The case of the mysterious Lemon Drop triplets

[Cosmos]

I've actually done it, I have almost finished cataloging my collection in preparation to sell most of them on eBay.

This is the first mystery I've discovered.

I have 3 Lemon Drops (oddly, none of them are my childhood Lemon Drop, who I seem to have lost at some stage - I still have my old Show Stable - no, it's not going up for sale), and all 3 are slightly different.

I'm going to refer to them as 1. Big Drops, 2. Dark Drops and 3. Pale Drops.

Big Drops has silky hair, it almost reminds me of the Italian ponies I have. Her drops are large and have a bluish tinge and her eyes are light purple. Her hooves read - LF - "(c) 1982 Hasbro", RF - blank, LB - "Made in", RB - "CHINA".

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Dark Drops has hair most like a bog-standard pony. Her drops are smaller (noticeably smaller on side too!) and purple. Her eyes are regular purple. Her hooves read - LF - "(c) 1982 Hasbro", RF - "Pat Pending", LB - "Made in", RB - "Hong Kong".

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Pale Drops has unruly hair - sure, most of this is due to a lack of care/brushing, but the bottom (underneath) row is half as thick as the other two, like every second hole actually got hair - but there are no empty holes. Her hair also feels slightly more cottony. Her drops are small and light bluish-purple. Her eyes are the same purple as Dark Drops. Her hooves read - LF - "(c) 82 Hasbro Pat Pend", RF - "Hong Kong". Her back feet are blank.

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Does anyone know why I have 3 different Lemon Drops? When were they released/what were they released with? As far as I know, she only came with the Show Stable.

[Jemofirongate]

In the late 80's, Hasbro transitioned production from their factory in Hong Kong, to one in China, so all ponies made from approx. 1987(?) onwards are from China. The China Lemondrop is probably either from the Euro alt. release show stable (with the pink roof etc) or its the Mail Order one, both of which came out post 1987 I believe

As to what could account for the difference in colour in the 2 HK lemondrops, its most likely to be a result of natural factory variation (change in paint batches etc) or environmental (plastic breakdown, heat, light fading etc) unless anyone knows of any foreign variants that fit the descriptions? One of them has a pat pending mark and one of them doesn't and I think this could be diagnostic?

Italian ponies have blue eyes so if her eyes are not blue then she's probably not italian

Hope that helps!

Jem