Lesson 7: My Little Pony G2, toy line.

Previous Lesson: Lesson 6: My Little Pony G1.5's Animated Feature: My Little Pony Tales.

My Little Pony G2 was first released in late 1997. It ran up until 2003 when it ended and G3 began. G2 was released worldwide initially, but it was discontinued after about two years in the U.S. and Canada due to poor sales. The toy line would live on in Europe, where it was actually quite popular. Despite this, G2 managed to design and develop a whooping 200 different models of pony in the seven years it ran.

They also had other merchandise, such as bean chairs and other things.

The setting for G2, in the U.S., was called Friendship Gardens, but retained it's previous name, Ponyland, overseas, for reasons I don't think even Hasbro understands.

Get more details after the jump.

The reason for it's failure in the U.S. is partially due to  the G2 ponies having a vastly different design than the originals. The other might be that MLP hadn't been in the limelight for years over here.

Your milage WILL vary

They weren't as big, they were skinnier, their heads could be moved, they had a little gem in their eyes, and they each came with a set of accessories just for them instead of just a comb and ribbons like the originals.

Secret Surprise Ponies was the standard set that they came in.

They'd get a few new ponies and accessories each year. Then came the Magic Motion Ponies, which came with a wide variety of accessories and had movable limbs. These equines came with a wole little closet of jewellery or a tea party table. G2 also had it's own set of Princess Ponies, thought they were called Royal Ponies, instead.

Like previous Gens, larger playsets seen arrived, such as the mansion near the tale end of the line, or Sweetberry's Kitchen. Most of them came witha  pony included, excepting only the garden playset.  And yes, there were also Baby Ponies, which came with a nursery.

Complete List of G2 Ponies:

G2 Earth Pony:

G2 largely didn't have unicorns, pegasi, sea ponies, or flutterponies. It was mostly just different variations of Earth Ponies with different features, called Secret Surprise Ponies, Magic Motion Ponies, Princess Ponies, Royal Lady Ponies, Ligth Up Ponies, Twins, Chaning Mane and Tail Ponies, Hobby Ponies, Fantasy Hair Ponies, Purse Ponies (?!), Musical Ponies, Magician Ponies, Wednesday Afternoon Ponies (????), New Hair Features Ponies (the hair is shiny), Dream Up Ponies, and Fantastic Job Ponies (O.o).

G2 Unicorn with Magic Wings:

In all, it wasn't a bad run. Though a largley forgotten Gen in the U.S. and Canada, that is not the case for European collectors, that's for sure.

There was a bit* of fandom rivalry between fans of G1 and G2, which resulted in a lot of mocked up images of the G2 ponies, often looking like this:

and this

Animated Features: Unlike G1, which had two cartoons and a movie, G2 never had got one, but it did get a PC game, which will be covered in...

Next Lesson: MLP G2's PC Raising Sim Game

*=Understatement of the milllennium.