My Little Pony
My Little Pony is a line of toy ponies made by Hasbro. The ponies are often colourful, with long, brushable manes and tails. They also have unique symbols, or cutie marks, printed on their sides, depicting anything from ice cream to galaxies. The first generation of My Little Pony was produced from 1982 to 1992 and until 1995 in parts of Europe. They were based on Hasbro's 1981 My Pretty Pony, which was a larger, more realistic-looking pony made of harder plastic.
I started collecting G1 MLP around 2002, when I was seven years old. At the time, I was obsessed with unicorns and pegasi, so MLP really appealed to me. My first pony was Moondancer, who had been my mom's when she was a child. After I got Moondancer, I started looking for ponies anytime we went to garage sales and thrift stores. The condition of the pony didn't really matter to me, as I liked cleaning and trying to fix up well-loved ponies. I also collected VHS tapes of the MLP television series and movie. The 1980's MLP shows weren't very good, but I still watched them to try to learn any important lore. This awful song from the 1986 My Little Pony movie still pops in my head all the time, though it's been 20 years since I watched it.
After G1 was discontinued, My Little Ponies were produced again for a short time with a new design, starting in 1997. I never collected any of these. As a kid, I didn't know much about G2 and usually assumed any I found were knock-off G1 MLP. I find them pretty cute now, but they're still not my favourite. The 2nd generation was also discontinued in 1999, though I believe it continued to be sold outside the USA for longer.
In 2003, the line was revived again. These ponies were similar to G1, but with larger, more rounded legs and shinier bodies. I got my first G3 pony in 2004. She was Rainbow Flash, who came out as part of the Super Long Hair collection. I'm not really sure why I didn't get any in 2003. I started playing Neopets in 2003, and I think maybe that just took over my life for a while. This generation lasted until 2009, though some G3-style ponies were produced later for MLP conventions. A couple years before the end of G3, I stopped collecting MLP but kept my existing collection.
In 2010, G4 ponies were released. This generation, along with the new show, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, became popular with a much wider audience. Men and boys, who had previously been a pretty small minority in the community, were now a big part of it. I briefly became interested in MLP again during this time. I bought a couple G4 ponies, I think Applejack and Rainbow Dash, but didn't really like the design at the time. I always liked the softer, more rounded look of G1 and G3 (though the writing of the newer show was definitely better than any of the previous MLP shows or movies). I appreciate G4 ponies more now, though. They have a very sweet, pixie-ish look to them.
In 2021, the current generation, G5, began. Because I've been out of the MLP fandom for a long time, I only very recently became aware of G5 ponies, and they really terrify me. Like they look like they want to eat me. I like their fluffy hooves and the moveable legs some of them have, but their faces just seem too human to me.
