Oh look, another box full of My Little Pony Toys arrived on my doorstep. Let's go open that up and take a look inside, shall we?
…
Fine, some background information. Unlike the last Unboxing Review that I did—which came straight from Hasbro—this one contains the Spring My Little Pony Releases from Basic Fun! Which means you'll be able to get a closer look at some of the toys Basic Fun showed off at New York Toy Fair earlier this year!
Also, this box is bigger than the one from Hasbro. So it is time to find out what secrets it contains!
Some might say I have no honor for using a Bat'leth to open mail. To that I say, you are just jealous you don't have one which can fit in the palm of your hand. And…
Do I see what I think I see in the box? Let's go empty out this big box first and take a look!
It really truly is!
It's another box.
Boxes within boxes! All the boxes in the world! Well there is only one thing that can be done about this.
Shove aside the Flashems and the Mashems (for the moment) and open up the box!
For known toys are known toys, but a unmarked box could be anything. Even another box!
Qapla'! The shipping tape has been vanquished! And to the victor goes the spoils! Now, what were you trying to hide from me…
…that has been packed in so well the products cannot be removed individually and so I must empty them all out at once by dumping them out of the box?
Clearly they are ponies of some sort… even if they are upside down. These are ponies the likes of which haven't been seen on toy shelves since—
Has it really been 35 years since Generation 1 of My Little Pony came out? It seems like only yesterday my sisters were playing with these on the living room floor. And Basic Fun was kind enough to send the entire first wave for me to take a look at.
These ponies look just like I remember them. Yes, I know I am old. But I kind of feel like these toys are looking to capture that 80s Hasbro toy nostalgia market. How can I be sure about this? Well, let's take a closer look at one of them and compare it to the '83 G1 counterpart.
The combo is the same. The model of the pony is exactly the same. The ribbon is the same—though already tied onto the tail of the 35th anniversary edition. The Logo is the same—just slightly faded on the '83 Original blister card. The cutie mark pattern is exactly the same. The eyes are exactly the same.
Heck even front box art on the 35th anniversary edition was either ripped wholesale from the original blister card, or was highly inspired by it. I'm betting it's the latter.
If Basic Fun wanted to go with creating a simple 35th Anniversary MLP Toys, they would have packaged the ponies on blister cards like the original. Packaging on blister is a hack of a lit cheaper than creating a whole new box to sell and display the toy in.
This toyline is targeting three audiences. The first is the kids of today, who might get a kick out of seeing these "new" My Little Pony designs on toy shelves. The second to those who were kids in the 80s who are looking to recapture a moment of their childhood (the packaging does a fantastic job or hitting all the right nostalgia notes). And the third target is to MLP Toy Collectors, for pretty self explanatory reasons.
This is an incredible product to come out in 2018. A perfect way to celebrate the 35th anniversary!
Now let's go take a look at the rest of the box.
The left and right sides of the box are the same. The both showcase the six ponies which are included in the first wave of the 35th anniversary line of MLP Toys. With their names mentioned is you needed any reminders.
Please excuse me while I try to not show this to every single fan of 80s toys I know. For the back of this box is pure, MLP G1 Toyline Goodness!
Wait, I'm too late in not showing it? Ooops! Let's move on to the top of the box!
The only reason why the clear plastic cuts into the top of the box this much is so collectors can place a light above it to illuminate the toy inside the box.
The bottom of the box doesn't contain any surprises. Just the barcode, the manufacturing information, and the companies involved in the production of the product.
The one thing I wish the bottom of the box did, assuming Hasbro was willing to play ball, was to allow Basic Fun to use the Hasbro Company Logo from 1983. It really would have been a nice touch.
Yeah, I'm going to keep these in the box. These are a really nice toy from a bygone era (perfect for kids of all ages), and are also a fantastic collectors items! They will look fantastic on my MLP toy display… when I actually get that built.
Up next we have the 9th wave of the My Little Pony Flashems line of mystery toys! On the one hand This line of toys have flown mostly under the radar of the Brony Community. Checking MLP Merch Database for these brings back no results. So is both news to the readers of EQD (and the community at large), and also a big surprise this has made it to the 9th wave without too much coverage. I'm curious as to the quality of these toys.
So let's go open up the six pack and take a look see!
So it looks like this wave contains six ponies. Cheerilee, Princess Celestia, a Mystery, Pinkie Pie, Nightmare Moon, and Rarity! These toys are billed as "Squishy Fashion Fun!", so I shall be the judge of that once I get this opened!
Since these toys are sold in cylinders as opposed to boxes, the product information is on the same plane as the front cover. You just have to rotate it around to the back to see it.
Now for a better look at the rest of the front cover. Good Morning Princess Celestia and Cheerilee! I hope your voice actress Nicole Oliver is doing well today.
Alright. Got all six out of the package. Let's go open them up!
Okay. The contents of the package are the toy itself (covers in wax paper… I'll get to why that is in a minute), more product information, and a checklist/advertisement for the previous waves of Flashems! Which for waves 7 & 8, featured the Mane 6 in different forms from My Little Pony: The Movie! Wave 7 being Seaponies and Wave 8 being Pirate Ponies!
…
I might have to track down four complete sets of wave 8. One to keep for myself, and a set to give to Thom Zahler, Brenda Hickey, and Heather Breckel for their work on My Little Pirate: Friendship Ahoy!
And here is the complete Wave 9 MLP Flashems in all their glory! Opps, I think I just spoiled the mystery figure is a glitter Applejack. Silly me!
…
I get the feeling you want to see these toys upclose. Well so do I!
And for this close up, it seems only fair to take a look at Princess Celestia! You know since she has the traits of all three pony tribes combined and she looks like the most complex figure in the lot.
Yes she is more complex than black snooty. So let's go take a look!
The toy is indeed squishy, but is it also slightly sticky. The toy feels like it was designed to be placed on desk (for either a kid or an adult) and not get knocked off by, for example, someone tossing their pen at it.
It would probably make for a great computer monitor decoration.
And the level of molded detail on this toy is incredible. The wings are right. The crown is right (and scaled to fit the oversized head). The necklace is correct. The cutie mark has been simplified to a single color, but is correct in shape and placement. Her horseshoes are molded on and correct.
Even the floor pattern of her mane is accurate. The only part which is off from the show model is the tail is a single color. That is more than likely a manufacturing limitation, but it is molded correctly so if you want to you could paint it the correct colors.
Though why you would want to go to that trouble for this toy is beyond.
The back of the toy is a lot simpler than the front. And Celestia is suffering from a case of "Single Cutie Mark Syndrome." Though with a figure like this, it is pretty easy to tell which side is the one you want to display.
Rear view of the little toy horse. The quality of this toy is fantastic.
View from the underside proves this version of Celestia has had her legs fused in the molding process. this was probably done to give more stability to the figure when it is on display and not being stored in the cylinder it came it.
View from the top is mostly obscured by Celestia's big mane. So the toy is show accurate in that regard.
There is one other detail which I noticed about this toy which absolutely floored me. Namely that the eye under Celestia's mane is painted on there. and hasn't been left blank. Basic fun really didn't have to do this, since that eye is completely covered by the mane. But adding in the painted eye shows a level of detail which I wasn't expecting at all for a toy like this.
These toys really are high quality, which when you consider the $3.99 prince point isn't something one should be surprised about.
Do consider picking up one and try your luck with what you can purchase. Maybe you'll get lucky and capture Nightmare Moon.
And finally, we have the First Series in the My Little Pony Mashems Toy Line. And if I am reading this right, which I'm pretty sure I am, these are in essence My Little Pony Stress Balls. But those balls are fun to squish, so they are an easy medium to make a child's toy out of.
Let's go take a closer at these shall we?
I love how they chose Rainbow Dash for the pony on the packaging for this one. Her expression on this is just so much fun.
As is the pun "Mash Mallows."
Though the "slow foam squeezie" tag line gives me the feeling these toys are made out of memory foam. I guess I'll find out when I open it up. Which I shall do…
…in a little bit since I still have to take a look at the product information in the back! Which contains no surprises.
Product information is pretty standard no matter what you are buying, so I would have been shocked if it ever did something expected.
This is another collection, so there will be variants to collect. And just like that I am wondering how many of them there are in the set.
*counts number of packages in the first picture*
I'm betting the number is 12.
While this little "tag" at the top is used for hanging the package on the rack, I have a feeling more than a few people *coughCheliscough* are interested in the orange pony with bacon hair featured there.
I hope this means in Wave 2 she will be featured.
So let's go open this package up and see what we can find!
Apparently I found an empty bag given Princess Cadance's portrayal and character development over the past 6 seasons.
*sound of crickets chirping*
Yeah, I had a feeling that joke would fall flat.
But it is interesting to note the package for the Mashems is nothing more than a sealed bag, like the MLP Blindbags from Hasbro. Though unlike the MLP Blindbags, there are no codes embossed on the package to be able to figure out which character you are buying.
These really are mystery buys, so your chances of getting the same figure as oppose to the one you want are pretty significant.
Let's go take a look at the figure itself.
Yes, this is clearly Princess
On her left side she has her cutie mark and Scootaloo's wings.
On her right side she has no cutie mark and Scootaloo's wing.
Top view of the figure kind of reminds me of a sitting cat.
Bottom view contains the copyright information.
Now that the views of the figure are out of the way, let's find out if this actually functions like a stress ball.
DIE PRINCESS DIE!
…
I mean, yes this toy is a great stress reliever. Just look at me squeezing the stress right out. Must squeeze harder. Knuckles aren't white yet!
And now Cadance is a flat princess, but she is already bouncing back. While wait on her to recuperate, let go take a look at the rest—
*looks in the direction of Arizona*
Oh Seth! You might want to take a look at this!
The Mashems contain GlimGlam! I wonder if this means…
Yes, Twilight and her friends are there. No surprise. Though Dashie is adorable, now for the remaining six. Could we possibly have…
The Great and Powerful Trixie and the Answer is no. We got Lyra and DJ-PON3 for some reason. And Princesses Celestia and Luna. Thus completing the set of the four rulers of Equestria.
These Mashems are a cute and fun little item to get your hands on, so definitely consider picking one up if you come across them in the retail wild.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Like Hasbro, Basic Fun has a lot of really high quality My Little Pony toys coming out. Unlike Hasbro, you're going to have to find these at toy retailers like Target, Walmart, and small independent toy stores since ordering them online is not really feasible. Though if you do come across them, consider picking them up.More than likely you will be glad you did.
Until next time folks, this has been The Illustrious Q. See you in the comments.
Twitter: The Illustrious Q
