Important Australia breakthrough!!!

[freezestime]

I found bits of an Australian Hasbro Toy Fair Catalogue! This is the first confirmed list of ponies and even has their office locations! (Probably defunct now) Gimme a min to add the pics!

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The catalouge is 1991, which I believe correlates with the US's release.

So confirmed ponies are

- Glow n Show
- Sweetsteps Ballerina
- Rainbow Curl Ponies
- Princess Ponies (With the eyelashes)
- Secret Surprise Ponies
- Pony Bride

Other Merch
- Sweetheart Sisters March Puzzle
- Candy Cane Ponies Puzzle
- Brush n' Grow Ponies Puzzle
- Dance n' Prance Ponies Puzzle (Thanks to Skig)

There are a total of 7 pages, with those pages reducing it to 5 unknown pages.

Another Australian Hasbro Toy Fair catalouge has been found, from 1987 with no ponies.

I'm gonna see if I can convince my uni to buy it.

[banditpony]

Cool
Although I would cross reference it with store catalogues for consumers. Since things in toy catalogues don't get picked up.

[freezestime]

Cool
Although I would cross reference it with store catalogues for consumers. Since things in toy catalogues don't get picked up.

Yeah, but there's no online records of the catalouges during that time so this is a major breakthrough.

[Shaiyeh]

How exciting! good find

I love seeing the toy catalog pics, too, thanks for sharing The ponies' hair always looks so soft and silky ooo

[Taffeta]

Cool
Although I would cross reference it with store catalogues for consumers. Since things in toy catalogues don't get picked up.

Yeah, but there's no online records of the catalouges during that time so this is a major breakthrough.

This is a great stepping stone to knowing more about the release there. Well done and please keep going!

It is the case some catalogue stuff may not have got to stores but with the complete lack of evidence for Aus this is definitely important.

For any country outside the US which didn't have DV to do the work for them, most of what we know comes from playing detective with small pieces like this.

[freezestime]

Cool
Although I would cross reference it with store catalogues for consumers. Since things in toy catalogues don't get picked up.

Yeah, but there's no online records of the catalouges during that time so this is a major breakthrough.

This is a great stepping stone to knowing more about the release there. Well done and please keep going!



It is the case some catalogue stuff may not have got to stores but with the complete lack of evidence for Aus this is definitely important.

For any country outside the US which didn't have DV to do the work for them, most of what we know comes from playing detective with small pieces like this.

Thank you! I've looked at where my state's previous office was and now it's an computer shop, so I might contact the building's owner and ask them what they remember.

Also, do you think TV stations would keep super old ads? Because if they do I might be able to find what they advertised here.

[starbritesprinkles]

Cool find! The other puzzle is the Dance 'n Prance Ponies, if you were wondering.

[Taffeta]

Re: TV ads.

I have no idea, but what I do know is that  some old UK shows that don't survive here have turned up on Australian archives...

Youtube has a variety of adverts for the US, France, a couple for the UK and so on...

I think they're more likely to survive on old vhs tapes but finding them, there's the problem.

A lot of US tv adverts survive. I know Kim from DV had a lot of them from her own childhood recordings of MLP and Jem episodes off air over the eighties and it seems like other people did similar. But with many of the surviving UK ads (of which there are far fewer) they were on commercial VHS releases of MLP episodes. If pony VHS were released in Australia, that might be more obtainable?

[banditpony]

Very unlikely for the TV ads. They require physical space.

Like Taffeta said, you are more likely to find something on a VHS tape

[BlushingBlue]

Interesting! I wonder about the AUS and/or NZ numbers... Does that indicate that, for example, the Glow n Shows were limited to Australian stores and the Rainbow Curls to New Zealand?

The adult Ballerinas and the Rainbow Curls had come and gone from Hasbro-US by 1991, but the rest seems to line up with the American catalogue. I'd be interested to see if the other pages are a similar mix of "Year 8" and "Year 9". Although, if the Australian catalogue is like the American one, half of those other "My Little Pony" pages are actually My Little Bunny/Kitty/Puppy which were categorized under the MLP banner.

[Taffeta]

So some geek detail things I noticed which may or may not be of use.

The AUS/NZ numbers may not indicate they were only sold in one or other place, it may be that they appeared in Aus the year before, and now in NZ, or vice versa. But it might also indicate that they have separate line releases.

So interesting to me is the images used here. Does anyone know if the Glowing and Curl pony images are common to the US catalogue? I only have one UK catalogue for Hasbro, 1990, but it definitely uses US proto photos in some examples so I wonder if this is the same. I have not seen that image of the Glows before but Starglow's hair struck me in light of the variant prototype one floating around.

More interesting still is that these are US set and pony names. That implies that, although we know AUS and NZ got some ponies from the UK/European release lines, these weren't among them. We had the Glowing set in the UK under the name Glowing Magic, but this lists Glow & Show and the names for the Curl ponies and Secret Surprise ponies are also consistent with the US release, suggesting it's more likely these were US packaged. In terms of relevance for what you might find second hand, it means there's a chance blue heart Dazzleglow was sold over there as well, rather than just in North America.

Without other catalogues it's impossible to know how many of these are new and how are repeat sets. My 1990 catalogue has some which are designated NEW and others not. We don't know what's on the missing pages, either. But we can speculate based on what you've seen on sale and the other sets around at this time that probably on one of those pages is the Pocket Friends/Precious Pocket set.

If there is any European stuff in 1991, then it may well be school related since that was what was in the European release in 1991.

[BlushingBlue]

The AUS/NZ numbers may not indicate they were only sold in one or other place, it may be that they appeared in Aus the year before, and now in NZ, or vice versa. But it might also indicate that they have separate line releases.

Right. I didn't mean to imply that the ponies were exclusively sold from stores in Australia or New Zealand. (They may not have been sold at all, depending on what stock was bought!) Just pointing out that having two separate numbers would imply that Hasbro made these available to retailers in either Aus or NZ or both for this particular catalogue... but I can't puzzle out the rhyme or reason to Hasbro's specific decisions there. (Perhaps it's foolish to try, especially without more information to go on.)

So interesting to me is the images used here. Does anyone know if the Glowing and Curl pony images are common to the US catalogue? I only have one UK catalogue for Hasbro, 1990, but it definitely uses US proto photos in some examples so I wonder if this is the same. I have not seen that image of the Glows before but Starglow's hair struck me in light of the variant prototype one floating around.

The Glow n Show prototype picture is the same one used in the US 1991 Hasbro catalogue. That lovely blue Starglow with the white and pink hair really sticks with you! The only minor difference is that the US version is mirror-flipped for some reason, and I believe there's also an inset that shows a Glow n Show glowing (that's a weird phrase to type ) with GITD hair too. I don't recall offhand if the Rainbow Curl one is the same, but I'm willing to bet it is.

More interesting still is that these are US set and pony names. That implies that, although we know AUS and NZ got some ponies from the UK/European release lines, these weren't among them. We had the Glowing set in the UK under the name Glowing Magic, but this lists Glow & Show and the names for the Curl ponies and Secret Surprise ponies are also consistent with the US release, suggesting it's more likely these were US packaged.

Hmm... the catalogue order numbers are the same as the US as well, just with AUS or NZ tacked on. (16080 for Glow n Shows, 4427 for Pony Bride, etc) Is that the case for Hasbro-UK too, or is that another indication of "American" stock?

[Taffeta]

Not to take it off topic too much into UK items, I have been tracking the assortment numbers for ponies recently as part of what I'm trying to do with my website and I've discovered that some numbers cross countries (the Fable ponies in Scandinavia and SA etc have the same assortment number as the y3 US release of unicorns and pegasus for example) and some don't. I believe both releases of 2nd set Rainbow ponies (on horizantal and vertical cards) are also the same. It may also be the same as the first set - I think it is. On the US cards for the Rainbows I think there are individual numbers for the characters but I don't have that information for any UK pony except those sold individually and my information isn't complete. I just thought I ought to make use of all these backcards I hoard to see whether it matters or not in a global distribution context.

The rainbows bring me back to the topic of Aus since the MOC (vertical) card Flutterbye on my site apparently came from Australia originally. It's sadly not my pony but the person who owns it told me she bought it from an Aussie collector. Whether Aus also had the US carded ones as well I don't know. It's the only example of a 2nd set Rainbow on vertical card in English that I know about, so that doesn't make much of a sample.

...I have pictures somewhere here of the UK catalogue I have but I don't want to derail this thread with that stuff. If interested I could make a separate thread with it when I've got them together...it probably shows the asst numbers but I haven't got to looking at the later sets and comparing those yet...

As for Hasbro's logic splitting NZ and Aus, I learned a long time that Hasbro doesn't make sense very much xD. I don't know if it made sense in the US or if people don't notice it so much because US info has always been so streamlined - but the more you look at the global release markets, the less any of it makes sense...and the more questions that arise.

[freezestime]

Cool find! The other puzzle is the Dance 'n Prance Ponies, if you were wondering.

:0 Thank you!

Post Merge: April 24, 2019, 09:41:57 PM

Re: TV ads.

I have no idea, but what I do know is that  some old UK shows that don't survive here have turned up on Australian archives...

Youtube has a variety of adverts for the US, France, a couple for the UK and so on...

I think they're more likely to survive on old vhs tapes but finding them, there's the problem.

A lot of US tv adverts survive. I know Kim from DV had a lot of them from her own childhood recordings of MLP and Jem episodes off air over the eighties and it seems like other people did similar. But with many of the surviving UK ads (of which there are far fewer) they were on commercial VHS releases of MLP episodes. If pony VHS were released in Australia, that might be more obtainable?

Ah, okay. That makes sense and I think I've seen a few MLP VHS tapes on Australian eBay, so I might buy them if I come across them. I'm guessing my uni would have a working VHS that I could use and I might be able to get some help to digitally record any adverts.

So some geek detail things I noticed which may or may not be of use.

The AUS/NZ numbers may not indicate they were only sold in one or other place, it may be that they appeared in Aus the year before, and now in NZ, or vice versa. But it might also indicate that they have separate line releases.

So interesting to me is the images used here. Does anyone know if the Glowing and Curl pony images are common to the US catalogue? I only have one UK catalogue for Hasbro, 1990, but it definitely uses US proto photos in some examples so I wonder if this is the same. I have not seen that image of the Glows before but Starglow's hair struck me in light of the variant prototype one floating around.

More interesting still is that these are US set and pony names. That implies that, although we know AUS and NZ got some ponies from the UK/European release lines, these weren't among them. We had the Glowing set in the UK under the name Glowing Magic, but this lists Glow & Show and the names for the Curl ponies and Secret Surprise ponies are also consistent with the US release, suggesting it's more likely these were US packaged. In terms of relevance for what you might find second hand, it means there's a chance blue heart Dazzleglow was sold over there as well, rather than just in North America.

Without other catalogues it's impossible to know how many of these are new and how are repeat sets. My 1990 catalogue has some which are designated NEW and others not. We don't know what's on the missing pages, either. But we can speculate based on what you've seen on sale and the other sets around at this time that probably on one of those pages is the Pocket Friends/Precious Pocket set.

If there is any European stuff in 1991, then it may well be school related since that was what was in the European release in 1991.

I interpreted it as that catalouge was used in both AU and NZ, but then that would be contradicted because they only list AU offices.

So they might've given both AU and NZ incase it didn't sell well in one country so if the shop really wanted it, they could order via the other country's number.

Or the case could be that there was no offices in NZ so that's why they only listed AU offices.

[nhal039]

If you hit up tiggums on here she has a similar catalogue she got from a NZ toy shop in the day I have seen it but have never been fussed by historic release to pay attention to any of the detail