The MLP Arena

Pony Talk => Pony Corral => Topic started by: Taffeta on November 14, 2020, 04:29:23 PM

Title: Do you have Baby Countalot in your collection?
Post by: Taffeta on November 14, 2020, 04:29:23 PM: So I am just curious.

If you have Baby Countalot, which one do you have?

Beads at the front of the abacus?
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or beads at the back of the abacus?
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(excuse the yellowing, sister's decidedly better one was in storage when I was doing the pictures)

It's been my impression that the latter is the more common one, but I thought I'd put this to the test.

Also, if you remember where you got yours from,that would also be interesting. I've been told the first one is more common in Europe, but both ours came from the UK.
Title: Re: Do you have Baby Countalot in your collection?
Post by: starbritesprinkles on November 14, 2020, 04:48:54 PM: Display side, beads nearest to her tail.

Unfortunately, I can't help with original location. I'm in the US and got her locally in a $5 Facebook Marketplace lot. No idea how or when she made it across the pond.
Title: Re: Do you have Baby Countalot in your collection?
Post by: Rhaegar on November 14, 2020, 05:08:29 PM: Mine is the second photo and I also don't remember where she came from. Ebay or a Pony Fair most likely.
Title: Re: Do you have Baby Countalot in your collection?
Post by: Barnacle_lady on November 15, 2020, 01:23:48 AM: Gosh, I didn't knew a variation existed.
I checked mine, beads towards the tail. I think I bought her at the UK ponycon many years ago. I have her quite some time.
Title: Re: Do you have Baby Countalot in your collection?
Post by: Carrehz on November 15, 2020, 10:26:56 AM: Oh wow, I had no idea there was an alt version of her :O Cool. Can't help since I don't have her myself, but I'm eagerly stalking this thread all the same!
Title: Re: Do you have Baby Countalot in your collection?
Post by: Taffeta on November 15, 2020, 10:29:37 AM: I have seen the forward beads one sell on ebay a few times unflagged, so Iam not sure how well known the variation is, but I know I am not the first person to notice it, I've seen it mentioned by others in the past as well.
I think it's one of those things that you notice if you are looking for it, like straight haired CJ, but otherwise it can fly right past :)
Title: Re: Do you have Baby Countalot in your collection?
Post by: pinkkittywinks on November 16, 2020, 08:42:05 AM: I love things like this :)

I checked the pictures of the one I had through my hands and she had beads towards the back :) Also on her non-display side, the beads were towards the back.

Do any of the other babies have flipped symbols?

Love pkw xxx
Title: Re: Do you have Baby Countalot in your collection?
Post by: Taffeta on November 16, 2020, 08:45:45 AM: You mean the other school babies? I haven't spotted any yet, but it's a good question and I'd love to know if there are any others out there. I would especially love to know if there are any Alphabets with the ab symbol, rather than the e-e. I've never seen one...but...*shrug*. I do know there are some variations on the shade of Alphie's hair...maybe similar to Blackberry Pie (who I think is the year before in UK terms).

I mean, there are (at least) 6 versions of Baby Mischief and that's I think the same production year, so I wouldn't rule it out. There are also multiple prototype variations for the school baby set - Countalot I think only has 1, but Schoolbag has 2 and neither look like the released final version. So stuff was going on in 1991. o.O.

It's not quite as bad as 1986 or 1992, but it was there all the same...the weird.
Title: Re: Do you have Baby Countalot in your collection?
Post by: lovesbabysquirmy on November 16, 2020, 12:19:28 PM: I'll check my photos, I don't have one anymore, but I did once. what an odd oddity
Title: Re: Do you have Baby Countalot in your collection?
Post by: Griffin on November 16, 2020, 01:56:40 PM: Exciting, I didn't know there were different versions! Mine also has beads towards the back. I'm not sure where she came from.
Title: Re: Do you have Baby Countalot in your collection?
Post by: MintyMyndi on November 16, 2020, 03:28:23 PM: I don't have her, but went to do some detective work. I decided to look for MOC examples, then tally up what I found on what language card. Unfortunately, all of the ones I found had beads at the back. I found many English, a few in Spanish, two in German, and one on a bilingual Dutch/French card. Not a single reverse-symbol baby. That's obviously a small sample size, but how possible is it that the back-beaded version is the most common wherever she was released?
Title: Re: Do you have Baby Countalot in your collection?
Post by: Taffeta on November 16, 2020, 04:33:46 PM: I think it's most likely that the back beaded one is standard and the other is maybe one or two batches where the symbols were printed the wrong way around. This is part of my reason for asking where people acquired them, since there's the lazy habit of assuming it must be a foreign variant that seeps into all of us sometimes when we don't have another explanation. I have seen this version on German ebay a couple of times, but like I said, mine was from the UK.

Thank you for your detecting, MintyMyndi :) The information is useful even if you didn't come up with a front beads example. It reinforces the idea that back beads is both normal and universal...and that we probably can't assume front-beads is a regional variant so much as a batch glitch (or two). Even as a small sample size it's representative of a wide geographical area so still useful.

Unfortunately because people aren't usually looking out for this kind of variation it's hard to know how many there are in total. I would imagine even if it was only one or two batches we'd still be talking about a few thousand, but I don't think I've seen more than four or five when I have been actually looking for it.
Title: Re: Do you have Baby Countalot in your collection?
Post by: pinkkittywinks on November 17, 2020, 08:33:57 AM: Quote from: Taffeta on November 16, 2020, 08:45:45 AM
You mean the other school babies? I haven't spotted any yet, but it's a good question and I'd love to know if there are any others out there. I would especially love to know if there are any Alphabets with the ab symbol, rather than the e-e. I've never seen one...but...*shrug*. I do know there are some variations on the shade of Alphie's hair...maybe similar to Blackberry Pie (who I think is the year before in UK terms).

I mean, there are (at least) 6 versions of Baby Mischief and that's I think the same production year, so I wouldn't rule it out. There are also multiple prototype variations for the school baby set - Countalot I think only has 1, but Schoolbag has 2 and neither look like the released final version. So stuff was going on in 1991. o.O.

It's not quite as bad as 1986 or 1992, but it was there all the same...the weird.

Yes, the other School Time Babies :)

Makes you think if one has flipped symbol, others might or they might have other little difference.

It has got me scratching my head and looking at pictures I have (nothing good I am afraid). I also had to do an eBay search and google search as well :P

You often see flipped symbols on nirvana ponies, but that is more to do with the "hand crafted-ness" of the individual toy factories that made them.

Having seen pictures of a symbol stencil, it is actually moulded to the shape of the pony's body, so I don't think it is a case of it getting switched round accidently by a worker. It could be there was one or two of the flipped symbol stencil and the rest were regular. This means it would fall under "normal variation".

Love pkw xxx
Title: Re: Do you have Baby Countalot in your collection?
Post by: mlp4me on November 17, 2020, 09:29:08 AM: Towards the back on both sides. She came from an arena purchase quite some time ago.

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Title: Re: Do you have Baby Countalot in your collection?
Post by: Leikin on November 17, 2020, 09:39:49 AM: I was aware that both existed, but have never given much thought about it. Mina has the beads towards the tail on both sides. Bought in Sweden.
Title: Re: Do you have Baby Countalot in your collection?
Post by: Gator on November 18, 2020, 05:10:49 PM: Mine has beads towards the back.
Title: Re: Do you have Baby Countalot in your collection?
Post by: Elfpony on November 21, 2020, 04:13:11 AM: Beads to the back on mine. I most likely bought her at the MLP Fair one year, so no help determining where she came from, I’m afraid.

Elf
Title: Re: Do you have Baby Countalot in your collection?
Post by: aria_elwen on November 21, 2020, 08:50:07 AM: Both of mine are towards the tail. One was bought new in South-west UK and the second was bought in a charity shop at the start of the year (for 50p! in practically mint condition :blink: ) also in the South-West. Obviously the second-hand one I can't be certain that is from down here, but I would assume so.
Title: Re: Do you have Baby Countalot in your collection?
Post by: Beth3346 on November 21, 2020, 09:08:15 AM: I've had 3. all with the beads toward the back. i'm not sure where they came from though.
Title: Re: Do you have Baby Countalot in your collection?
Post by: Shaz on November 22, 2020, 01:47:57 AM: Beads to the back here. Second-hand from a seller in Hungary.
Title: Re: Do you have Baby Countalot in your collection?
Post by: Taxel on November 25, 2020, 01:40:35 AM: Mine has beads at the back.

He was a gift so I don't know where he came from.
Title: Re: Do you have Baby Countalot in your collection?
Post by: flapflap on November 26, 2020, 02:29:42 PM: I used to own one, traded her away a long time ago. Se did however have the beads toward the front.
Unfortunately I didn't record anything other than that I got her off ebay. But since I had not been collecting for very long it's most likely I bouht her from a seller somewhere in Europe, and if I had to guess I'd day from Germany since I bought most of my ponies there at that time.
Sorry I can't be more specific.
Title: Re: Do you have Baby Countalot in your collection?
Post by: IceCrystal02 on December 04, 2020, 04:58:42 PM: I've just seen one with beads towards the front on a Swiss auction platform.
Title: Re: Do you have Baby Countalot in your collection?
Post by: Taffeta on December 04, 2020, 05:05:34 PM: Interesting :)

They do pop up from time to time and I have seen a few on German ebay. Although like I said mine was from here in the UK, it does seem like a "Baby Mischief" type of variation whereby it's maybe more common in specific areas.

~~Although there are at least 6 versions of Baby Mischief.~~