Soo... I spotted a G1 baby Applejack with yellow apples stamped Hong Kong on sale (before you get excited, the seller asks 200€ for her), and got curious as I had never heard of this variation. It seems any G1 info sites either don't acknowledge she exists! I found two images of a paler symbol baby Applejack, but none of one with certainly yellow apples. Nothing at all.
I'm not planning on buying it or anything, I'm just very curious. Does anyone know more about this odd variant? Where does it originate from or is it a factory error? Is this one of a kind even? Maybe a very rare variant like the Thai Mountain boys?
The seller had comparison images, and the yellow apple one was also more pale on body color and I think had blue eyes! How strange!
I can link the Instagram post if it is allowed later.
My guess would be fading. I think you were wise not to pay 200 euros for her, LOL! Instagram pics / links are allowed here. :)
I don't think uv light changes the eye color too.. with images I linked the difference is easier to understand. An age old custom on the other hand is a more possible normal explanation.Soo... I spotted a G1 baby Applejack with yellow apples stamped Hong Kong on sale (before you get excited, the seller asks 200€ for her), and got curious as I had never heard of this variation. It seems any G1 info sites either don't acknowledge she exists! I found two images of a paler symbol baby Applejack, but none of one with certainly yellow apples. Nothing at all.
I'm not planning on buying it or anything, I'm just very curious. Does anyone know more about this odd variant? Where does it originate from or is it a factory error? Is this one of a kind even? Maybe a very rare variant like the Thai Mountain boys?
The seller had comparison images, and the yellow apple one was also more pale on body color and I think had blue eyes! How strange!
I can link the Instagram post if it is allowed later.
Not strange at all, if the pony is faded from UV light.
Lots of Cotton Candys have blue eyes, despite being purple at the beginning. This has been confirmed to not be a variant (in most cases), and to instead be due to the behavior of the red pigment. Red is much more sensitive to UV light, so it breaks down very quickly. Yellow is not as sensitive, therefore the symbols look yellow without any damage or smudges to the paint.I see! Thank you. :o In this case the eye colour change would be from darker green to dark turqoise, wich sounds odd to me.
I'm still inclined to believe it is due to fading for this reason, but I'd still love to see photos if you can provide them later. :)
I see! Thank you. :o In this case the eye colour change would be from darker green to dark turqoise, wich sounds odd to me.Checked out the photos, the lighting does make it harder to make out, but it does look very interesting! I've seen Baby Blossoms fade to complete white without any blotchiness or unevenness on the sides.
I added a link, the symbols are bright yellow on both sides wich is a bit shady. Even if it is fading, I've never seen one with this obviously a whole other colour as the result.
Thank you for providing images. :) I think the Blossom is more obviously still a Blossom and has hints of it's original shades.I see! Thank you. :o In this case the eye colour change would be from darker green to dark turqoise, wich sounds odd to me.Checked out the photos, the lighting does make it harder to make out, but it does look very interesting! I've seen Baby Blossoms fade to complete white without any blotchiness or unevenness on the sides.
I added a link, the symbols are bright yellow on both sides wich is a bit shady. Even if it is fading, I've never seen one with this obviously a whole other colour as the result.
In spoiler:If she were left out or used primarily as an outdoor toy, that would explain why it's yellow on both. That would be cool if it were a new variant, still! Maybe there's a few others floating around to help explain this one.Spoiler
She looks cute with the yellow apples for sure! Golden delicious Applejack, ha ha. I still think fading of the symbol due to UV rays (sunlight) is the cause.It is definetly a possibility when you stare at the situation for a good hour. Especialy when regular Applejack seems to rarely have the same thing going on. :blink:
Hmm... Here is what I notice (without drawing conclusions for now).
Body
The body is slightly paler than a regular baby AJ. The head looks slightly darker but I'm not sure. Some parts of the vinyl are noticeably lighter than others, not caused by lighting, for example the pointy parts of the backs of the hind legs and other areas that would stick out.
Hair
Looks ordinary? Possibly slightly lighter, not sure.
Symbols
Of course, the apples are yellow. They look to be fairly pale, not saturated like the usual red, and don't have the sheen of regular G1 paint. Also, the paint looks fairly thin if I'm not mistaken. The green tops look more blue than regular. They almost have a white outline though I'm not sure.
Eyes
All looks right, except the color. The color of the eyes is more blue than green.
Overall, she looks slightly more banged up than the real one shown in the photos. Not too much of a difference though.
Now, there are many possible explanations, some more likely than others. For example, she could be a custom, she could be faded, she could be an error or a variant. For the custom possibility, we can probably rule that out as she wasn't sign or marked in any way that we can tell, and it looks like her symbols are factory because of the placement, size, and accuracy. It would be unlikely that she is a variant or error, as none others have been found or described or just talked about that at least I know of (but I haven't been in the pony community for that long!)
Now, the possibility of fading. Ponies have been known to fade evenly, like the Blossom tailrustedtealeaf showed. Some ponies can have just their paint fade, some just their symbols fade, and other things like this as you probably know :) It wouldn't be out of the realm of possibility for this Baby AJ to have faded. After all, her symbols had red, the color that fades the fastest, out of her symbols. If they were to fade, a light warm color would be left, which has happened. Her body and hair are also lighter than usual. Her eye color is a different color than usual. The paint has a different sheen. All of the observations I have made point to fading. I think it's safe to say that she is just faded ;) After all, fading is common ponies!
She looks very cute though! I'm tempted to make an OC or something inspired by her...
It's a french collector, I know her username from a french forum. I may ask in there if someone remember that particular baby if you want.Thank you very much for the information, very helpful!
Edit: She speaked about her variant in the french forum and said she didn't think after close inspection it was a sunfade one because she firstly bet on this.
Here's the pictures she posted back in 2015 of "the pony"
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I've seen a lot of Baby AJs over the years and I have seen ones with faded or paler colouring, just like with adult. I don't know about this one, though. It is a bit more extreme.
I am...cautious to call it a variant, but not really willing to totally rule it out. I have a Baby Ember who is clearly lavender ember but is pretty much entirely greyI've also had Magic Stars with blue hair from sun fading as well. I don't like to put everything down to fading, but the eyes make me a bit uncomfortable.
The symbol would be more persuasive to me if the eyes were green still. Green fades to blue easily so that suggests her paler colours could be fading.
The one big difference between them is hair rooting which suggests they do belong to different batches. In which case, minor variations might have been accentuated by sunlight.
Baby Lemon Drop (Stroller version) comes in 2 variations re her symbol, lavender and a really dark reddish purple. I don't see why the same couldn't be true for Baby AJ.
My Baby AJ came to me from new but she sat on a shop shelf for ten years before I got her. Looking at her colouring in my photos, in my image her eyes look slightly less green than I remember them, but that could be the image. Which means it's hard to judge the colours from images on this as well.
The pony in ColdRuru's linked images also show her without a tail, and the original images show her with damage to one eye. That kind of implies a harder life (unless the tail was removed for cleaning) and a replacement tail possibly? Ponies who have wear also are more likely to show fading.
In any case, I think she's overpriced :/ There are few batch variations which fetch that kind of price difference o.O
Yeah, it's probably best not to completely rule out the possibility of variant or error, but it's unlikely. Especially since all of her seems to be lighter and no others have been spotted AFAIK. And there is a regular AJ with the same thing going on. I guess we really don't know... (I hope it's a variant though. that would be awesome!)
Also, I was thinking that if her eyes were still green, her head could've been switched, but thats a slim possibility... I don't think it's even a real possibility. Not to accuse anyone either!!!! Just a thought.
Were the other AJs you saw different in appearance? If they were then fading would be VERY likely since different ponies fade differently. And I think there might be actual nirvanas with this AJ symbol coloring too.Yeah, it's probably best not to completely rule out the possibility of variant or error, but it's unlikely. Especially since all of her seems to be lighter and no others have been spotted AFAIK. And there is a regular AJ with the same thing going on. I guess we really don't know... (I hope it's a variant though. that would be awesome!)
Also, I was thinking that if her eyes were still green, her head could've been switched, but thats a slim possibility... I don't think it's even a real possibility. Not to accuse anyone either!!!! Just a thought.
I truely agree. Though I think I saw somewhere on Google image search one or two more of the adult Applejacks with this going on? What is the most odd to me, is that if this is possible to happen by fading then how come this is the first baby AJ to emerge in this shape and color.
Honestly nothing is impossible with ponies! After all, we have nirvanas that have never even been found as other than once with a head different colour than the body, suggesting body swapping. The things these millions of ponies have encountered can be crazy. :D
Lots of Cotton Candys have blue eyes, despite being purple at the beginning. This has been confirmed to not be a variant (in most cases), and to instead be due to the behavior of the red pigment. Red is much more sensitive to UV light, so it breaks down very quickly. Yellow is not as sensitive, therefore the symbols look yellow without any damage or smudges to the paint.
I'm still inclined to believe it is due to fading for this reason, but I'd still love to see photos if you can provide them later. :)
Well, both colors are going to fade. They are different colors so they'll fade differently. I think this is how it fades: In the red in her symbols, the red is going to fade quickly, leaving a pale yellow color. I also want to point out that her red apples do have a bit of yellow in them, that shade isn't a perfect primary red. Now, the green leaves. Out of the blue and yellow in them, yellow is going to fade faster, but not as fast as the red. So, there are darker blue stems and leaves with a very light yellow color. Both are the colors that are left behind. (Correct me if I'm wrong, not toooo sure about this explanation!)Lots of Cotton Candys have blue eyes, despite being purple at the beginning. This has been confirmed to not be a variant (in most cases), and to instead be due to the behavior of the red pigment. Red is much more sensitive to UV light, so it breaks down very quickly. Yellow is not as sensitive, therefore the symbols look yellow without any damage or smudges to the paint.
I'm still inclined to believe it is due to fading for this reason, but I'd still love to see photos if you can provide them later. :)
The thing that makes me kinda skeptical that it's just fading is that the stems/leaves on the variant are blue. If they were originally 'normal', that would suggest the yellow pigment in the green stems has faded almost completely - yet the apples are still definitely yellow. Regular Applejack's apples are also pretty red, so I would think that if they were faded they'd be almost white. :lol:
Maybe someone out there with a baity Baby Applejack should leave her out in the sun for a while and let us know what happens. :P
Confused by the above since I obviously commented on those photos in my post...
Definetly, understandable. Though right above you someone posted a comparison and comment made by the ponys owner himself, so definetly read it and analyze the images if you haven't already.
QuoteWere the other AJs you saw different in appearance? If they were then fading would be VERY likely since different ponies fade differently. And I think there might be actual nirvanas with this AJ symbol coloring too.Yeah, it's probably best not to completely rule out the possibility of variant or error, but it's unlikely. Especially since all of her seems to be lighter and no others have been spotted AFAIK. And there is a regular AJ with the same thing going on. I guess we really don't know... (I hope it's a variant though. that would be awesome!)
Also, I was thinking that if her eyes were still green, her head could've been switched, but thats a slim possibility... I don't think it's even a real possibility. Not to accuse anyone either!!!! Just a thought.
I truely agree. Though I think I saw somewhere on Google image search one or two more of the adult Applejacks with this going on? What is the most odd to me, is that if this is possible to happen by fading then how come this is the first baby AJ to emerge in this shape and color.
Honestly nothing is impossible with ponies! After all, we have nirvanas that have never even been found as other than once with a head different colour than the body, suggesting body swapping. The things these millions of ponies have encountered can be crazy. :D
There are probably very few AJs like this because this harsh of fading requires a lot of time and exposure.
Also, if she were to be a variant or error, we would know nothing about her apart from what she looks like, right? We really need more info darn it!
(Edited because I totally quoted correctly the first time.)
Lots of Cotton Candys have blue eyes, despite being purple at the beginning. This has been confirmed to not be a variant (in most cases), and to instead be due to the behavior of the red pigment. Red is much more sensitive to UV light, so it breaks down very quickly. Yellow is not as sensitive, therefore the symbols look yellow without any damage or smudges to the paint.
I'm still inclined to believe it is due to fading for this reason, but I'd still love to see photos if you can provide them later. :)
The thing that makes me kinda skeptical that it's just fading is that the stems/leaves on the variant are blue. If they were originally 'normal', that would suggest the yellow pigment in the green stems has faded almost completely - yet the apples are still definitely yellow. Regular Applejack's apples are also pretty red, so I would think that if they were faded they'd be almost white. :lol:
Maybe someone out there with a baity Baby Applejack should leave her out in the sun for a while and let us know what happens. :P
Confused by the above since I obviously commented on those photos in my post...
Definetly, understandable. Though right above you someone posted a comparison and comment made by the ponys owner himself, so definetly read it and analyze the images if you haven't already.
What we don't have here is an image of her with her head removed to see the inside colour. My Ember that I mentioned is a lot more purple in her neck seal than on her body.
The problems I have remain the same. The eye colour is suspect because it isn't blue so much as the tell-tale green-to-blue that comes with fading. Someone else mentioned the symbol leaves as well, which also show similar signs. That suggests fading.
It's been said that if it was faded, we'd have seen this before. That's not the case. In the 2 decades I've been working with UK information, a lot of stuff that was once general knowledge about mainstream European ponies is now gone. There are a lot of subjects people raise and then talk about as though they're new variations, when in fact they've been known about for years. And it's really unlikely that the community would see value in recording images of faded ponies.
With all of this said, I still think it probable that she came from a lighter colour batch. People don't focus on batch variations very much, but they're really normal. To bring everyone back down to earth, the reason you notice this Baby AJ is because her symbol seems so starkly yellow. If you didn't see that, you might not notice. If she wasn't next to another Baby AJ, would anyone notice she was paler? Would you pay attention to the eyes? My point is, a lot of paler AJs and baby AJs can easily fly under the radar if they're not being directly compared.
I still think she is basically the same as a regular Baby AJ in terms of her value. Maybe less because that's probably a replaced tail and her eye looks damaged. But as ColdRuru said, it is up to the seller and buyer to price her.
Edit to add: To demonstrate what I mean about batch, some other Baby AJs for general comparison purposes: From Ponyland press
From a sale site
And mine, which I had from new.
None of these have yellow symbols, but also none of these have the same shade of symbol as each other, either. If the pony began with a paler symbol, then she's more likely to fade to yellow than, for example, my baby might with her dark orange apples.
It's also very logical that if Mother AJ has this symbol variation, baby will as well. They're almost certainly being printed from the same factory.
This isn't a Nirvana type pony release, it's a mainstream pony release across a large swathe of Europe. There will be differences, and a little sun just made this one a bit more exotic.
Everything about that 'variant' Baby Applejack points to fading. The least stable colour is red. Yellow is the next to go, and blue is the most difficult to break down with UV. Orange body paler = less red
Apples yellow = less red
Leaves blue = green - yellow
blue eyes = green - yellow
I had an Applejack with yellow apples on one side and reddish-orange on the other, nothing more than sun damage. Pretty sure she ended up in the custom bait bin. Cute, but not valuable.
Not Applejack, but Wigwam who is another orange pony:
I have three, they all look very different but I'm pretty sure that two are faded. They have faded very uniformly over their bodies, and the hair and eyes have remained white and blue. The red symbols have faded to almost nothing particularly on the lightest of the three. I've had the heads off all three and the neck plugs on the light ones are darker orange than the outside of the body.
I love them as they look like a set of brothers, similar but different enough to be individuals, but they are all regular Wigwams as far as I know.
Definetly. The amount of differences one factorys ponies can have is the most obvious in nirvanas though, thus they're a good extreme level example of normal factory made differences between the same pony.
Quote from: CinnamonOnionsDefinetly. The amount of differences one factorys ponies can have is the most obvious in nirvanas though, thus they're a good extreme level example of normal factory made differences between the same pony.
I would disagree with this. Again, it's a problem of what information the community priveleges. Before Nirvana became a thing (ie before the word was applied to variants) we just had variations and a lot more discussion happened about things like this in a meaningful way. I don't say Nirvana shouldn't exist, but a lot of people focus now on those variations rather than the normal everyday ones that exist in most lines of most ponies in most places.
To give you an example, I have 6 different versions of Baby Mischief, which between them cover 3 manufacturing locations, have four different hair tinsel rooting patterns and three different body tones. But most people just talk about Baby Mischief and not any of those variations. They are really obvious variations you can tell by looking at the pony - but most people don't look that closely, because they're just not interested in those things. She's just one pony, who had a fairly limited release. Imagine how many other variations like that there are across all the mainstream release ponies across all countries (by mainstream I mean HK or China made).
By contrast, if you talk about, say, Greek Sunlight, or Greek Medley, there'll be more discussion on the colour of the pony etc because people are more aware of those differences.
It's a matter of knowledge and interest not a matter of it not happening, and over the years the interest in Nirvana stuff has grown at the expense of the more mainstream differences.
In short what I am trying to say is that there is a fair level of variation between different ponies from the same release without any formal reason why. And those ponies are generally just accepted in the community as normal. If this Baby AJ had green eyes and green symbol leaves I'd believe her symbols began as yellow. But because she doesn't, I suspect they began as pale orange...which is more unusual but still normal.
People are always just way way way too eager to say it's a valuable OOAK international Nirvana prototype variation instead of thinking clearly about the fact that children played with their toys outside in the sunshine a lot. :(This. The possibility of it being a variant is slim. Especially since we have more pictures of her and tbh, she just looks faded.
200Euros is an insane amount of money for a single "regular issue" MLP variation that nothing is known about - too good to be true, IMHO !
Green fading to blue in eye paint, hair, body tone, symbol paint is extremely common. The fact she has both discoloured eyes AND symbol leaves indicated fading. If the leaves on the symbol were green and the apples yellow she'd be a convincing variant candidate.
So she is a factory error because she is even, has one color missing and that one color would be the first to fade, and another one exists? Not even mentioning any evidence for the symbol except for the fact they're even? A lot of ponies would be factory errors then.
Sorry I cannot help better, I translated to you all I found about this baby when he was introduced to the french community, in fact the owner didn't tell a lot about. But everyone in that forum doesn't doubt of the fact it's a variation also, so no debate there to explain better the case.
I could try to drop a PM in french to the vendor (as you mentionned she's not good with english?) to ask for explanation on why she pointed on a variant instead of a sunfading? In fact, it can help her own sale if people agreed on what's her pony is, no?
Let me know what you thinks, I just don't want to bother her for nothing :blush:
People are always just way way way too eager to say it's a valuable OOAK international Nirvana prototype variation instead of thinking clearly about the fact that children played with their toys outside in the sunshine a lot. :(
200Euros is an insane amount of money for a single "regular issue" MLP variation that nothing is known about - too good to be true, IMHO !
Unfortunately this happens because of people being mote interested in the Nirvana. I don't think the seller or the other community are being misleading...but there are many more explanations that make sense.
It reminds me a bit of the white hair posey thing...
I actually really like the yellow apples. It’s definitely faded.
I once had a Cherries Jubilee pass through my hands whose cherries were so faded they were almost white.
She responded to me (in French) so here's a translation of what she said.Thank you so much!!! ❤ it's all I can even say!
Also, she said she might take new pictures.
I hope this will helps you, also bear in mind it's not myself talking :biggrin:
"First _ faded aren't even, but it's the case with this baby"
"Second _ when a pony fade it's mostly one side, but here the two have exactly the same color tones"
"Third _ the eyes aren't the regular version like a pigment was missing. As a print without all the colors > so it points to a factory error with a missprint or pigment color missing at the end of the product chain"
"Four _ in 20 years of collecting I saw another one like mine on the debuts of ebay."
Five _ I've got a mother AJ with yellow symbol as well, the colors are exactly the same. They should varies a bit if it was faded"
Also she mention she's better on clue for factory errors than variant then. The baby is stamped HK under hoofs.
She promess more picture when she got time and said she might go to open it, but it's difficult to do on HK babies.
@ColdRuru - thank you for asking her for more details about her pony.
I went back after reading your post and looked again at the images.
If she does have more photos that would be good, esp with the internal....
Looking again at her IG images, there looks to be mismatch between head and body but I can't tell if that's lighting because the other photos don't show that join.
I actually have no issue with her being paler from factory. Someone mentioned Baby Blossom earlier - there are 2 versions of her in terms of body tone, some very pale lavender which easily fades out to grey and some which are more substantial. With colours like that the mix is going to vary and also how much that dye stays the same colour over time. So the pale body and an even paleness isn't that unbelievable.
The fact she has an adult AJ with the same issue points more to fading of them both than it does disprove it. It would be one thing to suggest that a random variant baby AJ had happened through factory error but mother and baby AJ would have come off different production lines. She doesn't say which AJ, either - but that matters in this case. Do you happen to know?
The more I look at the baby pony, the more I see issues relating to wear and tear. There's some cut mane as well, and the symbols when you really look at them have the slightly grainy texture that often seems to occur on symbols that have begun to wear or fade. Someone mentioned CJ above - CJ has lots of different symbol types, but you can tell with her (and often with Posey, with Tootsie's lollipops, etc) that fading or wear has occurred because of how the symbols look. The colour that fades out in all of these cases is probably the reddish pigment given that we're dealing with orange/red/pink shades in these symbols as well.
Green fading to blue in eye paint, hair, body tone, symbol paint is extremely common. The fact she has both discoloured eyes AND symbol leaves indicated fading. If the leaves on the symbol were green and the apples yellow she'd be a convincing variant candidate.
But while I think her body was probably paler from the start, the rest to me looks like fading/wear/damage over time.
But that doesn't mean she's not a pretty pony :D
She's a bit discoloured, so yellowish in places, but this is my grey Ember:
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(for what she is supposed to look like, see below:
That's a considerable difference, so she was probably never as dark in the first place, but she was still a purple ember, even though she really doesn't look like one now.
She is grey all over. Where she isn't grey she is yellow, so any inconsistencies of colour you can see in the image is basically whether she is yellowed or not, not any residual purple. Inside her neckline, though, you can see the purple. Again, it's the pinkish/red pigment that she's lost, leaving her like Snuzzle in colour.
Back in the late 1990s, it was one of the many false rumours about UK ponies. But the community then was not quite like now in terms of how global it was. There were only a few of us from the UK involved and not many from Europe either, one or two from Australia maybe. And a lot of rumours about what existed in other countries with a handful of us working really hard to clarify the real from the myth. White hair posey was one of those rumours because she comes up often. Her hair and symbols can fade completely to white.
Reverse Gusty is also a contentious one because there were a number of scams of people creating fake ones to sell as real. There are maybe three real ones in existence that we can prove are real? But there have been many other fakes over the years. The ones which are accepted as real have been subjected to a lot of investigation and I think they also have a paper trail of ownership right back to them first being found. Chemical tests have also been done on suspected fakes, to prove the wrong kind of glue even on very good ones.
Basically for something to be a batch variant there's not a lot of fuss about proving it, because the pony isn't worth any more money for being slightly different in symbol or body tone. But if it's supposed to be a rare variant OOAK nirvana type, then generally it gets subjected to much more enquiry. Partly, I suppose, because of scams like the white hair posey one and the Reverse Gusty one. In both those cases people paid a lot of money for something that wasn't a variant. When large amounts of money are involved, then it can't really be a debate - it needs to be for sure, if that makes sense?
Again, I don't think this seller is trying to mislead anyone. She clearly believes in her pony. I just don't personally believe it's a variant.
My question about AJ was not about the country but the pose. It matters in terms of the release timeline and thus production.
It's already quite unlikely that an adult and a baby AJ out of all others would manage to get through the production line with the wrong colour symbol and then randomly find their way to the house of the same collector. If there are lots of them, then that's different - but if there are only one or two, it's pretty unlikely. BUT if the AJ adult comes from a completely different release year, it's next to impossible to make that connection. That would leave fading as pretty much the only explanation...so that's why I asked.
Honestly, this "professional collector" has serious errors in logic and if the best evidence they can come up with all points to fading, I don't think there's much of a debate left. Them being a "professional collector" doesn't mean squat to me, but it seems like it does to members of that other board. All of the evidence points to fading (though some of it could be interpreted as error). Though I don't think they are trying to mislead anyone.
This is a lot like white haired Posey...
It might freak you out but there are a lot of people in this community who have been collecting for more than 20 years xD. And there are also people who have been less time but who have accrued knowledge and experience, as well as those who have been collecting for ages but only casually. I guess my point is that we don't separate ourselves by length of time vs knowledge. We all have things we know stuff about and things we don't, I guess?Exactly! I don't know anything about this person and what they know. Just because you have ponies doesn't mean you know about them. Also, saying professional collector makes it sound like a job XD
I just want to said that I agree with Taffeta and CinnamonOnions that this girl is not trying to scam anybody and believe in her pony, no matter what individual people can thinks ;)Agreed ;) (meant to add that in my last post whoops)
And as I said, in the end it's up to everybody to take the choice to buy or not :biggrin:
It might freak you out but there are a lot of people in this community who have been collecting for more than 20 years xD. And there are also people who have been less time but who have accrued knowledge and experience, as well as those who have been collecting for ages but only casually. I guess my point is that we don't separate ourselves by length of time vs knowledge. We all have things we know stuff about and things we don't, I guess?
Re: Applejack - thank you. Then it probably must be fading. The shy pose AJ came out the year before baby AJ, who was part of the same release year as collector pose AJ. I'm not ruling out potential crossover, but it just reduces the likelihood of this being a variation again. It would be a very big coincidence, let's just leave it at that.
All of this doesn't remove the fact that she actually looks very cute with those symbols though. Just not €200 worth of cute. Although I remember the first baby AJ ever to appear on ebay sold for $300 xD.
Well, in the heart of the debate... that remembers me I don't have an AJ baby, I did a quick search and...
I just saw this guy on ebay :)
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A bit late in at the starting gate, but I am on the side of those who are going for 'faded'. It is completely possible for a pony to fade evenly; I have a lovely Cherries Jubilee (as a random example) who is evenly faded with lilac instead of purple cherries. I am keeping her as I like Cherries and she makes a nice addition to my Cherries collection. But she is by no means a 'variant'. Simply faded. What does not show in the photo is that her body and hair are also lighter than non-faded Cherries next to her.
Here she is next to her non-faded counterpart:
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I think it is as Taffeta mentioned earlier in the thread: people do not always notice these small variations until they are pointed out by someone. However they are there, and this is something that I have personally noticed. It also happens with Wigwam's symbols for example.
But I also agree that the seller genuinely believes that they have a unique pony, which in a way is what we all want to believe, right? So is perfectly natural.
Scoops is another one that comes up too - her magenta/purple milkshakes already appear in several shades but can also fade to very pretty pastels.