Animal cutie marks

[Violet CLM]

It just occurred to me that G4 has very, very few animal-themed cutie marks. There's Fluttershy, of course, and Flitter and Sea Swirl from the show, and Honeybuzz/Bumblesweet and Bitta Luck from the toys, and... that might be it. Then there are simply countless fruits and berries and stars and hearts and rainbows. What's wrong with animals? Or more importantly, is this a new thing for G4, or did previous generations have a similar animal deficiency in their symbols?

[spottedslug]

There aren't really that many in general. I guess ponies aren't great with animals.

[Sawkinator]

It probably has to do with how much detail can be fit into a cutie mark, both on the show and the toys. I'm sure it's not always easy to simplify an animal enough for a cutie mark while still being recognizable or good-looking.

[prancingstag]

Not many ponies have animal symbols, especially mammals. I can think of Butterscotch and her butterflies, teddy bears on a few G1s (not really animals), there was Tabby who had lion cubs, some of the newborns had insects, and Hippity Hop had some rabbit silhouettes. There were also the Precious Pocket ponies, who all had an animal/fish/insect on their pocket symbols. I can't really think of any for G2/G3/G4, only butterflies and other insects, maybe the occasional bird or parrot on some of the G3s and G4's Feathermay.

Although there are a lot of insect or animal-themed brushes and combs in G1, especially for the boys. And G1 and G4 have animal friend accessories aplenty in the playsets.

[Violet CLM]

maybe the occasional bird or parrot on some of the G3s and G4's Feathermay.

Feathermay's symbol is just feathers, though she comes with a parrot. Reminds me of Mimic, tho...

[Stormness_1]

I'm thinking G4 has simpler symbols in general. Look at the reduction in Applejack's symbol for example. G1's had plenty - the whole happy tails set had animal symbols for instance! G2 had pretty basic symbols, too, mostly monochrome, and not many animals. G3 went back toward G1 in more ways than just shape, they also had the more detailed symbols, which included animals - insects and birds, fish, even a frog!

[NoDivision]

G3 had quite a few. Animals http://strawberryreef.com/Index/CutieType/animals.html and butterflies/insects http://strawberryreef.com/Index/CutieType/insects.html

G1 had a lot too.The happy tails like stormness mentioned, and the babies (Katie, Billie and Susie) are sets that are all animals. But there are tons of others and a pretty big variety of animals - everything from birds and bugs to cows, giraffes, poodles, tropical fish, and dragons! Off the top of my head I can think of at least 40 G1 that have some kind of animal symbol.

[partypony566]

The G1 uk newborns have elephants giraffes ducks and cats for symbols.

http://www.ponylandpress.com/europe/uk/surprise.shtml

All 6 G1 happy tails ponies:

http://www.ponylandpress.com/us/happytails.shtml

And babies Katie, Billie and Susie.

[ringwraith10]

Hmm, this is an interesting point! I haven't really seen many cutie marks based on man-made inanimate objects either, though (like Bright Eyes's notebook, for example). They do seem to usually be colorful concepts, flowers, or heavenly bodies...

[hathorcat]

I agree that there are many more animal based symbols in G1 and even a few sets which only had animal based symbols - from dogs to dragons However, at the moment, there were also a lot more G1 characters than there are G4 characters; so I would say a small amount of the "more in G1" argument is down to there simply being more characters. But that's only a small part of it.

In G3 there was certainly more of a move towards very traditionally "girly" symbols - abstract or flowers or fruit or heart or star based symbols. It was far from the only type of symbol but there is certainly a visable switch away from the very wide variety of G1.

As for G4, I agree with others that the main reason we are perhaps seeing such basic symbols is a general lack of space. Most G1 symbols are basic but even they needed a larger area to be clear as to what they were supposed to be; with the very small area for G4 some of the symbols may be judged to be too complicated for the space.