The MLP Arena
Pony Talk => Pony Corral => Topic started by: Dragonflitter on November 29, 2013, 12:44:35 PM
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Thanks to a lot of people's responses, I've realized I made some errors in my review and I've adjusted it as follows:
As an avid collector of the My Little Pony Trading Card series put out by EnterPlay, I was interested when I heard they were putting out a new trading and collecting item: MLP dog tags.
After buying a bunch of them, I discovered that they only have so-so quality and many of them come out of the package with small damages. So very mint collectors should beware, you might be disappointed.
I figured I had a lot of fun trading the MLP Trading Cards, so I bought 14 of the dog tags at once. I figured I could trade the repeats if I got any (surprisingly, I didn't!).
First, what you get in each package, which are listed at $2.99 at Walmart and $3.99 at TRU:
1.) the Dog Tag
2.) a tattoo sheet just like the ones in the Trading Cards packages
3.) a 'decal' (a sticker)
4.) the check list sheet (same in every package)
So, the check list that they include in each package shows what there is to collect. There are 25 regular tags, each featuring a character or a symbol from the show. There are also 8 'metallic series' tags that are more rare and are black with a silver character or symbol on it. The tags are double-sided, with a different image on each side. The character ones usually have the character's cutie mark on the other side. Here's an image of the check list:
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The quality of the dog tag itself is so-so. Originally I was very disappointed in the quality of the dog tags, but several people here have pointed out I was making a few mistakes when I reviewed them before. The quality is actually a bit better than I originally thought.
Out of the 14 dog tags I bought, about 5 of them were scratched up or marked upon being taken out of the bag. That's about one third of the ones I bought were damaged when I opened them.
The biggest problem in the quality is the chain that comes with each dog tag can scratch either the front or the back of the tag, which appears to be made of a super-thin piece of aluminum or something similar, with an image printed on either side. There is epoxy on the front of it (epoxy is a clear liquid the solidifies into a plastic coating) and a thin plastic covering on the back to protect the back image (this peels off, which I didn't realize at first). The bags don't have any markings so you can tell which dog tag is inside. They are packaged completely at random.
The chain that comes with each tag looks to be stainless steel, and I think this is where the damage gets done. The metal chain rubs against the dog tag during shipping and can scratch it all up. There is a thin protective piece of plastic on the back of the tag, but a couple of my tags were scratched so badly by the chain that even after peeling it off the image was still scratched. But the plastic covering does protect from a lot of the scratches.
Of the 14 I bought:
3 have a row of dimples on the front where the chain has pressed into the epoxy and left marks
1 has scratches on the image on the back
1 has both a row of dimples on the front and scratches on the back
As for the other items that came with the dog tag:
The tattoo sheets are the exact same as the ones that come in the trading card series (there are new pictures though) and probably work about the same on human skin. I haven't tried them, so I'm not sure about the quality of the tattoo.
The decal stickers that come in each package are a toss up for quality. If the image is large, like the decal of Rainbow Dash, the quality looks just fine. But several of the decals are images with very tiny details that are completely lost when the image was shrunk to decal size. For example, one of the decals is the same image as on the "Queen Chrysalis Poster" that EnterPlay sells. The poster features the giant face of the Queen and smaller images of the Mane 6 fighting Changelings on the bottom. I'm guessing they just took the poster image and shrunk the size in the computer and printed the decals. But the decal is so small that you can barely make out the Mane 6 and the Changelings. Mostly it just looks like the Queen with some colored blobs under her. Other decals with small details that get blurry/smudged include Rainbow Dash's Wonderbolts poster and the cover image for the Daring Do book in the episode where Rainbow Dash is injured.
The tattoos and decals are numbered and both are randomly inserted into the packages. It's not like the Rarity Dog Tag always comes with decal #5, or something like that. So even though I got all different dog tags, I got repeats of the decals and tattoos.
So in conclusion, for the most part the quality of the dog tags is acceptable for a $3 or $4 toy. For very picky merchandise collectors, please keep in mind when purchasing that there's about a one third probability when you open one that the back or front might be damaged by the metal chain.
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Anyone who has read my "Trader support" thread regarding Enterplay knows I'm NOT their biggest fan...
I'm so sorry to hear you've had such a bad experience with their products, though. Anytime you spend money, you expect it the product to not be damaged (regardless of how expensive or affordable the item is). Have you tried contacting Enterplay to let them know your concerns? They may be able to send replacements (or, if you're like me, they'll just ignore you for a month).
Is my bitterness obvious? :P
That does suck, though. Thanks for letting us know!!!!
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hmmm... we are happy with ours. We have 32 of them. They aren't perfect, but good enough for my kids.
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They're cardstock? Geez! Being that they're dog tags, I would have expected them to be made of at least aluminum!
Enterplay seems to struggle a little with image resolution. I got the Muffin Pony poster that they sold over the summer. The stock is lovely and glossy, but the image itself has lots of scattered artifacts from being blown up and lossy. It appears that their artwork library isn't vectorized, and that is really strange!
Thanks for the review!
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Oy vey! Cardstock?! I don't think I'll be interested in getting any.
Thanks for the review!
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Oh gosh cardstock? I knew they were not metal [although I think its understandable to expect some kind of metal] due to them having "specials" which were metal. But I did expect them to be at least a cheap printed plastic perhaps.
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I didn't realize they were cardstock...that seems very lame... :/ I'm glad the fancier ones are metal at least..
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I wish the few metal ones had full-color pictures. I don't dig just having white outlines.
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They are cardstock? I had no idea. I thought they were very thin metal. Can you see the card? I really enjoy the artwork as seen on these dogtags but I haven't picked up any yet.
The have a second kind of dogtag:
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I believe these are "deluxe" and metal. Has anyone purchased these yet?
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They're not card stock.i thought so at first too, and was disappointed, but they really are metal or aluminum or something. I nicked one of mine on something and it definitely has a sharp edge that card stock wouldn't have. There is a filmy layer on the back of the tag though that you have to peel off. I'd originally mistaken it for card stock laminate.
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Ugh! I'm glad I held off on getting any. Cardstock, what were they thinking? Those won't last long, and just imagine how quick they'll wear out in the hands of a child! :( Well, more money for more worthwhile things!
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I was doing more research into this. Do the back of the dogtags have a removable plastic cover? Like a screen protector? To protect them from scratches caused by the chain?
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They are cardstock? I had no idea. I thought they were very thin metal. Can you see the card? I really enjoy the artwork as seen on these dogtags but I haven't picked up any yet.
The have a second kind of dogtag:
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I believe these are "deluxe" and metal. Has anyone purchased these yet?
Oooh. At least the deluxe ones are background-colored, instead of just black and white, like the picture at the top of the thread showed. That makes me feel a little better, even though I still don't like just having an outline for the characters' bodies.
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Cardstock?! That's terrible! :shocked:
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I was doing more research into this. Do the back of the dogtags have a removable plastic cover? Like a screen protector? To protect them from scratches caused by the chain?
Yes, they do.
I'm tempted to dissect one of my duplicate tags to see what's in it.
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I was doing more research into this. Do the back of the dogtags have a removable plastic cover? Like a screen protector? To protect them from scratches caused by the chain?
Yes, they do.
I'm tempted to dissect one of my duplicate tags to see what's in it.
Cool :D Dragonflitter when you said the backs were peeling off, is is the protective sticker or is there an epoxy under the protective sticker that is peeling off? The marks on the front may be impossible to get off but maybe the stuff on the back is an easy fix. :D
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After reading the comments... I am confused. Are only the special ones metal, or are they actually all metal?
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Some feel like they're cardstock, others think they're plastic. The "premium" ones sold in blister packs are metal, though!
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I can't believe how cheaply made these things are, I would usually expect more from enterplay, they have came out with some pretty awesome stuff, after all.
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I've gotten 2 regular dog tags and 1 deluxe dog tag. Mine are all made of metal. The deluxe one is pure metal and the regular ones are metal covered with a shiny epoxy on one side. The other side has a protective sheet of plastic covering the decoration on the metal.
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(http://www.flickr.com/photos/thriftstoredragon/11141414175/)
Twilight Sparkle deluxe dog tag (http://www.flickr.com/photos/thriftstoredragon/11141414175/) by Thrift Store Dragon (http://www.flickr.com/people/thriftstoredragon/), on Flickr
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(http://www.flickr.com/photos/thriftstoredragon/11142115926/)
Princess Luna dog tag (http://www.flickr.com/photos/thriftstoredragon/11142115926/) by Thrift Store Dragon (http://www.flickr.com/people/thriftstoredragon/), on Flickr
And a video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kf6gfSzeY24&feature=youtu.be (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kf6gfSzeY24&feature=youtu.be)
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Thank you so much for the videos and images Dragonsummoner. I want some of the blind bag ones now! :D
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Bin's Toy Bin also has some review videos of the dog tags up.
Regular blind tags: http://youtu.be/OZnrKDv8f2w
Deluxe two tag sets: http://youtu.be/3upg8kujFlo
The dimples/imprints on the front seem like a legitimate issue, but for the scratches, bubbles and peeling on the back, it sounds like the plastic cover that you're supposed to remove. Some of Bin and Jon's tags look like they have scratches, but really they're small folds in the plastic cover, and once removed the tag is in perfect condition.
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I'm tempted to buy one of the Blind Bag ones just to take apart... had I seen this topic before I went to walmart earlier then I would have bought one just to see
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To be honest, I feel like for $3, you get what you pay for. I don't think I've ever seen dog tag necklaces that cheap.
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That deluxe one of Twilight looks gorgeous in close-up. I may have to get one of those....
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Oh thats awesome! Thank you for the update. I am a little more impressed with them if they are least some kind of metal base in the basic tags.
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I just bought two tags, and the backside is looks bubbly, but there is a plastic protective layer that you remove. Its there to protect it from scratching from chain :). I like the tags and plan to collect them all.
Update: one of mine had protective layer, one did not. Strange. I believe my version is all metal, but only one tag per bag. Not sure what version that was first reviewed as mine are not paper/cardboard material. They are some kind of metal. And they are not the Deluxe version
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:blush: Well I certainly feel foolish! Thank you for your responses, everyone. I was mistaken in my initial review. I have now re-written my first post with this new information to make it a more correct review. I'm sorry I made mistakes in the first review.
After it was brought to my attention that the plastic covering on the back of the dog tags actually peels off, it looks like most of the damage to the dog tags was not on the tag itself. A couple of them are still scratched from the chain, deep enough that it went through the plastic covering onto the tag itself, but for the most part the covering does protect the dog tag from the chain. Unfortunately there's nothing to protect the epoxy on the front.
And initially I thought the tag was made with cardstock with an epoxy covering, but I decide to scratch off the image on the back of one of my damaged ones and found that they actually do have a metal base, something very light and easily scratched (I'm guessing aluminum).
So in conclusion, I do still have about one third of the original 14 I bought came out of the package with some irremovable damages, and the decals that come with the dog tags still suffer from blurry small details, but the quality is much better than I originally reviewed. :)
Thanks again for your help everyone.
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Well, that's a relief! I am about to receive my Pinkie Pie one! :D
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So in conclusion, I do still have about one third of the original 14 I bought came out of the package with some irremovable damages, and the decals that come with the dog tags still suffer from blurry small details, but the quality is much better than I originally reviewed. :)
Thanks again for your help everyone.
That's great that your dogtags weren't as damaged as you initially thought. :D And don't feel silly, I would have done the same thing too. Its so frustrating to think you're getting one thing in terms of quality and then you end up with something less than what you expected. :(
Great review! I can't wait until I find some in store.
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Thats awesome Dragonflitter :) I am pleased they turned out to be in better shape than you thought! Makes them a little more interesting to me too now!
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I saw these at Target, but I got the new MLP loom kits instead.