Question about italian sea pony shells + price check

[Aquarel]

Hi guys

I stumbled upon an adult sea pony shell at the flea market (no pony in sight) and I was wondering if there are differences. I'm pretty sure it's the pink one that goes with the italian Maristella (as we didn't get non-italian sea ponies here, or at least I have never ever seen one)

Is it exactly the same as the pink US/regular release? Or is it a different shade?

Also does anyone have an idea as to a price?

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[pinkkittywinks]

I am not sure on a price or if the shell was a different colour to the regular sea pony shells.

It does look like Maristella shell from looking at the nirvana gallery pictures though

http://mlparena.com/archive/gallery2/main.php?g2_view=core.ShowItem&g2_itemId=20867

There was a great sea pony website, sea pony utopia, but it seems to be no longer working

Love pkw xxx

[Aquarel]

Thanks for the reply PKW
Maybe someone else can answer my question. There are a lot of Nirvana guru's out there

[LadyGuinevere]

Could not say for sure either way, but checked the Sea Pony Utopia archive and it says the UK and US ones are the same, but doesn't compare the Italian ones.

https://web.archive.org/web/20091028070017/http://www.geocities.com/mlpwhizzer19/italiansea.html
https://web.archive.org/web/20091028052300/http://www.geocities.com/mlpwhizzer19/seafaq.html

Given your location, I would say it is most likely to be Italian. With a pony, I would value it at around $25-30, so maybe ~$10-15 on it's own?

[nhal039]

Shells r really expensive theses days i wouldnt sell for less than $20 alone based on market value and even for that price its very fair. I havent watched ebay much this year but i saw 2 auctions sell with the purple shell and yellow italy seapony for $80 us and $90 and and auction with the yellow shell and blue italy seapony shell for well over $100 on ebay.com.

Also I cant tell if your shell is italian or uk, normally the italy shells are a touch darker in colour from memory in saying that i dont think it alters the value, as it is lots of people want the shells reguardless of origins

[pinkkittywinks]

Thank you for the link to the archive LadyG

I knew she had a shell comparison on her website, but I wasn't sure which shells she compared.

Love pkw xxx

[Aquarel]

Thanks guys!

[kitkatvintage]

This is what I can add to the conversation:

Yellow shells - UK shell is a lighter butter-yellow while Italy shell is a golden-yellow.

Purple shells - I have the US shell from my childhood collection & it's identical to the shell that I bought with an Italian seapony. Assuming the US & UK shells are the same, AND assuming this shell with my Italian sea pony is original, this color shell is the same across all 3 releases. (I don't have a UK purple shell to compare).

Pink shells - My US pink shell is from my childhood collection. The pink shell I purchased with an Italian sea pony is just slightly darker. The difference is so slight that I don't think I could tell the difference between 2 shells unless I was looking at them side by side in person. I don't have a UK pink shell to compare in this situation, either.

[Aquarel]

Thanks KitKat!

[Brightglowpony]

I have both US and Italian shells and they look identical to me

As an interesting observation, my Italian shells have a code on the bottom (under 1984 Hasbro...) that says M-3776-4-3.

I picked up a US shell that looks identical and under the copyright it said M-3631-3.  However, I have the same shell (also with certainty from the US), and the code was the same as the Italy shells.  I wonder if this was coincidental or possibly based on production year?  So my best guess is that the shells used for US and Italian ponies are the same    

[Taffeta]

This is what I can add to the conversation:

Purple shells - I have the US shell from my childhood collection & it's identical to the shell that I bought with an Italian seapony. Assuming the US & UK shells are the same, AND assuming this shell with my Italian sea pony is original, this color shell is the same across all 3 releases. (I don't have a UK purple shell to compare).

I have custody of two purple shells at the moment. One is my Seaspray's shell which came from a local car boot. I'm less sure about my spare but while I don't think either are Italian or American I think they are a slightly different shade. We only have Wavebreaker, we never got a "Wavedancer" and she has a yellow shell, so there may just be manufacturing differences/batch? I think the same may be true with the yellow shell, as I think my sister's shell is a shade darker than the one my Sea Breeze lives in (but not as gold as the Italian one).

I dunno if that helps at all, as I know practically nothing about the Italian sea ponies and their release overall.

My guess would be the numbers relate to year of issue. I think the shells were out in the US and such around 1983 first of all? Has anyone checked the numbers of first year shells to say, Sand Dollar's to see whether the numbers are the same or differ? That might answer the question of when they came out. The UK ones would also have been around 1984-5 which would tally with Sand Dollar's release I think?

Edit to add - all my UK  sourced shells say either M-3776-4-3 or M-3776-4-4. None of my American sourced clam shells have this but various other codes.