McPonies Complete

I have acquired all of the 2012 McDonalds ponies! Unfortunately, Twilight still won't stand up properly.

My friends in Ohio were looking to complete a set as well and sent me a Fluttershy when I was afraid of not finding one in California. I'm very lucky as I did find a Fluttershy here eventually, but they happened to get something completely different, which I am now the proud owner of.....

And here is a a comparison of both Fluttershy ponies.

I'll admit I like the face and hair of the 2011 Fluttershy better than the 2012 Fluttershy.

My Little McPonies Part 2: Vietnam or China?

Last week I did a post comparing last year's Twilight Sparkle happy meal toy to this year's toy. I was surprised that the country that maanufactured the toys had switched from China (2010) to Vietnam (2011). You can read the post and see the comparison pictures here.

This weekend my McDonald's finally got some more toys and I nabbed some new ponies.

Lily Blossom was the first pony I grabbed to photograph when I noticed something strange. As with the Twilight I photographed last week I expected the entire set of ponies to be made in Vietnam.

However my Lily Blossom's marked as made in China!

I think Applejack may have gotten the cutest of the poses this year, and I actually kind of like her simplified symbol as well. This Applejack is also made in China.

Rainbow Dash has a chunk missing out of her leg, though it doesn't show in this photograph.

And she was made in Vietnam.

Finally, Cheerilee is like my Twilight and made in Vietnam.


Unfortunately I've not yet found the other ponies to see what they are marked as. I'm curious though. What's the reasoning behind the different countries of origin? Are all Lily Blossoms made in China or are there potentially two versions of each toy?

My Little McPonies

Here's a little reminder to everyone out there that My Little Pony should be the "girl" happy meal toy as of the 9th. If there is supposed to be an official schedule it doesn't seem like most places are sticking with it. I've had one friend get the whole set and another have none at all. A friend in Ohio got Applejack, but my mom (who is also in Ohio) went looking for me and got Pinkie Pie and Rarity. My local McDonald's had Twilight Sparkle and Lily Blossom.

What confuses me the most is that people are saying that the ponies don't really look any different, but I think they are quite different (though some are more different than others). I've taken a few comparison shots despite bad lighting from an overcast day.

Here's a photograph of old Twilight Sparkle on the left and new Twilight Sparkle on the right. As you can see the mold that the use is in fact different from the previous one. As cutie marks are not on both sides of the pony new Twilight has her opposite hoof raised this time around. There is obviously the inclusion of the keyring portion to the top of the head, but the body is also different in some more subtle ways that are harder to document. The body is more squat and the head if not tilted to the same degree as before. The horn is different and I had to photograph this Twilight in her plastic stand as she would keep tumbling over. The quality also seems to be much better on the original run.

Here is a comparison shot of the heads. You can see new Twilight's head doesn't have the same tile as old Twilight. She also came out of the package with icky dirt marks and her eye is misprinted. You can also barely see the horn difference Old Twilight has four spirals whereas new Twilight has three.

Here's what the ponies look like from underneath. The new Twilight has the new pony logo, but doesn't have the peg-holes that were made for the ponies to fit in the comb/stands last year. It's too bad, as I mentioned earlier new Twilight keeps tipping over and cannot stand on her own.

This isn't the best picture, but it shows the difference in the plastic and coloring. The 2011 Twilight is lighter with a more "pearlescent" plastic. The 2012 Twilight has a more matte finish and the paint job is messier overall. I suppose you could say the darker purple is more show accurate, but I personally like the original Twilight better.

I'm not sure how much this has to do with the quality difference or if this is even nation wide but I noticed that the ponies were manufactured in two different countries. 2011 Twilight was manufactured in China whereas new Twilight was made in Vietnam.

If you got ponies this weekend how do yours look? Am I the odd pony out or are other collectors finding messed up ponies?

Collection Update

Ben found Cheerilee and Lily Blossom at a Target the other day, whereas I nabbed the last G4 calendar from my local Dollar Tree.

I also got some old ponies from my co-worker. Her family is moving to the UK and her daughter didn't wish to keep her G3 ponies. I got a handful of G3's but none are too terribly interesting. (I'm grateful for free ponies though, now I can do a G3 custom swap if I want!)

What was surprising though are the G4 McDonald toys! I didn't really pursue them and then regretted it a bit, considering a set on ebay is more than I would like to pay. Imagine my surprise to get these unicorns. Twilight has her base but Rarity does not.