Question about Nirvana Pony Manufacturers

[Beth3346]

I remember reading a few years back (I don't quite remember where) that El Greco was suspected of manufacturing My Little Ponies without authorization from Hasbro.  From what I remember this wasn't confirmed.

But my question is were all ponies manufactured by companies other than Hasbro allowed to manufacture MLP.  Are some of them technically fakies? Maybe that accounts for the strange plastic and other differences in ponies?

Really just a random thought that popped into my head.

[CinnamonOnions]

I honestly have no idea. What I'm most suspicious of is venezuelans and south africans honestly.
Argentinians seem to use the Hasbro logo on the cards corner and in general the backcards are very offical in style, brazilians and argentinians both are actualy done by companies that also did He-Man toy variants for example, brazilians in general seem very authentic, colombians are actualy marked Hasbro at times, french and spanish ponies are very obviously authentic (piggies too, the later piggies have the same manufacturer as other spanish ponies), italians as well as they were distributed all over Europe like HK/China ponies and are marked Hasbro, indians most likely are real considering how they look and hoof marking styling, Macaus are definetly authentic despite odd hooves, I think japanese ponies have been confirmed (also Takara is too big and popular to afford meddling with bootlegs), Mexico confirmedly had playset boxes only minorly edited from their US counterparts, peruvian packaging had the Hasbo logo, greek ponies used Hasbros art and backcards and babies boxes even had the Hasbro logo, south africans claimedly had normal backcards, venezuelans except squeaky butts use authentic looking boxes and logos and art.
In general, do fakies with authentic ponies symbols even exist? That would solve the remaining questions.

As for the wide differences, it's simply due to nirvanas being manufactured localy. For example Colombia apparently used rubber as it's a huge natural resource there. Hasbro only provided the molds (or so I have understood) and not the plastic or hair. So of course each country uses different types of materials. Washers too are different by country, even though most nirvanas use similar washers some like piggies had completely unique washers. Some, cough at these odd things called venezuelans, even had exclusive to them combs instead of normal ones. Though something with those molds has gone quite off because for example italian collectors pose ponies vary in size greatly...

[Taffeta]

Takara has under licence from Hasbro on the packaging. I think most of the others do as well. The bigger question was over SA ponies, but more recent evidence from some of the awesome collectors over there seems to have confirmed they were also under licence.

I think so long as it's under licence and can be tracked back there then it's a real pony. If not, it's a fakie. But being licenced doesn't mean it's good quality, so I guess the line can be blurry.

I remember a lot of discussion in the late nineties about some of the Italian ponies because of how they were marketed. I have my yellow minty because someone thought it was a fakie. This was in the time before photos, so I took a gamble on it - the person trading said it was a fakie that had Minty's symbol and said Italy on the hoof. At that time that pony had never been heard of, so I didn't know what I was getting till she arrived, but she turned out to be yellow minty with magenta hair. Even then though there were people who said she was a fakie, unlike now. THe trader was in Italy, and I remember I think Marco saying something at one point about how those were sold and it not being necessarily the same as others that came on card.

I don't know as much about other Nirvana. I was in with variants right at the start and then dropped out of it when so many more started coming out of the woodwork all over the place, as I wasn't actively involved in ponies and wanted to focus on the UK. But I am sure that this conversation has been had about most Nirvana and the quest to authenticate them.

The first Nirvana ponies the community knew about were Italian, then Indian, French and Macau, then NC if I recall right, and then Japanese - but only through a leaflet, no actual examples had been found then. I saw a Brazilian, a Peruvian and an Argentinian pony in April 1998 when Helen came to visit us, but they weren't talked about online until a few years later and Peruvian ponies not for even longer (I have her in my notes as blob-baby xD and it's only now I know what she actually was).

At the same time there are fakies that use the pony moulds, like the colour changing ones and the pony pal style animal ones - which makes that line really hard, especially with nothing on the hooves. There are so many countries with Nirvana ponies known now that it's really very confusing...xD

I think I'm right that there are some borderline 'test' Argentinian ponies?

[pinkkittywinks]

I remember reading a few years back (I don't quite remember where) that El Greco was suspected of manufacturing My Little Ponies without authorization from Hasbro.  From what I remember this wasn't confirmed.

But my question is were all ponies manufactured by companies other than Hasbro allowed to manufacture MLP.  Are some of them technically fakies? Maybe that accounts for the strange plastic and other differences in ponies?

Really just a random thought that popped into my head.

You need to keep your eyes peeled for the Greek nirvana spotlight

Hasbro sold the license to produce ponies to local toy companies. Back then it was easier to sell a license rather than export for Hong Kong. Papers detailing designs and such were sent, but these were mostly line drawings and didn't always detail poses and colours, which is why you get wacky colour or alternate poses.

Remember that culture plays a part, for example look at Argentina North Star, she's in fact South Star due to being in the Southern Hemisphere

There are no doubt fakies, oddities and such out there as well as plenty of stuff we still don't understand.

Love pkw xxx

[Beth3346]

thank you that clears up a lot of questions for me.

i love that the local toy companies had a lot of creative freedom in their designs.  Nirvanas would not be as fun if they were exact copies of the Hong Kong/China releases.

It is almost impossible to keep up with the new discoveries.  I took a break from MLP for a couple of years (I didn't have any budget for ponies and wanted to avoid the temptation to buy). And when i got back into collecting the Venezuelan ponies had appeared.

Its amazing how much there is to find out about toys that were made 25-35 years ago.

[CinnamonOnions]

thank you that clears up a lot of questions for me.

i love that the local toy companies had a lot of creative freedom in their designs.  Nirvanas would not be as fun if they were exact copies of the Hong Kong/China releases.

It is almost impossible to keep up with the new discoveries.  I took a break from MLP for a couple of years (I didn't have any budget for ponies and wanted to avoid the temptation to buy). And when i got back into collecting the Venezuelan ponies had appeared.

Its amazing how much there is to find out about toys that were made 25-35 years ago.

Definetly. And apparently new venezuelans (and I think colombians?) still continue to be found! Also two new possibly one of a kind piggies were spotted was it this summer or last summer. All Thailand variations of the Mountain Boys still haven't been found. Probably many south africans still remain lost, who knows are some of them "extinct". Who even knows how long will it be until we have certainly found all pony variants to exist.