Cherry Treats & Discolouration

[Taffeta]

I don't know if it's been mentioned before, but there's a Petite pony advertisement that has Cherry Treats in it (for scale.)  I think she's the version with a forelock.

I posted it above She has no forelock in it. But she does in the other ad I posted.

Chinese ones with forelock seem to be only in the US, so I don't think it has anything to do with our line. But the 1990 threshold is a possibility. Though we had baby fancy pants with forelocks in around the same year of the Sweetberries, and forelocks in stand out colours as well...even where the US ones didn't. And they were also Chinese, rather than Thai. Some stuff clearly happened around 1990.

[LadyMoondancer]

The baby ponies of 1990 - 1991 had forelocks, like the Baby Ballerina sets.  But none of the adults that year.  I think all the babies the next year didn't have forelocks, like the Tropical Babies.

[Taffeta]

The baby ponies of 1990 - 1991 had forelocks, like the Baby Ballerina sets.  But none of the adults that year.  I think all the babies the next year didn't have forelocks, like the Tropical Babies.

The 1990 UK Hasbro catalogue begs to differ on that timeline...the Candy Canes and SHS all have forelocks and the actual ponies do too. I'm aware they're earlier ponies in the US, but that time dynamic doesn't work with Europe because the release schedules aren't quite as pinpoint over here.

In any case, now I'm here with my stuff, I can confirm that Cherry Treats, Strawberry Surprise and Raspberry Jam all appear in the 1990 Hasbro catalogue with forelocks. And Cherry Treats also appears with a forelock in the photo for the Show Stable. But I imagine those images were taken using what was already in US production. The same catalogue shows purple haired Baby Splashes...

[LadyMoondancer]

The original Sweetheart Sisters, the Prom Queen Sisters, and the Glittery Sweetheart Sisters were for the year 1989 - 1990.  I'm talking about the year after that, 1990 - 1991, Year 9.

It does get a little confusing when both have "1990" as part of them, but I'm talking about in terms of production years.

[Taffeta]

The original Sweetheart Sisters, the Prom Queen Sisters, and the Glittery Sweetheart Sisters were for the year 1989 - 1990.  I'm talking about the year after that, 1990 - 1991, Year 9.

It does get a little confusing when both have "1990" as part of them, but I'm talking about in terms of production years.

I'm talking in terms of production years too, though, just UK ones. I'm working from Hasbro UK's own list here, but Hasbro in the UK catalogued their pony production by calendar years. Even though it's a bit fluid in places, I use that as my benchmark for releases over here, so I am in fact talking about 1990 as a production year. Not 1989-90 and not 1990-1, but 1990 as per Hasbro UK's records.

Just to illustrate how the US timeline doesn't apply here, I had Starflash for Christmas 1991 and I bought Wild Flower with my Christmas money a few days later. According to Hasbro UK's list and the only production catalogue I own, Wild Flower is 1990 (but still available clearly in 1991!). The list says Starflash is 1991, which is backed up by advertising.

I think the key thing here about the forelocks isn't so much what the US release schedule was, because in general the UK didn't follow it. What seems to matter  with the Sweetberry set vs the other sets is not that the other sets came out before 1990 in the US. It's the lack of continuation. The Sweetberry Ponies were the last scented set really to come to the UK. That's how I remember them, as the last ones of the four sets. But that doesn't fit with the US release at all. There is a gap in production between US (1988-1989) and UK (1990). There isn't a gap in production between 1989-90 (US) and 1990 in terms of the other sets.

So basically the Sweetberry production probably began again from scratch, using the old designs but whatever was the style that ponies in CHina were starting to show around 1990. I think that's the real explanation here. That there was no continuation for that set, whereas with the others, there was.

Why that happened, I wouldn't like to guess. But clearly they shelved the Sweetberry idea for a year here. Maybe because they were still selling Sundae Best ponies in 1989? I'm not sure.

Hasbro UK's trade catalogue lists them as new for 1990. It says the same about the basic SHS and the Candy Canes, too. I think it must be about continuation vs new production. It's the only thing that makes sense.

Technically over here the baby ballerinas also belong to 1992, by which time of course adult forelocks really are a thing of the past...but there are a ton of OTHER variations going on instead ><