Enjoy our 4th episode in the quest for the worst fakies!
Guardians of Harmony
Sooner or later, every type of merch is getting a fake release. This is the first time that we see fake Guardians of Harmony figures, but besides the fact that they look like the GoH series they aren't that good. The 4 figures share 2 mane styles and only 1 type of wings. They did get some fitting accessories, but some of them are mis-colored. Also, the logos and text ("My Happy Baby: Beautiful or Happy" and "Our World") sounds like the least MLP-imitating slogan usage of fakies so far.Power Ponies
These are probably not the first take on creating fake versions of the Power Ponies, but we saw these recently in two different sizes. They don't look too bad on first sights, but have quite a few flaws. People with an untrained eye might think these are the real deal, but once you notice the wrong eyes, wings and rushed paint job you'll know the difference between the actual figures and these fakies. Especially once you see the packaging they come in! The bigger "fashion style"-based figures also seem to come with a generic sound box.Equestria Girls
Let's start the Equestria Girls section with something nice. And with that I mean that the original artwork is nice, which the manufacturer obviously stole from DeviantArt (couldn't find the artist so soon, sorry!) and used for their range of keychains. Sadly this is something that we see more often with prints.I don't speak Spanish myself, but I these figures are indeed a bit of a mystery. Their facial expression and messed up clothes show that they had a bit too much of a party and for some reason they merged Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash on the cover of the box. They all come with a "EqG Club Card" from another character and an old fakie to top it all off.
Next up: Clay dolls of the Equestria Girls. If you'd make these yourself with Play Doh it'd be a work of art, but these are probably created with molds or special-made cutters. I have no idea how they're planning on selling pre-produced clay figures like these, and if they survive shipping, but don't be fooled by people selling these exact figures as "hand made".
Before we start looking and some fake EqG Minis I first present you "My Bolly Princess", which is probably the least fitting name for these dolls. I think "Possessed mannequins with colorful wigs" would be more fitting, but it's less appealing I suppose. (Those not familiar, these dolls are a mix-up of MLP and EAH).
Now let's look at the Equestria Girls Minis I promised you. Not only are the molds and placement of facial features way off, the color choices are downright horrible. I also spot several pieces of plastic residue that hasn't been removed properly, leaving sharp edges on the mold lines. None of these has any articulation by the way, so Twilight and Fluttershy will always be waving. AJ does come with a hat, though.
Bonus: Two more EqG Minis! Now the color selection for these is a bit better, but the faces are terrible. These two come with articulation, but in all honesty I'm not sure how long these will last. Both figures seem to have an LED installed in their shirt, but they're not promoting a lighting feature on the packaging. What they do say on the packaging is debatable, to say the least: "Collect all the people".
Brushables
The name fakies is traditionally ment for brushables ponies that look like the real deal in some degree. Therefor it's no surprise that the Brushables section of the Fakie Quests posts is usually the biggest of all.There is also a generic pink princess version of this one, which you can see below.
While there are special releases of bagged brushables in the US, the flower Ponymania brushables were never part of that line. These look spot-on, so it's possible that these are re-packaged factory rejects.
These Rainbow Power-inspired Princess brushables have slight flaws, which collectors will easily spot. The biggest problem is the patterns, which are not in line with the actual figures, and with Twilight's head looks to have been swapped with Princess Luna.
Then over to Russia, where these 3 fakies were spotted. Trixie and Lyra look pretty accurate, but the purple hair was out of stock when they created Rarity, I suppose.
More generic sound box ponies in coming with these two bright princess in a Princess Luna box (really, credits for the box design). The wings light up as well and in the back you can see a weird comb that's included. Is that also Luna themed?
Princess fakies are the main theme this year, if you didn't notice that yet. Here we have a bunch of re-packaged large princess ponies with several blind bags. Fun fact: the included blind bag figures are always the same, but some are released with Rainbow Power markings and some don't.
And of course the Talking Princesses are here as well. We've seen them before, but this time with packaging (Style Size type packaging). They even made a pink and white version of Celestia, how thoughtful! Oh, and take your time to look at the packaging. It's hilarious. "The supreme being, is both God and the king. Equestria is the head of the Supreme state, has the most beautiful appearance, the magic is very strong, and be proficient in all kinds of magic".
O_O
We saved this one for last, as it's one big heap of trash. The main brushables included are very common, but they've decided to include some recolored animals as well, including a yellow Spike in this "Perfect vogue elegent series modern"-set of "Fun the Pony Lovely". And yes, that's the Disney font.
Blind Bags
Just like brushables, fake blind bags-size figures are very popular on online marketplaces. Original figures are easy to copy with the use of molds and are usually not as detailed. This gets painfully obvious when a bootleg manufacturer starts to reproduce their own figures, in this case with multiple materials and colors. This isn't the first time these figures pop up, but this adds another 20 releases to the "collection".The molds used are part of a bigger wave, including more figures. At least AJ got some type of hat in this set.
Another neat example of the amount of fake blind bags is this size comparison, which even included 4 releases of Spike. Yet, all 4 releases are equally bad.
Not only the figures, but the packaging too is commonly copied. While the brushables usually get a new type of packaging, these blind bags got an almost exact copy of Friendship is Magic Collection cardboard packaging. The second set actually looks a bit sad as the heart locket is so big the included figure is just sitting in it's shadow.
Don't try Tinder if you're looking for an "intimate partner", because according to this box, My Lovely Pony is all you need. This "Hot Sail"-set includes a wide variety of molds (some of then not seen before), but the color selection for most ponies is way off. I do see a pegasus Cheerilee, though.
Hasbro Pops
The release of Hasbro POP ponies has basically ended last year, but this doesn't stop the clones. We've seen these before, but this one is particularly bad: cheap colors, non-matching parts and creepy eyes. I thought sticker sheets were possibly the easiest things to copy, but as the photos show it was easier to put together some weird icons and images with different art styles. I don't even want to know how the other eyes would look like on the pony...Plush
Anteaterjack, that's all I have to say.This set of bootleg plush ponies is actually looks very good. They're mostly based on Ty plush and might be based on a stolen or traced plush pattern. They also come with a fake copyright-tag, but the box gives it all away (who sells plush in packaging, anyway?).
Playskool
To quote myself from a bit earlier in this post: "Sooner or later, every type of merch is getting a fake release". No matter how popular it is, bootlegs will arise in one way or another. Take these Playskool Friends for example. Were they ever released as eggs? Are the colors correct? Is that a POP pony on the box instead of a Playskool figure? Is the plastic poisonous? I bet all these questions were answered with "We don't care" when they designed this line.Miscellaneous
The miscellaneous category is the heap of items not fitting in the other categories, but this ends up being the group best fit for the title "worst fakies". I'll start with some acceptable ones, but towards the end you'll get to see some really bad bootleg merch.These wands come with a huge product and feature sheet showing all the sizes, gimmicks and designs. Actually there's nothing more to them than a projector, sound box and some lights, but the design of the wands is actually well done. The molding of the characters and color choices are as you might expect and the projectors shows official vectors. You'd almost start to wonder whether these are actually fake (yet I couldn't find any info on these outside of Chinese marketplaces).
Another "normal" item is this stationery case, which is nothing more than an unlicensed set released with My Little Pony images. The set is actually a bit bare as no pencils, scissors or rulers are included.
Talking about stationery, we also spotted this MLP-themed correction tape packs, something I would never have guessed to ever see. A lot of common vectors have been used, but it's cool to see they used recolored MLP logos for each pony.
Another random item is this box of sweets with a Pinkie Rarity on the cover (possibly fanart). The box mentions My Little Pony, but outside that no logos or artwork is used.
Talking about fanart, check these completely random cushions with SFM 3D ponies on them!
Not only Equestria Girls, but the ponies themselves are also released as mass-produced clay figures. Outside the usual flaws the eyelashes are not the most appealing parts. It almost looks like they're crying and their mascara is running!
Now, let's start with the crazy stuff, including lantern balloons of Pinkie Pie and Princess Cadance. I know that balloons need to be inflated, but it wasn't necessary to give them actual inflated heads, is it? The proportions of both the head and the eyes are just very disturbing.
When I initially saw this dress I was just scrolling past it, as simple clothing with fanart or vectors are very common. But then I noticed that, next to the regular Twilight Sparkle and slightly discolored Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy got an incredibly bad sunburn! Ouch!
Next is this costume of Pinkie Pie which is best described as a cheap fursuit. Regularly companies use marketing images to make a product look better than it is, but these people did the exact opposite. If you look at the images in detail you see how sloppy, simple and undetailed the suit is. And this thing is sold at $200+, yet they failed to create an actual Pinkie Pie and added wings and used the wrong eye color for her. Shocking fact: they actually sold one!
I can imagine that creating detailed artwork on canvas is tough, but if you can't pull it off, why do it? Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie don't look too bad on the right, but on the left where Rarity, Applejack and Twilight are terrible. Rarity with yellow eyeshade, sunburn AJ and Twilight with a yellow mane are just not right, and the logo they included is even worse. Was yellow cheaper to use or something?
Chibi ponies as figures? Sure! Chibi ponies on shirts? Why not! Chibi ponies as slippers? Eh!? I don't know where they got the design from, but it looks like a regular Rainbow Dash head with a rushed small body, just to fit it in the shape of a slipper. And are those dark blue wings or is that supposed to be the last bang of her mane?
Now let's look at two types of MLP-themed bags. These, along with clothing, are very common fake products that are not figures. Most or pretty straightforward, but these are just gems. Starting with these "face backpacks". I hope I don't have to explain that the size of the eyes is the big problem here... Did someone forget to close the bug screen?
The other bags are just... well... look for yourself. Apparently Disney's Cars and My Little Pony are a perfect fit to create bags (not really) and the use of stolen recolored artwork makes it ever better (no it doesn't).
And to finish this episode of we present to you: Baby Flurry Heart Robot Butterfly of Doom. This thing is just an incredible abomination, which was hopefully just a weird idea by the manufacturer, and not foreshadowing what Hasbro is going to release later this year... It's best described as the mascot of Android, covered in a paint job to make it look like Baby Flurry Heart, generic butterfly wings, sound box, lights and a fake MLP logo permanently placed on the belly as the cherry on top. Why does this exists?
Luckily that was all for this episode. It took quite a while to get this post out due to other projects, but I hope to start writing these more often again, so stay tuned. Oh and don't hesitate to send in any new fake My Little Pony items you spot online or in stores for the next episode!
Them balloons scare me o3o haha
ReplyDeleteThese bootleg roundups are the best! Is there any reason links are not given?
ReplyDeleteTo keep on the safe side with Hasbro we do not promote buying fake items (on our blog nor database). With these articles we talk about them in a humourous way, but without adding links, which is always better than no fakie news at all :)
DeleteIm a native speaker of spanish and what the boxes of dolls says is: My adorable little horse, and down says: Mysterious what is very strange O.o
ReplyDeleteWHAT THE FAKE!!!
ReplyDeleteMAKE IT STOP!!! Wait the Equestria Girls Keychains are cute though, where do you buy them?
ReplyDeleteThose ch-bi key-chains so cute!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ReplyDeletehttp://m.ebay.com/itm/7-My-Little-Pony-Equestria-Girls-Action-Figures-Dolls-Play-Toy-Cake-Topper-Decor-/222497557217?hash=item33cde34ae1%3Ag%3AyfEAAOSwt0FZCY83&_trkparms=pageci%253A35bdd00f-3ad0-11e7-923d-74dbd180d04c%257Cparentrq%253A15405d1715c0ab6a8609d5b1fffd4480%257Ciid%253A12
ReplyDeleteI think "AntEaterJack" made me soil myself a little laughing! XD
ReplyDeleteThe EG twilight play doh thing looks plastic-y. Look at the bangs.
ReplyDeleteaww, but the SFM pillows are so cool XD
ReplyDeleteEvil stick: MLP edition
ReplyDeleteYou know, the My Bolly Princess dolls are wearing clothes of the same style as Disney Descendants Jane and Evie dolls.
ReplyDeleteMake more of these posts!!! I'm lovin' them:)
Looking at these knockoffs remind me of the ones I bought from Jamaica.
ReplyDeletehey, does anyone knows where the ponimania "fakes" are from
ReplyDeletei cracked up at that flury heart robot XDD
ReplyDelete