Finding My Little Pony themed apparel for kids is pretty easy, and in the heyday of G4 adult clothes and accessories were available practically everywhere. Nowadays most adult lines feature retro designs with G1 ponies, and our review for today features a first generation line-up too, but with a big twist.
Because what if the simple shirts and necklaces are too subtle for you? What if you want to go all-out and really let your inner pony sparkle?
Then Irregular Choice comes to the rescue! Their brand new My Little Pony line-up features extravagant shoes, boots, bags and accessories that are sure to brighten up your outfit. Today we'll take a look at their collection, and two pieces that they sent over to us to review.Disclaimer: We received the review products free of charge, but this is not a paid article. Below review reflects our personal opinions on the products.
The Line-Up
Irregular Choice is a UK-based company that traditionally makes shoes, boots and bags with unique designs: prints, tinsel, ornaments, sculptures and "concept heels" are just some of the distinctive features that you will see on their items. Aside from their own designs, they also feature various licensed collection, of which My Little Pony is the latest addition.
Starting with the most prominent part of their collection, a total of 21 different footwear products are available with 11 different styles. This includes lace shoes, baseball shoes, boots, flats, medium heels, high heels, platform sneakers, clogs and cowboy boots. Most of them are available in a light and dark color variants, and the flats also have a wide variant.
Just calling them footwear would do no justice to these products, as they're not your typical uni-color shoes, but small pieces of art that are sure to grab attention. With that in mind we don't expect these to be worn as part of a daily outfit, but rather for meet-ups, parties and other special occasions.
Next up there are 9 bags, again with various shapes and designs. All bags have a handle and shoulder strap and feature a display side, but most also have a G1 print on the backside. One especially cute design features the Dream Castle with several ponies looking out the windows.
And to finish the collection (both figuratively and literally) there are 10 different accessories available. This includes a rosette, berets, tights, earrings, scarfs, necklace and a purse. It should come as no surprise that these too are all colorful pieces with plenty of pony decorations.
What directly caught our attention were the ponies on some of the items, such as the half Firefly and Skydancer on the Friends Forever boots and Rainbow Ribbon bags. Where do these ponies come from? Are they actual G1 (retro) ponies? We asked our contact at Irregular Choice about the source of these figures and learned that they are specifically made for this collection, with new molds that were approved by Hasbro.
The exclusivity of these products also shows in the price. Creating decorated items with unique prints and molds in small quantity is costly, making the prices range from $21/€19/£15 for the rosette up to $335/€280/£229 for the cowboy boots. For certain territories they offer free shipping and for UK/EU shipments the import duties are take care of, to prevent any surprises at the door.
You can find the complete My Little Pony collection on the Irregular Choice website.
Review: Introduction, Shipping & Packaging
For our review we couldn't resist picking an item that features one of these half-ponies to compare them to an actual G1 pony. We initially chose the light-colored Rainbow Ribbon Bag with Skydancer, but that went out-of-stock quickly, and we went for the dark-colored variant with Firefly as an alternative. We combined this with the Darling Dreamer Earrings to also check out the smaller Applejack and Cotton Candy ponies.
The package arrived within a few days from the UK with DHL, and as promised on their site, we didn't get any additional import duties. Both the bag (with plastic wrapper) and earrings (in a gift box) were snugly fitted in a single brown cardboard box without any additional protection inside. We have good experiences with DHL deliveries, so we didn't worry about the box being transported carelessly. If anything would happen during shipping, Irregular Choice seems to have a relaxed return policy, but we don't have any experience with this ourselves.
Review: Rainbow Ribbon Bag
Our first review piece is the Rainbow Ribbon Bag, a black hand/shoulder bag heavily decorated with bows, sequins, embroidered My Little Pony logo, G1 artwork backside and of course... Firefly! The bag is larger than we initially expected, and as you can see on our photos you can fit a phone and wallet in, and have plenty of space left. The inside of the bag is fully lined and has several pockets, including one with a zipper. Closing the bag is also done with a zipper, and carrying it can be done with the plastic handle on top, or the removable shoulder strap.
The bag feels sturdy and with all the features mentioned above, can be used as a regular bag throughout the day. Only the brushable hair of the pony could be a problem if you, for example, walk in crowded places where it may get tangled up. Out-of-the-box the tail is tied to the hind leg, and you might consider keeping that tie to lower the chance of entanglement.
On to the half Firefly on the side of the bag, which was our main attraction to this bag. She is true to size compared to our G1 Firefly, the molding is very similar, and she has silky soft hair. The color of her mane, symbol and eyes differ a bit, but of course there is a 40 year age gap between the two, and ours may have had some fading. She is attached to the bag with stitches, and shows © 2024 Hasbro on her hoof.
The plastic used for the Firefly on the bag is a softer variant than the original G1 ponies, resulting in a more matte look of the pony, but this only becomes apparent when comparing the two ponies side-by-side. From a distance it really looks an original Firefly pony. One thing we did notice, is that the eye is printed or pasted on and the top layer is still a bit sticky, which can cause hairs from her mane to stick to her eye. While we were hesitant to remove the hairs from her eye, a gentle pull was enough to separate the two, with no damage at all.
Review: Darling Dreamer Earrings
The earrings are packed inside a Dream Castle gift box that pops open to reveal this adorable yellow wrapping paper with several G1 ponies on it. Inside the wrapping paper there is bubble wrap, and inside that are the earrings on a cardboard back. While this is a lot of packaging, it does protect the earrings very well during transit.
Each stud earring features a rose, bow, gems, star and a pony figure (Applejack & Cotton Candy). They look very cute, and are relatively long. Surprisingly enough, they're not that heavy and are comfortable to wear. The ponies dangle a bit when walking, but don't twist too much. On the bottom both ponies have the same Hasbro copyright, which is not visible when wearing.
Conclusion
The Irregular Choice x My Little Pony collection features high-quality, and above all unique, products that will boldly show your love for MLP. Our review samples of the Rainbow Ribbon Bag and Darling Dreamer Earrings arrived with no problem and match what was promised in the product listings. We personally loved the designs and effort that was put in the collection as a whole.
While they are relatively expensive, and need to be handled with care, you'll surely make a statement when wearing items from this collection to an event or special occasion.
You gonna mention Kotobukiya saying Cadance & Chrysalis are gonna get figures?
ReplyDeletethank you for sharing
ReplyDeletemost of the items are adorable <3 I love the earings and the shoes the most.
ReplyDeleteG5 IS DEAD LOL
ReplyDeleteG5 is coming back next year
ReplyDeleteIs this paid for promo or irregular choice fan review? I ❤️ IRC and its products however a fair review would state the real issues with some the items, in particular their jewellery. I’ve never, ever had one item of jewellery that hasn’t fallen apart despite being kept in a jewellery box. When they arrive, you can see the jump rings aren’t completely closed which means that they are likely to come apart and need fixing again - which always happens, sometimes just by putting them in a jewellery box! I was shocked that all of the IRC earrings doesn’t even come with a metal stud fixing. It has the cheap plastic ones that are supposed to reinforce the studs, not replace them. It has meant that heavy plastic earrings have fallen on the floor and been either broken or weakened. Many of these earrings should have hook rather than stud fastenings to make this happen. A hook would also help style the ‘strained’ look of the earring on the ear too. Looking at the specific pair you have, I assume that they have the cheap plastic studs and looking at them on the packaging they have been made so they both face the same way, which means that they are opposites when you wear them. It’s a really cheap mistake they keep making. Even when you twist them around (like it looks like you’ve done) they usually swing round again. The pale pink ribbon will also quickly become dirty and will be hard to be clean & stay looking half decent to wear. The plastic layers on all IRC products have always come apart in places. It’s impossible to repair them with superglue or even a glue gun. It’s such a shame that most of their jewellery is so stunninnņ but badly made with such bad materials. They need some pressure to stop relying on the love and loyal fan base they have. We just want quality to go with our beautiful shoes ❤️🩹
ReplyDeleteI love the other earrings btw, but what I don’t love is that I’ll be spending the best part £60 but having to go and buy hooks and fiddle round figuring out how to adjust them to make them hooked vs studs, and turn the pony’s round ticavzvv