REVIEW: Basic Fun 40th Anniversary Fancy Swirl "Celestial" Ponies Part 1

My first new repro ponies since December 2021. 

I know it's the 40th Anniversary, but did we really need yet another repro of the original six? No, we did not. Thankfully, Basic Fun is doing more than that. I have their plush Glory, and plan on getting some of the minis when they come out. 

They also did something a lot of pony collectors have been wanting for eons. They brought the Fancy Swirl ponies to life!

Basic Fun calls them the Celestial Ponies, but their original Hasbro name was Fancy Swirl. 

These ponies were supposed to be part of the original vintage MLP line, but never made it into production. 

To be totally honest, I wasn't thrilled with this. I do love that they're producing something that never got made, but I also wish they had given us a set of ponies that everyone really wants: reproductions of characters you can't get for less than $100. Mimic. Munchy. Nightglider. Crumpet. Scribbles and Dabble. Rapunzel. TAF babies. Ponies like that. 

Now that I have these in person, I see their charm, so I would have kept these and replaced the four billionth repro of the original six with the repro rares. 

I'm still not a huge fan of their basic design. Nothing about these colors really says "space" to me except for the blue. Maybe a yellow for a not at all realistic but definitely familiar star color? Deep purple would have been cool. 

Milky Way with her reused name fit in the least for me. Peach? Do you look at peach and think space? 

However, she is very, very cute. And her colors are pretty. 

What works in her favor is that she reminds me of Wild Flower from the Year 7 Sweetheart Sisters. The peach body and hair, the symbol colors. Even the pattern of the stars here reminds me of a flower bouquet.  

Can't say 'til I see them all, but Milky Way here might actually be my favorite of the four. 

Oh, this pony's original name was Starswirl. That's also a reused pony name. I don't think I like it better than Milky Way. They're about equal. I like both G1 Milky Way and G1 and G3 Starswirl. 

The blue one is named Nova. Her original name was Swirlabout. No, thank you. Good change. 

(I'm just going to leave the other names here, because I probably won't look them up when the other two in the set arrive. The blue with pink hair was Mistyglow and the pink with blue hair was Pearlshine. Both also got name upgrades.) 

I initially thought this one might be my fave, due to being the most evocative of space and celestial for me. 

I like her, but her clunky, poorly colored symbol holds her back. It's just not cute. 

The third pony in my order should be here tomorrow, and the fourth has not shipped yet. I'll take more pics as each arrives. 

I like them a lot and I'm glad Basic Fun did something so different and something the fans have wanted for so long. 

But I still want my rares!

PHOTO CREDIT: Mine.