I had heard about Magic Pony from all of my friends in Toronto so after a couple years, I finally ended up dragging my butt out with a couple friends to go check it out. When we got there (it was sort of hard finding the place for us), I was really let down. The whole place struck me as being super pretentious and everything there was super expensive.
All of the Japanese merchandise that I was looking at was way, way overpriced for what it was. I love all sorts of stuffed animals and weird things but I just couldn't justify buying anything here because it was just way too expensive. I also felt like everyone in the store had a sort of a snobby attitude about it all too... like they were in the store just because it was popular and in fashion, as opposed to actually enjoying the merchandise for what it was. Maybe I was just there on a bad day? The staff seemed pleasant enough and were helpful when one of my friends had some questions about some of the books being sold.
I guess I'm just missing something here, since everyone else seems to like the place so much. I guess I just can't get past my first impression. I think it's great that they sell local artwork and support local artists, so that part of the store I actually do like... but the rest is just kind of "meh" to me.