Princess Rinse 'n Spit, the Demon Donkey, and Why MLP Fakies Are Collector Gold

In the My Little Pony collector world, there is a fakie so beloved that even people who don't collect fakies want one. Her name - the name the collector community gave her, with full affection and zero irony - is Princess Rinse 'n Spit. She has an extremely pronounced open jaw full of big horsey teeth, a light-up heart on her forehead, and a speaker in her mouth. She is not subtle. She is not trying to be. And she is completely magnificent.

Chap Mei bootleg my little pony's

First: what is a fakie?

In the MLP collector community, "fakie" is the affectionate term for any knockoff or bootleg My Little Pony - an unofficial G1-era pony produced without Hasbro's permission, in the same general shape and spirit as the real thing but distinctly, gloriously its own. The word carries none of the dismissiveness you might expect. In pony circles, "fakie" is said with warmth, curiosity, and genuine collector enthusiasm.

Bootleg My Little Ponies have existed almost as long as the originals. The moment Hasbro's pastel ponies started flying off shelves in the early 1980s, other manufacturers started producing their own versions - some close enough to pass a casual glance, others so magnificently off-model that they became their own category of vintage collectible entirely.

The MLP fakie world is so large and well-documented that it has its own dedicated wikis, collector communities, forums, and price guides. There are collectors who collect nothing but fakies. This is not a side note to My Little Pony collecting. This is a whole parallel universe - and it is absolutely worth knowing about.

The Hall of Fame - MLP fakies with their own fan clubs

The manufacturers behind the MLP fakies

Mei Ah Toys Limited was one of the most prolific bootleg pony producers, active from 1984 all the way to 2015. Their Pretty Pony line spawned countless variants across multiple countries and multiple decades. Princess Rinse 'n Spit is a Mei Ah creation - which means she is, in the most technical sense, a vintage My Little Pony knockoff with a thirty-year production history. Respect.

The Spanish long ponies are another well-documented MLP fakie type - so named because their proportions give their bodies an elongated, stretched appearance, like a pony that took a very wrong turn at the taffy factory. They come with squeakers. They are magnificent.

Totsy's are a collector favourite - American-market fakies with their own dedicated following and enough variation to keep a collector busy for years. If you find a Totsy fakie priced as a generic, that's a good day.

Then there's the Remco Pretty Pets line - which included glow-in-the-dark rainbow pony fakies that are now genuinely hard to find. If you grew up with one and still have it, do not let it go without checking what it's worth first.

More Chap Mei fakies

What makes a fakie worth collecting?

Most MLP fakies are worth a few dollars at most - and that's completely fine, because most of them are bought for joy rather than investment. But the collector community is very clear that certain fakies command real attention and real money:

• Personality - Princess Rinse 'n Spit is beloved because she has a face you cannot forget. The weirder the fakie pony looks, the more collectors want her. Imperfection is the whole point.
• Rarity - some MLP fakies were produced in tiny numbers or sold only in specific regions. Takara fakie babies barely left Japan. Regional exclusivity is a genuine value driver in the vintage pony collectibles market.
• Community-assigned identity - the names collectors give fakies become part of their story and their value. A fakie with a beloved community name has cultural weight that a generic Pretty Pony on a shelf doesn't. Princess Rinse 'n Spit is worth more than "Mei Ah Open Mouth Pony." The name matters.
• Condition and packaging - a fakie mint on card is significantly rarer than a loose one, and the original packaging often features gloriously borrowed artwork and magnificently creative naming. The box is part of the charm.

The honest collector's guide to buying bootleg My Little Ponies

Most fakies are not valuable and don't pretend to be. A Pretty Pony fakie is a Pretty Pony fakie - buy it because you love it, because it made you laugh, because it has a face only a collector could appreciate. That is a completely legitimate reason.

The exceptions - Princess Rinse 'n Spit, Takara babies, Totsy's, Remco Pretty Pets - are worth knowing about if you're hunting in op shops, at fairs, or in job lots. Spotted one priced as a generic knockoff pony? That's a find worth knowing about.

Where it gets complicated is fakies being sold as genuine G1 My Little Ponies - priced and presented as the real thing. Know your originals well enough to tell the difference. The My Little Wiki fakie identification page is the best resource out there for this and it's linked in the rabbit hole below. If you're spending real G1 money, spend five minutes there first.

Why the MLP fakie collector community is something special

Here's the thing about fakie collectors that I genuinely love: they looked at toys that the broader world dismissed as cheap knockoffs and decided they deserved documentation. They deserved names. They deserved love and forum threads and price guides and identification wikis built entirely out of enthusiasm.

Nobody told them to care about bootleg My Little Ponies. They just did. And because they did, Princess Rinse 'n Spit has a fan page, Crumpet has a documented barbecue accessory, and the Demon Donkey has her own entry in a collector wiki that treats her with exactly the same seriousness as a genuine G1 pony. As it should be.

Every MLP fakie that ended up in a collector's herd instead of a landfill is a small act of rescue. Every open-jawed, big-toothed, speaker-mouthed pony that gets her own forum thread is proof that the things we love are worth celebrating - even when, maybe especially when, they have absolutely no business being as beloved as they are.