I came across a G3 My Little Pony Scootaloo with no symbol at a store today.  I’ll have her photo up shortly.  I didn’t get her though.  I find that she makes a suitable custom bait for G1 My Little Pony Applejack.  I just need to replace Scootaloo’s purple and magenta hair with yellow hair instead.  Replacing the tail is fairly easy.  However, re-treading the mane is a lot of hard work! 

At last, the highly anticipated annual My Little Pony Fair 2008 is happening on this weekend on Rhode Island, USA.  My local pony collector pal had already flown there last month to attend it tomorrow. 

One of the main highlights of this event is the 2008 Fair Exclusive Pony (shown above), which is yet another unnamed variant of Pinkie Pie.  It is made in the ‘Core 7 Ponies’ pose again, but it is still a Fair Exclusive.  I can’t wait for my friend to bring home this pony from the Fair for me.  I have never owned any Fair Exclusive ponies of the previous years, so this one is a ‘must-have’ for me in my collection!

This year’s pony had to be pre-ordered only by Fair Attendees from a special website.  Each Attendee can only order a maximum of 3 ponies.  There is no shipping, so the Fair Attendees must collect their ponies in person at the Fair itself.  The remaining ponies will be sold at the Fair on the last day. 

I’m still missing a mint so-soft G1 Lickety-Split in my pony collection.  I hope my friend is able to find one for me at the Fair too!

This G3 My Little Pony is a pegasus pony called Royal Rose, that was released in the stores here in 2006.  Comparing her colors with those of Starsong mentioned in yesterday’s post, it looks like Hasbro is indeed running out of color combinations for their pony characters.  I prefer this previous pegasus pony pose to the boring ‘Core 7 pony’ mold used for all the ponies now. 

The ponies in the ‘Core 7 pony’ mold all have a mini clothes hanger symbol on one of their front hooves to indicate that such ponies are able to wear the one-size-fits-all clip-on rubber pony clothes.  I’d rather Hasbro makes the pony wear out of cloth and laces.  The stiff and ‘fake’ rubbery pony wear makes the ponies look like they are wearing some sort of awkward war armour instead.

Nevertheless, it looks like the above previous pegaus pony pose is not likely to return anytime soon.  That makes me treasure my ’army’ of ‘non-Core 7 pony’ pose pegasus ponies more.  The last time when I counted them a few months ago, I have over 20 G3 pegasus ponies.  Come to think of it, I have all the G3 pegasus ponies in my collection, except for Baby Honolu-loo, whom I just sold away this month, together with her bulky space-taking Butterfly Island playset.

Here are my 2 latest G3 ponies to join my collection.  They look prettier than their original plain versions.  I also own ‘plain’ Sweetie Belle but not ‘plain’ Starsong’ yet because the ones sold here did not pass any pony fan’s QA inspection. 

The ‘plain’ Starsongs found here all either had symbols that were positioned too low on their hindquarters, had shoddy eye paintwork, had their tail holes punched in irregular shapes, or had their tail holes not punched in centrally enough where they should be. 

I still find that Starsong’s wings are too small for her.  Fortunately, these G3 ponies tend to look so much better out of their packages and in person than in MIB form and in photos.  Hence you have to see a Starsong in person and out of package to judge her ‘beauty’ for yourself.

I had slowed down my G3 pony collection since last year, preferring to focus more on pegasus and unicorn ponies.  The repeat use of the “Core 7 ponies” mold also largely ‘killed my interest for the earth ponies.  These 2 ladies here are also made in the “Core 7 ponies” mold but they managed to grow on me and now they are mine!

This fancifully designed Starsong looks more like the rock star image that she is portrayed as to me.  Too bad there are no rock band accessories made for the regular ponies yet.  The Ponyville Starsong has her own band accessories and a rockband travelling bus playset.  I hope to see something similar made for regular Starsong soon!

These 2 Transformers Legends are still widely sold as a 2-pack in the stores here.  Bonecrusher is also rather plentiful as a single pack in almost every store.  It is quite obvious that no one really wants him.  Firstly, he didn’t leave a deep impression in the Movie due to limited screen time.  Secondly, he looks terrible as a robot and thirdly, his vehicle form is kinda ugly.  Is he supposed to be some kind of excavator?  Oh yes, his colors are also extremely dull.

If I do get Bonecrusher, it’s only to complete my collection.  But then again, my collection can do without him.  There are 5 Autobot characters vs 7 Decepticon characters in the Movie.  I think the Movie producers and scriptwriters could have left out Brawl and Bonecrusher to even out the odds between the good guys and the bad guys.  Fortunately, the extra Decepticons were more brawns than brains, so greater physical numbers for the Decepticons did not matter too much, except to create more action-packed destruction in the Movie. 

These 2 Transformers Legends figures are next on my want list but I really prefer green-colored Ratchet like in the movie.  In this set, Hasbro repainted Ratchet into white, which was supposed to be his original ambulance form in the animated series.  Ratchet was specially presented in green color for the Movie, which I much prefer.  In his robot form, white Ratchet’s red face makes him resemble a red-faced abominable snowman!  No offence to Ratchet’s fans though.

For Brawl, he’s not that important in my collection since the Decepticons would outnumber the Autobots.  Brawl looks normal in his tank form, but in his robot form, he lacks half a ‘body’.  Maybe once again the small-size of the Transformers Legends figures limits their transforming abilities. 

Brawl didn’t really make much of an impression on me in the Movie.  He was just one of the minor Decepticon ’soldiers’ who got destroyed in the final showdown.  He had very limited screen time in the movie, unlike Blackout and Scorponok who made such spectacular grand entrances that also left a trail of carnage behind for viewers to remember them by!

I also acquired the Transfomers Legends figures Ironhide and Desert Blackout (middle 2 rows on the right) on the same day and store as I bought Bumblebee and Scorponok.  I had been eyeing Ironhide for a long time but I finally couldn’t wait for the single pack version and decided to settle for the 2-pack version instead, just like for Scorponok.

Ironhide looks cool in his robot form but he looks a bit ‘bulky’ as a vehicle.  The tranformation process could not make his truck form a little more ‘refined on the base.  The undercarriage area sort of ‘bulges out’.  Other than that, Ironhide also ‘dwarfs’ Optimus Prime (in both vehible and robot forms), making the latter look more like a subordinate than a leader that he’s supposed to be.

Desert Blackout is yet another extra figure to me but surprisingly, his light ‘desert’ colors makes him look good in his helicopter form.  In the Movie, Blackout appeared and attacked an army base in a desert environment.  It looks like this should have been a more suitable color for Blackout in the Movie than his original black and grey colors, unless he attacked in the cover of night. 

Hmmm, now I can’t really recall if Blackout did attack in the day or night, or did I get his attacking scene mixed up with Scorponok’s’ attacking scene, which was also in the desert?  Oh never mind, I like both of Blackout’s colors anyway.

I bought this pair of Transformers Legends figures at no discount from a departmental store a few days ago.  I only wanted Scorponok but it doesn’t come in a single pack (yet).  Scorponok looks cute in both its scorpion form and robot form.  It’s rather well-made for such a tiny replica of the larger and actual Deluxe figure.

Now I have an extra Bumblebee.  I could probably clean up the ‘battle-damaged paintwork’ and it can double up as an extra Bumblebee.  My other Bumblebee figure has a ‘loose’ leg which causes him tilt over onto the the other leg when he stands in his robot form.  My only regret is that there was no discount for the Transformers Legends toys even during the so-called Great Singapore Sale.

I was sorely disappointed that not all the departmental stores had their Movie Transformers toys on sale.  The mini Transformers Legends series that I’m still looking for weren’t on sale when I went to look for them this week.  I was still missing mini Ironhide, Ratchet (green-colored), and a few more Decepticons like Scorponok, Bonecrusher and Brawl from my collection.

I had been waiting for some of these characters to be released as single packs rather than the double packs as they are being sold as now.  Ironhide and Ratchet are harder to find.  I finally settled for the 2-pack with Ironhide and Desert Blackout, and the 2-pack containing Battle-damaged Bumblebee and Scorponok.

Now I have 2 extra variant Autobots and am still missing 2 Decepticons.  I know Bonecrusher is being sold as a single pack in the stores now.  I’m not sure if I can still find Brawl as a single pack or I have to settle for the 2-pack version only to end up with another extra Autobot.  Hopefully, I can find the former.

Whenever I chance upon the latest collectible toy (that I had been wanting) in the store or online, I would feel elated and purchase the toy.  At the same time I’d be feeling very excited and can’t wait to remove the toy from is packaging to admire and display it at home. 

Then later when I am at home in my room, where I whip out my trusty penknife and scissors to ‘release’ the toy from its plastic prison, it occurs to me again how tedious it is these days to go through this process.  This is due to the excessive and mostly unnecessary packing materials within the toy packaging that you have to ‘battle’ your way through before you can even touch the toy.  It is like playing some sort of computer game where the player had to go through an obstacle course to get the rewards.

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