Ooooh I can't wait to listen to those auditions tomorrow <3

Still downloading the Baby sketches to look at (darn slow Wayback Machine ), but oooooh, the Cloud Castle character lineup has some interesting things:

- the ponies are listed as Heart Throb, Locket and TAFFY?!? Taffy never appeared in the cartoon?! :O In the actual ep it's So Soft Twilight. Could just be that they wrote the wrong name since the thumbnail clearly shows "Taffy" as a pegasus (wouldn't make sense for an earth pony to be in this story anyway), but that they knew the name in the first place suggests maybe she was supposed to show up in the cartoon at some point... Hmmm!

- the note "SONG" next to a pic of Garth and Ariel suggests there WAS meant to be a song in Part 2! Cloud Castle pt 1 has a song, but pt 2 is one of only two episodes without a song (Tambelon pt 3 being the other), I know there's been a lot of debate on here about if this one was meant to have a song and if so, what it would've been... This isn't exactly concrete info but it's definitely interesting :o

Also I forgot how cute Ferdinand and Andrew are! I like their little faces. So goofy and cute.

Taffeta's Ghoulia doesn't look discoloured to me...? What an odd thing to say.

Definitely no flocking for me It's weird since usually I like flocked toys (lifelong Sylvanian collector!) but somehow flocked ponies just don't look quite right to me.

That said, I'd never deflock a pony unless her fur was in bad shape. If the flocking's nice and minty and like-new, or just needs a little work, then it'd be a shame to deflock... I'd just pass her onto someone who'd appreciate her more. But if the flocking's bad, half-rubbed off already, no saving it... then might as well go ahead and deflock.

I think deflocks are worth just as much as minty So Softs (and way more desirable to me personally! ), of course assuming it's a good deflock job

Oh, I will say, I don't quite understand going out of your way (general "you") to deflock a pony that already has an easy-to-find NSS counterpart. Like, Magic Star I get, since she was released in different poses... Wind Whistler I kinda get since her SS release's colours are so much brighter... But unless she's SO manky that deflocking's practically a must, I don't really understand going to all the trouble of deflocking, say, Cherries Jubilee or Buttons. I mean if you do that I'm not going to judge, it's your pony after all, just seems like needless work to me

Yeah, shipping prices are just insane now Even within the UK it can get pricy for tiny little items (not sure about other countries), but international shipping is SO expensive for most things now that it's definitely put a damper on my international purchases

Throat started getting sore last night, woke up and it's in full-on cold mode Ughhhh, must've caught it off my Mum. Hoped I'd escaped it this time but I guess not Gah, I hate being sick.

I can't find a link to her that I can post on here, but I just found her via Google and omg she's adorable!!! Her pose looks so cute! Definitely a must-have <3

Sadly this seems to happen a lot with G4s. I once saw someone trying to sell a Sugarcup for hundreds because she was in "rare variant packaging" (she was initially released as "Cupcake" before they changed her name to "Sugarcup".. or the other way around, I forget) -___-

Taffeta - that looks just like the Entertainer I was in on Monday! Only difference is your Fashion Squad EQGs are in a box

It's sad that the most variety I've seen lately is the old stock Fashion Squads and some ancient G4s that have suddenly popped up at TK Maxx (the articulated ones? not sure what set these are, but Miss Pommel is one of them).

Look at the choice! You can get a little Sunny, a big sunny or a big sunny with wings! Wow. And is that maybe a poseable sunny as well? I can't believe it 

I think FiM's success was one of those miracle hits that you can't ever replicate. One of those "right place, right time" kind of things. Lauren Faust was a name most animation fans would instantly recognize - I know my reaction was "Ooh, Lauren's on this? Cool" when I first heard about it - I think that brought a lot of people in. I 100% think that the show coinciding with the rise of social media, and Tumblr's heyday, accounts for a lot of its popularity too. (I also think this is why Homestuck was such a hit, but that's going a bit off-topic... ) Something about it just clicked with that crowd and made it spread more than I think it would've otherwise. Plus the very simplified design/aesthetic/etc compared to previous gens makes it easier/more appealing perhaps to make fanart of? (horses are hard to draw - even stylized ones like G1-3... G4's very stylized, simplified designs are a lot easier in comparison. this isn't a knock on G4's style btw, just a comparison) people love a bandwagon, making ponysonas is fun and easy, I think that helped too. (I know what I mean but I'm not sure I'm explaining it well... I'm not sure how to put this into words :s)

But yeah, I'm not saying I think FiM would ever have been a flop, but I think the level of popularity it enjoyed was largely the result of everything falling into place at just the right time. I don't think ANY follow-up would ever have been as successful because of that.

I think the only way they might have succeeded would have been to rip up everything from FIM and do something TOTALLY different. It would've been a risk, but at the same time, establishing it on it own merits rather than as a comparative media to G4 would have been a better move.

I agree.