Please tell me ALL about Blind Bag ponies! :D

[MLPWhitney]

Hi ponies! 


As a self-professed, "strictly" G1 collector, I have been slowly but surely falling in love with these G4 ponies. They are silly and adorable.


I think I would like to start with collecting the Blind Bag ponies, but can someone (who will humor my naivete on the subject) tell me about them, or point me to a site that would have the info?

When did these start coming out?
How many ponies have come out?
Where do you buy them?
Are they still for sale?
Where can you buy them, and for how much?
Are they more collectable in the bag or loose?
Tell me about the Euro/UKs
Are there variants?
How much are they worth?
Which ones are hardest to find?
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[ShannonInPonyland]

Hm, I can answer a few of these 
You can buy them at Toys R Us and sometimes in Walmart or CVS. They are still for sale. They are typically $1.99 each but they were like $2.99 or $3.99 each when I found them at CVS once  .  I don't think it really matters if they're in packages or not, I haven't seen many people collecting them and keeping them in package. They come in waves, I believe there are 4 or 5 out right now but only wave 1 is in America. Europe/Australia seem to have gotten the other waves but some places are skipping certain waves and whatnot. Right now the most rare ones I would say are any male ponies, glow in the dark ponies, pink glitter Twilight Sparkle (I'm pretty sure she is the only variant too since there is a purple one as well) and glitter Applejack/Rarity/Fluttershy. Really any ponies that aren't in the US yet are being considered rare and can cost you a bit if you buy them from people online. I'm pretty sure there are 24 or 25 ponies in the first wave 
Hope I helped a little!

[Wilford B Wolf]

its 24 per set..and yes wave1 is still on the shelves..you will need to know how to decode the numbers..theres 2 types for the first wave being the tradional 1-24 and the other being a 5 digit code looking something like 22445 which is #24 IE 2 2(this number counts) 4 4(this number counts) 5 soo 20445 is #4 ...

the other waves havnt hit the US shores...

imo if you want a full set dont waste your time buying hunting and snagging what you can find..just find an online source to buy a CASE as any unopened box is a complete set.....anything you want duplicates of just hunt them down.......if you just want certain ones then by all means hunt away..thats what i did as i watched the prices get hiked up

the glitter/special ones are the hardest to find(unless you grab a case) ..so with wave1 thats 24/23/22 being glitter dashie twi and pinke...with a UK only variant of twi in a lighter pink

you should also be informed there are 2 types of displays....here lemmy grab a link to a usefull post

http://mlparena.com/mlp/index.php/topic,297308.0.html?PHPSESSID=0223d1ea038303ab12069433008c49af

all that said..imo your best place to find them is toys r us.....get to know someone there and find out when that store gets its trucks in and when they stock what came in off the truck...and then hit them every week

[hathorcat]

Lol...my first advice is stand back from them sweetie! They are addictive!

Points up to the Coming Soon thread - you ll find pictures of each of the sets there.

When did these start coming out?
I think they first started hitting shelves in late late 2010 in Germany and a couple of surrounding Euro countries

How many ponies have come out?
So far 4 sets of the 24 blind bags have been available with a 5th Wave already confirmed - different countries are on different waves for example the US is still on 1, Germany is already at 4 and the UK skipped 1 and 2 and started at 3!

Where do you buy them?
I think in the US Walmart and TRU seem to be the most common source.

Are they still for sale?
I believe some places still have Wave 1 in the US, Europe is moving on to Wave 4. Some online retailers have complete boxes of all Waves but they can be expensive.

Where can you buy them, and for how much?
I think in the US they range from $1.99 to $3.99 from what I have read; in the UK they are £2 on average and I think in Euro its somewhere between €2 and 3.

Are they more collectable in the bag or loose?
I think loose but with their card is probably more collectable as then you know which pony you are getting 100%.

Tell me about the Euro/UKs
There has only been one known exclusive at the moment which was the alternate Twilight Sparkle in pink from Wave 1 - she was only found in the very early waves in Germany - she was probably a mistake as she has never been found again outside this initial release. So technically she is maybe more variant than exclusive.

Are there variants?
With thousands and thousands of the little guys being made, yes I have seen lots of people with the same blind bag with minor differences in body colour shade, hair colour shade, eye placement etc.

How much are they worth?
Probably retail price right now as technically you can still buy most Waves in stores. Sometimes the more sought after ones - such as the boys and Heartstrings and probably the Princesses in Wave 5 will go for a little more. The crazy prices on blind bags were Fluttershy back when they were first launched she went for scary prices on ebay as she seemed to be the most illusive but now she is in every single Wave her price is back to retail.

Which ones are hardest to find?
As each box technically has one of each pony in the wave none are harder to find than others but some like the boys mentioned above [especially Big Mac] are particularly popular which makes them sought after which can make them harder to find as you ll probably find any open box in a store with Wave 3 will already have had Big Mac identified and purchased!

[Opalescence]

Actually the defective pink Twilight Sparkle was available all over Europe. I got 2 of them in Austria before the proper purple replacements arrived.
Also, other than said production error, all ponies are equally common. If you buy an unopened box, you will get one of each. In stores, that may differ depending on the amount of collectors in your area. They usually hunt down specific bags with their identification charts.

[hathorcat]

Actually the defective pink Twilight Sparkle was available all over Europe. I got 2 of them in Austria before the proper purple replacements arrived.
Also, other than said production error, all ponies are equally common. If you buy an unopened box, you will get one of each. In stores, that may differ depending on the amount of collectors in your area. They usually hunt down specific bags with their identification charts.

I dont think it was all over Europe - just the places which got the initial blind bag releases - which were Germany and a few surrounding countries - you guys did get them earlier than anywhere else and for a long time Germany and Austria were pretty much the only place blind bags were being found. We didnt even get Wave 1 or 2 in the UK and a lot of other Euro countries got them later as well by the time the initial waves of Wave 1 with the different Twilight were passed.