So What's up with Bubblefish?

[BlushingBlue]

Einhornbaby, that bottom Bubblefish variant is so cool! I'm pretty meh on the pocket gimmick itself, but I love all the little variations in this set.

pkw, she was in Canada when I bought her, but the gentleman I got her from also had a Hopscotch in the box, so I'm thinking she could've come from elsewhere originally. She's probably very well traveled!

reddsetgogirl, thanks! She didn't have her string, just the charm, and I didn't want it to get lost. And yes, I started out thinking "Her symbol is fine without the bee!" and then gradually I was like "Hmmm..." Then when they were so different from each other, I had to keep both. That's how they get ya!

[pinkkittywinks]

Thank you for your replies BlushingBlue and Nightglider

BlushingBlue I'm not too sure on the release pattern in Canada at all. I do know there are differences in the cards as I very recently saw a duel language Canadian release Moonstone MOC.

It's highly possible they have travelled, but I don't have any knowledge on Canada at all. I'm thinking of other places, such as Australia and South Africa which got really kookie releases.

Love pkw xxx

PS I'm hoping Taffeta will see this thread!

[Taffeta]

Taffeta has seen the thread

I have to admit, as much as I love threads like this, it makes me a little frustrated because this kind of information is not new.

This subject has come up before, it will come up again, and will continue to come up over and over again until a mainstream ID site takes up the information and includes it.

In any case, something weird happened in manufacture around 1991-2.

We see some of these ponies with NC on their feet but most of the variations are all Chinese. There are many Chinese ponies with the rougher type of hair, predominately (not exclusively) found in Europe.

The general norm is that the ponies sold in the US *normally* (but not always) have the silkier hair. This means that if it's a fading pink shade, mostly the US release will have it. But it isn't a regional exclusive so much as it depends when in production the ponies are going on sale. I have seen some of the pale pink fading hair versions of other sets (eg teeny weeny ponies) in the UK as new on card, so it's not universal. This is the same year of release that gave us the very varied Glowing Magics, and blue haired Pretty Beat and Baby Starbow. All the others from all these sets also have variations albeit nobody bothers about them because they're not on the Wiki.

I assume that the silkier hair ones were sold first, which explains them being in the US more because the US had them first, and the rougher hair ones came out later, and thus mostly ended in Europe. But it's just a theory. There's not been a big enough sample of information to really look at it and most people aren't that interested in this kind of variation.

As Einhorn baby demonstrated beautifully with her Chinese ones, this is not a Nirvana thing really. it's a general weird release variation problem. And it spans, as I said, the whole of the year of release.

And if none of them are on the Wiki, someone has some homework to do

visitors can't see pics , please register or login

One image for visual comparison sake. Both China made. The one on the left came in a bait lot from the US. The one on the right I found here in the UK.

[pinkkittywinks]

Thank you for posting Taffeta

What I hoped you'd be interested in was hearing just where the "NC" ponies had cropped up South Africa and *possibly* Canada (along with a Hopscotch!) as it kind of follows on from our discussion in the Nirvana forum and the possible South African releases we were discussing there.

What do you mean something funny happened in 1991-1992 I thought something weird happened every year....

Information does get "lost" and questions do crop up time and again, with new people joining the world of ponies. We have been around for sometime and understand why there are these difference I am happy that people still ask these questions it gives me chance to remind myself of the information I am never so sure on these sorts of things, it is a little outside my comfort zone/area of knowledge.

Love pkw xxx

[Taffeta]

The problem is a bit more fundamental for me. We don't know enough about these NC ponies (we don't even know they're made in Spain) to say anything about them appearing in SA. It's great when one comes up, but I don't want to confuse that with the other discussion and pigeonhole a variation into a location without more detail. And since the one from Canada has fading hair, it's even more difficult to narrow down a release location. Many of the fading hair ones come from North America - but are made in China.

With the Canadian one - the presence of Hopscotch suggests a family who travelled or a relative abroad, so again, it's difficult to make any kind of judgement for me based on that. Again, it's an isolated example. I remember some Canadian collectors talking about looking into Canadian releases some time back, but it didn't happen. Basically without that knowledge, all we have is a pony that came in a lot from Canada. I've found a ton of things here that shouldn;t be in this country. It doesn't mean any of those things were automatically sold here. Nor does it mean they weren't.

There is way more odd going on in this release year in terms of inexplicable small production variations than in any other year. Many of the ponies from this year have one or more clear variation. All the rainbow babies. The glowing magic ponies. All the Rockin' Beats bar Sweet Notes. All the Pocket Ponies. I think all the Teeny ponies but only one is really obvious from a photo. These are weirder than other years because there's no logic to them existing. They're basically the same ponies with weird variations that strongly suggest they're being made in different factories, thus possibly different locations, to meet the overall demand. For that reason the NC ones could easily have been scattered across lots of locations. The reason I see this as stand-out is that these aren't ponies being sold on very varied card art. They are mostly being sold on exactly the same kinds of card as each other even if they look completely different. These NC ponies, even if made in Spain, aren't the same as the ones from MB in earlier years. These are ninja NC ponies, if you like - hidden in with the masses waiting to be found, rather than standing out as a line on their own.

[princessluna11706]

This is very interesting! I never knew of a lot of these variants, including the Precious Pockets and the Teeny Tiny/Weenie babies.

I also have a NC variant of the pink baby pegasus from the Starlight Baby set (name escapes me at the moment.) Is that set included in this?

Ninja NC, I love that!

[Taffeta]

It isn't technically but it should be. It is a shade earlier.

I don't know what it is about Baby Mischief but she has a lot of variations. And yes. NC is one of them....good call.

[NightGliderSA]

Thanks Taffeta! Hooray - I have a Ninja Pony!

As pkw mentioned many of us are new on here and I did in fact have a look on Google first before starting this thread. But nothing came up, which is why I asked - so thank you to all those more experience people who Know Stuff and are able to tell us who don't. 

[Taffeta]

Thanks Taffeta! Hooray - I have a Ninja Pony!

As pkw mentioned many of us are new on here and I did in fact have a look on Google first before starting this thread. But nothing came up, which is why I asked - so thank you to all those more experience people who Know Stuff and are able to tell us who don't. 

To clarify, there's never a problem with answering questions.

My point was aimed more at the fact there's gaps in information websites that people rely on and if there weren't those gaps, these questions would be easier to answer.

That said, two NC Pocket ponies are included in PKW's amazing Arena Gallery of images.

I was making the point that it not being on the Wiki doesn't make it unknown. Not really aimed at you but as a general observation.

I know PKW wouldn't be as tactless as I am, but she's put a lot of hard work into the gallery, and there are at least images there, which indicates they've come up before, and is a starting point for a conversation.

It makes me sad when people overlook the amazing resource the Arena has. I like the Wiki as much as anyone else, but it isn;t exhaustive, it isn't complete, and it isn't always right. People are working really hard on it, but absolutely nobody here knows everything and every single pony. So relying on the Wiki to determine what is and isn't real or known doesn't really work. The Wiki has a ton of great stuff. It doesn't have this one. BUT the Arena Gallery does. Does that make sense?

I guess my point was really about using all the resources available. Not just relying on whether it's on the Wiki. I have nothing against the Wiki, but people used to do that with DV and that's why so much of this stuff that's been known for ages hasn't actually hit the mainstream discussion.


If i phrased that badly, forgive me. Sometimes being tactful and coherent is not my greatest skill.

[NightGliderSA]

It is true what you say Taffeta: I should have also checked the arena gallery and I didn't. Something to improve on in the future for sure.

However I also want to clarify something: I didn't just check The Wiki, I also did a Google search on NC Bubblefish that came up with nothing for some reason. At which stage I started this thread. However I should have started at the gallery, you are correct. Picture me most contrite (insert sad photo here).

On the plus side, hopefully by the thread being around perhaps a few other people have also learnt something and not just me. And, I have had the fun of sharing my ponies because of course we all love to do that, and enjoyed reading a few other awesome pony stories as well AND seen some other amazing pony photo's 

[Taffeta]

Again, as I said before, what I said wasn't directed at you. There was no issue with your question at all.

And it wasn't aimed at anyone in particular, just I wanted to underscore the point because of the many responses suggesting it was an unknown phenomena because it wasn't on the mainstream ID site of choice.

[pinkkittywinks]

Taffeta and Nightglider

Love pkw xxx

[NightGliderSA]

It's ok pkw, I'm not upset with Taffeta