Price check: Mimic

[Cobblestone]

I'm under the impression they'd need Mimic specifically since she's the only Twinkle Eye in this mold and it'd presumably be easier to figure out how to put her eyes in if they had an original to use, rather than reverse-engineer it... or at least I think that's the impression most of us are under... But I might be misunderstanding or something. I dunno.

I think that's the case. But with the others they've apparently had multiples of the same pony so...just think of that in the reality, if they need Mimic for the mould as well as the photos and the colour ident and all those things...think of the outlay that would be.

I personally wouldn't sacrifice a Mimic to them with no guarantees given how many people are looking for her in real terms, but I also don't think they would consider buying her themselves at the stupid prices she currently goes for. She's not iconic outside of the pony community, and we're a very small community. SO.

LM's way is probably the only very slim chance. It's just...I think...still really slim, because they possibly need more than we can give.

And it may just lead to the loss of one more Mimic from the community.

fair point. I would assume if hasbro still has the G1 molds for them to use that should include whatever they used for the eyes but who knows. I’m always floored by what materials and copyrights etc companies will allow to rot when they aren’t using them.

Technically they could just create a clay cast of the appropriate body model and press the eye gem of any twinkle into the clay eye to get the right look for mimic.

[Carrehz]

Yeah that's my worry too, that they'll just end up tossing Mimic or hanging onto her or otherwise Not Use her, and the whole thing will be for naught. Don't get me wrong, I think this is a good idea in general and I DO think it's probably our best option of getting them to do Mimic (there's not even a lot of ponies in this pose to begin with.. Bangles, Milky Way, Mimic and Princess Sparkle. the princess' 3D symbols would make their mold difficult to use as a template, I'd imagine, and the others are all from sets they haven't touched.. so our options are pretty limited here) but I am worried about things going wrong.

[Taffeta]

Well, like I said before, sending a Mimic with a baity Milky Way for pose purposes might help, since that's as close and as easy a way to get Mimic's pose without sacrificing a Mimic. It would depend whether they needed the exact head to do the twinkle eyes though. I'm not knowledgeable enough to guess at things like that.

Bangles being furry makes her a difficult contender, it would need to be a deflock otherwise I imagine it wouldn't make a great mould, and might not anyway if there was glue residue or remaining fur making it bumpy or uneven.

So yeah. I wouldn't want to see a Mimic sacrificed unless there was real hope that they would use her for the purpose being discussed. And since our previous letter writing campaign didn't bear any fruit as yet...plus other arguably cheaper and more well known projects have not materialised (I'm thinking baby ponies, flutter ponies, as well as the decision not to do Skyflier and Powder), I'd imagine their budget is probably allocated to what they think is feasible, not what some collectors most hope to see.

[Carrehz]

Yeah, I'd love to see her but I'm trying to be realistic about it. Even setting aside potential issues in recreating it, we don't know if they'll ever redo the other sets Mimic's pose was used in - would they really be willing to remake a whole pose potentially just for one pony? I dunno, they did the sitting pose so maybe, but... I wouldn't be surprised if they looked at the few ponies in Mimic's pose and decided it wasn't worth it. (And again, NONE of the ponies in this pose are from "basic" sets - Milky Way is the most basic of the Mimic poses, in that she doesn't have flocking or 3D parts, but idk if TAFs would be more costly to do..? I'd imagine the extra symbols wouldn't really be any more costly or complicated or anything, but what do I know...)

Still sad the flutters got cancelled. The Lemon Drop playset getting canned I could understand, I dunno if their Pretty Parlour was a big hit or not, but the flutters.. And I really can't believe they STILL haven't made baby ponies, that was something I definitely expected them to have tackled by now.

(and yeah, I know Bubbles and Seashell aren't the only sitting ponies, but I really don't imagine Basic Fun ever tackling Nirvanas, so *for all intents and purposes* they remade that pose just for two ponies.)

What'd be great is if they'd release ponies in different molds, instead of just remaking old ponies exactly. That way it'd be easier to justify making new molds, especially lesser-used ones like Mimic's, since they could potentially get more use out of it otherwise.. but.. maybe I'm going a bit off-topic there, heh.

[LadyMoondancer]

You're right about Tootsie's color. I picked her up recently, and she isn't even a little bit green. I've never seen a vintage Tootsie in this shade, so I'm not sure how they came up with the color they did. I wonder if they just had trouble making green or something.

I think Tootsie was deliberate design choice.  Basic Fun does brighten up or slightly change colors on a lot of ponies.  Like BF Skydancer is a more intense yellow than the original.  And they initially released Sparkle with half-red / half purple mane and tail.  (Which I actually love, she looks sooo good with the red / purple tail.)

I'm not sure if they have to destroy the ponies to get new molds . . . My impression is companies can 3D scan them these days.  (I mean, HQG1C doesn't, but that's a small hobby project, it wouldn't be practical for them to buy the scanning equipment. But Basic Fun is an actual toy company . . . .)

Anyway!  I got a letter back from Basic Fun!  It didn't directly answer the Twinkle Eye thing, but it DID provide some other answers which are pretty exciting!  I'm going to make a new thread, since I imagine a lot of people haven't looked at this thread because they think it's solely about Mimic's price, ha ha!

[lovesbabysquirmy]

I have a 3d scanner and several printers.... but no Mimic