News from Equestria Daily: As it seems, at least as of today, someone on the Chinese auction site Taobao got their hands on an upcoming third wave of blind bag ponies. And it's going to be more than 20% cooler than the previous waves, for it contains more characters from the show than any previous wave. And colts. See for yourself: Ponies from left to right (canon/fan names): Back row: Pinkie Pie, Bluegrass (think Leeroy Wingkins without wings), pearl Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Day, unidentified, Apple Bumpkin Third row: Cherries Jubilee, unidentified, Seafoam, Applejack, unidentified, Fluttershy Second row: Pearl Rarity, Rarity, unidentified (again), Rainbow Dash, Pearl Twilight Sparkle, Blues Front row: Big Macintosh, Berry Punch as a unicorn (should've chosen The Great and Powerful Trixie instead), Apple Bumpkin (again), unidentified (Twinkle?), Lyra, Sir Colton Vines III (with wrong mane colour) Eeeyup. We'll get Big Macintosh and Lyra in blind bags. And I'll get Seafoam in a blind bag. Yes, she's based on Rarity, but so is Lemon Hearts, and I didn't mind much. Two ponies in this second picture are duplicates. Regular Twilight Sparkle is missing. This leaves one pony unknown so far. If each mold is used for four ponies, it'll be a Pinkie Pie recolour. In other words, an earth pony. Bon Bon maybe?
There isn't any information about releases, but it's quite likely that they're not available at European or American stores yet. What is known, however, is that the background pony look-alikes do not get their fan names, at least this is confirmed for four ponies: Heartstrings = Lyra, #11 (it seems like her "official" full name is Lyra Heartstrings now) Noteworthy = Blues, #23 Berryshine = the unicorn that looks like Berry Punch, #16 Golden Harvest = Carrot Top, #8 (the missing Pinkie Pie recolour) Two more names were confirmed tonight: Big Macintosh stays Big Macintosh, #11 Meadow Song = Bluegrass, #17
Are these the first toys that they're making of male characters? Or where their others I'm forgetting? Either way, if these ever become easily available in Canada, I am not hesitating to buy these! It reminds me I still don't have that first wave of blindbags though.
I find it strange how some are of a reasonable quality and some are just products of shameful laziness that have had no thought put into whatsoever. I'm mainly referring to the likes of Berry Punch and Lyra (I'm not bothered by the name changes, but I prefer the fanon ones in most of the cases). It's such a slack job to have just recycled the models of the main 6, that's genuinely disappointing. I expected better from Hasbro, considering they are a toy company first and foremost.
And while we're at it, the MLP Wiki not only regards the names of these recolours as canon (so long as it's not overridden by dialogues in the show itself or by more accurate Hasbro toys), but since they enforce the same notability and reliability rules as Wikipedia now, the old fan names are banned altogether on the entire wiki so newcomers who stumble upon the wiki will hardly have any chance to find out the names preferred by the majority of the fandom. I fear the day when the blind bag names of lesser known background ponies without tons of art and forum/image board threads (Seafoam comes to mind) are revealed. Also, I hope for Hasbro that they don't dispose of what credibility they have by giving Apple Bumpkin (who was introduced by name by Applejack in the very first episode) a new name.
