Fakies: True knock offs or there own thing?

[Nemesis]

for example, remcos were made in response to mlps being made, yes? so remco was trying to bank on hasbros success with tiny rainbow horses and make their own. if the intent is to try to emulate what hasbro was/is doing, then that makes it a fakie.

Some Remco ponies have 1981 and 1982 under their hooves. So they might have been there before/the same time as MLP. Ill go and see if one of mine carries it, will bring a pic if possible!


edit : yes, I have one Here is my MOC Remco boy Clyde Horse, he has 1982 under his left hind hoof.

http://einhornbaby.contract-killers.de/zeigen/remco2.jpg
http://einhornbaby.contract-killers.de/zeigen/remco.jpg

Which brings us to an Earth-shattering question... Are MLPs actually fakies of Remco ponies!?

(Kidding, lol. But it's funny to think about...)

[Leave a Whisper]

for example, remcos were made in response to mlps being made, yes? so remco was trying to bank on hasbros success with tiny rainbow horses and make their own. if the intent is to try to emulate what hasbro was/is doing, then that makes it a fakie.

Some Remco ponies have 1981 and 1982 under their hooves. So they might have been there before/the same time as MLP. Ill go and see if one of mine carries it, will bring a pic if possible!


edit : yes, I have one Here is my MOC Remco boy Clyde Horse, he has 1982 under his left hind hoof.

http://einhornbaby.contract-killers.de/zeigen/remco2.jpg
http://einhornbaby.contract-killers.de/zeigen/remco.jpg

Which brings us to an Earth-shattering question... Are MLPs actually fakies of Remco ponies!?

(Kidding, lol. But it's funny to think about...)

Actually I was thinking that myself, since there is proof that they predate them by a couple of years. They just had better succes.

Its like the deal with Hydroxy and Oreo cookies. Everyone thought Hydroxy was the knock off, but they were around much longer.


Same with Transformers copycatting Go-bots and Voltron.

[Glitter Yolk]

If they resemble mlp, like if they are pudgy and of similar plastic consistency or have some sort of symbol, I'd likely consider it a knockoff unless they were produced before mlp came out.

If they are just colorful horses I wouldn't say that automatically makes them a knockoff (though they could still be riding on mlp popularity), especially if they have their own recognized line and features.

Quality is also something I look for, as most fakies are below-par in either hair or paint details, even plastic.

I believe distinct styles count them out as generic knock offs.

I have two Merry Hooves, they're smaller, hard plastic with umm....interesting eyes, flocking, moulded hair, they have a decent weight and are distinctly horse like in their proportions, as opposed to the pudgier pony like style of earlier gens, or bobble headed style of the current one.

I also have a Boley Fantasy Pony who has a slender, G3 style body with G3 wings and a wide horselike head and no nostrils for some reason.

 Remcos remind me of Precious Moments pictures, very rounded and soft.

And Totsys have those eyes that just scream  I solemnly swear I am up to no good. 

Remcos I'd consider fakies, I'm not familiar with Merry Hooves though. I looked it up and it does seem like they do have symbols, which I would consider something mlp started so I'd say fakie. I'm looking at a pink one with purple hair and a tiara, it's actually pretty cute!

Haha, no nostrils is weird! Even a little indent would make me feel better. Well, unless it's really stylized, like Takara. Now I'm wondering what they'd look like with some little dots on the nose.

I love fakies, but what I love the most about them isn't how close they can get to looking like the real deal, it's how creative they can get, doing things the original line might never see.

My favorites are Lucky Ponies, with their weird eyes and fun poses. Their presence of symbols along with being colorful is like a neon sign saying "I'm totally based off of mlp!".

I've never heard of Lucky Ponies. Might you have pictures please?

Huh. I didn't know Totsy had Big Brothers?

These aren't my pictures, but here are some examples! I've saved a bunch of pictures on my phone because I'm interested in collecting both.

I just call them Big Brothers, I think I've seen other people calling them that too.

These guys, similar head, eyes and shoulder symbol:

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They also made some giraffes with the same bodies!

Lucky Ponies are probably more well known as Chubby Fakies, I don't think they were around that long because the line was canceled after input from Hasbro.

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[Hannah66665]

Ooh, wow! I want one of the "big brothers"!

(Limone Mellow, I love the pony art in your sig!)

[Glitter Yolk]

Ooh, wow! I want one of the "big brothers"!

(Limone Mellow, I love the pony art in your sig!)

Yeah I've seen them in pink, blue, white and off yellow so far. There's a danish magazine ad for them on Vetten's collection website, calling them just My Little Horse.

The lovely signature art was done by Makaroni_the_pony! I really should put that up, oops.

[Hannah66665]

Thanks for pointing me towards Vetten's collection... I found the page showing the magazine scans... wow! gosh I love fakies... there's so many types and I'm always finding something new.

(the art is awesome~ I'll have to see if they've done more. ^^)

[Glitter Yolk]

Thanks for pointing me towards Vetten's collection... I found the page showing the magazine scans... wow! gosh I love fakies... there's so many types and I'm always finding something new.

(the art is awesome~ I'll have to see if they've done more. ^^)

Glad you found it! I should probably put a link in case anyone is interested, those scans are definitely cool:

http://vetten.weebly.com/vintage-fakies.html

[Leave a Whisper]

Those are very interesting! Thanks Limone.

[Cswift]

These aren't my pictures, but here are some examples! I've saved a bunch of pictures on my phone because I'm interested in collecting both.

I just call them Big Brothers, I think I've seen other people calling them that too.

These guys, similar head, eyes and shoulder symbol:

visitors can't see pics , please register or login

I notice that they have cloven hooves! And yet no horns like their little sisters...it's almost like the unicorn traits got split between the two. Thanks for the pictures, these are super interesting.

I realize this is highly subjective, but my own personal metric for whether something is a fakie or not is whether or not there's a reasonable chance your average adult would mistake it for the real thing when shopping for their kid. By this standard, Totsy, Princess Rinse 'N' Spit, Lanard, etc. are fakies, since the proportions and general "feel" of the toys are very similar. On the other hand, I would not consider Bratz Ponies to be fakies because even though they share the same general concept of being a brushable plastic horse, the aesthetic of the toy is completely different and not likely to fool even your average Joe into thinking it's MLP.

[Duenia]

I realize this is highly subjective, but my own personal metric for whether something is a fakie or not is whether or not there's a reasonable chance your average adult would mistake it for the real thing when shopping for their kid. By this standard, Totsy, Princess Rinse 'N' Spit, Lanard, etc. are fakies, since the proportions and general "feel" of the toys are very similar. On the other hand, I would not consider Bratz Ponies to be fakies because even though they share the same general concept of being a brushable plastic horse, the aesthetic of the toy is completely different and not likely to fool even your average Joe into thinking it's MLP.

That's actually the same thing I think of when trying to distinguish what I might consider a fakie vs something else entirely. Would my mom or step dad mistake this for a My Little Pony - (or in my step dad's case there's no such thing as My Little Pony it's all My Pretty Pony). So there are some I would label as a fakie based on their knowledge. Even though the pony toy in questions may be completely different and I wouldn't personally say it was a fakie, but judge it as it's own thing. So basically most rainbow colored horses with the exception of some of that come from other well known brands (think Barbie or Disney Palace Pets) I will label as a fakie even if I don't feel they actually are.

[Sunset]

I realize this is highly subjective, but my own personal metric for whether something is a fakie or not is whether or not there's a reasonable chance your average adult would mistake it for the real thing when shopping for their kid. By this standard, Totsy, Princess Rinse 'N' Spit, Lanard, etc. are fakies, since the proportions and general "feel" of the toys are very similar. On the other hand, I would not consider Bratz Ponies to be fakies because even though they share the same general concept of being a brushable plastic horse, the aesthetic of the toy is completely different and not likely to fool even your average Joe into thinking it's MLP.

That's actually the same thing I think of when trying to distinguish what I might consider a fakie vs something else entirely. Would my mom or step dad mistake this for a My Little Pony - (or in my step dad's case there's no such thing as My Little Pony it's all My Pretty Pony). So there are some I would label as a fakie based on their knowledge. Even though the pony toy in questions may be completely different and I wouldn't personally say it was a fakie, but judge it as it's own thing. So basically most rainbow colored horses with the exception of some of that come from other well known brands (think Barbie or Disney Palace Pets) I will label as a fakie even if I don't feel they actually are.

I actually think this general idea hits the nail on the head.  The whole point of fakies is to ride on the coat tails of a more popular brand, hoping that people either won't know the difference or consider them a cheaper option than the original.  Reminds me of those knock off cartoons that are clearly named and labeled in such a way that people might mistake them for actual Disney films.

[Taffeta]

Ooh, interesting topic.

For me a fakie is anything ponyish (that is, not horse or realistic horse toyish, but mlponyish) that isnt MLP. That doesn't mean it is a copy of an MLP, just from my MLP perspective, MLP is the core and everything else thus comes after.

In real terms, though, the explanations people have given above make a lot of sense. Toy companies do respond to the designs of others with their own ideas. Jem was partially compromised as a doll line by Barbie and the Rockers. Barbie as a concept overall predates Jem. But although that's the case, as someone said above, dolls can't all be considered copies of the original fashion doll. (I am not sure if that even was Barbie, I don't genuinely know). Barbie and the Rockers specifically were designed to compete with Jem, but Barbie having the older brand name means people don't consider them  "fakies" but competition (that ultimately won).

More recently we've had Monster High which almost certainly had an influence on EQG, which has then been counterchallenged by whatever Barbie's recent toy line of musicians with bright hair is called. They;re not copies, they're just responses to a popular general idea that appeals to the current range of kids and thus are a viable product idea.

I think some fakies are genuine cheap version ripoffs and they still exist. But others are probably like the Jem/Barbie thing, that they see the potential of a general colourful horse idea and thus made their own line because they knew it would catch on. Unfortunately unless we have all the old packaging, advertising etc for those lines as well as MLP, it's hard to know which were really cheap knockoffs and which were actual toys with identities and stories/world/concept of their own that just happened to think colourful horses was a great idea.

[invaderhorizongreen]

I love recmos, I hope to have one of every variant out there, they may be fakes to me but I still love them all the same.

[Lore-Lei]

My friend Zejgar made a video about this, I think he has a point.

[Cswift]

My friend Zejgar made a video about this, I think he has a point.

Yeah, that principle is sort of what I was talking about. To me it's that clear intent to either fool or lure as a "cheaper option" that distinguishes a fakie from a toy that happens to share a similar concept.

I don't think a toy necessarily has to steal a mold or box art directly to count as a fakie, but then I'm not sure if your friend was implying that in the video or if he just picked the fake G4 as an obvious example.