Shopkins Pony: Ringa Bell

December 7, 2024.

Shopkins began as a Moose Toys brand that depicted miniature goods as little characters with adorable cartoon faces. The Shopkins characters could be anything from food items, toys, makeup, or household goods. The first "season" of Shopkins was released in 2014. As of 2024, the series is still running, with a total of 17 seasons having seen commercial release. To accompany the Shopkins toys, mini dolls called the "Shoppies" were released in 2016. The Shoppies are small fashion dolls with brushable hair that wear outfits themed after similar subject as the Shopkins-- food, collectable items, and other things generally liked by children. Proceeding deeper into the Shopkins universe: Lil' Shoppies are even smaller mini dolls that are more like plastic figurines with articulation at the shoulders and hips. The Lil' Shoppies have hard plastic molded hair and removable outfits. The Lil Shoppies live in the "Happy Places" dollhouses that are furnished with Shopkins. This Happy world, of course, includes toy Ponies (written with a capital "P" on the toy backing cards) that live in the Happy Places stables.
Like any good fantasy horse toys, the Lil' Shoppies ponies are multicolored and come in various flavors-- including colorful ponies, unicorns, winged horses, and mermaid-ponies (seahorses?).

Ringa Bell is a purple unicorn with yellow hooves, and yellow freckles dotting the below her yellow eyes. Her hair is cutely styled-- she has bangs, and the remainder of her hair is tied into two cone-shaped buns on either side of her head, both attached to two long, curly ringlets. Her hair is two toned, but the difference between the two shades of purple is pretty subtle. Her tail is also separated into two ringlet pigtails. Green ribbons threaded with round bells adorn her body, attached to her hair, around her neck, and at the base of her tail. Her saddle is the same yellow color as the bells and her other features, and is embellished with a cutout remembling the throats of sleigh bells.
Ringa Bell seems to match the Lil Shoppies character, Isabell, who is also bell themed. It seems that new Ringa Bells came packaged with a Shopkins "petkin" which is a round, yellow bell with kitty cat ears, and a cute smiling face. The following photos of Isabell and Ringa Bell come from the WalMart website:

The Shopkins Ponies are really, really cute. I'm impressed with the amount of detail in this figure, and Ringa Bell's design is really cute. The paint application is a little messy in some areas, but for a small figure, it has a lot of good sculpted details. I'm impressed by all her colorful bells and ribbons, and her intricate hairstyle. Ringa Bell was a thrift store find, so I'll hope to get lucky and come across more Shopkins Ponies in the future.