As is tradition here on MLP Merch we take the final days of the year to recap on what has happened and what is to come. It was a busy year for us with the release of new websites, new merch categories, extending the databases and much more. Below we have some numbers that recap 2016, the results from this year's big survey and a brief look at the expectations of merch in 2017.

It must have been the Christmas season, because we received loads of store finds this week! There has been a short delay because of the holidays, but here are all the new store finds from the past days.
If you happen to find brand new stuff in your local store, then feel free to write us a small message with photos.

Another year a new My Little Pony-Themed Happy Meal isn't it? 2016 isn't even over yet and here we already have the MLP Toys for 2017, well... for New Zealand that is. At the moment they have toys after the new "Sing" movie but next month it's pony time

We're a bit late with the post (I'll blame the holidays for this one!), but we did want to get the info out any way: The free Spike figure is now available in European MLP magazines, so be sure to pick it up before the month is over!
Spike is the latest installment of Egmont's freebie magazine figure line, praised for their quality and show-accurateness. In 2017 the line will continue and start with a Baby Flurry Heart figure in February.
You can get the My Little Pony magazines in the UK, France, Russia, Poland, Romania and various other European countries.
Thanks to Pirill for the photos!

A little while ago we reported on an exclusive range of My Little Pony items at 390 store in Japan. Merch hunter Joelle has managed to get some of the items from Japan and made some detailed photos of it, which we'll share in this post. All items are priced at 390 yen, which is about $4, and are only available at 390 store. As you can see in the images it's mostly accessories that they sell, but bags and pouches are also available. Joelle also reported that the hair clips and keychain are made of a wood-like material, which in any way sound better than brittle plastic.
The items are still available, and if you happen to live in Japan you can check out their store on Rakuten for all items.

Just like the earlier waves, Victor bought both new Integrity Toys dolls and sent in some close-up pictures of them! The Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy inspired dolls are the last wave of the HEART MLP line of high-quality collector dolls by Integrity Toys.
The dolls, that are sold at $130 each, are inspired by My Little Pony characters and have fictional "gamertag" names, but are often referred to as the pony they represent (in this case Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy). As seen in the images these are just as detailed as the earlier dolls, with a few extra accessories too, like a skateboard for Pinkie Pie.
All dolls are still available on the Integrity Toys website if you're interested in them.

Thus far these are the last dolls that Integrity Toys announced back in 2015. If new waves of dolls are ever announced we'll be sure to post it on our blog!

Last week we asked you what your thoughts were on the Twisty Twirly Hair ponies that will start to come out early next year. The results were pretty close, but the slight majority of you do like them! However, this is closely followed by the group of people who aren't fans of the reboot series pony style. Regarding the actual hair it's a definitive no: twice as much people dislike the yarn hair than there were people who like the idea.

Last week we already shared some info on a Princess Luna plush, which by all signs seems to be released by Hasbro themselves. We can now safely confirm that the plush is released by Hasbro, as they added a completely new line of mane 6 plush to their own website, HasbroToyShop.com.
The plush are 5 inches tall and have spaghetti manes, but the strings have a pattern in them rather than a solid color. All plush are $4.99 each and are marked as 'small plush', which could indicate that a set of larger plush are on the way.
While they might look a bit like the ones manufactured by Funrise, there are currently no signs that they produced this set. It's of course possible that Hasbro outsourced the production of these plush, but we have no further information on that yet.
If anyone spotted these plush (including other characters like Luna), we'd kindly hear about it!
Thanks to eclipsedflame for the info!

The MLP magazines will continue to release pony figures by Egmont as freebies in 2017. One of the last magazines included erasers instead of a figure, but this was just a side step for the magazine. In February the French magazine will debut with a Baby Flurry Heart figure.
As usual the figures are very close to their show-counterparts, and this is the same with Baby Flurry Heart: the figures Hasbro released are in no way as accurate as the one Egmont has created here.
Fans of the figures, magazine or Baby Flurry Heart can pick up the magazine in February (note that not every country sells the magazines with figures).
Thanks to Neptune for the info!

Devar Books, a Russian based AR book publisher, currently has a partnership with Hasbro and released several AR coloring books. The company is specialized in creating AR coloring books and as of short started with licensing deals.
The original announcement has been released several months ago, but has been very quiet, with only a handful of views on YouTube (hence our late post on these). Four books are already available on the Russian website of Devar for just under $5 each. So far we have not heard of any store releases, but if anyone spotted them in the wild feel free to let us know!
Thanks to Ayu for the heads-up!

Another quick store finds post, because the mails kept coming in! Loads of Equestria Girls Minis submits this week, but also the release of a new Reboot Series re-release over in Singapore. Enjoy!
If you happen to find brand new stuff in your local store, then feel free to write us a small message with photos.

Last week we asked you whether you are excited for the MLP and K'NEX partnership. Votes were pretty close, but most of you are positive about the upcoming collaboration of the two brands. A tad more people are excited for the figures than the sets, but only a little bit. Of those who are not looking forward to the sets are generally not a fan of K'NEX at all, and only a small group (10%) of all respondents thinks that MLP and K'NEX are not going to be a good combination.

The Twisty Twirly Hair Styles figures first popped up in October, and as of today Entertainment Earth released the official images for these figures, so it's finally time to see what they look like!
As you can see in the included images above the manes and tails look a bit like that of Betty Spaghetti as the hair is made out of yarn, and the figures themselves are all in their new reboot series style. I wonder if you can turn these into Perfume Puff Ponies...
Each figure comes with their own hair-themed accessories: Rarity has a curling iron, Pinkie Pie has some hair rollers and Applejack comes with hair clips.
You can now pre-order the complete set (all 3 figures) over at Entertainment Earth for $26.99 and they'll be sent out in January.

Some of you might have already seen this set online, but we didn't have a lot of information on the set back then. Luckily we know a bit more about the set now! The set of six nesting dolls is manufactured by PPW Toys and range from a 4.5" Pinkie Pie to a 2" Fluttershy doll. Both the front and back of these plastic dolls are painted.
Availability of these in stores is a bit unsure, but you can pre-order them on the website of PPW Toys for $17. The release date is currently set for 17 January 2017.

A quick store finds post today as we've gotten quite some finds in a short time, and why wait? Below you can find some finds of really recent releases, being the Guardians of Harmony Queen Chrysalis Fan Series figure and the Fluttershy Runway figure.
If you happen to find brand new stuff in your local store, then feel free to write us a small message with photos.

Today Integrity Toys has announced the arrival of the Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie inspired HEART MLP dolls in their online store. This means that the complete mane 6 has been released, and in fact they're all still available. All dolls are limited to 500 pieces and we have no idea what the current stock is, so the earlier dolls can be sold out at any moment.
The Integrity Toys <3 MLP doll series is a line of human dolls around 12-13" tall, each inspired by a pony from the mane 6. Today's dolls are inspired by Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie, respectively named kind_pegasus95 and okie_dokie_party. Below we have a few more details on both dolls, which are available right now.
(Thanks to Time Lord for the heads-up)

Remember those Amazon listings we spotted some months ago? The one with the GoH Chrysalis Fan Series figure and two Rarity Themed sets? So far we didn't hear anything about those Rarity ones but we almost all believed that they would be part of the Rarity Friendship is Magic Collection. Well turned out at least one did as we found the FiM Collection Carousel Boutique some time ago. But what about the Fashion Runway Playset?

Today we got a message from Joelle who showed us a picture on the back of the Rainbow Dash Runway Fashions figures. As you can see the image also mentions that this figure is compatible with the Rarity Fashion Runway Playset and guess what? Not long after searching for it I came across an image of the actual Playset! To my surprise it's actually part of the Brushable line then the Blind Bag one.

Over at a Toys"R"Us in Ottawa, Canada the first Reboot Series brushables have been found in the west. Back in November Singapore (as usual) kicked off the line with a release in the east, but this is the first find of the new brushables outside of Asia. As you can see in the photo above the complete Wave 1 of single brushables is available with Rarity, Lyra, Pinkie Pie and Twilight Sparkle.
Online we already know that Amazon has a few listings up with a January release, so it's expected that in the coming month or so the US will see the first sets appear, and hopefully Europe at the start of 2017.
Credits to Kerri for the photo and thanks to vampyrefay for the heads-up!

Last week we asked you what you think of the upcoming new Blind Bag waves in general. For each question this is what the result was:
- New characters: Very positive, almost nobody dislikes the new characters
- New card design: Very positive, votes are divided 3:1
- Mane 6 not included: Somewhat positive, still in favor of the mane 6 not being included
- New bag/box design: Very positive, almost no dislikes
- General verdict: Very positive
So, overall you're all excited for the next wave, so hopefully we'll see them soon in stores!

News from an expected brand as Paul Fogarty, managing director at K'NEX UK, mentions My Little Pony as an upcoming license deal, as reported by ToyNews. He further says that 2017 will be the year that they will be "introducing K’NEX to children aged three and upwards for the first time", possibly hinting at a set with larger pieces.
Now don't think that this means we'll see life-size ponies built out of the classic K'NEX parts; nowadays they have multiple licenses that include molded figures, building blocks and even character blind bags. Take a look at their Mario range for example which is a great example of how a brand can be combined with K'NEX, and hopefully the MLP sets will be just as good.
This is just a teaser for what's coming, and the big reveal of what K'NEX is working on will be at the 2017 NY Toy Fair. Of course we'll report any news that we hear from K'NEX or the Toy Fair as it becomes available.

Buying presents for a big My Little Pony fan this Holiday Season and have no idea what to get? Our My Little Pony Christmas Gift Tips guide to the rescue! Our guide learns you about all the new and popular My Little Pony toys, figures and collectibles that are available right now, as well as some great stocking stuffers as a little gift any MLP-fan will like.
We're also happy to answer any questions you might have in the comments below. Happy Holidays!

We've gotten loads of submits for the Pearlized Brushables that have been released last week, but also a few other items that can be found in stores. Enjoy!
If you happen to find brand new stuff in your local store, then feel free to write us a small message with photos.

Two week ago (yeah we missed a week) we asked you which new card type you like the most of the upcoming 4th series of MLP Trading Cards. Most people are waiting to finally see the Create-a-Card contest winners, which was to be expected as Enterplay did not share any further information on those yet. Other popular card types were new finishes and the unique parallel set with cards of which only 1 exists in the whole world. The least popular options were the die-cut cards and the matching box topper variants of these. In addition to that almost 25% of the people are not interested in the new types at all, either because they like regular cards or don't collect the cards.

For the past months rumors have been spread of an upcoming Starlight Glimmer plush from Build-a-Bear, with loads of doubt because no official word from BaB confirmed this story, nor did anyone find early promotions for her. Two months ago we suddenly saw the announcement and release of a Minty plush at Build-a-Bear, but still no sign of Starlight Glimmer.
Until this week, as an actual plush has been found, being it from an unknown source. While we didn't see any ads for her yet, the design and tag look pretty real, but we'll need to wait for an official announcement from Build-a-Bear to be 100% sure.
Credits to gleadr for the images!

A little while ago we posted all the info we had on Wave 19. At least so we thought. In fact that what we posted earlier turns out to be wave 20, and we now found wave 19 to fill in the gap. How do we know? On the box there is a label with the new set name, which now shows the year of release and a number. Wave 19 logically is 2017/01 and wave 20 follow with 2017/02. Good thing we didn't add them to the database yet!
For the release date we already know that wave 20 will be released in March 2017, so wave 19 has got to be released earlier than that. I don't expect it to make it to stores before Christmas, but somewhere around February sounds reasonable.

Below we have all detailed information of these upcoming two waves including images, cards and characters the new ponies are based on. However, we are not posting the final codes yet, as Hasbro could have mixed up the order. But we did try to guess the order of wave 20 based on earlier waves.
This is an MLP Merch exclusive post. You're free to share the content, but please link back to this page when you do, thank you!

All previous Funko Mystery Minis series had two lines: one for regular stores and one for Hot Topic. But out of nowhere Walgreens joined the exclusivity party and released their own wave of the Funko Power Ponies Mystery Minis figures with 3 unique molds:
- Spike as Humdrum (finally!)
- Rainbow Dash as Zapp (new pose)
- Mane-iac Mayhem (wrapped up)
All other ponies that are included in this set are equal to the regular Power Ponies release, and the ratios have not been changed (see details in the images below).
The figures seen in this post are bought in Puerto Rico, but Walgreens stores in mainland USA will probably follow soon. Found them? Feel free to leave a comment below to help others!
Thanks to Victor for the info and Cindy for the images!