Which generation of ponies first drew you into collecting them?

[WickedWonderland]

I loved the G1 shows when I was little, but I never knew they made toys from the show, so I never had any. My first toys were the 3 McDonalds G2s and I started collecting when the G3s came out.

[AmethystDefender]

G1 has always been and will always be my favorite. I would still be collecting right now...if I actually had money. :/

[loverofbalto]

I really started collecting ponies hardcore when Generation 3 came out.  I had a few G1 ponies when I was a little kid, but I didn't collect them as much as I did in college.  I remember picking up StarCatcher when I was shopping for college dorm room supplies and from there my need for ponies grew into a huge collection.  Now I have a 30 gallon tub full of G1, G2, and G3/G3.5 and then a 10 gallon tub for G4 which they are already beginning to outgrow, a box for Ponyville, and another tub for accessories.  I also have a castle, the stable, and some other buildings.  The ponies are taking over....not like it's a bad thing.

[Eviecorn]

G1, cause I'm old school.  I proudly love all gens, though.

[scarletjul]

I had g1s as a child, they are my favorite gen and the bulk of my collection. 

That said. . .  it's probably actually g3s that started my collecting, as it was a gift from my best friend (g3 Merriweather) that got me into collecting ponies at all.  From there, I decided Merriweather needed a friend (Silver Glow) and then I decided to look up g1s on ebay and then it all snowballed from there. 

[Prismatic]

I had a small family of g1's as a kid, but I never technically 'collected' them.  What got me into collecting last year were g4 ponies, some friends I play final fantasy xiv with were spamming pics of them, and it caught my interest.  That got me into looking up the show, and g4 characters, and then I looked up all the names of my childhood ponies.  My browsing led me to the arena, and here I am

So while G1's will always be my favorite, I owe my collecting to G4s   I now have most available G4s and a growing collection of G1s  

[Miserati]

G1! The End of Flutter Valley was my most favourite movie as a child and Peach Blossom was my very favourite pony (and still is).

I got back into it when I was having a nostalgic moment a few years ago and decided to look for my favourite childhood possessions on eBay. Back ever since.

[darknessunisousboy]

would be the few of my child hood G1s that got me started

[TornadoLovesMelody]

G1's definetly. I got my first at age 1 (I know, great age to give a kid dreamcastle - I'm still amazed it's not in 100 pieces) and they were always my favourite toy and the only thing I wished for (except for real pets and a real horse). At age 10 I had around 60-70 ponies and also started buying them over the internet.

They're the onlyl generation I truly ever collected. The others I got for the "aww cute" factor but never cared to learn about them.

[KaibaGirl007]

G1s for me. They were my childhood toys and MLPs have always been with me since, plus having three daughters makes sure that the collecting will continue for many years to come.

[Rika_of_Thunder]

G2 is my favorite, but I guess it was actually G3 that got me into collecting.

When I first started lurking on the MLP Arena, I told myself I was just gonna look at ponies and draw them and stuff, but not actually collect them. Then I bought the Junko Mizuno pony, even then I told myself that she was going to be the only one in my collection, buuuut then I figured out how to buy stuff on ebay and the rest was history |D

[sabathamk]

I had G1 as a kid, but sold them so others could play with them (I blame Toy Story, haha).  I found another one at the thrift store and felt such an attraction to it that I bought her (I haven't collected anything before that and reasoned that I'd clean her up for my daughter).  I then bought a lot of ponies off Kijiji that I intended for my kids, and 16 of them were G1's... with 1 G2, and the rest (about 35) G3's and loads of accessories... so I will stand by the G1's got me started since it was that one I found... Whizzer... I looked her up and saw the loads of G1's out there, and looked up my childhood 4 to try repurchasing them through ebay (I have them all again now... sigh, nostalgia).  I actually have loads of G4s now too, haha.  I love them all.

[Eluluu]

it was G1 that got me started, sadly since i was so young i cant remember which was my first pony  i think ima bug the parental units and see if they remember but i doubt they will. lol i can predict the answer: i dont know they all look the same. =P maybe tehyll at least remember the colors and i can narrow it down. but yeah i was collecting heavily as a kid (had prolly about 50 or so, which was a lot since we didnt have much money) and id always watch out for them at garagesales and antiquestores since. went into a collecting lul in middleschool (cept for the occasional garagesale find) then ebay reignited it in highschool something fierce lol i hoarded my lunchmoney and starved myself and gave the cash to a friend with a list hahaha after highschool went thru another lul (no real access to ebay and sales were slim) kinda didnt like the g2s but was happy to see them comin back, sorta. bought a few g3s (tho they might have been 3.5s, im fuzzy on the differences) but they werent the same. cute but not quite my thing.
long story short, im always collecting g1, and tend to go into a frenzy for them periodically.

[princesskitty]

I found out about ponies at gen2 and started to really collect them at gen3

[Sora]

The toys, it was G2 for me. I was never a fan of 'girly' toys, but something stood out for me, ironically. Perhaps the accessories, as I had a soft spot for them.

But overall, it was the G1 cartoon that sparked my interest, particularly Sweet Stuff and the Treasure Hunt which I had on VHS. I watched that more times than I can remember