Prototype Celestial pony at Pony Fair West

[lalalei2001]

What a cool find! Thanks for sharing!

[TheClassCalico]

That's incredibly cool! I do agree that the first one does look rough. I cannot help but wonder whether there are (or were) later prototypes in existence, maybe with manually painted "marbling", as mentioned by somebody else earlier in this thread.

"Bart Simpson" is really cool, too. I have a couple of guesses about what she may have been used for:


*Something related to My Little Pony Tales, I just get that kind of feeling from that design.

*A sports themed line, maybe ponies who all have skateboards? In which case it would remind me a little of the Rollerskate ponies, maybe those replaced them later.



Now, imagine if these were actually released for an anniversary event...

[Leave a Whisper]

What's the pegasus with the square hole in her side supposed to be?

[Carrehz]

Okay finally got Instagram to work (or rather I remembered to try and wrestle with it again )

The Celestial prototype is interesting, rougher-looking than I was expecting. I wonder if there are later protos, maybe this was just them playing around with ideas? Weird seeing a regular-mold Celestial - fsr I always picture them as being in the Bride mold, I dunno why.

OMG I love the skateboard one

Square cut-out peg I imagine was going to have a 3D symbol? Like the princesses.

[LadyMoondancer]

Yeah, the pegasus is Princess Pristina and the cut out is for her gem.    I'm not sure what her purpose was--maybe she was somehow used to create the factory molds?  Like, I don't know what's up with her neck, doesn't seem like it could to fit on her body.

They had other Princess ponies there too:

https://www.instagram.com/p/CiGngOGJaa5/

Off with their heads!

[Leave a Whisper]

Yeah, the pegasus is Princess Pristina and the cut out is for her gem.    I'm not sure what her purpose was--maybe she was somehow used to create the factory molds?  Like, I don't know what's up with her neck, doesn't seem like it could to fit on her body.

They had other Princess ponies there too:

https://www.instagram.com/p/CiGngOGJaa5/

Off with their heads!

Oh. Thank you Lady M.

[Taffeta]

The rollerskates would be the obvious connection but...there aren't any unicorn or pegasus ponies used in the whole of the lines from 1993 and 1994. They even remade the baby unicorn pose without a horn to fit their 'more real worldish' look. It may just have been an experiment with a mould they had to hand, of course, we've seen that before. I just get the impression that it might have been something else that was mooted prior to the actual roller set being projected. The symbol is very intricate, unlike the actual roller ponies. I just can't see a relationship between it or anything in 1993-4 (including MLP Tales) unless it was literally just a symbol base experiment.

The detail on the pony does remind me a little of the detail on the talking pony symbols, though obviously it has no relationship to them. I wonder if it was actually a different roller or skateboard related project following the dance and prance which never actually happened??

I'm relieved at the possibility that the celestials were going to be regular poses...though probably again not that one given the artwork. I always picture them having pearly plastic. We know pearly plastic was possible, we saw it with the sea ponies and then later with the hairdos, which is a a much more pearly finish. Given that they could paint on stripes for the colorswirls, would it have been so difficult to make a pearly base and paint on swirls for the celestials in pearly paint? Or are the colorswirls actually what we ended up with instead of the celestials, because it was just easier to use that for the concept??

[Carrehz]

Or are the colorswirls actually what we ended up with instead of the celestials, because it was just easier to use that for the concept??

Honestly, the more I see of the Celestials, the more I get the impression this is indeed what happened. Cause the art of them does look more like they're in the Bride molds than regular pony molds? Could be that this proto was just them using w/e mold was lying around for a test run, or maybe they switched to the Bride molds halfway through production... and then eventually turned into the Colourswirls instead? I dunno, I'm just speculating, but... the two sets are close enough that I can't believe they're 100% unrelated, you know?

Heck it might even explain why the Colourswirls ARE randomly just in the Bride molds... I always wondered what was going on there. There doesn't seem to be any particular reason for it... but if they started off as Celestials then it'd make sense... to use a more unique mold to make them stand out and seem more otherworldy? and then they just stuck with the poses even after the designs changed? Hmmmm. I wonder if we'll ever get the full story behind this set...

[Snapdragon]

Concerned Pony met a prototype!

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[Carrehz]

Love that photo!!

[Leave a Whisper]

what a funny picture

[Lilja]

Great to finally see a Fancy Swirl prototype after all these years! Even if it appears to be in early developement, so who knows what the final product would've looked like, or how far it got into developement. It seems sometimes the backcard art was done in advance before the actual toys were finalized, so that could possibly also be the case here. Not sure where the idea that they would've been in the bride pose comes from? To me the artwork looks more similar to the Glow 'n Show backcard, not quite as long-legged as the Pony Bride or Princess art. Having a set of four ponies all in the same pose would be unusual, but of course not impossible.

Heck it might even explain why the Colourswirls ARE randomly just in the Bride molds... I always wondered what was going on there. There doesn't seem to be any particular reason for it... but if they started off as Celestials then it'd make sense... to use a more unique mold to make them stand out and seem more otherworldy? and then they just stuck with the poses even after the designs changed? Hmmmm. I wonder if we'll ever get the full story behind this set...

I think it makes some sense for the Color Swirls to be in the bride pose. They have stripes of colors circling around their bodies, and with longer legs there is more area to circle around. They could've gone with the SHS poses too, but those are even thinner, so it might be hard to fit these designs on them. Another explanation could be that Hasbro just wanted to get more use out of this pose and not just use it for one-offs.

In the end it seems Hasbro couldn't work out a way to get Fancy Swirls to look the way they wanted. And we haven't seen anything similar to them since. I feel like the concept could've evolved into the Glow 'n Shows, Fancy Swirls or Flower Fantasy, which are all variations on ponies with designs that cover their entire bodies.

[Carrehz]

I was just speculating. For some reason I've always thought the Celestial art looked more like the Bride mold than anything.

[Taffeta]

I actually think they look more like flutter pony moulds, and especially since dabble and scribbles happened, I wouldn't have been surprised to see them in those poses.

But the Color Swirl connection is realistic to me. It was something they could do, that was easier than what they first hoped. That said, the hairdo ponies are *really* pearly, and I imagine that if they could do that, they could have put stripes on a pearlised body at the very least. The hairdo ponies are officially the 1993 range, so maybe a little later - but not by much?

[LadyMoondancer]

To me they look like "normal" pony molds in the later backcard style.  It's hard to say for sure because all ponies were drawn more "leggy" around that time . . . but the legs do look less exaggerated imo.

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Although I don't know why they would make them all earth ponies if they were normal ponies.  They don't look like Sweetheart Sisters . . .