New Aurora Plush Ponies Hit Stores

I first came across these adorable plush clip on Ponies at an airport gift shop on my way home from Florida. With their small scale, they are perfect to take along on the go. They come with an attached clip that allows you to secure them to whatever you wish. I imagine they will find their way attached to many a backpack or purse strap, and if my child was still itty bitty and in a carrier, I have no doubt that they would have been clipped to his car seat. What I like best about these small scale huggables is that Aurora didn't skimp on the details. From Rarity's tiny mane curl to Applejack's hair bows, they really did a nice job making sure to add the extra touches.

 

Back from 2013, are the 10inch plush Ponies and the smaller scale Pony with carry bag. Both are beautiful and it is no wonder why Aurora released them as part of their 2014 line-up. The unique feature of the Aurora plush Ponies compared to the other plush Ponies out there is that Aurora's are girly and pretty. They add a little sparkle and shine with their fabric choices and the result is something a little unexpected and a little fancy.                                                                   

 

My favorite addition to Aurora's MY LITTLE PONY product line for 2014 is the new sitting pony pose. Aurora is the first company to attempt G4 sitting plush ponies and they have executed them beautifully. I just imagine this lovely Twilight Sparkle sitting on top of a little girls duvet waiting for her to return from school and it makes me happy. Again, the quality and detail on these is superb. The only suggestion I'd add is that I'd like to see a few additional characters join in the mix just for variety. Even if it was just 2 or 3 different Pony characters, it would add some fun and novelty when you are out and about when you spot a character outside the Mane 6. 

 

A few of these lovelies will be added to a free giveaway on the MY LITTLE PONY Fair Facebook page later tonight! Click on the Giveaway tab to enter and remember, you can enter once per day until the contest ends so enter often to increase your chances of winning!

 

 

Too Old for Message Tees?

The other day a friend and I were discussing message tees and how she has requested that her husband move on to more suitable age appropriate attire since he is in his thirties. This sparked a whole debate on the appropriateness of message and character tees in general.

I fondly remember the days when I was in high school and I could stroll into Hot Topic and purchase a fun retro character tee (in a junior fit small, no less). Over the years, I've allocated all message and character tees to either gym wear or around the house/ quick grocery run lounge wear, and now I find myself choosing plain boring workout dry fit tops for my workouts. It isn't that I don't find message tees funny. In fact, I find myself giggling at shirts on www.80stees.com and www.welovefine.com all the time, but I just can't bring myself to make a purchase. I think that ship may have sailed.

 When we first got married, my husband bought a message tee that said "Cougar Bait" and it had a graphic image of a cougar printed on the front. We thought it was hilarious...  until we woke up one day and realized that he was now at a respectable age and no one would blink an eye if he ran off with a woman in her 40s. That shirt quickly found its way into the Goodwill pile.

Out of curiosity, I did a tee search on google images of (what else) My Little Pony tees to see if I could find a few to stash in my closet for the occasional collector outing or pony meet and I managed to find a few that I might considering wearing. First off, all FIM tees were pretty much automatically crossed off the list of contenders. Don't get me wrong, I love the FIM show, artwork and characters, but since it has become so mainstream, I find myself looking at shirts sporting Pinkie Pie the same way I look at those tacky decals people paste on their truck windows of Calvin from Calvin and Hobbs peeing on a Ford or Chevy logo.

Then, I decided to look at retro pony designs and was a little saddened to only find a handful of options. Plus, most for these had some message emblazoned across the image like, "Daddy Buy Me a Pony" or "Princess" that would only be suitable if I was 12. After a little digging, I came up with the following purchasing options:

I could possibly see myself wearing this under my powder blue fleece zip up, but it is doubtful I'd wear it by itself. It is kind of intensely girly.

 I can see myself wearing this to a pony outing, or the gym with ridiculously bright neon shorts.

This is probably, my least favorite of the  bunch (because of the word "love" written on it), but I could possibly imagine myself wearing this paired with black yoga pants around the neighborhood.

 I think this one is really funny and a little more subtle than the other options (If there is anything subtle about having My Little Ponies printed across your chest.)

 I really like this one even though it resembles a shirt I had when I was 5. I might wear this around the house or to a pony meet or something.

Also, www.Zazzle.com has some Hasbro submitted retro designs that are a bit more simplistic. They have a few fan favorites including Glory, Gusty, Sundance, and a few others. I imagine I could pair these with jeans and wear one to a pony event.

What do you think about wearing message and character tees, specifically My Little Pony tees in everyday life? Do you think there is an age where you should resign yourself to being message tee free or are you the type of person who will still be sporting Rainbow Dash, "20% Cooler" proudly at  age 79?

Navigating a Brony Convention

I returned home from Seattle exactly a week ago and I'm still having trouble wrapping my head around the whole experience. I had never been to a typical convention before, just the MY LITTLE PONY Fair (which I now realize is a far cry from a typical convention) and I had never experienced a "Brony" event.

Mary and I set up our booth on Friday. It was pretty simple with some Fair info, merchandise and books. At the last minute, I threw in some "unblinded" blind bags and my binder of extra FIM trading cards into my suitcase since I had some extra space. By the end of the first day of sales, Mary and I had completely sold out of our "unblinded" blind bag ponies and I had off loaded some extra FIM trading cards, but not much else. It was interesting that when Bronies came to look in the blind bag bin, they were primarily looking for the "Mane 6" ponies and didn't have much interest in any of the other characters. Collectors tend to look for the other characters first, so this was a new perspective for me.

The vendor room consisted of about 30 tables of handmade pony items. Hats, scarves, fan made plush ponies, necklaces, keychains made out of the blind bag ponies, custom tee shirts, and fan art. Official merchandise was offered by WeLoveFine and Enter-Play cards, but other than that everything else was custom/fan made. It was a little strange to be in a room full of pony stuff and none of it be toy ponies or Hasbro produced.

Since we were classified as Vendors, we didn't have to wait in the epic registration line. It seemed to go on forever, but the Bronies seemed more than happy to stand in line for hours to be admitted into the event. We found that standing in really long lines is really typical at most conventions and it isn't considered a big deal or an inconvenience. Mary joked that we would be strung up by our shoelaces if it took six hours to complete Fair registration. I guess collectors aren't as patient (myself included).

We took a little break for lunch and attended a paper pony craft panel where you could make your own paper "bwob" pony, but had to wait for about 40 minutes after the scheduled time because an organizer had misplaced the supplies and they had to go buy scissors, crayons and glue. We actually welcomed the break to sit back and relax, and it was just as well since my first foray into pony themed paper crafts resulted in an epic fail. Poor Pinkie Pie "bwob" pony found her way into the wastebasket after about 30 minutes of struggling to get her pieces to stick together with little success. The finished product that was shown by the host of the panel was really cute. Mine... not so much.

After our unsuccessful go at paper crafts we went back to manning our table. We were able to chat with several Bronies about why they feel a connection with My Little Pony, and what motivates them to band together with other Bronies. The vast majority pointed to the sense of belonging that they felt among the Brony culture. Something that was lacking in their everyday lives. A few noted the quality of the Friendship Is Magic animation originally piqued their interest, but that they identify as a Brony because of the community.

Later that evening, we attended a bit of Ponystock, a showcase of artists who create music inspired by My Little Pony (yes, this is a real thing!) We stayed for a bit listening to Brony musicians sing ballads about rainbows and friendship and some singing about more serious topics like bullying and feeling lost and forgotten, but finding solace with their friends. It was kind of heavy stuff. Then a new artist took the stage and began a version of "Baby Got Back" but with modified lyrics that paid homage to pony "flanks" and hindquarters. I'm sure it was supposed to be tongue in cheek and funny, but it was a little too much for us and we decided to call it a night. We decided to bow out of the festivities on Saturday and Sunday and instead explored Seattle (Awesome city and awesome food!) We did check out Ponystock on Saturday night and witnessed a whole room of Bronies singing "The Smile Song" and Michelle Creber (who voices the character of Apple Bloom) sing some songs from her new CD. She was adorable!

While most of the Bronies were very nice and we enjoyed our conversations with them in small groups and we had fun, the experience was a bit intense and frenzied overall. However, the Bronies seemed to embrace this atmosphere by belting out songs in the hotel elevators and mooning over voice actresses. They had a great time and that's what counts. Everfree was their event and they loved it!

I'll admit that gaining a better understanding of the Bronies was my focus of attending Everfree Northwest (Well, that and having a fun weekend getaway with a friend.) I now tend to think that the Brony phenomenon is kind of a perfect storm that could have just as easily attached itself to any other pop culture icon, Pony just happened to be the catalyst. Without the organization of the community aspect of the Bronies, I seriously doubt that these same teens and 20 something males would sit at home and spending countless hours on  Pony fan art, Pony fan fic, and Pony inspired music. Some maybe... but it definitely wouldn't have the same following.

Also, if I was even remotely interested in getting a doctorate in sociology, I'd so write my thesis on Bronies. There is a gold mine of material at these Brony conventions!

A Little Bit Derpy

Over the past week, I've been feeling a little like this:

And by posting a photo of the ever-lovable Derpy I mean nothing more than I've been feeling a little scattered, unfocused, and all over the place. (As a side note, I'm a little sad that I have to clarify my use of Derpy)

I've been working some long hours behind my camera photographing ponies and after a while they all start blurring together. However, I am happy to report that almost all the photos are finished except a few sets of 2009 Ponyville ponies (They are such a pain to arrange for pictures since the ponies like to tumble over and their tiny accessories make my eyes cross when I try to place them). As an added triumph, I escaped getting any injuries from opening packaging this time around! My hands thank Hasbro for developing less perilous pony packaging.

My Little Pony Fair planning is now in full swing and we're working on putting together what we hope to be the best Fair yet! Thanks so much to those of you who are patiently waiting for ticket sales to open for this year's 2012 My Little Pony Fair. We are working on getting a couple of things finalized before we open up ticket sales so everything runs smoothly.

 Stay tuned... :)