You can never put a value on nostalgia What it means to you to  have her is what matters most of all. Congrats

I didn't get into ponies as an adult until G4 (though I had plenty of G1 ponies as a kid!) so I always call it a cutie mark. Symbol sounds pretty generic to me and I like that cutie mark is a very specific term even if it is a little silly. Since I don't really collect older gen stuff I didn't actually realize there were people who would take offense if I called it a cutie mark on an older gen pony. I'll have to keep that in mind!

I don't personally find it offensive if a G4 collector generalises and uses a familiar term to them because, if I am honest, I would default to symbol with G4 just cos it is what I am used to. It only becomes an issue to me when G4 terminology is expected to supersede older terms that many of us still use.

I am not offended by G4, in fact I am helping a student of mine do a G4 based art project at the moment. I am just bothered by assumptions that the new replaces the old. I am not a brony, nor a pegasister, and I say symbol, not cutie mark. It just annoys me that I often have to correct people, who have just assumed.

If we're talking geneTic, surely the Lovin Family ponies fit the bill the best

I don't think symbol is generic so much as a simple word that does the job required. As a collector that is all I need, since few G1 ponies themselves ever drew particular attention to theirs unless it was a theme of the set, like Magic Message or Pocket Friends/Precious Pocket Ponies. ( Of course, that is based on comic representations since those kinds of sets never figured in animation and I don't remember it ever coming up in the cartoon. I just remember Ember agonising over what she was good at.

I think G4 puts a different emphasis on it. In G1, they were generally getting turned to crystal/kidnapped/smoozed/having the youth or their souls stolen/switching personalities/collecting horseshoes rather than focusing on their individual destiny in their symbol. It was just there and we knew who they were from other things like the backcard, the comics, etc. Just a different emphasis. For G1, symbol more than suffices.

Thank you everyone! The interesting thing is all the Starglows people have listed up here resemble my sister's childhood pony the most, and hers was bought here in the UK in 92. I think Naynie still has her card somewhere.

My vague theory was that there are loosely first and second edition Glowing Magic Ponies but it may be more batch related.

I think of blue heart Dazzle as the first edition because she is in the US commercial ( which should be on DV, I'm typing on tablet before work so getting links is harder) and subsequently was used in the pamphlet photo for the UK. My theory is that by the time the Uk and Europe started selling them, they had run out of the blue hearts OR the factory changed. Meanwhile they were still being sold in North America, etc, so there were pink hearts there too. North America seems to have more variations on this set than Europe so that is what I think.

The Brightglow thing with the curly or straight hair is just totally random...my childhood Brightglow in post 1 obviously has really curly lavender and really straight pink. I wonder if it is coincidence or whether it was planned, since my Rockin Beat Half Note, also from the UK the same year, has the same curly straight mix.

Nobody has a white and yellow hair Starglow? I have seen one image of her from long ago...but don't know if this is a legit variation or something of a factory error...

That is another consideration, I think. The plastic type seems to be a bit prone to shade difference and it might be to do with how translucent it generally can be. I've seen really green Starglow, and actually, my own one is a very dark aqua blue, whereas the one my sister had as a kid here in the UK is really dark blue rather than greenish blue. My loose one came from the US and her hair is coral instead of the dark pink my sister's has.

I've yet to see anyone in the collector community object to others applying CM to G3/G4 where the term originated, even if their personal preference is symbols.  I think most of the pushback comes when new fans try to shove their terminology or other ideas off on people who, as has been said, have long since established their own standards and words.  That kind of retconning just puts up the hackles.

This. I am old school, like Uni, LM and some others posting here. This is not really about cutie mark or symbol, its more about how all of a sudden pre G4 collectors are finding things they had a perfectly good labelling system for being forcibly altered by this new wave.

I do not hate any gen of ponies and totally feel people should collect and follow the one or ones they like -but I think sometimes there is a tendency to forget that G4 did not begin the MLP community or the interest, it simply added to it to give it another incarnation. For me there is no issue using G4 terms like cutie mark for G4 ponies, but there is sometimes a sense of trying to change the old to conform with the new instead of a mutual respect for old ways alongside new ones. I actually get offended when people ask if I am a Brony or a Pegasister because when I came online in 97 we were Ponypeople or just pony collectors and that for me hasn't changed.

There's a really strong place for G4 in the community,  but there is also a place for older terms and traditions and sometimes, those get steamrollered by G4 pony madness. As I said before, G4 should be welcome here, but it should not be determining the way in which older generations are discussed or the terminology used to describe them.

So, in summary, for me it should be G4, cutie mark. G3, whichever. G1 and 2 - symbol, or rump design.

That would be great, Brightglowpony, if you don't mind.

My impression of these is that every batch is a bit different though I tend to think of blue heart Dazzle as the original edition because all of the publicity material shows her. I also know there is at least one Starglow with white in her mane, so I'm thinking the variations with this set could go on forever...

Thanks for sharing that info about the darker body and pink hearts, hilamb. I had not seen her before.  Did you get her on ebay or buy her local to you?

I'm a little bit geeky about variants like this, within normal sets .

So this has been on my mind a bit lately because it's one of those irritating variation things that is just floating around without any proper documentation.

Glowing Magic/Glow n Show Ponies. I'm curious to know how many versions of some of these ponies there actually are.

This is what I know about thus far.
Dazzleglow (images on link below to save loading time)
http://www.etherella.com/scrapbook2/dazzleglow.htm

#1, opaque body. Straight hair. Pink hearts and yellow stars. Mine sadly hasn't got the silkiest hair so I can't be certain but I think from other photos I've seen she should have straight hair from issue. Hair is pale pink (probably not fading) and pale blue. Found loose in the UK, confirmed MOC for the UK. Believe to be available in the US too.

#2, translucent body. Straight hair. Blue hearts and yellow stars. The hair on this one is paler and probably fadeable pink, the blue is more aqua. Hair is silky and straight. Bought from the US. Confirmed MOC for the US. Not confirmed for the UK.

Starglow
http://www.etherella.com/scrapbook2/starglow.htm

#1 Opaque dark blue body. Dark pink (same shade as birthflower ponies) and yellow mane and tail. Somewhat rougher texture hair though not curly. Pink hearts and yellow stars. Bought new in the UK in 1991-2. Confirmed Mint on UK card.

#2 Opaque, dark blue body but somehow not as dark as the one above. Coral and yellow mane and tail, silky and straight/wavy. Pink hearts and yellow stars. Bought from the US. Have seen similar on US style card. Not confirmed for the UK.

HappyGlow (I'm not linking this page because I think I have my pictures confused).

This is what I believe exists but my sister's childhood one is in storage and I cannot get it to check which it is. I know blue hair was sold definitely in the UK. I need more information about Happyglow especially.

#1 Translucent body, blue and white mane and tail
#2 Opaque body, blue and white mane and tail
#3 Opaque body, aqua and white mane and tail

Brightglow
http://www.etherella.com/scrapbook2/brightglow.htm
#1 (pictured): Opaque body, very orange, hair is silky dark pink and curly lavender, this both from factory release. This is my childhood pony from 1991/2, bought in the UK.

I know that there is also a version with straight silky hair in both colours. I believe this to be sold in the US and the UK, but I have not got any images to support it at present.

Basically what I want to know is what kind of GnS ponies people have, with pictures if possible. Where they got them, (MOC pictures would be great), and so on.

I'm not going to use anyone's images for the site unless I'm given permission. I am just trying to clear it up at the present time because Happyglow and Brightglow in particular are driving me a bit nuts.