Who made the Fancy Pants Babies in Thailand?

[Ossie]

(I orginally asked this question in the Nirvana section, but it's probably better off here, with the US collectors ^^)

For our MLP G1 database I have a few "mysteries" left, one of which is the manufacturer of the US-released Fancy Pants Babies (and possibly Thai Mountain Boys too). It is know that they were made in Thailand, but I couldn't find much more than that.

Was is just a Hasbro-owned factory, or was their production outsourced/licensed?
Any help would be welcome! Especially MOC photos of them could lead to more info.

[Taffeta]

Although I'm not a US collector (^_^) I do have a US fancy pants box in my package archive Baby Sunnybunch's.

After I saw your note on this in the other forum, I got it out from my drawer to check but all it says on the box is Made in Thailand. After that it says B-1 but I don't think that means anything. It's not the assortment number. There's no factory information, just Hasbro distribution information and addresses.

Because they're mainstream, rather than Nirvana, probably that information is not available, but I'd assume that it was a Hasbro factory in Thailand, which only ran for a short time, rather than a franchise like El Greco.

[Ossie]

Ah, that's a shame. Though, is there a barcode/EAN/UPC code on there? That might reveal something about the manufacturer

[Taffeta]

There is...if nobody else has a photo to share I will get it out again later. I generally only look at asst numbers...but there are definitely bar codes as well.

Edit: Does this help?

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(Just to prevent confusion, although her box says distributed in the UK, she wasn't ever sold here.)

[The_Loner]

There is...if nobody else has a photo to share I will get it out again later. I generally only look at asst numbers...but there are definitely bar codes as well.

Edit: Does this help?

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I don't know anything about this but I find the logo above the "Baby Sunnybunch" name interesting. I wonder what it is.

[Taffeta]

Me too, which is why I left it in the photo and didn't crop it out. I thought it might be important.

[Ossie]

After more than an hour of searching.... I come to the sad conclusion that this logo belongs to a Thai packaging company: http://www.tpppack.com/
And the UPC code belongs to Hasbro, so for all I can find this probably was a local Hasbro factory

[otocolobus_manul]

Interesting. I’ve always wondered why they moved a few sets to Thailand, then made everything else in China. It’s not like the molds or materials are any different. Or the processes, considering there are HK/China versions of the Fancy Pants babies (but not the Mountain Boys, I think? I don’t know my Euro releases too well).

[Clipper]

Fancy Pants babies are not considered Nirvana, because it was the general release within the USA.

I think Hasbro was testing a factory in Thailand at that time. This was possibly during the shift change of the Hong Kong/China period of productions..  It probably turned out to be cheaper to produce in China, so they kept it there and only tested the Fancy Pants and Mountain boy pony lines. Correct me if I'm wrong, but the Fancy Pants babies stamped made in China, came out slightly later in Europe.   The Thai MB's might be super hard to find, since they possibly could have been late production of the HK versions?  Maybe they were originally set for the US market and then Hasbro pulled from the Thai factory, and ended up canceling the series for the US and sent what was produced to parts of Europe?


Another side note to this - some Fairy Tail birds are made in Thailand as well.. Then there are the same birds with no country stamp or I believe China?  I believe they were factory shopping and decided to keep everything in China at that point on.


Not super relevant, but in the G4 line there are some Fashion Style ponies, and Zilla sized ponies made in India. But, they are made by Hasbro. This is from them sourcing other factories in other countries, to try and shift production elsewhere outside of China...

[Taffeta]

Interesting. I’ve always wondered why they moved a few sets to Thailand, then made everything else in China. It’s not like the molds or materials are any different. Or the processes, considering there are HK/China versions of the Fancy Pants babies (but not the Mountain Boys, I think? I don’t know my Euro releases too well).

99.9% of mountain boys are made in HK. There are Chinese versions of the four fancy pants babies widely released in Europe.

Thai mountain boys are rare and explanation for them unknown but probably as Clipper said.

There are some later sets with HK versions after this Thai experiment though.

[Clipper]

Interesting. I’ve always wondered why they moved a few sets to Thailand, then made everything else in China. It’s not like the molds or materials are any different. Or the processes, considering there are HK/China versions of the Fancy Pants babies (but not the Mountain Boys, I think? I don’t know my Euro releases too well).

99.9% of mountain boys are made in HK. There are Chinese versions of the four fancy pants babies widely released in Europe.

Thai mountain boys are rare and explanation for them unknown but probably as Clipper said.

There are some later sets with HK versions after this Thai experiment though.

Yes you’re right. I think the sparkle babies /starlight babies has stamps of made in Hong Kong. Not sure what else after that point ? Maybe those ponies were produced earlier and released later?

[Taffeta]

Taf babies as well...but unsure when they entered production originally. I only know they were still available after that time frame. It's hard to know with MO ponies if they were intended earlier but got released later.

With the sets like the Sweetberries, there was certainly a US release (mostly HK) 2 years before it got to Europe (China) so that argument works for them. 1988 in the US, 1990 here.

The Starlights also have NC versions, albeit they're uncommon. And for them, China is most common. Probably the Sparkle ponies don't. They're not the same set to me for a lot of reasons, but there are HK and China versions of both I believe. Starlights happened here in 1990, so it makes sense to have more China than HK. But Starlights are a whole other production problem we don't need to get into on this thread.

I know that the Pocket ponies also have NC versions (again, not common) but I am NOT aware of them having HK versions.

Summer Wings are also in that 1987-8ish production window - I have never found a Chinese one here except in the bizarre frankenpony put together Wingers (I have one of these and the Buzzer body is China, but my own loose Buzzer is HK). Whereas Sundae Best, who are also at the same time, are the other way around - the UK has mostly China ones, the ones from the US I have are all HK.

[lovesbabysquirmy]

After more than an hour of searching.... I come to the sad conclusion that this logo belongs to a Thai packaging company: http://www.tpppack.com/
And the UPC code belongs to Hasbro, so for all I can find this probably was a local Hasbro factory

Great detective work!