If you could make the next generation, what would you like to see?

[Zapper]

Imagine you are suddenly in charge of MLP via dark magic or a magic lamp and everyone at Hasbro has to do your bidding.

How would you design the next gen of ponies?
Would there be a cartoon show, movies? What types of toys would you create?

Here is the only catch: the genie/witch/wizard does not allow you to just copy your favorite gen

[invaderhorizongreen]

Toy wise  I would create more background ponies, and various non ponies, that would be great. Also I would mix the color schemes and various gimmicks, also more singles as well or double packs.

[CloudyGlow]

Just thinking off the top of my head, I'd like new characters or characters from G1 (Not my favorite gen so it's allowed). Less modern buildings, more high fantasy or magical girl and more horse behavior. There is a cartoon show where the style is different from FiM but still simple (so that I can replicate it in Adobe Illustrator). Hooves will be present and visible on all ponies please. There will be animated movies, but no celebrity characters (I love Capper and company but seriously would have rather focused on ponies we know). And the toys are all as accurate to show as possible. But we still have brushables (it's just maybe their hair is styled a little more to match the ponies). Blind bags are banned. From now on you always know what you get. Lore is priority on the show. The writers must all strictly adhere to a show bible that lays out everything about the world.

[Pokeyonekenobie]

I would make the main characters the hardest ones to come by as toys instead of the ones being released 47 billion times.  Then that would make them more special.

[hyenacub]

I would definitely do it more like the G1s.  Not 8 million versions of the same pony.  two or three, tops, like the so softs or whatver.  They'd  all be different.  And lots of babies.  : D

[Taffeta]

Originality of character.

I don't mind if they look very equine or if they don't - maybe somewhere inbetween - I am flexible on the style so long as the line has a nice range of characters, colours, themes. I am a G1 person but I don't want any other generation to try and duplicate G1, so that's not a problem for me.

I would like to see unicorns, pegasus, earth. I don't want alicorns. That's too much for one pony. I would like aquatic ponies of some kind, and I don't mind expanding the zebra theme. I don't really want other mythical species or other not-equine related stuff in the line, though.

Brushables only. Maybe plush. No collector models, funko style stuff, nothing like that. The funko things really annoy me a lot. Toys, not merch, too. Merch is fine. Toys first. Also, maybe some thought to the hair in terms of types. Things like tinsel are fine, but tinsel can get ratty and it's not the only option. Hair doesn't always have to be trailing on the ground. I don't mind some ponies having curls and some straight hair. (That's a theme in G1 and G2, with variety of hair from factory...and G3 had a variety of lengths, albeit on an extreme scale).

TV series - only if it's going to incorporate a plot rather than moral lessons that don't work. I am wary about a proper TV series because I don't believe in core cast dominating the line. But specials in the line of what MH did would work. They had the balance quite nice in my view...with a few core but not every core character released in every line and plenty of other new stuff alongside for variety. Books, comics, etc = the same. Only if they are supplementing a core toy line, not replacing it.

Also like MH, it would be nice for the line to go back to the roots of backcard stories (MH had diaries) to give the pony character, not just a name. It's not like the kid HAS to follow that character, but it's nice for the kids who like stories and for kids to read a short little story about their pony toy to 'get to know them' without needing to watch a TV show or buy a book.

I don't want to see repeats of any character that has already been released in any generation. None. I am fine with the Retros as retros. I am done with rinse and repeat. And the end of Dash and Pinkie cannot come fast enough for this pony fan.

Oh yeah! One more thing. No store exclusives. No American exclusives. Everything available everywhere. No limited editions, no mail orders, nothing like that. Just sets on store shelves in all places without prejudice.

And countries where English is not the native language should not be made to put up with English names if they have better alternatives in their own language

[Leave a Whisper]

Toys:
G3 sized
Horsey
Good quality
Variety in characters/colors/poses/symbols
Mares
Foals
Males with normal length, non-troll doll hair.
Every species ever made in toy form
Families
Playsets
No focus on core groups at all
Return of old and new gimmicks
Widespread release
Playset characters can be sold seperately
The return of Charity Ponies and MO Ponies

Show:
No focus on core group
No fan pandering
For kids
Adventure
Fantasy
Mixture of humor/action/drama/slice of life
Traditional animation

[Ragamuffin]

Toywise I'd like detailed CMs like G3, lots of unique colour combinations (no more orange with pink/purple hair, PLEASE!!!), and lots of accessories, like G2. Backcard stories like G1 or at the very least a sentence or two about the pony. I'd like it to be very similar to G3 in short, but not a carbon copy. I wouldn't want to do "blind boxes"/bags but thats the In thing atm so I don't think I'd have a choice if I want money. No tiny molded figures like blindbags, and enough playsets... playsets that aren't WALLS! G2 had some really good playsets. Also a healthy cycle of new ponies unlike Someone has been doing for the past 10 years.

For the cartoon I'd prefer something handrawn and expressive. Puppets are cheaper but if you go with puppets you have to make the design more simple and I'm not willing to do that. CGI/3D could work maybe. I agree something with a big universe and lore is good but enough planning to make a bible is extremely important. FiM didn't think things through (it wasn't supposed to go on for THIS long!) and you can tell.

[StrawberrySundance]

I'd make the toys quite large (maybe a bit bigger than G1) rather than small and dainty, which means more detail and more hair to brush and style! There'd also be a range of poses and with each pose comes a different set of eyes (e.g. Diva pose- flirty eyes with lots of eyelashes, cheery/happy pose- big round eyes that are filled with excitement and happiness etc.) (Wings from G3 would be back!)
There would also be human characters again ( like back in G1) and you would be able to fully pose them and there would be different clothing to buy them as well as the ponies. Their symbols would be presented in a range of ways (3D, glitter, scented, different material etc.) to fit with the pony's personality/name. I'd also include accessories that would fit the character. 3D playsets (not ones that are like half a castle  Ones that could be folded up)are a must and Bling bags are banned
Villains would be human, dragons or ponies too. (remember those witches in the 1986 MLP movie? Bring them back, I've always got 'Nothing can stop the smooze' in my head   Duck inside! Better run and hide!
Nothing can stop the smooze!)

The cartoons wouldn't have main characters to focus on, every pony would get their turn to star in an episode so everyone feels included and each pony/character could be developed.

[TheBeatlesPkmnFan42]

Not sure how I would make the ponies themselves look, maybe something in between G1 and G3? But I would definitely give it a lot of pony variety, and pose variety. Make more unique color schemes. And have simple gimmicks as well as more out there ones, just like how G1 had both simple and more wild gimmicks. I'd like to make the ponies have more detailed symbols such as the ones that G3 ponies have. The size... probably G3 size, but if it were to be possible to do G1 size without making the ponies cost too much, that'd be awesome too! I wouldn't want to make the normal ponies too much bigger than that, because too large and it'd be too hard to be able to display and store them all in a good amount of space! Playsets would be more along the lines of the previous generations, as opposed to G4's approach of making playsets the very front of a building.... And more than just castles, too! I'd make some house playsets too, ponies need more houses! I'd bring back all the previous types of ponies, aside from the obvious and most basic types beyond earth, unicorn, and pegasus. I'd have seaponies (perhaps different types resembling both G1's seahorse kind and G4's mermaid type!), flutter ponies, wingers, breezies, all of them back! And pony friends, too, perhaps dolls similar to Megan and Molly as well.

Not sure what I'd really want for the cartoon, but I would like for there to be one, as G2's lack of a cartoon still bugs me. What I do know is that I would want any remotely important character who appears in the cartoon to receive a toy. Why FiM introduces so many characters and then Hasbro doesn't make toys of the majority of them baffles me considering it's a cartoon made to sell toys, so I wouldn't want that mistake to be made again (and it's not just FiM being guilty of this, I wish Danny from MLP 'n Friends and the other Tales characters outside of the seven main girls had gotten toys back in G1, and that G3 Spike had gotten a toy).

Edit- back to the toys, some gimmicks I would definitely bring back would be So Softs, Twinkles Eyes, Twice As Fancy, Sparkle Ponies, pearlized ponies, gradient bodies, cascading symbols, 3D symbols, and super long hair.

[Taffeta]

Definitely no humans for me. Dolls in the context of EQG I can deal with, but I never did really like Megan being involved with the ponies. So no humans in my pony world.

Also terminology. Let's get rid of cutesy words for things. No more everypony, cutie mark, etc. But I do want ponies to have symbols. They can even have deep and meaningful lore related to them. Just not call them silly words like 'cutie'.

[Leave a Whisper]

Definitely no humans for me. Dolls in the context of EQG I can deal with, but I never did really like Megan being involved with the ponies. So no humans in my pony world.

Also terminology. Let's get rid of cutesy words for things. No more everypony, cutie mark, etc. But I do want ponies to have symbols. They can even have deep and meaningful lore related to them. Just not call them silly words like 'cutie'.

I forgot about the no idiotically cutesy words. Absolutely this. No stupid words.

Also, how about how some actual creative place-names?

I'll pass on the lore. Its too restrictive.

[hyenacub]

I don't mind cutie-mark being specifically for G4s.  It's a play on "beauty mark".  But I don't refer to it myself for the most part.  And "everypony" makes sense enough from the show's perspective, where it's all ponies, for the most part, in those areas.  It's regional.

I wouldn't call the stupid, but...not for me.

But I agree I would not particularly be quite as cutesy with it.  I don't have a problem with it, but being old school, it's not my thing.

I do like my puns, though. 

[Carrehz]

CHARACTER VARIETY. Have your main characters, sure, but give us new characters alongside them!!! MH did this really well, IMO (pre-G2 anyway). More boy ponies and more species variety too - bring back flutters, sea ponies, etc! And more poses, too.

No preferences on the cartoon except, go back to the line's roots of being toy-focused. I hate how FiM "leads" the brand nowadays. Oh and definitely agree w/ no silly cutesy-wootsy talk. A couple of puns here and there, sure, but "everypony" needs to go. (Not at all a fan of "cutie mark" either, never have been, but I guess it makes sense from a marketing point of view, guess Hasbro didn't think "symbol" sounded as marketable and/or couldn't trademark it; that's fair enough. But "everypony", just, no. Ugh.)

[Sweet Daes]

I want more diverse worldbuilding with non-ponies. Seaponies/hippogriffs and Kirin (AND others, but avoiding spoilers) came in way too late. I also think it takes away from the world to have the seaponies be the hippogriffs. The two should have been separate. In a lot of ways, I see it as lazy writing since hippogriffs aren't ponies, and the only "seaponies" that we see are of "the usual" characters. It's boring.

With having the Changlings, Griffins, Yaks, Cat-people and whatever those of the Storm King's army are, it took until S8 to see them be more integrated into the known world. I dislike that.