Pretty & Pearly Baby Sea Ponies in Europe - what was sold in your area?

[Taffeta]

It's me again with another weird geek question.

I've been told all kinds of conflicting information about pearly baby sea ponies.

I know what the US had.
I know what the UK had.

I don't know quite what Europe had.

I've been told that the Netherlands didn't have pearly babies, but then again I have this...

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Which suggests otherwise. Card is in French and Dutch. Was this only in Belgium and not in the Netherlands or was the Dutch collector mistaken?

This is what we had in the UK...
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And to date I haven't tracked down for sure another place that had it, but I do wonder about export places like Hungary, Israel etc that seem to have had Gypsy even when the rest of Europe didn't.

Also, the thing that bothers me slightly is this:

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Sorry for the sideways picture - but this is clearly a big packaging error. However there were a whole load of them on ebay several years back. You might have noticed the slightly Sunshowery theme to my collecting here, which is why I have this one xD but the thing that bothers me about it isn't the error. It's the fact all these error ponies came from a seller in GERMANY.

So then my question is, what did Germany have?

Basically, the options are as follows (all pearly).

The US-centric set:
Looking up poses for Water Lily, Sunshower and Ripple.
Turned head poses for Surf Rider, Beachcomber, and Seashimmer.

The UK-centric set:
Turned head poses for Water Lily, Tiny Bubbles, Beachcomber
Facing ahead poses for Ripple, Sunshower and Sea Star


Beachcomber is the only one the same between the two sets, so it should be easy to tell. If not from new or childhood, what stuff have you found second hand? Which of these two sets is it most like? Are there any places which had both lots? Are there places that had none?

Thanks all in advance.

Also, I said Europe in the title, but I'm open to intel on Australia, NZ, South Africa or anywhere else in the world that isn't the UK, US or Canada xD.

[katrine2309]

Oh- interesting! I’m following this thread- I don’t have any info on Germany though (Norway had the US versions- my childhood Ripple was facing up!). It’s interesting to see what rest of Europe had. I’m also curious about Australia and South Africa as they seem to often align with us in their release plan.

[pinkkittywinks]

I just had a search through my German backcard, adverts and other info, I have NOTHING on the Pretty and Pearly Babies.

I have information on the colour change babies, including magazine adverts and MOC/backcard images and a little information (names only) for the "regular" seapony babies)

How curious!

Love pkw xxx

[Taffeta]

I just had a search through my German backcard, adverts and other info, I have NOTHING on the Pretty and Pearly Babies.

I have information on the colour change babies, including magazine adverts and MOC/backcard images and a little information (names only) for the "regular" seapony babies)

How curious!

Love pkw xxx

It is, isn't it? I have a couple of Watercolors MOC on German cards, and it seems our set in Europe was 4 not 6...BUT the German release also had the US card in German with 6 not 4, which is weird enough. And they don't seem uncommon on German ebay.

But I've not seen anything for the others, nor really seen them on German ebay over the years, now I think about it. Which is suggesting they maybe didn't have them but...?

@Katrine - thanks for that. That makes sense. You guys seem to get more US release stuff than some other European places did...

[pinkkittywinks]

Yes! I noticed that Germany had all six of the Water Colour babies, which confused me for a while, since Europe only ever seemed to get four out of six when it came to releases.

Picture sent to me by another collector whose name I cannot remember.

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My picture.

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This always interested me! It is the babies and friend set box backcard (picture off eBay)

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Also there seem to be two different card types.

Picture off eBay

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Picture off eBay

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I am sorry I cannot help with the Pretty and Pearly babies, I am hoping one of our German friends will be able to comment and shed some light in this

I have had a look here, this should give you a great indication of which ponies were released, which had names. Some ponies were named in the films, cartoons, comics and books yet never got a release, so if a pony had a German name it doesn't always mean it got a release, sometimes ponies got "two" names as well, a different name in the comic to the release name (how confusing)

http://www.ponylande.de/g1/liste.html

It states they were never released in Germany how sad 

http://www.ponylande.de/g1/jahre/jahr4/jahr4.html#babyseaponies

Love pkw xxx

 

[Taffeta]

Thanks for that PKW - you never disappoint

Yeah, that was what I meant by the two different cards - the four card is the bordered one and the six card is the yellow one which matches the US design but is translated into German. And I don't really understand why but oh well, I guess every place had its quirks.  I have Perlchen and Floeckchen on the bordered card in German, and Seawinkle and Sealight on the yellow card, but in English. I'd love one day to have one on the yellow card in German, or at least a yellow german card, because it's a cool weirdity, but that's the card geek inside of me.

That picture is on the back of all the baby pony cards in the European border style for that year.  Baby sea ponies apparently count as baby ponies xD. They were either 'Classic Collection' (Adults) or 'Baby Collection' (babies) with the bordered cards.

I think all the ponies with Mainsail under the rainbow (1990) have either the baby collection or the classic collection images on the back.

(It;s on its side but this is the adult for comparison):

Spoiler

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The watercolor baby backcard has the same image, anyway:

Spoiler

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The image is pan-European so not surprising it's missing the pal set.

The later bordered card releases - the years with Rainbow Rider (1991) or Tuneful (1992) under the rainbow - have photos of the actual set on the back, so you don't get the collection thing like you do for 1990.

...<---person who spends too much time with backcards.

The comics that year also went with the same kind of presentation (the collection angle) although the watercolors aren't shown here:

Spoiler

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I didn't realise we had the watercolors here until Chrissytree showed me the backcard she had in English, and I realised I must have seen the image on the backcards of the newborns I had from new but never paid any attention to Foamy back then. They're not on Hasbro's list for 1990, but that doesn't mean anything. There are other things not on Hasbro's list that we definitely had here, like Summer Wings.

...Back to the others. It looks like then these watercolors were the first baby sea ponies in Germany?

Anyone in Germany know that for sure??

The double names thing is no different from the UK and US having different names, though - or the fact Canadian French sometimes has different names from the French names (Shady as Petit Ombre or Incognito for example). I grew up with Sweetie in the comics but Sweet Stuff in my VHS (I just assumed the video people were stupid and got it wrong though xD). These days, sadly, a lot of folk conform to the US names. Which makes me sad, but eh.

[Perikoala]

I know is not exactly your question but If you're interested to know, I haven't found evidence that Spain ever sold any sea ponies, nor adults or babies.

The only thing I've found that mentions them is this Newborn Ponies backcard, common to all Europe. But nothing in catalogs and such.

Spoiler

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Spanish catalog was very limited 

[eiskrempony]

The only baby sea Ponys we had in Germany where the watercolor baby sea Ponys.we had all 6 from the set.they came  later back in  a set of only 4 of them on a different Backcard.
I Hope that helps a little

[Taffeta]

The only baby sea Ponys we had in Germany where the watercolor baby sea Ponys.we had all 6 from the set.they came  later back in  a set of only 4 of them on a different Backcard.
I Hope that helps a little

That helps a lot, thank you. It explains why the two different card types - they were on different time releases. So presumably the yellow card happened at the same time as the US, it looks like the same kind of card as the Sundae Bests had and stuff around that time - and then the border release version with 4 ponies some time later....

@Perikoala, as it happens, that's exactly what I'm asking. Knowing Spain had none ticks them off my sea pony list

[Leikin]

Sweden at least had the US versions of PnP. I had looking up Sunshower as a kid. I cannot remember the card, but I would assume that it was on US cards. I dont think we had the UK versions here. If we had, they are at least less common then the US types.

I'm pretty sure we never had the watercolour or the sea sparkle babies here.

[Taffeta]

Sweden at least had the US versions of PnP. I had looking up Sunshower as a kid. I cannot remember the card, but I would assume that it was on US cards. I dont think we had the UK versions here. If we had, they are at least less common then the US types.

I'm pretty sure we never had the watercolour or the sea sparkle babies here.

Thanks Leikin. That's interesting, since you guys often had stuff more in line with us, but not these, apparently.

I'm starting to think the Uk set might be actually a UK set. But it's possible it got export to places that Gypsy also apparently went, like Hungary and Israel...