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Pony Talk => Pony Corral => Topic started by: WaterDraw on June 06, 2019, 11:25:00 AM

Title: Thoughts on the Loving Family Ponies?
Post by: WaterDraw on June 06, 2019, 11:25:00 AM
Hey everyone! After a very, very, very long hiatus I am back to post a question about one of my all-time favorite MLP sets: Loving Family Ponies. If I had to pin point why exactly these are one of my favorites, I guess it's just because I already liked putting two ponies together and saying they had a baby, and now the work was already done for me and they all matched each other too :D
I also think that these sets are the easiest way to get a pony in the Big Brother mold and the colt mold if you needed them, since I don't know why but the Big Brothers on their own seem to be getting really expensive (or at least the last time I checked they were) and it always just seemed hard or me personally to find a pony in the colt mold at a decent price, probably since they were all almost mail order?
Anyway I digress, the point is I loved these sets and while I only have one complete set (...Okay complete if you count it in American terms, still don't have a Baby Sister Sweet Celebrations :( ), I am eager to start collecting them again once I have the funds to do so. Another thing that interested me was the different possibilities that could've went on with these sets if they had another year to work with. What if instead of the parents matching they could've looked completely different, leading to some new mixed off-spring? We've already seen that ponies in G1 don't necessarily have to resemble their parents exactly (Such as some of the first baby ponies having different mane colors than their mothers or being a completely different kind of pony, or even in as late in the line as Surprise Twins Pony, whose children only bare one shared color with their mom), so we could've gotten some crazy combinations.

TL;DR I love the Loving Family Ponies line.
And so now I want to ask you all what's your opinions on this line? Do you love em, hate em, don't really have an opinion? I'd love to hear what you all have to say :)
Title: Re: Thoughts on the Loving Family Ponies?
Post by: Carrehz on June 06, 2019, 11:30:14 AM
I looooove them!!! I'm like you, I love making pony families anyway, plus I'm a sucker for a matching set. They're adorable ^_^
Title: Re: Thoughts on the Loving Family Ponies?
Post by: tailrustedtealeaf on June 06, 2019, 11:35:09 AM
I think some of their designs could have used a bit more thought but they're very cute! I love the TaF boy ponies a lot so even if I didn't complete the whole set, I would get those.
It would have been cute to see the babies have designs that are unique from the parents, but obviously inspired. Like, if Baby Sweet Celebrations had streamers or birthday candles rather than just repeated parents' symbols.
Title: Re: Thoughts on the Loving Family Ponies?
Post by: brightberry on June 06, 2019, 12:01:19 PM
I had my own head canon about baby ponies way before big brothers came out.  Basically, babies were made by wishing and appeared like magic... under clover leaves, dropped from the stars and so on.  Not a lot of romance involved and I didn't make families.

But, I did like the loving families when they came out. They still wished for babies and "boys" were just another variation like unicorns.  But I held nothing against them.  In my view, ponies were pretty close to genderless... just because they were magical. 

I didn't care much for our American version of Big Brothers and their 4th wall symbols.  But loving families made more sense and when I found out about the Mountain Boys I was so jealous.  :lol:
Title: Re: Thoughts on the Loving Family Ponies?
Post by: Leave a Whisper on June 06, 2019, 12:11:03 PM
I like some individuals, but not the whole family. I like two of the European families better. Shame the Sunbrights and Berrytowns are expensive.

Daddy Sweet Celebrations is on my wishlist and I wouldn't mind having Mommy Sweet Celebrations and Mommy Apple Delight. The only baby I like is Bright Bouquet, but not enough for me to want her in my collection.
Title: Re: Thoughts on the Loving Family Ponies?
Post by: Taffeta on June 06, 2019, 03:05:08 PM
As a child I liked the concept. But HAsbro was mean here, and sold them as separate ponies. I later found out they did also sell them as sets here, but only sets of 3 like the US had, and I never saw them like that. Maybe if I had, I would've had a full family set as a kid because the two I had as a child were the Euro babies for Sweet C and Bright B.

I liked that Hasbro gave them special accessories too. It made them seem more cool somehow. I wish I still had the card for my Playpen and Duck set :(

I really liked the mixture of colouring in the hair and symbol between both parents. I don't know why, but it seemed neat to me.

And the comic wrote about them quite a lot when they were out, so they became loveable characters as well.

As an adult collector they have long since driven me nuts because of the NC/HK/China variation thing going on with the parents. It's rather made me annoyed about them than love them xD. But as a kid Baby Sister Sweet Celebrations (aka Cele, pronounced as you imagine from that word) was one of my favourites. She and baby Yoyo were firm friends and caused all the mischief among the baby ponies. I still am quite fond of her.

...I didn't and still don't much like that baby boy pose.

As a kid I also really wanted the Apples, but never had one.

When the later sets came around, they were also sold separately. I could never afford the parents though I remember seeing them all in stores in the same kind of area. I had all the babies though - Sunbright, Meadowsweet and Berrytown. I thought their colours were beautiful and the striped hair was awesome.

Now I probably like them best. Because there's no annoying NC/China/HK going on with them -.-.

Unfortunately, as LAW says, they tend to be harder to get and more expensive, even in the places they were sold (especially the Daddies).

Probably it's true that these are the easier way to get the colt or adult shire poses. But as a kid I had the Euro bright bouquet baby, Baby Lucky and my only adult boys were 3 Mountain Boys. I never had a Daddy pony or the global Sweet Celebrations boy till much later...so I never thought of it that way before. For me they were harder ;) I still don't have a NC Daddy Apple.
Title: Re: Thoughts on the Loving Family Ponies?
Post by: nebulavery on June 06, 2019, 03:41:30 PM
Honestly, I feel pretty "meh" about these. It's a cool concept, for sure, but they've just never stood out to me as much as some of the other lines, and the symbols do seem kind of lazy.
Title: Re: Thoughts on the Loving Family Ponies?
Post by: SkyCakes on June 06, 2019, 05:55:56 PM
I have always liked them. I have 2 duplicate sets of the apple delight family. I always loved families and they are a very cute set. I like them all and I have my uk counterparts with the us set too. :)
Title: Re: Thoughts on the Loving Family Ponies?
Post by: kingluke on June 07, 2019, 12:51:58 AM
I do like them, and want to own the apple delight family.

It would be fun to put ponies together and see their new offspring. I sometimes draw nextgens. which are the offspring of 2 mlp characters. I don't do anything with them I just like to design.

I recently also put sweet stuff and love token together. I'm gonna take as many pictures as I can this weekend for I'll be getting my sister back from england :)
Title: Re: Thoughts on the Loving Family Ponies?
Post by: toyjunky on June 10, 2019, 04:25:47 PM
I like them, I just need to acquire all the family members. Right now Mommy Bright Bouquet and Daddy Bright Bouquet have adopted Baby Brother Sweet Celebrations.
Title: Re: Thoughts on the Loving Family Ponies?
Post by: WaterDraw on June 10, 2019, 06:05:29 PM
I do like them, and want to own the apple delight family.

It would be fun to put ponies together and see their new offspring. I sometimes draw nextgens. which are the offspring of 2 mlp characters. I don't do anything with them I just like to design.

I recently also put sweet stuff and love token together. I'm gonna take as many pictures as I can this weekend for I'll be getting my sister back from england :)

I like to make nextgens too!  :) I would love to see some pictures of the ones you've made!
Title: Re: Thoughts on the Loving Family Ponies?
Post by: Tracks on June 11, 2019, 02:52:25 AM
I love them, my favourite is the Apple Delight family and it's the only complete family I have.

I just need the Baby Brother of the other two families
Title: Re: Thoughts on the Loving Family Ponies?
Post by: katrine2309 on June 11, 2019, 11:00:40 AM
To be honest, I am not a huge fan :blush: The only one I really, really like is Apple Delight. I remember them as a kid- my neighbor had them- and I looooved them. As an adult I like the Apples, but still I don’t have any of them. I would buy them though, if I found them for a good price ;)
Title: Re: Thoughts on the Loving Family Ponies?
Post by: cuddlebuggy on June 12, 2019, 04:22:11 PM
I love them and have all three sets complete with UK versions (will be selling them as sets soon!)
I even am working on making a custom set of parents for baby cuddles, including my already completed newborn baby sister! I'm doing TAF style for Mom and Dad.
Title: Re: Thoughts on the Loving Family Ponies?
Post by: Kazzellin on June 12, 2019, 06:43:27 PM
I rather like them! As a kid I wanted the Apple Delight family, because we have apple trees in the back yard (only one now; we lost one to a fungal infection (?) after it was hit by lightning in a spot we couldn’t easily see :( ), but the only set I was able to get as a kid was Sweet Celebrations. I love how the parents don’t have perfectly matching symbols, so the kids have mixed versions of them. Kind of disappointing that they only used the one mold for the dads, though. :T
Title: Re: Thoughts on the Loving Family Ponies?
Post by: SpacePinto on June 13, 2019, 05:39:57 AM
I don't mind them, but personally I prefer to think ponies are completely asexual and just live as one big family and raise all their babies together.
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