Are there any positive aspects to appreciate from g4?

[Shaz]

@Taffeta, this thread has turned into a therapeutic rant about our schooldays and why it made us hate friendship-preaching! I agree that Crunch the Rock Dog does a much better job of showing that it's okay to be different.
I'll put this in a spoiler because it's not on topic but it's doing me good getting it off my chest .

Spoiler

Your school experience sounds all too familiar. My girlfriend and I were both the bright but troubled kids at school, that's how we became friends (we met when we were fifteen). We always got good grades but we were bored out of our minds, stressed out by social demands, skipping school, visiting therapists etc, so no one really knew what to make of us. Intellectually we were ahead, emotionally we were pretty backward. Kitti eventually got diagnosed with autism when she was eighteen, I've never been officially diagnosed but I think it's pretty obvious that I have it too. My dad is undiagnosed dyslexic and had a tough time at school too, so we're all on the spectrum here!
Kitti has always had Mad Writing Skillz, she was writing awesome children's stories from the age of three or four (I've seen them, some have ponies in!), and one of the other parents once accused her mum of getting her to copy stories out at home . Yeah, good luck getting 4-year-old Kitti to do anything she doesn't want to do. There was also the ongoing saga of the English teacher who thought she was plagiarising poetry from an unknown source. In retrospect, you have to laugh.
So I do get pretty impatient with things like FiM. It's interesting that a lot of your autistic students liked it. I have seen it hailed as a guide to friendship, but I'm not sure it's one I'd want to follow....

Oh, another thing I like about G4, though: the Equestria Girls designs and outfits (especially in Rainbow Rocks), the cute if sometimes goofy-looking Equestria Girls dolls (one of my first doll purchases as an adult was Rainbow Rocks Rainbow Dash with the amazing mohican hairstyle!), and some of the songs (especially the ones in Rainbow Rocks). You'll notice a Rainbow Rocks theme here . It's pretty much the only G4 media I could imagine rewatching. I'm a sucker for storylines about bands (I really need to watch Jem!).
There's a lot of good toys in G4, really, but I think I'd like the whole generation more without the cartoon.
Saying that, there's a fandom thing I really like from G4: Round Trip's stick pony videos! I watched his summaries of the last season rather than the actual cartoon, they always got a giggle from me. Twinkle Sprinkle!

[Taffeta]

You should watch Jem. I am interested given that we've got so much past experience in common to see whether you end up being a Hologram or a Misfit

But for comparison with Rainbow Rocks, you only need maybe the first episode...? Or the Truly Outrageous special (it was on Netflix but I can't remember if it still is or how it's divided. What happened was that they released a feature length pilot, which is known as Truly Outrageous, then when it became a series they took that pilot, divided it into five episodes and added scenes to make the first five episodes of Jem.) But if it's episodes, it should be the first one given that the scene in question is when Jem and co perform Only the Beginning for the first time. And that's their first song, pretty sure...

Edit: Or you can just watch this, I guess xD
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6NBQeGQWXk

The end of RR seems to mirror this quite well.

On topic, I agree about EqG and it was Rainbow Rocks that suckered me in. Aside my slightly unhealthy Sunset Shimmer fixation (Sunset Shimmer is the reason I watched all the specials, because I love how she goes from the bad guy to the reformed villain to the one helping out another troubled soul), I really love Adagio and the doll is so pretty. But I was sad they never made a brushable of her. I would have bought her and her two dazzling sidekicks as ponies. Missed opportunity.

I will say for FIM that the first eps with Starlight Glimmer are quite interesting, Starlight Glimmer is a way more interesting character than all of the M6 in my view. Plus she makes for a pretty brushable.

At the start of lockdown I won a lot on ebay for about £6 which had the fashion style muffin pony in from whichever set it is with Soarin and Spitfire. It also had a really pretty FS Starlight Glimmer in it, and so I am going to keep her as well. Unfortunately lockdown means that the other four in the lot are lingering around waiting for me to find something to do with them. Spitfire I already have so will probably part with, but I'm not sure on the M6 ones (Soarin was not in the lot, I'd have kept him).

This is also on topic because when the hair quality is nice, the FS ponies are lovely. And I really like Spitfire. She is one of the only reboot mould regular brushables I like, and I got the FS one from Ponycon a few years back.

Plus, even though it's in the reboot style, the dark blue glittery Luna FS pony is...really lovely.

[Shaz]

Well, I haven't seen the Jem cartoon but I have seen the dolls, and I admit I usually like the Misfits better in doll form! I decided a while ago that I wanted to own a Jem doll and ended up choosing Clash (purple hair!). I don't think she's in the cartoon much but she's an awesome doll.

The nice quality G4 toys are lovely. Sadly the line seems to have gone steadily downhill over the years. I found Dewdrop Dazzle at a car-boot sale a few years ago and she's lovely, with nice hair and plenty of it! But the last ponies I bought new (around 2017) had hair like fakies. Someone on here said the other day that later G4s seem to have receding hairlines and it's true. Old man ponies . So the things I like about G4 always seem to be combined with things I don't like. I like the toys but not the cartoon. I liked the blind bags but lost interest when they started doing the ponies all one colour and transparent. I like the brushables but only when they're decent quality. Oh well, it still makes me happy to see ponies in the shops, and in charity shops too.

[brightberry]

I have to agree that the songs are fun.  I also like the songs from G1 cartoons which was probably the only reason I watched when I was a kid.

[Pokeyonekenobie]

I'm going to throw it out there that all the M6 releases makes for a lot of ponies I don't feel bad about customizing.

[Taffeta]

Well, I haven't seen the Jem cartoon but I have seen the dolls, and I admit I usually like the Misfits better in doll form! I decided a while ago that I wanted to own a Jem doll and ended up choosing Clash (purple hair!). I don't think she's in the cartoon much but she's an awesome doll.

Clash is only a Misfit in her own dreams >.>

It's ironic because I'm a Misfit person through and through but the prettiest doll to me is 2nd edition Shana. She is everything I wanted in a fashion doll as a kid, but never had the opportunity to get till I was a fresher at university

I agree on the QC thing. There are two brushable collections for G4 that I really like, and I get the members of each mixed up, but one is the one with Dewdrop Dazzle in.

Also!

This is a sort of personal thing for me with G4, but they also associate to me with travel. My first several G4 ponies came from places I visited.

So my first three came from Porvoo, Finland (Applejack, Rarity, Lily Blossom).
I picked up some in Lille (Starswirl, Rarity and the Carriage, Dewdrop Dazzle & Pinkie Pie. Those came as combined sets otherwise I wouldn't have got Pinkie xD)
Cadance with the fancy wings I bought from the main station in Prague.
Starlight Glimmer with the bow headband came back with me from Vienna.
And Water Cutie Blossomforth came back with me from Portugal...she was was the only G4 pony in the entire hypermarket in Lisbon.

Some of these I also have photos of in their respective locations.

Spoiler

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Applejack and her reindeer buddy Töölö - who she still hangs out with on the shelf - in the hotel in Helsinki
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Starlight Glimmer and Tropi Breeze on location in my hotel in Vienna
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Fluttsi and Blossomforth sharing a moment in my hotel in Lisbon
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Cadence in the hotel in Prague, being my passport monitor

Oh yes, and a couple of more recent ones came back from Tel Aviv airport...I had a conference in Jerusalem where I was presenting to help a friend out, and on the way back I found some of the ones I hadn't found in the UK. One is one of the water cuties with wings. Lily Blossom I think. Also I think Tempest Shadow? I forget now.


Closer to home, Feather May and Honeybuzz came from Harrods as a moving in present to myself when I started my MA in London in 2011.  I never saw that set in stores again. If I'd known I'd never see them again, I'd have bought more of the set - I am still missing a couple ><. That's the other favourite brushable set of mine

And of course there's Fluttsi, who my sister bought for me here but who travelled all over Japan with me during my fieldwork. I even have a photo of her looking out at the ice across the north of Russia on the plane home! She also came with me to the course/conference in Lisbon and to my first ever conference in York.
FLuttsi on location...

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in Japan: (full thread link underneath)
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http://mlparena.com/index.php/topic,385952.msg1637467.html#msg1637467
In Portugal, playing in the sands at Belem:
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And in York
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So, while FIM and the brony toxic drove me away from G4 and away from the overall pony fandom for a spell, they also kind of represent travelling and adventure to me.

I have some that came to live with me from other places as well. My Cupcake came from Scandinavia, I think Sweden, and I have a feeling one of the others did too. I know Ploomette and a couple of others came from France and Snowcatcher and Diamond Rose came from the US.

And there are some that I picked up in the charity shops and car boot sale where I lived the last year in London and where I miss living SO MUCH at the moment, that it's nice to have a little piece of that place here with me now too. I also have one which I bought at the big TRU in Brent Cross before it shut down, as a "farewell TRU" pony.

So overall, and especially at this time when travel is not possible, it's nice to see my G4 ponies and remember all the places they came from or went to or both

That's maybe not what the OP was looking for when asking the question, but it's the reason I have affection for G4 ponies even when I hate the brony culture and am not big on FIM, friendship-brainwashing and the mane 6 xD.

[Aflame]

production values on the cartoon

[gabumon]

I'm going to throw it out there that all the M6 releases makes for a lot of ponies I don't feel bad about customizing.

[Leave a Whisper]

I'm going to throw it out there that all the M6 releases makes for a lot of ponies I don't feel bad about customizing.

True