Have you ever had trouble with making out symbols?

[Rachel-Eyes]

After I saw the name mistake thread, I was immediately reminded of something kind of off topic from it, so I thought I'd start a new thread to keep everything straight.

Have you ever mistaken a pony symbol for something else, or spent forever trying to figure out what a pony symbol was even supposed to be?

I did this with Star Glow. I had her when I was little and could not for the life of me figure out what her symbol was supposed to be. Actually, when I was little, I used to think it was a brand marker, because it just looked too abstract to me in order to be anything coherent.

Then when I was older, about six or seven, I looked at her again and thought it was supposed to be a CASTLE. The candle would have been like the top spires and the two legs of the piano like the entrance. It actually reminded me a lot of the twisty crooked castle on the third island of the first Crash Bandicoot game.

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People, I spent a sizable chunk of my life thinking that Cortex Castle ended up on a My Little Pony! It wasn't until I started collecting again that Ponyland Press described the symbol as a piano, and I squinted at it and said "yeah."

Has anyone had any similar mistakes when it comes to symbols?

[toralei]

It's not a really a mistake like that...  but what the heck is with Cotton Candy's symbol? Is it butt acne? 

[RAMChYLD]

It's not a really a mistake like that...  but what the heck is with Cotton Candy's symbol? Is it butt acne? 

Ouch!

As for me, well, the inability to make out symbols (or rather, lack of observance) was what caused me embarrassment a few months ago when I mistakenly branded a vintage MLP musical box TV as a fakie due to all the ponies appearing to have bubbles for their cutie mark

It was after I was told that it's real and took a more careful look that i realized that they were symbols, just a little faded from age combined with the diminishment due to the toy's screen design

[BerylBreeze]

I used to think TE Skyrocket's cutie mark was a group of palm trees

[LadyStarCatcher]

When I was little I thought SS Taffy's symbols looked like bacon. I was like, " why do I have a bacon pony?"

[The_Loner]

It's not a really a mistake like that...  but what the heck is with Cotton Candy's symbol? Is it butt acne? 

No, it's cotton - little lumps of cotton

[hathorcat]

I have done this...oddly with Star Glow as well...I  think its cause her symbol is so difficult to make out...I couldnt even hazard a guess at what it was until someone mentioned the piano in passing and then I was "ahhhhh....I see it now!

[OctoberFlash]

When I was a kid I thought G3 Kimono's symbol was two flowery pots. It wasn't until I got back into ponies years later and looked her up that I found out she actually had Japanese lanterns

[Saber-Toothed Crow]

I did this with Whizzer. I thought she had little fireflies or some other type of insect on her butt. It wasn't till I became a member here I found out they were beanie hats.

[littlexflitter]

I didn't have any ponies with complicated enough symbols for me to ponder them, but I really like reading everyone's stories about what they THOUGHT a symbol was~ ♥

[Dragonflitter]

It's not a really a mistake like that...  but what the heck is with Cotton Candy's symbol? Is it butt acne? 

No, it's cotton - little lumps of cotton

I actually think they're supposed to mimic appaloosa spots--she was one of the original MLP released, before Hasbro went wild with all the different kinds of symbols. You can tell the original 6 MLP were trying to bring to mind a horse's markings, they're all small shapes in a scattering pattern on the rump, just like a Blanket Appaloosa's rump markings. It wasn't until Year 2 that Hasbro branched away from that idea and gave us full-sized pictures as symbols.

Her name comes from her pink coloring, not her symbol.

[MoonStars]

Ha ha, yeah, Starglow took me a while to figure out the piano/candelabra bit, too. Once I did, it was like, "oooooh, *someone* is a Liberace fan at Hasbro" LOL (And I came to MLP collecting as an adult, so can't even blame it on "little kid perception of the world". )
This sparked another thought regarding names vs symbols, but I think I'll start a different thread so's not to hijack this away from the concept of making out symbols. 

[hlbmlp]

When I was little I thought SS Taffy's symbols looked like bacon. I was like, " why do I have a bacon pony?"

omgosh!!! ∑(゜Д゜;)  I NEED A BACON CUSTOM NOW!!!!!!!   

My childhood lofty was missing her balloon strings so it looked like  a bunch of tiny fish floating into the sky....  i figured they were just missing though because i had the baby which had her symbols whole... twirler gave me  a run for my money though.  I couldnt ever figure out what her symbol was supposed to be until i started collecting in 4th grade then i was all like "o DUH!"   ^__^ facepalm

[VanillaBean]

Skippity Doo's symbol has always looked like a string of sausages to me 

[Rachel-Eyes]

I'm so glad I'm not the only one who did this then. Especially since I mentioned collecting to some friends in the beginning and worded it very oddly. "I had one as a kid with a piano for a symbol, but I thought it was a castle." They were like, wuh? How can she mistake a piano for a castle! :p

Also, lol. Butt acne.