Wave 11 Blind Bags Discussion

[Violet CLM]

Well, Lulu Luck has a green horseshoe, and this lady has a yellow one. Other than that it's convergent evolution. The pony above is a recolor of Shoeshine:
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And the animators decided to go the extra step of recoloring her cutie mark to match the rest of her. Historically that hasn't been done for a lot of throwaways, but many of the ponies I listed in the opening post as "Manehattan characters" actually occurred repeatedly in later season 4 episodes, some of them even getting filly redesigns in the Pinkie Pride flashbacks. So it looks like the animators made an intentional decision to add some new faces to the list of frequently recurring background characters, and then someone in Hasbro's toy department saw some of those new faces and decided to make toys from them.

Lulu Luck, on the other hand, was purely a product of Hasbro, with no involvement of the show animators at all, and presumably the animators had no reason to think about her when designing background characters for season 4. For whatever reason Hasbro gave her a pair of horseshoes for her cutie mark, referencing the association of ponies/horses with horseshoes, but not specifically Shoeshine. Shoeshine hadn't even had a toy yet when Lulu Luck was designed... it may have been entirely coincidental. Caramel (or "Chance-a-Lot" in the toys) also has horseshoes in his cutie mark. So does Lilac Links, a different Shoeshine recolor who became a blind bag just like this girl is on the way to doing. So does Lucky Swirl, a bb-exclusive.

Really, it wouldn't surprise me if Lucky Swirl had been designed by a blind bag team, and Lulu Luck by a playful pony team, and Shoeshine by the showmakers, all at roughly the same time without any communication among the three. Then the showmakers recolored Shoeshine (at least) twice as Lilac Links and the season 4 gal, and the blind bag team at various times saw those three (including Shoeshine) show ponies and decided to make them into toys, like they'd already made playful pony Lulu Luck a blind bag toy for wave 2. The showmakers weren't intending to create toys, so they didn't bother giving them separate cutie marks, and nobody who was intending to create toys produced the same design more than once. (Conceivably. Depending on how Lulu Luck and Lucky Swirl came into being, at least.)

[Flitter]

They probably all have a catalog of cutie marks & trademarked characters they all reference. I remember reading something awhile back about how the MLP teams were going to be working more on having toys more relevant to the show and vice versa. Maybe matching show backgrounders to toys wasn't as intentional before as it is now.

[hathorcat]

Hmmm...the idea that the repetition is due to the show is spot on. Unfortunately for me all it does is just make me wish we could go back to toy designers being allowed to actually design toys. So many of the show characters are bland, boring and designed to be exactly that blending in, not too noticeable background roles...unless of course they are plot points.

The ponies which were created without the influence of the show - Honeybuzz, Dewdrop Dazzle, Star Swirl - are all much more exciting toys in colour and design than some of the bland bling bags that we see [in my opinion].

Also Violet thats a great analysis - but it also blows my mind So many ponies with the same symbol!

[Violet CLM]

The ponies which were created without the influence of the show - Honeybuzz, Dewdrop Dazzle, Star Swirl - are all much more exciting toys in colour and design than some of the bland bling bags that we see [in my opinion].

Sure, I'd take them over Honey Rays or Berry Dreams or Grape Delight. That said, there's a middle ground between all new "HasbrOCs" all the time and wave 10's nearly wall-to-wall reissuing. (Though I wouldn't mind a Twinkleshine reissue with a white coat.) There are still a few pegasus ponies, even ones who could get away with using the standard recolored molds, that still haven't made their way onto shelves despite appearing much more frequently than, say, Lilac Links' two-second cameo. Specifically:

Spoiler

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All of them members of the main twenty-four background ponies the show started out with, but still woefully toyless, even after their cousins like Sassaflash have gotten up to three releases or more. So sad.

After those four, though, yes, bring on the new designs! Or at least more important/distinct characters like Cloudchaser and Flitter. (And Aloe! Three releases of Lotus Blossom, and not a one of her sister? They have the same design! Same cutie mark! How can this be so difficult?)

[Navi]

At least we're still getting semi-new characters in the blind bag line. The brushable line has been woefully mane-six heavy lately.

I do agree that I like a lot of the first few waves of brushables more than recent waves.. Feathermay, Honeybuzz and Starswirl are some of my favorites.

[Malicieuse]

Hmmm...the idea that the repetition is due to the show is spot on. Unfortunately for me all it does is just make me wish we could go back to toy designers being allowed to actually design toys. So many of the show characters are bland, boring and designed to be exactly that blending in, not too noticeable background roles...unless of course they are plot points.

The ponies which were created without the influence of the show - Honeybuzz, Dewdrop Dazzle, Star Swirl - are all much more exciting toys in colour and design than some of the bland bling bags that we see [in my opinion].

Also Violet thats a great analysis - but it also blows my mind So many ponies with the same symbol!

This. So tired of all the "one mane color" ponies with the simple/recycled cutie marks.
I really don't think a lot of background ponies make for very interesting toy designs.

[Flitter]

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[Foxtale]

You know what would be interesting? If they did a set of Blind Bags based solely on characters from EQG lol

[diamondshy]

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Aw man, I was hoping to see this character in a guy's pose.  Maybe a repaint of Whooves is in order...

[Violet CLM]

Yeah, that char's in the opening post, but it's nice to get a clearer photo!

You know what would be interesting? If they did a set of Blind Bags based solely on characters from EQG lol

oh yes please

[Niksilp]

This hasn't been posted yet, right? I bought some Wave 10 blind bags from Meijer tonight and they had a "coming soon" pamphlet inside with Wave 11.

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[Navi]

This hasn't been posted yet, right? I bought some Wave 10 blind bags from Meijer tonight and they had a "coming soon" pamphlet inside with Wave 11.

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Nice! I haven't seen that yet. I think I spy a couple new ones in there too..

Royal Pin and Swanky Hank?

[Flitter]

Awesome! My W10s didn't have any pamphlet like that!
Time to update the wishlist!
That's so interesting that they made Breezies the special ones.
I'm slightly sad that the green boy isn't a solid color Emerald Ray but, yay for some new characters!
They made Cloud Chaser different from the show and Suri is named Buttonbelle...
I hope they give Spitfire her yellow hair stripe in the final ver.

[diamondshy]

Oh maaan.  Assuming a lot of the unique ones in that wave don't come out in minifig packs, this is the first wave in a long time where I've needed more than just a few.  And when it's not a few, it's almost all of them!

[Niksilp]

Awesome! My W10s didn't have any pamphlet like that!
Time to update the wishlist!
That's so interesting that they made Breezies the special ones.
I'm slightly sad that the green boy isn't a solid color Emerald Ray but, yay for some new characters!
They made Cloud Chaser different from the show and Suri is named Buttonbelle...
I hope they give Spitfire her yellow hair stripe in the final ver.

I bought a bunch of wave 10s from Walmart and Target and they didn't have the pamphlet either. It was just the ones I got today from Meijer. Really odd. I was quite suprirsed when I opened them.