SPOTLIGHT

Today's spotlight doll was an easy choice. Unlike last week, when I took my time because no one was jumping out at me, this week is a no brainer.

I just learned last night that Hallmark was releasing a Stormy doll and a plush Skydancer. I checked the website but nothing. I saw one seller on ebay with them and one person on the RB Facebook had a photo. So I called this morning and my store actually had them in stock! I never even dared hope we'd have them already. Sunriser was there, too, but I don't really need Tickled Pink's horse. It was kind of an odd choice to make the horse without an accompanying doll, but whatevs.

I'm so happy. Finally some official Stormy merchandise! I've only been waiting almost 31 years. Seriously, her first appearance was in the Star Stealer movie which came out 31 years ago on November 15th. She's been my favorite Rainbow Brite character ever since.

I've had the little custom doll since 2011 and she's a perfect fit for Skydancer.

The doll isn't a perfect ringer for cartoon Stormy, but dangit, she's still a Stormy and I'm still thrilled right now.

Stormy was $34.95 and Skydancer was $19.95. They are not up on Hallmark.com, but likely will be eventually. My store had 2 Stormys and 3 each of Skydancer and Sunriser, so if you want one, maybe call ahead and see if they're in stock.

SPOTLIGHT/OVERVIEW: Maudlynne Macabre

Today's spotlight is on Maudlynne Macabre. This 15.25" doll was made by Tonner, through their short-lived Tonner Toys brand. The original Tonner Toys line was Little Miss Matched, and Maudlynne uses the same body. The Prettie Girls Tween Scene dolls also use this body.

I'm definitely a fan of the body, as it's quite poseable, but not too poseable for the style of the dolls. I think they do fine without articulated wrists like my Ellowyne dolls have.

Maudlynne has long black hair held back with a slim ribbon headband. Under her bangs are what I call "worried" eyebrows (think Rochelle from Monster High), which I don't think fit her that well, so I'm glad her bangs cover them. Her eyes are a gorgeous purple.

I really love the headmold used for this doll, which is distinctly different than the other lines with the same body. She's got such personality!

Maudlynne wears an absolutely lovely dress. The quality of the dress is higher than any Little Miss Matched or Prettie Girls piece. She was meant to be a little fancier than LMM. Her dark purple fishnet gloves are adorable and she wears dark purple stockings with black Mary Janes. Because such dark colors were used, there are occasional staining issues with Maudlynnes.

The Maudlynne line was meant to continue, but none of the pieces shown were ever released. Toy Fair 2013 showed a black and white striped dress, as well as the prototype for Victoria, Maudlynne's ghost friend. She was basically a Maudlynne in a pale blonde wig with an ivory dress. Toy Fair 2014 showed slight progress. The same Victoria was shown, but she had an additional lavender outfit. Maudlynne herself had lost the striped dress, but gained cute pajamas, a fancy red and black dress, and a fancy darker pink and black dress. She also had a plaid top paired with a short white skirt over striped capris. To be honest, the only one of these outfits that ever felt right for Maudlynne was the PJs, so I'm not really sad they never made it out. And Victoria I think died (ha ha, because she's a ghost) mired in design problems. They wanted her to look ghostly, not like a blonde Maudlynne, but I don't think they ever figured out how to do it, or Maudlynne's sales just didn't merit whatever it would have cost to produce Victoria.

Whatever the reason, the Maudlynne line never took off and Maudlynne herself remains the only piece produced. But then again, that happened with every Tonner Toys line. Both Little Miss Matched and City Girls only had one release apiece.

I think Maudlynne's a great doll and she's still available on the Tonner website for a great price of $30!

PHOTO CREDITS: All mine.

RECOMMENDED LINKS:

http://www.tonnerdoll.com/tonner/maudlynne-macabre
Buy your own Maudlynne.

http://dolldiaries.com/toy-fair-2013-report-tonner-toys/
See Victoria and the black and white striped dress. That dress was more fitting for the line.

http://dolldiaries.com/toy-fair-report-2014-tonner-toys/
See the other outfits planned.

OVERVIEW: My Little Pony Generation 3

Wysteria

My Little Pony returned to the shelves with a new look in 2003. Fans that were never satisfied with G2s and their more delicate bodies loved the chunky style of G3s. They're definitely the closest to the original style of any pony that came after.

The first eight characters released were divided into two groups. The glitter ponies had tinsel in their hair. The original four were Kimono, Minty, Pinkie Pie and Sparkleworks. Yep, Pinkie Pie was not original to G4, or rather, Friendship Is Magic. In fact, several of the current TV show's characters got their start in G3!

Fluttershy

The other set of four original G3s were the rainbow ponies. These had multicolored hair, although they were not limited to rainbow colors, like the G1 rainbow ponies. The four were Wysteria, Sweetberry, Sunny Daze and Rainbow Dash. The current Rainbow and Pinkie look quite similar to their G3 versions, but others were very different. Fluttershy, seen here to the right, joined the rainbow pony assortment later in 2003. She still has a soft look, but I actually far prefer the colors of the G3 version. This pink is so absolutely lovely.

Butterscotch

 

One of G3's more annoying characteristics, in my opinion, was the constant rerelease of ponies in new poses. And they didn't exactly wait long either. 2003 gave us new poses for Sparkleworks, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash and Sunny Daze in the second main release of G3s. They were accompanied by new characters Daisyjo, Strawberry Swirl, Fluttershy and Tink-a-Tink-a-Too.

Then came even more bad news for collectors. Or honestly, it could have been before the wave 2 of ponies. It's been too long and I can't remember. But anyway! Not only did we get repeat characters already, but we also got European exclusives almost right off the bat. Europe got not one but SIX new ponies that were not also released in the US. Fans were furious at having to import so quickly. And when they finally did make it to the US, they were either packed together with a new pony if you were lucky or their single-pack boxed was sold with another single-pack box...of a pony you likely already owned, like Sparkleworks. People were not pleased.

Cherry Blossom

Then there was the added fun of exclusives. Target got winter pony exclusives. Butterscotch was paired with another already released pony like some of the other Euro releases were, but you could only get Butterscotch at Walmart. Sets with accessories and a pony began coming out and some of those were exclusives like Toys R Us's Applejack. Then the playsets came out with exclusive ponies and there went even more of your money.

The one nice thing Hasbro was doing was that they brought back the mail order system. You clipped pony points and exchanged them for bracelets, videos and most importantly, PONIES. Dazzle Surprise was 2003's offering. 

Rainbow Swirl

All of that I semi-ranted about just now? That was only the FIRST YEAR of G3. Yeesh. 

2004 brought more glitter and rainbow ponies. I remember becoming annoyed already in this year, because some of them kinda looked like ones we already had. Sew and So looks like Sparkleworks. Toola Roola had Sweetberry's coloring. Sunset Sweety looked like Bumblesweet and BOTH of them came out in 2004. 

Later in 2004, glitter and sparkle ponies joined together to become the Perfectly Pony assortment, while the Sparkle Ponies, like Rainbow Swirl here, were the new thing. They have glitter on their foreheads and symbols. The symbol glitter is pretty cool, but the forehead patches always looked weird to me. 

Wish-a-Whirl

The Jewel Ponies also came out this year, though I don't have a photo from my collection of any of them, as all have been sold. They had a big rhinestone as part of their symbol. 

Target got more holiday exclusives, both winter and Easter now. A spring basket with three ponies, one of which was Wish-a-Whirl to the right, was also released. Disney even got into the exclusive game, offering some of the original G3 characters dressed up as their princesses, but these were only sold at Disney. 

Pepperberry

    

The gimmicky ponies started to show up more then. We had ones with really long hair, ones with really long hair that also came with a baby, standing ponies that were ice skaters and ballerinas, standing ponies that were ice skaters and ballerinas that also came with a baby, and loads of dress-up ponies. And the multipacks got out of control.  

There were two awesome exclusives that I loved in 2004. Sunshimmer, who I am in the process of adding back to my collection, was the mail order, while Pepperberry here was a KayBee Toys exclusive. 

Shell-Belle

In 2005, I already was buying far less ponies. The single-packed ones weren't holding my attention. Although I don't know how I missed Alphabittle, because she is fantastic and I just won her on ebay yesterday. But then Hasbr hit me in my weakness: bright colors. 

The Shimmer Ponies had matte bodies and tinselled hair. I didn't get a lot of them, but both Shell-Belle and Waterfire, who's one of my two favorite G3s ever, made it home. 

The Dazzle Bright line had the same matte bodies, but they had multi-colored hair, so these two lines were basically just brighter versions of the original glitter and rainbow lines. 

Waterfire

I am a huge sucker for neon though. I LOVE these ponies. From Dazzle Bright, I bought the entire line of six. Waterfire and Beachberry are my favorites from the entire line. I even brought them to Egypt with me when I worked there for five weeks!

The bright colors continued throughout the year. The Sunny Scents line had excellent smells and Dream Design had fun 3D molded symbols. Dream Design contained the line's first pegasus characters.

I found myself hooked on ponies again and would rush to the stores pony-hunting, being very disappointed if my friend and I didn't come home with something.

Beachberry

Toys R Us got a lovely exclusive line called Jewel Birthday. The ponies had the rhinestone symbols like the regular jewel ponies, but these were birthstone-themed. I got April Mist for my mom and I had Sweet September. But I also bought October Dreams because she's a gorgeous green and I think I had June Blossom, too. I actually may have had a lot more than I'm remembering. I can be kind of a sucker for birthday stuff. 

Kiwi Tart

   

The holiday ponies continued throughout 2005. Valentine's ponies joined Easter and winter and another spring basket was released. 

The gimmicks also continued. More super long-haired ponies, ones with scooters (the first appearance of Scootaloo!), more ponies in clothes, more free babies, ponies with fabric wings, ponies that came in purses, loads and loads of multipacks. 

Although I felt more into ponies again, I really didn't buy much aside from the Shimmers, Dazzle Brights and Jewel Birthday. The love was already waning, thanks to the repetition of a lot of specific colors and the ridiculous gimmicks.

Seascape

I did get the year's mail order pony, a pretty blue girl with Kimber neon red hair, who was named Love Wishes. 

2006 actually brought some more unique designs to the table. The Cutie Cascade ponies had symbols that stretched all the way down one back leg. The Crystal Design ponies had very 3D symbols, much moreso than Seascape here, who was part of the Dream Design line from 2005. The Pretty Pattern ponies not only had symbols all over their legs, but their bodies were gradient-colored. The Divine Shine ponies took a page from the G1 Sparkle ponies and were made of glittery transparent plastic.

Lavender Lake

The pegasi from 2005 were back and now they had their own line of six. Sounds exciting, but then you look at them. White with pink hair. Two purple ones, one with blue and white hair, one with pink. Pink with pink and blue hair. Blue with pink hair. Blue with blue and white hair. Six different ponies, but only white, pink, purple and blue were used. This is the sort of lack of color that made the line really boring really quickly for me. You see, I love red. And there are no red ponies except in G4 and one single SDCC exclusive G3. I also love green, but not mint green all the time and not neon green that's only found in hair. Repetition is boring and it was one of G3's biggest flaws. 

Silver Glow

Of course, that didn't stop me from getting Silver Glow, because she's a gorgeous pegasus, even if she is trapped in a set of the same colors over and over. 

Unicorns also debuted this year. 

Toys R Us got another amazing birthday-themed line that I either never heard about or was disgusted when I saw the ponies for Mom and myself and decided to shun. You see, April Daisy is pink with pink and purple hair, and September Aster is purple with pink hair. But if I did willingly ignore this line, I was a stupid idiot, because there are some splendid ponies in it and the line is sadly harder to find right now. I will eventually collect them all though! 

Pretty Pop

I'm going to leave off the more detailed year by year descriptions now. Silver Glow was the next to last G3 I purchased when they were on the shelves. I was thoroughly disgusted with G3s by this point, thanks to the lack of variation and the tons and tons of silly gimmicks, repeat characters and multipacks. I even passed up the Breezie sets, which were actually pretty cute. The final pony I bought in stores was 2008's Morning Glory, and my last one that I added to my original collection was the SDCC red superhero exclusive.

Generation 3.5 Cheerilee

Generation 3 morphed into Generation 3.5, very cartoony ponies that I don't think many people liked. I bought Cheerilee, because she was clearly Cherry Blossom, but I never paid much attention to the line otherwise. 

G3s were a definite passion of mine for a time, but issues with the line, which I've peppered throughout this post, ultimately made me lose love for them a lot more quickly than I imagined. 

I picked up Pretty Pop with some other things in a trade a couple years ago and I was reminded how pretty G3s are. Then in September 2015, I decided to finally get the Egyptian one from 2011.

MLP Fair 2011 Egyptian Pony

But I didn't get really back into them until very recently, when I discovered someone on Tumblr who posts a lot of cool pony things. So now I've made up a small wishlist and I'm whittling away at it. I actually managed to get almost all of them taken care of already, so I'll be turning my attention to the harder to find birthflower set. I'm not going to go wild and buy tons of G3s, but I want back some of the ones I sold and some new ones I'm just discovering. 

G3s will always be pretty special and I'm glad to be feeling the love for them once again. Yes, the line has a lot of issues, but I really love the ones I have. 

PHOTO CREDITS: All mine.

RECOMMENDED SITES:

http://www.strawberryreef.com/index.html

OVERVIEW: My Little Pony Generations 1 & 2

Moondancer

This is gonna be a long one! I've got a long history with MLPs.

The predecessor to MLP was My Pretty Pony, a much larger plastic pony, but that pony quickly gave way to what we know and love. 1982 gave us the first six MLPS: Cotton Candy, Butterscotch, Minty, Snuzzle, Blue Belle and Blossom. These original six had flat feet, which changed into the concave feet the rest of the pony line continued to have over the years. 1983's ponies gave us a wider variety of poses, much more animated than the original pose, and the line's first unicorns and pegasi. This is when I got into the line. Moondancer was my first pony. This one pictured to the left is actually not my childhood Moondancer. I think I may have traded her in the early days of my pony collecting. She was always overshadowed by my second pony: Glory.

Glory

Glory was my favorite for awhile. I loved her dark purple mane and tail. I got her the Pony Royal outfit and she wore the cape a lot. Not so much the shoes. I thought the shoes were kinda silly. I still have the cape, but the other pieces are long gone.

In 1984, I got Megan and Sundance. Sundance was my most ignored pony. I can't remember if the set was a gift and I wanted something else or what, but I did not care for poor Sundance. And Megan usually got her clothes taken. Perfuma (from She-Ra) wore her dress a lot and her shoes can still be found to this day on Scarlet Slydale, the sister from the Sylvanian Family foxes. I think I might still have the ratty dress somewhere, but Megan and Sundance are gone.

So Soft Heart Throb

1985 gave us the flocked So Soft ponies, which are some of my faves, even though my collection only has one left. Heart Throb became my new favorite pony in childhood. I loved petting her! And she's held up pretty well, despite how much I played with her. That's her to the left, 31 years old.

Because I loved Heart Throb so much, I also ended up with Baby Heart Throb with the beddy-bye eyes. I did like her at the time, but yeesh, those eyes are pretty creepy now! Baby HT is no longer part of my collection.

The Flutter ponies were next. I loved these delicate ponies, though like most 80s Flutter owners, it didn't take long for the wings on mine to break.

Forget-Me-Not

I went through a Moondancer/Glory situation with the Flutters. I got Honeysuckle first and she was very pretty, but Forget-Me-Not, my second one, eclipsed her. Forget-Me-Not is still my favorite Flutter, even though I have all of them now. (Tropical Breeze is my second fave.)

In 1986, the Twice Is Fancy line came out and I got Sugarberry. Then I got Princess Sparkle and her bushwoolie, Hugster. I still have Sugarberry, but not the princess or her bushwoolie.

I got Sniffles and Snookums, the newborn twins, next. I loved these tiny babies! I never got really into the regular babies, but the newborns were precious.

Somewhere in here, I picked up Seashell at a garage sale, but I don't remember the exact year.

High Flyer

I was mostly off ponies by that point, but one more caught my eye. I think I was in a grocery store, where, oddly enough, is where I got a lot of my toys. I saw a small box and fell in love with the pony inside. High Flyer was my only childhood Summer/Windy Wing and she was my favorite until the day I got Cool Breeze for my adult collection.

That was it for ponies until one day in 1990, when I lived in Orlando, I was in Publix (I think) with my mom. I was looking through the surprisingly large toy aisle near the checkout and I found a boy pony! I'd never gotten a boy pony before and he was a pirate and we were back in Florida again (I'd lived in Jacksonville for 1st grade), so I had to have him. And so Barnacle became a late collection addition.

Barnacle

Mildly back into ponies, I checked the local chain store. Couldn't tell you which chain, but probably KMart. I brought home Flower Dream from the Pretty Pony line. I liked the taller, skinnier body because it was something different. I also got Dreamy Siamese from the My Little Kitty line.

And that was it for many long years. I honestly cannot tell you how I got back into pony collecting or even when exactly I started. Possibly around 2000 after I graduated from undergrad. I got into dolls more slowly, with the Barbie Generation Girls, Bratz, My Scene and Lollipop Girls. I slowly switched from being a pony collector who also liked dolls to a doll collector who was selling off a lot of ponies to buy more dolls.

My adult collection was somewhat large. I can't even say huge or another big size word, because I knew people with pony ROOMS. Just rooms lined with shelf after shelf of ponies. I was not a completist, but I had certain sets that I aimed for.

Cool Breeze

I joined the MLPTP and became Cool Breeze WW. I was obsessed with the Summer and Windy Wing ponies and eventually got them all. My boxed Cool Breeze is the pride of my collection. I got all the Flutter ponies, too, though I never liked them as much.

There's no real good way for me to discuss my old collection, because I can't remember the order I got them in and there's no online documentation or anything. So I'm going to use the Dream Valley site and go year by year, mentioning which ones I had and loved.

Minty was the only original six pony I really liked. I still have her concave foot version, but I did have the flat foot once.

Shovels and Sandcastle

I also wasn't real into the simplicity of Year 2. I had Applejack and Sunbeam, but none of the Rainbow ponies lasted long in my collection and neither did the first year Sea Ponies.

From Year 3, I had Cherries Jubilee, Sky Flier, Powder, Gusty and I think Pinwheel. All of them are gone now. I had Baby Glory, but no longer, and I still have an odd Baby Firefly that I pulled out of a trade box and randomly loved.

Gypsy

I had Sea Breeze, White Cap and Sea Mist from the rarer second set of Sea Ponies. I held onto them for awhile, but all three are gone now.

From Year 4, I have all the Flutters and Pearly Baby Sea Shimmer.

Year 5 had the best So Softs, except my precious Heart Throb. I had Twilight, Angel, Bangles and the ever awesome Crumpet, whom I miss. I want her back. The Year 5 Twinkle Eyes had the always sought after Mimic. I owned her for a time, but was never satisfied with her condition and sold her. I still have Bright Eyes though, who is so cute. Dancing Butterflies and Up Up and Away joined my Sugarberry for awhile.

Flowerburst

I had a few Bushwoolies, but never got real into the princesses. I did get all the Big Brothers, though not all were complete, of course. Those accessories are rare! I had Baby Tic-Tac-Toe and I still have newborns Dibbles and Nibbles. I had all the Pony Friends.

The Year 6 Twice As Fancy line was even better than the first. Munchy! Night Glider! Why did I sell them? Wah! I have Bonnie Bonnets now, but she's the only one. I had Princesses Taffeta and Misty. From the Sundae Best, I had Swirly Whirly, and Pretty Vision and Bouquet from the Brush 'n' Grows. I had the new Big Brothers for this year, plus the two baby brothers. I have newborns Sandcastle and Shovels still. They're pictured up there. This is the year of the Summer Wings. Have all those. I had some of the Watercolor Baby Sea Ponies and I had all the new Pony Friends. I still have Edgar and Oakly. From the Sweetberry ponies, I still have Cherry Treats. I had Blueberry Baskets and possibly some others.

Sweet Sundrop

Year 7's Merry Go Round line was neat. I had Sparkler, Sunnybunch, Diamond Dreams and Flower Bouquet. I had Candy Cane pony Lemon Treats with great hair. I had all the Sunshine ponies, and Perfume Puff Daisy Sweet and Sweet Lily. I had Princess Brush & Glow Glittering Gem, though I don't think I sought her out. I had all the Playtime Baby Brothers, and still have Leaper, Racer and Waddles. I think I had all the single-packed newborns, and all the Windy Wings, of course. I wasn't a big collector of the Sweetheart Sisters, but Flowerburst is one of my top ponies. She's splendid. I had all the Pretty Pals, but only Lucky Leaf of the babies. I still have Hoppy and Leafy.

Fancy Mermaid Ponies

Being a fan of neon, I loved the Tropical Ponies from Year 8 and still have all 4. Sweet Sundrop from the Prom Queen Sweetheart Sisters is one of my top ponies. She's gorgeous.

From Year 9, I had all the Rockin' Beat ponies and a couple Glow 'n' Shows. I had Rainbow Baby Rainribbon.

Springy

I loved a lot of the Year 10 offerings. I have all three Colorswirls and all three Sundazzles. I had all three Paradise Babies, but now just have Beachball. I have the three Fancy Mermaids, shown above.

Whew! That's a lot. But now I have to go through the exclusives and internationals. This is where a lot of my money went!

From the US exclusive mail order ponies, I had Hollywood the Flutter, a few of the pearlized babies, the Valentine's Day twins, the Christmas baby, and the Chuck E Cheese baby. Of the rarer mail orders, I had babies Sugarberry, Up Up and Away, Dancing Butterflies and Sweet Tooth from the Twice As Fancy babies. I regret selling those because Sugarberry is the only one I have left. She was my prize for winning the trivia contest at one of the last pony meets I went to.

Baby Sugarberry

I also had Scribbles and Dabble, two of the most sought after mail orders. I sold Dabble not that long ago. She was gorgeous, but I needed money for something. Probably dolls. I also had both Birthday Baby ponies, who are really rare. I sold Sugarcake, but Gametime is still with me. I'm not sure what it is about the dusky pink pony with golden yellow hair, but I love her.

Now for the internationals! There were a lot of variants of ponies we got in the US. There were non-so soft versions of ones we only had flocked. Non-beddy-bye-eye versions of BBE babies. You get it. I had Baby Gusty from the non-beddy-bye-eyes. I also had a non-so soft Twist from Brazil that was stunning.

Baby Gametime

I had all the Starlight Babies, which came out in the US as transparent ponies with glitter. The interationals had opaque bodies but with a sheen to them. I still have Baby Stella. The alternate princess ponies came with dragons like Spike instead of bushwoolies. I had all those dragons! They cost me a ton.

I'm just going to make a list of the others I had: Gypsy (pictured way up there, one of my faves), Honeycomb, Snowflake, Hopscotch, Baby Applejack, Nightlight (why did I sell her?), Mountain Boys Fireball, Thundercloud and Sunburst, the activity club white newborn, Baby Alphabet, Sweet Clover, Cherry Sweet, Clover from My Little Pony Tales, Hip Hop, the Bedtime newborns, the Seaside Babies, Candy Babies Lollipop and Candy, the Jewelry Babies, newborn Baby Bouncy, Dutch Diary Pony, Dutch Shell Pony, and Dutch Cat Pony (baby).

Bedtime newborns

To sum up, basically I had a load of expensive imported ponies! And only a few remain in my collection. I sold the majority off as I got more and more into dolls. I still have the Bedtime newborns, seen here to the right, plus Gypsy, the white activity club newborn, and Fireball. Fireball is awesome. I love all the Mountain Boys, but this guy is king.

Fireball

I miss a lot of the ones I sold. I'd buy the Jewelry Babies back for sure, and the Candy Babies, along with Licorice, who I never got. I'd have all the Twice As Fancy babies and all the Mountain Boys. Nightlight, too, and Brazilian Twist. I doubt I will ever be back into ponies enough to spend as much as it would require to get any of these back though.

So those were the ponies themselves, but I was known for liking random stuff other than your typical pony figures. I was one of the only people with a complete set of Mommy Charms. I had a ton of figural stampers and pencil toppers. I had a couple plush, but nothing much. It was the small figural stuff that caught my eye. I even had a special case to fit all the Mommy Charms in and I sold them as a complete set in that case. Then bought my favorite one again so I could have one left.

Figural stampers

I was very active on the old MLPTP board and made a lot of friends. I attended so many pony meets, I can't even tell you an exact number. And all of them were in Canada! Mom and I would drive up, attend the meet and drive back. Most of them were sleepovers, but we lived so close to the border, it was easy enough to travel. We brought our favorite collection pieces, traded and sold all sorts of things, played games and just talked. And I was by no means a pony guru! I only won that trivia contest because the two girls holding the meet weren't in it. Which of course was fair, but their knowledge blew mine out of the water, so them holding the meet took out the biggest competition. That and one of the questions involved Mommy Charms! I think we had to name off several, which I had no problem with.

Generation 1 or G1 MLPs will always be the best MLPs for me, but I did briefly get into G2s. These are possibly the least popular MLPs that were ever made, though I think they're highly underrated. Most collectors turned up their noses at them, but when I went to conventions, I brought my favorite and she made them think twice.

G2 Copper Glow

Copper Glow was one of a line of three ponies that were alicorns. They had weird clip-on plastic wings with glitter in them, which I set aside immediately. Silver Glow and Golden Glow were the other two, and I had them, along with several other G2s, but only Copper Glow and Baby Noel remain.

A lot of people make custom ponies, but I never got into those. I have one single custom from my G1 days, and that's a tiny newborn dyed red and painted like she was a newborn seaside baby. I will always champion red ponies. There are not enough of them.

I also recently bought a custom pony that is absolutely brilliant. She was molded...actually molded...and is just like the original Sparkle Ponies.

Custom pony Genie

Genie is spectacularly beautiful and I had to have one. Her head even turns! Unlike the originals. And she has symbols on both sides. She's just gorgeous and I hope they continue to make new designs.

I'm going to tackle G3 ponies soon, since I've actually gotten back into them very recently. G4 may wait until the release of the reboot style new ones, which I LOVE in case anyone was wondering.

I hope you've had fun reading all this! MLP is a major topic, since I was so hardcore into them for so long.

PHOTO CREDITS: All mine.

RECOMMENDED SITES:
http://www.kimsites.net/dreamvalley/
There may be better guides out there, but this is the one I've always referenced. There are also guides out there in the form of actual books! I have a couple of those and they're awesome.

NEWS: Earth 2 Jane

Bet you'd never thought you'd see that as a post title!

Back in May, I did an overview post on Earth 2 Jane, a sadly short-lived line from 2005. Well, last night, I received a comment on the post with some fantastic news.

EARTH 2 JANE IS COMING BACK!

Yes, the line is getting a fresh new start in 2017-2018. Fashion dolls will once again be part of the line, as well as adorable plush soft dolls, apparel, jewelry, books and more!

So I decided to combine this excellent news with this week's Spotlight doll. I was going to do Spotlights on Fridays, but I think I'm going to make it more flexible. I had a Spotlight doll planned for yesterday, but then couldn't decide whether to post her or not, because I haven't overviewed the line yet. But that all works out well, because it allows me to combine this excellent news with Saturday's Spotlight doll: JETT!

As I said in my overview post for E2J, Jett is my favorite of the foursome. Her choppy black hair, brown eyes and especially that gorgeous honey skintone make her really stand out, and I love her color combination of white, lime green and peach. It's something you don't see very often, especially in fashion dolls. I think maybe I've seen My Little Pony pull it off once or twice, but it's a great combo for clothing and it should be used more.

I'm looking forward to seeing what this incarnation of Earth 2 Jane brings to the table. I'm sure they'll have a great message, because they always did.

This is honestly the perfect time to come in with a new fashion doll line. A lot of lines are either over or in reboot slumps, so with really only two promising lines I can think of right now (DC Super Hero Girls and Project MC2), the market is wide open for some new dolls!

I'm hoping this time Earth 2 Jane is here to stay! I'm still sad we never got the deluxe dolls or dolls of Tess and Emma, so this is really exciting news for me.

I'll keep updating as I find out more, so stay tuned!

OVERVIEW: Galaxie Girl

Galaxie Girl was one of the fabulous knockoff lines spawned by She-Ra: Princess of Power. They were produced by Woolworth for sale there. There is a surprisingly large number of She-Ra and He-Man knockoff lines for girls. I only remember She-Ra and Golden Girl in stores myself, but I'll include a link at the end and you can see just how many knockoffs there were.

Anyway, Galaxie Girl was one of the more She-Ra-like lines. (Some were more in tune with He-Man than She-Ra and some were knockoffs of Golden Girl, which is more like He-Man.) The figures have articulation at the neck, shoulders, waist and hips. They come with a plastic cape that's permanently on unless you want to pop the doll's head off, a headdress, a weapon and a shield.

There were eight dolls made for the line. No names are listed on the backcards and no information given, but some was provided on He-Man.org. Not sure how accurate it is, but it's the only thing we have to go on, so I've been thinking of the dolls with these names.

There are four heroic girls and four villain girls. They're all from the planet of Stellara, which has several kingdoms (Liberta, Harta, Junga) and two moons (Light Moon and Dark Moon).

Justara with the orange-blonde hair in gold and red is the main girl. Or at least, I consider her so, because it's her on the front of all the packaging. Justara is the Heroic Ruler of Light Moon.

Her allies are Princess Arta of Harta (pink hair, gold outfit) and Empress Galaxa of Liberta (dark skin, yellow hair, green/yellow outfit).

The fourth hero is Sorceress Nocturna, the "Heroic Exile of Dark Moon." Her kingdom was taken over by Domina, one of the villains, and Nocturna is in Liberta, working with Galaxa. Nocturna is an unusual choice for a heroic figure, as she's the chalk white one with purple hair.

The four villains are Atra from Harta (Arta's name rearranged and Atra even has pink hair like her, but she's wearing pink and silver, not Arta's gold), Jaguara from Junga (the blonde in leopard print), Domina from the Dark Moon (the purple girl), and Azura, the Evil Space Pirate of the Belt of Fury (blue hair).

Jaguara, Azura, Atra, Justara (times two), Galaxa and Nocturna

Galaxie Girl figures are somewhat hard to come by and even harder to find in decent shape. They were incredibly cheap to begin with, so they're not made from strong materials. I've had the plastic break on Jaguara's shield and mace, because she was the only one I had for years and the only one that had to endure the move down here. Her mace did not survive. Her shield broke even before the move, but I glued it. The biggest problem with these though is their fragile heads. I never had a problem with Jaguara, so I didn't know this was a thing. But I bought Justara after I moved and she was advertised as fine in the auction, but came to me with her head broken off. The seller put up a fight, but I eventually got a refund, since the doll likely would have been fine if she'd been shipped in a box and not a padded envelope. I superglued her head on and she's fine now. I got lucky after that and was able to win Azura, Atra, Justara and Nocturna mint on card. They're all in great shape. But then I won Galaxa and she came to me mint on card and well-packaged. I opened her box and her head fell off. So yeah, these are just shoddily-made. If you buy them, expect to be gluing things back on.

They are not cheap either. Carded ones can run in the fifty dollar range. An Atra sold for that in August, while a loose, incomplete Galaxa went for $27. I still need Arta and Domina to complete my set.

Galaxie Girl is a fun line, but expect some frustration if you decide to collect. As I've said, they're cheaply-made, but unless you get really lucky, you're not going to be paying cheap prices for them. They've got neat designs though and they fit in with my Golden Girl figures well.

PHOTO CREDITS: All mine.

RECOMMENDED LINKS:

This is where I got all my info:
http://www.darah.com/collection/galaxiegirl/

And this is her main page where you can peruse all the She-Ra-type knockoffs and other lines:
http://www.darah.com/orig/

NEWS: DC Superhero Girls

Yup, more news, but no pics. If you search for DCSG on Entertainment Earth, there are six new listings for April 2017. Remember the Wonder Woman plush we saw at SDCC? Well, I believe the Wonder Woman listing is for her, and she's accompanied by Harley, Supergirl, Batgirl, Bumblebee and Katana. Poor Poison Ivy seems left out so far. They're 10" tall and $19.99 each. No pics yet, but I'll be watching!

I'm hoping they do new case assortment listings soon. Then we'll know for sure who's coming in Wave 2.

NEWS: DC Superhero Girls

A few exciting things to report and speculate on for DC Superhero Girls!

They are currently running a fabulous giveaway here:
http://www.dccomics.com/blog/2016/09/29/2016-dc-super-hero-girls-sweepstakes?src=Mattel

And in the image featuring all the products, you can see the above six vinyl figures. We'd previously only seen Wonder Woman, Bumblebee and Harley at SDCC. I think Katana and Supergirl are my favorites.

Target.com has some new products available for order.

There's the Wonder Woman doll and invisible jet set:
http://www.target.com/p/dc-super-hero-girls-wonder-woman-action-doll-and-invisible-jet/-/A-51179613

A Wonder Woman pillow doll plush:
http://www.target.com/p/-/A-51150418

And a smaller Wonder Woman plush that comes with a blanket:
http://www.target.com/p/wonder-hero-throw-pillow-set-multicolored-2pc-dc-super-girls/-/A-51277848
I ordered this one, since she looks cuter than the big one and I can always use an extra blanket.

There are also two separate blankets:
http://www.target.com/p/dc-super-heroes-bed-blanket-twin-multicolored-warner-brothers/-/A-51141012
http://www.target.com/p/super-hero-girls-throw-46-x60-multicolored-dc/-/A-51182896

It's also time to speculate who you think will be part of Wave 2 of the action dolls! We know Starfire will get a doll and Katana an action figure, so I think it's safe to say we'll have an action figure Starfire and regular non-SDCC Katana doll, too.

If you visit the DCSG website, you'll see four new characters added to the Meet the Heroes section. Starfire is there, along with Hawkgirl, Frost and Beast Boy! Hawkgirl and Frost have recently been featured as Hero of the Month, so I won't be surprised if Beast Boy is up next. These five could be our Wave 2 dolls, but then who is the sixth? The initial line-up was sold in two cases of three. The core case was one each of Wonder Woman, Supergirl and Batgirl, and the non-core case was one each of Harley, Ivy and Bumblebee. So who will get the sixth spot? Or will we perhaps get 2 Katanas in one case, since she was very obviously left out of the initial wave, despite being a major part of the line everywhere else?

Only time will tell, but it's fun to guess. Personally, I'm hoping for Miss Martian to get the sixth spot, with a 2-pack of Lady Shiva and Big Barda also being sold, but that's me dreaming!  

I'll be back with more news as it rolls in. DCSG is my current favorite playline, so I'm very excited to see promos of these. Especially Frost!

SPOTLIGHT

I used to do this on my Flickr, so I think I'll make it the new Friday feature. If I remember to keep doing it! I'm so scatterbrained. Every week, I'll pick a doll to spotlight. Could be a new addition, could be something older that I'm just appreciating at the moment.

So the first Friday Spotlight is Project MC2's Basic Devon D'Marco doll.

I purchased her on Amazon for $14.99. I have yet to see any of the Wave 3 Basics in stores.

Devon has lovely long hair that's loose, instead of in the ponytail her Experiment doll had.

Basic vs. Experiment

I think the loose style suits her more. It's more flattering for her longer, thinner, oval face.

Her outfit is really cool. I like the sports-style top but with the "inspired" theme. It also has an asymmetrical hem with the back falling well below the front. I never noticed this in the promo shots, because it blended with her black hair. Her white shorts have black trim and she wears separate fabric socks from her purpley-gray shoes. While I like the Experiment doll's clothing, except her boots, I prefer the Basic doll's look.

Basic Devon has flat feet, while Experiment Devon has heeled feet. (Ember is the same, with the Experiment doll having heeled feet and the Basic's being flat.) Experiment Devon has pierced ears with little spiky studs, while Basic Devon has no earring holes.

Project MC2 is very clearly MGAE's money-making line right now. Bratz have failed again and Lalaloopsy seems to be in decline, sadly. The MC2 dolls are beautiful and very detailed with excellent outfits. I like the variation in bodies with the different feet and different levels of articulation. Honestly, sometimes I prefer the basic articulation because the knees are weak on a few of my deluxe dolls. I think the prices are fair, too. The $14.99 dolls may not be articulated, but you're getting inset eyes and much more detailed outfits than comparably-priced dolls have.

Basic Devon might just be my favorite MC2 doll right now, so I had to share her in this first spotlight.