Will G4 have a nostalgia wave?

[Lady Frostbite]

It struck me the other day when people were talking about 'childhood cartoons' that came out when I was an adult that some cartoons will, in the future, become nostalgia for a certain generation. I'm seeing it a little with stuff like Steven Universe, or heck, stuff that was popular when I was a kid like Teletubbies have adult clothing like combat boots marketed with patterns on it.

Will G4, considering how much of the globe and internet culture it took over, have the same nostalgia? I often forgot that it DID have a child fanbase, it was so associated with young adults it overtook that demographic, especially with obnoxious 'takes' on the 'lore' of the show. My first horrified thought was 'are these bronies going to look back at that time with shame or realise what the heck they were doing in some circles?'. Will they still think their time spent arguing about the lore was worth it? What happens when someone outgrows their hardback copies of Fallout: Equestria?

It's too early to say but I don't think it will have the same hardcore nostalgia market that things like Transformers or Barbie does, with collectable figurines in the same scale. It was there at the time with the Guardians of Harmony figures, the We Love Fine stuff and Kotobiyuka still makes figures that are lovely, but considering G1 MLP is only just getting some nostalgia flashbacks, it just doesn't seem like G4 will reach the same 'vibe', if that makes sense?

[Beth3346]

i would think in a few years when the people who were kids when g4 came out are in their 20s and 30s. it feels like there's only nostalgia now with everything getting recycled. culture feels stagnant to me with all of the remakes and constant star wars, marvel, etc. but i don't really know about new stuff so maybe just my perception.

though i don't really feel like g3 is having nostalgia. was there a show for g3? g4 was such a big deal though. i'm rambling but maybe g4 will be less toxic with a nostalgia wave fanbase. the whole brony culture was a turn off for me.

[Carrehz]

We're starting to see a little bit of G3 nostalgia/retro stuff pop up... there was that thread the other day with the jewellery... I think we'd maybe be seeing a bit more of that stuff, if there wasn't so much G1 retro stuff. Maybe the 80s retro stuff is seen as a more viable market atm, or maybe we'll see more G3 nostalgia stuff in the future.

I think G4 nostalgia stuff is likely. Inevitable, even. Seems like everything even remotely popular is getting that sort of treatment these days... G4 was certainly enough of a hit that they'll do it, I dunno if they'll market it to bronies or the "remember THIS from your childhood?" crowd.

Heck, there's already a lot of G4 nostalgia stuff, when you think about it. They're still making stuff with the G4 chars.

My first horrified thought was 'are these bronies going to look back at that time with shame or realise what the heck they were doing in some circles?'. Will they still think their time spent arguing about the lore was worth it? What happens when someone outgrows their hardback copies of Fallout: Equestria?

that'd depend on the person :p same as any other silly fandom wars and such. Hopefully at least some of the "bad part" of the fandom will have "grown out" of that sort of... behaviour, you know, the really nasty types in the fandom - I don't mean the nice ones, or the ones that were just doing their own thing in their own corner - I mean the ones that you wouldn't want acting like that in ANY fandom, you know the ones.

[Leave a Whisper]

Do we really need one, when Hasbroken is still squeezing the last dregs out of that particular tube of toothpaste? I don't know if it will or not. You gotta give it at least 15-20 years for the kids of today. Nostalgic revivals take some time, it ain't gonna happen when it's still on shelves.

[Beth3346]

i remember reading something a few years back that said fashion trends cycle after 20 years because the people who grew up with those styles are in their 30s and are in more leadership roles. now a lot of the styles from the early 2000s are back in style. maybe it's the same with G3. i feel like G4 barely ended but a lot of the initial hype was back around 2014-2015 if i remember correctly. i think we still have a while.

[BubbleTea]

I'm already seeing it on tiktok from people in my age group who grew up with it

[Ragamuffin]

I think it will eventually, but at the same time, G4 isn't entirely retired yet. When G1 was done, it was DONE for the most part. G4 technically ended in 2020, but companies are still coming out with G4 collectibles and such, and the fandom is very much active. It's something that hasn't really ever gone away. Have you seen the covers for the G5 comics? Insert expletive here, they can't get rid of the Mane 6! It feels like they have little faith in G5 and they have to plaster Twilight Sparkle and Fluttershy on every issue to get people to buy it (when to my knowledge, they're not even in the book)! I don't know if they would do something specifically for nostalgia. If they keep making G4 merch indefinitely, someone is eventually going to go "oh yeah, I remember that", because it's always there.


As for G3, I've been wondering a lot myself about G3 nostalgia. I see very few people actually my age, when we were the target demographic when G3 first came out. All the people I see talking about G3 are *kids*, 14-19, and when they DO talk about it, it's like, Minty Christmas onward, very little talk or respect about 2003-mid 2005. Talk is usually media-centric too instead of toy-centric. It definitely feels more like "I like this because it's cozy"/"I don't like the brony fandom, this is safer and comfier" than actually "I grew up with this". From what little I've seen from G3 spaces, there's hardly a collector scene, it's all fanart and sharing gifs and screencaps of Minty Christmas or Runaway Rainbow. If you see pictures of actual pony toys it's just reposts from MLW. There's been a surge of interest in "wholesome media". It's kind of exhausting honestly, having a gen boiled down to something "G4-ified", fans interacting with it media-first, instead of revolving around the toys and our childhood experiences outside of "I think I might have owned a single Pinkie Pie when I was like two years old... maybe". It's preferable to the early-FiM bashing it got but it feels like a weird "forgotten middle child". You see people nostalgic for G1 because of childhood experience with the TOYS and I connect with and relate to them more than kids who just like Minty Christmas because it's "comfy". Even if there's people who try to G4-ify G1 and try to make it deeper and more expansive than it is, there's still always going to be the simpler fanbase of collectors I can relate to. G3 doesn't really have that. A place like the Arena feels like home because we all like the funny little rainbow horses we played with as kids. If I go into a kids' G3 group, I always feel alienated when I theoretically shouldn't... that IS my generation, right? Where are the people who are into G3 the way I am...?

Find the people who were there in 2003 when it dropped, then we'll talk. Other G3 fans might be too young still.

[brightberry]

I think there will be more G4 nostalgia and it will probably be different for different people.  But I think the youngest of the fans were somewhat sheltered from the adult fandom, so hopefully they'll change how that scene looks.

[TheBeatlesPkmnFan42]

I definitely have seen some nostalgia for G4 from people who were kids when it came out. Not sure how this will eventually reflect as far as merchandise goes in the long run. Like if someone was 5 or 6 when FiM first aired in October 2011 they would be what? 17 or 18 now? I know I have seen some teens and early adults reminisce about G4. Oftentimes unfortunately recalling weird brony creations they stumbled upon as children. :/

Even for me being in my 20s, I was technically a child when I got into MLP through G4, since I was a teenager and got into it I think right before high school.

[Leave a Whisper]

Oh I don't know about that. I see people drawing G3s,  because that was one of their favorite ponies. Showing off their childhood collections, gushing over grails, showing off what g3 treasures they found at a swapmeet, or ebay lot, or yard sale for cheapsies.

[MJNSEIFER]

To me, it already does and was nostalgic while it was airing for me, both in the way that it felt like something I would have loved as a kid, and as modern nostalgia.  For the record, 99% of My Little Pony in general is "modern nostalgia" for me, due to getting into it as an adult, but the majority, if not all of it, feels like I could have grown up with it, including the stuff made while I was an adult.

I have seen at least one person refer to G4 as "nostalgia" - this is also someone who watched as an adult.

I'm 100% certain that kids who grew up with G4 will find it nostalgic, regardless of whether they felt nostalgic for it while it aired or not - I'd say that MLP in general is naturally nostalgic whatever generation it is, though that may just be my own biased view on the franchise.   

Side Note: While it isn't always the same for others, "childhood nostalgia" and "modern nostalgia" are of equal importance for me - they both make me feel the positive emotions of nostalgia, and the level of it depends on the subject itself, rather than how long ago it was.

[Carrehz]

Do we really need one, when Hasbroken is still squeezing the last dregs out of that particular tube of toothpaste?

I love it.

[Taffeta]

considering G1 MLP is only just getting some nostalgia flashbacks, it just doesn't seem like G4 will reach the same 'vibe

I think that depends whether you consider the nostalgia flashbacks to be basic fun and the produced merchandise aspect of retro G1. G1 itself has been treated nostalgically for a long time, not least when other generations have come out. When G4 dropped, the thing that the majority of THIS and connected fanbases were drawn by was the idea that it came from a 'G1 pony fan' (hah to that), and that it used 'G1 concepts' (hah to that as well) with the designs of AJ, etc.

When G3 came out, it was more palatable to most G1 fans because it looked more like G1 than G2 had. G2's complete dissonance with the brand as understood in G1 created a lot of discussion, and of course, always the calls for Hasbro to bring back G1...

G1 is always going to be different from the rest because as the first gen, it was a toy and hardly anyone looked at it as anything other than a toy. G2, the G1 collectors were in there late teens and twenties, mostly when it came out, but there were people buying it as a collectable. G3 was mass bought by collectors as well as kids. G4 has had a completely different experience, but that "active collectable" mindset was still there (maybe more with franchise things than actual ponies).

I was here in 2003, I remember G3 dropping, but as an adult collector and not a child. I know it was popular with kids because I picked up a bunch for a colleague's friend at ponycon one year. I think it's early to know for sure what the long term G3 collector fan will be like, but for those on the cusp between g3/4, it's probably easier/familiar to focus on the repeated characters, later media and so on.

As for G4 - there may be the fans of the brand that are actually fans, not people on board a meme fad that has now faded. I've noticed with other toys that some fans have existential crises when 'their toy' is no longer in stores. As a G1 collector I'm now the opposite, I'm stunned to see them in stores *lol*, but a lot of folk seem to drift away when they can no longer get their quick store fix. Many G4 toys also showed up at second hand sales while still in stores, so that was a quick, disposable turnover - what HAsbro was aiming for.

FIM may be like Jem (I shudder to write that, as I love Jem), whereby the show holds value but the toys are less widely known/collected. But right now it seems like a disposable brand of pony.

The problem all other gens have is that there will always be G1 before them, and older than them, and that creates the better, more impressive anniversaries and so on. We should probably not try to compare the later gens to G1 in how they'll be seen in the future.

[chelletay]

I've been collecting MLP since the early 2000s and I'm currently in a G4 nostalgia wave. I stopped actively collecting for about 8 years, and the G5 Advent calendar brought me back! I've been snatching up all the G4s I missed, lol.