Every time Hasbro releases a new concept for any of their toys it's just a matter of time before fake versions arise on the internet. EBay and Alibaba/Taobao used to be popular platforms for the latest fakies, but as of late Instagram became the latest trend for selling bootleg products. One more example of this practice are these new fake Equestria Girls Minis figures with the inappropriate name "My Fun Hose".
Some of the figures look pretty decent, but some others have weird accessories (like fake Blind Bag ponies, or the fact that Twilight Sparkle doesn't even wear her skirt) and another bunch that just looks odd, like Rarity and Fluttershy.
For some it might be an open door that these are bootleg products, but without the packaging it's a whole lot harder to see the difference. The best way to differentiate these from real figures are:
- Compare the colors
- Compare the accessories
- Compare the plastic (the fakes are more glossy)

Disclaimer: We do not promote buying and/or selling fake products and this post is meant as a warning for people to know the difference between real and fake My Little Pony products.

Note: We're still working on a full fakie quest episode, this is just a quick PSA.

Thanks to pega_ponycorn.offcl and Tomo for the info!

After the Baby Flurry Heart figure, who got very mixed responses from collectors, the next figure to be bundled with the MLP Magazine is a Rainbow Dash figure in Wonderbolts outfit. This is the first time Egmont decided to go with an alternative outfit for the included figure instead of a new character. Later this year they will get a bigger pool of popular characters with the release of My Little Pony The Movie, so hopefully we'll see some more characters towards that day.
The announcement seen above is for the German magazine, but usually other countries with the same magazine receive the figure around the same time.
Thanks to Nora4 for the image!

Welcome to our yearly tradition in February: The wrap-up of the New York Toy Fair. In this post we sum up all the info that we could find about My Little Pony on the biggest annual toy fair of the world. We've categorized all new merch and added as much photos as possible. We hope you'll enjoy reading it!
Previous editions: 2014, 2015 & 2016

It's been a while since our last Store Finds post, especially with the Toy Fair in between, but we're back with another one! This time we've received reports of MLP Easter Eggs, toothpaste, Equestria Girls Minis and various more items!
If you happen to find brand new stuff in your local store, then feel free to write us a small message with photos.

Early December 2016 a concept of a Build-a-Bear Starlight Glimmer was spotted, but after that it's been pretty quiet around anything Build-a-Bear. Up until this week that is, as the Australian branch of BaB sent out a promotional mail to their subscribers about the official release of the Starlight Glimmer plush on the 9th of March.
While this day is only valid of Australian stores, it is very common that BaB releases new figures in multiple countries around the same day/week. So there is some hope that the US, UK and other countries will not have to wait much longer than that!
Thanks to Michael for the info!

Hasbro has released their official press statement for the upcoming line of Equestria Girls for 2017. Several figures have already been announced before, but there is plenty of new merch coming our way the coming months, including some interesting names! Expect sets with Starlight Glimmer, Daring Do, Trixie, Muffins (Derpy) and more, including a new character: Juniper Montage!
A big point of attention is the fact that all listings for this year's Equestria Girls line-up consists of Minis and with that it's officially over for the Equestria Girls dolls line. We'll await the Toy Fair for a definite conclusion, but the released info is a pretty big hint.

We've listed all press release information below and highlighted the more interesting names to make it a bit more readable.

Last week we asked you which upcoming sets from the Rarity FiM collection you're planning to get. While there were quite a lot of options to choose from we do see some winners over the other sets: DJ Pon-3 and Fluttershy! They're on the wishlist of most people and leave a small gap between a few other sets that were quiet people, including Sapphire Shores, Twilight Sparkle, Aloe Boutique Salon and Carousel Boutique. The lowest scoring figure was the Pinkie Pie single, but just barely.

We already knew that the upcoming My Little Pony movie was going to play a big part in this year's line-up, and besides the regular brushables we can now confirm that the full range of Guardians of Harmony figures will be based on MLP The Movie.
In the photo above (credits to MyFroggyStuff) you can clearly see all the sets that are currently on display at the New York Toy Fair, most of which we've seen in the MLP The Movie press release from Hasbro themselves. The only figure not announced before is Stratus Skyranger, who will be this wave's "big figure", just like Spike was in 2016. For now the Storm King + Grubber statue is the only announced figure in the Fan Series range. More may follow later this year.

We have waited for quite some years but our wishes have bee granted. Lots of people have wanted Boy Ponies with normal brushable hair for quite some time and now during the New York Toy Fair This year two BOY brushables have been revealed. And as expected we get one for two of the most popular colts on the show: Big Mac and Soarin. We can also see the whole line-up for the "All-About" line which included the ponies with some decals based around the show.

Expect more info during our coverage as well as more info about the other brushables. This image was taken from the video by MyFroggyStuff which we would like to thank for the video. :)

We have another post coming soon with more detailed info and stock images of the upcoming Equestria Girls Toys for 2017. And I'm saying just Equestria Girls because there's no sign in the descriptions and images that the normal dolls will continue.
Anyway the new wave of figures will be centered about going to the movie. The most interesting thing is maybe the Cinema Six-Pack which includes figures of Daring Do, Starlight Glimmer, Sunset Shimmer, Rarity, Pinkie Pie and DJ Pon-3.

The New York Toy Fair has officially started and here's the first picture of it. We can see that they have the new Seaquestria Playset displayed but alongside them are also a lot, and a mean a lot of new Brushables shown.

Are we done yet with MLP The Movie Merchandise reveals? No? Well here's another one. Capper was one of the first characters of the movie to be revealed but yet no figure of him has been revealed until now as his voice actor Taye Diggs has posted this lovely figure on his Facebook Page. So I believe we got now a merchandise piece for all the non mane-six Movie Characters. Expect more info this weekend.

Thanks to Aquatic Neon for the heads up!

Today was full of gifts from Hasbro with images of new MLP The Movie merch, but the day is not over! We've just received an update from Hasbro showing even more upcoming merch: Captain Celaeno and a Storm King & Grubber set!
The Captain Celaeno figure has a unique mold and stands on both thin legs with additional support from a cape. The figure is fitted with plenty of articulation points and comes with a translucent sword.
Storm King & Grubber are combined one a single plateau and fit more in the line of GoH Fan Series figures. Attached to the figures are strikes of magic/lightning and the Storm King is wielding a big staff. It's clear that this figure is not to be played with and is meant as a display piece.

Hasbro is on a roll with tons of surprises today, and now released information on an upcoming MLP The Movie-based playset. The set features two "new" characters: Queen Novo and Spike the Pufferfish, who is a sea-forme of the Spike we all know. Queen Novo in this case looks very similar to Princess Celestia, but we're unsure about their relation at the moment.
The playset, officially named Canterlot & Seaquestria Castle Playset, features a castle that is presumably going to be a part of the My Little Pony movie and is quite large (29"), with plenty of actions and accessories. With the Queen Novo and Spike figures included this set is going to be sold at MSRP $99.

Keep the new toys coming! And this is quite a special one... Forbes has posted an article about the upcoming "My Magical Princess Twilight Sparkle" This massive Twilight Sparkle has some amazing features like a light-up horn and she can also speak over 90 phrases. The Price Tag for this lovely piece of merch will be $129.99 and she will be released this fall. She will most likely be also presented during the NY Toy Fair this weekend.

Thanks to Chevistian for the heads up!

We just found out about the Tempest Shadow figure that was coming soon. But now Kristin Chenoweth and Sia have shared images of their characters in merchandise form. Well there was no sign of Hair on Tempest Shadow we can clearly see that both Princess Skystar and Songbird Serenade will be released as brushables, Songbird Serenade will be released with the new open-mouth Reboot Series Brushable mold and Princess Skystar... well she's a brand new species so a specific mold was expected, still they look both amazing.

Stay tuned for more new these days. It will be a busy weekend. ;)

And we got the first piece of official Movie Merchandise revealed! Her character was already revealed some days ago but now we'll also see her as a piece of merchandise. The sculpt on her looks amazing. It's at the moment unsure under which line she will fall. Will she be part of the Guardians of Harmony series? Or will the Movie Merchandise all be under their own category? (This is also interesting for database purposes)

Except more movie/merchandise news this weekend when the New York Toy Fair starts!

ATTENTION: This post contains spoilers about the upcoming MLP Movie this October. Do not read if you don't want to know anything about the movie.
The London Toy Fair has already passed and right now we're preparing for the New York one which will start this Friday. However we might have skipped over something during the London one, and here we are to post about it:

Last week we asked you whether you read MLP books at all. The results are leaning to the negative side, with over 26% of people not reading the books at all, and another 12% that have only read 1 or 2 ever. On the other side, a surprising group of almost 20% wants to read all the books out there, which by now is a pretty big library. In between are people who prefer to read only the books they know they'd like (20%) and people who occasionally read them (22%).

Back in January we saw a magazine advert for the upcoming Rarity Friendship is Magic Collection Small Story Pack sets and a week later we got many high quality images of the other Rarity FiM Collection sets, but we were left without promo images of the earlier shown small packs.
But now, on the Icelandic Toys"R"Us website of all places, we finally get the images we were missing.
Below we have all images of the sets:

We at MLP Merch are happy to announce that the amount of items everyone has added to their checklists and wishlist almost reached 150.000! We understand that collectors are also proud about the amount of items they own, or that you'd like to share your wishlist easily with other collectors.

Over in France the MLP Magazine is now bundled with a free Baby Flurry Heart figure. This was already announced back in December, but we now have some proper images of the actual figure!
The figure looks decent (especially since it's free), but according to the submitter Flurry Heart is a bit wobbly and it's hard to keep her from falling over (well it is still a foal, after all).
The next magazine figure in France will be Spike. Other European MLP Magazine might also receive the Baby Flurry Heart this month, but we've not heard of any other finds yet.

Talking about magazine figures, did you know that you can see all released magazine figures in our MLP Merch Database?

Thanks to Neptune for the info!

Last week we asked you how far away you live from your favorite merch store. It was awesome to hear a bit about the stores in your area, and as the poll shows most people live pretty close to the toy stores they'd like to visit. Apart from a 32% group that doesn't have a favorite merch store the majority (35%) lives within a 5 miles radius. And 6% of those even live within walking distance, awesome! Sadly the group of people who have to travel over 50 miles for their favorite store is slightly bigger at 7%.

A few days ago we wrote an article on the complete line-up of K'NEX toys for 2017, and were still missing the images of the smaller sets for Rarity and Fluttershy. Luckily we've managed to get images for those (see below), but also happened to find the official image of the Pinkie Pie Sweet Shop building. In the previous post we expected that the pricing of the set was based on two sets, as it was very small in relation to $39.99, but it turns out that the actual Pinkie Pie Sweet Shop set is much bigger!
The original image of Pinkie Pie might have been a early picture of the Pony Pals series 2 collection, which we assume will contain Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash and indeed Pinkie Pie.
Below are all the new images:

We've been lacking a bit with updates in regards to My Little Pony books, but here is a big update on everything that is to come later in the year.
One of the biggest announcements is that of My Little Pony: The Movie books, which we'll see at least 7 of, all release about five weeks before the movie: August 29, 2017.
Also included in this post is the cover of the adult coloring book "Coloring Harmony", two My Little Pony Golden Books and various other titles you might like. Below is all the information we have, but at this moment most books lack their cover art or even the description.