Soon we'll get to see a second wave of the G4.5 Fashion Squad Equestria Girls figures, and one of those will be a set with Pinkie Pie and... Minty! It will be her first release in the Fashion Squad line, and actually her first release in the Equestria Girls line at all. Who knew that a pony that has been popular since Generation 1 could see so little releases in G4!

Together with the release of the brand new blind bags set Target also added the first series of Generation 4.5 ponies and figures on the shelves, or at least, most of it. What has been spotted so far are the Potion Ponies ($4.99), Magical Mane Rarity ($21.49), Fashion Squad Singles ($4.99) and Potion Princesses ($14.99). The few sets that were already announced and not found could be available at other Target stores, or perhaps release at a later moment.

After the original announcement and availability at Amazon people spotted a second 12-figure box at Walmart, which we named Batch 1A quickly after. Instead of waiting for the second set to release at a later point we got a surprise update today: the second half of the set, Batch 1B, has just been released at Target!
Aside from the split of characters there are no other changes to the series. Even the codes on the packaging are exactly the same over all sets. More on that below.
This second half of the first batch (previously called waves) features Princess Celestia, Twilight Sparkle, Winona (black), Tank (blue), Angel, Gummy, Opalescence (black), a hippo and 4 unnamed unicorns.
Thanks to Victor & Samantha for the info and photos!

Earlier this week we found the first image of the brand new G4.5 blind bags set online, and just before the new year Walmart already released them in stores! (And Amazon now, too)
There's only one odd thing here: the set that was found on the shelves is a 12-pack, whereas the US normally gets a full 24-pack, just like the images we found earlier. Not only that, but the packaging only features English and French text, not Spanish as US releases usually have.
These 12-pack releases with two languages is commonly released in the UK, so it is possible that this set that hit the stores is a mix-up.
The figures included are the first set we posted in our previous post containing Tank, Winona, (brown) Angel, Opalescence, Lyra, Amethyst Star, unknown green pony, Gummy, Potion Nova, Cha Cha, a hippopotamus and Rarity.
While the Cutie Mark Crew confetti is gone, these new blind bags do come with another (potentially even messier) way of opening them: water! You can flip open the potion bottles, pour in some water, and after shaking them for a while the dust should dissolve and the pony will be revealed. Just make sure you close the potion bottle tight before shaking! (See photo and video of this below)
Update: First wave of Magical Potion Surprise is now on Amazon for just $2.99 each. Listing mentions 24 figures in contrast to the split box found in stores.

Thanks to SLPhotos for the photos & videos!

Now that, I think, everyone is aware of the upcoming My Little Pony: Pony Life series, it's time to go back to our usual reporting: store finds! We've been saving up submits from the past 1.5 month, and hopefully we're not missing anything in this post. Nevertheless we've got tons of merch to share with you, so keep on reading below!
If you happen to find brand new stuff in your local store, then feel free to write us a small message with photos.

After a teaser campaign on Instagram the news is now officially out: My Little Pony will return to Discovery Family in 2020 with a brand new animated series called Pony Life.
The new TV-series will feature new chibi-style animations, done by Hasbro's own Allspark Animation, and the mane 6 and their voice actors from Friendship is Magic will return for this series.
The show will center around Sugarcube Corner, Pinkie Pie and mysterious potions in a Slice of Life setting. Aside from the main TV-show the My Little Pony YouTube channel will continue to release exclusive shorts.

Whereas Basic Fun skipped the second generation of My Little Pony in their retro line of ponies (so far), we got surprise news from McDonald's this week that they are filling in that gap! As part of their 40 years anniversary of the Happy Meal they are re-releasing 17 classic toys from Happy Meals throughout the ages. One of which is the G2 Light Heart pony that was originally released in 1998.

Regarding the colors and details this pony is exactly like its 21-year-old original, including the brushable tail. The only difference is the hollow legs which have been added on this re-release.

If you'd like to add this pony to your collection you should be quick: these toys are subject to availability and are only included in Happy Meals between today (Nov 7th) and next Monday (Nov 11th). McDonald's location in at least the US and The Netherlands will offer this line of toys, it's unsure which other countries include this promotion as well.
Update: The happy meal figures are packaged as blind bags, and according to multiple confirmations #12 is the Light Heart pony. (Thanks mylittleponyukcollector)

Thanks to Alex for the heads-up!

Even though the ink is still wet on our announcement post of the Rainbow Dash bishoujo statue from Kotobukiya we can share more info on her with you! As promised Kotobukiya showed the prototype statue at the New York Comic Con, and thanks to a Diana we can now have a look at the display they had over there.

A small 3 months after the previous announcement from Kotobukiya we can happily say that the Rarity Bishoujo statue design has received it's layer of colors and was finalized. Matching her pony-form color schema, the humanized Rarity figure features a white shirt with purple skirt and belt and long wavy locks. She also rocks a gold bracelet and large necklace, together with a hair clip representing her cutie mark. The pony that accompanies the human statue is a well-designed 3D presentation of Rarity, being it with very heavy eyelashes. More images of both can be seen later in the post.
Just like the statues before, this stage of the development process also means that pre-orders are now available. So far we were only able to find a pre-order listing on the Kotobukiya site itself, but expect sites that usually offer statues like this to follow soon.

We're back from our holiday and are back to share the latest MLP news with all of you! On our way back we were able to pick up Rainbow Dash from the My Little Pony Happy Meal 2019 line, and no, we didn't go through Switzerland. Here in The Netherlands McDonald's launched the same line of Happy Meal figures, which includes unique versions of Applejack, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Rarity and Twilight Sparkle.
But there is more news, as the line is also available in Argentina, Brazil and Mexico. However, in those countries the set does not only contain the ponies mentioned above, but features new figures of Starlight Glimmer and Spike as well! Pictures of both are shown below.
More countries could potentially receive this set in the future, as we've seen delays of months between countries in the past, but we don't have any definitive information on that.

If you can't wait for them to become available in your country: the first listings for these figures are now available on eBay.

Thanks to Sil for the heads-up!