The MLP Arena
Pony Talk => Pony Corral => Topic started by: Dreamer on December 17, 2014, 09:53:50 AM
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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 :whistle:
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this looks like it'll be a fun, cheerful topic
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I have no idea, but I'm also curious :P
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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.
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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.
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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!
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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. :)
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Hasbro and toy-wise G4 will certainly end. I'm sure it'll be a lot like what you see with cartoon/movie oriented Transformers toy lines. The end-of-the-line figures will probably be harder to hunt down or perhaps even cancelled all together. Certainly at the next toy fair you'll see what ever else they have planned next right away. With as popular as ponies are I doubt Hasbro would want to show up at a Toy Fair without anything MLP to speak of, even if it is a new generation.
Even if G4 is officially "over" as far as Hasbro is concerned I'm sure some licensed pony stuff might keep rolling into places like Hot Topic. If they are smart they'll keep riding that FIM cash cow long after they declare it dead. >>
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Well I wasn't collecting anymore when G2 rolled around, but I noticed G1s ended when they stopped making them and I noticed that G3s ended when the ponies at the store got a complete overhaul in design. I have no idea if there will be a G5 (probably will because its been a lucrative brand for 30 years) or how much it will differ from G4
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based on the G3 wiki entry: http://mylittlewiki.org/wiki/G3_Ponies
It looks like G3 (the last biggest modern line) lasted 8 years, with trailing overlap to G4.
So FiM started in 2010 (I think), so we still have 4 more years at least from now I'd guess. And likely overlap like G3 did.
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Essentially we will see the start of the new generation when the style of the toys change; however with its level of success right now I think that will be quite some time :) And even when they change it may be a minor one that we end up with G4.5 rather than straight to G5.
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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? :)
visitors can't see pics , please register or login
Gosh they actually look so much better then their final versions.
Yup, that's the picture. : )
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Gosh I hope not anytime soon :(
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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? :)
visitors can't see pics , please register or login
Gosh they actually look so much better then their final versions.
Yup, that's the picture. : )
Wow, so at some point they originally planned to make Celestia's toys white? And the detailing on her tiara and necklace look great, too. I'm guessing making them look like this would have been too expensive, and too not-pink.
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I don't think there will ever be a time that there aren't ponies on the shelves again. The end of G1 and the US end of G2 (since I have heard G2 was still going in Europe until G3) took place in a different era. Hasbro is now aware how important it's brands are.
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i would normally say 10 years to follow suit with other gens
G1 80s
G2 90s
G3 00s
G4 10s
but there has never been such a popular cartoon with the other gens and pop culture though G3 did have a bit.
however the saying goes.....the bigger they come the bigger they fall. if all the fans turns there interest on something else then it might stop and something else horse/pony related will take its place.
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this looks like it'll be a fun, cheerful topic
lol :party:
This has never occurred to me before for some reason- that Hasbro actually plans for new generations to come out. I always just thought they must have stopped selling, so they stopped making them. In Australia it seemed like pony releases were a few years behind the US. I only ever knew about year 8-10 ponies, I remember getting year 8 G1 ponies for my birthday as late as 1997. When they disappeared from stores we thought it was the END.
I was vaguely aware of G2 and 3 but after seeing how different G2 was from our beloved G1, I lost interest. I guess I just figured, when the lines become less successful and make less money for Hasbro, they sort of fizzle out and they make something else.
Out of interest, when did G2 first come out in other places?? For us it was the early 2000s.
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I not sure, but it appears that if it wasn't for the EQG doll good sells, the g4 must likely would have be finished by now >_<
EQG are kind like a G4.5 , before they arrived at the store the ponies were collecting dust at the shelves, EQG gave new life to G4 when the pony toys were just the main 6 and princesses, the dolls have new charets that haven't beeing made into pony versions :huh:
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Holy moly, this topic is going to be very interesting :biggrin:
My opinion is that G4 will last for some more time, cause it's quite popular, but when I look at how long last generations lasted I'd want to say G4 has aprox. about 3 or 4 years to go?
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I can't shake the mental image of G4 ending in some fiery apocalypse, with collectors and bronies desperately grabbing the last merchandise off the shelves (of course the shelves are on fire) while a child from the next isle over raises an eyebrow at us and buys the newest Monster High doll.
But seriously though, I think G4 is going to end a bit differently than the other generations. My reasoning is twofold: the bigger emphasis on the TV show and sheer amount of adult fans. The toyline will probably last shortly without the TV show. If you ask me, we're probably on the last one or two seasons, so there isn't too much more of that, but I've been wrong before. However, because of the adult fans that G4 has garnered, there will be a lot more resistance to having the line end, so we'll probably be seeing resistance to the series ending never seen before. No matter what though, I think the end will be veeeery interesting this time around.
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No matter what though, I think the end will be veeeery interesting this time around.
This.
I wasn't really collecting when G2/G3/G3.5 ended, so I'm not sure what happened back then ^^; But I'm interested to see how G4 will end..
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I can't shake the mental image of G4 ending in some fiery apocalypse, with collectors and bronies desperately grabbing the last merchandise off the shelves (of course the shelves are on fire) while a child from the next isle over raises an eyebrow at us and buys the newest Monster High doll.
But seriously though, I think G4 is going to end a bit differently than the other generations. My reasoning is twofold: the bigger emphasis on the TV show and sheer amount of adult fans. The toyline will probably last shortly without the TV show. If you ask me, we're probably on the last one or two seasons, so there isn't too much more of that, but I've been wrong before. However, because of the adult fans that G4 has garnered, there will be a lot more resistance to having the line end, so we'll probably be seeing resistance to the series ending never seen before. No matter what though, I think the end will be veeeery interesting this time around.
The cartoon's cancellation means there will be mass brony outrage for sure. Just look at how "well" that portion of the fandom handled changes that have happened with the show. A certain pegasus getting redubbeb, Princess Cadance, Twilight having a brother, Twilight becoming a princess, Equestria Girls. It's just Drama, drama, and MORE drama. No changes can happen to the show's Status Quo without a whole lot of fans getting angry and crying that it will ruin their precious Friendship is Magic. This happens a lot with any fandom that has multiple iterations but it's been especially bad when so much whining about changes happens just in reference to a single generation of ponies. Transofrmers fans like to refer to it as RUINED FOREVER (http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Ruined_FOREVER).
And indeed it will be very interesting. I don't want FIM to end soon or anything but I am genuinely curious as to how it will inevitably go down.
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I can't shake the mental image of G4 ending in some fiery apocalypse, with collectors and bronies desperately grabbing the last merchandise off the shelves (of course the shelves are on fire) while a child from the next isle over raises an eyebrow at us and buys the newest Monster High doll.
:snicker: hahaha love it. this is an apocalypse I wanna see!
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I feel like EQG will replace the G4 ponies like, as someone stated above, a G4.5 genetation. Im noticing it right before my eyes, seems like theres more EQG dolls made besides the pony toys. *sigh* I want EQG to end.... and Hasbro to revive the first two years of G4 where we had a better variety of pony characters.
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I don't want G4 to end but it feels like we've already passed the halfway point. I've noticed that the enthusiasm for MLP isn't as high as it was during season 2 and 3. but who knows.
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I remember when G3 lapsed into G3.5. I was sad about the switch to the core 7, but I also hoped that I was just a "phase" and new characters would be introduced again. Then G3.5 started to appear. I remember thinking at first that they were potentially "little sister" type ponies for the regular G3s due to the younger looking proportions, but then the regular ones were gone altogether. In many ways I did like the G3.5s. I thought they were pretty cute, and I have always liked the Newborn Cuties because I think they are totally adorable, but I was really sad that the G3s had drifted away.
The way I learned about G4 was when I was watching the Hub when it first started because they were showing an anime called Deltora Quest, and I saw Rainbow Dash during a commercial break. I remember freaking out because I just knew it was a My Little Pony, and a quick internet search confirmed this. And then I saw images of that gift set online, too. For a while I was disappointed though because I thought that all the new ponies would only have molded hair, so I was so glad when I stumbled upon an Applejack brushable in Walmart shortly thereafter!
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I can't shake the mental image of G4 ending in some fiery apocalypse, with collectors and bronies desperately grabbing the last merchandise off the shelves (of course the shelves are on fire) while a child from the next isle over raises an eyebrow at us and buys the newest Monster High doll.
But seriously though, I think G4 is going to end a bit differently than the other generations. My reasoning is twofold: the bigger emphasis on the TV show and sheer amount of adult fans. The toyline will probably last shortly without the TV show. If you ask me, we're probably on the last one or two seasons, so there isn't too much more of that, but I've been wrong before. However, because of the adult fans that G4 has garnered, there will be a lot more resistance to having the line end, so we'll probably be seeing resistance to the series ending never seen before. No matter what though, I think the end will be veeeery interesting this time around.
LOL :lol: Does that come complete with a Bay-style Explosion?
The cartoon's cancellation means there will be mass brony outrage for sure. Just look at how "well" that portion of the fandom handled changes that have happened with the show. A certain pegasus getting redubbeb, Princess Cadance, Twilight having a brother, Twilight becoming a princess, Equestria Girls. It's just Drama, drama, and MORE drama. No changes can happen to the show's Status Quo without a whole lot of fans getting angry and crying that it will ruin their precious Friendship is Magic. This happens a lot with any fandom that has multiple iterations but it's been especially bad when so much whining about changes happens just in reference to a single generation of ponies. Transofrmers fans like to refer to it as RUINED FOREVER.
And indeed it will be very interesting. I don't want FIM to end soon or anything but I am genuinely curious as to how it will inevitably go down.
They'll just hafta deal with it. All shows and toys end their production run at some point and its not like they can't buy box sets. Its funny how older fans tend to throw more of a fit while kids barely seem to notice and roll onto the next thing isn't it? :)
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I agree that it will be a more subtle process, but I also think we'll see the warning signs earlier when other collectors start finding the newer gen ponies in their areas sooner.
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No doubt there will be a big bang when the FiM show ends, as that is what the newer and more vocal fans are focused on, and therefore what the media that reports on the MLP fanbase is focused on. Either it will get a planned ending and the grievance period will last from the first announcement for months afterwards, orrr it will just be mysteriously not renewed and the crying about 'what could have been' will last for years and years and years.
The toyline has worked alongside but independently of the television show in pretty much all previous generations, but given the nature of the community this time around, I think a large percentage of the buying power will drop off if/when the show does. Less interest and lower profits will probably signal to Hasbro to start easing off, and the MLP toy releases will probably become less and less numerous until one year we just don't hear anything at all. The big signal would probably be having no displays at the Toy Fair, and/or no special SDCC/Fair pony for the year. Of course, they could go the other direction and right in the middle of seemingly normal releases just go "BAM, here's the NEW My Little Pony!" and throw a new gen or half-gen at us.
Tapping in to my Tarot cards and crystal ball and the line on my palm and the alignment of the stars :think: You'll know the new generation by... celebration. The first year of G3 was allll about celebration. Everything was labelled by it - celebration glitter ponies, celebration rainbow ponies, birthday celebration, picnic celebration, moonlight celebration, celebration castle. The first full year of G4 was 2011, and the first special line we had was the Canterlot series, which involved a big celebration at the castle :P and sets and figures based around dressing up and partying with ponies. If there's anything Hasbro want you to do with the few and rare changes they institute, it's celebrate and be happy and buy the new shiny object please thank you.
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A couple of years, maybe a decade. We can't really give an exact number, some Bronies are kinda realizing that the show wasn't that great to begin with and they're leaving it.
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The crazed obsessions seem to be dying down, but I'm sure there will be many who cling for many years.
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I'm guessing the toys will slowly die out when the show ends and so does the FIM fandom
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I can't shake the mental image of G4 ending in some fiery apocalypse, with collectors and bronies desperately grabbing the last merchandise off the shelves (of course the shelves are on fire) while a child from the next isle over raises an eyebrow at us and buys the newest Monster High doll.
No, the child will walk right past the battle, glued to their iPhone screen with glazed eyes.
The sad thing is that I don't really feel like g4 really got going, if that makes sense. I mean, they don't release regular lines. We've already collected them all and so have the kids. In the 80's we'd go to the store and there was never a time when I looked at the shelves and thought "Oh darn, nothing new." I check my Walmart once a week and 90% of the time I walk right through the pony section without buying anything. And I WANT to buy things. I can afford to buy things. There's nothing to buy. (I refuse to buy 200 versions of Pinkie Pie. I think I have 7 as it is.) I feel like Hasbro missed out on untold millions (billions?) of dollars these past 2 years at least. If they'd've had a line in place full of ponies the kids and collectors wouldn't have gotten so bored and reverted to doll lines. I do both dolls and ponies, but ponies are priority #1. I bet I've spent hundreds on dolls that I would have spent on ponies.
I like the g4 line and love the show but I hope that they are more organized/optimistic/creative when they do release a g5 line.