Has anyone seen anything like these before?

[Caroline]

So today I picked these up at a charity shop. I've never seen anything quite like them before. They are the size of mommy charms/petite ponies and possibly made of plaster. Did someone cast their own molds and make these, or were there plaster craft kits for making them or were they actually sold somewhere? They were in a bag with dollhouse furniture, some of which I recognize from my childhood in the 80's, so at least they're probably really from the G1 era.

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[TheClassCalico]

These looked oddly familiar to me, so I decided to look into it further. Unfortunately, I did not find any exact matches, but it does appear to me that they were specifically made from/are directly related to Mommy Charms.

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I think the familiarity was just me thinking of other figures with similar paint jobs, such as the Comics Spain ponies.

Are there any marks on their undersides that may point us in the right direction? I.e., manufacturing dates.

My best guess is that these were customs using a cast from Mommy Charms as you said, or possibly even fakies.

[brightberry]

I get the weird feeling someone was making casts for their own enjoyment... which is cute! I remember looking for things to do in the 80s.  I probably would have done this if I'd known how.

Once we found antique home made "marbles" in the backyard and my aunt showed us how it was done so we could make our own.  Flour, salt and water.

[Taffeta]

I'm not aware of any official petite pony moulds, though not ruling out someone doing it for themselves. Providing, of course, they aren't real charms painted over by some enthusiastic kid

They are clearly made from/based on charms. The absence of the loop/any sign of a broken loop, however, makes me really curious what's going on with them...

[Barnacle_lady]

Maybe the mould has been inspired from the Dufti Charmkins pony

[Caroline]

Thanks for your input everyone!

These really are weird. They have no markings and the place where the loop should be is sort of visible but also sort of not. They definitely aren't plastic painted over. The biggest problem I have with the theory that someone made their own mould is that Mommy charms were never available in Finland (as far as I know). Of course we get foreign ponies here quite often, but still it seems strange that the person first happened to get their hands on one and then decided to make more. Not impossible though. They also have these indends in their hooves, like whoever made them confused ponies with cows. 

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[Taffeta]

Personally I would keep them as is as a curiosity until more information can be gathered.

The idea of them being moulded from a toy sharing the same mould is a good one. But yeah, if Finland didn't get the toy originally...it's a bit odd them being there. That said, stuff does travel around Europe. Even here in the UK we've found all kinds of things that should not be here but somehow are...

[Ponyfan]

Could whoever made these have used a Petite pony shaped like this and added the flowers?

http://mylittlewiki.org/wiki/File:ParadeBeachyKeen.jpg

Or the McDonald's bookmarks?


http://mylittlewiki.org/wiki/File:Butterscotch-bookmark.jpg


Ponyfan

[BlackCurtains]

Looks like bad paint jobs over Mommy Charms. Why are you certain that's not what they are?

[Caroline]

Looks like bad paint jobs over Mommy Charms. Why are you certain that's not what they are?

Well they don't feel at all like plastic, they have the weird hooves and some of their surface is porous the the way plaster casts are. This pic might show some of it?

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[Shaiyeh]

Yeah that definitely looks like plaster.
I've found a mommy charm in a swedish charity shop before, so I wouldn't say it's impossible for someone to have gotten a charm and replicated it. There were also plaster mould trays, but idk if there were any pony ones. I've done a lot of those as a kid. These don't have flat backs, do they?

[lovesbabysquirmy]

It would not be hard at all to have created molds for plaster to DIY these , they are pretty cool

[TheClassCalico]

I'd say that the person who possibly casted this may have received it as a gift when somebody travelled to Finland or owned it prior to moving over there. It doesn't seem too unlikely to me that somebody over there could've acquired one some way or another.

Could the loop have been cut and sanded off?

[Shadowperla]

There is brazilian painting-for pony
http://mylittlewiki.org/wiki/File:Pintatinta1.jpg

Maybe they wanted their own

[Lady Frostbite]

Plaster casting kits were a thing in the 90s, I very specifically had a Hunchback of Notre Dame one! It's possible it was from an officially licensed casting kit, maybe even one that's more recent since there's retro waves for G1.