Retros G1.5 Aren't Up to the Originals?

"Some of you can be a little to picky.You have to appreciate them for what they are. A remake of a classic. And how many remakes can ever live up to the original? They are definatly not the same but they are cute in their own way!" - these are the golden words from Skylar on the MlpArena. Unfortunately, MountainCai doesn't think so! If a mountain doesn't think so, then nothing matters as they all seem small and trivial.

I don't think it is so much a problem living up to standards, but rather, Hasbro is in fact cheating on the materials/quality of the repros compared to the real G1s. Get it? CHEAT, like a husband cheats on a wife kind of cheat. For G1s, they get ribbons with a "thick" feel that you only find being used on Godiva gift chocolate boxes today mostly. The new ribbons are shorter, and they're really thin. The symbols are cheaply slapped on with a layer of gloss smeared across to ensure they stick on like a sticker.

Next, for the mold, it could have been better. Problem is not because it is a repro off an old pony, but rather, the Hasbro sculptors themselves don't really see much difference in the details! At the pony fair, the guy Kirk said he was quite impressed that their technology allowed them to so-call "scan" an existing pony into a computer and they produce a new mold from there. Pretty much like a photocopy I guess. He claims that the new mold is just like a replica. I did voice out that I thought the new molds did lose out some details, but he didn't seem to think the same way. :P I think Hasbro could have tweaked and improved the molds if they wanted to, but it just didn't seem important to them. I mean if you are really interested in catering to the collectors' community, surely you will at least make the effort to execute aesthetics with a little more precision? And I can really see why MLPs are losing out to LPS, new or retro release.

I would say if Hasbro cared a little more, the retro releases would have lived up to the originals in terms of quality standards and expectations. Sadly, Hasbro's idea of meeting standards is very different from us collectors, so there is nothing much we can do, but take it or leave it. I don't think sales is too bad, but neither is it so good that Hasbro is encouraged to rush out more. Anyway, even though I think I may sound quite negative about the retro, they're not exactly lost causes. I do realise that the Rainbows look better OUT of package than in the package. I took mine out because I had to ship them home to Singapore, and they look much prettier, even with the smaller eyes! I guess you can call it making the best of what you have ^^ They're not thaaaaaaat bad, yet, they could have been better. I think it's probably the "could have been" part that turns a lot of people off, and it's within Hasbro's ability to achieve that is not being done. AHHHHHH, the horror on how Hasbro stinges on us and still expects us to fork out the money; just makes us feel like we're only worthy of borderline importance sometimes.

Leeching in Monterey

Ok after 1.5 months of living on the east coast with my friend princessluna11706, I'm dead broke, because everyone knows how expensive things in New York can get. And not to mention how unfathomably one can spend over one short weekend in Rhode Island at the MLP Fair. I became broke as naturally as breathing air. God knew that way in advance, but he didn't bother telling me, not even in my dreams... . Of course I was upset, but SO HAPPY that I had all the ponies I wanted at the same time. I've been planning to visit my cousin in Monterey, but have been dragging my plans because princessluna11706 said we had to go to Boston on 4th of July, which was not a regretable trip by the way! It was AMEN haven there. I had such a wonderful time admiring the Museum of Fine Arts and dancing in the aquarium, taking videos of every fish or fishlet I came across. Anyway, I've finally DONE it! After my trip to San Jose and Fremont to Bridgetsmum & Chief's, I took an expensive 1.5 hour airbus for eeek $35! It only costs me $15 to travel from NYC to Boston - URGGGH so cheap!

Monterey in summer has the temperature of winter in Brisbane, Australia - LOL! A weak summer I'd say, but the view was breathtaking. The harsh sea coast with all the eroded rocks and sparse patches of remaining plateu reminded me of a time long gone. An epic tale of a tragic hero started playing in my mind of a charming adonis with curly dark hair, with clear cobalt blue eyes. Then suddenly, somehow his face was replaced by my own, and then I realised what an ugly dream it was. I don't like to diss myself, but even I can scare myself sometimes. It's a fact, not fiction.

General Design of a Typical My Little Pony

There are many ways to design a pony, and that's probably why there can be so many pony fakies out there. Cute ponies are no longer a niche in a toyline. If you look at every popular toylines out there like Barbie or Strawberry Shortcake or something as sad as Bratz, every toy manufacturer wants a bite of the pony/horse pie. Everyone saw the need to diversify, ALL EXCEPT Hasbro. Hasbro created My Little Ponies and started a trend that's true, but they don't have the guts to challenge their competitors in saturated areas such as human dolls that they tried to perpetrate back in the 80s with the Megan doll, and eventually the Moondreamer doll line that didn't do too well, but was an obvious extension from the seeming success of the past 3 different releases of the Megan doll. I would say there is too much market research but too little actual experimentation from Hasbro. They may have focus groups and so on, but these are only small representative samples that are daringly used to reflect the world as a whole. That is simply biased qualitative research I feel. Ok, so this may sound too much like vindictive personal attacks on Hasbro's marketing moves, and in truth, I admit 90% is true!!! I can be very honest and hurtful most of the time.

Anyway, my point is - after a long sidetrack ranting - Hasbro has lost sight of making MLPs an age 3-6 toy. They claim they are trying to make toys for a younger age group, but yet they're not willing to shake off the "I'm so hip and cool" impression that their ponies now have that clearly belong to toys from the older age groups. Not that it is always a bad thing, but Hasbro is seriously putting in a luke-warm effort, making the ponies standing neither here nor there. They're not cool enough for the older children and too cool for the younger kiddos to relate to. Therefore, in my grading system of design success, they get a capital F (for FAILURE!).

The initial design moto from Hasbro was that they intent to make ponies an innocent toyline, free from fashion and bohemian strive from existing toylines on the market. Barbie is the typical OMG dropdead grogeous exemplar of fashion and the "it" girls club. As for Bratz with their unconventional attractive ugliness, it's definitely part of the bohemian sect. I mean which boy in the world wants to marry a girl with a head bigger than his football when he's 18? And little girls see Bratz as their "role model"? I can't help but LOL, ROFL and LMAO at the same time. If words can be animated, you'll see my action abbreviations fly. Instead of what they set out to do, Hasbro actually made a simplified version of the above said things. It was pure horror when I discovered my beloved ponies were all suffering from full time work that involved tea parties and costume balls 24/7. Even at slumber parties, they can be having crumpet magic.

I can't say I am a talented designer or anything, and my only credential is that I babysit my baby niece and little cousins, and by watching how they interact with other children, I roughly understand what makes them tick and want to react, and therefore, what kind of looks and play endears easily to them most.

In my opinion, small children don't understand what being cool and fashionable means. Age 3-6 is the time when they like to "monkey see monkey do"; they tend to either copy older kids or they find someone who looks their age and they copy each other. Therefore, the quickest way to create a pony that hits off directly with a child would be to make a pony look like a child. A pony is not gimmicky like some other toys on the market, nor do they have a strong storyline or successful cartoon to back them up, so their appearance is extremely important. In the illustration above, I've noted what I think are defining traits that are attractive to a child of age 3-6.

Baby Sweet Tooth

As many of you would know by now, I can such a purist when it comes to breed and colour when it comes to my ponies. Oh sounds so racist :D If you ever get to know me better, you'll discover that I'm actually an open-minded and endearing person to hang out with! Most people do not give themselves a chance to find out, SADLY! The above picture was taken at our first Singapore My Little Pony Meet last year 2007! The yellow baby pegasus is obviously Baby Dancing Butterflies. As for the blue baby, it's my custom Baby Sweet Tooth. The official mail order from Hasbro made her as a unicorn, which was a big NOOOOOOO. She looked nothing like her mum! She's too blue, wrong breed and symbols too bold. The purist in me manifested innately like a mutant ability when I chanced upon a baity Baby Fifi. Poor baby knew what was coming even before I threw her my signature dirty look. I had to tell her verbally just to confirm her fears. It wasn't too bad. 3 hours of nip-tuck and she's looks like a factory made rare baby pony. Her hair was from a fakie by the way. I don't even remember what the fakie looked like because I've used her and she's done and so had to be gone. Good riddance!

Sweet Tooth thanked me many times for her baby that looks like her. Do you know how many times she took her unicorn baby out shopping and people didn't think it was her baby? She jokingly said she picked her baby up from the garbage and everyone believed her. Even I believed her! Geez and I know everything in Ponyland like God knows the world!

If you are wondering who the odd looking adult Twice As Fancy (TAF) pony is, then LET ME INTRODUCE YOU! She's Argentina Love Melody. Why is she so screwed up looking? I have no idea. She's a yellowed cream colour, almost like a discoloured white pony, but her colouring is so solidly even it's impossible to be discolouration. She's weird but beautiful. She was really common on ebay at one point of time, but has suddenly disappeared into oblivion, so now I guess, she can be quite expensive.

Mum & Baby Majesty

It all started out with a baity Gusty. She had a bad haircut, and most of her symbols were gone. It seemed like the perfect excuse to give her a thorough session of nip-tuck into someone brand new! First I had to decide on who I wanted to make. There were many possibilities, but having an ugly Majesty at that time made decision-making rather simple. Majesty has always been one of my favourite ponies, having read about her in storybooks and the UK comics. I had a storybook with her that my mum bought from Toys'R'Us when I was about 6, and in it, Majesty tripped and fell, and broke her ankle. That part of the story scarred me for life. It was terrible - a pony - FELL!?!?!? HURT!?!? IMPOSSIBLE. Then, I developed a compulsive need to constantly want to help make Majesty feel better. I vowed that someday I'll own her and make her all okay, although I can get quite lazy at keeping vows and promises.

I never had the castle when I was a child, and mail order wasn't available to Singapore despite the common American packaging with pamphlets and MO offers that came with them. A huge anticipation built up over the years, but when I finally got her in an ebay lot, she looked like some cheap grade fakie as if Hasbro was going out of business. Majesty had untameable choppy hair and a discoloured head. I just can't stop nagging about how they have recklessly destroyed a perfect pony with their lazy quality - oh does that sound familiar with the G3 ponies as well?

Anyway, first, I pervertedly stripped Gusty of both hair and symbol, and thoroughly outraged her modesty with a brush until she was sparkling white. Then, I brazenly pillaged hair plug by plug from a baity Firefly that was stained beyond recognition, bar her symbols. Ok, so I did recognise her, but I chose not to when I wanted her hair for my nefarious purpose of converting a virgin Gusty into a Majesty. I continued to shock my Gusty bait into submission by constantly poking plugs of hair into her hair holes with a needle. She thought that was extremely invasive, but I didn't care as I derived sadistic satisfaction from watching the pony suffer. I just carried on until I was happy of what she had become. Just like an ugly duckling who required a terrible childhood to become a beautiful swan, Gusty's dark past has polished her into the most beautiful Majesty ALIVE! Snort, barely alive after all the pain, but... STILL ALIVE!

Majesty's symbol was something I was quite proud of. Don't be deceived by its simple appearance, there're actually quite a lot of complex emotions that went behind the cognitive process!!!!! I thought the actual Majesty's symbol looks decent, but it is nothing like the ones in the storybooks! The illustrations always draw Majesty with round petaled blossoms for symbols, so my own Majesty will have to look like that. Somehow, the new symbol did not look right, and I decided that I need to rearrange the blossoms to make them more classy and aesthetic, hence the diamond arrangement! Don't you think she looks more regal now? Ahhhh my majestic Majesty!

As for Baby Majesty...the process is almost too paedophilic to describe :P Ok so I am exaggerating. I guess she's a bit less sad than her mum. She came to me as a completely yellowed Baby Glory, in fact, she was more like yellow-brow pee colour. She smelled really bad too. Her symbols were almost gone. I removed all her hair (that came off easy), cleaned her up and set her out in the sun. Turns out, she whitened under sunlight. That was quite a miracle indeed. Her hair came from a cat fakie and I painted her symbols just like I painted her mum's. Then WALA, a cute Baby Majesty was born to her mum via the MountainCai manual labour sweat shop factory that was surprisingly not set in China, but SINGAPORE.

San Jose, very large and American

After hours of aggravating flight - it wasn't fun being trapped in for more than 15mins even though the plane arrived half an hour early - I'm finally in SJC. I must say I'm impressed. I didn't think the place was that big or maybe what I saw from above ground was California as a whole. I'm ranting on here while waiting to be picked up. The geography here is wonderful indeed. It was completely what I wanted to expect from America off TV.

EDIT: Continue...

Ok then I was picked up by Chief to his house, where I met Bridgetsmum. Their house was GORGEOUS!!! Their kids were fun to hang around too. I had too much of a good time there that I didn't feel like leaving. LOL But you know, it's not my house after all..... .

Bridgetsmum has SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO many rare, foreign and prototype ponies that my eyes were constantly in swirls like this @.@ I wanted to live in Bridgetsmum's house for eternity!!!!!!!!!!! I have taken heaps of pictures and I intend to start a "rare" pony section on my blog with them with my critiques and observations.

Fire Topaz - Newest Rage!

I have always liked precious stones, but recently one stone caught my attention, a fire topaz. A fire topaz is almost in a class of its own as it is open knowledge to everyone that its colours are not natural, yet the sheer beauty of it commands high popularity from stone lovers. This stone truly deserves its own category of precious stones.

I was introduced to a fire topaz when I was browsing ebay for a gift, and later learned that a fire topaz had to be artifically heat-treated before it gets its kaleidoscopic play of coruscating colours. A normal topaz can never achieve such a display naturally. Unlike jade, where natural-occurring colours play a huge importance in its collectible value, a fire topaz is only as important as how beautiful it looks. The best thing is it is so easy to afford one because it is almost man-made, and widely available. Gotta love fire topaz! I have bought one like the one in the picture for a friend as a present, but she doesn't know it yet. :D Not that I am trying to be cheap or anything, but I love things that are beautiful and this one is simply too gorgeous to pass up. Tee-hee!

My Little Pony Fair 2008 - Summary Gel Post

Rhode Island - 21st-22nd June 08 - this is more of a flash back. I originally posted this on the MLPTP right after the meet, but there are valuable information that I am afraid will disappear eventually in time. Most importantly, I want the information for myself. I am reposting it on my blog so that I can retain it for an infinite amount of time.

Saturday - 21st June 08
We got into the convention, set up the tables and had everything arranged. I scooted off to see goodies surfacing from tables. I was the rare few male collectors on the online community, and rarer still, because I was Asian as well. It wasn't difficult to recognise who I was even if I went there as a pile of ash. I got to meet heaps of great people on the boards, but I had problems remembering names even though I recognised their faces. I forgot who I told that one of my aim was to bring home a Mountain Boy - Tornado in particular - because I've been waiting one for ages but never really had the motivation to go all out (ie. sell my parents, pawn my baby niece...etc) to acquire one. The same lady came back to me 5 minutes later and kindly notified me that a table at the front had the WHOLE SET of MOUNTAIN BOYS for sale! My mind swirled blankly for a split second and then went "!!!!!!" for the next few hiphenated moments as I took giant sweeping steps, literally flying towards the front table, and had to jam-brake myself as I made a rough halt in front of some of the most coveted ponies in the collecting community standing on little steps, showing off (at the very least) very good to mint conditions, sporting great shiny hair, clean bodies and minimal to no paint wear. Boy, I was excited. I caught myself chanting "MINE! MINE! MINE!" and felt relief when no one seemed to notice. I did some massive buying at the table (scored all the Mountain Boys at one go), and almost had to leave on a stretcher because I was overly thrilled and broke at the same time; a pauper's bliss that will eventually lead to a stroke.

Anyway to start off the true highlights of the fair, below are pictures from the Hasbro booth display. The first one is made from some celebrity I think. She looks like a porcelain pony and she's literally made up of dots that are raised. Then there's the other 2 ponies everyone have seen, Twinkle Hope and the large version of the fair exclusive pony which I named Providence - lame I know, but it is easier to remember. I didn't get to attend the Hasbro tour on Friday, but the Sunday session with Hasbro more than made up for it.

Also, just thought I'll add one interesting detail to the pony fair. It just so happened that we had the Pony Fair, a gay parade and a Baptist Convention all taking place on the same weekend in Rhode Island. It was so coincidental that I found it HILARIOUS! God sure has a way of smiling his wisdom on his children on earth. :D

Porcelain Pony

Literally made up of raised dots, the style some what reminds me of work from [Theodore van Russely-link]. I normally refer to her as Porcelain Pony, but for some unknown reason, the name Cheap China sounds highly appealing to me. The artist who made this pony must have a love for beautiful china designs, and probably Asian as well.

I enjoyed the artist's careful eye for detail. The design was definitely no easy feat, being so intricate. On top of that, they were constructed from dots, and furthermore, on an uneven canvas on a shape of a pony.

Providence: Giant version of fair exclusive pony

On the right is a picture of what I suppose to be the "prototype" of the fair exclusive pony, albeit in giant form. She is pinkish magenta with intricate pink designs. Although there was no official name given to the pony, she was easily named by many collectors after the city she was showcased in, aptly called Provience. I said "easily" because the name came almost too naturally from so many people concurrently.

Providence was indeed the right name for the pony because despite strong opposition raised by collectors against more pink ponies, Hasbro still insisted on coming up with YET another pink pony for this year's exclusive. If it is not fate, then there must be some divine intervention somewhere that prohibits ponies of other colours from being made. How odd that Hasbro claims that they produce toys based on market research when they make pink ponies for collectors who outrightly declare that they want some colour else. I must say it is retardness at work. Somewhere deep under the Hasbro psyche is a pink demon telling that everyone loves pink even when no one said so. Reminds me of my Maths teachers in primary school where they keep telling us children that Maths was fun and we all love their subject. I scored 12/100 for one of my Maths exams - that was how much I loved Maths.

We're currently under the painful occupation of the Pink Crusade.

Twinkle Hope

This pony was designed by I think a Japanese artist who's apparently extremely famous. Twinkle Hope was meant to be mass produced as a charity pony for orphanages. Hasbro did one a few years back, and now they're doing another one in Twice As Fancy (TAF) style.

The great thing about this artist is that she keeps her design simple and kiddish, which I guess makes it easy for most people buying a toy easy to relate to. Stars - who can't relate to stars? It may not look the most sophisticated, but it sure is my favourite among the 3 giant ponies on showcase.


The Hasbro Q&A started at 11am and people started gathering to the announcement stage. Sadly, I feel the Q&A wasn't such a success. Hasbro's responses were mostly generic. They were not anything collectors haven't already know, so it was a little dry and boring. The things they showed werent very exciting either. The "upcoming products in fall" have all been released in Asia and Australia a month or so ago. It got a little sad towards the last 10-15mins since people starting walking off and you can hear the background noises growing louder than the Hasbro panel using a microphone. The Hasbro crew that day were VERY nice, but I just felt their content that day weren't too engaging.

Why were G2s left out of the timeline?

My question to the panel was why the G2s were missing from the Hasbro timeline. Hasbro admitted that it was a blatant mistake on their part and they are looking to revise the timeline.

Chirpy Hasbro Marketing Girl

The lady shown in the picture is part of the marketing team for MLPs. I forgot her name, but if anyone remembers, please let me know! She's holding a picture done by Bonnie just for her. She was easy going and had a chirpy personality.

I didn't take pictures of Bonnie since I assumed other collectors would have taken heaps of pics of her, and personally I wasn't too excited to see her since I thought that even though it was great that she started the collector's pose, it wasn't her concept that took flight. In fact, I feel that it was the 2nd year ponies such as Bubbles, AJ, Bowtie and the unicorns and pegasi that really made MLPs popular.To see pictures of Bonnie and the Saturday Hasbro crew, please see SkyFlier's post:http://www.mlptp.net/forums/mlp-disc...es-posted.html

Ponyville - Pinkie Pie's Balloon House Concept Art

Sunday - 22nd June 08
After a not a exciting day with Hasbro, I went to the convention just hoping to find ponies on my wantlist, and not quite interested in paying attention to the Hasbro table. At about 10 or 11 I think, everything changed. PhyllieBean (was it you!? I was so excited it didnt register well!) came up to me and said "Hey, you see that lady? She's Lyn Fletcher, just as you requested on the board..." and I freaked out immediately! Lyn Fletcher was fabulous and on top of that, I saw a different Hasbro crew stream in later at 1pm with awesome stuff in their hands. Before I go into intricate details, allow me to introduce the awesome people on that day:

Jessica Mariah

First there was a marketing lady named Jessica Mariah(?? not sure of her last name) whom I forgot to take a picture of. She answered a few of my queries. Our convo sort of went like this:

Why are there so little pegs and unicorns for G3 as if they are "ethnic minorities"? Is there any reason or religious rational for that?

Ans: No, as far as Hasbro is concerned, there are no religious reasons behind that. We do not have such kind of restrictions here in the USA. We choose to focus on earth ponies because we think that they are what My Little Pony is all about.

Is there a particular system that Hasbro had employed to select exactly which pony gets to become part of the core 7?

Ans: Er....actually I don't think so. We mostly select the ones we think will sell best with little girls representing a colour and develop their characters.

Ok, then how come 4 of the 7 ponies are in varying hues of pink and not the rainbow?

Ans: Personally, my favourite was Minty, but she wasn't included because she didn't sell well. We did try to sell other colours, but at the end of the day, little girls still want pink ponies. However, do keep a lookout this year or next, Minty *MIGHT* make a brief appearance. We did try during product testing, but some colours just don't sell. I think the ponies might look slightly different in 2009 but not for sure *trails off thinking about what else to say*....

This was the rough gist of what Jessica siad, but I cant remember in full detail after a sleep.

Yeah, I noticed that in Singapore, yellow ponies always get left on the shelf.

Ans: I seem to recall a yellow pony we recently released. She's Royal Bouquet.Ans: Thank you, yes, I think she sort of got eliminated.

Kirk Hindman (aka Father of My Little Pony) Then there was first and foremost Kirk Hindman, who literally laboured to create ponies. He has been working in Hasbro for almost 20 years and was responsible for making quite a few of the G1 molds. He was a senior sculptor and shared a lot of his production knowledge with us. It was to drool for! According to him, the Collector's Pose has been edited/modified 3 times, and each time they get taller and taller.

Grace GarciaNext was Grace Garcia, who is the next upcoming sculpting starlet talent for Hasbro (just to make it sound glamourous ). She didn't do much MLPs previously, but according to her, she is starting to receive more and more MLP sculpting assignment, and Kirk seemed eager to pass on his skills and knowledge to her. In fact, Grace actually sculpted a pony head right in front of us. She also said something about her experimenting with a few pony poses, so we shall wait and see if anything at all passes the marketing department's approval litmus test.

Jess Rosemary & Lyn Fletcher

Sitting beside the sculptors were Jess Rosemary and Lyn Fletcher.

Jess was the licensing representative of Hasbro. She is the one who does the Licensing Show stuff, and in her hand is a Liencing Show Pinkie Pie who is her daring favourite. She was very friendly and had licensing guideline samples for us to flip through. I forgot to take a picture of the books she had, but anyone who has a picture of those, pls share! Jess is also somewhat Lyn's "boss" as she represents Hasbro in liasing with Harper Colins in the production of G3 storybooks.

Lyn Fletcher, in case no one has any idea, is one of the artists drawing for G3 storybooks commissioned by Harper Collins. G3 storybook illustrations have been done by several artists, but Lyn's style is always easily distinguished from the rest. Her ponies always have beautifully drawn hair with elaborate curls and soft & rounded facial features that reminds you of a perfect cherubin baby with fair skin, sparkly blue eyes and perfect blonde curls. To top that off is Lyn's signature trademak of always giving her ponies cheekblushes. When I talked to Lyn and Jess, Lyn jokingly expressed that Jess didn't like the cheekblushes, but I could tell from Lyn's satisfied facial expression that at least someone appreciates the details she puts into the G3 ponies. I completely enjoy her illustrations and only collect G3 books done by her, and wish that she can continue to do so as she brings onthe innocence to G3 ponies that were so reminiscent of G1s.

Lynn told me that Harper Colin might be moving her from My Little Ponies to doing illustrations for Fisher Price instead.

Hasbro Supermodel Marketing

Last but not least, is another marketing representative from Hasbro. I have her picture but stupid me didn't get her name. She was at least a head taller than me, and looked like a supermodel. She has been an intern at Hasbro for 4 weeks so far, but she's witty, open and highly accepting of opinions. I had a wonderful time chatting with her and thought she deserved some recognition.

Prototypes - White Ponies

These prototypes are pearly, shiny white, and they are VERY STICKY to the touch. Oh every prototype was also scribbled some description notes and the cost to produce them. On the average, it seems to cost Hasbro $0.08 to produce a single pony.My favourite one is the clear pony with violet hair. She is SO PRETTY!

Prototypes - Pink Ponies
Nothing too interesting. Sorry if I am being painfully pedantic, but I tried to take picture of all the prototypes on the display side and the sides with description and the cost of producing them.

It might be of interest to take note of the pink pony in the hoochie pose with the orangehair. If you noticed, her non-display front leg is actually STRAIGHT and not bent like the actual products that we own - a true prototype in its own right. Wish i can own her :/

Giant Dancing Pinkie Pie Trivia
Kirk Hindman claims that he is partially blamed that Pinkie Pie was made. He was showing us some rubber material, and said that he was originally asked to make a blue prototype of a dancing pony. But he convinced the designers to let him make it in pink, the original colour so that he didn't have to go through another tedious process of "fighting out the pink with the blue". Eventually somehow, maybe out of convenience, the designers went with making Pinkie Pie instead.

G1 Prototypes

Pretty PonyI am not sure if the lavender Pretty Pony was a prototype, but it was something I've never seen before.


Copper/Bronze Mold & Prototype

Kirk showed us the copper/bronze mold of a Collector's Pose pony. Shared with us a few facts and properties of plastics. He was saying that if you soak a pony in a bucket of acetone, it can grow a few times bigger than the original size. He described pony plastics as plastics with "no memory". You can soak it in boiling water, take it out remold it and it adheres to your manipulation when it cools. Another tidbit was that, the plastics are extremely porous, so if you get a marker smear on it and try to rub it with a solvent like acetone, the colour goes deeper into the plastic and stays permernant there. To get rid of marks, it is better to "scrap" it off.

Another trivia from Kirk was that about 80-90% of the original pony molds have been MELTED AND RECYCLED to make molds for other stuff. Most of what was left from the 80s were actually saved by packrat employees like him. ^^


Bell Jar Pony

In the jar is a pony that looks like a Sweet Talking Pony pose. According to Kirk, the prototype is made of jewellery wax. He said something about creating something using the reduction method that I have no memory about, so if anyone remembers anything at all, please contribute! Kirk was very nice. He was quick to remove the jar cover to let collectors take pictures of the ponies, but I intentionally wanted to take the pony in the bell jar itself as it reminds me of the magical rose locked in the bell jar in the Beauty and the Beast movie from Disney.

Re-released G1 Ponies
The molds for the Rainbow Ponies were gone. Kirk explained that what they did was to do a digital scan of an existing toy onto a special computer and reconstucted a mold from there. He claims that they were virtually a replica of the original, but being a painfully detailed person, I'd digress. I think the new molds have lost quite some details somewhat.

Footstamp

See the little metal piece? Recognise the wordings? I intially thought it was weird that the stamp was a little cylinder.


Pony Bride Pose



When we showed Kirk a Pony Bride, his response was "I don't remember who created her, it wasn't me", although I wasn't sure if the pose was created by him or not. He also noted that he made Gusty's pose, and even though he didn't create the shy Bowtie pose when I showed him a Bowtie, his first response was "Ah Applejack is in that pose too!"


Megan Prototype

Megan's legs fall off when you pick her up and some of us thought she'll look slightly more interesting with her legs wide open! LOL It was a lousy joke.

Sea Ponies Prototype Trivia
Kirk mentioned about seaponies and how he had fun with them. He also mentioned that he still has a seapony prototype in Hasbro that was never produced which has a poseable tail!!!

Prototype Combs for Pretty
Kirk mentioned having some problems making the combs, but I wasn't really listening, so someone else who was tuning in and remember, please fill in the blanks! The combs were huge, and I've put in my Sweetie Belle as a guage for you to see how long they were. I was told by princessluna that these were later miniaturised into accessories for the Brush & Grow Ponies - kewl isn't it? Even Kirk didn't remember that.

With the sorts of molds they were using, they needed to be able to lift the molds straight up off the object. The problem comes when designers come up with things like raised hearts on the sides of the brush. The sculptor then has to deal with the problem of following the design without creating undercuts on the mold that will make it impossible to lift it straight up. That's why the bottom of the hearts on the brushes almost fade flat into the brush.

An undercut is a place in a mold where it goes under a protrusion on the object that's being made. It's an area that will catch as you try to separate the mold from the object it just made. Depending on the casting method and what sort of object it is, it can even be difficult to get the resin/plastic/whatever into that area. They're tough to work with, so not good in a mass production situation like ponies.

G1 Pose Sketches

Thanks to girlbuffalo1 for sharing what the purpose of the G1 line art is for. Jessica (the marketing lady) has reworked that line art to give to vendors who want to produce things like t-shirts with G1's on them and other licensed stuff. I think it's really great art and will look quite nice--now if some companies can get on board and start producing stuff with it on it!

Applejack Sign

Hehe, this has nothing to do with the fair, but on the way home, we caught sight of a restaurant called Applejack Diner, and I had to take a picture of that!

I like to R@#$%n^&*(T .

This post marks the start of my blabbering blackboard ... ... sorry... ... I mean "blog" ( don't get frightened away - COME BACK!). I never bothered myself to write one, but I've fallen bad on lazy times, and never have the patience to maintain any of my websites for more than a year and let them slip into oblivion even before my hosting account expires. I guess the more prudent option is to get a free blog and throw all my lunatic ranting and mad raving up here. It's free and blogs hosted by big companies normally hold onto everything for forever. This is great as I intend to use this mainly as my My Little Pony archive, with the occasional sidetrack and sometimes my ...what's that called in a resume???.....ah right, a portfolio. I can never understand the need for one, since most people normally slap one together the night before, and if the boss likes you enough, he/she hires you anyway.

After uploading several pictures, I've still decided to pick Sweetpop as the "starter" pony for my blog. There is something about her that always reminds me of my childhood, and although it sounds like poor justification, it always makes me feel good. It is odd since she was never the best looking pony, but was cherished like gold anyway. I think she is really special, especially the part where she comes with four legs, two eyes, a mane and a tail. It makes her really pony-like!