When will G4 end? And how we will know it?

[Dreamer]

No, I am not asking for the end of G4, but I'm curious about it. How did you notice the start of a new gen? They retired the older toys from stores? Any official announcement? Were you able to grab the last ones?
I was in the G3 era, but I wasn't interested in ponies by then, so I didn't notice their dissapearance until the G4s popped up. And if you want to predict a date for G4s, go ahead

[Violet CLM]

this looks like it'll be a fun, cheerful topic

[mopthebunny]

I have no idea, but I'm also curious

[Alipes]

I wasn't really actively collecting at the time when G3's were discontinued, but I was when G2's were in stores so I can give a bit of perspective on that.  Unfortunately, there really wasn't any notice, they just started to quietly disappear from stores.  Some of the ponies (the first princess line with Silver Swirl, Crystal, Twinkle Star, and Trixiebelle) were never available in stores near me, but you could special order them from Hasbro online.  I was lucky enough that I was taking a trip to Germany with family at about that time, so we went to a bunch of German toy stores and managed to find some of the releases (the Ladies and some of the dress-up babies) that never made it to the US.  That was basically how I knew the line was done in America!

I would imagine with G4's that the progression will be about like this: the cartoon will be finished first, then G4's will probably continue for a couple more years, especially if they still produce a movie or two about EqG.  And then we'll either get something like G3.5 as an in-between "reboot", or they will figure out new designs and relaunch the whole thing again.

[flyawayraven]

Like Alipes said, ponies will just start gradually disappearing as no new merch is produced and retailers go through their stock.  That's vaguely what I remember happening to G1 as a kid. You didn't even really notice it until one day I went to look for ponies and they were gone from every toy store. Most toy lines tend to go out with a whimper rather than a bang.

As for transitioning into a new gen, that's really easy to spot. Redrawn character vectors, new toy molds, etc., unless they do something like G3.5 again *shudders* (I still think those were so creepy!) where it's a soft reboot within the current gen.

[gabumon]

I dunno, with how successful, "popular", FIM has been Hasbro may just keep milking it for 10 years, with the same molds, no variation.  I would not be surprised.

but.. I hope I'm wrong!

[Mirnyj]

It will go away as soon as it stops making money. I've actually been around long enough to witness three generation transitions, but can't really remember any of them, just the Oh, new kinds of ponies! -surprise when a new gen has been running for a bit already, so it must be quite a subtle process.

[Malicieuse]

I remember that we got to know G4 because of some toyfair images. One of the first G4 toys was that gift set with fully molded ponies.
I think that was one of the first times we got to see the new style and the characters. Later on more news about a new show was starting to pop up everywhere.
People who worked on the show also used to visit the mlparena. This before the show even got aired.

With G3 i found out thanks to some news paper article.

[lovesbabysquirmy]

Mostly you will notice when the store displays get smaller and they just keep selling the same "wave" of product until you don't see any more of it on the shelves.  Or they do a giant discount sale on it all at once. 

Because of collectors' knowledge from things like the Toy Fairs, when you don't see any promotion from the company nor any new releases at the trade shows signals the dropoff of the toyline as well.  So if Hasbro only has 5 or less products on the table, they're likely not going to be making ponies in that "generation" any longer.  In Year 10 of G1 MLP, look how few ponies there are - and a few themes that made it to line art but not actual toys - obviously the production was slowly ending!  Same thing applies with G4 - only we will likely know much much sooner with G4 because the toyline and the TV show are innately tied together in a way that G1 wasn't.

[ponycake]

It'd be interesting to see the profits of the line from year to year. When it's a steady decline over a few years or more I imagine the end is going to happen shortly after.

Actually I'd love to see the profits made from year to year of each line. That'd be interesting.

[lela]

Well, can this be wrong but, they are vain stop making g4 at the time that the series is over, and so will end when the series is to publish another series itself, I see it as certain drawings that my cousin 8 years watches every year changes the "fashion" this year here and such a pig Peppa, do not know if you guys know, and all toys for children and that theme last year was different, and so on, but I see that the design the mlp changed much, saw so few seasons and I was surprised with the Equestria girls, I think this was a marketing strategy in order to continue selling, and I believe that the so g4 are popular even among collectors because rarely see a child with when I see them and to sell this written as collection item, not toy, the same is happening with barbie, with the series dolls of the world, it decreases the production and increases the price, at least here, and, at least in Brazil, because I do not know how this is occurring abroad, the sale will end soon, give about 3 years at most, remember when was looking for the g3 and amazed me with those lesser beings and stubborn, they occupied entire shelves in stores, but, if I am in the same stores today, not occupy or a shelf. It's sad, but what what I see. Remembering that this and my opinion compared to where I live, perhaps in the USA or Europe is different, do not know.

[Roseprincess1]

i know i may be the minority here but i dont really want it to end any time soon.. considering they said they have at least 3 more seasons planned out.. i dont think its going to before that.
i hope not.. im actually fond of them tho again i know i may be the only one.

[gabumon]

It'd be interesting to see the profits of the line from year to year. When it's a steady decline over a few years or more I imagine the end is going to happen shortly after.

Actually I'd love to see the profits made from year to year of each line. That'd be interesting.

they do post that type of stuff in the slides their annual meeting I forgot when it is.  very high level though.

[TornadoTwist]

I remember that we got to know G4 because of some toyfair images. One of the first G4 toys was that gift set with fully molded ponies.
I think that was one of the first times we got to see the new style and the characters. Later on more news about a new show was starting to pop up everywhere.
People who worked on the show also used to visit the mlparena. This before the show even got aired.

With G3 i found out thanks to some news paper article.

Ah you mean these?
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Gosh they actually look so much better then their final versions.

[Katika]

I'm not sure we'll be able to clearly see the signs of an impending end to G4, since I know what happened with G3s is that they accidentally ran themselves into the ground by sticking with the same 7 ponies and then trying to "redo" them as G3.5s.  That's when parents seemed to get tired of buying the same pony again for their kids and when collectors seemed to get tired of having an entire shelf of the same pony.  G4, however, has been doing the same 6 ponies from the start and introduced a massive "redo" with bringing them out as Equestria Girls, and both of those seem to be doing well enough in the current market (though I could be wrong... I have no idea what their books actually say - it's just my personal observation).  I suspect that G4 will start to die out once the Brony subculture (as in those that are into ponies for the trend-factor, as opposed to genuinely loving ponies.  I *do* realize that there are plenty of Bronies who legitimately love MLP and am not aiming to disrespect them ) begins to find its way towards the next pop culture trend.