G1 non-Nirvana countries?

[StrawberryReef]

Can you tell me which are the non-Nirvana countries?  Are they just the ones that were made in Hong Kong/China?  I assume UK and US, but what Dutch and German ponies?  Do all of those ponies have the same characteristics such as body/hair quality and the way their eyes are?

What about Alternate Birthflowers?  Were they only in Scandinavia and Australia and what does it say on their hoof?

I am attempting to put a section on my site that separates the Nirvana pony countries from the "main release" ponies.  I don't even know if that is the correct term...

Please help

[hathorcat]

Lol...always a fun one...and a subject I think I am yet to see defined in a way which covers all bases....

Personally when I am thinking about it...I would describe Nirvana "as anything not mainstream" - "anything which got a limited release"...we dont call ponies like the Jewellery Babies or Sweetie Babies Nirvana because although only out in Euro/Aus...they were reasonably widely available. Whereas we would call NSS Cupcake, the Dutchies, the Regenbogen set, Alternate Birthflowers, etc Nirvana as they only got a limited release in a few select countries or country.

I always think it would be so much easier if we could do US, Euro [inc Aus] or Nirvana [which is every pony not stamped HK/China] however if you do that you start to say that some ponies covering everything from Princess variants to Alt Birthflowers are "not nirvana" as they will be stamped HK/China...and many of these ponies have been considered Nirvanas for so long that you couldnt really recategorise....

So I am going with anything "with a limited/restricted release" PLUS "anything not stamped HK/China"

I think I have confused things further....

[StrawberryReef]

I am thinking about having a page that has US/UK countries at the top and maybe just listing all other countries as alternate countries and not listing them specifically as "Nirvana".  Was US/UK the only countries that had wide release?

Post Merge: March 20, 2012, 10:34:30 AM

this is a rough draft of what the page will look like, but I'm not sure if I should keep Germany and Netherlands with the UK ponies at the top and I also don't think I have the wording right.  I appreciate any help.

http://www.strawberryreef.com/Index/G1/G1country.html

Also, please let me know if I left out any countries.  Thanks so much!

[shelti]

Ladyg, you did good, and hit the nail right on the Head.
Let's Just say, you know one when you see one   

[pinkkittywinks]

this is not easy to answer! there are a lot of grey areas.
 
a "nirvana pony" is -almost- anything that was not made in hong kong or china and does not have hong kong or china stamped on the foot. however there are some exceptions to the rules.
 
when the term "nirvana" was coined not that much was known about ponies and some ponies got put under the nirvana umbrella that aren't really nirvana ponies, when you think about the hoof mark. the german and dutch EXCLUSIVE ponies are a good example of this they are similar to the UK mountain boys, they were made in hong kong (or china for the dutch ponies) but were only released in one country or small area, they are an exclusive. 
 
the following ponies are all either marked hong kong or china and are just like a "regular" hong kong or china pony (hair, body, eyes etc), but got released in a specific country or region ~  alternate birthflowers, german, dutch and scandanavia.
 
princess variants and happy tails variants are all marked china i think and has the normal features of a hong kong/ china pony with the excpetion that everyone who worked in the factory had been to the pub and put them together wrong
 
thailand is an interesting one! the regular release fancy pants babies got made in either china and thailand one verson got a stripe/coloured forelock and the other didn't. however thailand is normal for these babies. what is not normal are the thailand mountain boys! they have been classed as nirvana since only a handful have been found and we really don't know much about them.
 
love pkw xxx
 
ETA!
 
i forgot to say the nirvana gallery is back and all the countires as well as oddities are listed there
 
http://mlparena.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_view=core.ShowItem&g2_itemId=20319
 
plus ladyg's post on "what is nirvana" is very helpful too
 
http://mlparena.com/mlp/index.php/topic,283451.0.html