I got mine! The book itself does have a Bargain Priced tag on it, listing it as $9.98. There are some dings in the lower corners of the book, but it's not bad. The playmat isn't what I expected. You'd think it would be a top down view of an area, but it's not. It's actually four background images, one in each corner and they just look like stills of the background used in the show. There's Sweet Apple Acres, Sugar Cube Corner, Carousel Boutique and the Library. It's pretty big. Each scene is about the size of those posters that were at Walmart awhile ago. The mat isn't plastic, it's paper, but it's glossy and it seems pretty high quality paper.
So onto the figures! They're much bigger than I thought they'd be. I had the G3 book they made and those figures were about half the size of these. The figures are about the same size as the blind bags. The molds they used to make these are much higher quality than anything Hasbro produces and because of that, these are pretty show accurate. The paint is sloppy, but so are the paint jobs on blind bags. Several of them also arrived with dirt smudges, but I've also seen that with brushables, so it's not too shocking. I took pics of them all in groups of three.
First up is Celestia, Cadence and Spike:
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loginCelestia- First off, I think her cutie mark is on the wrong side. I think she displays better on the other side. I found the same issue with my Funko
Pony. I may just paint her cutie mark on the other side. The mold of her overall is cute, but she has a pretty messy paint job. They forgot to paint the front section of her hair that's below her crown and on her display side, they didn't paint the end of her tail.
Cadence- Her figure is really cute. She looks show-accurate (except for the wings being solid purple, but Hasbro does that as well, so I don't blame them) and her paint issues are pretty minimal. There's a weird lump in the plastic in the center of her wing on the NDS, but it doesn't bother me too much since I won't notice it on display.
Spike- Spike is definitely odd. His head looks too big and his cheeks are too puffy. He also tends to topple over. I'm not sure what's going on with the two lime green scales on the side of his head, but they're two different sizes. I'll give them credit, though, for making him stand up like he does on the show instead of putting him on all fours like Hasbro did.
The Cutie Mark Crusaders:
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loginApple Bloom- She's really cute. My only real complaint about her is they painted the backsides of her ears red. Still, nothing a little acetone can't fix. She's definitely one of my favorites of this set.
Sweetie Belle- Something about her pose is kind of awkward. I get what they were going for, but it doesn't translate well to the figure. She's kind of a light grey instead of a bright white, but it looks more accurate that way. Her horn isn't centered which kind of bugs me. She also has stray splatters of paint on her, including a pink smear on her nose, but I'll just use acetone to remove them.
Scootaloo- She's pretty accurate as far as her hairstyle and I love her tiny little wings. My figure has crooked eyes, but it's not too bad. The paint on her body is kind of uneven and bumpy in places.
Main six, part 1:
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loginPinkie Pie- Like Celestia, I think they picked the wrong side to paint her cutie mark on. You can't even see her head, just her hair on the display side. Her hair looks really nicely molded and her paint isn't bad. There's a few slight paint rubs on her, at the tip of her ear, the bottom of her tail and near her hooves, but I can touch those up fairly easily.
Twilight Sparkle: She looks really nice and very show accurate. Her paint is a bit sloppy, especially the pink stripe in her tail because it looks really uneven. She also has a rub on her chest, right above her two front legs.
Rainbow Dash- I was thrilled when I saw her. After getting so many RD toys, figures, etc. with colors missing from her mane, tail or both, this one looks awesome. I also love that her eyes look like they do on the show instead of the way they look on all the toys and plushies released so far. Her paint issues aren't too bad, especially considering how many colors are used on her. I may touch up the yellow on her mane a bit since the orange bled through a bit, but overall she looks really nice.
Main six, part 2:
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loginRarity- I'm not too fond of her figure. Just like Celestia and Pinkie appear to have their cutie marks on the wrong side, so does Rarity. Her tail looks oddly shaped on the display side and her hair covers her head. On her NDS, though, while her tail looks better, her head looks super strange. Her mane looks like it's too far too the right, giving the impression she is going bald and because her eye is printed so small and painted so far forward, it makes her cheeks look super swollen. Overall her paint isn't bad, she just has a few spots on her tail that are missing paint.
Fluttershy- Her mold is very well done. Since Fluttershy is my favorite main six pony, I was really hoping she'd look good and luckily she does. She only has two small issues, and that's a small paint rub on her display side mane and a bit of extra glue that appears to have oozed out when her wings were attached.
Applejack- The biggest surprise about her is that she has her freckles, and on both sides. To this day, I have not figured out why Hasbro doesn't add them to the brushables of her, but this tiny little figure of her has them. I wish she had her hat, but that's ok. She's missing a bit of orange paint on her ear and under her mane on each side, but not bad.
So overall, I definitely think this book and figures are worth buying. Even more so because they're the same size as blind bags, but you get 12 of them for what Hasbro charges for 3 (in those mini packs) and these, overall are more show accurate and in a lot of ways better quality.
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