My Little Pony is soon to be hitting theaters in the fall and that means a few things. The first is that if you have a child who has set those ponies aside in favor of other toys there’s a high probability that they’ll be getting some play once again. It also means that there are going to be plenty of new toys released and in fact, these have already started hitting shelves. Of course there are familiar faces as well as some new ones; both friend and foe.
Among the new additions into the ever-growing world of My Little Pony is Princess Skystar. Based on the little bit of information available for the movie, this is one of the new Sea Ponies that the friends meet in the undersea kingdom of Seaquestria. The new character appears to be one which is going to play an important role in the film given the fact there are already several toys featuring her.
The Sea Song Princess Skystar is among these. The Sea Song line itself consists of two ponies, Pinkie Pie being the other but of course my daughter had to have the new one which resulted in calling multiple stores to locate one, then making a 45-minute trip to pick it up. Skystar, being a sea pony, is a bit different than what has been seen in the past with the line. These ponies are based around the idea of sea horses (or mermaids according to my daughter) so the rear portion is a tail. This has been designed in a way so that it swivels around. This allows your child to pretend that the pony is swimming or it can be positioned to act as a base and allow the pony to stand. Like most ponies in the traditional line, Skystar has hair that can be brushed and of course one of those is included with the set. However it seems that sea ponies lack a cutie mark, something I’m certain the film will demystify. Seastar is also apparently a hippogriff which would explain her wings which are done in a semi-translucent plastic.
The Sea Song ponies also include a plastic sea shell which is the only part of the set which needs to be assembled. This is extremely easy as there are only two pieces involved. A small shell on the front of the base can be pressed resulting in five different musical pieces being played. While my daughter enjoys part, I found it slightly disappointing. I assumed that in stores it was merely playing a demo mode and there might be a switch somewhere on the toy to go into a play mode, but there’s nothing like that to be found. The musical pieces are of varying lengths so some are short while a few are long. These also just abruptly cut off and I only felt that one was done appropriately so that it didn’t have a sudden stop.
It seems that Hasbro is banking on Skystar becoming a popular character from the upcoming film. I’ve already witnessed stores having the figure and then returning the same day to find that Skystar is no longer on the shelves while fan favorites are still sitting, waiting for a home. Anything My Little Pony seems to be a huge hit but I have a feeling that this may very well be the breakout character of the film. While I feel there are a few minor flaws with the toy overall my daughter is completely happy, something which is evident by the fact that she and Skystar are now tucked away in bed, minus the musical shell.
Mike is the resident reviewer for Couponing to Disney and his own site Underland Online. He has a toddler daughter and is obsessed with Haunted Mansion and all things Disney. You can read Mike’s complete bio here.