I suppose they do have multiple lines running at the same time.

Oh my god don't even get me started on how insane Pokemon ship names are. I feel like it had to have been one of those things that made sense at the beginning, when there weren't so many recurring characters, and then... got out of hand...

From what I've seen, Pokemon fans seem to prefer "Gen x" rather than "Gx". So gen one, gen two, etc. I mean, we use that too, but less than they do?

I wonder which fan first suggested borrowing the "generation" term from the TF fandom.
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Offline Taffeta

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Re: Generational names
« Reply #9 on: September 20, 2020, 04:53:10 PM »
I have suspicion it may have been LM but I'm sure she'll put me right if I'm wrong...>.>
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Offline LadyMoondancer

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Re: Generational names
« Reply #10 on: September 20, 2020, 05:27:35 PM »
Yes, I suggested it on MLP Trading Post when we were all discussing it.  :frolic:  I felt like using locations ("Friendship Gardens ponies", "Ponyville ponies", etc) would take up too much space in the thread titles.

I tried to find the thread but unfortunately the current MLPTP only goes back to 2005.  And sadly the previous iteration of the TP has finally gone to its grave.  (What a shame, so much pony history lost.)  But anyway, I think I was the first one to suggest it.  I was already collecting Transformers at the time.

Carrehz, you're so right about the Transformers concept of G1 being more nebulous.  Like the IDW comics are considered "G1" and they aren't from the 80s, AND have a bunch of new characters, AND some older characters have new backstories . . . It's all very tangled. :lol:
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Re: Generational names
« Reply #11 on: September 20, 2020, 05:32:59 PM »
I don't know if anyone else mentioned it, but I do remember you talking about it and how TF did G2 so why didn't we. :)
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