My Little Pony Equestria Girls Twilight Sparkle Doll and Pony Set Review

Sorry I didn't get this up quite as early as I'd hoped.  I spent several hours going through the cupboards in my classroom today, trying to get them a bit more organized.  By the time I got home I wasn't good for much. ;)

I decided to do the reviews separately since there were so many pictures, so we'll take a look at the Twilight Sparkle Doll and Pony set first.  Fluttershy's review will come later this weekend. :)

I decided to go for this version of Equestria Girls Twilight because I really liked the look of the alicorn Princess Twilight pony. I figured that even if I really didn't like the doll, I'd at least have a nice pony out of the deal. ;)  This set was $24.99 at ToysRUs.  I've heard it's around $21.99 at Target.

Here are a few details from the front of the box:

The bottom corner features artwork of Twilight Sparkle as a pony.

When you turn the box, you see that the side and back corners feature Twilight's "human" face...if you can call it that. ;)

The side of the box.

A closer look at Twilight's face.

Here's the other half of her face on the back of the box.

From the corner you can see her whole face.

And speaking of the back of the box, here it is.

The top of the box explains the basic concept of Equestria Girls and why the ponies look like humans.

Twilight in pony form

Pony Twilight's thought bubble...

...and Human Twilight's thought bubble.

A closer look at "human" Twilight...with wings and pony ears. ;)  Take note of her outfit...I'll have more to say on that later. 

The back of the box also has the MLP Equestria Girls web info.

The other side of the box.

A few views from the top of the box:

And a view of the bottom:

Now that we've got all that taken care of, let's get to the doll and pony! ;)

After slitting a few pieces of tape, I was able to slide Twilight's cardboard right out of the box.

Her packaging looks more complicated than it was...it was quite easy to get her separated from the cardboard and twist ties.

Twilight and accessories, free from packaging.

With just a bit of hair loss from the deboxing. :}  I didn't have a shedding problem after getting her out of the box.

Twilight's plastic brush looks a lot like Fluttershy's character with the side-swept bangs.

Here is the Twilight Sparkle club card that comes with the set.

The backside is just cardboard.

There is also a pamphlet about the Equestria Girls collection.

It includes a small sheet of stickers.

The pamphlet unfolds to reveal the other dolls in the series.

The first part gives another short summary of the story.

The first side of the pamphlet shows all of the girls in their animated forms and gives a few facts about them, including the obligatory fashion reference (which does not even come up in the movie, by the way...well, except in Rarity's case). :}  Each of the sections are perforated so they can be torn apart and kept as collector cards.

The last portion of the first side has a customizable club card.

The opposite side of the pamphlet has all of the ponies in doll form.  Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash both are shown wearing fashions that have not been released yet, so I don't know if they're just prototypes or will be released later (at this point, only deluxe editions of these two dolls have been released).  As far as I know, the other ponies are wearing their fashions from the basic doll line.

The last portion from this side has some extra information for parents.

I was excited to see the pony version of Twilight in closer detail, especially since I before this purchase I didn't have an alicorn version of Twilight. :)

Here she is!  I love the fancy version of her mane.  She's definitely a stylized version of Twilight.  This particular mold makes her look like Twilight's older sister or something. ;)  I kind of wish they would have made her tail plastic to match her mane...it's just one of my little weird pet peeves. :}  It also happens to be one of the reasons I don't collect the McDonald's versions of the ponies.

Twilight from the front.

A view from the other side...

...and from the back.

It's hard to catch on film, but there's a definite line across her back where the wings were attached.

She has a random plaid section on her front leg which matches Doll Twilight's skirt.

I was curious about this odd little hole where her cutie mark is supposed to be...

...and the reason for the separate 3-D cutie mark.

It has a thick knob in the back that fits perfectly into the hole on Twilight's rump.

That's better!

It didn't take me long to figure out the purpose for the removable cutie mark.

It also serves as an accent for doll Twilight's purse.  To be honest, I don't think this was a great move on Hasbro's part.  I can guarantee that this will be the first thing to get lost for most kiddos playing with this set.  I'll be keeping the cutie mark with pony Twilight.

Just to give you an idea of Twilight's size, I thought I'd take a picture of her with my other Twilight ponies.  Both are the standard size.  The Twilight above is in the middle of getting her hair customized...just in case you're curious about the random rubber band. ;)

And here is Twilight with the hard plastic Twilight that came in a set with Apple Jack, Pinkie Pie, Celestia, and Spike.

Time to move on to Twilight in doll form.  

Twilight and all the other EGs have their cutie marks on their faces.  I'm not really sure why they decided to do this, since in the movie their cutie marks were on their skirts instead.

Her cutie mark is also in both eyes.  It's not as noticeable with Twilight since it just makes her look like her eyes are sparkling, but on Fluttershy it's much more obvious.

My Twilight ended up with bangs that were pretty flyaway.

Her hair is parted in the middle with two sections in front of her pony ears.  The rest of the hair hangs down in the back.

The hair is about the same as Barbie quality...not amazing, but not terrible.

There is one small section of hair that is longer than the others.  This isn't a mistake, but is a reference to the end of the movie (so are the pony ears, for that matter).  For most of the movie, the girls are just girls with normal ears and bodies, even though they still have pony colors.  At the end, when they all use their friendship to stop the villain, the mane six sprout pony ears (and where applicable, wings).  They also grow a long section of hair in the back that gives the illusion of a tail.  So really, the dolls are based on the appearance of the girls in the last 5 to 10 minutes of the movie. :}

Unlike the basic Twilight doll, who just has a painted plastic top, this Twilight has a dress with a cloth bodice (which was one of the other reasons I preferred her).  I with they'd given her at least straps for the top of her dress.  It would have stayed on a little better and been more modest.  The skirt is a little short for my liking, but I do like the pretty dotted tulle underneath.

The dress closes in the back with Velcro.

To be honest, I was disappointed with most of the outfits from this line.  They're pretty much not movie accurate at ALL, except for one of Fluttershy's dresses.  The Twilight picture on the back of the box is wearing her outfit from the movie, which I like a lot better.  I do have a thing about accuracy, though, so that detail might not bother everyone. ;)

Her boots are pretty cute, even though they also are not movie accurate.

Side view

I was very disappointed to discover that the Equestria Girls dolls don't actually have feet.  I know that they look fine with the boots on, but it still bugs me knowing that they're aren't any feet inside the boots. :}  I've never been a fan of dolls with this design.  I guess it would make it easier for kiddos to get the doll's shoes on and off, but if you ever loose the boots, you're sunk! :(

You probably noticed the hole in Twilight's back in earlier pictures.  It's there to hold her wings in place.

And speaking of non-movie accurate... ;)

The wings have a definite curve to them but still fit Twilight nicely.

Here she is with her wings on.

It's not a bad look, but I do wish they were purple to match her skin.

Underneath her clothing, Twilight has a molded plastic camisole and plastic underwear too, so she's never undressed.  

It was hard to capture all of the markings on her back...this was the best I could do.

As far as articulation, Twilight's design is very simple.  She rotates at the head, shoulder and hips.

Her arms are made of a soft plastic and can hold a fair amount of poses.  She would be a nice sturdy toy for a younger MLP fan:

Twilight's legs are made of a harder plastic and do not bend at the knees.

She can come pretty close to doing the splits, though. ;)

She can sit fairly well but can't sit up completely straight.  Her poofy skirt doesn't help. ;)

Her legs also do not move back very far because of the way the hip socket sits in her body.  This is as far back as her leg will go.

Her head rotates from side to side and just barely goes up and down (the change is so different I couldn't really capture it well on camera, which you'll notice in the last two pictures):

Overall thoughts:  I don't regret getting this set.  It's a fun addition to my My Little Pony collection and a reminder of how much I enjoyed the Equestria Girls movie.  However, I'm not so thrilled with it that I'm ready to go out and purchase every single Equestria Girls doll made.  I'm quite content with Twilight and Fluttershy.  

If I had to give this particular set a rating, I'd probably give it a 4 out of 5.  I'm knocking off a point because I think they could have improved on the design of the doll.  She's cute and all, but with her limited articulation and lack of movie accuracy, I'm not as wild about her as I could have been.  Even if the articulation didn't change, I'd love to see them release dolls with movie-accurate clothing and in complete human form, without the pony ears.  It would also be lovely if they could capture more of the sweet anime look of the movie character designs.

I was overall very happy with the Twilight pony.  I think she has a unique look and her design is lovely.  The only thing I would change would be to give her a plastic tail, as I mentioned before.  Oh, and I'd change the removable cutie mark and make it permanent.  

In my next review, you'll be able to see Hasbro's take on a more articulated Equestria Girls doll, as Fluttershy is a "deluxe edition".  I hope you found this review helpful too. :) 

I have an out-of-town doll club meeting tomorrow, so Fluttershy's review won't be up until tomorrow evening at the earliest.  Have a great weekend, everyone! :)