Is G4 a thing?

[WingedDragon]

G4 might not be considered a "classic", but many of its items are highly sought after and can be sold for a large sum.
G4 is still going quite strong, dare I say, it is bigger than G1. Many Hasbro collab product is still G4, and since G5 underperforms, the official MLP YouTube changed their banner to G4.

[Taffeta]

G4 might not be considered a "classic", but many of its items are highly sought after and can be sold for a large sum.
G4 is still going quite strong, dare I say, it is bigger than G1. Many Hasbro collab product is still G4, and since G5 underperforms, the official MLP YouTube changed their banner to G4.

If G4 is still as popular in 30 years from now, then we can make that comparison. It's also hard to judge G4 prices against G1, as G4 items haven't had time to appreciate. The ponies are still being dumped en masse into charity stores and second hand sales. But G4 prices seem relatively cheap to me in comparison.

G4 became popular because its timing coincided with a purple patch for social media. It thrived in an online environment that gave it every opportunity to thrive, through content, videos, memes and so on.

I wonder how it would have thrived had the same fandom faced the challenges of the late 1990s...no paypal, ponies shoved in scanners, contact via mailing lists, limited art or coding facilities.

G1 is still in stores, a new set came out (Celestials) and there's quite a lot of merchandising which has been on and off a thing for the last two decades. Again, G4 hasn't had long enough to really compare the two.

As for G5, Hasbro's biggest miss was tying it to G4's world. As much as there's still a thriving G4 fandom, the mass hype in the mainstream for G4 has gone. It's what happens now in the collecting community over the next several years that will determine whether it's just a fad flash in the pan derivative or some cult classic that changed a generation.

[MJNSEIFER]

As much as I think G4 deserves the praise it got, I can agree some of it (and even that it was pretty big "some") was due to timing - I maintain that every generation, deserves the praise G4 got, and feel that G4 only got the advantage due to timing. In terms of cartoons, G4 felt like a combination of the previous generations to me, at least in the early seasons, so I can see any of them being given the (good side of) the "Brony Treatment" if they had been the generation to be released at that time.

For G5... I still maintain that it stands on its own hooves, with or without G4. It just feels like a bonus to me that it connects to (what I still maintain to be) its own take on G4. I get that it's a new idea to tie a generation into a previous generation, but I think they did it fine - they didn't over rely on it, and they did their own thing, but I also feel they honored it beautifully. It wasn't needed, but they're doing good with it so far, IMO.

But yeah, G5 is ultimately it's own generation, even with the connection to G4, IMO.

To be honest, all generations so far have been instant classics in my opinion. I know I can't speak for everybody, but, that's how I feel about them.

[Barnacle_lady]

Yes, if there weren't bronies not a lot would be changed. Maybe the tv show and just merch. And discuss everything on conventions and meets.

[Carrehz]

Regardless of all of those production experiments, I understand what Carrehz meant simply because G4 was a streamlined effort in both media and toy production. There's a difference between discovering a detail you never noticed before in an animated episode of a series, and trying to make sense of how seventeen different countries did completely their own things for reasons we're still trying to figure out.

Yes - you explained it better than I could

But also I was kind of including the show as well when I said most G4 info was neatly documented from the get-go - not to say there isn't still discussion to be derived from FiM (or the toyline!) - but like... for example... G1's "The Glass Princess" had a song cut out of it and the footage was missing for what... 30-odd years? before finally being rediscovered last year. and we still don't know why it was cut in the first place. There's no mysteries like that with G4, because everything was being archived, recorded, put online, etc the second it aired. The toyline was neatly streamlined and everyone was keeping track of the news, filing the info away, right away...

Which to be fair, as Taffeta pointed out, this applies to G3 and (more-or-less) G2 as well! The later gens are going to have less mysteries to generate discussion about because they were released in the Internet Era, in an age where everything (or most everything) has been put online and there's multiple communities working to collate the info... etc etc.

There's definitely still discussion to be had for the show, there always is for cartoons, but this forum's always been more focused on the toys so I guess that's a big part of why there's not much G4 talk. I mean, we don't really talk about the G1/G3 toons that often either

[Raindrop]

I think there is, in addition to what everyone else has expressed, a generational aspect to collecting toys.  Interest in a generation will wane as the kids who watched the shows and played with the toys grow up and find other interests, then will resurge as those (now grown) kids have children of their own and have the time and money to indulge in nostalgia about their childhoods.

I know I went nuts over G3 because the release was (quite intentionally, I am sure) timed when I had young daughters of my own.  It was so fun to see MLP in the stores again and buy them for my children, I quickly forgave Hasbro for changing them from the G1 style I loved as a child.

So I expect G4 will maintain a steady presence in collectors' minds and may increase in popularity in the future.

[gabumon]

I love my early G4 collection and all the unique non-main-6 characters.  But (maybe unpopular opinion) I especially love that brief “G4.5” subline at the end. (just before pony life). The body shapes and poses were so nice!!  Those original Deer G4s are sweet and i’ll always enjoy them but I keep thinking G4.5 styling shouldve been what they started with.

[MJNSEIFER]

G4.5 is the Pony Life era. I have no idea why people thought that the later toyline of G4 would be a pont-five generation, no offense, but it's just the end of G4, I'd say - I don't know how "official" the generation numbers are, since the fans started the term, but I feel it makes more sense to have Pony Life (it's own era, toyline, and cartoon) G4.5 than the latest toyline of the Friendship is Magic era, which fits into G4 and hadn't ended yet, (if this doesn't come across, I know that the generations aren't governed by their cartoons.)

That being said, I get what you're saying about that toyline, I think - the looked more like the show (again, I know the toyline is important first) so it would have made sense to make them first, or at least have them appear earlier than they did.

[Taffeta]

G4.5 is the Pony Life era. I have no idea why people thought that the later toyline of G4 would be a pont-five generation, no offense, but it's just the end of G4, I'd say - I don't know how "official" the generation numbers are, since the fans started the term, but I feel it makes more sense to have Pony Life (it's own era, toyline, and cartoon) G4.5 than the latest toyline of the Friendship is Magic era, which fits into G4 and hadn't ended yet, (if this doesn't come across, I know that the generations aren't governed by their cartoons.)

That being said, I get what you're saying about that toyline, I think - the looked more like the show (again, I know the toyline is important first) so it would have made sense to make them first, or at least have them appear earlier than they did.

I would argue G5 is G4.5, except that Hasbro decided to take the term away from us and apply it on their own rules. To be G5 requires changing the world as well as the characters

...But .5 generations were only a thing from the end of G3 onwards, and really don't mean a lot honestly. I've seen people - mostly G4 fans - term Tales 1.5 or 2 (we won't talk about 2, it's nonsense). 1.5 might work for Tales IF there had been a concept of subdividing a generation prior to G3...but it's hard to go back and assign dividers long after things are set in stone.

But by the standards of previous new generation divisions, G5 is still an extension of G4.

[Carrehz]

Yeah, Pony Life is G4.5. I don't think we ever really settled on a term for the redesign of the G4 toys? I just call it G4 Reboot or Movie.

[lonewolf]

I call the redesigned G4 toys "G4.2" since they're just slightly different from the others.