I feel like it's better that they don't bring back old characters with personalities. Too many people would grumble that it wasn't how they would want it to be.

However, I wish they'd sort of put more G1 ponies in the background, kind of like little easter eggs.

I recommend the comics for that, especially the ones done by Amy Mebberson, I know the Princess Celestia Micro series issue & the Bookworm arc had several (along with other cameos, she has an entire set of Sailor Moon Ponies too)

Well wave 2 is the rarest since it was never released outside of Europe, there's also the pink version of the glitter Twilight Sparkle from wave 1 (It was corrected for purple in later releases). For a while they were releasing story pack ones with a regular release Mane 6 character and unique character molds for two newer characters (I believe this is where the blind bag Zecora was from) I'm not sure about the whole thing but I know the Canterlot Wedding, Apple Family, Queen Chrysalis, and I believe also the Daring Do sets were the most sought after.

Aside from obvious character ones that only other thing that comes to mind are the special variations; I'm not sure if they're still doing this but the early waves had three special figures which were usually variations of the Mane 6 (Waves 1 & 2 collectively had glitter versions of them, wave 3 had glow in the dark versions of Pinkie, Rarity & Twilight, wave 4 the default ponies were glittery but they had metallic versions of Pinkie, Rarity & Applejack, wave 9 had Rainbow Power ones). Later on that was mostly replaced with having new molds and for some sets they had three special ones that way such as the Princesses in, I believe, wave 5 and the Breezies in wave 11.

As for bait ones I suppose the more common ones are fine no matter what as well as ones with major issues, I know some have ended up with paint missing on one eye, and the bootleg ones. I'm not sure about characters that were never in the show and how sought after they are, I also wonder about Fluttershy since there are two versions of her, one using Rainbow Dash's mold and one where she has her own mold

Molded in almost every regard, It's a reverse from the majority here, but a toy with molded hair is something I'd have more fun playing with since it would stay nice looking no matter what, while one with brushable hair would be more of a display thing because it tangles easily.

Now to clarify I don't outright despise brushable hair; I don't care what variety of hair the Pony toy I'm buying has and even though I didn't enjoy playing with it as a child I more accepted it as a thing that came with the territory than anything else; Barbies had brushable hair and extra clothing pieces you could buy for the girls that liked that sort of thing, they weren't an integral part of playing with the dolls, just an option that was being left open for the majority. Having said that my favourite Barbie doll was the Mulan one with her training outfit, it was based on a character I already liked, had elbows and knees that moved, and her hair couldn't tangle. Even then I confess that when I played with my Babysitter's old G1 Ponies that I liked the outfits she had for the baby ones and would do holiday themed stories with them.


In regards to Ponies as a plaything I'm biased by my own childhood; I found the brushable hair on my dolls to be a pain growing up since it would get tangled and I didn't enjoy brushing it, know anything about styling it, and if I wanted it fixed I'd have to get my mom to do it (I actually have a Kelly doll with hair that goes strait back because of this, I never played rough with my toys either so I have no idea how it happened), for me hair brushing was never fun and it's part of the reason I usually kept it short growing up. I remember with my G2 ponies one had little velcro hair decorations I had trouble with because they would tangle the hair when I took them out, I do know my tastes were a bit compared to other girls though; I had typical girly things I liked but not always in the way they did (I didn't enjoy doing ballet, but I liked watching it), and I wasn't an outright tomboy either (I didn't really enjoy sports) and my most favourite ones were tiny things like teeny weeny families. Having said that, I loved toys based on actual characters and creating new scenarios for them to act out and show accuracy would have mattered to me (No I'm not projecting, I actually upgraded to a better Pikachu doll twice and made plush Digimon that were more detailed than the official bean bag ones we ended up getting).


As a display piece it doesn't make as big a difference as there are fewer opportunities for their hair to be  messed up, but since my collecting is more character based (most of my G1 Ponies are either ones from the shows or for a gimmick they have) having sculpted hair and being show accurate works better for me. Having said that it is much easier to have a coheisive set when there are characters you have to customise for; there are some Ponies I'd like to have toys of that I'm having to get that way, while I'm a bit unsure of what to do with the Equestria Girls minis lines since I'd like to have dolls of Sonata & Aria but am not very confident in my sculpting abilities.


As for what makes a My Little Pony toy, I'd say it's a bit tricky to pin down since a variety of styles have been used over the years, but....

1-A more fanciful quality and departing from realistic phenotypes: This is mostly in regards to differentiating Ponies from more realistic horse toys, but even comparing a G1 My Little Pony toy to a real Pony you can see that the toy is more stylised and a bit anthropomorphised (at least enough that they can see forwards) and certainly the toys are more colourful (Which I love, this applies to characters as well; one thing I find odd about Western animation is how, generally, characters that are human only have human eye and hair colours).

2-Attention to detail: Even when bootleg toys use official moulds they lack the detail that the official ones have. True some of those details have fallen by the wayside over the years, but it still feels like thought went into designing it and in some ways those details have changed form; true they've gone from having a little story on the back-cards to having no text about the character at all (I say text because we now have screen shots), but the show has a smaller core cast and is more able to give the characters attention, the package may not say that Rarity has a self-serving streak that she sometimes has trouble keeping in check, but we know she does because of the show.

3-My Little Pony Branding: Yes, I'm dead serious, but allow me to explain a bit; I was born in the early 90s right around when they stopped releasing Ponies here, there was also a video rental place I used to go to when I was 4 & 5 that had a lot of 80s shows which I would rent often, My Little Pony was not one of them. At the same time I heard people talking about it, and had a vague memory of watching what turned out to be a scene from Escape from Katrina but I would not be able to see any of it until I was able to rent the movie & pilot special when I was 8 and I wouldn't see the show itself until I was nearly 14, so for me My Little Pony had an air of mystery to it. Because of that it was exciting for me when G2 Ponies were released, true I eventually found that they were completely different from the ones people were talking about and I had other toys that were similar, but they were still My Little Pony toys and a way for me to experience the series myself (This wasn't the only time something like this would happen either; there's a series I like where the manga referenced things that happened in the anime quite a bit and the next year I found DVDs of what turned out to be a spin off with a slightly different premise, even though I eventually saw the series they had been referencing, that spin-off made some of the events in the manga make much more sense)

I've got one but it isn't a visible factory error and she's not exactly a pony, but I do have an Adagio Dazzle doll who is in the English language box but not the English voice chip (The seller thought maybe Russian, I really should check against the international versions of the song)

I personally like the new reboot series(another in the group who won't be calling them 4.5)

My Comrade! Let's go over there and play with our bespecticled Raritys, accurately eyed Applejacks & contrasting Pinkie Pies

If it helps I've seen them in person and I don't really mind them and they've fixed a few inaccuracies that were left standing for quite a long time (like Applejack's eyes, one of the most recent releases finally gives her properly shaped eyes), the proportions aren't all that different either; they've made the bodies slightly smaller and the heads slightly larger, I think the reason why so many people feel it looks off is because the face is rounder so the transition from the neck to the head isn't as smooth as it was with the previous set.

There's always the Guardians of Harmony line though, those are really accurate and a second set is beginning to appear now

The new brushables are about the same height as the old ones and Guardians of Harmony toys don't seem to be very much bigger than brushables (Though I'm comparing the Pinkie Pie ones right now), either way Shining Armour isn't that much more expensive in store

Oh Dear, I took a bit of time to get everything set up but here is the next one:

http://s150.photobucket.com/user/Poppun/media/Spike%20%20Bushwoolies_zpswfisfeb5.jpg.html

(I can't get the display feature to work right now, but the link is alright)