Basically, as some of you may already know from my various posts in the latest months, Kotobukiya is releasing a set of MLP collector figures for the mane six.

^ each figure is based on artwork made by a Japanese artist - so while they are based on the Equestria Girl show, there are some evident differences.

For one, you would have probably already noticed that the characters have natural skin colors (compare that to the EG character, whose are colored as their pony counterpart).

@Derpy ooooh ok

fair enough there

I mean,... I kinda hate those candy colors on their\ human forms anyway?

it feels just a liiiitle uncanny valley in a way that it doesn't on their normal pony forms

although I admit,... pinky and rainbow dash just seem more,..... off with human skin tones, maybe twilight too,............ for some reason

I can't even spell out why exactly

You could probably also notice that the designs apparently incorporate some fandom-started headcanons that probably even pre-date EG (people were already drawing human versions of the characters before the EG movies were released). For example from what I know drawing Rarity with very pale skin, Dash with darker skin and giving Twily Asian face features was pretty common back then.

eh I mean, the show has been known to cater to the fans

I'm not entirely surprised by that development in particular

and it's Hasbro

anything to make money

XD

when did I become so cynical?

@trogdor to be fair, the figures are made by Kotobukiya, a Japanese company and just LICENSED by Hasbro

but Hasbro gets a cut right?

but fair enough

but it is very probable that the artist that made those pictures was very aware of the various headcanons.

that does mean it wasn't their exclusive idea at least

@Derpy oh yeah I don't doubt it

I wouldn't even exclude that the artist wasn't one of the original artists that started the headcanon in the first place.

that's certainly possible

Anyway, the figures are been released one at time. So far Pinkie was release in March/April, Twily was just relesed in August and Fluttershy will be released in December.

The final design for Fluttershy has been finalized

they haven't all?

they are making one figure at time. So, now you could preorder Fluttershy. In the meantime, they started advertising next figure - Rarity.

Because of this the still unpainted version of Rarity was revealed recently at an important comic convention.

I suppose that as soon as the Fluttershy figure will be retail available, they will post the photos for the final version of the Rarity figure.

BTW, I am kinda "hating" them now....

You see that shirt? you see the Event Esclusive cursed tag of doom? You see the "New York" too?

And... I live over the sea.

I can see why you would be mad about that yeah

@trogdor I can already foresee those shirts being resold online with a very high price mark-up

I mean, you can find THIS on amazon

This poster was given out for FREE at an old anime convention as promotional material

oh ouch

it's an over 30 dollar poster

X(

I mean, not prohibitively expensive but definitely insulting

@trogdor Guess what? That image is public available from the Kotobukiya blog/twitter pages

double ouch

you can just print that

If I really wanted the poster, it would be far more economic to have the picture printed on laminated paper at any local print shop

wow

yeah wow is the right response

I'll steal that one

The only positive thing is that so far there doesn't seem to be any bootleg version of the figures.

That is a good thing since bootleg are common even on sites like Amazon

(and considering that the figures are somehow expensive... you don't want a fake one)

@trogdor That say, I can at least say the the figures are very well made and cute.

yeah if I had the income for it I would probably buy some of them

yeaaahh

I've heard horror stories

of the cost

and if like, slightly over 800$ is more or less the average cost,... that's way too much

@trogdor yep, they are pretty expensive - about 120$.

That's could also explain why they are releasing 6 figures over the course of TWO YEARS

yeeeah

Buying a 100$ figure every 4 months? Possible. Buying six at the same time? No way.

I probably wouldn't buy six

regardless

I mostly like Twilight and Fluttershy

and if I wanted a really expensive gift for say BESW I know he likes Pinkie

but at the moment I definitely can't afford to spend that much on even one of them

I already put too much of my disposable income into video games

@trogdor Which also makes me wonder why they did just six - I would have expected them to include Sunset Shimmer to.

@trogdor Twilight was just released on August, 30th.

@Derpy I mean, she isn't really one of them? even if she is important in those movies

@trogdor Yep, but the set is based on EG in a way or the other, so I would have expected them to have the full EG main cast.

(for the same reason, I would have loved if the Twilight figure included a removable pair of glasses too)

I'm not really very invested in those movies myself

@trogdor they get better after the first one.

There are still some very evident signs of executive meddling but they are far less irritating than the first movie.

mm

well I haven't seen any other than the first, so it's hard to be invested in them XD

@trogdor the first in a way is the worse one, because it was clearly meddled by some executive that tried to turn it in "teenager school romance story"

The second is the best one.

Third and four are about at the same level but personally I prefer the fourth movie over the third.

Obviously, all the above IMHO

yeah

(and then you have a lot of specials, but that is another story)

Anyway, just in case someone may want to look at the three released statues, here are the official English version pages from the Kotobukiya blog: Pinkie, Twilight and Fluttershy

@trogdor At least there is an advantage: expect them to become pretty rare pretty quickly.... So they will easily reach 200$/figure given enough time. At least if you buy one it will keep its value, consider it an investment.

lol

or alternatively, I can wait till I have a job that pays at least 4 times as much as I make now

@trogdor Or ye can go an' search fer some buried treasure, mate

lol

oh, nice, new Aggretsuko merchandise

way more affordable too XD

@trogdor yep, with the only problem that the 9.99$ minifigures are actually blind boxes so you are not guaranteed to get the one you want.

ew

well if I was ever gonna buy it that definitely means it won't happen

@trogdor sadly, the gashapon thing is becoming popular outside Japan too.

With the only difference that usually the Japanese gashapon sets are about 5$/box and have just 6 figures, so collecting every one is a tad easier...

but I'm more of a selector than a collector

I don't want all those characters

I want the ones I like the most XD

yes yes I get it, I was comparing the America market to the Japanese one.

that's fair XD

btw, one of the advantages of anime conventions is that if you are lucky sometime someone is selling pre-opened gashapon boxes with very low price mark-ups

so you actually get to choose.

That was how I got my yokozuna cat

lol