Celestial Swirls- Stamping Styles & Mystery of the Method: Can you help?

[WingsOfMasquerade]

The first new characters in so many years!
I am SUPER thrilled at Basic Fun's latest release, even if it doesn't seem to be exactly what the stock art/Hasbro originally intended for this set. The art made the ponies seem like their plastic was marbleized like those 'hi-bounce' balls, or like paper marbling or something like that. The art of the hair was dubious about it having tinsel or not (it seemed to suggest they did) but it was at least glow n show type of length. (These Celestials are lovely, but their hair is normal length and no tinsel at all) However, none of this should slow them down any: they are still amazing and I am mega excited to have them all and be able to buy them for my out of country friends too so everyone can have them.

But, now that I have several of each character in the house, it came to attention that what they're doing is stamping the swirls on. It seems kind of likely that they're using whatever method the Flower Fantasy ponies used in their day. This is probably ALSO why BF WAS planning to do the Flower Fantasy ponies and then pulled a switcheroo last minute for these guys because new characters are more exciting. (And also the success of the petition of letter writing that took place here at the Arena and also FB & etc years ago) The FF technology was already there, they just switched it to swirls.

What might the device look like?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bD2DNSt8Wb4
This youtube video has the wibbly wobbly stamper machine shown that goes on curved, possibly pony surfaces. (Imagine a pony size one of that thing, not big for bowl like it shows here) It's satisfyingly squishy to watch it go. Of course, I don't know for sure what they're doing, but I suspect it and here goes some photos.

Here are 2 of her that clearly have the same stamp.
It does not apply identically every time, but look at the 'hallmarks' of it, as in red marked on the photos. You can see how the stamper distorts a bit depending on where the pony is when it's done. The leg has the same '2 blob arch', the 'jog' next to the lower heart, the 90 degree left turn at the symbol, the 'wide' in the middle.
First
visitors can't see pics , please register or login

and then
visitors can't see pics , please register or login


*The dotted line area is where she took a hit obviously, there's a yellow pale scuff there where there's a 'hole' in the lines. They weren't careful with her at the factory, either that or the swirls are made of delicate paint which would be sad.

But my third one looks like this
visitors can't see pics , please register or login

(The rest of mine have yet to arrive from Amazon)
Notice how her body AND head pattern are completely different from the first 2.

So what are the questions/how can help?
There's a finite number of this pattern stamper. How many patterns do they have?
There will be the same amount for heads & bodies.
Did they match the right pattern heads with the right matching pattern bodies? (No, the 2 above have the same body but their heads are wildly different)
Can you post a photo of your one of her with a body type that is NOT one of the 2 pictured here?

It will be very interesting to see how many different ones of each that there are.
Will "variant collectors" collect all the variations?
Will people start switching their heads to match them?

[DreamvalleyMLP]

What might the device look like?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bD2DNSt8Wb4

That was so satisfying to watch

[Snapdragon]

This is so fun!! I can’t wait for mine to arrive!!

[Leave a Whisper]

They're like little zebras or maybe fingerprint ponies. All a little different.  I can't wait to find one!

[BlackCurtains]

Hmm. I'd be kinda miffed if I got one with a head and body that don't match.

[maycrestmom]

cool youtube find for a possible stamper... my two blue ones don't match at all - this will be a cool thread we can all post are variations maybe figure out how many stamp styles there are

i'll update in a moment here

[Minty_Magic]

Oh wow, I’ve seen those stampers before but I’ve never thought about using them on ponies. Super cool! Not sure if I’m looking at the patterns right, but I think my Nova has a different body pattern than the ones pictured here. I’ve noticed her head does NOT match her body stripes which drives me slightly insane. They match a little better when I turn her head a little past where it should be. Here are some pics of her:

visitors can't see pics , please register or login


visitors can't see pics , please register or login


visitors can't see pics , please register or login


visitors can't see pics , please register or login

[maycrestmom]

here are mine - will  probably need to take out of the box to get clearer pics

but yeah, I do wonder if these will age with head/body mismatch guess we will see ...

visitors can't see pics , please register or login


visitors can't see pics , please register or login

[shockponie]

I think the paint *is* delicate. One of mine had what I believed was a dirt streak, so I tried to rub it off, and in doing so, I rubbed off some of the stripes. So just beware.

[Ponyfan]

I think the paint *is* delicate. One of mine had what I believed was a dirt streak, so I tried to rub it off, and in doing so, I rubbed off some of the stripes. So just beware.

I'm sorry to hear that stripe paint is so delicate.    That makes me a little disappointed in these since the stripes might come off easily, but I still love them.


Ponyfan

[lovesbabysquirmy]

i am shaking my head that the stamping style is something that collectors found to complain about... 

[maycrestmom]

oh dear i wasn't meant to be seen complaining I kinda laugh at my own desire to find "perfect" MLP when there is logically no such thing / beauty is in the eye of the beholder sort of thing

in fact now I am pondering since it is just a paint job i might be able to improve and add some swirls to mine if I so desire so it's all good by me I am just happy Basic Fun took the leap and brought this set to production instead of keeping them as concepts only :-) and I think it is really neat they found a way like how masquerade figured out to do printing on a pony-surface  so all that remains in my mind is to wonder yeah, how many styles of marblizing templates did they use?  I'm guessing at least 4 but dunno for certain it's a mystery

[Primaltimediamond]

it seems I'll have to ship mine over from another country, amazon doesn't have them in my own country 

[brightberry]

Here is my out of the box stripey pony:
visitors can't see pics , please register or login

I really love her.  I think it's cool everyone gets their own unique pony.

Primaltimediamond, I hope you don't have too much trouble tracking her down or she shows up on Amazon soon.

[SunbeamV]

no idea whats going on with these guys but i'm absolutely eating up everyone's pictures over here  they're like little alien zebras and i can't wait for mine to get here!