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| Wysteria |
The first eight characters released were divided into two groups. The glitter ponies had tinsel in their hair. The original four were Kimono, Minty, Pinkie Pie and Sparkleworks. Yep, Pinkie Pie was not original to G4, or rather, Friendship Is Magic. In fact, several of the current TV show's characters got their start in G3!
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| Fluttershy |
The other set of four original G3s were the rainbow ponies. These had multicolored hair, although they were not limited to rainbow colors, like the G1 rainbow ponies. The four were Wysteria, Sweetberry, Sunny Daze and Rainbow Dash. The current Rainbow and Pinkie look quite similar to their G3 versions, but others were very different. Fluttershy, seen here to the right, joined the rainbow pony assortment later in 2003. She still has a soft look, but I actually far prefer the colors of the G3 version. This pink is so absolutely lovely.
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| Butterscotch |
One of G3's more annoying characteristics, in my opinion, was the constant rerelease of ponies in new poses. And they didn't exactly wait long either. 2003 gave us new poses for Sparkleworks, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash and Sunny Daze in the second main release of G3s. They were accompanied by new characters Daisyjo, Strawberry Swirl, Fluttershy and Tink-a-Tink-a-Too.
Then came even more bad news for collectors. Or honestly, it could have been before the wave 2 of ponies. It's been too long and I can't remember. But anyway! Not only did we get repeat characters already, but we also got European exclusives almost right off the bat. Europe got not one but SIX new ponies that were not also released in the US. Fans were furious at having to import so quickly. And when they finally did make it to the US, they were either packed together with a new pony if you were lucky or their single-pack boxed was sold with another single-pack box...of a pony you likely already owned, like Sparkleworks. People were not pleased.
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| Cherry Blossom |
The one nice thing Hasbro was doing was that they brought back the mail order system. You clipped pony points and exchanged them for bracelets, videos and most importantly, PONIES. Dazzle Surprise was 2003's offering.
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| Rainbow Swirl |
All of that I semi-ranted about just now? That was only the FIRST YEAR of G3. Yeesh.
2004 brought more glitter and rainbow ponies. I remember becoming annoyed already in this year, because some of them kinda looked like ones we already had. Sew and So looks like Sparkleworks. Toola Roola had Sweetberry's coloring. Sunset Sweety looked like Bumblesweet and BOTH of them came out in 2004.
Later in 2004, glitter and sparkle ponies joined together to become the Perfectly Pony assortment, while the Sparkle Ponies, like Rainbow Swirl here, were the new thing. They have glitter on their foreheads and symbols. The symbol glitter is pretty cool, but the forehead patches always looked weird to me.
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| Wish-a-Whirl |
The Jewel Ponies also came out this year, though I don't have a photo from my collection of any of them, as all have been sold. They had a big rhinestone as part of their symbol.
Target got more holiday exclusives, both winter and Easter now. A spring basket with three ponies, one of which was Wish-a-Whirl to the right, was also released. Disney even got into the exclusive game, offering some of the original G3 characters dressed up as their princesses, but these were only sold at Disney.
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| Pepperberry |
The gimmicky ponies started to show up more then. We had ones with really long hair, ones with really long hair that also came with a baby, standing ponies that were ice skaters and ballerinas, standing ponies that were ice skaters and ballerinas that also came with a baby, and loads of dress-up ponies. And the multipacks got out of control.
There were two awesome exclusives that I loved in 2004. Sunshimmer, who I am in the process of adding back to my collection, was the mail order, while Pepperberry here was a KayBee Toys exclusive.
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| Shell-Belle |
In 2005, I already was buying far less ponies. The single-packed ones weren't holding my attention. Although I don't know how I missed Alphabittle, because she is fantastic and I just won her on ebay yesterday. But then Hasbr hit me in my weakness: bright colors.
The Shimmer Ponies had matte bodies and tinselled hair. I didn't get a lot of them, but both Shell-Belle and Waterfire, who's one of my two favorite G3s ever, made it home.
The Dazzle Bright line had the same matte bodies, but they had multi-colored hair, so these two lines were basically just brighter versions of the original glitter and rainbow lines.
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| Waterfire |
I am a huge sucker for neon though. I LOVE these ponies. From Dazzle Bright, I bought the entire line of six. Waterfire and Beachberry are my favorites from the entire line. I even brought them to Egypt with me when I worked there for five weeks!
The bright colors continued throughout the year. The Sunny Scents line had excellent smells and Dream Design had fun 3D molded symbols. Dream Design contained the line's first pegasus characters.
I found myself hooked on ponies again and would rush to the stores pony-hunting, being very disappointed if my friend and I didn't come home with something.
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| Beachberry |
Toys R Us got a lovely exclusive line called Jewel Birthday. The ponies had the rhinestone symbols like the regular jewel ponies, but these were birthstone-themed. I got April Mist for my mom and I had Sweet September. But I also bought October Dreams because she's a gorgeous green and I think I had June Blossom, too. I actually may have had a lot more than I'm remembering. I can be kind of a sucker for birthday stuff.
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| Kiwi Tart |
The holiday ponies continued throughout 2005. Valentine's ponies joined Easter and winter and another spring basket was released.
The gimmicks also continued. More super long-haired ponies, ones with scooters (the first appearance of Scootaloo!), more ponies in clothes, more free babies, ponies with fabric wings, ponies that came in purses, loads and loads of multipacks.
Although I felt more into ponies again, I really didn't buy much aside from the Shimmers, Dazzle Brights and Jewel Birthday. The love was already waning, thanks to the repetition of a lot of specific colors and the ridiculous gimmicks.
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| Seascape |
I did get the year's mail order pony, a pretty blue girl with Kimber neon red hair, who was named Love Wishes.
2006 actually brought some more unique designs to the table. The Cutie Cascade ponies had symbols that stretched all the way down one back leg. The Crystal Design ponies had very 3D symbols, much moreso than Seascape here, who was part of the Dream Design line from 2005. The Pretty Pattern ponies not only had symbols all over their legs, but their bodies were gradient-colored. The Divine Shine ponies took a page from the G1 Sparkle ponies and were made of glittery transparent plastic.
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| Lavender Lake |
The pegasi from 2005 were back and now they had their own line of six. Sounds exciting, but then you look at them. White with pink hair. Two purple ones, one with blue and white hair, one with pink. Pink with pink and blue hair. Blue with pink hair. Blue with blue and white hair. Six different ponies, but only white, pink, purple and blue were used. This is the sort of lack of color that made the line really boring really quickly for me. You see, I love red. And there are no red ponies except in G4 and one single SDCC exclusive G3. I also love green, but not mint green all the time and not neon green that's only found in hair. Repetition is boring and it was one of G3's biggest flaws.
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| Silver Glow |
Of course, that didn't stop me from getting Silver Glow, because she's a gorgeous pegasus, even if she is trapped in a set of the same colors over and over.
Unicorns also debuted this year.
Toys R Us got another amazing birthday-themed line that I either never heard about or was disgusted when I saw the ponies for Mom and myself and decided to shun. You see, April Daisy is pink with pink and purple hair, and September Aster is purple with pink hair. But if I did willingly ignore this line, I was a stupid idiot, because there are some splendid ponies in it and the line is sadly harder to find right now. I will eventually collect them all though!
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| Pretty Pop |
I'm going to leave off the more detailed year by year descriptions now. Silver Glow was the next to last G3 I purchased when they were on the shelves. I was thoroughly disgusted with G3s by this point, thanks to the lack of variation and the tons and tons of silly gimmicks, repeat characters and multipacks. I even passed up the Breezie sets, which were actually pretty cute. The final pony I bought in stores was 2008's Morning Glory, and my last one that I added to my original collection was the SDCC red superhero exclusive.
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| Generation 3.5 Cheerilee |
Generation 3 morphed into Generation 3.5, very cartoony ponies that I don't think many people liked. I bought Cheerilee, because she was clearly Cherry Blossom, but I never paid much attention to the line otherwise.
G3s were a definite passion of mine for a time, but issues with the line, which I've peppered throughout this post, ultimately made me lose love for them a lot more quickly than I imagined.
I picked up Pretty Pop with some other things in a trade a couple years ago and I was reminded how pretty G3s are. Then in September 2015, I decided to finally get the Egyptian one from 2011.
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| MLP Fair 2011 Egyptian Pony |
But I didn't get really back into them until very recently, when I discovered someone on Tumblr who posts a lot of cool pony things. So now I've made up a small wishlist and I'm whittling away at it. I actually managed to get almost all of them taken care of already, so I'll be turning my attention to the harder to find birthflower set. I'm not going to go wild and buy tons of G3s, but I want back some of the ones I sold and some new ones I'm just discovering.
G3s will always be pretty special and I'm glad to be feeling the love for them once again. Yes, the line has a lot of issues, but I really love the ones I have.
PHOTO CREDITS: All mine.
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