Review - My Little Pony: Where Equestria Comes to Life (AR Book)

Today we have a very special review for you! Carlton Publishing was so nice to use to provide us with a copy of the My Little Pony: Where Equestria Comes to Life book, which is not your average book!
Download an app on your phone, scan the pony and you'll see the pony walk around in your room!
During the review we'll talk about the book itself, but of course also focus on what the app has to offer.
You can watch the video on YouTube or embedded below, but we also wrote a little summary if you scroll down a bit:



At first sight the book looks a bit thin. It has 32 pages, but the big surprise comes when you learn that an app is included in which you can see the ponies through your camera.
The book itself contains background info on the mane 6, spike and some background ponies like the princesses and villains. Most ponies get a 2-page summary about their character, an episode, some events and a bio. The background characters are combined in the last pages with an image and summary.
Throughout the book various scan-able images are placed, which are meant for the app. In total 9 of these are included: each mane 6 member, spike, the complete mane 6 (dual user mode) and one to see your own character in action. While you'll be able to read through the book in 30 minutes or so, you can have a lot more fun with the app.
Once you open the app you're presented with various options, including one for those who want to try out the app, but did not buy the book yet.
Most of the functionality of the app is under the life-size option in the menu, which gives you the ability to actually scan the book and see your pony come to life.
Once you've scanned a pony from the book you'll see it in AR through the camera of your phone or tablet. It can be quite tricky to get this to work the first time (our Twilight was shaking all over the place, and sometimes the ponies don't show up at all).
Something to try here is to point your camera down and then slowly move it horizontally, in most of our cases we started to see the ponies appear within 10 seconds.
In the regular mode the ponies are 'projected' on the surface in front of you at the size of a regular plush (let's say 7-10"). The ponies stand still most of the time, but do move and animate at random to make them look more alive. In this mode you also have the ability to control their actions by moving them around, make them fly (pegasi and alicorns only), let them do an animation or let them grow to actual life-size.
In life-size mode you'll want to move back a bit as the ponies grow to the size of an 10-year old child, still on the surface you were pointing at. This mode is especially fun if you have field of grass or big room. The 3D-models used in the game are very well made and don't look pixelated or low-poly once you come close to them. The animations are as you may expect from the show, but they don't talk or directly interact with you.
As mentioned before you can also create your own character. You can only creates mares with the manes, tails and cutie marks from the mane 6, but you have a bit more freedom when it comes to their colors. You can color the coat, mane, tail, wings and horn all individually and have a palette of around 20 colors to choose from. Once your pony is done you can scan the final image in the book to play around in AR with your own pony, including all options you can from the life-size mode.

Overall this app is a great way to play around with 3D-models of the ponies, and the option to create your own pony is a welcome addition.
Fans of the show may not learn a lot from the book itself, but the combination with the app makes it very worth the money.

People interested in the book can buy it online:
- Get the book on Amazon US
- Get the book on Amazon UK

Or try the app first and see if it works on your phone or tablet:
- Get the app in the Google Play Store (Android)
- Get the app in the Apple App Store (iOS)

More info on the giveaway is coming soon!