Hasbro 2" Pony Adventurers (Conversion)

[Jordan Peacock]

Backstory: Once upon a time, Wendy used to be a gamer. She even used to play in my games! However, she has skipped out on the last two campaigns I've run. Recently, she asked me what I wanted for Christmas. I wanted the same thing as I'd wanted when she asked me what I wanted for a birthday present: for her to join in on one of my games sometime. She expressed that the PROBLEM, however, was ... zombies. My present campaign is a zombie-apocalypse campaign. My previous campaign was a Pirates of the Spanish Main RPG with ... zombie pirates. My NEXT campaign I've been gearing up for ... well, it doesn't precisely have ZOMBIES in it, but some of the cyborgs sure look zombie-like.

So, what sort of game might interest her? Maybe something harmless. With ponies.

Hey, I can do that. (Maybe only as a one-shot gag adventure, sure, because I don't think my regular group would be up for a whole campaign, but I can do that....)

TADA! My Little Dungeon-Delvers!

Pony Pack

First, I started with a "Pinkie Pie & Friends Pony Power Pack" from Wal-Mart ($20 for 12 2"-tall plastic ponies). Wendy laid claim to four of the main (mane?) characters from the cartoon, while I used the "clonies" (duplicates of the same poses, just with different paint jobs and flank marks) for my work.

Base Experimentation

At 2" tall, these are a bit large for using with my 25mm-32mm scale scenery ... but I found that with my Hirst Arts dungeon sections, scale isn't really that critical. I tried to squeeze them onto 30mm or 25mm round bases, but that didn't really cut it. I ended up putting them on HeroClix bases (leftover from conversions) instead. That means that each one occupies just a little less than a 1.5" square on a grid. (Fortunately, my dungeon sections are usually at least 2" wide, and I have a number of Hirst Arts dungeon pieces deliberately done up in Clix-friendly tile scale.)

Door Scale Comparison

The ponies look a little bit too large next to my 25mm-scale dungeon doors, alas. However, my old Warhammer Quest plastic doors seem to look all right next to them, and not surprisingly my Mage Knight 3D Dungeon doors look just fine with them. I may have to make a few custom Hirst Arts door inserts for my existing dungeon scenery to accommodate them. Just to be goofy, I'm thinking of trying to make the doors two-part, like stable doors, as another "horse" cue. I'll see how much trouble is needed for that. (I can probably simulate that with a few pieces of craft wood over a "wooden" dungeon door. I'm not planning on hinging these things.)

(Disclaimers: "My Little Pony" is a trademark of Hasbro.)

MLP Adventurer - Rogue:

Originally a 2" plastic "Rainbow Swirl" from the Wal-Mart "Pinkie Pie & Friends / Pony Power Pack." For each of the pony adventurers, I used a HeroClix base with some Apoxie Sculpt epoxy putty (thin layer on top, jammed against a textured surface, then with "cracks" carved in). I used a bit more putty for the headband and face-mask. The rest is just re-painting with acrylics.

I picked up two types of Apoxie Sculpt from my local supplier. One was just "plain" epoxy putty. The other was a pair of jars, one of which had the usual hardener, but the other had black dye mixed in with the putty. When mixed, it looks pretty solid black. The downside is that the dye gets on my fingers pretty quickly, and occasionally smudges on other surfaces. The upside is that it's not that hard to clean off, and it works pretty nicely for this sort of sloppy conversion where I'm just adding some putty and painting it on the fly rather than carefully doing things in layers, base-coating the figure, etc. The black putty in recessed, hard-to-paint areas looks MUCH better than a bit of grey I can't reach. For this particular figure, I only used a bit of the black putty to make the headband and around the eyes to give a sense of depth to the "ninja suit" -- and then it blended into the body, where the rest of the "ninja suit" is just black acrylic paint over the plastic body.

This character will likely be a "rogue" type -- in Savage Worlds terms, with the "Thief" Edge and appropriate skills. Likely character sheet name: "Lighthoof."

Edited December 27, 2012 by Jordan Peacock

[Jordan Peacock]

MLP Adventurer - Ranger:

Originally "Dainty Daisy" from the Wal-Mart pack, but now turned into a ranger type (woodspony?) with a couple of plastic "bitz" (the bow/arrow, and the feather), and some Apoxie Sculpt epoxy putty (hat, drape, base decoration).

Likely name: "Meadow Canter." The "meadow" part sounds outdoorsy, and might go well with the flower-basket symbol I left on, while "canter" sounds horsey, but also serves as an almost synonym for "walk" (which I tend to associate with the "strider"/"ranger" archetype). In Savage Worlds terms, I'd go for the "Woodsman" package. And, yes, that's a bow for the horse. It's a cartoon horse. It just WORKS somehow.

Really, I'm just running this as a gag adventure that's more-or-less a typical dungeon delve, but with the novelty of having "ponies" in lieu of your standard elf/dwarf/halfling/human lineup for the adventurers. I'm not going to go too far into complicated mechanisms to account for the fact that they're quadrupeds. This is for amusement factor, not a serious venture.

[Jordan Peacock]

MLP Adventurer - Elementalist:

Originally "Water Fire," but I renamed her to ... "Firewater." (Hey, I thought it was a cool mark.) The hat is courtesy of some putty; the wand is from a Warhammer Fantasy "High Elf" plastic sprue I picked up at a local "game bazaar." In Savage Worlds terms, this would be our arcane spellcaster, with fire and water trappings for powers, and non-combat skills focused on scholarly things such as Investigation and Knowledge (Arcana).

Edit: As a token Reaper inclusion, I have P02887A -- specifically, the "death pony" -- that is due for some Pine-Sol treatment and a fresh paint job, as metal is showing through on the nose and mane after years of use in very warped encounters. (I find excuses for tiny nightmares and evil animated toys in a number of different campaigns I've run: Ghostbusters, Wonderland No More, standard dungeon fantasy in a "mad wizard's tower," World of Warcraft RPG in a "mad tinker's shop," etc.) I'm thinking of painting it up in similar colors to "Firewater," and having it represent the creature conjured by a Summon Guardian power. Now I just have to figure out whether I should give it a complete base of its own, or leave it on the original integrated base (such that it can actually fit on the space left on Firewater's base in front). I might try a compromise, and give it a stand-alone base it can slot into (with some putty and an impression).

Edited December 28, 2012 by Jordan Peacock

[Jordan Peacock]

MLP Adventurer - Bard:

Originally "Seascape," but now "Cacophony" -- a pony bard (musician). I can't claim to be the least bit original with coming up with the concept of a bard pony with a jumble of instruments, especially since the figure itself is basically a Pinkie Pie clone (clony?), but I had the pieces (sprue "bitz" I picked up at another Game Bazaar) and thought they'd work: a horn-thingie from a Warhammer Dwarves sprue, and a couple of drums from some Warhammer Empire sprues. Otherwise, the miniature is mostly left as-is -- save that I painted on some little musical notes for the flank mark in an attempt to make it tie in somehow. I've seen pictures of some of these pony toys that have a flank mark that looks like a musical note, etc., but I'm trying to get as much mileage as I can out of this one Wal-Mart pack, rather than buying tons of toys for a one-shot project. (Besides, there's the risk that if I buy more, Wendy might claim more of them for herself. ;) "Rarity," "Apple Jack," "Pinkie Pie," and "Rainbow Dash" were rescued from the conversion pile, or else I'd have 12 ponies to work with.)

[Jordan Peacock]

MLP Adventurer - Herbalist:

Originally "Pick-a-Lily," but transformed here into a woodsy herbalist/healer type, with a bit of putty (to add the pouch, and for the "flowers" on the textured base). Character-wise, I'm thinking of naming this one "Spring Lily" (fits the symbol, and sounds "flowery"), and fixing it up as an outdoorsy type, but with a healing rather than a martial focus (as opposed to the "ranger"). I might give this character the Beast Master Edge, with an animal sidekick -- but I need to find something suitably cartoony to represent such a character.

I'm pondering seeing how the Champions of Justice & Caeke look next to these ponies, as they might work for critter allies.

For enemies, I have a few small containers of Play Doh with day-glo colors that I'm sure can be turned into various interesting blobby adversaries. (Blobs, golems, phantoms, elementals, clockwork constructs, slimes, ghosts and such work great for "kid-friendly" or "Wendy-friendly" adversaries, for a fairly bloodless adventure. Now, if I also run this as a convention one-shot for Necronomicon 2013, on the other hand, I'll probably bring the red Play-Doh along, and use it for EXCESSIVE AMOUNTS OF GORE -- but Wendy won't be there for that.)

[Jordan Peacock]

MLP Adventurer - Knight/Paladin:

Originally "Periwinkle," but now transformed via a few plastic "bitz" (the feathers and the decorative helmet wings) and some Apoxie Sculpt (most everything else) into a knight/war-pony type. I also have a High Elf lance I've been working on, once I figure out how in the world to attach it (slung somehow onto the armor?). Tentative name: "Golden Heart" (and I'll put a big embossed "heart" on the flank of the chainmail barding, and paint it gold, of course). In game terms, this would be the "fighter" type, either relying on "iron-shod hooves" (I suppose I should actually add some "weaponized horse-shoes"), or that aforementioned lance as a primary weapon.

[Jordan Peacock]

MLP Adventurer - Monk:

Originally "Kiwi Tart," but I scraped off the original Cutie Mark, painted on a new one, and used some black-dyed Apoxie Sculpt for a headband, for the easiest of these "conversions." I'm thinking of painting miniature trigrams around the hoof-print yin-yang symbol I've got there, and giving the character a mystic-sounding name like "Eight Winds." In Savage Worlds terms, this would be the character specializing in "bare-hoof" combat, aiming toward such Edges as Martial Artist, Brawler, Acrobat, etc.

[Slendertroll]

This is the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen.

 

I love it.

[Jordan Peacock]

MLP Adventurer - Cleric:

Originally "Star Dasher," but now "Sister Charity" -- a cleric type, modified with some Apoxie Sculpt and acrylic paint for a "habit."

I've checked with Wendy for clarification, and she's confirmed that SKELETONS and GHOSTS are okay -- just not zombies with "guts and stuff going everywhere." So, there will still be some undead worth turning/warding/exorcizing/etc.

I just have to figure out how to represent said undead. My existing skeleton army won't cut it.

... Nope. Doesn't look quite right. I shudder at the thought of doing a custom pony-proportioned skeleton (and then repeating the process a few times), but I might try for something very simple and cartoony. Ghosts should be easy: there are some clear "crystal" pony toys, if I can get a few cheaply, where I could just paint the eyes "glowing white" or "burning red," put it on a base with some "light source" effects, and -- tada! Instant horse haunt.

[Matbar]

My husband happened to look over my shoulder just as the first pretty pony picture was there and wanted to know what in the heck I was looking at. This is so fantastically weird. We both loved it. The custom work on them must have been so much fun. I can only imagine you giggling madly like Renfield as you worked, knowing she would be totally floored.

[buglips*the*goblin]

I take my Mad Hat off to you, sir. This is epic level insanity, and I approve.

[Inarah]

Toy gaming, I love it. Looks like fun!

[ObsidianCrane]

Love the Ranger, Wizard & Paladin!

 

How old is Wendy?

[Nocturne]

I really cannot express how much I love this

[kit]

I love it! Brilliant use of ponies!