toydejour - Toy Reviews Daily(ish): 12.2008

Our house has a mix of boys and girls toys from back in the day up to now of about 90% boys toys and 9% girls toys with a margin of error of 1% due to cat toys. Of that 9%, I'd say a good 75% of those are there because of me. Liz likes toys. She doesn't BUY toys. Though the lines of what is for girls and what is for boys blurs when you get into the vinyl market, this My Little Pony from the 2008 San Diego Comic Con is definitely a girls brand toy. I asked a very reluctant Chad to pick this up while going through the uber long HasbroToyShop line to get his exclusive Joe figure. And he begrudgingly did luckily because I did not want to go anywhere NEAR that line. And thanks to Nov, I already had the Joe figures they were peddlin... but all of a sudden I couldn't pass up that ding-dang pony!

Superhero Pony in all her glory.

Liz and I had already been watching HasbroToyShop's site for the "Art Pony" that was going to be released in October of this year so I figured if we were going to start picking up the designer Ponies, that we probably shouldn't miss out on this one. Though apparently we had already missed out on the MLP that Hasbro had at the con the previous year which also shared the super hero idea.

The packaging was very simple and as you might know from my other reviews, I really appreciate simple packaging. One side shows the Pony out of costume in her secret identity and the other shows this full fledged superhero pony ready for action. Well, as much action as these ponies can muster with their 1 point of articulation. Since the toy doesn't have an actual superhero name given on the package or on Hasbro's site (probably to encourage that ridiculous notion of imagination), I've taken it upon myself to run a poll on the left hand side over there for you guys to help give her a superhero name. I trust you guys to do the right thing. ;)

The more adventurous leg.

The Pony itself repeats pretty much what was on the box; One side shows the secret identity pony and the other side shows the Pony in her disguise. The secret identity side has "Shhhh" down the leg and the super hero side boasts a "Hiya". Which I'd like to read it as if she's saying "Hi!", or like "Hi, how ya doin!?". But the fact that she has images of her on either side of her body sort of reminds me of those Ben Cooper Halloween kids costumes where you'd be Superman with a mask and your vinyl jumpsuit would also have a picture of your face on there. Not a very good way to keep that identity secret if you feature it prominently on one whole side of your get up.

As I stated above the pony has only one spot of articulation but man o man, it's the one that counts. If she gets pissed at you, you had better believe that she's not going to be looking in your direction anytime soon. The figure also comes with what every pony comes with, a freakishly giant comb. This one is all black, to match with her costume's decor. The hair (mane?) is actually two differnt shades of pink, though it's hard to spot in the photos. I'm guessing she used Manic Panic cause I've never seen other hair dyes give you dual colors like that.

All in all I'm really glad that someone at Hasbro caught on and realized that their properties translate very well into the "new" collectible vinyl market while stringing along all the faithful collectors they've had on each on various brands such as MLP and the boy brands that they're translating now into their Mighty Muggs. They've noticed so much so that the other exclusive pony that they had at this year's con was a DIY all white pony. I'm a little scared to start that project because of the hair that's connected to the figure, so for now it's known as Ghost Pony.

Hanging out with Ghost Pony and the "Art Pony".

While taking these photos I remembered that there were some vintage Ponies in the office and I took some shots to compare the body types. The photos show that there's definitely some horrible self images being placed on young girls (and 30 something males) by today's toy brands. I mean I thought Bratz dolls were bad enough, with the Hot Toddlers, but this is a slimmed down, pretty horse. I think that's a pretty horrible message to be throwing towards little girls, that if you can't lose some of that cupcake-weight, you're going to be fatter than a horse. Oh look, you already are.

Well that's about it. Awesome toy, even awesomer way to make little girls feel uglier than a horse.

Find the sexiest superhero pony for sale here (holy $$$ crap!!) and here.

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Liz: Hey Hasbro! Make me an offer.