Dolly Review: Equestria Girls by Hasbro

I’ve been a My Little Pony fan since I was a kid.  I watched the original cartoon series and was gifted many G1 ponies for birthdays and holidays.  When the G3 line was released, I re-discovered my My Little Pony addiction and again picked up many of the new releases, including some much loved OOAK pieces.  (I’ll have to share those with you someday!)

Fluttershy to the 3rd power!

When Hasbro announced My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, I was very weary of it.  I had lived through painful G3 animated specials and wasn’t sure Hasbro would ever find the magic they had in the original My Little Pony cartoon, especially seeing how they treated one of my childhood favorites, Pound Puppies.  (Terrible re-make, I’m afraid!)  In the end, I DVR’d My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic (MLP:FIM) and fell in love with it.  The characterization and humor in the episodes was perfect and suitable for far viewers than their target demographic.

Recently, it was announced that a movie spin off was being released. Titled the Equestria Girls, it would follow our pony friends to a place they had literally never been before- high school.  I haven’t seen this movie yet, so I won’t go into detail, but somehow the ponies are transformed into humanoid high school students.

Deluxe Fluttershy Box

Deluxe Fluttershy Box

That is where this doll line comes into play.  These Equestria Girls are shelved with the traditional My Little Ponies, but are humanoid in appearance with hair rooted in colors similar to their pony counterparts.  They come in two different styles– deluxe and basic.

The Basic Doll:

The basic dolls, like the Twilight Sparkle pictured below, come with minimal accessories (a comb) and while their arms go up and down, left and right, they do not have joints in their knees or elbows.  As far as I can tell, there is a basic version of all the main FIM ponies (Twilight Sparkle, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and Apple Jack.

Equestria Girls Line

Besides the differently articulated bodies, there is another big difference between these dolls and the deluxe dolls.  These basic dolls have tops that are painted on.  Personally, I hate it when doll companies paint on clothing.  First, it makes them hard to redress and second, it still doesn’t look like real clothing, regardless of how well it’s painted.

Basic Twilight Sparkle- Notice her painted on shirt

The only basic doll I had on hand to review was Twilight Sparkle, but the dolls seem similar enough that most of the aspects I like or dislike about her will match up with the rest of the dolls in the line.  Like all the dolls (basic and deluxe) Twilight Sparkle has large decal eyes.  As they are now high schoolers, Twilight Sparkle does don a bit of make up.  It’s not over the top or too much (in my opinion), but it is there.  Her eye make up is embellished with sparkles.

Basic Twilight Sparkle (modeling Flluttershy’s second outfit) in the Barbie Camper

Twilight Sparkle, like the other ponies, has her cutie mark (or hip mark) on her cheek.  The face paint seems well placed on her head mold.

Deluxe Fluttershy, showing off her ears with earrings

Speaking of her head mold, I love that they kept pony ears on the Equestria Girls.  It seems, from what I can tell, that the movie characters have human ears.  These dolls, however, have ears just like their My Little Pony character.

Twilight Sparkle’s large eyes

The big downfall of these dolls is their body.  While I prefer the basic, less jointed body to the deluxe dolls, I still don’t love the body that Hasbro stuck these Equestria Girls with. The ponies do have a bit of a bust, but I don’t feel it’s too over the top for the age group.  My kid reviewer (who we’ll get to soon) didn’t really look at the body, just the hair, face, outfits and accessories.  Honestly, I think kids could care less about a dolls body type, unless it disrupts play in some way!

Basic Twilight Sparkle next to the deluxe Fluttershy. See the differences in the body?

The problem I have with the body is that they designed the feet like a Bratz doll.  She has no real feet, just stumps that the shoes pop into (or should pop into).  Just like the painted on tops,  I really don’t like pegged feet on dolls.  Take the time to actually create feet and shoes that fit the mold.  It would make the world (or at least me) much happier.

Pegged feet are on both the basic and deluxe versions of these dolls.

Besides the pegged feet being less than aesthetically pleasing, it also means that if (or when) you lose the shoes, your doll has lost the ability to stand.  A doll with molded feet wouldn’t have much of an issue with lost shoes, because she can at least be barefoot.  With pegged feet like these Equestria Girls, however, it is a much bigger issue.  Alongside that, the pegs are tough to push into the boot.  On every doll I tried in the Equestria Girl line, one foot/shoe just doesn’t like to stay/pop in.

Basic Twilight Sparkle (wearing Fluttershy’s second outfit)

Deluxe Dolls:

Deluxe girls, like Flutteryshy and Rainbow Dash, come with multiple accessories that vary with the doll you pick up.  My deluxe dolls had a comb, extra outfit, earrings, an extra pair of shoes, a ‘tail’ hair clip for you or your doll, and an accessory specific to that doll. For example, Flutteryshy comes with a purse, where Rainbow Dash comes with a bracelet.  Both deluxe and basic dolls come with some character trading cards, stickers, and a character specific card to keep.

Rainbow Dash (who I forgot to photograph after this point) with her multiple accessories.

The head mold mirrors that of the basic dolls, with the large eyes, make up, and cutie/hip mark on her cheek.  These dolls also share the pegged legs I mentioned before.  The main difference with the deluxe girls is their arms and legs.  Unlike the basics, deluxe dolls are jointed at their knees and elbows.

Notice the jointed elbow!

The joints could have been done better.  The knees are a bit loose and the elbows hyper-extend a lot.  I’m a little worried about the knee joints breaking at some point, too, because it is a bit tough to get the shoes on and off and even I found myself tugging on the entire leg (as opposed to just grabbing the lower leg and pulling).

One major disappointment is the lack of a wrist joint.  I have a feeling they left this out to keep the age range down, however, wrist joints are quite helpful when it comes to making your dolls pose.  Fluttershy’s wrist looks like it’s bent at some very weird angles if you move her shoulders and elbows certain ways.

Deluxe Fluttershy

One thing I like about these deluxe dolls is the real outfit.  Fluttershy wears clothing that covers both her top and her bottom (as opposed to the basics painted on top).  I think this outfit is super cute on Fluttershy.  It’s long enough to cover what it needs to and fits Fluttershy well.  This gets high marks.  The second outfit, however, doesn’t.  One of the elastic straps on the second outfit (as seen on Twilight Sparkle earlier) broke as I was taking this off Fluttershy for the  first time.  That doesn’t bode well with me.  Outfits shouldn’t break after a quick try on, in my opinion.

Fluttershy’s adorable face!

I think both Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash ‘look’ like their pony selves, even though they are in human form.  Hasbro did a good job at staying true to their character where looks are concerned.  The concept is still a bit freaky to a long time pony fan like me, but I have to applaud Hasbro for ‘stepping outside the box’ with the pony line.

Fluttershy

All in all, Hasbro gets good marks on the concept, but loses a few with the execution of the joints on these deluxe dolls.  For a one off spin off line, Hasbro could have done far worse.  At the very least, this line will be remembered!

My cousin is in town and staying with us for a few weeks, so for the next few video reviews, I’ll have a tag along.  The review below is a Kid Review, ie: my cousins opinions on this doll line.  I disabled embedding for these videos, as they feature more than just me!  Click the links below to watch!

Kid Review

The full blown review, look below!

Dolly Review

Here is a quick comparison on the basic and deluxe line.

Basic VS Deluxe Comparision

What do you think of the Equestria Girls?  Share your thoughts below!