Mighty Jaxx dropped off these crazy X-Ray Dissectible figures last year, and they were so successful that we already have a series two. Turns out you all are super curious about what the inside of ponies looks like I guess? Either that or desperation since it has been a while since we got some high-end figures!
Anyway, they sent a box over for me to review, similar to The Illustrious Q hitting the first set. How do these hold up compared to the first round? Is The Great and Powerful Trixie just as glamorous on the inside as she is on the outside? Head on down below the break for an un-boxxing and review!
And here is a close-up of the box if you are curious. Obviously not meant to really be a display piece like an anime figure box without the window and with the figure hidden in a bag inside.
Anyway, time for...
The best one! As if it was some kind of freaky fate thing, The Great and Powerful Trixie was my first pull! Look at that smug-ass unicorn. I can hear her glorious voice just by seeing her~
The first thing I noticed is how detailed her cutie mark is. They even have the varying colors of her wand in there, which is something a lot of merchandise tends to skip over. These models are very well done, albeit lacking the trademark butt that Friendship is Magic has become known for and all the official figures skip. You still get the back curve at least, which was removed with G5.
The Great and Powerful Trixie has a Great and Powerful skeleton as expected~ Not many bodies could handle her grandeur! Like the first series, each bone is about as accurate as you'd expect a cartoon horse to be. They aren't going for perfect equine anatomy here, but they do cover the basics. You even get a tail dock in there even if it's not visible under the actual tail. All in all, A+ Trixie.
Next up we pulled a Granny Smith! As with Trixie, she comes with the base and card. Lets dive into her figure.
I was really impressed with the mold on this one. Her spindly granny shape is basically right from the show. They absolutely nailed it, from her crooked legs to the old-age back busted back.
Like Trixie, she has the usual pony skeleton, with an added bit of wrinklage for her face. I'm not sure if bones do that, but I'm not a doctor so I'm not going to judge. The quality is really good from a collector perspective at least! At the end of the day, that's all that matters right?
Next up I pulled a Twilight! Unlike Trixie, there is 0 smug, but she makes up for it with lots of cute.
Honestly from just a 3D figure perspective, these are pretty much on the level of some of our best crafters. Considering they pulled from a fandom guru to design them, that's not too surprising. It's just nice to see that we finally got something at that level. Even Funko was a bit lacking back in the day. I think only 4DE really pulled it all out.
Like Trixie, there isn't anything different about her skeleton. It would have been interesting to see how they handle unicorn horns, but both keep that portion intact. She does have that cute hoof raise though. All in all, Twilight looks great!
Next up is Derpy! I'm thinking these don't come pre-mixed cause I was expecting a variant by now.
She's rocking a slightly different pose from Twilight with a different hoof raised. Like the others, everything else is perfectly accurate and expected of derphorse. She's also actually CALLED Derpy Hooves on the card, which is nice! No Bubbles or Mailmare here.
Her skeleton has a wing bone, and is split off on it's own as you can see from the buttshot up above. I guess in this case we can't judge if her eyes are properly misaligned since... she only has one.
Cheerilee is next on the chopping block (L...literally?), a criminally under-rated pony in merchandise. You'd think a pink pony with flowers on her flank would be more popular in Hasbro's eyes, but she didn't even get a Funko rendition back in the day. It even seemed like they planned to make her a big deal since she was in that old McDonalds line up way back when.
Like the other regular ponies, she has all of the same features. As an earth pony there isn't much else to add. She's definitely the most basic of the set with her regular standing pose and lack of extra appendages.
Next one of the variant rares popped up! Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle.
Like their adult counterparts, these two are super impressively modeled, with a turned head look for Sweetie Belle and a regular pose for Scootaloo.
Compared to Cheerilee, they are basically the perfect size too from the show. Their heads come up to her rump (at least they would if I didn't forget to take Cheerilee off her base) and proportions are all show accurate.
They are a little tricky to get on the base and keep on the base. The holes in all of these pony hooves are specifically matched to specifically sized holes, and in this case you have a bunch of different sizes. Once you get them stablized they should stick though.
Another variant in this one! The 1/32 Rainbow Dash figure
It's definitely a neat idea with the Rainbow working it's way throughout her entire body. It makes me wonder how they poured these molds, though it might be a case of transparent paint on a yellow base. At least it seems like the yellow is the primary color.
Inside you have glitter, which I'm more than happy with after all of the random Glitter on the outside figures Hasbro used to punish my OCD with. As long as it's locked away forever I'm good with Glitter. Otherwise I usually hate it.
Like the other figures, Dashie has a skeleton and organs. They aren't as visible of course, but they are still there. I kinda wish they went with a normal mold for this one.
Next up is Big Mac!
Our silent farmhorse has a completely unique sitting pose, which I'm very glad they went with after the the regular standing ponies up above.
To match his bigger frame, he has noticably bigger bones inside, with the trademark Stallion square jaw. They also threw half of his yoke on there, which is a nice touch.
Apple Bloom and Spike next!
Like the other crusaders, Apple Bloom has a perfectly accurate filly model plus that huge bow. The interesting one here is Spike! I didn't expect them to dive into dragon anatomy.
As a bipedal character, he has a much more humanized skeleton, complete with finger and toe bones. It would have been interesting to see them add some kind of flame sac in there or something for the fire breath, but everything else about him looks great, especially the non skeletal side. They definitely captured Spike, who is probably one of the least represented in merchandise out there.
And with that, I completed the set. The last three boxes were the three variant figures all repeated
I don't know if it was just luck, or if they are all like this in their box form, but that 1/32 rarity chance for Rainbow Rainbow Dash was apparently on my side in this case.
And there you have it! The full set of Series 2 Hidden Dissectibles in all of their glory.
From a review standpoint, I think the quality is top notch. The material they used is smooth and sturdy with a little bit of give to make them not feel completely stiff. These are probably the best molds we've seen out of the various licensees over the years. It's really hard to top them. I really wish this was the sort of stuff we were getting way back in 2014 when the fandom was at it's absolute peak. I feel like pony fans of old would have appreciated merchandise at this level as an option over the usual toys we were getting. As I mentioned above, even Funko really doesn't come close to these from a pure, 3D pony appeal standpoint. It's really the best out there. Jason Freeny absolutely knocked it out of the park on that point, something artists have struggled with quite a bit over the years with how difficult it is to convert a 2D pony model to the 3D world.
That being said, they are still weird. I sent a picture of them to my Mom on Discord and her first response was "Eww" followed by "Why would they do that?". I'm definitely leaning there personally from an aesthetics point of view. Artistically, they are super impressive. As a figure I'd want though? I'd absolutely kill to have these without the skeletons showing. When I first saw the initial set, I was expecting to be able to cover up the internals with the sliced off side, but you really do just have to have pony skeletons on view if you want to display them. Maybe some day they will take similar models and get us some regular figures with unique poses? Until then, skeletons are what we got!
Rest assured though, if this type of thing IS something you find appealing, they are absolutely top notch figures and you definitely shouldn't pass them up. Considering anime figures of similar quality can be in the $100+ range, I'd say an entire set of them for around that price is worth it. Of course, with a blind-bag format it's really all or nothing if you want to guarantee you get what you want, so if you are just chasing a single figure it's definitely going to be inconvenient, either with a trip to Ebay or trading someone else.
You can buy single boxes for $12.99 here, or swap it over to the full set for $155.88
Anyway, have a final gallery of the whole set below to end the review off!
