As many of you are probably already aware of at this point, Build a Bear has a plushie line that continues to pump out toys every few months. Their most recent addition being the Fluttershy you see up above. Since these ended up second in the poll we posted a few days ago, I figured we'd review them!
So without further ado, head on down below the break grab our stance on Build a Bear's plushie line.
I'm going to start this one off with front facing, since for a good amount time, even the custom plushie market had trouble really showing off the ponies from straight on in 3D. Since the old days, we have had boatloads of fan interpretations of the pony shape in real life pop up over the years. Even the show seems to be doing front facing shots a lot more than it used to. As the creative side of the fandom mastered it, the official merch still struggled for a good half a year before really nailing it. These guys are an example of this particular view done right.
Have some Twilight Sparkle first, since she is, as always, the best of the mane 6 (you know it's true!) I'm not sure if the wings on the pegasus/alicorn types was a stylistic choice, but the shiny material is a pretty big contrast to the rest of the toy. Both her horn and wings don't really "match". That seems to be the case with a lot of these plushie lines. Outside of that though, this plushie does a pretty good job of representing her show counterpart. Especially the mane. She appears to be the only one that really comes pre-styled.
Now before I complain and whine about having to brush pony hair, we have to remember that these are Build-A-Bear plushies. Their whole philosophy has always been "give the builder a template and let them run with it". While the ponies are pretty straightforward themselves, the manes are going to require a bit of work.
Fluttershy, Pinkie, and Rainbow are pretty open to whatever you want to do with them. While it may appear to be a random mess, each of these does come somewhat prepped for a specific type. Rainbow Dash's top is short, and each color has it's own "section", so you wont need to pick out each and every strand to separate them. Fluttershy on the other hand has a much longer top portion, allowing it to flow down her face. Pinkie Pie is as you would expect; absolute chaos. When shipped from the online store, they all come pretty tightly wrapped up, so you may need to let the curlyness settle a bit (as seen in Rainbow Dash below, shes crazy curly right out of the box) or follow one of those tutorials on actually using hair products to fix brushable toys as a whole (don't do this without some guidance, I'm not responsible for ruined plushies!).
Another view of the manes from the side
The model on the Build a Bear Plushies is great. These things are huge, larger than any of the other plushies outside of those limited edition giant Funrise ones. When you drop 25 bucks, you get a lot of pony. As with the mane, you may need to poke the stuffing around a bit just to get them to look perfect. As you can see from the images above, their snouts tend to be a bit on the random side until you work with them a bit.
Materialwize, expect softness. If you aren't like me with my OCD of getting them dirty, expect a super comfortable pillow at night.
They also have optional accessories to deck them out in if you are into that, these do cost extra though. And no socks.
Have a bit of a breakdown, since people have been requesting these:
Positives
Great model with one of the best front facing forms around
Super soft material
Manes give you just the right length to work with in making them look good
Giant size in comparison to other plushies out there
Negatives
They require a bit of work to get them to their show accurate state
Single sided butt symbol
Pegasus and unicorn wings/horns don't really match
No socks
No Trixie
Final Destination
Overall, I'd say they are pretty solid purchase. You definitely get what you pay for, and with build-a-bear locations all over the place in both Europe and the USA, you can even dodge the shipping charges.
Head on over here to grab them online!
