ITT I Attempt to Bring Back G1: Proto Phase 1

[WingsOfMasquerade]

4Realz Yo
FIRST post will be edited with more
No ponies were harmed in the making of this post
This is here to prove something is possible
No CG, no Photoshop, all real ponies are here

Everyone has wanted G1 back for years. This is basically me attempting to do something about it. This will end up being a long story post—because this has basically been about a zillion hours in the making to just spawn the first step here like this: to the best critics on the internet: G1 fans.
This isn’t a custom pony, an art, a tutorial or something like that, it’s an attempt to get the line back. It is a detail of all the pitfalls anyone encounters too. It is meant to be bigger than someone just doing art or normal customs.
Started out with an idea & a neglected pony type, the seapony.
Specifically the adult seapony.

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But how did it get to this point?
Thanks to the Arena I was able to buy a head. JUST a head. Her name is Little Heady. (Shoutout to you, who sold it!) My purpose with Heady here was to see if I could give her a body and make a ‘new’ seapony. With some new hair and some new paint…

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Yes. It went okaaaaaay.
The fins are rather wiggly though and the body isn’t 100%. It’s a fan item, and it could be better. (Sorry Heady) To do this right, anything would need authentic details. We know what happens when something isn’t 100% authentically detailed. Them “Losing” the original molds and doing those retro rereleases with “little squinty eyes” created quite a stir. Bighead “Fakiefly & Book” was so bogus they had to post a fake pic to get people to preorder it.

So everybody knows that “Retro Re Release” didn’t do too well.
You can argue why but it doesn’t matter because the fact will always remain Hasbro did it, didn’t like the result of sales, and blamed the fans. Was it the non-original non-nostalgic packaging? Forcing people to spend a bunch of money buying 3 at a time? Wrong colored ponies? Different molds? Smaller eyes? Cheaper hair & thinner tails? Some combination?
Regardless saying these 2 Cotton Candys are “Exactly the Same” is exactly false

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Moral of the story is ‘try harder’ and do something to get the exact detail of an original G 1 onto a new pose to create a new pony. It would need the dimensions of a G1, but as an artist how they made these things is beyond me. I tried from scratch and flopped it. The precision on the eyes is a miracle. How they did it without CAD is a lingering mystery. Bonnie has godly-level sculpting ability & symmetry.
*So why don’t you use a 3D scanner and just scan a pony & manipulate it in a 3D computer program? Wouldn’t that be easier than MAKING ponies? It would! If it WORKED. It doesn’t. There’s a home method where you do 360 degrees of photos around your object and they say it works “great”

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Oh ok but that’s free! Of course it’s sub-par!
You can’t expect results without spending money. Let’s go use the Makerbot MakerScanner that 500 dollar machine that uses high tech LAZORZ to scan your item on a calibrate-able turntable & super sophisticated software to build your 3D image.

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Following all the rules and having a professional assist the scan turned out this 3 legged lump of junk. 500 dollars and it can’t count to four. Lookin’ good there Beachball.

You would spend more time, and need a college education in 3D software to fix this thing. You’d probably be better off designing it from scratch while pretending you were working on the Avatar sequel.

I’m sure someone must have some million dollar device that can scan a simple matte-finish toy but consumer level anything sure won’t and my budget for this whole thing was like a 20 dollar bill.
So, anybody work where there’s a 3D scanner that………..also works?
Shoot me a PM…

What are the details of a seapony?
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So the new one has to have that too

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Same fins & same body length, but make the poses more active. Maybe you could do the tail out of something bendy so they could hold each other’s tails too. Right away you could do like a billion fun ideas too, like these 3 after about 5 minutes of thought and a fast-sketch:

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TAF Seapony Sand-Dollar Swirl
Seafoam Seapony – It’s a perfume puff!
Bioluminescent Beauty – Wavelight (fin dots & strip of hair glows in the dark yay!)

Everyone likely has SO MANY really cool ideas for pony sets that they could contribute. It's just having ponies to do them with.

But why stop there?
Heady was a baby, so we need more of those too:

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And then all of them

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other side

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They are leaning a bit, like a swimming fish so just laying them about on cloth isn't like getting one in your hands to pick/play with. They also look a little funny without manes or pierce holes for them. Notice the 2 types of fin were brought back for baby, too, so anyone could get the kind they want.

But, what about actual pony-ponies?
What was trying to scan Beachball for, if not to make some new unicorns & Pegasus poses? That will be posted next.
Do you have a 3D printer or scanner that works? Know 3D design software? Is it a good idea for the fans to take hold of G1 and actually bring it back with brushable toys? The era of 3d in home consumer level printing is nearly here (but that won't put hair on a pony).

But we want PONIES
Seaponies are ponies, but regular ponies would be nice to also have. I chose types who didn’t get much representation on G3, or had slightly less poses in G1, starting with my favorites (of course) the unicorn.

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Princess is there to show that they're the right size. I loved the size of G1. Not too big. Not too tiny & fiddly. The one pose is def. inspired by the blindbag Rarity pose, it's very fun on a g1 also.

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But the detail has to be right too. The eyes, horn & everything of exactly the right size.
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Different ponies with differently shaped faces giving off different 'personalities' by combining with their poses.

And  Pegasus ponies too because Masquerade is a Pegasus.

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That 2nd one there is stepping with the back foot so it's not a Heartthrob clone

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However, everyone knows boys were VERY under-represented. 2 adult poses, that’s it. Both of those were even similar! Then G3 got no boys & I think the G2 boys were identical to the girls.

Adult boy only had 2 poses...but it is also the hardest to repose. So I only have 1. It's more to be 'charging in / stepping in' kind of like Sweet Stuffs'. Their back legs are super hard.

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And

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That's the final pony from the project.
Which ends this proto phase 1. What's 2? I'm hoping to come up with it. I don't want this to end here, with some really...gray.....customs that took about forever to make. I want this to turn to something everyone can have, everyone can use & like. I want this to have a positive impact for anyone who cares about ponies/g1/the style.

I'll do what I can but what helps now is:
*Suggestions
*Ideas for how to keep this going
*Ideas for next steps

So this is my start of the attempt to bring back G1.
What is it? It’s what anyone makes of it. It’s a hype-train of some sort. I’m just tired of teasing merch with g1s, but then total refusal to even think of 1 new one for collectors a year. After seeing all the cool talent the Brony-Set brought to the pool of fans, like the ball-joint-doll makers, CG renderers, musicians, laser-cutters, and people with such mass variety of jobs, I started to wonder if I planted a seed that anything could grow.

Hopefully this thread eventually upgrades to 'proto phase 2' where the title will change & photos of whatever's next appears.

[zombienixon]

Well, the makerbot is really at the lowest end of the market.  We've had someone demonstrate a Faroe arm (a Coordinate Measuring Machine for industrial quality control applications) with a laser scanner at school. The scanner alone was $20000, the Faroe arm was around $100000. And even then I don't think it would work all that well for something like this.

Honestly, your best bet is to commission someone who has experience with 3D modeling software, stuff like Blender or Maya.

[Carrehz]

Bighead “Fakiefly & Book” was so bogus they had to post a fake pic to get people to preorder it.

...but that Firefly wasn't made by Hasbro? She was made by Running Press.

[HelloGoodbye]

The sea ponies that you made look really amazing!  Nice work!

[Sawkinator]

This sounds like a really cool project! My biggest worry, though, would be getting past copyright hurdles. Supposedly Hasbro lost the copyrights it had to most of the G1 characters (emphasis on 'supposedly'), but they they might still claim the old figures and such as theirs by virtue of the MLP label, which they still have rights to.

I'm surprised those scanners work so poorly. 3D printers are getting more affordable, so I'd think something like scanner tech would be somewhat accesible. 
Maybe you should just go with making molds of original ponies and using those, or modifying bait ponies and making molds of them? At this point it's probably more effective and accurate than trying to access better scanners or reproducing them in 3D modeling (especially from a really crappy scan).

[shabbychicdee]

oh wow great work and those poses are just so darling
my worry is copy-write too.
but yeah love your quote "try harder Hasbro"

[WingsOfMasquerade]

Pegasus & Unicorn added to first post.
I was originally going to have 3 of each new pose, but these things are SUPER HARD to make. So it ended up being 2.

Naturally, the G1 copyright is still in place for them.
If you took these to China or something, to a fakie maker company and said "Bootleg me up some Demon Donkies!" you could likely get into trouble. So going the My Lovely Horse route, while possible isn't particularly friendly. I'm basically hoping to 'stir the pot' or maybe light some fires under anyone in toys who may see this. You could totally take them to Alibaba, somebody there would bend a rule.

"Try Harder Hasbro"
The fans are out there doing stuff like this. People are capable. Zombie Nixion above mentions the kind of stuff people access. Not the common-person yet, but every generation of consumer quality stuff gets better. Marvel is printing people's faces onto Iron Man figures. This is the only instance where that Futurama Fry graphic "Take my money!" applies, tons of people want a thing, will give money for the thing and just get told "nobody wants that thing!" while the other hand is passing off gobs of G1 merchandise. So what, G1 is good for merch but "Bad for toys"? How? What?

[otocolobus_manul]

"Try Harder Hasbro"
The fans are out there doing stuff like this. People are capable. Zombie Nixion above mentions the kind of stuff people access. Not the common-person yet, but every generation of consumer quality stuff gets better. Marvel is printing people's faces onto Iron Man figures. This is the only instance where that Futurama Fry graphic "Take my money!" applies, tons of people want a thing, will give money for the thing and just get told "nobody wants that thing!" while the other hand is passing off gobs of G1 merchandise. So what, G1 is good for merch but "Bad for toys"? How? What?

At the risk of getting hate; Do that many people really want g1 back, though? Apart from this website, I mean. G1 is widely celebrated here, but I don't know if it would gather much traction outside the collecting community - which, according to what I've heard around here, isn't all that big compared to most collectordoms. I don't know. I just can't imagine reknewed g1s selling that well outside a handful of people. I see a lot of g1 merchandise shelfwarming, while (adult and child) G4 merch flies off the shelves.

Not trying to rain on the parade here, just offering up my two bits. If you really think this will gain popularity,mane you're up to the task, I'd say go for it  :

[LadyMoondancer]

These are amazing!!

As far as Hasbro goes, have they gone after anyone making customized G4 toys (not customized G4s, but new toys that are obviously based on G4s) for the collectors market? If not, then I think it's quite likely that they won't care about fan made retro G1s.

I mean, they don't blink an eye when G4s and G3s are used for fakies, so I would hope they would cut fans some slack on items that aren't even exact replicas of ~30 year old toys that they aren't currently selling.

[Sawkinator]

"Try Harder Hasbro"
The fans are out there doing stuff like this. People are capable. Zombie Nixion above mentions the kind of stuff people access. Not the common-person yet, but every generation of consumer quality stuff gets better. Marvel is printing people's faces onto Iron Man figures. This is the only instance where that Futurama Fry graphic "Take my money!" applies, tons of people want a thing, will give money for the thing and just get told "nobody wants that thing!" while the other hand is passing off gobs of G1 merchandise. So what, G1 is good for merch but "Bad for toys"? How? What?

At the risk of getting hate; Do that many people really want g1 back, though? Apart from this website, I mean. G1 is widely celebrated here, but I don't know if it would gather much traction outside the collecting community - which, according to what I've heard around here, isn't all that big compared to most collectordoms. I don't know. I just can't imagine reknewed g1s selling that well outside a handful of people. I see a lot of g1 merchandise shelfwarming, while (adult and child) G4 merch flies off the shelves.

Not trying to rain on the parade here, just offering up my two bits. If you really think this will gain popularity,mane you're up to the task, I'd say go for it  :

Well, I got into MLP through G4, and have come to a much greater appreciation of previous gens (especially G1) even though I was born at G1's end and didn't pay attention to MLP as a kid. The previous gens had a lot more variety than G4 does, and if more people outside of the current collectors looked they might find it interesting. The problem is drawing new people in - which isn't going to happen if Hasbro keeps neglecting G1 outside of a few obscure new products.

Because of FiM, the MLP fandom as a whole is much larger - Hasbro just hasn't even tried pushing G1 characters/merch on bronies, probably because of the poor performance of the G1 collector's rereleases (which was all Hasbro's fault anyways). BUT, if they see a project like this demanding new G1-like merch, they'll know the demand is still there and they might try again. I think the brony community is slowly starting to respect older gens, too, which is a plus. It can't hurt to try, at least. 

[SkyCakes]

oh wow I definitely love those old poses. The unicorns look lovely. I say go for it. G4 are nice but can't hold a candle to the Gen 1 who started it all. Good luck to you.

[Fairytale]

I have to say I love the baby sea ponies! There really are too few of them... They have not been for sale since the G1's

[Taxel]

Wow, those seaponies are amazing!!! And those new poses! I'd love if this project took off, even just as customs.

[Tigerlilyx]

What an awesome idea. If this project is on kickstarter or indiegogo i'll gladly help fund it!

[Bibinettepony]

wow!! I wish so much G1 come back!!