What Every Girl Wants: My Little Star Wars Pony

Move over Bronies, there’s a new crew of unexpected My Little Pony fans in town…and they travel deep. I’m talking ’bout Star Wars nerds! Back in 2012, Etsy seller Roogna’s custom ponies brought that galaxy far, far away considerably closer to the toy shelf.

Meet the Artist Behind the Ponies

Roogna creates custom ponies that fit a range of nerdy interests, and of course, Star Wars is among them. The Mary Sue identified the artist as Sheena Henderson in its October 2012 coverage. These are individually altered figures, with their familiar pony shapes doing some spectacularly unfamiliar jobs.

On her Patreon biography, Roogna traces her customizing work to the mid 1990s. Her practice includes restoring vintage ponies, replacing hair, painting, and sculpting. She also describes teaching customization at GeekGirlCon in 2012 and later conventions. She says most pieces take weeks or months, with several projects underway at once. Apparently, turning a tiny horse into something completely different requires more than an enthusiastic afternoon with a marker.

How a Pony Joins the Empire

The original Incredible Things story described her method: modify existing My Little Pony figures with Apoxie Sculpt, hair changes, and paint. She builds onto the frame to make the ponies into things like Stormtroopers and AT-ATs, then hand paints and seals them. The horse is still in there somewhere. It has simply accepted an unusually demanding costume assignment.

The Leia collage makes the transformation easy to appreciate: a long braided tail, carefully sculpted costume details, and a signature dated 2012 underneath. The Leia pony’s little wings remain visible beside the costume. The braid reaches past her hooves, turning a familiar pony feature into part of the character design. Another collage pairs her with Chewbacca, Lando, Yoda, a Stormtrooper, and an Imperial walker. The walker keeps four legs, which seems like a very sensible place to start this particular career change.

More Than One Artist in This Galaxy

Star Wars pony customs extend beyond Roogna’s collection. Other examples here include work by Mari Kasurinen, whose name appears on the Chewbacca and Darth Vader images. Her own portfolio features a My Little Darth Vader, while contemporary coverage also documents her Stormtrooper. Those figures belong to a separate artist’s body of work.

The mixed collage brings several interpretations together; it isn’t a single Roogna lineup. Look at the black helmet, white armor, oversized eyes, and carefully arranged hair. The pleasure is in recognizing the character while still seeing the pony underneath. Somehow, Imperial menace survives the addition of a tail. The Empire really does accessorize.

An Old Collection, Still a Great Mashup

These images document custom artwork, rather than a promise that the pictured pieces are available today. In December 2015, Equestria Daily noted that many circulating examples were already years old and unavailable then. Roogna’s Etsy shop remains a useful artist link, but an old photograph is no reservation slip.

Whatever your preferred side of the Force, there’s something wonderfully ridiculous about giving its characters hooves. Rainbow Dash, meet Yoda.