I've always been torn. I like my ponies to be different than the ponies in the shows. Like Gusty, in the show she was kind of a mean girl, but when I was little I played with my cousin's Gusty and she was always a HE, and his personality was so much different than show Gusty. *sigh* I really need a Gusty now, why do I not have this pony yet?!
Now that being said I have an AJ army, and one of them is like the show AJ (one for each gen) and then the rest have their own personalities. Sure they look the same but they don't have to BE the same. :3