Prototypes G1, G2, G3

[lovesbabysquirmy]

I want to cry when I think of all the lost prototypes...

Snap. All those beautiful ponies just in landfill 

This is the dark place where my pony dreams go now.   It's getting to the point where if I had ONE irrational wish, it would be to "beam out" all the toys in the landfill and try to sterilize and restore them... but ESPECIALLY ponies!!!

[Taffeta]

I want to cry when I think of all the lost prototypes...

Snap. All those beautiful ponies just in landfill 

This is the dark place where my pony dreams go now.   It's getting to the point where if I had ONE irrational wish, it would be to "beam out" all the toys in the landfill and try to sterilize and restore them... but ESPECIALLY ponies!!!

I always hope that at least some of them ended up with kids of employees, so they had a proper toy life before being consigned to doom.

[SilverHorsey]

Any G3 prototypes anyone? c:

[Shabi]

Don't mean to be rude, but how do you guys know those are prototypes and not really well made customs? Especially the hand painted ones.

[Taffeta]

Don't mean to be rude, but how do you guys know those are prototypes and not really well made customs? Especially the hand painted ones.

There's often much discussion about these, but the painted ones there's a whole story behind, I forget what it is. Also the base colour body of whichever one it is doesn't match any existing pony made in the place her hooves say...which helps.

In terms of Susie, she's been seen by lots of ponypeople and well authenticated. When you put her next to the normal one, she's identical in every way except her pose. The symbol finish is the same, eyes are printed the same, hair is rooted the same. And again, there's no pony that matches her exact colour so you'd have to dye or paint her to get a custom.

I think we are all sceptical about prototypes from time to time and there have been scams. Also the word prototype is often used wrongly. I don't think Susie is a prototype so much as a production sample and the fact that there's also a Billie helps to back that up. It's as if Hasbro were not certain which pose to use for which pony and they made samples and then decided from that point out.

When I got Susie, it was a long time ago. She cost very little, nobody picked her up as odd except me so I got her for cheap. The seller thought she was a normal baby susie and sold her as such. This was in the days before the ebay listings showed on gallery view and back when 90% of pony pictures for ebay were pony-stuck-awkwardly-in-scanner so that kind of rough treatment would have damaged her had she been a custom.

But there are others which are harder to authenticate and a few which people still debate, even now. Reverse Gusty is probably the most famous of those, due to a scam several years ago. I think she probably does exist...but...the problem is knowing how many authentic ones do, because of the number of customs...

But it's a good question to ask and it's also good to be sceptical because unfortunately, scams do happen.