The My Little Pony Bootleg Rabbit Hole 

Correction: the story about the donkey symbol comes from Chile, not Brazil

my little harry obama

I wouldn’t call piñatas “bootlegs”. Piñatas are mostly used at children’s birthday parties here in Mexico, and most companies don’t sell licensed piñatas for themed birthday parties, so piñata makers have to make them themselves. It’s a really inoffensive thing that requires quite a lot of effort to make, so I would compare them more to fan art or commissions of unlicensed characters than to bootlegs.

I work at a dollar store and we get SO MANY MLP bootleg toys it's ridiculous. And then we display them right next to *legitimate* MLP merch.

I will take absolutely NO filly slander whatsoever. They were so much more common and iconic here in Germany than mlp. Everyone collected them and i had a few playsets (the filly tower was my holy grail and i was very cool and trendy for owning it thank you very much). Like i knew some kids who were into mlp but fillys were everywhere and every little girl owned them. On a different note, when i was a kid and had to go to the dentists office, you would get a small cheap toy at the end of your appointment and i got these two fake mlp toys that were butt ugly but kinda iconic tbh. Kinda sad i threw them out....

Filly Funtasia really isn't considered a bootleg by most people as it was merely a different company trying to do their own thing.

i can see why filly got popular in the fakie scene, they don't look like they're being squeezed like living glittery stress balls (plus, they're actually pretty cute)

i just adore the horrified looking mlp bootlegs they're my absolute favorite in the whole world

A problem that people never think about with bootleg merch is just how deep into it organized crime is. It's not about "oh no I might hurt Hasbro!" It's about "gee I hope this is sold by some random guy in China and not the triad!" Like theres a difference between items that are off enough that they're clearly not the real deal and the ones that are trying to replicate the real product. Organized crime often focuses on the latter because the profit margin is higher.

I don't even know what emotion I would feel if I saw a random pony drawing I made in middle school end up on the news in connection with a drug bust.

The Filly franchise was way more popular than MLP in Poland back in 2012; those blindbags were everything, and as much as I am not a fan of the series whatsoever (it really felt like they were pushing it) the blind bags are one of my favourite toy brands of all time.

The chibi plushes you showed at 22:34 aren’t bootleg. They’re fanmade plushes made by Sugarstitch (their deviantart watermark is even in the pictures)

Without Filly I would never become a Brony. They were the first pony franchise I knew. I've been collecting them from the very beginning. I have a huge collection and also some some toy houses for them. I come from the Czech Republic (that's right next to Germany) and I can confirm that they were huge in central Europe back in 2010s. They were biggest in german-speaking countries (Germany and Austria). Some sets and vast majority of the magazines, that were usually sold with a special Filly figure, that you coldn't get anywhere else, were available only in those countries. I haven't watched Filly Funtasia but from the snippets I've seen I can tell that the show does not correspond to the toy franchise that much. Yes, the main characters, the bat and some supporting characters have their toy equivalent but the evil demon and most of the supporting characters don't. The architecture in the show is also very different from the toy branding. Not only do the buildings in the show differ from the toy sets and images in the collection brochures, that were included in every blind bag, but they also differ from the comics that were in the filly magazines. The original idea for the show, where the ponies have magical crystal crowns, would correspond to the toy franchise more. Since Filly Unicorn (the 4th series of blind bags), all figures had a jewel (not always a crown) with a Swarovski crystal. The colour of the crystal determined to which family the pony belongs to and what magical power he possesses. For a while It seemed like the toy franchise is dead but over the last year, the German Filly magazines have been issued again. Yup, I'm completely obsessed with them. anyway, thank you very much for making this video. I haven't seen anyone talking about Filly lately. best wishes from the Czech Republic ❤❤❤

I quite like the Filly figurines, even if people call it a MLP copycat. They remind me a lot of the Puppy in My Pocket toys as they’re flocked too.

It's so sickening seeing people's hard work and lovely fan art getting plagiarized by companies who are money hungry, it's so sad

3:35 "Animal Jam lookin' moose". That ain't Animal Jam, that's Creature Jelly.

You just unlocked a section of my childhood with Filly. I am German and I had SO MUCH STUFF from them. The horns always broke off so I made up a storyline about the evil witch fillys stealing the unicorns horns to make potions.

as a kid i was a huge fillys collector, it makes me still happy to this day and reminds me of the nice winter months. they used to come in advent calendars too

From What I've heard is that MLP is a lot more popular in Russia and Belarus than Westerners expect, I believe Equestria at War was started by Russians (If you have seen Griffons/Zebras in military uniforms on Derpibooru you've probably seen art from it)

I think bootlegs are especially good for customization! Sometimes if they’re cheaply made it can be easier to take them apart and they often cost less so you don’t have to feel guilty about taking apart a good or expensive toy.

filly was amazing for me, i just wish i could find the blind bags somewhere, but unfortunately they stopped selling them :( i used to have so many of them back in the day. they used to even sell them in shoe stores lmao

I didn't know people considered Filly to be a knock off. I always liked Filly and I collected the ponies when I was little

Fun fact: According to the Filly Funtasia Wiki, the person who voiced Wranglum (the black and purple villain in Filly Funtasia) is David Wills, who also voiced Espio the Chameleon in Sonic X and continued to be his voice from 2005 to 2010. David also voiced the Duke of Soleanna in Sonic the Hedgehog 2006. And also he did voice Mirage Shredder in Turtles Forever

I clicked purely because I saw the Filly on the thumbnail. I had like, three figurines, two mini and one larger. They felt fuzzy, so they weren't smooth plastic, except for their unique crowns (and other decor, possibly, like bracelets). I loved them. I got at least one or maybe all of them from a magazine or two. It had cute comics and little puzzles, with a bright but not too-overwhelming look. The art is actually really nice and the designs are so pleasing to the eye. I wasn't a collector or anything, didn't know there was any animation for it, I just have fond memories of that magazine and the toys. I was sad when one lost it's crown. I even drew these characters in scenes I made up when I played with the toys. Of course it was a little edgy, too. A part of my childhood that was good. Edit: I looked it up and it looks like I had the mini figure of the character called "Xander", either that one or "Florian", but more likely the former. And then the blue one with a green horn and purple fur around the hooves. I had a bigger figure of the one that was blue and had no purple fluff, just white cloud-ish markings above the hoof. I remember I called that one Stormy.

I typically don’t pay that much attention to bootlegs (outside of watching some videos of them), but a lot of bootlegs are often cursed, _-such as the Cupcakes backpack-_

Ponpushka is like the pun for the word pony and word pompushka (donut without glaze in Russian).And they actually used pinkie pie as a mascot

The fact that some of these bootlegs look better than the official G5 is kinda sad.

I remember loving Filly ponies as a kid. I still have my colection. They are not into to best condition, dou to me playing with them so much, but nothing that can't be fixed.

Honestly, for MLP ripoffs, Dimsum has to be my favorite, Dimsum (originally called Krystal) is a deviantartist's MLP oc, who was a spike-adjacent dragon character, who was taken and used as a restaurant mascot on a menu, the OC's creator actually liked this and posted a reference sheet of Dimsum with the Menu-accurate colors

I'm a 17 year old girl from Germany and Filly was my entire childhood!!! I adore these characters with all my heart, of course the love is mostly nostalgia based but i think that's still a worthy reason, plus the artwork goes hard asf sometimes seriously. So happy to see someone talk about it!!

I'm italian and NEVER. EVER. saw a Melowy in my life before this video. They look well drawn, won't lie, but oddly uncanny with the way they move...I wonder if there's an italian fandom for it somewhere, or someone remembering the franchise fondly. I'll never know I suppose!

Lmao; I had NOT seen the twilight water bottle until this video and it made me speed run the five stages of grief

27:13 girl that's not from Brazil. The news clip is in Spanish, we speak Portuguese

Because I'm annoyingly pedantic, I gotta be the one to point out that the Sonic art at 23:33 isn't fanart, but is actually official artwork by Ben Bates, an artist for the Archie Sonic comics, that was used as the cover for a trade paperback collection put out by Archie (Sonic Legacy Volume 2). I recognised it immediately because I had the book in question as a kid. Great video, though! I've always been fascinated fakies, especially the pre-Gen 4 ones.

So much of this video is like a bootleg Pokemon vid talking about Digimon or Yo-kai Watch and I find that a little funny.

The lack of any mention for those G4 Alicorn bootlegs of the main 6 disappoints me they're so infamous that a lot of MLP toy channels like MLP Stop Motion have made skits about them

I remeber having So many fillys because they gave them as free gift in child magazine

to be honest i wouldn't call Filly a ripoff. It could have been inspired, but it always felt like the producers saw the concept of a franchise centered around ponies and just...took that. And went in a different direction. Idk personally I collected them as a kid, but I was also a diehard fan of mlp and they were two SIGNIFICANTLY different things to me. Different vibe, different lore(? if there was any. I only had little cards describing the characters and a magazine), I saw them as entirely separate franchises that didn't feel like ripoffs, just the same base concept. Also I loved that the fairy fillies had these fluorescent wings that was SUCH A GOOD DESIGN CONCEPT. I still think it banged

You mentioned Luna, Nightmare mood and Chrysalis as ponies you don’t see toys of that were bootlegged. Chrysalis and Nightmare did get official brushables but they were limited in release tho these toys r us exclusive sets and scalped to high heaven. They’re decently rare, so they’re perfect for bootlegging. At least it makes a toy of those characters more accessible I guess

As soon as I saw the melowies in the thumbnail i click on the video faster than flash, hahaha. I'm Italian and seeing them brought me back so much nostalgia, I totally erased them from my memory! I forgot how much I loved those books, really, you made my day ❤

19:10 Cupcakes backpack would probably give some poor kid ptsd.

As a German I can confirm. Everyone had at least one Filly at home. Everyone.

I love your humour, your jokes are so witty and quick and somehow always catch me off guard lmao

I used to have a lot of the filly toys (i still have them). Since back then, the toy was more cheaper than the MLP toys in my local mall, my mom decided to buy them instead. Ever since, I ask for the fillies more than the Hasbro ponies. I still adore them today, their fuzzy texture and intricate designs is what drew me the most.

It's pretty amazing how many mlp rip off merch and shows that there are these days. But thankfully at least some of the rip off shows didn't last long.

GURL FILLY THIS IS LITERALLY MY CHILDHOOD. MY LITTLE 6 Y.O MIND ADORED THEM. I remember I had a lot of them, but unfortunately they all got lost and I can't find them anywhere. I dreamed of having the entire collection of ponies from blind packages. I loved their designs, their texture. I really like this old style of ponies. They have their own special charm.

omg. i literally remember having a bootleg pony doll (i can't remember which one but i think it was pink with yellow or orange hair??) and i loved it playing with it.. without even realizing it was a very possible bootleg 😭

Man I used to be so into collecting Filly 😭😭 but the show came out a little too late I never watched it but I know younger me would have consumed every episode

24:14 OH MY GOD, I remember this pic, it makes me feel like I'm back on 2013 Pony Tumblr all over again! I LOVE IT! I actually thought it was, and tbh still think it's actually pretty cute. It's not creepy to me even though I know it's "supposed" to look creepy. At least some of the comments on Derpibooru agree with me, so I don't feel too weird for thinking it's cute.

Yeah… Those bootleg fursuits are a huge problem. When you spend thousands of dollars on a personal costume only for some thief in China to steal it from you like that… There has to be something that can be done like a group of hackers taking down their servers or something. Kind of like how scambaiters mess with scammers in India.

You have no idea how grateful I am to see you covering the fakies !!! I only just recently learnt about the whole thing some months ago when I was trying to figure out the brand of some of my old mlp knockoff toys and it's honestly so interesting to see an entire branch of mlp toy collecting but knockoff version, really cool to see you cover it !

im like 2 minutes into this video but the persona 3 song thats playing is heavily associated with TV Tanaka in my head so i'm just imagining him selling this bootleg pony merchandise like "yeah he'd do that"

I used to collect the Filly minis! I'm missing 4 from series 1 Forest Fillies and I haven’t been able to find a reseller willing to ship to Sweden 😭 Besides that, I’m not entirely surprised they got bootleg mlp carousels but that’s still impressive O.O

Always a treat when you go into these deep dives! Was not prepared for that FNAF jump scare at 8:11 though

I would sacrifice my first born child for that cupcakes backpack. IT GOES SO HARD!

I love this channel. I never would have cared about My Little Pony all that much otherwise. You make these so entertaining.

4:56 I actually had these ones as a kid. I had loads of official G3 MLP too! I wondered why they looked so different from each other, I think I still have them somewhere.

I’m the person who bought the Mm Cittloee Ponopy fakie set! It’s kind of surreal seeing it in a video from a RU-vidr whose videos I watch on a regular basis (loved the Mt Little Pony lost media iceberg!), but also super cool! In case anyone’s wondering exactly what came in that set, it was two small ponies with detachable plastic manes and tails, one Pinkie Pie and one Twilight Sparkle Equestria Girls dolls that are knockoffs of those smaller ones, a bigger blue Princess Celestia and some My Little Pony themed pogs. All made with the worst plastic I’ve ever touched in my life hehe. I still have them and the box!

I remember i spent all my money on filly blind bags as a kid. The mlp blind bags were right next to them at the store but i never picked them because the molds were basicly the same and they were more expensive... man i miss those

One of my favorite activities is going window shopping at this one mall near my house that has all of these low quality stores, looking at shirts like "wow I wonder whose fanart they stole". My bestie thinks they are a front for something because they're always having concerningly cheap sales for their bootled clothes and toys

I used to obsessively collect some Filly toys. I bought dozens of the crowned ones until I finally found the rare one with the crystal in its crown. Most of them are now missing but I still have the crystal crown Filly.

The whole segment on Filly brought me so much closure, I have so many memories of watching toy unboxings with titles in some language child me couldn't identify, always unboxing those tiny flocked ponies, and for YEEEARS I had no idea what they were. Now I can die in peace, thank you Shunks 🙏

Another banger video, Shunkers. I love how casual these feel, while still being pretty well-organized and researched, i love sing the MLP-inspired series that i've yet to hear about, sad to hear they seem to be middling at best though. If anybody knows the original artist for those Scootaloo pins/buttons you showed being bootlegged in that segment about fan artists being copied, i'd love to see them. Those pins are super cute and i'd love to support an artist that seems like they might need it after having their revenue siphoned like that.

I used to think mlp was a rip off of filly as a little German kid

Couple of things PonPushka is a play on words pony and pampushka, a type of bun There is a ton of bootleg pony products in Russia and Belarus, cause it's very poplar here, mostly just using official vector images, and some are actually quite nice. I even have a plush made by a local manufacturer, idk if licensed or not, that sings Russian version of opening song! Solar character that is Rarity, but not that vapid, sounds totally like Stella from Winx, and those... things overall ripped off more of Winx then MLP imo, especially character-vise, you can see it if you are familiar with both. Such a bizzare product of its time, thanks for bringing it to light!

7:02 The nostalgia just hit me in the face, i loved and played with Filly toys! I just had those like in 7:32 and had some magazines but i had no idea that there was going to be a animated series of this, possibly because i grew out of it. Amazing video tho!

This video made me cry laughing with some of this stuff, I needed that, thank you! I found a variation of the sad/pained pony face bootleg and gave it as a funny christmas present one year. I love it.

I feel bad for the kid who got their MLP-ified school mascot stolen, hopefully something got cleared up about it.

I deeply admire your good faith effort to find something good to say about everything you talk about.

It's possible some of these people were simply trying to make unaffiliated unicorn toys without ripping-off MLP. Not all vampires are connected to Bram Stoker, and not all ponies are connected to Hasbro.

A video about MLP bootlegs, I saw some before

MY LITTLE BOOTLEG MY LITTLE BOOTLEG

19:57 that’s literally an lps fairy knockoff too

I love collecting fakie ponies alongside my official MLP merch, and I tend to find most of my fakies in local charity shops or on AliExpress. As you say, they’re just so strange they’re fantastic … in fact some are too good! I have several versions of the scared pponies in the thumbnail, a few different versions of Filly ponies, Magiki Ponies, fakie Equestria Girls Minis, fake Princess Celestia & Alicorn Applejack (neither of which can stand up on their own because the plastic they’re made from is so horribly bent!), a set where all the Mane Six have wings (inxluding Pinkie, Rarity & Applejack), fakie G4 blind bag copies and even some fake LEGO ponies that are copies of G4 blind bag moulds that are compatible woth LEGO sets! Of course, I’ve heard of My Lovely Horse, my Lovely Mary, My Lovebe Horse (no, that’s actually their name!), I Love My Fairytale Pony, and many other knock-off names to boot. I also love some of the slogans you see on the packaging for these things, but the best one has to be as follows: “Once own, nothing can instead” … 🤣 I recently bought a Happy Unicorn advent calendar off AliExpress which the listing said had G4 Phidal figure copies in it, as well as knock-off TokiDoki Unicornos & Mermicornos (which was the reason why I bought this calendar). It had stolen G4 vectors on the box, which made me laugh as only 2 ponies featured on the front of the “Happy UNICORN” calendar were unicorns! 😂 I was also disappointed to realise that my calendar I received didn’t have any of the TokiDoki fakies, it was all G4 fakie duplicates! Definitely the most deceiving fakie I have is a fake Kotobukiya Pinkie Pie figure. It t bought her off AliExpress and it took me ages to realise she was a fake as the box didn’t have the official Kotobukiya logo. Seriously, it’s that level of quality that fooled me!

I have gathered a pretty big MLP collection over the years... and i have a bunch of the bootlegs you mentioned in the beginning of the video, specifically the Pretty Pony ones. During the G3 era, I would find them at cheap stores that didn't really carry much official stuff. If I went to Walmart or Target, i was leaving with MLP, if i went to some weird toy or dollar store, I was leaving with My Pretty Pony lmao I sorta knew they were knock offs but I didn't care cause they were bright colored and i just had more ponies to brush. I even had a few that were massive and came with a bunch of hair accessories, and this led to my fascination with fakies... they're just so odd. I have all my ponies in totes and a few fakies are poking their heads out, haunting me ._.

New Shunks upload the only thing making me stop crying at the airport

21:50 Didn't know Circus Baby was in Squid Game

WAKE UP BABE SHUNKS UPLOADED 😤😤😤

Ah yes, Fillys, we collected and swapped them like crazy when I was in elementary school. They were really popular here in Germany.

26:50 Belarusian here, Ponpushka is in fact a pun, "ponchik" (donut) sounds a lot like "pony",and "pushka" means cannon,so the mascot is a pony with a donut cannon although I myself don't understand such a number of pony mascots in my country. donuts are fire though the more you know! ;3

honestly I like the filly fantasy-tv show style more than the MLP g5 style, I gotta look into those toys (and yes, nowadays anyone can learn blender and make 3D ponies in 5 minutes which is why my new life goal is to make bootleg takaras a thing); whenever i look at bootlegs (that aren't direct recasts of a toy, that are proper unique designs), i always wonder who designed them. someone had to have designed those random knockoffs from china, after all.

I love that you opened with the Poem for Everyone’s Souls (Velvet Room music)

no better feelin than a new shunks video

I love your content!! I’m not a Therian but I do really enjoy watching your vids!!🩷

When I was younger, I had some of these Filly dolls. For many years I searched for the names of these dolls and thought about them from time to time, and a few months ago, I found one or two for sale at a bazaar near my house, and I was impressed, as it also had a Flash Sentry from the Equestria Girls Minis and both looked original (those things stopped selling here in my city/country many years ago). I'm pretty sure it will still be there if I go back to the bazaar, and I wanted to see the prices, but I'm too embarrassed to go 💔💔💔💔

as a german i loved my filly toys as a kid :) i never saw them as bootlegs. it was really nice that they had a fuzzy/ soft fur instead of mlp's smooth plastic (i still prefer mlp toys tho)

Seeing Bootleg toys and media always makes my day 🙏

GIRL, I DEADASS OWN ONE OF THOSE COMICS IN THE THUMBNAIL 💀 Shunks you’re calling me out over here omgggg

I was gonna say that if anything Melowy seems to take a lot of inspiration from the Thea Sisters series before you mentioned the relation! It makes a lot of sense now. Kinda have to read them now, the Geronimo Stilton publishers never disappoint

"Princess rinse-an-spit" Why are these names so funny lmao

As a kid I spent years collecting and playing with Fillies (or is it Fillys?) with my sister - and we absolutely loved them. The brand had an identity and charm of its own, the figurines and accessories were of excellent quality (the fact that ours are still in good condition even after being messed with by two kids for some five years says it all!) and we had a lot of fun coming up with stories and scenarios for play. I still have every issue of the official magazine released between 2010 and 2013. Also, I am a guy and I never was into MLP. Make of this what you want.

More like boothoof

i find it really funny that in that bootleg squid game lego figure set, the doll is just a recolored circus baby

idc if the filly toys are bootlegs of mlp, I have a collection from my childhood and have lots of nostalgic memories with them, so I like the toys

I had a few Filly toys as a kid, I actually really loved the way they looked and I had NO idea they had a show ! I'm probably gonna check it out for nostalgia lol

I'd like to hear a more in depth deep dive about Mellowy

Another common shunks banger from America’s favorite yak! Love hearing about those horses what don’t look like the normal horses we love

o my god i have a singular fairy filly it looks incredibly similar to the ones shown at like 7:35 never knew about melowy but i love those designs

When I was in college, one of my teachers used to work for Mattel in the Mkt division, she said that MANY bootlegs are actually made by the same manufectures that make the actual toys. Many Bootleg Barbies, have the same face because most are made using actual Mattel molds or even some are dolls that didn't pass quality control. It's also the reason why many of these are so close to the original, because THEY ARE, but probably made with lesse quality materials.

Hearing Geronimo Stilton unlocked a memory for me. I had one of the books gifted to me by my tutor when I was in 3rd grade. I don’t remember what the book title was anymore and I doubt I have it still.