Anniversary Retro Re-Release Ponies - G1 or G3?

[foalpatrol]

I'm creating a spreadsheet to keep track of all my ponies, and using filters to categorise them into different groups.  For each entry, I'm assigning things like generation, year, pose, colour, condition.  But I'm not sure what generation to assign to the retro re-releases!  Are they G1s as they are reproductions of G1 characters, or are they G3s because they were produced in the G3 years?

No right or wrong answers here, but I'm curious to know what you all think. 

[TwistedRiver]

I'd definitely say G3 due to the time frame they were produced. Its how my sister and I have always done it since we managed to get our first CP anniversary ponies at the thrift store.

[Vertefae]

I'd say G3 as well because of when they were released.

[Carrehz]

Sorry to hi-jack the thread, but I have a sort of related question.. what generation would the G1 Dollymixes, or the Firefly from the "Firefly and Illustrated Book" set, count as? I keep a spreadsheet of my MLPs as well and I've been meaning to ask what these would be counted as ;

(maybe we should just count them as "G1 Retro"? I dunno.)

[Sunshine]

I can't decide honestly. Yes by year they're in the G3 family but they are NOT G3s to me, G3s are specifically... well... shaped to look like G3s, these are G1 ponies, G1 characters, just reproduced... so I can't call them G1s because they're not... but they aren't G3s either, LOL! So, I'm on the "can't decide" fence! On that note, I do always just refer to them as G1 Repro's...

[Galactica]

I'd say G1 reproductions because they use G1 body molds.  They are reproductions rather than a new release.   Like all the G1 merchandise floating around right now.  You wouldn't call that G4, would you?

[Flitter]

G1. To me the gen. is distinguished by the style of the pony, not the year in which it was produced.

[Lancer]

I can't really decide.  Mine are catalogued on Excel along with my G3s...but displayed on the G1 shelves with their 1980s counterparts!

[Sunshine]

Sorry to hi-jack the thread, but I have a sort of related question.. what generation would the G1 Dollymixes, or the Firefly from the "Firefly and Illustrated Book" set, count as? I keep a spreadsheet of my MLPs as well and I've been meaning to ask what these would be counted as ;

(maybe we should just count them as "G1 Retro"? I dunno.)

I have to say I don't really "categorize" merchandise by Generation... as mentioned, the new retro G1 art stuff coming out now isn't really "G4 Merch", it's new, G1 style merch, I'm not sure there are better straightforward categories unless you went strictly either by year of production (making Dollymix - what, G3s?) and the Firefly booklet G4? or you went strictly by style, in which the G1 dollymix and G1 style Firefly book are G1 items...? Just my opinion. Didn't want to sidetrack but thought this was interesting too

[hathorcat]

Ooooh! Good question. I am like Lancer, I would class them as G3 on a spreadsheet but I display them with their G1 counterparts.

I think I am going to say that they need a new category G1 Retro or something. I normally go by body type as well - its G1 moulds therefore they should be G1 but something in me twitches when I try and officially class them as such

[foalpatrol]

Thanks for the replies, I see opinions are quite divided! 

I'm not sure how to word this exactly - but I'm going to stick with G3 since as in real life, a generation refers to a group of people from a specific period of time, and time cannot repeat; however styles from certain times are often repeated.

[spottedslug]

So to me they are g3 merch. I marked g3 in the poll, but they are really merch to me.

[Foxtale]

I voted G3, even though I don't consider them G3 ponies... they just came out during the G3 era so I would group them with the G3's on a spreadsheet.

I feel like they are more just Retro G1 merch, similar to the t-shirts, mugs, candy tins, etc that have the G1 artwork on it but came our at a later date.

So I guess my vote it "Retro G1 Merch" if I had to classify it.

[goddessofpeep]

I'm currently going through my collection and categorizing everything as well.  I've been in the pony community for a very, very long time, and because of that, I have a lot of stuff from the "between times".  There was G1 style merchandise coming out during the time of the G2s and the G3s, as well as the times when no ponies were out at all(well, at least in the USA).  To make my life easier, I've been looking at the ponies represented, not the timing of the object.  If it's a representation of a G1 pony, it goes into the G1 category, regardless of when it came out or what it is. 

The Applejack bobble head I got in 2004ish counts as G1 because it's the classic G1 Applejack.
The mini trash can from about the same time that uses art from old brochures counts as G1.
The G1 Dollymix ponies count as G1 while the G3 Dollymix ponies count as G3, though I tend to treat the Dollymix ponies as a separate collection like McDonald's ponies or petites.
My Toyfair petites count as G2s because they are of G2 ponies.  The fact that they're in G1 petite molds doesn't matter.

Now, for storage purposes I might mix things up a bit.  The retro re-releases haven't been stored with my real G1s, but for organization purposes, they get lumped into that time period.  I would make a note about them in both locations(G1 and G3) though.  My collection is SO large, that I'm currently using printouts of checklists to catalog it as it's quicker for my set up.  I intend to move things over to a better method later, but for now it's all I've got:p

[ponyqueen]

I'm surprised to see G3 in the lead. I don't have strong feelings, but I display these toward the end of the G1 ponies (my ponies are lined up by release date), as if G2 and G3 never happened.