I don't know, but I remember seeing Lauren Faust's concepts long before I'd ever heard about G4...in fact, I didn't realize who's deviantArt gallery I was looking at at the time, and the pictures came across as just an artist's interpretation of a few G1s, so I assume the animation style, if not the whole concept for G4, came before the toys.

Lauren Faust's designs may have influenced the design of the G4 toy but be assured, Hasbro only made the show in order to further boost sales of the My Little Pony brand.  This is why I found it strange the couple of times that I've seen complaints about "another brushable" pony.  The entire brand was and is based on little ponies with hair a little girl can brush and style herself.  If the toys weren't selling, Hasbro would probably cancel FiM just like those other shows mentioned.

@MissSleepless you may be right - no doubt the supermarkets get them for crazy, significantly less than we would buy them for from the supplier - so for some supermarkets it may be cheaper indeed!

I actually just heard back from the supplier...you can buy them in boxes from them - you dont need to buy more than one box and shipping in the UK is £2.50....and best of all they accept paypal...so I guess if people are genuinely interested they can simply purchases boxes themselves! That makes things easier than having to do a bulk order! I dont know if they ship internationally but if not I ll be happy to accept parcels and send them on if people do go ahead...maybe work out cheaper that way as they could be "deboxed" before shipping over seas...they also said they cant tell you which wave you would get...so you get 10 different ponies but you wont know which ones [not helpful unfortunately!]

 
I would definitly be interested just for the sake of seeing old favorites again.  I really want the pegasi and the unicorns.  Do you have a link to the supplier's website?  I'd be more than happy to see if they would ship international.

You will have to excuse my ignorance but I havent' been keeping up with MLP for a while.  They are making G1s somewhere?  I saw something on ebay resently that looked like tiny little G1s but I wasn't sure if they were some king of custom.  Is that what we are talking about?  If so where exactly are they available.  I'm in the US so clearly I wouldn't be able to get them but my sister is living in Prague and it would be lovely if she could find these for me.

Hi, everyone!
 
Wow, I am just flabbergasted that I still have an active account.  In fact, I registered for a new account not even realizing that I had an old account that was still usable.  (Maybe a mod should pm me about that, I really don't need two accounts.) 
 
It has literally been *years* (at least 5-6) since I've been this way, so I thought I should probably reintroduce myself.  I've been known as both Sunset and Sunset Grove in the mlp community and on Pony Island.  I don't expect a lot of people to remember me.  If anyone does, it would be for the mlp paintings I used to do.  The avatar is one of my early computer attempts and it's still attached from when I was here last!
 
I've been a collector for quit some time.  At this point, I would attach a picture of my 5 year old self holding my very first pony, G1 Medley, however, I will have to re-acquaint myself with all of the technical do-hickies. 
 
Now, see, I'm making myself sound really old.  I'm actually only 32, though I don't know, that might be ancient to most of you younger mlp enthusiasts.
 
So my collecting tends to go through phases.  Sometimes I have more interest than others.  Sometimes there are other things going on in real life, etc.  I have a respectable collection of G1 and early G3 ponies.  I found my re-interest in collecting due to a combination of two things.  The G4 ponies have slowly been growing on me (against my will, mind you).  Also, my mother finally made me move the packed down boxes holding my collection out of her house and into my own.  So I have been slowly trying to unpack, sort, and display or sell my collection.
 
Anyhow, I look forward to getting (re)aquainted with you all.