Quick Question

[bright rabbit 1]

Quick question, do all baby ponies follow their adults symbol in G1? As I'm doing baby ponies for the big brothers.

[Sweet Daes]

Huh... Well, look at that. According to G1 canon, this would be a "no" and "yes", surprisingly...

Clover: http://mylittlewiki.org/w/images/7/75/Clover.jpg
Her dad: http://mylittlewiki.org/wiki/Clover%27s_father
Her mom: http://mylittlewiki.org/wiki/Clover%27s_mother
Granted, this is specifically from My Little Pony Tales (1992), but there was more of a focus on them in that as a community than as a wild, sentient herd of equines that the original series did based on the toys did. In the original series, family units were not delved into as much nor how symbols were obtained or passed down (and had them at an early age), but there were family units of the toys.

Prior to Pony Tales, the foal had a mix of both the mom and dad's marks, but these were never debuted in the original cartoon series (1988):
http://www.ponyology.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/nothing/SDC10176.jpg
In G1, there were also babies with blank flanks, like Ember from My Little Pony: Rescue From Midnight Castle AKA My Little Pony: Firefly's Adventure (1984)
http://cdn.playbuzz.com/cdn/6543d002-0073-4560-843f-a37abcfa0f2d/db7cb5f5-8bb5-44a3-a3b7-62af268d2a5f_560_420.jpg

Since canon is kinda wishy-washy about a baby's symbol, I would I say let your imagination run.

[Safflower]

I would say they have a simplified version of their parent's symbol. For example, Lickety a Split has a bunch of ice cream cones while Baby Lickety Split just has three. Firefly has two lightning bolts but Baby Firefly just has one. I think all of the play and care sets have simplified symbols actually. So do BBEs except maybe Baby Sundance and Baby Lofty (maybe a couple more) but their symbols were simple enough already I guess. The families have two parents though, so the babies have a mix of their mother's and their father's symbol. I wouldn't take in to consideration Ember, as Ember was parentless and was the first baby, or the rainbow babies because they didn't have mothers. Also, the tv shows and comics have different canon than they toys, and you aren't animating a show or drawing a comic.

The cannon for single parents is that their babies were cloned from a mirror. The families didn't follow this. I'm assuming your big brothers are going to be single parents like the play and care sets and BBEs so they would probably follow the cannon of baby ponies coming from mirrors. The symbol would be still recognizable as that brother's symbol, but it would be simpler and less detailed. Or if it was simple enough, like Quarterback maybe, you could just use the same symbol. It's really up to you. Hasbro probably made baby symbols less detailed because it was a smaller space, but you can paint the details of the symbol if you want the detail because you don't have to mass produce them. If you want to follow toy cannon though, I would suggest making them simpler if they aren't simple already.

[bright rabbit 1]

Thank you both, Baby Slugger is only going to have a baseball, Baby Tex one catus, those two are the only ones I can think of.

The ones that are driving me crazy are:

Baby Ice Crystal
Baby Tornado
Baby Salty
Baby 4-Speed
Baby Quarterback
Baby Fireball
Baby Sunburst

[cyberunicorn]

Not much to add on the symbols to be honest but I would love to see them when you are done.

Though I always thought that the big brothers sired all of the baby ponies (apart from the loving families) has gone out of the window. 😂 ( might not be correct but I think am gonna stick with it)

[Carrehz]

lol, talking about "canon" for stuff like this is kind of a silly concept. The UK comics came up with the "ponies are born from mirrors" concept, yes, but nothing else used that AFAIK. The UK comics also had ponies being 'born' from wishes and drawings come to life with magic, so... :p

As far as the toys are concerned, G1 baby symbols were either exactly the same as their mother's symbol, or a simplified version of it. (I.e. Firefly's symbol is two lightning bolts and Baby Firefly has only one lightning bolt) Except for the Family Friends ponies (symbols that were different but followed a basic theme) and the Loving Family ponies (babies symbols combined both of their parents' symbols together).

G2 babies have symbols that are uniquely theirs, but similar in design to their mother's. (i.e. Ivy and Fern both have purple flower symbols)

Honestly, they're your customs so I'd say just go with whatever you think looks best. That's more important than "canon", IMO.

[Safflower]

These are just my ideas, hope they help!

Ice Crystal - Maybe a fee bigger crystals and shimmer thingies?
Tornado - Still that style of drawing a tornado but with less lines?
Salty - Same ship, just with one porthole and only one wave?
4-Speed - Less details, so no window, handle, and the little lines?
Quarterback - I would keep it the same, it's pretty simple. You could take the little dash marks off if you wanted too though?
Fireball - Keep it! You can't really simplify it
Sunburst - Less rays and bigger rays?

[bright rabbit 1]

These are just my ideas, hope they help!

Ice Crystal - Maybe a fee bigger crystals and shimmer thingies?
Tornado - Still that style of drawing a tornado but with less lines?
Salty - Same ship, just with one porthole and only one wave?
4-Speed - Less details, so no window, handle, and the little lines?
Quarterback - I would keep it the same, it's pretty simple. You could take the little dash marks off if you wanted too though?
Fireball - Keep it! You can't really simplify it
Sunburst - Less rays and bigger rays?

Thank you for the ideas.

[LadyMoondancer]

Agree that the idea of "canon" for G1 ponies is sort of pointless.  It wasn't something that was planned out ahead of time, in terms of having a unified universe that 'made sense.'

Like even if we say "Oh, most babies look just like their moms", then you still have the Newborn Twins, who each have the same symbol (even the male-female pairs of twins) and SOMETIMES share the exact same color scheme and sometimes don't.  And there's a pamphlet where Baby Lucky is described in a pamphlet as "the very first BOY pony", which would mean the Big Brothers are all younger than him . . . 

Plus the Twice As Fancy babies where half of them are a different breed than their mom.  The only thing consistent about G1 is that they were focused on making great toys.

Basically just do what you want and don't worry about 'canon', lol.

[Carrehz]

And there's a pamphlet where Baby Lucky is described in a pamphlet as "the very first BOY pony", which would mean the Big Brothers are all younger than him . . . 

I think that meant "first boy pony in the toyline", not "first boy pony in-universe"

[LadyMoondancer]

I don't think Hasbro really saw a difference at the time, lol.  The description was something like: "And look who's jumping over the fence!  It's Satin 'n Lace's little cousin Lucky.  He's the very first BOY pony and is extra special because he can't be bought in any store!"

So he's both described as a toy (can't be bought in any store) and a real 'person' (he's jumping over a gate and is related to Satin 'n Lace).

[Sweet Daes]

Would symbols grow with the pony? It would be odd for an adult pony to have a baby bottle as their mark. In my mind, it would be super neat if the marks "grew" and matured with the foal, where there is potential that the adult mark would be similar to their parents'. For instance:

Baby Ice Crystal - An ice cube
Baby Tornado - Dark gray swirling Wind gusts in a yin-yang shape, potentially?
Baby Salty - A sailboat or a toy boat of some sort, or a buoy.
Baby 4-Speed - A toy truck, or a cement truck.
Baby Quarterback - The 50 yard line!
Baby Fireball - A "fireball" in the shape of a raindrop
Baby Sunburst - Something like a star going supernova.

Just throwing some ideas out there, if you would like to take them and run  :3

[ZeldaTheSwordsman]

I actually like the mirror from the UK comics. That particular instance of magical reproduction would actually seem to have some logical thought behind it, that being to supply an explanation for the "Mostly identical to their mother" baby ponies like Baby Sundance, Baby Firefly, Baby Gusty, etc.

I would say that the "mostly identical" babies tend to have a similar symbol to their parents, while the babies with a more distinct look like the Newborn Twins have more distinct symbols.