Has your wallet had time to recover from the holidays? Mine hasn’t but I can still feed my merch addiction vicariously. Read more behind the cut to find the latest merch news and new items!

Fan Merch

WebMaka makes these awesome LED lit pendants with pony inspired designs. A cool white LED makes the engraved cutie marks pop when lit, and an opaque backing adds a touch of color when off. Cut from high strength polycarbonate on a tabletop CNC machine and closed with stainless steel screws, they’re definitely tough. The replaceable CR 2032 battery powers the LED for approximately 6 hours before dimming significantly.

They’re made to order for $15/ea, $3 of which is donated to Child’s Play. Cutie Marks for the Main 6 and all three princesses are available, and custom images can be negotiated. Check out his page for info on commissioning one and his deviantArt for more photos of the pendants in action.

I think they’re really cute and I might have to scare up a Rarity one for myself sometime soon.

Licensed Merch

Hot on the heels of the recent Rarity post, Funrise Toys announced on their facebook page that Applejack will also be joining their spring line! The new plushes are due in early March and AJ’s announcement means the whole Mane 6 will be available in plush form for the first time.

And MLP Arena’s Sailor Phoenix found this G1 Lanyard featuring Firefly and Sundance that I simply must have at Spencer’s.

Hasbro Merch

Pinkie Pie has been featured on toothpaste and body wash, now she has a talking hairbrush for you! The real interesting part is that the Pinkie toy packed with the brush (which is a G3 item with new sticker and voice clips) is a new size of brushable. She’s bigger than the 3″ singles, smaller than the Fashion Styles. To me it looks like a shrink of the Fashion Style mold as they share the same rounded edges. She’s also sporting some blue designs on her legs, similar to the first year Spring/Easter Fluttershy and Valentine’s Day Pinkie Pie.

(src: eBay)

Ploomette was the non-show pony in the first wave of Glimmer Wings, she’s shown up in loose single form on TaoBao with tinsel hair and crystal catchlights indicating she was going to appear in the Crystal Empire wave. Now we have pics of packaging, and she’s going to be coming out in one of those euro-exclusive bonus packs, bundled with Twilight Sparkle.

(src: TaoBao via MLP Arena)

Looks like Hasbro made an oopsie on these wave 7 blind bag cards that showed up on TaoBao, Soarin and Spitfire appear to be switched!

(src and an excellent primer on levels of canonicity at TechPhek’s G4 Merch Blog)

And I guess I’ll throw my hat into the speculation ring about Hasbro’s recent trademark filings for the term “Equestria Girls.”  I don’t think they’re going to put any humans in the show (although the return of Megan would be hilarious), but the fandom loves humanized interpretations of ponies in fanart. I think “Equestria Girls” sounds like a likely title for a line of highly articulated fashion dolls (Monster High style) based on pony characters.

Monster High is a Mattel property, Hasbro’s biggest rival, and is very hot in both the target market and the adult collector/customizer set. If Hasbro can tap into the pony zeitgeist it might give them a strong entry into the fashion doll market.

TaoBaonanza!

Let’s finish up with one of my favorite topics, prototype/variant ponies! SoSilver on MLP Arena snagged this awesome long-haired Fashion Style Shining Armor. The variant pony is a brighter white, the eye graphics are larger and positioned slightly differently, and it has a full length mane and tail instead of a mohawk.

I really like the variant eyes over the production version, it just looks so much better.

As always, drop me a line at merch@mlponies.com for questions, complaints, suggestions, and tips. See you next week! ■