The thing is that all previous generations broke away from the earlier stuff and did their own thing.

What G5 has done is more in keeping with My Little Pony Tales, which does not reference directly anything from the older G1 material, but you do have the cameos from the Glowing Magic(al) ponies, and then there's some pseudo-mediaeval stuff which I guess you could looooosely tie into the kind of world that existed in the earlier stuff. Albeit very loose.

Tales is G1. MLP & Friends is G1. One is the older version of a world modernised in the other. That's a link albeit it's not as tight a link as G5 has with G4. Yet we're meant to believe G5 is a generation of its own.

This is one of my bugbears because the defining of generations was something we did, not Hasbro, and the mainstreaming of this idea of a G4-G5 transition is their brainchild, not necessarily in keeping with how generations were defined in the past.

To begin with it was Old Ponies and New Ponies, as there were only two generations. Sometimes you got 'new generation', then LM came in with the Transformers concept of G-, around G3's arrival. Because you couldn't have old, new, and newer xD.

But...though there are some name repeats across generations, there is literally nothing canonical connecting Dream Valley (Ponyland in the UK), Friendship Gardens and Ponyville. Whereas Sunny and company live in a later version of Equestria. Just like Tales and MLP Friends.

Actually, do they call it Ponyland in Tales as well? I can't remember what they call it xD.

So basically, G5 scrapes the barrel on being a new generation. It has its own characters but not really its own concepts. And maybe the nod back to older generations is reflecting the age of the brand and the anniversary coming up - but at the same time...it's really quite lazy.

The naming sense is also awful.

But, all that said - if the toys looked less...weird, and had more variety and better QC, would that make the world/narrative/etc feel more fresh and engaging? I guess the question is, is the problem a stagnant toyline or a media concept that's tired and starved of new ideas?

They do call it Ponyland.

In 10 minutes I hafta go out and do yard work.

Haha you're right Taf, they do look kinda like Moomins.

I hafta go with the Dream Beauties. They're so wonderful,  and remind me a lot of Fashion Star Fillies.

This is to get an idea of the most popular spin-off/side line toys. I'm not counting World's Smallest, Tiny Tins, Loyal Subjects, stuffed toys, Minis, or Dollymix because they're all ponies we've seen before.  I'm not counting the Fair and Con Exclusives, because they weren't available to purchase in stores for the general public.

I checked out DD's Discounts, alas no ponies. 

Post Merge: March 20, 2024, 05:48:55 PM

This is what the MLP section looks like at Target.

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Ponyfan

At least you've got Misty

Looking forward to seeing your new dolls. MLP falls under toy animals.

The eyes sliding down on the crossover ponies. Who approved that? It's also baffling that hasbro didn't use the moulds for G5. And that they didn't make more unicorns, unipegs, and pegasus for any but the retro main six pack,and  sdcc twilight.