The MLP Arena
Pony Talk => Pony Corral => Topic started by: BabyInBlue on January 22, 2013, 09:19:07 AM
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I have her now, but can't figure out what's so great about her? I thought she was the only one molded like her several years ago, but obviously her mold is actually pretty common. She's just a unicorn, no sparkles, no special markings, maybe just the color of her body?? :blink:
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I believe she wasn't available for too long and has become rare and sought after.
Congrats on getting her :)
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For me it's a combination of the colors, the twinkle eyes and the pose. There's not many green ponies and not many with such vibrant mane and tail. There are also only three ponies in that lovely pose.
Also this:
I believe she wasn't available for too long and has become rare and sought after.
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i don't know.
For me, I'm not specially in love with her or anything...I just know that when I was a kid, that one episode about her was one of my faves, and she wasn't even in it that much....
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I believe she wasn't available for too long and has become rare and sought after.
Is this really the case though? I don't know why her distribution would have been any different than any other TE, she wasn't limited in any way. IMO she's not rare at all, she comes up for sale a lot. Nine Mimics were sold on eBay last month alone, compare that to G3 Tinka-too II for example, last time one sold on eBay was october.
Mimic belongs to a very popular set of ponies and has a very bright and distinct color-scheme, this has made her a very popular pony, but that doesn't equal being rare.
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For a lot of people, it's because she was the focus of a MLP cartoon special. I forget the name.....the magic horseshoes maybe?
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I believe she wasn't available for too long and has become rare and sought after.
Is this really the case though? I don't know why her distribution would have been any different than any other TE, she wasn't limited in any way. IMO she's not rare at all, she comes up for sale a lot. Nine Mimics were sold on eBay last month alone, compare that to G3 Tinka-too II for example, last time one sold on eBay was october.
Mimic belongs to a very popular set of ponies and has a very bright and distinct color-scheme, this has made her a very popular pony, but that doesn't equal being rare.
I got her pretty easy back in the 80's, I believe I bought her at k-mart for $5.something. I think it's a bit of a myth that she was limited back then - I saw her in the store, she was not hard to find any more than the other ponies of that year.
I don't think she is limited, it is just a pony people want and thus there is a market for her whenever she pops up for sale or on ebay. Since I got online back 1997 people have wanted her, so she is a pony that has maintained her status as a must have pony. I think that is due to the collecting community more than it is to the pony actually being limited.
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I don't think she is limited, it is just a pony people want and thus there is a market for her whenever she pops up for sale or on ebay. Since I got online back 1997 people have wanted her, so she is a pony that has maintained her status as a must have pony. I think that is due to the collecting community more than it is to the pony actually being limited.
Agreed, She's "rare" for one thing, rare to find for under $20, but if you want to drop $100 or more she's very easy to get! Out of the set, Tic Tac Toe I find shows up way less often then the others. Quackers, Mimic and Locket showing up for sale the most. (well, Speedy the MOST but she was a re-release). The episode, esthetic appeal with her unique bodycolour and to a large degree bragging rights has put her in the price bracket she is in.
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Who doesn't want a parrot pony? No real reason other than collector market. Same with Red Roses.
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I thought she wasn't as common as she was single packed in the distribution boxes?
She wasn't available in the UK so she is rare in that aspect, apart from that she is green (win) has twinkle eyes (win win!) and is completely unique looking to any other pony :)
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I think a lot of people like her for different reasons and she's just one of the really popular ponies from the set :) Like you will always see Munchy go for way more than some of the other TAF such as Bonnie Bonnets or Up Up and Away. Munchy is popular with collectors just as Mimic is :) As for me, I love her because of her colors, her pose, and she's a TE - my favorite set ^.^
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I think part of her draw is also the fact that she was the focus of a multipart episode cartoon, the golden horse shoes.
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I do not have her and just cant get myself to pay what she is going for right now. So she is on the bottom of my want list.
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I don't remember what the deal was exactly, but there have been a few of these topics popping out here and there and I remember more knowledgeable peeps saying that her release was more limited. Now, if I remember correctly that goes for her and a few other ponies in her run. She is not rare as such, but isn't as abundant as other Twinke Eyes.
But yes, I imagine her popularity comes from her unique colour scheme. I personally cannot get over that pose (not a fan) so I'd never spend much money on her ^^ but I'm obviously in the minority
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I agree with a lot of what has been said here, there is sought after and there is genuinely rare. Mimic isn't the most common pony by any means, but she certainly isn't the rarest. I have Mimic myself and I sometimes think with some collectors it's more a case of a must-have with no particular reason other than her being sought after although don't get me wrong there are people who genuinely love her! There are lots of ponies that out do her price was and rarity that just don't have the same enigma that Mimic has.
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In addition to what's already been mentioned, simply put- she's green. People love green ponies. One of the most popular of the original 6 is Minty. Fizzy is one of the more popular set 1 TEs. Baby Leaper is the priciest Baby Brother. Cool Breeze is one of the most sought after wingers. Ice Crystal is easily one of the most expensive Mountain Boys. Baby Splash generally commands a higher price than Splosh and Splish. Granted, white and yellow also follow similar patterns (Red Roses for Perfume Puffs, Chief and Tex for Big Brothers, Whitecap and Sea Mist for y3 sea ponies, Crumpet for set 2 SSs). Mimic also has the 'omg it's a Mimic' hype going for her too, so her price hasn't really budged much in the past few years ;)
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I have to been honest I never liked her until I saw her in person. Her green body colour is special there isn't many ponies that colour
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Mimic is watching you all with her glowing jewel eyes:
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YOU MUST LOVE THE MIMIC
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I'm personally not that wild about Mimic, although of the second set of Twinkle-Eyes, she is definitely the best. The green color is nice, and her cutie mark is pretty unique in that it doesn't contain hearts, bows, flowers, rainbows, etc.
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I have her now, but can't figure out what's so great about her? I thought she was the only one molded like her several years ago, but obviously her mold is actually pretty common. She's just a unicorn, no sparkles, no special markings, maybe just the color of her body?? :blink:
Yeah... I think she wasn't made quite as much, and she's also just very popular. I think she's really cute, and it's mostly the pose and my love of TEs. Overall she's a very pretty pony, but it might be partly her initial fame that continues to make her popular!
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*squishes mimic*
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Mimic is watching you all with her glowing jewel eyes:
YOU MUST LOVE THE MIMIC
BWAHAHAHAAHAA!! This seriously made my day! I just wanna snuzzle her nosey!!
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Her release was not any more limited than the rest of her set.
I'm not upset, I'm just bolding so people see that as they scroll through. :)
Her entire set is sort of hard to find, but not rare. Mimic turns up all the time on eBay, she's not really rare. She's just expensive. This is simply because she's extremely popular.
As to why she's popular, my understanding is back in the late 90s, when the entire "My Little Pony" section of eBay was only three pages long, she caused great excitement when she first appeared . . . probably because of her unique color scheme and because she'd been in "The Golden Horseshoes". So she sold for a high price. (Keep in mind that in those days "a high price" was probably $10 - $15. ;) )
This snowballed to the point where not only did a lot of people want her because of her colors or as a set completer, but also because she had become a status symbol.
In other words, there is the same supply of her as the rest of her set, but a lot more demand for her than the rest of her set.
Red Roses followed a similar trajectory. If you'd tried to sell one for $40 in 1997, people would've thought you were crazy. But eventually she became popular, and now she is worth that much.
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I think LadyMoondancer's right. Her color scheme and pose are unusual and appealing. The second set of TE's is harder to find than the first one, and Mimic may have had a more limited production than the others in the second group. I don't know if that's really the case, but I've heard it said before that there weren't as many of her produced (like a manufacturer's box of TE's might contain 2 each of the others, but only 1 Mimic). But anyway, she's not really that rare now; she's more just sought-after. Some of it's hype and status, and some is her appearance in "The Golden Horseshoes" (which also made me fall in love with her when I was little, and fortunately I got her back then). And I remember reading that when Ebay was new and collectors first started congregating online, there was a big buzz when Mimic started showing up, since many of them just hadn't seen her before. The buzz never really died down, and Mimic has maintained her status as a must-have collector pony that commands higher prices than her rarity really dictates. And yeah, I think a lot of groups have one pony that stands out that way as a collector favorite who commands a much higher price than the others, like Munchy and Diamond Dreams.
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I give you a quote directly from Taffeta's webpage (a collector in the UK who was always my go to for information and in general someone who knows a lot about MLP)
Mimic. What can we say about Mimic?
Mimic is possibly one of the most notorious little ponies among collectors all across the world. When I first came online in 1998 I only vaguely knew who she was or that she existed, after having seen her in the cartoon episode "The Quest For The Golden Horseshoes." But she was the first pony I knew I wanted to acquire from the North American line, and I know that I'm not alone. Whether it was her starring role as the descendant of the very first unicorn is unknown. In terms of her colour scheme, she seems equally loved and hated. Myself, I love her for her originality - there aren't many lime green unicorns in the My Little Pony line!
Mimic's rarity has always been under debate, though it is my belief that she is not as easy to find at flea markets or garage sales as the quantity on Ebay would have you believe. Ebay simply represents one thing - that sellers know Mimic is in demand and are more likely to pick her up to sell than a Tootsie or a Parasol if the choice is there.
What Mimic is actually worth depends on the collector you ask - but the many years of frantic bidding to win her have meant that her price is usually higher than the other ponies in her set. It seems unlikely that it will ever come down to normal Twinkle Eye Pony price levels - the damage has been going on too long for that!
Mimic's backcard story does not mention anything about the mythical unicorn of the horseshoes that is so played upon by the cartoon series. Instead it takes her on a birthday treasure hunt to Paradise Estate, via all of the buildings you can imagine in Ponyland!
Mimic, like so many ponies, was never sold in the United Kingdom.
and here is the link to Taffs page for Mimic
http://www.etherella.com/scrapbook2/mimic.htm (http://www.etherella.com/scrapbook2/mimic.htm)
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I bought my Mimic quite a few years ago - and yes....she was expensive! :happy:
Not sure about the TV series she was in - or whether she was not released in big numbers......whatever....BUT she is always a high price and everyone wants one. She is also a rather unique colour and one of the rarer poses.....her hair too is rather special? AND of course that cute red parrot........ :what:
So if you have one you are lucky - if you want one - have a full bank account :lovey:
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I've wanted her ever since I saw her listed on those little fliers they include with ponies in the 80s. I tended to favor ponies with animals/flowers/weather/celestial related cutie marks. Plus, she's green! That was a bit rare at the time. But I didn't know that so many other people wanted her until now.
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she's cute, but not one i ever wanted. had several of the te when i was a kid and they kinda creeped me out. maybe it was the lack of a pupil don't know. i thought it was the colors that made her popular and her popularity that made her become rare. as once people get her they don't want to sell kind thing. thus upping the price again.
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Mimic, Diamond Dreams, Red Roses, Crumpet, Munchy...all have the same thing...they are super sought after by collectors and they are all traditionally more expensive than all the other ponies in their sets. However, within the US they are just as common and back in the 80s were released in the same quantities as the other ponies in their sets.
There is a massive difference between rare and sought after. A pony can be rare but "cheap" because she is not one everyone is looking to add to their collection but likewise she can be reasonably common-ish but expensive because everyone out there wants her. The market sets her price - if years and years of auctions happily price a pony at $90-100 then that means people still looking for her know thats the price they need to pay and therefore are happy to pay it. Its perception and expectation.
The Mimic short pack is a myth - 24 MLP to a Twinkle Eye set - 4 of each and every one of the set - 4 Mimics, 4 Bright Eyes, 4 Speedy, 4 TTT and 4 Locket. Thanks to the pony collecting community being international yes Locket and TTT and Speedy show up a little more on the second hand market but thats only because they all got an international release and the other 3 didnt, so there are a few more of them out there.
And all that being said - she is a cutie :P And the symbol and hair/body colour do make her pretty unique.
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I love her colors myself.
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The Mimic short pack is a myth - 24 MLP to a Twinkle Eye set - 4 of each and every one of the set - 4 Mimics, 4 Bright Eyes, 4 Speedy, 4 TTT and 4 Locket. Thanks to the pony collecting community being international yes Locket and TTT and Speedy show up a little more on the second hand market but thats only because they all got an international release and the other 3 didnt, so there are a few more of them out there.
Thank you for clearing that up - I heard that story years ago from a few different sources, so thought it was true.
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I like her because of the parrot on her butt! :P
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I like her for the juxtaposition of all her colors. I like the bright tropical flower colors competing for attention with her lush bright green eyes and body.
Normally I'm not a fan of green ponies, but this one I really like and I'd love to have her someday.
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I thought she wasn't as common as she was single packed in the distribution boxes?
She wasn't available in the UK so she is rare in that aspect, apart from that she is green (win) has twinkle eyes (win win!) and is completely unique looking to any other pony :)
That is what I heard and I know from unboxing G3's sometimes a pony was short package in one wave, and then not packed at all in the next. This also just happened with FS AJ in the G4 line.
My daughter coverts her, she loves birds and all things sparkly so for her she is a grail pony.
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Thanks for ALL the input!! I think I can narrow it down to her just being popular between "The Golden Horseshoes" (Which I still have on VHS, LOL!) & her colors! ^.^
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I have always thought its one of two things with mimic....the ability to say you own a mimic...its like a special thing because she is pricey.
Or, perhaps people do like her color. I am not as fond of her colors, but its been my dream to find one for 1.00 rather than spending lots of money for one. To me thats the way to get expensive ponies...steal of a deals.
Oh and I forgot to say that there is also the possibility that the symbol is highly sought after by people who love this particular bird. Sometimes I buy ponies only for their symbol. The symbol might represent something very important to me.
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I want Mimic but I bet my family won't want me paying $100 for just one pony lol
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As a general statement, the second set of certain sets of ponies (so softs, TAFs and TEs) tend to be a little more expensive than the first set - and in each set, there's one that's more sought after than the rest. So softs have Crumpet, tAFs have Munchy and TEs have Mimic. I was under the impression that, as a general statement, there are slightly less second set ponies in existence because there was a little less distribution later into the MLP run but I could be wrong about that. Moving on. . ,
I do agree that Minic s really sought after because she's green, she's featured in an episode (though she doesn't do much *in* that episode) and since she's sought after, people want her. It kinda becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Though I know a lt of collectors genuinely like her. :)
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Mimic, Diamond Dreams, Red Roses, Crumpet, Munchy...all have the same thing...they are super sought after by collectors and they are all traditionally more expensive than all the other ponies in their sets. However, within the US they are just as common and back in the 80s were released in the same quantities as the other ponies in their sets.
Notice that all of these ponies are also yellow? Yes, I know that Mimic is technically a lime green colour, but to some eyes, she is chartreuse, that tricky colour between lemon and lime.
Oh, and KarentheUnicorn, your Jedi mind trick Mimic totally had me laughing out loud. That was awesome! ^.^
As a side note, I also read that while Mimic was as readily available as the other TE ponies, her colour wasn't as popular with little girls, meaning less grown women selling their childhood Mimics.
And lastly, I have a question, was Mimic ever actually sold with golden horseshoes?
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No, the only pony ever sold with golden horseshoes was Majesty (with Dream Castle). Mimic's "ancestor" in that episode looks very much like Majesty, though.
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I think it has to do with the episode she was in. I thought that not a ton of Mimic's were purchased back then and that's why she's a bit rare? She is fairly unique for colours too which is why she's still loved I think.
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I think that this is what happens to any "background" pony that has attention focused on it too strongly. :)
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No, the only pony ever sold with golden horseshoes was Majesty (with Dream Castle). Mimic's "ancestor" in that episode looks very much like Majesty, though.
Thanks for your help. I had never really given much thought to Majesty's golden horseshoes before since I've only ever seen them in eBay lots. Do you think Majesty would mind if Mimic borrowed her horseshoes? :P
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She was only in one episode. I think that's one of the reasons why she's so special.
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Hmm I don't get it myself, not being a fan of the TEs or the pose, but this is a very interesting thread all the same. ^.^
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As a general statement, the second set of certain sets of ponies (so softs, TAFs and TEs) tend to be a little more expensive than the first set - and in each set, there's one that's more sought after than the rest. So softs have Crumpet, tAFs have Munchy and TEs have Mimic. I was under the impression that, as a general statement, there are slightly less second set ponies in existence because there was a little less distribution later into the MLP run but I could be wrong about that. Moving on. . ,
The second sets of the ones you mentioned also have something else in common - they weren't sold in the UK, and some not in other parts of Europe as well. Okay, so with the so softs neither sets were, but princesses and TAFs weren't as a general rule, and TEs had a slightly odd release where some of them were (TTT, Locket), but others weren't (Mimic, Bright Eyes, Quackers).