Rainbow Dash

When we reviewed Pinkie Pie (yes, this is a thing now, shut up), she was a character we'd already covered in the past. But today we finally get someone new! She chooses loyalty above all else! Well of course she does! In the Elements of Harmony, Rainbow Dash represents loyalty! It's kind of her "thing." She's the fastest flier in all of Equestria, and the only thing she likes more than going fast is winning - she's super competitive, but still puts her friends above her own victories. She has a level of self-confidence that often borders on brashness, but is concerned about the way others view her: she loves to read, but worries that hobby doesn't fit with her image as a world-class athelete; and she vehemently rejects any suggestion that she's in any way "girly." Creator Lauren Faust based Rainbow Dash on a G1 My Little Pony she owned as a girl, Firefly. If you asked someone who had only the vaguest familiarity with MLP to design a Pony, Firefly is probably what they'd come up with: she was a pegasus, she was pink, and she had bright blue hair. As you can tell, it was more her daredevil personality that inspired the creation of Rainbow Dash (though she gets her name and her mane from a Generation 3 pony). Befitting her "tomboy" nature, Rainbow Dash's hair is a bit messy and her eyelashes are straight - everybody else gets slightly curved lashes. Her mane is done in big chunky strands, each painted red, orange, yellow, or green. The spectrum continues on her tail, which does blue, indigo, and violet. Now, in the show, she gets the full rainbow on both scalp and flank, but the intention is clear, here. Her eyes are painted with the eyebrows down over the tops - not to make her look mean, just to make her look focused or determined. Like Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash's head is meant to be viewed from the left, but her body is meant to be viewed from the right - you can tell, because Hasbro only painted the cutie mark on that side. The original G3 Rainbow Dash had a mark of a rainbow stretching between two clouds; G1 Firefly, meanwhile, had two sparkly blue lightning bolts. That's what Faust originally gave this version, but it was changed first to a single tricolor bolt, then later to a curving red, yellow, and blue lightning bolt emerging from a white cloud. In other words, the type of thing that would be kind of hard to customize onto her left hip by yourself. Since Dash is our first figure who's not an earth pony, so her articulation is slightly different from the others we've reviewed so far - namely, she has wings poking out of her back, rather than just a smooth surface. Each wing is on its own little balljoint, but the sockets sit so far down into the torso that the range of motion isn't very large at all. Other than that, she has the standard: a swivel/hinge neck, shoulders, and elbows; swivel hips; and what seems to be a balljoint for the tail. We really wish she'd come with a flight stand of some sort, since she tends to hover even when walking around with her friends. The only accessory that's indisputably for her is a pair of goggles. She also has a golden badge, like the other figures have, and what Hasbro's official product page refers to as a "lightning bolt sword." Is-- is that a thing? It's a yellow bolt coming out of a cloud, and can clip to Rainbow Dash's leg, so... I guess it is a thing? Who knows? More importantly, the set includes Tank, her pet turtle! Rainbow Dash was the last of the group to get a pet, holding a series of contests to pick the best one. The turtle tortoise came in last in every one, but he was so desperate to be someone's pet that he just kept trying. So that Tank can keep up with his owner, he wears a little helicopter backpack strapped to his shell, and has a pair of aviator goggles to protect his eyes. It's great that they gave us Tank, but now I'm mad that Pinkie Pie didn't include her pet, Gummy. They should all have their pets! Rainbow Dash is another nice Guardians of Harmony figure, though we'd have liked a better range of motion on the wings. I'm not sure how that could be accomplished, however, because I'm no engineer, and if they did figure out a way to do it better in the future, that would seem kind of unfair to this speedster. Props to throwing in her loyal pet, though! -- 03/24/17

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