Hasbro My Little Pony Decorating Star Catcher

My little girl loves creative activities especially painting but she isn’t exactly the tidiest of artists, I think she gets that from me, so whenever I can I pick up “mess free” creative toys, such as Aquadraw and toys along those lines. Hasbro’s My Little Pony- Decorating Starcatcher is just one of those toys and seemed to be a great choice tying in Elsa’s love of My Little Pony with her creative side.

Decorating Starcatcher is an oversized My Little Pony, she looks almost identical to her smaller pony version with the main differences being her wings that are smaller and sculpted to her body, unlike the larger separate blue wings of the smaller pony, and her body which, depending on room temperature may be pink, white or blue, rather then just white. Starcatcher herself is a very pretty pony with long curled, pink and blue mane and tail and scrolling symbols on her rump and forehead. The decorating pony though larger is not particularly heavy or bulky making it easy for children to play with and carry around.

Starcatcher comes with a small white comb for styling her hair and 2 small water bottles or “Ice Pens” with caps that remind me a lot of Bingo Dabber pens, the cap unscrews so the bottle/pen can be filled with water and has a filter effect that lets the water flow through. One of the bottles is blue and the other is pink and the idea is that you either fill one with ice cold water and one with hot water or fill them both with water and freeze them (hence the Ice Pen name) When you “draw” with the pens on the ponies body it will change colour, under the white are pink and blue tones which are revealed by the cold water or ice, when you apply hot water the body turns white again.

This is a fun toy for little ones and gives them the chance to decorate and style their own pony without ruining the toy, and is reusable as once you tidy the toy away it reverts back to its white colour ready for next time. It dries out a lot quicker then Aquadraw mats which means Elsa can continuously change the patterns and designs without waiting long for the surface to dry. Providing she changes between the hot and cold options the designs will easily change however if she settled on a design she was content with it would remain for several hours before the pony returned to normal.

While I do think this is a good toy and a nice addition to her pony collection it’s not quite perfect. While the Ice Pen creates designs quickly it can take longer for a design to reveal itself if you go for the cold water option, also when you choose to use hot/cold water in the pens rather then freezing them it can flow too quickly through the filter which often results in puddles on the kitchen table, obviously that’s still preferable to paint handprints but still not ideal, she definitely works far better using the ice method. Another small problem is having nowhere to store the pens and brush on/in the pony meaning they are easily lost if left in the care of younger children and of course storing the pony in general can be tricky if you’re struggling for space amongst your little ones toys because of her size.

Starcatcher is at the more pricy end of the My Little Pony range at around £25, she can be found in most toy stores that stock the range as well as online. We got her for Elsa’s birthday otherwise she probably would not have ended up with her due to the high price, Elsa greatly enjoys playing with Starcatcher despite the few small problems I’ve mentioned and she’s the perfect toy for Elsa to play with while I’m creating Custom Ponies of my own. I would recommend the toy but only as a “special occasion” toy and would definitely say go straight for the ice option as it gets far quicker results.