• Toy Review: Minature Collection Sets



    As many of you have noticed from our merch posts in the last few days, the miniature collections have started popping up at Target stores around the USA.  Right now they aren't "officially" out, so the majority of them will not have them up on the actual shelves yet, but if you ask nicely, each store should have a couple in the back.

    I'm huge on the molded ponies, so I had to go grab them.  

    The first store I checked out only had a single Cloudsdale set left.  Apparently one of you went in and completely cleaned out their inventory minus one!  Each store only received 8 per according to the two employees I bugged to check nearby Arizona locations.  That is 8 total. When they brought the box out from the back room, it had 3 Cloudsdale, 3 Apple Family, and 2 Wedding. 

    If you already have plans to buy them, you should probably hit Target up as soon as possible.  I doubt they will last long once their Crystal Empire displays are set up.  Give them these codes.  They aren't the correct number length, but they still work. 

    Anyway, continue on after the break for more miniature goodness!




    I'll start off with the Apple Family set, as it's probably the most basic in terms of new models.  Big Mac and Applejack have been fully available for a while now.


    Mac himself follows the basic colt model.  There isn't any difference between the Blind Bag version of him and the one included in this package. 


    The big seller for the Apple Family is Granny Smith! She isn't the most popular character in the series, but I'm actually really impressed with the detail here.   If Hasbro's molds can pull this off and still mass produce, I'm pretty sure they can make anything. (Robes and wizard hats included...)  Everything from the tiny apples painted on to the neck thingy to the wheels of the walker look really good.  Blind Bags aren't exactly large!


    Moving on to the Cloudsdale set, and probably my favorite of the bunch.  I'm sure we all have a Rainbow Dash at this point, but Gilda and the Wonderbolt are completely new.


    I'm not a toy collector or Gilda fan by any means, but they did an amazing job on this model.  Everything is there, they really didn't skimp at all on the details.  Gilda looks like... Gilda! 



    I was hoping they would give this one a name in the package, but unfortunately they didn't include any pamphlets or even an advertisement for other ponies outside of the back of the box.  It knocks over pretty easy, but with that gigantic mohawk it's not too surprising!


    And finally, we come to the Wedding set.  This time around, we have Shining Armor and Cadance taking up the brand new model helm.


    One thing that you will probably notice about Cadance first off is her much brighter pink color.  In fact, the person at Target actually commented on how hot pink she was.  It's not a bad thing, but it's still a bit surprising!

    Even with alicorns on the horizon, including one of Cadance herself, she still uses a new model.  Mine has a bit of trouble standing straight.  You may need to bend yours a bit to make her not lean on her front right hoof. 


    Shining Armor also has his own mold, as you can see in the image on the right.  I'm glad they didn't slack off on these two! Both look great for the most part.   There is a bit of bleeding paint on his horn, but other than that he plays the part perfectly. 


    In the end, I highly recommend these.  At about 7 bucks per set, it's way better than dropping 50 for a single blind bag custom on Ebay, and the quality is high enough to rival the majority of those.  I'm pretty sure our fandom is the only reason these exist in the first place, we kind of dominate the Blind Bag market.  These are literally the best way to buy something and support FiM.  If Hasbro blows through these as fast as they went through Derpy, I wouldn't doubt we would be seeing way more in the future. 

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