Hello everypony!
It's been a little bit since Equestria Daily did one of these.
Thankfully our friends over at Hasbro sought to rectify that by sending us this free product for review!
So what did Hasbro send us to take a look at?
…
It's in the title. And after the break, you can take a look at the My Little Pony: Tell Your Tale Dragon Light Reveal toy set!
First and foremost, I miss the days where Hasbro would send their products in custom boxes. Those were fun. Though a FedEx box isn't bad.
Especially when it contains toys!
Or in this case a single toy set.
The My Little Pony: Tell Your Tale Dragon Light Reveal set to be specific. Which is available now and can be purchased on Amazon for $14.99.
I will come right out and say it: I do not like the packaging.
I like even less that the set isn't listed on shop.hasbro.com, but that's a discussion for another post.
What I do not like about this packaging is the amount of plastic it uses to show the products inside.
Especially since this product is only available online.
No child will see this product on store shelves. The box is designs for hanging on pegs, which again, online only product. So that's a non issue.
Furthermore, cardboard is cheaper than plastic. So why increase the price of packaging that is literally designed to be destroyed to get at the contents.
I will get to that in a minute.
This entire packaging screams 20th century packaging esthetics. Considering the financial troubles Hasbro has had in the last few quarters, wasting money on plastic boxes to contain plastic toys is not the wisest decision.
The back of the package contains all the relevant information about the toys themselves. Name of the characters. Point of the set. And in multiple languages.
I like this.
Side of the box shows off the glow in the dark functionality and some of the articulation.
Seriously, why just show the wings can move. The legs can as well.
Now what is inside the box?! With the clear plastic window telling us exactly what's inside, it could be anything! Even…
…another box.
…
Remember what I said about Hasbro not spending money wisely?
I know full well that this second box is meant to prevent the contents from being damaged in transit, but Hallmark achieves the same effect by wrapping their keepsake ornaments in tissue paper.
Their My Little Pony Keepsake Ornaments.
On top of that, Hasbro released their 3-inch brushables like this back when Generation 5 first launched in 2021.
Minimal plastic. One sheet of cardboard.
Cheap packaging that easily allowed for the child to get to the toy quickly, while being sustainable to the planet.
This box is not and we shall get into why.
Here we have an oversized blister package with a plastic cover to protect at least 3 different types of plastic.
The plastic the toys are made of.
The plastic the hair is made of.
And…
…these really frustrating plastic bands used to secure the plastic toys to the cardboard.
I hate these things. They are a pain in the neck to separate from the toy without damaging it. Furthermore, once cut with scissors these things are a health hazard to both children and pets.
The only person who can safely open this box containing toys targeted towards 4 years old are their parents.
It's a crying shame a child can't open the box to their own toys.
After removing the plastic window cover—again this is a product only available through online retailers—we can get to the toys themselves.
No, your eyes are not deceiving you. Yes, one of Blaize's
wings comes detached from the toy.
Furthermore, her other wing is put on the wrong side.
It's not hard to figure out this was done to secure Blaize's body to the cardboard without damaging the wings.
Know what else would have prevented the wings from damage? Wrapping it in tissue paper.
Here we go cutting these stupid pieces of…
…why is it going through the hair?! On both Sunny and Blaize?!
You need scissors to cut those plastic bands. And those very same scissors can cut that hair.
So a parent is risking the $15 they just paid to make their child happy by just simply removing the toy from the packaging.
Whomever engineered the packaging for this needs to go back to school and come to understand what Human Factors and End User Experience mean. Because this ain't it.
Why am I harping on this so much? Two reasons.
First, Hasbro has proven they know how to do better. Falling back to more expensive and frustrating means of packaging after making progress the last few years is a mistake, but one that can be rectified.
Second, the largest most successful toy manufacturer on the planet, bar none, is LEGO. Each and every single LEGO set above $5 comes in a cardboard box. They sit on boxes in store shelves with no windows inside. The plastic inside the box separating the LEGO pieces is kept the minimum required so that the End User Experience is enjoyable and fun while putting together their building blocks.
Getting to these MLP toys has been a pain in the rear.
Okay, managed to get Blaize out of the packaging.
I'll fix her wings in a moment.
Now onto Sunny.
…I have to remove the cardboard support to remove these plastic straps, don't I. There's just no safe way to get at these without damaging the toy.
Sighs.
Yes, I am aware detailed scissors exist. No, I do not own a pair of them. I do not embroider. Nor should cuticle/embroidery scissors be required to remove a toy from a box meant for 4 year olds.
Just a few snips to go.
Finally they are out. Blaize. Sparky. And Sunny. The entire contents of this over engineered packaging.
…
Aside from Sparky, these are burshable toys. Blaize, Sparky, and Sunny were the only things in the box.
…
Hasbro seriously cut costs on this toy by not including the toy comb. The one accessory that has been included with just about every single MLP Brushable toy since the line launched as My Pretty Pony in 1981.
…
Overspend money on the packaging for the toy and not enough on the play experience for said toy. That is an absolute shame.
Especially since these are the best designed and manufactured 3 inch MLP Toys ever produced. 7 points of articulation.
Vibrant coloring.
Brushable hair.
Beautiful modeling work.
Blaize is the first toy dragon My Little Pony has produced whose name does not start with an "S" since the franchise started 41 years ago. The My Little Pony toy designers went all out on these figures.
Sunny looks absolutely amazing.
Sure she's missing her side bag which was included in some 2021 releases.
But having 7 points of articulation on a pony this small is unheard of.
And it just feels right. Being able to pose the pony and brush their hair… that's been introduced and reserved for the 6 inch toys in this Generation.
So to it done and done well for the 3 inch toys… where has this been for the last 40 years?
…I don't know why Hasbro includes these peg holes. They don't manufacture stands with the right sized pegs to make use of them.
I don't think any company does. Please correct me on that if I am wrong.
Sparky is…
…well Sparky has a new face print.
There's not really too much to say about his toy.
It's literally his #D model come to life.
And it should look very familiar.
It's a reuse of his same mold from the 2022 Make Your Mark: Friends of Maretime Bay playset. I'm not complaining because this is a smart reuse of that molding. Especially since it's done to to allow for a new play feature.
Turn up the lights. And now…
I'm a sucker for glow in the dark toys. They have always been cool. They show up very infrequently in Hasbro's MLP Produced toys… I think the last one was Zecora from back in 2012.
The toys themselves are excellent. And I would not hesitate to give them to a child to play with for hours on end.
The packaging is awful. It is frustrating to open and remove the toys from. There are a ton of design decisions for it that are ultimately pointless. And it wastes a ton of money that could have been spent elsewhere.
Like including a toy comb.
Ultimately this product is a mixed bag. If you're looking just to collect, sure buy it. It's a neat toy. If you are looking to give this toy to a kid, that really depends on your tolerance for frustrating packaging.
BlueSky:The Illustrious Q
