This set contains only 3 real items of consequence. Like many of the Canterlot Exclusives, the ponies have tinsel mixed with the nylon strands in their hair, which creates a sparkle effect under certain lighting. This set does NOT, I repeat NOT come with Princess Celestia. It comes with a Shine Brite Princess Luna, and a sparkle hair Pinkie Pie. It also comes with a Gem Carriage, but it has a Princess Celestia theme instead of the Rarity theme on the one sold in the smaller Rarity's Gem Carriage set. There are far too many accessories to count, but the feeling I got, is that these Canterlot sets are a good way to dump extra "smalls" without outright throwing them out. Some people in fan circles have even made the claim that some of the small accessories were recognized from earlier Gen 3.5 product lines.
I purchased the set for the light up Luna toy. For me, that was my only real goal in acquisition. Pinkie Pie is a bonus, and with the glitter hair, she is kinda unique from her normal 5 dollar toy variant.
The major size of this set is one of the most interesting draws. I am personally not a fan of Hasbro's cardboard playsets. Rarities Carousel Boutique is a FINE example of what Hasbro SHOULD be doing with their toys. It is solid plastic construction, and quite animated and interactive... Unlike these canterlot playsets. I can not stress enough the fact that you are paying over 40 dollars for a Shine Brite Princess Luna, a sparkle hair Pinkie Pie, A Princess themed Gem Carriage, and a CARDBOARD BOX filled with tons of little plastic accessory filler.
I'd feel more comfortable with this set if it were a PLASTIC castle. It's not. It's a bi-fold cardboard box, albeit with some lovely printed details. The side rooms on either side will fold over and meet each other, cutting the width in half and enclosing the internal rooms, allowing the box to serve as storage for the accessories and ponies. The method of latching is basic. You wrap a string around a button. That's it. No latch, no velcro, just a string. Also, I might have mentioned the whole thing is cardboard. Even though it's just a cardboard box, the art is really nice, and lets the sticker shock settle a little after making your wallet weep Jacksons. It's divided into 6 rooms:
There is what appears to be an entryway. It feels rather out of place, like it belongs in a simple house and not CANTERLOT CASTLE, but it is warm and welcoming. It has photos of each of the "Mane 6" ponies, Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Applejack and Rarity. Spike's portrait hangs next to Twilights, and I think I recall Princess Celestia's Portrait being there as well. It has a small "shelf" to set accessories on, and a door held closed by a flap of velcro... seriously... Velcro. Also, a welcome mat.
Next is a Throne Room. It's the largest room, and it has a single throne bearing an image of princess Celestia, a pair of "stain glass windows" (just printed remember) that depict day and night themes. It also has a massive drawbridge style door that's held shut by none other than our good friend, flap o' velcro.
Next is the kitchen. It's... a kitchen. The cupboards above the kitchen open up as a real pull out drawer to store small accessories in. It's not enough space to store everything though. There is a microwave, counters and sink printed on the kitchen. Some people have suspected that the microwave and one other item elsewhere in the castle are shout outs to the online My LIttle Pony fan community. Hasbro has done this in the past with advertisements, even going so far as to include the name of the most popular fan website IN one of their official advertisements, despite no official connection to Hasbro. It was purely a shout out, a major surprise to the fan community, and an act of respect. There is a popular fan created comedy regarding Luna having her first encounter with a microwave oven after returning from her thousand year banishment to the moon, and some believe this and one other interesting feature of this playset may be a shout out to that fan created story. The inclusion of Pinkie Pie also alludes to this same possibility. No one has yet figured out why Pinkie Pie was included with this set, instead of a variation of Princess Celestia. Pinkie is also included in the Grand Galloping Gala Canterlot set, meaning anyone who bought both would end up with an extra Pinkie Pie. While this could ALL be purely coincidence, it was MOST DEFINITELY the factor that wiped away any buyer's remorse and made me glad to have picked this one up. As a fan who is active in the online community, it was worth it for the laugh and the speculation alone!
Above the throne room is a Gala Hall. It has a large opening (real window, but no clear plastic. it's just open). Not much there. Another fake window, a fake mirror, and a chandelier. One might also call the roof a balcony, as it is printed with a backdrop. The Images of Princess Celestia and Twilight Sparkle with Spike riding on her back like he often does in the TV series is present on the top center here. That large window is a minor problem. The entire castle, as mentioned before is a bifold box. Since the floors of the Gala room and the two side chambers are at different heights, this creates a gap in the box, and if closed, could allow small accessories stored inside to fall out the upper floor window if the box is tipped. A minor issue, so long as the box is held upright, and nothing is stored in the upper half. I cut a large sheet of clear plastic from the packaging of the set and cut it to fit snugly in that room against the back wall. That solved the problem, but is still weird that Hasbro didn't do it themselves when making this.
The last two rooms are clearly designed to be the royal bedrooms or personal chambers of the two Princesses. The right one has a Yellow and Pink theme. This is clearly Princess Celestia's room. It has a wall hanging with a portrait of Celestia herself, and a Portrait of Twilight and Spike together on the opposite side of the room. It has 2 windows, which DO have clear plastic "glass". Why they didn't include this in the gala room window, I don't know. The yellow clearly evokes the color of the sun, and the pink... ugh... evokes images of the atrocious "Pink Celestia". Why Hasbro INSISTS on making Princess Celestia toys ALL PINK is beyond me!!! There are no less than FOUR instances where Princess Celestia's image is printed on the walls of this playset, and that's just the INSIDE. Every image shows a WHITE coated Princess Celestia, just as she is on the TV show. The plague of Pink Celestia toys has become so rampant that the description of this item MISTAKENLY assumes the pink pony next to Princess Luna is Celestia. It's not. I purchased this very set within days of it's release, and it is MOST DEFINITELY Pinkie Pie. You'll notice there are no wings on the pink pony in Amazon's product image. Her cutie mark is the Blue and Yellow trio of balloons. Hopefully Amazon will soon correct their error in the description.
The last room appears to be Princess Luna's room. Along with another pair of clear plastic windows, it has a dark purple and silvery blue color scheme that matches Luna's mane and coat colors. The room is decorated with a wall hanging, much like Celestia's room, but instead of a self portrait, this wall hanging depicts the cutie marks representing the Mane 6 and the Elements of Harmony. Fitting, seeing as how she was saved by them. It also has a telescope for Luna to view her stars and moon by, and a television set with Pinkie Pie on the screen. The television in Luna's room, with Pinkie Pie on the screen is the other feature that some people think might be a shout out to My Little Pony's online fanbase. The very same comedy story involving the microwave also has a chapter on Luna's first encounter with a TV at Pinkie Pie's home. The story ends up with her finding a scary movie staring a pink pony that looked extraordinarily similar to Pinkie Pie. Luna ends up freaking out when Pinkie returns to the room. Again, possibly pure coincidence, but if it really was a shout out to the online fan community, then this toy marks the first time such intricate details from fan generated content might have wound up on one of Hasbro's actual products, and not just in an advertisement... Or, like I said, it could all be coincidence. TVs and Microwaves and Pinkie Pies are everywhere! :)
All in all, the set is pretty interesting, especially for one who follows the online My Little Pony fanbase, given the potential behind the "box art". As far as box art goes, the outside is decorated to look like Canterlot Castle, and features a wide variety of ponies. There's even an "orange chicken" printed on the box for you to call! "Scootaloo, Scoot Scootaloo!" :) Ha ha! You'll get it if you've watched the show. While the external art work is quite nice, and very true to the show, it's still only a picture of Canterlot castle printed on a rectangular box. You'll get no REAL turrets and towers. This is where Hasbro really needs to learn to make a better product. Plastic toys are toys. Cardboard Boxes... are still boxes, that you play with till it wears out or gets wet.
This is a set that comes with just a few very cool things, and has a lot of intricate details, but feels like mostly filler, and leaves you to feel like you spent too much on it, no matter how you break it down. This set needs to be 20 to 30 dollars, tops. If they ditch some of the useless accessories to meet that price point, fine. The telescope was the only accessory that I felt truly deserved being there (Luna's telescope, yay)... and oddly, I can't figure out ANY way to use it or mount it, as if it wasn't meant for any part of the set, Like filler, but at least it's fitting filler, Luna with her night sky and all. Most of the other stuff consists of frivolous little things. Cakes and trays and treasure chests with fake plastic gems. Course, the kitchen does come equipped, with an oven an fridge... Funny how the castle comes with all those things, but it doesn't come in plastic.
Hasbro would do well to make future Canterlot sets out of plastic. This set does not do the majesty and art of the TV rendition of Canterlot any true justice.
Fortunately, the Princess Celestia's Gem Carriage is equal in quality to Rarity's gem Carriage, and interestingly, if you have Applejacks weird looking apple truck, they can all hitch up like a train and all be pulled together. yay to conformity of standards, you rock. woo hoo.
I'm glad they finally released a Princess Luna toy... In fact, there are now actually 3 new Luna toys out, after an entire season of Hasbro neglecting to even remind us Luna even still existed. The actual Shine Brite Luna is the MOST ABSURD Luna to acquire. If you must have Shine Brite Luna, this massive set is the only means to get her, as of yet. That makes this Luna variant the most expensive of the entire Shine Brite pony line, AND the most expensive of the 3 Luna toys, only because she's bundled with so much other stuff. The Shine Brite Luna could really stand for improvement as well, both in price and features. The cutie mark is TINY. They try to fit Luna's entire dark splotch on the posable leg, making the actual cutie mark VERY TINY. They would have been better off having the large dark splotch on her body, with the moon and a portion of the upper rear leg colored to match, the moon dominating the entirety of the opposable leg. That would have improved the look vastly, but they chose not to! Also, ONLY her WINGS light up. Even though they have Shine Brite ponies with horns that light (like Rarity), they opted to go with the wings only. I feel it was a sadly missed opportunity to have had both wings and horn both light up. Luna and Celestia are the ONLY alicorns of the series. How could they forget that she has BOTH features. All shine brite ponies have a wide body and wide stance to accommodate the battery case. Luna is no exception. This Luna features larger eyes with eyeshadow for the shine brite version, similar to the larger eyes of the Fashion Style Luna. This Luna has different eyes than the 3 inch Luna from the small double princess pack. The horn is covered in glitter, and the wings are translucent purple. Like all the Canterlot ponies, this one also has the tinsel hair. The biggest atrocities with the Shine Brite Luna are price, and the lack of a glowing horn, which is a pretty sad thing for Hasbro to have missed... and glitter does not make up for it.
I basically paid 10 dollars for Shine Brite Princess Luna, 5 for twinkle hair Pinkie Pie, 5-10 for an extra Gem Carriage, and ALL the rest on a pretty cardboard box of miscellaneous frivolities and microwave humor.
In the end, I feel this is a set who's price needs to desperately come down. I feel like for $40, I should at least get a plastic castle. It's not that they can't either. When I bought it, I found another Hasbro product on the opposite side of the aisle. It was a full size playset castle, made of plastic, and it cost 5 dollars more. It's somewhat disappointing that they are failing to create the products that My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic deserves.
Final word, if you are an extreme fan, and must have Shine Brite Luna, buy. If this is a random purchase for some kids, get the princess double pack for 1/3 the cost and actually get both princesses in one box, without all the needless extras. If you have a budget for this size set... Add a few dollars and buy BOTH the Gala set, which is the ONLY set to include the ENTIRE Mane 6 ponies, and then also but the cheap Princess double pack. Literally, for only about a dozen bucks more, you can have 8 of the most significant ponies in the entire series... BOTH princesses, AND all 6 of the Elements of Harmony, plus spike...
Or you can get 2 ponies, only one of them new, a carriage, and a ton of weird extra accessories. And a picture of a microwave.
As for price. I had to travel half an hour to find this set. Yes, the Amazon price is a little higher, but this is a Target exclusive, and if you don't have a nearby Target, or your store is smaller and doesn't stock this set, the markup is fair enough to cover the additional cost of going out and seeking the set. How much would you spend on gas, eating out away from home, etc. It's the price of having it come to you, instead of you going to it. Of course, i had other things to do, so I had the excuse to travel.
The ultimate determining factor in whether you buy this set or not is mostly going to fall on how badly you want a Shin Brite Luna. Simple as that. You can wait months for sales, clearances and price drops, or buy it now. Wait too long, and it likely will become rare, and then what happened to the price and availability of the Friendship is Magic Ponyville 4 pack tubes could possibly repeat here.
Good luck and happy shopping fellow Pony fans!
Click Here For Most Helpful Customer Reviews >>
This castle is way overpriced. Made out of cardboard for this much money??? Wonder why it wasn't made out of plastic? For kids, plastic would have been more preferable and durable.Best Deals for My Little Pony Exclusive Deluxe Playset Canterlot Castle
My three year old LOVES My Little Pony and playing with figurines, so I thought this would be the Perfect gift for her!! Well, when it arrived, I took one look and decided that the $60 was SO not worth it!! It did NOT state that the castle was made of paper...The edges were damaged during shipping, and I know that it will not hold up since she is not that gentle with her toys! Its very cute and has a lot of accessories plus the two ponies and dragon, but for the price why couldn't Hasbro make it PLASTIC or even WOOD?! Bottom line, if your child is really, really into My Little Ponies get this. Otherwise, save your money and get the accessories for HALF the cost and purchase a plastic dollhouse instead...Honest reviews on My Little Pony Exclusive Deluxe Playset Canterlot Castle
Very cute ... so many little items for the castle. Does not state, but the castle is made of durable cardboard, sides fold in and there is a carrying strap on top. You can get it MUCH cheaper at Target. My daughter loves MYP and loves the castle too!Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for My Little Pony Exclusive Deluxe Playset Canterlot Castle
The Canterlot castle is made out of cardboard which is disappointing. The snap to close doors in the front broke off with the cheap piece of string the second day.
No comments:
Post a Comment