Deconstructing Taobao Variant "Rarity"... FOR SCIENCE

[saply]

Crossposting here and some other pony site btw...


There has been a lot of buzz about the authenticity of the Taobao Frankenponies popping up every now and then. So, since I found this interesting variant of Rarity on eBay fairly inexpensively, I thought I would do a mini autopsy to perhaps answer some questions!


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The first thing I notice is that, despite her being a white pony with a purple mane, the colors are a little off compared to a real Rarity pony. She is missing the usual pinkish streaks, and the purple looks a little less saturated than usual. The tinsel is as unruly as ever of course, and I can't tell if it's maybe a bit coarser than Hasbro's or if it's just my imagination.


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Her head and body appear to be official Hasbro pieces. Stamped on the back of her head, if you can't tell, is "PP41", which leads me to believe that this is from the Pinkie Pie head mold. Her eyes look exactly like Diamond Rose's to me; can anyone confirm whether it's the same head or not?


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Thanks to the ever-helpful Sippersaurus, I was able to prop her up to get a good look at her hooves, too. The white numbers and copyrights molded onto them are identical to Rarity's. The black printed numbers are different, but I have no idea how consistent those are from pony to pony.


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Now, here's where it gets interesting. Her head, surprisingly, pops right off! Instead of a glued-in neckplug in white, she features a teal one that easily comes out of the neck. And when the head is reattached, instead of a smooth silhouette, her neck is as lumpy as if she were squeezing herself into a pair of jeans from high school. I can't get an angled shot inside of her tail, but it does at least appear to be rooted correctly with a washer and that metal... thing, like usual.


So in conclusion, I feel as if at least with this pony, the heads and bodies were bought by/smuggled into another factory, and perhaps given a rehairing and put together there with their different neck plugs. So does this make them official, or customs, or just really convincing fakies? I haven't decided, but at least it makes me feel less disappointed about losing that "Sweetie Blue" auction the other day.

[banditpony]

Well,
In reference to the different color neck plug --- my plumsweet has a pink neckplug. And her head was not glued. So I don't think it is a taobao only thing. but I haven't noticed any major bulging of the neck.......



head number -
The head number... I think they need to be checked with multiple ponies. I have one taobao white pinkie pie head with blue eyes (her hair is pink), I think it says PP 33... My plumsweet- PP 41... There is another plumsweet I customized, PP 35...




black number on foot -
I do believe the black numbers are consistent with the run (? I don't know what to call it). But it's not the mold, persay, and it's not the character either. My plumsweets both have 11261.


I have a glitter Wave 2 Blind bag fluttershy, She is 12171. I also have a variation color (a bit oranger), which I guess is from Wave 4 she is 12481.


I also was hoping to figure out some sort of code with FS Rarity w/ Celestia hair / eyes (12101), FS Rarity (03121), FS White Celestia (12901)...



white indent number -
I am not checking all my ponies, but a random selection of FS, normal sized, blind bag, from taobao and from packaging -- C-029A. Uh, and some of the packaged ponies do have Hasbro SA, some just Hasbro.

I ran across one taobao pony with a ziptie in their tail. (They also had the metal part)

As far as I figure, I go with the belief that these ponies are made inside the factory. My personal belief is, that.... 1) ponies for practice and/or 2) orders from HQ, but then canceled or delayed plans (Minty).

[BrightIdea]

Really interesting, Saply. This is what I thought, too!  Some of these are definitely real parts, just maybe assembled outside the factory.

[saply]

Well,
In reference to the different color neck plug --- my plumsweet has a pink neckplug. And her head was not glued. So I don't think it is a taobao only thing.

Oh, that's interesting! I wish all of the heads came off so easily in that case. It'd make customizing so much easier.


I'm just curious as to why the plug seems too big for the neck, but I guess that could be one of many reasons that these ponies are dubbed "test" or even "reject" ponies.

[PandaBerryInSpace]

I think it's really interesting that she's an earth pony made with Pinkie Pie's mold. I personally love Pinkie Pie's eyes... They're so cute! I definitely like them better than the normal unicorn eyes.

[saply]

Really interesting, Saply. This is what I thought, too!  Some of these are definitely real parts, just maybe assembled outside the factory.

Haha yeah, it's like they got a bunch of Diamond Rose heads and Rarity bodies and thought "Hmm... what can we make with these?"

[BrightIdea]

Oh yeah, while we are on this topic, one interesting thing I found with some of my pegasus Taobao ponies is that their heads are glued on and do not rotate. I am not sure if this indicates they were rejects, or assembled unofficially by unofficial means. Only 2 don't work, but the rest of the 20 something-odd ponies do have working neck joints.

[hathorcat]

I agree completely with banditpony on this one - I think we see a combination of (1) HQ orders/tests which are completed official looking ponies that are officially created and either currently not needed or decided no longer required at all...(2) production tests where they are testing colour, hair mix, etc or (3) random creations which are probably made with rejected heads and bodies and hair in the factory

And I think if we consider the factory conditions many Chinese workers have to work in to earn a wage, I dont think any of us would begrudge anyone in such circumstances making a little extra money some how!

[babystarz]

Hmm this is really interesting! I'm going to inspect my variant FS ponies and see if their heads pop off easily too.

[creampuf]

Now I need to go look at my taobao variant ponies.

Though I really want that rarity variant.

[kittybethy]

Wow!! I have never seen a deconstructed one!

 How cool!

[bladed]

FOR SCIENCE INDEED.
This is intresting to say in the least.

[Ligress]

Seriously, one day. I want this one, wherever she comes from. xD

[butterflybuttons]

Oooh! How interesting. Thank you for doing this.

[teresat]

Thank you for doing this. I'm always hesitant to do pony dissection.


OT: Congrats on your 1000th post Saply!