Are pony customs MLP?

[Mana Minori]

Just curious and I’d like to discuss, since I recently acquired a custom pony figure of best pony, Princess Luna. Do you guys think that custom figures (whether made by the fans or third party companies) can be called or truly classified as My Little Pony?

[lovesbabysquirmy]

Yes

[banditpony]

It probably depends on what you actually mean, and even then it probably boils down to personal opinion.

A custom that of a character within the MLP universe using a non-original MLP base. yes. (ex. custom plush of Applejack)

A custom using an original MLP pony as a base. I lean toward yes, but at some point it depends on how much modification it is. More modification = less MLP.

A custom using something not-original MLP base, of a not MLP character (so maybe like a persona). no... maybe? grey area. It will get into if you consider only Hasbro things (toys+characters) to be MLP, or the concept of colorful pony with a thing on it's butt and/or head canons to be included. 

Third party molds. maybe. Historically the community called those fakies, even if they've used original molds, or looked like originals. Is a fakie MLP?

ETA:
IMO, the more that the said custom has something in common with the actual line (IE, an official release of toy or character), the closer it has in line with the MLP brand.

Also, I'd like to point out I see MLP as a brand-- and that goes beyond the toyline to me. And other people might only see it as defining the toyline.

[Leave a Whisper]

If they're made using an MLP, yes. If they're made using a different toy brand, no. Its as simple as that.

[tailrustedtealeaf]

Sure, I would just put a modifier in front when I refer to them. There's my custom MLP, Sunsation. There's my alt-rehair August Breeze.

[Ponyfan]

I think of all of my customs as MLP.  Most of mine are G1 Twilight the unicorn based although I do have 3 that are original characters.

Ponyfan

[BlackCurtains]

Yes. What else would they be? Custom horses? Custom toys? (I suppose that one works but you'd need to explain what kind of toy). Saying custom MLP gives the idea that it's a colorful pony of some kind. I think, My Little Pony is a lot like Kleenex or Q-Tips. They're all specific brands, but are also used as a generic term.

[Taffeta]

I'm a bit extreme in this regard. To me a restored pony is at least 50% custom, before you even get to the question of whether a custom is a MLP.

I would say they're representative of a MLP, and if they're based on an existing character, then even more so.

If we're defining MLP as the universe, and it's an actual character/alt pose/whatever, then probably yes.
If we're defining MLP as the toyline, then no. They're customs. They're not official products - even if they use a pony base.

That doesn't mean they don't have value. Just, like the retro ponies, they're not quite the same as the original.

I've also seen enough attempts to make 'prototypes' by less honest people - some of which have slipped through into the community and been believed before being debunked, so this is another reason why I lean towards 'no' on the toy line. If yes, it offers some legitimacy for customs sold as prototypes, because they are actually then OOAK MLPs, technically.

Some have not been debunked but still have more questions than answers which make me wary of them.

And I know there are folk who make custom replicas of official items and ponies, but none of those for me are actually MLP. Especially customs that duplicate an existing rare pony exactly. They're placeholders, but to me, that's all.

(Disclaimer - everyone will have a different view on that, but those are mine. I would rather not have a pony/item than create a replica if Hasbro actually made it.)

Now the big question is - are deflocked SS ponies then 'ponies' or 'customs' ? .

[Leave a Whisper]

They're still a My Little Pony as long as an official toy is used.  In the same way that a custom Breyer is still a Breyer, or a custom Barbie is still a Barbie. They're just modified from their original design to be whatever the artist wants them to be. You cannot remove them from the brand that mass produced them.

The only one that's truly in a strange area are HQG1Cs. They're direct moulds, but not officially made by Hasbro. So they're not precisely fakies either, since they have no establishing differences to avoid possible lawsuit and/or C&Ds.

As for de-flocked ponies I have no idea?

[Taffeta]

They're still a My Little Pony as long as an official toy is used.  In the same way that a custom Breyer is still a Breyer, or a custom Barbie is still a Barbie. They're just modified from their original design to be whatever the artist wants them to be. You cannot remove them from the brand that mass produced them.

But I guess this is splitting the hairs again - into whether we're defining it by the physical base used (MLP vs Fakie) or the product that it ultimately is made into.

So if you use a fakie base to make a G1 version of Pinkie Pie, and the fakie base uses a G1 mould, is it pony or is it not?

I think those lines are pretty complex and extremely personal to individual collectors.

For me specifically though -a pony made from another pony may include MLP among its materials, but it isn't as a composite a "MLP" any longer, it is now an art piece by a different artist.

[Leave a Whisper]

Its not complex at all.

Say for example you found a Barbie at the swapmeet who had some of her hair cut to be layerd, she's butt-naked and in dire need of a bath.

You take her home, clean her up, dye and style her hair, cobble or make a new outfit, paint make-up and turn her into Jetta Burns. That makes her a custom. Since Mattel mass produced her as a Barbie, that makes her a custom Barbie.

 Its no different then turning that grungy, tailless, be-markered Sunny Daze you found at a yard sale into a brand new pony by cleaning, rehairing, painting her blue and giving her a new symbol. That makes her a custom MLP because Hasbro mass produced her as such.

If you customized a Remco to look like Sunlight, it would still be a Remco custom. Not an MLP custom m

As far as fakie ponies being ponies, they can still be part of your pony collection, but they are not official MLPs.

In the same way that a Schleich horse is part of your model horse collection, but its not a Breyer.

Or in the same way that a Jem doll is part of your doll collection, but its not a Monster High doll.

[Taffeta]

Eh, we just disagree. Like I said before, I consider restored ponies to be customs, and to me a custom is not the same as a real pony. So even a reroot or a repainted symbol to me makes a pony a custom.

Barbie is a little bit different as she's mostly generic and not a specific character. I have a whole family of customs made from Jem dolls. Are they still Jem in terms of their materials? Yeah. Are they Jem dolls? I made them to fit into the universe, and a couple (like Linz) are actual characters...but do they live with my Jem dolls?...No. Do I think of them the same? No. And the same is the case for me with ponies. Customs are customs. Ponies are ponies. They don't generally mix. It doesn;t mean customs are bad - just for me they're not the same.

One of those custom dolls is actually a Darci, not a Jem, and yet she was remade into a character from the Jemverse. Ditto one is an IT doll not from the Jem line who got styled and dressed as a Jem character. Does that make them Jem dolls? Probably not. Darci is the ancestor of Jem, though, and uses the same mould as Raya, while IT also uses the same moulds for their other lines as the IT Jem dolls. So...?

I wasn't talking about Remco, either but customs that use the G1 moulds but fakies.  But fakies are another thing I don't really go in for, so yeah xD.

Yeah, for me, original is original, custom is custom. And especially with MLP. But as I said, this is just my opinion. It doesn't make it fact.

[Leave a Whisper]

It still does not take away that the custom base is a mass produced pony. Even if you slather paint on the Hasbro/MLP logo, so that it can't be seen, it's still an MLP.  Facts are facts.

As for remco, it was the only non pony brand that i could think of atm. 

[Taffeta]

It still does not take away that the custom base is a mass produced pony. Even if you slather paint on the Hasbro/MLP logo, so that it can't be seen, it's still an MLP.  Facts are facts.

I don't think it's really a fact, because it depends how you define MLP. But sorry, this is my academic brain going to town on nuances and details now, so forgive me. It's been a very boring month xD.

So as I said before, there are different things that MLP can be.

A "My Little Pony" is a character from MLP.
A "My Little Pony" is a toy line.
A "My Little Pony" is a television character.

And so on.

Depending how you see these different things probably determines how you feel about customs as MLPs.

Me personally, a My Little Pony is a Hasbro character produced by Hasbro.
Slathering paint on it is the same as rerooting it, restoring its symbols, etc, and I already explained that to me that's customising.
Turning it into a personal character, or a version of a pony never made, is outside Hasbro's design brief.
Even if you make a prototype (and I have a gorgeous Baby Shady from Pandabearchan based on that prototype), it's still a custom. It may still be a My Little Pony, but the bottom line is the My Little Pony it is is Baby Tiddly Winks.

Painting it as Baby Shady, rerooting it and renaming it makes it something else to me. So while I agree that the base can be MLP, that doesn't make the result an MLP. The base is and will always be the character it began life as. I think the OP was asking if the custom result can be then seen as an MLP alongside other produced MLPs. And for me the answer to that is 'no'.

If that makes sense.

[Leave a Whisper]

We'll just agree to disagree then.