UK exclusives

[wondermintUK]

I was wondering which ponies were exclusive to the UK - I mean just the UK, not Euro wide?  I'm interested in all gens but especially G1s. Thanks in advance for sharing your pony knowledge

[ArtyAmy]

Hopscotch (I think) and baby Fun 'n' Games (I think) are one's I know of. "My little wiki" has a list of UK ponies. ^^

[Taffeta]

Is it really bad to plug my website now? (Link in the sig). Scrapbook is dedicated to ponies in the UK, in various different ways.

The wiki is a really awesome site, but it is not totally accurate on UK and European releases, most especially because we are all the time discussing, tweaking and finding stuff out about those in terms of all the different countries.

Hopscotch is not a UK exclusive. She was sold in European countries too.

As far as I know, Gypsy, Honeycomb are UK exclusives. Our version of Megan's outfit is UK exclusive. Mountain Boys are often called it but were also sold in Scandinavia, so aren't really UK ponies. We're still working on the Baby Sea Ponies (Pearly) and there are some other ponies to try and figure out...but the term UK is used far too much to describe ponies sold in Europe as well, and we need to really clarify those things I think.

The club newborns I'm not sure on totally. I have heard that some of them were in Australia...but I'd need an Australian to confirm or deny that one.

On another topic, Wondermint, I was at your exhibition yesterday. I want to kidnap your Baby Sugarcake. If I'd known I'd have brought Gametime to see her xD she's waited a long time...

[Ponyland]

UK exclusives are Gypsy, Honeycomb, Short/straight haired Cherries Jubilee, Cascade, the activity Club Babies, baby Bow-Tie, Megan & Sundance in the pants/skirt outfit..

..and probably the 3 adult sea ponies, that also got italian counterparts.

I might have forgotten someone now, but most other ponies UK shared with other countries.

(Hopscotch was sold in some europeans countries)

edit: Taffeta posted first 

[Leave a Whisper]

http://www.ponylandpress.com/europe/

Here's a nice list. I think Europe got some of the prettiest ponies! Like the Mountain Boys, Mom and Baby Hopscotch, Rollerskating Ponies, MLP Tales characters, Baby Splish, Splash and Splosh, Cascade, Bluebelle, Night;ight, The Sunbright, Berrytown and Meadowsweet families, just to name a few. :3

[Taffeta]

edit: Taffeta posted first 

I had forgotten Cascade though and Cherries Jubilee of course, but people don't often care about her.

 I am not sure about the Sea Ponies (albeit we had HK versions rather than Italian ones, the Italian ones were the equivalents of our HK ones...) Seaspray and Surfdancer you mean I presume Wavebreaker is the same pony as Wavedancer. Only her shell is different.

I'm not sure about Baby Bow Tie, either. I'm not even sure why. There is at the very least the Spanish version in the other pose, and she came with a stroller and on card...

I know that some of the UK ponies were sold in Dubai through import. I would have to go back through my PMs to find out which though...

Here's a nice list. I think Europe got some of the prettiest ponies! Like the Mountain Boys, Mom and Baby Hopscotch, Rollerskating Ponies, MLP Tales characters, Baby Splish, Splash and Splosh, Cascade, Bluebelle, Gypsy, The Sunbright, Berrytown and Meadowsweet families. :3

But the question was, which ponies are UK only, and those are a mixture of UK and German and UK/European release ponies xD.  Europe is not one collective line like the US line, or the Canadian line. It's a lot of different lines that intercross at places but diversify at other places. Extracting that is one of the things we're trying to do; lumping them all together as European is actually misleading and probably something we need to try and stop doing. I'm really guilty of it myself, but the discussion in the Nirvana about this stuff makes it all the more clear to me how important it is to differentiate the history of these lines in terms of countries. Plus they need to be taken into context with ALL the other ponies sold or not sold in those countries, not just segregated as "European" as though all the other ponies were just North American release.

[Wardah]

I sometimes wonder if even with G1 it wasn't intentional that any ponies were exclusive to one country other than the ones made in that country and it was just who happened to order them.

[Taffeta]

I sometimes wonder if even with G1 it wasn't intentional that any ponies were exclusive to one country other than the ones made in that country and it was just who happened to order them.

I think you have a really valid point with this. The fact certain ponies were promoted here, or packaged (probably) here and then not sold here really does suggest that happened. We also have a problem with the UK line in that it's muddied by store imports. THe fact North American packaging is in English meant certain stores with US connections imported stuff as exclusives. The Candy Canes are the example I always use, because we had four officially sold here, but Mint Dreams and Lemon Treats happened because of store imports in Woolworths (at least) and so we had both the bordered European box and the North American style box. I am convinced the only way we had Happytails ponies, also, was through import. I've only ever seen them in a North American style box here, even with UK price tags on them. Brush & Grows and Loving Families are also the same situation.

That said, I do think Hasbro UK probably created Gypsy, since she doesn't fit the conventions of normal unicorns and the Mountain Boys are so British in their weather fixation, that probably they came out of a UK design office. It's almost as if they supplement the line in the place of importing whatever the North American set is at the time...and if they don't sell it here, they might export it. Truly, Cupcake, etc have "Hasbro UK" on their cards, but never came out here.

[katrine2309]

This is an interesting discussion - as many of the UK releases were also sold other places (Mountain Boys has been mentioned). I remember Gypsy well  from I was a kid - she was a pony I knew about and wished for - although I didn't have her myself I would think she was advertised in Scandinavia. In the 80's there wasn't really any internet for kids to look for new toys - it would have been a brochure or something like that. Still haven't found out if she was actually sold here though - I never remember seeing her in the store, and I think I would have remembered if I saw her. She was my favorite adult pony as a kid. But then again I was very young when she would have been in store here, I'm born in '82.

We did get  other UK ponies, as UK pose Bow Tie for instance - she was absolutely sold in Norway, and she was my first pony ever from my childhood. I still think of them as UK though.

[Taffeta]

@Katrine - now that's really interesting. So not sold in Sweden but maybe in Norway? Hrm.

Gypsy was sold on this card in the UK,  (Snowflake's card shown)

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She only appeared on this flier:

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Which would have appeared in packages here in 1986 at least.

We know that the Pony Friend card with Truly and Cupcake is basically the same style as this card.
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And some of the set are the same so we've been theorising that this set was the equivalent in Scandinavia...

She wasn't sold after that over here, and we didn't have Pony Friends as a set in the UK.

We had a lot of characters in stories and stuff here that weren't sold here so there's no guarantee, but it's interesting that you remember her (unless it was in comics? I don't have any Norwegian comics, but I have seen that a lot of the art from the comics here also appeared in some comics on the continent, and Gypsy was in the comics quite a lot at one point)

[Ponyland]

Seaspray and Surfdancer you mean I presume Wavebreaker is the same pony as Wavedancer. Only her shell is different.

I think of her as a own character rather than a renamed US one. If she had a symbol that had been copied it would have been a bit different, but now she just share the same colors with her US cousin sort of. But that is just my personal view of it, she is clearly inspired by the US one and most likely the same pony in different surroundings.
But I couldn't ever use a nice Wavebreaker as an upgrade for a poor Wavedancer. That would feel so wrong, they simply are different ponies that can't take each others place.


(And Wavebreaker is still a UK exclusive just as Megan in the different outfit is, even if it is the same character )

I'm not sure about Baby Bow Tie, either. I'm not even sure why. There is at the very least the Spanish version in the other pose, and she came with a stroller and on card...

I have been investigating this for so long now, and I haven't ever found any evidence about her being sold elsewhere (except the spanish variation). And I'm able to exclude her from quite many countries pony range now.  I have sort of put her as an UK exclusive until proven otherwise that she was a official part in another countries pony range.
Unofficial imports can happen though.

[Taffeta]

Seaspray and Surfdancer you mean I presume Wavebreaker is the same pony as Wavedancer. Only her shell is different.

I think of her as a own character rather than a renamed US one.

But I couldn't ever use a nice Wavebreaker as an upgrade for a poor Wavedancer. That would feel so wrong, they simply are different ponies that can't take each others place.

(And Wavebreaker is still a UK exclusive just as Megan in the different outfit is )

Of course, Wavebreaker is the original and Wavedancer is the rename. *runs away innocently before someone kicks her*

The ponies are the same pony, though in terms of issue release they came with different stuff. I see it like Princess Pearl came with different stuff but is still the same basic pony as Princess Tiffany. In this house, there is only one of the two. She is Wavebreaker, as she came from here. I don't have any interest in acquiring Wavedancer xD. I don't have her box, but on Seaspray's and Surfdancer's she's Wavebreaker and that's good enough for me. The purple shell is Seaspray's anyway.

[Ponyland]

Seaspray and Surfdancer you mean I presume Wavebreaker is the same pony as Wavedancer. Only her shell is different.

I think of her as a own character rather than a renamed US one.

But I couldn't ever use a nice Wavebreaker as an upgrade for a poor Wavedancer. That would feel so wrong, they simply are different ponies that can't take each others place.

(And Wavebreaker is still a UK exclusive just as Megan in the different outfit is )

Of course, Wavebreaker is the original and Wavedancer is the rename. *runs away innocently before someone kicks her*

The ponies are the same pony, though in terms of issue release they came with different stuff. I see it like Princess Pearl came with different stuff but is still the same basic pony as Princess Tiffany. In this house, there is only one of the two. She is Wavebreaker, as she came from here. I don't have any interest in acquiring Wavedancer xD. I don't have her box, but on Seaspray's and Surfdancer's she's Wavebreaker and that's good enough for me. The purple shell is Seaspray's anyway.

If I remember correctly Wavedancer is from 1984 and Wavebreaker is from 1985. And in that way Seaspray could have been inspired by High Tide or the opposite  (pink hair/yellow body)

But yes there are many accessory variations for ponies. Still a exclusive though with the yellow shell.

[Taffeta]

If I remember correctly Wavedancer is from 1984 and Wavebreaker is from 1985. And in that way Seaspray could have been inspired by High Tide or the opposite  (pink hair/yellow body)

Yeah, I was just being cheeky. I know they were the other way around, although based on the fact stories started to happen in the UK from 1985, and the fact there are no stories on the Sea Pony boxes, I think they are probably 1984-5, like the Rainbow Ponies, rather than straight 1985. Their box is dated 1984.  They may even be the first Hasbro UK deviation. Who knows? Unfortunately I no longer have the MIB Sealight I used to have so can't compare directly, but the art is very different from the US package as well, and it does include instructions on how to braid hair! Hasbro UK still obsessed with braiding, even if they have to change the graphic to make it a sea pony instead!

I don't think Seaspray has anything to do with High Tide, honestly...the Fact File features four of the year 3 Sea Ponies but none were sold here as far as I can tell. I don't think High Tide is one of them, so there seems to be no real connection between her and the UK at all. Easier to just sell High Tide here, rather than make your own...

Seaspray and Surfdancer are not in the fact file, nor is Wavebreaker.

[Wardah]

I sometimes wonder if even with G1 it wasn't intentional that any ponies were exclusive to one country other than the ones made in that country and it was just who happened to order them.

I think you have a really valid point with this. The fact certain ponies were promoted here, or packaged (probably) here and then not sold here really does suggest that happened. We also have a problem with the UK line in that it's muddied by store imports. THe fact North American packaging is in English meant certain stores with US connections imported stuff as exclusives. The Candy Canes are the example I always use, because we had four officially sold here, but Mint Dreams and Lemon Treats happened because of store imports in Woolworths (at least) and so we had both the bordered European box and the North American style box. I am convinced the only way we had Happytails ponies, also, was through import. I've only ever seen them in a North American style box here, even with UK price tags on them. Brush & Grows and Loving Families are also the same situation.

That said, I do think Hasbro UK probably created Gypsy, since she doesn't fit the conventions of normal unicorns and the Mountain Boys are so British in their weather fixation, that probably they came out of a UK design office. It's almost as if they supplement the line in the place of importing whatever the North American set is at the time...and if they don't sell it here, they might export it. Truly, Cupcake, etc have "Hasbro UK" on their cards, but never came out here.

I guess it's really the whole Holly Dash thing that's inspired my questioning if they really were meant to be exclusive. Holly Dash was intended to be sold in the US and even appeared at a US toy fair but she was only sold outside the US. If it had happened during the G1 days would we be assuming she was UK exclusive? Also the UK isn't the only place preoccupied about the weather. The New England states also seem to be more preoccupied about the weather (I'm from Hasbro's home state of Rhode Island so I speak from experience) than say California (where most other US toy companies are located). It could have just been a case of stores not ordering them because there were too many Big Brother ponies still on the shelves.