The MLP Arena

Pony Talk => MLP Nirvana => Topic started by: Ponyland on August 04, 2015, 03:56:32 AM

Title: Scandinavian Gusty puffy sticker (for all you sticker obsessed collectors, like me)
Post by: Ponyland on August 04, 2015, 03:56:32 AM
First, sorry for posting so much lately :blush:

A year ago an amazing MLP puffy sticker collection came into my hands. It belonged to the photographer of the swedish MLP line, or it belonged to his young son actually, who kept them after the photoshoot. He sold them to a friend of mine a while ago who later traded them with me. :) All puffy stickers is from the swedish sold ponies, so it has been an important mapping piece for me when trying to understand how it was, and what was sold here.

I found a very interesting difference with the Gusty sticker I got (that belongs to the green eyed Gusty in the "Fable Ponies"-set with yellow Moondancer)
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 (http://s90.photobucket.com/user/Norrskensljus/media/Gusty%20stickers.jpg.html)

It's the one in the middle. Has anyone ever seen a copyright 1985 one before? I'm really excited about this one!  :joy:
Title: Re: Scandinavian Gusty puffy sticker (for all you sticker obsessed collectors, like me)
Post by: Lady Starflower on August 04, 2015, 05:50:20 AM
Neat. You certainly lucky when it comes to ponies :biggrin:
Title: Re: Scandinavian Gusty puffy sticker (for all you sticker obsessed collectors, like me)
Post by: hathorcat on August 04, 2015, 12:45:50 PM
Congrats what a great find! :) All the later puffy stickers in 1985 got a copyright stamp on them so this would coincide with the Euro lines being later than the US in manufacture. The copyright mark does not show up on Euro ponies normally until 1986 how odd this one set must have gotten something ahead of everything else.

It is a little out of the norm for where it was released. Euro stickers used a different font from the US ones - this sticker has the US font on it. Peculiar indeed.

I believe we have seen something with the copyright on it before but I dont believe we knew why it was that way...due to the font and the copyright not showing up over here until 86, I believe we assumed they were simply from later releases in the US.
Title: Re: Scandinavian Gusty puffy sticker (for all you sticker obsessed collectors, like me)
Post by: LadyGuinevere on August 04, 2015, 01:47:55 PM
Very cool! It's the sort of difference that could easily be overlooked if you didn't know it was there. I checked my stickers and the baby ponies and ponywear from 1985 also have a copyright on it.
Title: Re: Scandinavian Gusty puffy sticker (for all you sticker obsessed collectors, like me)
Post by: Ponyland on August 04, 2015, 02:04:25 PM
Congrats what a great find! :) All the later puffy stickers in 1985 got a copyright stamp on them so this would coincide with the Euro lines being later than the US in manufacture. The copyright mark does not show up on Euro ponies normally until 1986 how odd this one set must have gotten something ahead of everything else.

It is a little out of the norm for where it was released. Euro stickers used a different font from the US ones - this sticker has the US font on it. Peculiar indeed.

I believe we have seen something with the copyright on it before but I dont believe we knew why it was that way...due to the font and the copyright not showing up over here until 86, I believe we assumed they were simply from later releases in the US.


Great information hathorcat! Thank you! :D

This is the sticker set with the "Fable Ponies" that I have. Only missing Heart Throb from this set. As you see all except Gusty is on the yellow backing (that backing was also used for other ponies in the UK) I have a moc Powder from this set where you can catch a glimpse of the yellow backing of her sticker. Gusty is the only one that has a copyright date on it.
It would have been more easy for me to understand if it was a regular US sticker that got reused, but this one really confuses me as I have never seen one with a copyright date on it before. I have seen a updated US Gusty sticker with the red stripe though (but I don't own that one yet) but that one doesn't have a copyright date on it.

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 (http://s90.photobucket.com/user/Norrskensljus/media/Fable%20Ponies.jpg.html)

Here you can see a difference from the Firefly that we got. On the sticker she has a white bow on her tail!
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 (http://s90.photobucket.com/user/Norrskensljus/media/Firefly.jpg.html)

Here is the powder sticker compared to 2 US versions. The scandinavian sticker is more intensely pink (hard for the camera to pic up.
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 (http://s90.photobucket.com/user/Norrskensljus/media/Powder.jpg.html)

And here is a sticker from the earth pony set that we got. Lickety Split's sticker is also copyrighted 1985! And I have never seen that before on any of these earth ponies. We had White tootsie in this set to, on her sticker she is green though.
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 (http://s90.photobucket.com/user/Norrskensljus/media/Lickety%20Split_1.jpg.html)
Title: Re: Scandinavian Gusty puffy sticker (for all you sticker obsessed collectors, like me)
Post by: pinkkittywinks on August 04, 2015, 02:57:23 PM
Interesting! I'm going to have to have a look at my stickers now :)

Love pkw xxx
Title: Re: Scandinavian Gusty puffy sticker (for all you sticker obsessed collectors, like me)
Post by: ashlyne on August 05, 2015, 06:12:29 AM
Ooo! More stickers for me to hunt :D 

I have 3 Gusty stickers also, but none with the copyright. My two with the red in the hair are slightly different. The pink in the rainbow border is a different shade, the purple in the ribbons are also a different shade of purple.  Also, the one at the top left has a cross-hatch pattern to the surface.

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Post Merge: August 05, 2015, 06:37:24 AM

Interesting....

I have some with the copyright from the Twinkle Eye set, some without.   The ones without have text in a lighter blue color.

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Title: Re: Scandinavian Gusty puffy sticker (for all you sticker obsessed collectors, like me)
Post by: Ponyland on August 05, 2015, 07:08:49 AM
Oooh! Thanx for showing us ashlyne!

All my swedish stickers has that pink shade in the rainbow border that your red stipe Gusty has (the one below the other). That one is your Movie Star Gusty sticker right? My camera just don't want to pic up the color, but it is a very intensely pink (almost like neon, but a coral-ish neon). So it looks like everyone got re-printed in a different shade.

I think that your puffy TE stickers copyright date has something to do about how those ponies were sold in UK. It looks like the later ponies just didn't get a copyright date. :)
Title: Re: Scandinavian Gusty puffy sticker (for all you sticker obsessed collectors, like me)
Post by: baby_gusty on August 08, 2015, 02:12:27 PM
I have a puffy that goes with scandinavian Gusty and it has the copyright 1985 on it :)
Title: Re: Scandinavian Gusty puffy sticker (for all you sticker obsessed collectors, like me)
Post by: katrine2309 on August 16, 2015, 05:57:44 AM
Ooh  - this is so cool! I have quite a lot of stickers with the 1985(EDIT: sorry - this was a typo, I meant 1986!) copyright . It is the baby ponies from that year (I have baby Gusty and baby Firefly), and Cuddles as well as Megan and Sundance. So I guess I can assume that all those were US releases then?



Title: Re: Scandinavian Gusty puffy sticker (for all you sticker obsessed collectors, like me)
Post by: Ponyland on August 16, 2015, 07:27:46 AM
Ooh  - this is so cool! I have quite a lot of stickers with the 1985 copyright . It is the baby ponies from that year (I have baby Gusty and baby Firefly), and Cuddles as well as Megan and Sundance. So I guess I can assume that all those were US releases then?

Baby Gusty is an european release with a puffy sticker (that one is a gem that you have! I'm still searching for it!). :) Baby Firefly wasn't sold with a sticker in Europe (we got them on a card with a bottle in Scandinavia, and UK didn't get them at all). I think that BENELUX (Belgien, Netherlands and Luxembourg) might have gotten the boxed US set of baby ponies though.
Megan & Sundance was sold both here and in Europe. In Scandinavia we got the 1985 US release of them, but one year later ( in 1986). UK got a different set, and I think the puffy sticker says 1986?



Post Merge: August 16, 2015, 07:30:41 AM

I have a puffy that goes with scandinavian Gusty and it has the copyright 1985 on it :)

It's the puffy for adult Gusty, not Baby Gusty? :) Cool! Then we know that more of them exist!
Title: Re: Scandinavian Gusty puffy sticker (for all you sticker obsessed collectors, like me)
Post by: LadyGuinevere on August 16, 2015, 12:50:35 PM
Baby Gusty is an european release with a puffy sticker (that one is a gem that you have! I'm still searching for it!). :) Baby Firefly wasn't sold with a sticker in Europe (we got them on a card with a bottle in Scandinavia, and UK didn't get them at all). I think that BENELUX (Belgien, Netherlands and Luxembourg) might have gotten the boxed US set of baby ponies though.


BENELUX issue is also carded (like the German and Danish ones, but with French and Dutch language. I know that some areas of Europe did get US boxes though (possibly direct imports?)
Title: Re: Scandinavian Gusty puffy sticker (for all you sticker obsessed collectors, like me)
Post by: Ponyland on August 16, 2015, 01:11:49 PM
Baby Gusty is an european release with a puffy sticker (that one is a gem that you have! I'm still searching for it!). :) Baby Firefly wasn't sold with a sticker in Europe (we got them on a card with a bottle in Scandinavia, and UK didn't get them at all). I think that BENELUX (Belgien, Netherlands and Luxembourg) might have gotten the boxed US set of baby ponies though.


BENELUX issue is also carded (like the German and Danish ones, but with French and Dutch language. I know that some areas of Europe did get US boxes though (possibly direct imports?)

Yes you are correct I have a MOC dutch baby blossom one as well, but I also have an dutch advertising for the boxed babies in my ad collection, so I think they got both versions a year appart the boxed babies first in 1985-86, and the carded babies in 1987 i think...
Title: Re: Scandinavian Gusty puffy sticker (for all you sticker obsessed collectors, like me)
Post by: LadyGuinevere on August 16, 2015, 01:18:51 PM
It's certainly possible, especially since it seems they were released twice in Germany. I know a Danish collector also had a boxed one in childhood.
Title: Re: Scandinavian Gusty puffy sticker (for all you sticker obsessed collectors, like me)
Post by: baby_gusty on August 17, 2015, 09:42:35 AM




Post Merge: August 16, 2015, 07:30:41 AM

I have a puffy that goes with scandinavian Gusty and it has the copyright 1985 on it :)

It's the puffy for adult Gusty, not Baby Gusty? :) Cool! Then we know that more of them exist!
[/quote]

Yes, adult Gusty :D
Wish I had baby gusty too though ;) :heart:
Title: Re: Scandinavian Gusty puffy sticker (for all you sticker obsessed collectors, like me)
Post by: Taffeta on August 18, 2015, 11:46:29 AM
Can I just say that this entire thread is absolutely awesome and very interesting.

I don't have many stickers that can help the debate, I don't think...I do have TicTacToe mint on Card, though, and her card is UK. It's this card, which is not the same as the card sold in Germany and France, but might be the same as in Scandinavia?

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 If I can extract her from the cupboard, I'll examine her sticker. It's behind the ribbon and comb but I might be able to see the detail. I also have Whizzer and Masquerade on UK card. Somewhere. If I remember rightly, though, Fizzy and Sweetie were the ones re-released in the 1987 set with Speedy, Locket, Tic Tac Toe and Sky Rocket, so those are the TE stickers that might have variations on, depending how they're sold? My sister's MOC Fizzy is from the Benelux and has Speedy's flat sticker, so that's no use at all.

In my experience, Benelux packaged ponies often have the wrong sticker (albeit that's with the flat ones - my Sunshower and Surf Rider have different stickers as well as Naynie's Fizzy, and the Masquerade I used to have also had a wrong sticker. Fizzy's or Whizzer's I think it was. They tend to be US style of card, too, so the sticker type is the same as the US release.

Wondering now what the Baby Heart Throb sticker with my MIB Baby Lickety Split says...since she came from Scandinavia originally...

Officially the Twinkle Eye sets were 1986 and 1987 in the UK though, and Speedy and Sky Rocket only featured in 1987, so there shouldn't be a 1985 copyrighted sticker in the TE set from the UK I don't think.

My Baby Sea Ponies have 1985 copyrights on their stickers - Sea Shimme,Tiny Bubbles, anyway - but not Water Lily. Did they have puffies in the US release? I can't remember, I just know the pearly ones didn't.

The loose Whizzer sticker I have is 1986, so are Gypsy and Snowflake.

None of my 1987 ones have dates, just TM by the name. Those are Sapphire, Pearl, Amethyst, Water Lily, Tutti Frutti, Tropical Breeze.

Sadly, no Gusty, so I can't add to your discourse on that subject.

Possibly need to check Baby Half Note's, but it's back in the attic with the Dance School now.Will have to check my photos later.

Ponyland, do you have a website with all this information? Because if so, I'd love to see it!


Title: Re: Scandinavian Gusty puffy sticker (for all you sticker obsessed collectors, like me)
Post by: pinkkittywinks on August 18, 2015, 12:34:06 PM
Man, I still haven't had time to check all my stickers!

Love pkw xxx
Title: Re: Scandinavian Gusty puffy sticker (for all you sticker obsessed collectors, like me)
Post by: Ponyland on August 18, 2015, 01:35:43 PM
Can I just say that this entire thread is absolutely awesome and very interesting.

I don't have many stickers that can help the debate, I don't think...I do have TicTacToe mint on Card, though, and her card is UK. It's this card, which is not the same as the card sold in Germany and France, but might be the same as in Scandinavia?

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 If I can extract her from the cupboard, I'll examine her sticker. It's behind the ribbon and comb but I might be able to see the detail. I also have Whizzer and Masquerade on UK card. Somewhere. If I remember rightly, though, Fizzy and Sweetie were the ones re-released in the 1987 set with Speedy, Locket, Tic Tac Toe and Sky Rocket, so those are the TE stickers that might have variations on, depending how they're sold? My sister's MOC Fizzy is from the Benelux and has Speedy's flat sticker, so that's no use at all.

In my experience, Benelux packaged ponies often have the wrong sticker (albeit that's with the flat ones - my Sunshower and Surf Rider have different stickers as well as Naynie's Fizzy, and the Masquerade I used to have also had a wrong sticker. Fizzy's or Whizzer's I think it was. They tend to be US style of card, too, so the sticker type is the same as the US release.

Wondering now what the Baby Heart Throb sticker with my MIB Baby Lickety Split says...since she came from Scandinavia originally...

Officially the Twinkle Eye sets were 1986 and 1987 in the UK though, and Speedy and Sky Rocket only featured in 1987, so there shouldn't be a 1985 copyrighted sticker in the TE set from the UK I don't think.

My Baby Sea Ponies have 1985 copyrights on their stickers - Sea Shimme,Tiny Bubbles, anyway - but not Water Lily. Did they have puffies in the US release? I can't remember, I just know the pearly ones didn't.

The loose Whizzer sticker I have is 1986, so are Gypsy and Snowflake.

None of my 1987 ones have dates, just TM by the name. Those are Sapphire, Pearl, Amethyst, Water Lily, Tutti Frutti, Tropical Breeze.

Sadly, no Gusty, so I can't add to your discourse on that subject.

Possibly need to check Baby Half Note's, but it's back in the attic with the Dance School now.Will have to check my photos later.

Ponyland, do you have a website with all this information? Because if so, I'd love to see it!


That gorgeous MOC  :drool:

I think all the TE stickers from UK are copyrighted 1986 (except for the later set's who didn't have a copyright date), so you are correct about them not possibly being copyrighted 1985.

What I know from memory:

copyright 1985 (USA) =
Baby Ponies,
adult Sea Ponies,
baby Sea Ponies,
Megan & Sundance,
Cuddles,
tiddley winks,
all pony wear.

(UK got some of those stickers to, like the same dated baby Blossom and Baby Cotton Candy, but the Baby Applejack sticker doesn't have a copyright date)

copyright 1986 (UK)
My little ponies (Gypsy's set),
first set of 6 TE ponies,
Flutter ponies,
Megan & Sundance,
Baby Play and care set II,
Baby Lemon Drop,
Confetti


The earth ponies sold in Sweden in 1986 got a mix of the UK My Little Pony set of stickers (Snowflake, Hopscotch, Cherries Jubilee & Posey) dated 1986 and also Lickety Split, Tootsie and Applejack dated 1985. But the dated 1985 ones wasn't used in USA or UK so I don't know why we got them! Usually we just got re-used stuff or a later re-production of stuff. But why suddenly put a 1985 copyright mark a year later on a sticker thats already out. :blink:

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 (http://s90.photobucket.com/user/Norrskensljus/media/Skaumlrmavbild%202015-08-18%20kl.%2022.44.58.png.html)

Quote
I don't have many stickers that can help the debate, I don't think...I do have TicTacToe mint on Card, though, and her card is UK. It's this card, which is not the same as the card sold in Germany and France, but might be the same as in Scandinavia?

Sadly we missed out on TE ponies and Flutter ponies entirely in Scandinavia. :cry: So that's an UK exclusive card what I know.
Title: Re: Scandinavian Gusty puffy sticker (for all you sticker obsessed collectors, like me)
Post by: Taffeta on August 18, 2015, 01:58:26 PM
Oh, really? Hrm. I didn't know that. You see, the thing that gets me with TicTacToe's card is that I haven't really seen many. I never had one of this set as a child, but one of my best friends had Locket and Tic Tac Toe, both of which now live with me. For that reason I snapped up TicTacToe MOC when I had the chance, but I've not seen any others on this card. They must exist, I just haven't seen them. It's a UK card, but I know a lot of UK carded stuff went to you guys as well. If not the TEs, though, it makes it seem like maybe that card is literally just UK, and nowhere else. I don't have any German or French MOC but the cards are distinct from both the UK and the NOrth American releases.

Ah, going off topic. I'm more of a card geek than a sticker one (though btw I still really want to see the MOC Sprinkles xD It's not on topic for this thread but I'd love to see a photo sometime if you ever have a moment. I really feel like I want to take a camera and walk around your collection, but that's another story xD)

First release Cherries Jubilee in the UK had a sticker without a copyright date (Groom & Style, 1985 release) which I assume is the same as the US. I haven't checked my MOC 1986 one so I don't know for sure what hers is.

My two anomalies MOC wise.
Groom & Style Bow Tie on 1986 UK My Little Pony set card, German language.
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I dug her out, she has a 1985 Bow Tie sticker although her name is nowhere on the card:
Spoiler
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Fizzy on UK release Sunshower's card
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Her sticker is 1986 copyrighted. Sunshower was out in the UK in 1987, meaning that this is probably the correct sticker for the 1987 release of Fizzy, but I can't be sure 100% because she's an anomaly and there are also other ponies - like Galaxy, who wasn't rereleased - on Baby Sea Pony cards.
Spoiler
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The sticker my Baby Half Note had (Dance School received for Christmas, 1987, I have photographic evidence) is this one. Is this the same as the US or different? I seem to remember I've got a flat sticker for Baby Half Note from the US somewhere...but did she have a puffy as well?
Spoiler
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And though I don't have it, are we sure Megan and Sundance's UK sticker is the same as the US one? Bearing in mind Megan is in a different outfit in the UK releases? I have an almost complete set for the first release, including the box which mentions a sticker, but I don't have the sticker so I don't know...

My nursery also came with the 3 flat round stickers (German and French Lullabye Nursery images, English Baby Tiddly Winks image) from some time in 1988.
Title: Re: Scandinavian Gusty puffy sticker (for all you sticker obsessed collectors, like me)
Post by: Ponyland on August 19, 2015, 06:34:23 AM
Quote
My two anomalies MOC wise.
Groom & Style Bow Tie on 1986 UK My Little Pony set card, German language.
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I dug her out, she has a 1985 Bow Tie sticker although her name is nowhere on the card:
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OMG you found the sticker!! I also have that anomaly Bow Tie MOC with the german text, but I have never looked at the sticker. I think she is a very early german release before they got the italian ponies on the "regular" earth pony card with german text. (The regular HK ponies tend to pop up in lots on german auctions from time to time). But I have never seen any other that Bow Tie MOC though.

My collection is sadly packed away since I moved to my own apartment. I'm planning a pony room in the walk in closet though! (You are very welcome to visit if you happen to be in Stockholm some time then) ;)

I have the MOC collectors pose Bow Tie on the UK "Goom and Style" card, but she is an Swedish release from 1986, so one year later than the UK batch. I will have to see what sticker she came with next time I'm at my dads house.

Quote
First release Cherries Jubilee in the UK had a sticker without a copyright date (Groom & Style, 1985 release) which I assume is the same as the US. I haven't checked my MOC 1986 one so I don't know for sure what hers is.

I'm quite sure the normal UK groom and style ponies from 1985 didn't come with the copyrighted sticker though, I have never seen a MOC with a dated sticker, or any loose ones. The sticker from the 1986 one from Gypsy's set is copyrighted 1986. And that sticker got reused in the Swedish set with a regular curly haired cherries jubilee.

Quote
And though I don't have it, are we sure Megan and Sundance's UK sticker is the same as the US one? Bearing in mind Megan is in a different outfit in the UK releases? I have an almost complete set for the first release, including the box which mentions a sticker, but I don't have the sticker so I don't know...

No the UK Megan & Sundance is copyrighted 1986 instead of 1985 (USA got the flat sticker in 1986 so the puffy one is not a US release). The artwork is the same though.


Quote
Fizzy on UK release Sunshower's card
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Her sticker is 1986 copyrighted. Sunshower was out in the UK in 1987, meaning that this is probably the correct sticker for the 1987 release of Fizzy, but I can't be sure 100% because she's an anomaly and there are also other ponies - like Galaxy, who wasn't rereleased - on Baby Sea Pony cards.
Spoiler
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Yes I think that re-releases of the TE ponies got the same stickers as in the set before them, no reason to remove the copyright for the artwork.
Only the new released TE ponies got stickers without the copyright date.


Quote
The sticker my Baby Half Note had (Dance School received for Christmas, 1987, I have photographic evidence) is this one. Is this the same as the US or different? I seem to remember I've got a flat sticker for Baby Half Note from the US somewhere...but did she have a puffy as well?



Baby Half note only came with a flat sticker in the US. In the play set she was sold as a BBE in 1986. All US sticker from 1986 is flat.
But in Europe we got her as a normal pony with a puffy sticker! :)

Quote
Ah, going off topic. I'm more of a card geek than a sticker one (though btw I still really want to see the MOC Sprinkles xD It's not on topic for this thread but I'd love to see a photo sometime if you ever have a moment. I really feel like I want to take a camera and walk around your collection, but that's another story xD)
:lol: I understand completely! I'm a really geek when it comes to cards as well! I love to solve mysteries and cards are clues to how everything was sold, and where it was distributed.
I will take a pic of Sprinkles the next time I'm at my dad's. :) I focus on Swedish, and european moc's in my collection. I want 1 MOC from every set sold in the US to display with my loose ponies (The favorite pony MOC). But with the Swedish/UK ones I want them all!  :P

Quote
Oh, really? Hrm. I didn't know that. You see, the thing that gets me with TicTacToe's card is that I haven't really seen many. I never had one of this set as a child, but one of my best friends had Locket and Tic Tac Toe, both of which now live with me. For that reason I snapped up TicTacToe MOC when I had the chance, but I've not seen any others on this card. They must exist, I just haven't seen them. It's a UK card, but I know a lot of UK carded stuff went to you guys as well. If not the TEs, though, it makes it seem like maybe that card is literally just UK, and nowhere else. I don't have any German or French MOC but the cards are distinct from both the UK and the NOrth American releases.

Yes I think that card is exclusive to you, I haven't seen it released in any other country but UK.  :)

Yes we did get a lot of "UK" cards, but I think we need to look at it more like that Hasbro UK was the big european distributor of ponies, and the local distributors in each country could order from this company (but some started their own production instead).  :)

Some set's of ponies only got ordered, manufactured and exported and wasn't meant as a part of the local UK market, like the Pony Friend's set with Truly and Cupcake. (They probably got shipped straight from Hong Kong anyway and didn't place a hoof in UK at all).  ;)

So when collectors say that "it's an UK pony/ or card" it isn't quite correct in the terms of it being a localy sold pony in the country UK...

Hasbro UK also printed german texted cards and exported them to germany (like the Nestie babies). They printed danish texted card and exported to Denmark. I look at it more like an European market and Hasbro UK as a company that was in the center of it, handing out ponies and taking orders of what language that the package should have. But the country it self, UK, got the same ponies as the rest of us, plus some exclusives adapted to your market. And Scandinavia got some exclusives adapted to us.. Same with Germany and Denmark. And Hasbro UK distributed it.

What I try to say is that it isn't really a "UK" card, but a "Hasbro UK" card, as the company not the country. :) I think it might confuse collectors otherwise, when a set that wasn't sold in UK has a "UK" card. 
I hope I made some sense!  ^.^ It isn't easy to explain in english. (I have never been so good at writing it, reading is no problem now).
Title: Re: Scandinavian Gusty puffy sticker (for all you sticker obsessed collectors, like me)
Post by: Taffeta on August 19, 2015, 07:28:31 AM
Backcard stuff: Spoilered as somewhat OT for this thread xD.

Spoiler
Quote
What I try to say is that it isn't really a "UK" card, but a "Hasbro UK" card, as the company not the country. :) I think might confuse collectors otherwise when a set that wasn't sold in UK has a "UK" card. 

No, I understand exactly where you're coming from, because it's exactly those distinctions that made me set up the Scrapbook in 1998, to try and dispel all the European and UK related myths.

While DV remains a super and nostalgic site for US pony ID, its reluctance to correct proven mistakes about European and UK ponies really created the problem of ponies like white Tootsie and yellow Moondancer still occasionally being called UK. We've debunked a lot of the DV myths over the years, but I must admit an active frustration that it occurred, since last I checked, at least one prominent and well-used US-based ID site still puts about this information as fact, even though it's been long since disproven).

I've become lazy in my terminology, for which I apologise, but when I refer to UK cards, what I generally mean is the UK style of card, in terms of artwork and layout, and not specifically cards sold with ponies in the UK. To me those are completely different things. UK bought pony doesn't equal UK card, and UK card doesn't equal UK sold pony. So for example, the Pony Friends and the Fable Ponies are on what I would call UK-style artwork cards, and I believe, the English language ones are also marked Hasbro UK. We all know they weren't sold here, but if you were to catalogue the art style, it bears most resemblance to the layouts used for confirmed UK lines. White Tootsie's card is also identical to green Tootsie's UK card in some countries, and similar to Green Tootsie's US card in other areas (and I use US in the same way, in terms of "style" not distribution).

 I actually wonder whether some of those sets were packaged in the UK and then exported. I really think Hasbro outside of the US picked and chose what ponies to sell to their market and then added ones where they thought it was needed, depending on the line.

I also have often thought that the Fable Ponies were meant to come here, but they ultimately didn't - because of how much such characters appear in our comics and such. The thing is, though, the 1984 backcard for the earth pony set (Blossom and co) just shows those six ponies, unlike the US card that shows all the unicorns and pegasi as well. In spite of that, and them being in the same poses as the US design, the six ponies have been redrawn to include hair adornments that aren't present on the US card. That would make it a "UK style" card to me, even though it's based from the US design.

I would like to know a lot more about the Scandinavian issues and where it did and did not cross over with the UK line, especially in the early years. I think, though, that of all countries, card-wise, Scandinavia (and I group the countries together, but there may be individual national distinctions within that that I don't know about ponywise) is the closest to the UK release in terms of style of card used for marketing. And that's, essentially, what I mean to say when I talk about "UK cards".

I'm like you in that I am more interested in UK and European release cards of different types and styles. One of my big missions in the last few months has been sorting out the early UK releases, 1983 and 1984. My favourite years for cards, though, are 1986 and 1987. If I could have one pony from each set on UK style MOC (or at least one pony card from each set) from those two years I would be quite happy. There is somehow a more personal touch (typified I think by taking the time to add ribbons and braids to the y2 earth pony set's art) to the UK and European cards than you see typically on the North American cards (thinking of the recolouring of Hippety Hop rather than redrawing her as a pegasus).

 I also have a tendency too to look from the UK line point of view, though, as that's my native pony background.

Hasbro International is still based in Ruislip, London, although Hasbro UK is a separate entity, in Gwent, Wales. I've corresponded with the Gwent office, a long time ago, but not the Ruislip one. I am not certain, though, but I think Hasbro International MAY have at one point been based in Germany, then moved to the UK. Not certain on this, though. I forget where I got the information from and it was a long time ago. I've had a long hiatus from the community since then, so those things become a bit fuzzy ;)

Onto stickers...you have a MOC Bow Tie anomaly too? Hrm. Then she's not an accident but an actual release. Interesting, if weird. So Collector Pose Bow Tie in the Groom & Style release (yay for this set name gaining ground at last!) would have had the same sticker as the US release (with no copyright) but the one sold on the 1986 style card in German language has a copyright of 1985. That makes sense. Good old Hasbro. :)

I need to check the dates on my Lullabye Nursery stickers, because I know they're anomalies too but I haven't really paid them a lot of attention because they're not puffy,therefore don't attract me.

The Groom & Style Cherries Jubilee definitely had nothing on her sticker but her name and TM. It's one of the few I have from my childhood, and my childhood pony's hair resembles a hedge...so I know she came from the first release, not the smooth haired second release. (Was that 2nd edition CJ sold in your part of the world, by the way?). I can't get at my 1986 MOC Cherries J to check her sticker right at the moment, sadly. It would cause a landslide xD though from the image I have of her, I suspect it's hidden beneath her tail and I won't be able to see it anyway...

Thanks for the info on Half Note's :D I'm learning more all the time.

Title: Re: Scandinavian Gusty puffy sticker (for all you sticker obsessed collectors, like me)
Post by: Ponyland on August 19, 2015, 09:58:30 AM
Backcard stuff: Spoilered as somewhat OT for this thread xD.

Spoiler
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What I try to say is that it isn't really a "UK" card, but a "Hasbro UK" card, as the company not the country. :) I think might confuse collectors otherwise when a set that wasn't sold in UK has a "UK" card. 

No, I understand exactly where you're coming from, because it's exactly those distinctions that made me set up the Scrapbook in 1998, to try and dispel all the European and UK related myths.

While DV remains a super and nostalgic site for US pony ID, its reluctance to correct proven mistakes about European and UK ponies really created the problem of ponies like white Tootsie and yellow Moondancer still occasionally being called UK. We've debunked a lot of the DV myths over the years, but I must admit an active frustration that it occurred, since last I checked, at least one prominent and well-used US-based ID site still puts about this information as fact, even though it's been long since disproven).

I've become lazy in my terminology, for which I apologise, but when I refer to UK cards, what I generally mean is the UK style of card, in terms of artwork and layout, and not specifically cards sold with ponies in the UK. To me those are completely different things. UK bought pony doesn't equal UK card, and UK card doesn't equal UK sold pony. So for example, the Pony Friends and the Fable Ponies are on what I would call UK-style artwork cards, and I believe, the English language ones are also marked Hasbro UK. We all know they weren't sold here, but if you were to catalogue the art style, it bears most resemblance to the layouts used for confirmed UK lines. White Tootsie's card is also identical to green Tootsie's UK card in some countries, and similar to Green Tootsie's US card in other areas (and I use US in the same way, in terms of "style" not distribution).

 I actually wonder whether some of those sets were packaged in the UK and then exported. I really think Hasbro outside of the US picked and chose what ponies to sell to their market and then added ones where they thought it was needed, depending on the line.

I also have often thought that the Fable Ponies were meant to come here, but they ultimately didn't - because of how much such characters appear in our comics and such. The thing is, though, the 1984 backcard for the earth pony set (Blossom and co) just shows those six ponies, unlike the US card that shows all the unicorns and pegasi as well. In spite of that, and them being in the same poses as the US design, the six ponies have been redrawn to include hair adornments that aren't present on the US card. That would make it a "UK style" card to me, even though it's based from the US design.

I would like to know a lot more about the Scandinavian issues and where it did and did not cross over with the UK line, especially in the early years. I think, though, that of all countries, card-wise, Scandinavia (and I group the countries together, but there may be individual national distinctions within that that I don't know about ponywise) is the closest to the UK release in terms of style of card used for marketing. And that's, essentially, what I mean to say when I talk about "UK cards".

I'm like you in that I am more interested in UK and European release cards of different types and styles. One of my big missions in the last few months has been sorting out the early UK releases, 1983 and 1984. My favourite years for cards, though, are 1986 and 1987. If I could have one pony from each set on UK style MOC (or at least one pony card from each set) from those two years I would be quite happy. There is somehow a more personal touch (typified I think by taking the time to add ribbons and braids to the y2 earth pony set's art) to the UK and European cards than you see typically on the North American cards (thinking of the recolouring of Hippety Hop rather than redrawing her as a pegasus).

 I also have a tendency too to look from the UK line point of view, though, as that's my native pony background.

Hasbro International is still based in Ruislip, London, although Hasbro UK is a separate entity, in Gwent, Wales. I've corresponded with the Gwent office, a long time ago, but not the Ruislip one. I am not certain, though, but I think Hasbro International MAY have at one point been based in Germany, then moved to the UK. Not certain on this, though. I forget where I got the information from and it was a long time ago. I've had a long hiatus from the community since then, so those things become a bit fuzzy ;)

Onto stickers...you have a MOC Bow Tie anomaly too? Hrm. Then she's not an accident but an actual release. Interesting, if weird. So Collector Pose Bow Tie in the Groom & Style release (yay for this set name gaining ground at last!) would have had the same sticker as the US release (with no copyright) but the one sold on the 1986 style card in German language has a copyright of 1985. That makes sense. Good old Hasbro. :)

I need to check the dates on my Lullabye Nursery stickers, because I know they're anomalies too but I haven't really paid them a lot of attention because they're not puffy,therefore don't attract me.

The Groom & Style Cherries Jubilee definitely had nothing on her sticker but her name and TM. It's one of the few I have from my childhood, and my childhood pony's hair resembles a hedge...so I know she came from the first release, not the smooth haired second release. (Was that 2nd edition CJ sold in your part of the world, by the way?). I can't get at my 1986 MOC Cherries J to check her sticker right at the moment, sadly. It would cause a landslide xD though from the image I have of her, I suspect it's hidden beneath her tail and I won't be able to see it anyway...

Thanks for the info on Half Note's :D I'm learning more all the time.




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I've become lazy in my terminology, for which I apologise, but when I refer to UK cards, what I generally mean is the UK style of card, in terms of artwork and layout, and not specifically cards sold with ponies in the UK. To me those are completely different things. UK bought pony doesn't equal UK card, and UK card doesn't equal UK sold pony.

No need to apologies!  ^.^ I do the same all the time! I was just thinking that maybe we could come up with a new term to call them, that maybe could punch a hole in the myth's. I wish that Hasbro had picked another name (Like Hasbro EUROPE, or Hasbro WORLD DOMINATION.. Or something similar so that we didn't need to use the "UK" term for all the ponies).

A side note of that. The distributors of MLP in Sweden was the company PLAYMIX. And they mostly used Hasbro UK cards. In 1989-90 (I think) they changed name though to Hasbro Brio Scandinavia.

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I also have often thought that the Fable Ponies were meant to come here, but they ultimately didn't - because of how much such characters appear in our comics and such.

I think it is highly possible as well, and that goes for more set's that UK missed out on. It seems that it got decided rather quickly what was and what wasn't going to be sold. Like with the Nestie babies, original art shows that everything was prepared for them to be sold in more countries than just Germany. And a english packed MIB showed up on ebay.uk some years ago to (that probably was a early test version that got discontinued).

Scandinavia got a few cheaper packed moc's though that probably was just a left over stock (like the baby ponies with a bottle, and Sprinkles). The back of the card is blank, and nearly all of the accessories is left out. But still someone rearranged the original artwork and made it look nice. I think that was made by Hasbro UK as well because we didn't have a design office for things like that.


I found an old pic of my MOC Powder from the Fable ponys set at my photobucket. (I call them Fable ponies because of the similarity to the German release, on the same card but with different text, and in swedish advertising this set is referred to as "Sago Ponnys" which means fable pony, sort of). She isn't present at the backside, nor is yellow Moondancer. Only the 6 ponies that also was sold in Germany (but as Italian made ponies) is present. (curly Firefly, Gusty, Heart Throb, Surprise, Skyflier and Sparkler)
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 (http://s90.photobucket.com/user/Norrskensljus/media/My%20little%20pony/MOC/powder.jpg.html)

here is a pic of a german MOC that I borrowed from google  :blush:

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 (http://s90.photobucket.com/user/Norrskensljus/media/WANT/fabelponys%20gusty.jpg.html)


My MOC has the "Hasbro UK" text at the back, and I think that the german one has it as well, but I'm not 100% sure as I don't own it.
Both clearly wasn't sold in UK though. :) But I agree that the design and artwork is from the Hasbro UK "design office".


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I actually wonder whether some of those sets were packaged in the UK and then exported. I really think Hasbro outside of the US picked and chose what ponies to sell to their market and then added ones where they thought it was needed, depending on the line.

It is actually quite possible! I have been thinking that maybe Hasbro actually packed and exported other pony set's as well.
In Scandinavia we got the Spanish Baby Lemon Drop in 1986-87, but packed in baby Bow Ties box with english text (not spanish or french text). I'm thinking that maybe Hasbro UK bought her, packed her and exported her to the swedish distributor PLAYMIX, since they bought most things from them.

It wouldn't be so strange if Hasbro UK bought and distributed ponies from the italian and the spanish factories as well when it suited them better for what ever purpose (and not only from Hong Kong).

That could explain the italian ponies on the Hasbro UK card with german text, sold in Germany.  :P




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The Groom & Style Cherries Jubilee definitely had nothing on her sticker but her name and TM. It's one of the few I have from my childhood, and my childhood pony's hair resembles a hedge...so I know she came from the first release, not the smooth haired second release. (Was that 2nd edition CJ sold in your part of the world, by the way?). I can't get at my 1986 MOC Cherries J to check her sticker right at the moment, sadly. It would cause a landslide xD though from the image I have of her, I suspect it's hidden beneath her tail and I won't be able to see it anyway...

No the 2nd edition with short straight hair is an UK exclusive. Our Cherries Jubilee is the same as the one you got in the groom and style set (but with the sticker of your 2nd cherries jubilee).
We got another Cherries jubilee a year later in 1987, (Pony Friends /with Cupcake and Truly) she looks pretty much the same, maybe a little more intense color on her cherries, but her eyeliner and pupils is painted in dark brown instead of black, just as with the rest of this set.
(And she didn't come with a sticker)

Puffy stickers seams to pretty much have been discontinued in the middle of 1987. Our Mountain Boys came with stickers, but our Movie Stars didn't (and they have a brown eyeliner instead of the black eyeliner that UK got, so they clearly are a later batch).

After that only re-releases of earlier playlet's came with stickers, but they where flat ones. 

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So Collector Pose Bow Tie in the Groom & Style release (yay for this set name gaining ground at last!) would have had the same sticker as the US release (with no copyright) but the one sold on the 1986 style card in German language has a copyright of 1985. That makes sense. Good old Hasbro.

 :lol: ... Yes it's really strange. But now I it's at least clear that there was more ponies sold with this copyright 1985 sticker. It makes more sense then, than before.. I hope more characters on this card shows up! I would really like to see them, and what country they where sold in. BENELUX-card tend to have multiple languages, so maybe it is a early MOC from those countries as well. I'm only speculating now as I have no solid proofs of anything. We only have the "Mein Kleines Pony"-text as a clue.

...And as my copyright 1985 stickers is for Applejack, Tootsie and Lickety Split (but I'm missing Bow Ties) it could be a hint that those ponies was a part of this set as well...
Title: Re: Scandinavian Gusty puffy sticker (for all you sticker obsessed collectors, like me)
Post by: Juliepants on August 19, 2015, 10:25:10 AM
This is such an interesting thread! Thank you everyone. I'm loving reading all about ponies from this side of the pond.

Jules x
Title: Re: Scandinavian Gusty puffy sticker (for all you sticker obsessed collectors, like me)
Post by: Taffeta on August 19, 2015, 12:14:03 PM
Ah, that Powder! Please please please let me use that picture on the Scrapbook page! *offers cookies*

You know what gives it away as a UK-style of card? Aside from the artwork, there's the "BRAID IT!!" message! Hasbro UK were OBSESSED with teaching kids to braid tails, to the point they told kids to braid curly pony hair as well as straight pony hair, and every darn set from 1984 to 1986 had braiding instructions on the back, even the Gymkhana! (Albeit on the cards I have, they generally used the word 'plait' instead).
Spoiler
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I think the whole thing with Fable Ponies as the set name makes good sense. It's somewhat the same with the 1987 set...there's no "Movie Star" tag for Shady, Wind Whistler etc, all though it's all over the card design. I started using the tag tentatively some ten or fifteen years ago when I got my French carded Shady (black eyeliner, North Star Cine Star sticker) and saw they were called Cine Star in France. I was frankly sick of the NSS tag. Hasbro UK just marketed them as "My Little Pony" on the insert and the lists, though, so using the French title made the most sense to give them back their own identity. Then later, when I got hold of the Argos catalogues, I discovered they were actually marketed to stores as Movie ponies, so it seems fine to just make that the name of the set, even though it's not on the cards.

Spoiler
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 Interesting what you said about them not having stickers in your part of the world. I have a Wind Whistler, she fell off her card in transit to me. I have the pony, bubble, brush, ribbon, card etc (and the pony's head is still in plastic), but she came with no sticker. I don't remember where she came from, but I know it was overseas. I think probably you just explained to me why she didn't have one, so thank you. I now know she's probably from Scandinavia.

Interesting also with stickers (while I'm being a geek) is the fact that although the DESIGN of the box for the flutters in the French release is identical to the ones in the UK release, the box does not include a sticker, and the text on the box doesn't mention a sticker. The box sold in the UK, however, clearly mentions the sticker and I have mine from my childhood to back it up. I've also seen English language flutters from that year with the stickers, but only in English boxes. That also fits in with what you say about stickers not happening after the Mountain Boys. Apparently other places also dropped them where we didn't. 1987 was still the last year for us having stickers, though - I wonder if it was just the fact we had those ponies in 1987 and maybe other places got them a bit later? I don't know. Weirdly flutters happened at the same time as the North American release, and so got stickers, whereas Party Ponies and Adventure Boys were a year later and so didn't get stickers. *Shrug*.

I didn't know about the English packaged Nestie. The issue I have with that is that I have (also from childhood thanks to end of line imports) the inserts from the French, German and English language releases of ponies from that 1992-3 year (Seven Characters, Family Friends, Best Friends Babies, etc). The German and the French both have the Nestie babies (French as Bebe Nurserie) but the English language one does NOT. There is still the mystery, though, of the alternate pose Billie and Susie LadyG and I have that don't match the insert photos. It suggests there may have been other productions that didn't happen and got scrapped, or there might have been a selection panel of pony items and those which were not adopted got discarded/given to families/whatever.

It's also possible that the Nestie was packaged for a different market than the UK, even in English. There aren't many MIB Nesties, though. I have Wuerfelchen in German box, and I've seen the other two once each I *think* but they're not very often seen. I imagine the English one went high. I'd love to know what their names were meant to be in English.

Benelux is usually French and Dutch but that said, things like this can also happen;

Spoiler
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The box is the same as the two US ones I have, but for one small detail. The one with the Benelux sticker has 2 horseshoe points and the others, 3.

Those are in English, and I've seen other ostensibly "US style" packaging with those labels on from the Netherlands, so I really think someone from there needs to clarify exactly what was what in that release. (The 2nd set Princess boxes also say distributed in the UK by (blah blah) but despite many rumours to the contrary caused by the wacky princesses from the end of line, they never were).

We do need a better tag for the card style. I really don't know how to conjure up one, though. It's more something you see and recognise, and though it's not UK any more than US style is uniquely US, I don't know what a better collective name would be. I do agree, though, that a lot more needs to be done to globally differentiate the ponies that were sold in different places and their unique quirks. I feel we need an online database of backcards and packages...
Title: Re: Scandinavian Gusty puffy sticker (for all you sticker obsessed collectors, like me)
Post by: Ponyland on August 19, 2015, 02:33:57 PM

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I think the whole thing with Fable Ponies as the set name makes good sense. It's somewhat the same with the 1987 set...there's no "Movie Star" tag for Shady, Wind Whistler etc, all though it's all over the card design. I started using the tag tentatively some ten or fifteen years ago when I got my French carded Shady (black eyeliner, North Star Cine Star sticker) and saw they were called Cine Star in France. I was frankly sick of the NSS tag. Hasbro UK just marketed them as "My Little Pony" on the insert and the lists, though, so using the French title made the most sense to give them back their own identity. Then later, when I got hold of the Argos catalogues, I discovered they were actually marketed to stores as Movie ponies, so it seems fine to just make that the name of the set, even though it's not on the cards.

I love the Movie Star label on them, it's really good that you spotted the Cine Star's and spread it! :)
In Sweden the ads marketed them  as "filmponnys" (movie pony's) so it has always made sense to me, from I was a kid, that they where from the movie, and thus a Movie Pony! (that is what I would have called them if it wasn't for the Movie Star label -which is even better).
The NSS thing is so plain and boring, and incorrect. They are normal ponies, not non-so soft's -ponies that missed out on the fur! It's like saying that ponies with normal painted eyes are NTE (non-twinkle eyes). (But as they don't have a counterpart without the twinkle eyes it will never happen of course).

I'm trying to convince the community that the Play and Care babies aren't NBBE babies. Its better to say PaC babies if they need a short term. :)

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Interesting what you said about them not having stickers in your part of the world. I have a Wind Whistler, she fell off her card in transit to me. I have the pony, bubble, brush, ribbon, card etc (and the pony's head is still in plastic), but she came with no sticker. I don't remember where she came from, but I know it was overseas. I think probably you just explained to me why she didn't have one, so thank you. I now know she's probably from Scandinavia

Take a look at her eyes and you will know for sure. Her eyeliner should be very dark brown instead of pure black. :) I have a swedish MOC Gusty and Magic Star. Non of them has a sticker. I'm hoping to find a MOC Wind Whistler some day, she was my fav in the movie! :)
I have never seen a close up of a UK MOC from this set. it would be nice to see the sticker in the package. :) There was a small batch of the swedish MOC Movie Stars found in an old toy store maybe 5+ years ago or more. Most of them has been sold abroad now from the Swedish collections, I think your's might be one of them.


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I didn't know about the English packaged Nestie. The issue I have with that is that I have (also from childhood thanks to end of line imports) the inserts from the French, German and English language releases of ponies from that 1992-3 year (Seven Characters, Family Friends, Best Friends Babies, etc). The German and the French both have the Nestie babies (French as Bebe Nurserie) but the English language one does NOT. There is still the mystery, though, of the alternate pose Billie and Susie LadyG and I have that don't match the insert photos. It suggests there may have been other productions that didn't happen and got scrapped, or there might have been a selection panel of pony items and those which were not adopted got discarded/given to families/whatever.


The alternate pose baby Bille and Susie could have been factory finished test shot ponies. Like what we saw with the G3's appearing in different mould's (The breast cancer awareness pony who first was in the open mouth pose, and later changed to the closed mouth pose. But both got discontinued before they officially was supposed to be sold. I have a MIB as well, and I think of it like with this Nestie MIB; it got produced in a small quantity, probably to test the machines, but it never got officially distributed).

It would have made sense that some test shot ponies got shipped from the factory to Hasbro UK for the designers to have a look at them before mass production. As a designer you don't produce anything until you have it checked and confirmed. And your ponies got discarded (and probably given away at some point) when it was decided to go with the other pose for some reason.

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It's also possible that the Nestie was packaged for a different market than the UK, even in English. There aren't many MIB Nesties, though. I have Wuerfelchen in German box, and I've seen the other two once each I *think* but they're not very often seen. I imagine the English one went high. I'd love to know what their names were meant to be in English. 

Yes it could also have been for the Swedish/scandinavian marked as we (except for Denmark) got everything in english boxes. 
I got the german insert to with my english boxed Great Hair Highlights from a swedish store when I was a kid, and I was always drooling over the Nestie babies. :)

I think I remember the english name for this set from the back of that MIB was Playful baby ponies. Baby Slumber, Baby Bubble  and hmm.. can't remember the last one. I saved the pic somewhere on my old computer. I know someone from here won it. It went for £300 , I missed to raise my bid since I had class. Still kicking myself!  >_<


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The box is the same as the two US ones I have, but for one small detail. The one with the Benelux sticker has 2 horseshoe points and the others, 3.

Those are in English, and I've seen other ostensibly "US style" packaging with those labels on from the Netherlands, so I really think someone from there needs to clarify exactly what was what in that release. (The 2nd set Princess boxes also say distributed in the UK by (blah blah) but despite many rumours to the contrary caused by the wacky princesses from the end of line, they never were).

I have some really cool line art from 1988 that got handed out to marketing/advertising companies that Hasbro worked with (to make sure that ads and merchandise was correctly drawn in the right colors) And with one of them there is a list of set's from that year that was officially was sold in different countries. I remember that Netherlands/benelux got a lot of "US style" packed ponies on that list that the rest of Europe didn't get...
I have been collecting dutch advertising some time now to try to clarify what ponies they got, because it is really interesting!  ;)

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Ah, that Powder! Please please please let me use that picture on the Scrapbook page! *offers cookies*
Yes, sure!  ^.^

-nom!
Title: Re: Scandinavian Gusty puffy sticker (for all you sticker obsessed collectors, like me)
Post by: Upthehill on August 19, 2015, 07:57:03 PM
Ok, so anyone else that can't wait to get home and see new posts on this tread...Ponyland and Taffeta you have made me what to collect Scandinavia ponies after all of this...I am totally getting an education on how ponies were distributed and even some thinking on what happened....the fact that this has brought a hole new level to collecting stickers too...1985 dated and so on...the hunt is on and I hope others with information will add more...this is my new daily fix!!!!
Title: Re: Scandinavian Gusty puffy sticker (for all you sticker obsessed collectors, like me)
Post by: Taffeta on August 20, 2015, 08:23:03 AM
LOL xD

Ah, I can rant quite a lot about the disparity of information and such between lines, and the way everything is made to conform to a North American standard rather than being properly diversified into a globally connecting network of releases.

I have huge respect and love for the North American pony line, it's concepts, its beautiful pony releases that we never had and all the ideas that went into it. I do feel, however, like there is too much emphasis on pushing everything to align with the North American line in some way or another. The net doesn't help that, because people have essentially been pushed into using North American years, set names, pony names, accessory matches - not because of any negative intention on the part of anyone, but just simply the overwhelming amount of collectors and information available to the community from that region (which if you put the USA and Canada together, probably numbers by far the largest contingent of ponypeople worldwide).

The sad part about that is that it means that all the different lines in Europe (including the UK) and in Australasia have been shunted into either being "same as" or "different from" the North American release, instead of being considered as ponies in their own right. If they don't fit, then they're made to fit somehow, even if overall it doesn't make sense and it compromises the accuracy of the information.

I really hate when someone refers to a pony as the "US version" and it's a pony I had as a child. It somehow invalidates my whole childhood by denying the fact that pony and the whole line had an identity here that was separate from North America, even if the ponies released were the same. I imagine you feel the same, Ponyland, when people talk about UK ponies and they're ones you grew up with (like the Mountain Boys).

 I also have twitches when I see people talk about things like the "UK version of Sweet Pocket". Leaving aside the dubious accuracy of the claim for the time being, if she's a UK version of that pony, then she's not called Sweet Pocket and never was. Her name is Singing Pocket, and that's how she ought to be called. She's not a subversion of a North American release but a pony sold in her own right in a different place with a different name. (It's also why I prefer to use Regentropfen, Nachtlicht, etc for that set of ponies...because those are the names they really had in release).

Terms like NSS and NBBE were originally defined as a way to catalogue those "new discoveries" that were just hitting the net in 1997-8ish, but we know way more now. There is a far more globally diverse collecting community and those terms are no longer either acceptable or logical (not least because we know Truly and Cupcake don't belong to the same set as Buttons or Magic Star, and therefore cannot be lumped together easily with the Movie Stars, although I confess at the moment they are so on my page simply for convenience).

It's always been my focus to try and extricate the UK release from the others, and in the course of that, I've found bits and pieces about other places in Europe, but what fascinates me is the diversity between countries. We really shouldn't be using Euro as an identifier (although we do), and maybe not even Scandinavia, if Denmark's releases were different from Sweden's.

The sad thing for me is that because of the mad rush over Nirvana ponies, a lot of this middleground has been jumped over and bypassed in favour of all the exotic rarities coming out of South America, Greece and other places. Those are awesome too and need to be properly investigated - but it comes to something when there's more accurate information about certain Nirvana ponies on global ID sites than there are accurate details about certain European releases even though that information has been available and in circulation a lot longer.

I have no issue with either the North American nor the Nirvana release, but I do think a lot more time needs to be dedicated to documenting, promoting and explaining all the different lines that come together as "mainstream" ponies. It's one of my frustrations with the Scrapbook that I still feel I don't know enough about things I ought to know about, in order to properly put what was available here in the UK into full European context. Also, all the shuffling around I've had to do to accommodate our releases against other places.

I would definitely like to see the complete eradication of terms like NSS and NBBE from the community, as well as the words "UK variant", since 9 times out of 10 it's not that clear cut a distinction. Over here, I'm not even sure the term BBE existed, so NBBE is impossible. Baby Cuddles was promoted as having "Lullabye Eyes", rather than BBE, if I remember right, and though we DID have Baby Half Note, it wasn't a feature that was very popular or promoted with our line. I am quite sure Hasbro in the UK didn't look at the BBE babies and think, "let's make non beddy bye eye babies out of them". I am sure they instead simply said, "let's just sell normal babies, it's easier, and we can use the Play and Care set idea again".

Going back a little on topic, I did check Wind Whistler, and her eyeliner is black, not brown, so maybe I'm wrong. Or maybe it's not that clear cut. I was told my French Shady should have brown eyeliner, but she doesn't, so...;) I'm not sure if I have ever even seen a Shady with brown - my childhood one has black too. (And, honestly, the whole sticker/Movie Star thing may be a bit haphazard anyway. I don't know if I definitely had a Shady sticker as a child or if I didn't. I don't have one now, and I know one exists, but since I don't know exactly when I had Shady, and whether or not this batch you had that had none also came here, I can't be certain. I lost childhood stickers, as I've mentioned, so if I had one for Shady, it's gone.

I also think the Benelux line is a fascinating mix of stuff. That and the fact there are German translated cards in both the bordered style and the North American style for the Watercolor Baby Sea Pony set (or Colour Change Baby Sea Ponies as we called them here, apparently! I never saw them as a kid but Chrissytree has a card for one in English from her childhood, so I accept we did!) Why Germany (and maybe Austria and Switzerland?) had both versions of the set is interesting, as it would have to be an actual translation not just an import and that's extra cost and work.

It also happened with the Candy Cane Ponies here - we had the bordered box set of four and also the North American box set of six. As a child I put on a Christmas list "Molasses", which was a name NEVER put out in the comic here, nor should ever have appeared on a UK distribution release. Yet I put it all the same. I know that North American boxed Candy Canes were sold here, so that's my explanation for why I knew the name Molasses not Gingerbread at that time. I must've seen one in the shops and read the box. I have also found both Lemon Treats and Mint Dreams here - ponies we were never "officially" marketed.

There's also the Merry Go Round ponies, whose issue in the UK had aqua blue bordered boxes but the Spanish language box had purplish borders...and there's a faint possibility that the US style boxes came here too, because I found my Diamond Dreams at the carboot sale here (where she wasn't officially released).

That's why I don't believe UK style box = UK sold pony and UK sold pony = UK style box XD. I had Baby Princess Sparkle's box down among some others from the attic this afternoon and it says on it clearly "Distributed in the UK by Hasbro UK, a division of Hasbro Bradley..." but she was never sold here. It's there just in case - which makes it all the more muddy trying to determine issue stuff and why much much more attention needs to be directed towards figuring it out.

As it stands, I am struggling to ID my accessories because most of the prominent accessory sites don't take into consideration variations in releases outside of North America unless it's an exclusive pony. For example, I have 2 brushes that apparently belong to Baby Sunribbon, but not only is she the only one we never had as as a kid, I also know (and have photographic evidence) that she was sold with a shooting star comb here!

(Thank you for Powder Ponyland! Lots of cookies coming your way!)


Title: Re: Scandinavian Gusty puffy sticker (for all you sticker obsessed collectors, like me)
Post by: Ponyland on August 20, 2015, 01:25:07 PM
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...all the different lines in Europe (including the UK) and in Australasia have been shunted into either being "same as" or "different from" the North American release, instead of being considered as ponies in their own right...

^THIS!

I just keeps annoying me :) ...Like if the whole range of different european ponies is submissive to the american line. I love all ponies, and I'm totally envious of what ponies that was available in US and not here, and I don't really feel like I live in a country filled with amazing exclusive oddity ponies. They are normal to me! (and I really don't like the term "international" ponies either. I have come across swedish collectors who use that term for our exclusives, probably picked up at DV. But hey, they aren't "international" from our point of view, they are very much national.  ;) )

But instead the american So Soft ponies has always been so strange and foreign for me! I remember when my friend brought a SS Twist at my hose to play with my ponies wen we where kids (she got it as a gift from her dad's working trips). I thought it was so ugly and all dirty, and it got soaking wet after we played in the pool with our ponies.
My parent's had to dry it in the drying cabinet and we couldn't play for an hour.
When I started collecting I really wasn't interested in them. But then I found a perfect SS Lofty in a lot, and WOW! I fell in love. Now I almost got them all (and they look like they come straight from the package, because I collect that way). But still, they are so strange to me, but now in a good way!  :big grin:

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I really hate when someone refers to a pony as the "US version" and it's a pony I had as a child. It somehow invalidates my whole childhood by denying the fact that pony and the whole line had an identity here that was separate from North America, even if the ponies released were the same. I imagine you feel the same, Ponyland, when people talk about UK ponies and they're ones you grew up with (like the Mountain Boys).

 :nod: spot on! I really get itchy when I hear "UK exclusive" all the time. ;) I'm envious and happy for you for all the exclusives that you actually got. But some you shared, although not with USA.


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...we know Truly and Cupcake don't belong to the same set as Buttons or Magic Star, and therefore cannot be lumped together easily with the Movie Stars, although I confess at the moment they are so on my page simply for convenience.

The Movie Stars and the Pony Friends shared one pony together, Shady. And I can't really figure it out why since they where sold at the same time, or at least crossed paths with each other. But they really are two very different set's as the Movie Stars characters are based on the movie, and the Pony Friends aren't.

They are just quite random characters put together. Half the set is based on earlier characters sold the year before (Posey, Hopscotch and Cherries Jubilee) and the other half is new characters from the pony series (Truly, Cupcake and Shady), Sure you could have said that they all are based on the So Soft range if it wasn't for Hopscotch. And at first Tootsie was pictured to be a part of this set and not Shady. So I really don't think that they could be classed as NSS ponies in the first place.

(I'm going to use a lot of borrowed pic's now  :blush:)

Here is Tootsie a part of this set in the Swedish folder from 1987
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 (http://s90.photobucket.com/user/Norrskensljus/media/My%20little%20pony/MOC/Leinkins%20folder.jpg.html)

But The MOC ended up with artwork for Shady instead.
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If we look at other "Pony Friends" set's in Europe on the same card (but with slightly artwork change) those new characters has been replaced with others.

The spanish set got Cupido and Agua Limone with cherries Jubilee, Posey, Hopscotch and Snowflake.
Spoiler
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As you see the card is pretty much the same except for changing the pony artwork to other characters. And they where sold in the same timeframe around 1987. ( I have the Spanish MB Hasbro toy catalog )


Germany got their "Pony Freunde" set too in 1987, but with white italian Tootsie instead of Cupido (or Cupcake).
(In Sweden we got the HK made white tootsie a year before this, in 1986, in our earth pony set)

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...I do think a lot more time needs to be dedicated to documenting, promoting and explaining all the different lines that come together as "mainstream" ponies. It's one of my frustrations with the Scrapbook that I still feel I don't know enough about things I ought to know about, in order to properly put what was available here in the UK into full European context. Also, all the shuffling around I've had to do to accommodate our releases against other places
.

I feel the same, and have been researching for many years now on how the MLP range looked in different countries. When it comes to nirvanas I tend to collect European manufactured ones (like spanish, french and Italians) because I feel that they are closely associated with the HK made pony lines. I like finding clues in the back cards of those ponies, and I don't think they should be excluded from the european range just because they where manufactured locally and not in HK. Italian manufactured ponies was sold in many countries like normal ponies (we had italian made Peachy in Sweden for example, but in the "UK" box)

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Going back a little on topic, I did check Wind Whistler, and her eyeliner is black, not brown, so maybe I'm wrong. Or maybe it's not that clear cut. I was told my French Shady should have brown eyeliner, but she doesn't, so...;) I'm not sure if I have ever even seen a Shady with brown - my childhood one has black too. (And, honestly, the whole sticker/Movie Star thing may be a bit haphazard anyway. I don't know if I definitely had a Shady sticker as a child or if I didn't. I don't have one now, and I know one exists, but since I don't know exactly when I had Shady, and whether or not this batch you had that had none also came here, I can't be certain. I lost childhood stickers, as I've mentioned, so if I had one for Shady, it's gone.


Hmm, I have heard rumors about the norwegian release maybe having black eyeliner (they could have been a batch earlier than ours, but without the sticker). But all Movie Stars had brown in Sweden. It is a kind of grayish dark brow though. I have had several Brown eyed Shadys passes trough my hands (and I have one in my collection, my sister has another) so she exist for sure. It is very clear when you have both versions and compare them. :)
It could be that your Movie Stars stickers also got discontinued half way trough the year, and thats why they are so incredible rare! I have seen a lot more Mountain boy stickers than I have of the Movie Stars...

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It also happened with the Candy Cane Ponies here - we had the bordered box set of four and also the North American box set of six. As a child I put on a Christmas list "Molasses", which was a name NEVER put out in the comic here, nor should ever have appeared on a UK distribution release. Yet I put it all the same. I know that North American boxed Candy Canes were sold here, so that's my explanation for why I knew the name Molasses not Gingerbread at that time. I must've seen one in the shops and read the box. I have also found both Lemon Treats and Mint Dreams here - ponies we were never "officially" marketed.

I think we will have to investigate what was the official range, and what got imported by local distributors from Hasbro inc in the US.
I know some stores chains in Sweden imported things on their own, and didn't use PLAYMIX as their source.
I'm using advertising from the PLAYMIX magazines to determine what was a officially sold pony and what was just imported unofficially (and as there is no record of random unofficially imported ponies I place them in the same category of "vacation ponies". We have A LOT of alternate Birth Flower ponies popping up here at flea markets, but they are a Danish release. But some stores at the Swedish coast near Denmark could have had them as well.  :)

For UK I have used the Hasbro Toy catalogues as reference when determining what was sold there and what wasn't.


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That's why I don't believe UK style box = UK sold pony and UK sold pony = UK style box XD. I had Baby Princess Sparkle's box down among some others from the attic this afternoon and it says on it clearly "Distributed in the UK by Hasbro UK, a division of Hasbro Bradley..." but she was never sold here. It's there just in case - which makes it all the more muddy trying to determine issue stuff and why much much more attention needs to be directed towards figuring it out.

That Baby Princess Sparkle box sounds really interesting! I have never heard of it being marked that way? I thought it was a US exclusive? Where and when did you get it?

I have a BBE baby Cuddles box that is a US release, but with a UK sticker on it with a disclaimer that says "Offers not valid in UK" . I looks like a import.
 
Title: Re: Scandinavian Gusty puffy sticker (for all you sticker obsessed collectors, like me)
Post by: Taffeta on August 20, 2015, 02:03:15 PM
Hrm. I have the backcard scan for...Truly or Cupcake, forget who, on my site from someone, so I have seen it before. The German and Spanish equivalents, though, I had not. What struck me straight away is how similar the art layout is to the 1986 set with Snowflake and company. I really think that, although it came later, we're dealing with one huge set that got redistributed with different ponies depending on the market. What I mean is, it's not really in the habit of "UK style" (lol, sorry, still no term XD) cards to just recolour the artwork between one earth pony release and the next. Going to dig through my card photos now and see if I have the right ones photographed...(fingers crossed...). I'm sure you have these already, but just to reference the comparison:
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1985 Groom & Style set, vaguely "in pose".
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1986 My Little Pony set, in the same rough poses as the cards you've just shared.

What I've never been totally sure about is Gypsy and Honeycomb, and how far their distribution went. Some of the set being made in Italy also makes it muddier, but it strikes me that the set is really one of a few options based around the same theme of "My Little Pony", whatever year it actually came out.
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The french set (Credit to TicTacToe for the scan) which someone from France told me were made in Italy, but which also crosses over the Spanish and German release sets in some ways and some ways not.

You have to bear in mind also that in the UK this set never had a proper name.
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 I have a list from Hasbro UK from 1995 that they compiled from their records for me back then, and it's not exhaustive but the terminology and the occasional name changes and such do make it interesting. The sets for 1986 and 1987 are just My Little Pony, and that's how the Fact File also labels them. Groom & Style Ponies is a set name that came from Hasbro UK, though, even though it isn't on the insert.

The big question for me - bearing in mind you told me you didn't have the same Cherries Jubilee as we did, is whether or not this set correlates to your Pony Friends release or if they were just lazy with the artwork. It's interesting that, apparently, the Pony Friends with Truly and Cupcake also made it to South Africa. The first one ever to appear on the collector web I believe belonged to a collector called Joss in South Africa, and it was only later it became clear that actually they were majorly in Scandinavia too.

Also, whether Tootsie or Shady was ultimately sold on the card, I suppose...

The card variation thing is interesting though. This is what I was talking about with the 1984 Earth Pony card in the UK vs the North American standard release. I have seen other cards with similar artwork, but I can't find the backcard now for the Spanish set to see whether they more resemble this "UK style version art or whether it's the enlarged North American style art as seems to be used on the Argentinian cards.

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This second Argentina image is stolen from the Wiki.
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I love the Italian ponies xD. I don't go Nirvana mad -all this stuff is my Nirvana - but I have a special soft spot for Italian ponies since they go way back with me. I stopped researching them quite so much after more people with native memories of them and their releases got online, though, and went back to my "UK" centric stuff. There's so many intricacies with Italian ponies, depending on countries. I have found a few here (Surprise, Heart Throb, Peachy...) but I think they were accidental holiday visitors, rather than sold here.

A lot of the later playsets say they're made in Spain. The Kitchen is one. There's one Baby Cuddles Buggy set release in the UK -and I'm sure I have the box, but can't find it - that says pony and accessories made in Spain, but I have yet to see one that actually was. The box I can find says Pony made in Hong Kong, so.

I've also come to notice that a lot of the earlier boxes from playsets acquired here in the UK  (and occasionally ponies) have date stamps inside the box. I don't know if these relate to batches but I tend to assume they do. It's from this I've concluded that the UK (yes, this time I can say UK!) release of the waterfall with Cascade came just before Sprinkles, because the date stamps in the boxes indicate Cascade was a proper part of 1985, and Sprinkles right at the end of it. This also correlates with their product numbers, although both were apparently out around 1985. The prevalence of Sprinkles makes me think Hasbro Inc had a lot to distribute, so Hasbro UK stopped making Cascade and started using Sprinkles instead. That's also why she stayed so long in the comics, when Cascade never did - the UK comics began in 1985 but they really took off with 1986, when Sprinkles was probably still the pony on shelves.

Adult Sea Pony boxes here also have datestamps on the inlays. I have this on both Surfdancer and Seaspray's boxes (the only ones I have), but I haven't noticed it on any other loose pony set inlays...yet. Just playset boxes.
I have photos of these but need to compile them into something useful, because right now it's just a bunch of datestamps on bits of brown or grey card xD.

As for Baby Princess Sparkle's box, I got it from the States, years ago, in trade for something. I don't remember what, but I got the whole playset at the same time.

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And I agree with everything you said about ponies across Europe. Still, at least some set names, like Groom and Style, etc, are getting more purchase now than they used to.
Title: Re: Scandinavian Gusty puffy sticker (for all you sticker obsessed collectors, like me)
Post by: Ponyland on August 20, 2015, 03:19:52 PM
Yes the Pony Friends cards artwork is ultimately based on the UK card with Gypsy and the others, it's very clear at the front of it too, its just the ponies that got recolored and changed somewhat (and some details, like the flowers on the ground).
Spoiler
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And what actually binds them together is Hopscotch and Snowflake. Im 100% sure that Gypsy and Honeycomb is UK exclusives, (and so is your straight/short haired cherries jubilee). But the other ponies "needed" to be distributed to many other countries in 1987, a year after your release of this set, so you could say that this card is for introducing Hopscotch and Snowflake as new "Pony Friends" to the old characters. Like a  new "earth pony/standard pony" set.

The french version of this set is the same as the german one, same card and italian ponies, and available in 1987. (I just couldn't find a saved pic on my new computer). The Spanish one is a little later issue, catalog shows them as available from 1987, but card says copyright 1988.

Germany, France and Spain didn't get Hopscotch and Snowflake until this very set was released in 1987. So they got them a year after you.
But in Sweden we got Hopscotch and Sowflake mixed in with our earth ponies in 1986, so we had them already!

Spoiler
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The other countries just got the 6 regular characters on a earth pony card during 1986.
They came on the groom & style card, and with stickers. The year after on the Pony friends card they didn't have stickers anymore
Spoiler
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So it looks like when the Pony Friends set was going to be released in Sweden Hasbro needed to boost it with some new characters (so that it would sell better). "Old news"-Snowflake was taken away from this set, and so was Lickety Split and Tootsie and replaced with Truly, Cupcake and Shady.


What I'm trying to say is that Cupcake and Truly really don't belong grouped with the Movie Stars, in how they where distributed. :) They are more like a new group of earth ponies that took over from the first old set. Like a "earth pony/standard pony" set for us. (The set you got with snowflake was  like a "Earth pony/standard pony" set for you too but with a peg and unicorn included with them since you didn't get the Fable Ponies)

(It lines up with Hasbros standard manners to keep 2 old characters ponies and ad 4 new characters.
Second set in UK it was Bow Tie and Applejack that got reintroduced, and the third set it was Cherries Jubilee and Posey).




Interesting about the baby princess box (I have to look at mine too). It looks like there were plans to distribute it then, but it never got to that! :)
Title: Re: Scandinavian Gusty puffy sticker (for all you sticker obsessed collectors, like me)
Post by: Taffeta on August 20, 2015, 03:28:28 PM
Hrm. So in a sense, Scandinavia continued on with a set III of "My Little Pony" (as Pony Friends) that the UK line didn't really have. We had Groom & Style (I), My Little Pony 1986 (II) and then into Movie Stars. You guys, by contrast, had a weird mix of My Little Pony II on Groom & Style cards that didn't show them, and so you kinda invented your own My Little Pony III set to cope with the repetition.

Interesting how that card says Hopscotch on it but she's not pictured. A very definite design reusing an existing card style, probably to cut down on costs...almost certainly because they didn't want to have the Gypsy and Honeycomb card over there and have kids go "want those!"

I still think we were getting the Fable ones, right up until we didn't get them. A few North American boxes have the distributed in the UK tag on them. Some we got, some we didn't. Some happened through store imports. Fable ponies were close to here, in that the design of the card fit - but far away in that they never made it. Gypsy is a true blue UK pony, with her freckles and her lack of a streak breaking all the rules of unicorns. Honeycomb is more normal, I spose. I love the pair of them a lot - but one of each really isn't compensation for all the others.

So 1986 = 3 unique ponies and 3 not. One of which is dark tulip Posey, the other two Snowflake and Hopscotch, who both got Italian versions as well.

Time for bed. :)
Title: Re: Scandinavian Gusty puffy sticker (for all you sticker obsessed collectors, like me)
Post by: Ponyland on August 21, 2015, 03:43:28 AM
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Hrm. So in a sense, Scandinavia continued on with a set III of "My Little Pony" (as Pony Friends) that the UK line didn't really have. We had Groom & Style (I), My Little Pony 1986 (II) and then into Movie Stars. You guys, by contrast, had a weird mix of My Little Pony II on Groom & Style cards that didn't show them, and so you kinda invented your own My Little Pony III set to cope with the repetition.

Yes kind of. We got the Movie Stars the same year though, but they aren't like a new set of standard ponies for us, but more like a special set with mixed breeds that didn't happen before this set.

You could see it like this to:

1: You got the very first My Little Pony set in 1983, same as in the US, and on the same card.

2: The second My Little Pony set came in 1984 with the same poses that also was sold in the US, but on a card with different artwork.
    (lets call them "Standard Ponies" for now, I tell you why later)


3: The third My Little Pony "Standard Pony" set came in 1985 with the "groom & style ponies".
    The US got the same characters, but you had "Collectors Pose" Bow Tie and Applejack, and the artwork on the card was different from each other.


4: Your fourth My Little Pony "Standard Pony" set came in 1986 with Gypsy.
     In the US the So Soft ponies appeared instead of a new "Standard Pony" set for them.

Up to here it was always "keep two characters from the earlier set, and ad 4 new characters.
( 1984= Blossom+Cotton Candy, 1985= Applejack+Bow Tie, 1986= Posey+Cherries Jubilee)
The US So Soft pony set merged the previous Unicorn&Pegasus set with the "Standard Pony" set (they had kind of always been merged though with a shared back card) and reused 3 from each set in this huge new set.

5: You got the Movie Stars in 1987 as a new My Little Pony set, but this one broke the previous rules and can't really be called a new "Standard Pony" set,
as no characters where reused from the previous year. And also with the strong gimmick being characters from the movie they are special in a way that the other set's weren't.   

...

In Sweden we got our first ponies in 1986, so we skipped out on the first 2 "Standard Pony" set's and went straight for the third set, a year later than you guys. BUT our set was different from the rest of Europe that we also added Snowflake and Hopscotch + magenta tulip Posey (Yes she was a part of this set to) a year earlier. So we got 8 characters instead of the normal 6 that Germany and France got, they had set's that kept the "keep 2 characters and ad 4 new" line.

Our Second "Standard Pony" set was the Pony Friends set that introduced Snowflake and Hopscotch to the rest of Europe a year after you, as the standard was. But as you said in Sweden we needed to reinvent ours  a bit with new characters to cope with the repetition. Germany and France had a more "normal" release except instead of using the keep 2 and ad 4 characters it was the opposite. 4 old and 2 new.


So you could think of the Gypsy set as an early "Pony Friend's" set. And quite closely related with the Cupcake and Truly set in this way, (although a year apart, but that was common for all our ponies) and very much related with the other Pony Friends set in Germany and France.
When comparing these two set, they belong more with each other than with the Movie Star set that is so very different. (And here they where sold alongside the Pony Friend's set, but I think this standard pony set came out before them but wasn't available for as long as them, and in France they are not really seen as the standard set either. The Movie Stars- gimmick suites them better, hence the Cine Stars label on them.)


And as for the name "Standard Pony", i picked that up from a German insert folder for the "Groom & Style" set (but with italian ponies). I will try to find a pic of it since I don't have my collection in hand. But I find it quite handy to call them that instead of just "My Little Pony" as a set name. It explains it better how to think of those ponies as the very fundamental base of ponies, and the other set's (like rainbow's, babies, Twinkle eyes, Fable ponies) as a "spin off" from them. (They are also mentioned as "Standard ponny" in Swedish adverting while Movie Stars are "Film Ponny").

Like this:

My Little Pony
My Little Pony - Twinkle Eyes

VS:

Standard ponies
Twinkle Eyes



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Interesting how that card says Hopscotch on it but she's not pictured. A very definite design reusing an existing card style, probably to cut down on costs...almost certainly because they didn't want to have the Gypsy and Honeycomb card over there and have kids go "want those!"

Yes it is the same as the Fable Pony card say's Powder, but she isn't pictured (same with Moondancer). I think that they originally wasn't supposed to be included. The german set indicates this anyway. But it fit's quite well that we got 8 standard ponies and 8 Fable Ponies while Germany got 6 standard (italian) ponies and 6 (italian) Fable ponies.

But here we also need to investigate where the CP Bow Tie on the UK Gypsy card fit's in. :) A true mystery, where the 
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"want those!"
really apply!

There was an old rumor in Germany that Honeycomb was a part of their MLP range (probably fueled by the Baby Honeycomb pony). But it could also have been an assumption from backcards like this one.
I'm 100% sure that she wasn't included in this set, I think that Germany just got the 1986 standard pony card for a year earlier standard release of ponies, but with non-edited characters drawn on it. This must have changed quickly though (that's why so few exist) as they also had the italian standard ponies on the earlier card, and they are the ones pictured in folders/advertising!

This set must be separated from the later german Pony Friend's set as it included Bow Tie and probably Applejack. It's more in line with our first standard pony set in Sweden (except for Hopscotch and Snowflake). And thats one of the reasons I think that this set got issued in Germany in early 1986, same time as your set with Gyspy. But with the ponies you had in the Groom and style set. Stickers being present indicates this as well, as there weren't any stickers used in the 1987 set's of standard ponies. (And as we got the copyrighted 1985 stickers too in our Standard Pony set, it fit's quite well)

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Title: Re: Scandinavian Gusty puffy sticker (for all you sticker obsessed collectors, like me)
Post by: Taffeta on August 21, 2015, 06:03:24 AM
Lol, that picture at the bottom just made the whole post :D (Surely there must be a picture somewhere of a detective pony?)

Standard Ponies
I actually disagree with you a bit on this one. I can see your point, and the logic of the links between the sets in the way you describe. The term is also fine, however, in the UK line, they are actively marketed as “My Little Pony”. This also includes the Movie Star Ponies, even though it’s not true for that set in other countries. I brought the term Groom & Style Pony in for the 1985 set based on the list Hasbro sent me…I don’t know if that name appears on other sources, possibly production booklets from Hasbro from that time. It’s not on the inserts or cards anywhere, although hair styling is clearly a theme. That set was a big deal set here. Lots of media and publicity and stories relating to it, so they were popular and consequently common second hand. (The infamous song tape being among them). I wonder whether Posey and Cherries Jubilee's continuation into 1986 can be explained by the fact (SS) Posey and Cherries Jubilee featured in the cartoon series, too, around this time, whereas Bow Tie and company did not. It would be a way to keep those ponies in the public eye even though they were not the flocked versions. (With animation, who would ever know?)

Movie Star ponies are the same kind of thing. All the ponies that were sold with just the rainbow and then their name on the card are collectively “My Little Pony” in terms of UK marketing, and this is really highlighted in 1987 when Hasbro collated them that way themselves:
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This is from my Factfile, sorry for the childhood scribbles, but as you can see from the names included, Hasbro UK differentiated all of these sets as one particular “original” type of My Little Pony, which was distinct from the ones in other sets with gimmicks. They segregated them not according to years, but according to “style”.
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The anomaly in the My Little Pony list, is, of course, Paradise, but enough publicity material exists to suggest she was coming here, but ultimately did not. Ribbon and Lofty are also included, even though they weren't sold here, though were in the comic, suggesting they were also planned but ultimately discarded. I have no firm evidence relating to them.

That aside, the overall grouping of these ponies together seems to fit (at least in the context of 1987) with particular features.

They did not have fancy eyes. (If they did, they would be Twinkle Eyed Ponies)

They did not have Rainbow hair (if they did, they would be Twinkle Eyed ponies)

They didn’t have jewelled symbols or tinselled hair (if they did, they would be Princess ponies)

They weren’t babies, sea ponies, or any of the other style types.



They were mostly Earth Ponies with single coloured mane and tail and simple symbols (Tutti Frutti is an exception, she has a stripe of colour), Unicorn ponies with a streak of colour in the mane and a glittery symbol (Gypsy was an exception, no streak of colour, also Gusty, with painted symbols), and Pegasus ponies who had a single colour mane and tail and a simple symbol, usually glittery. The hair wasn’t significantly long, sometimes it was curly. They also used poses which dated up to 1986. There are no new 1987 poses in any of this set grouping.

Hasbro UK’s list refers to the sets in 1986 and 1987 as My Little Ponies. The Movie star tag is an obvious one given their packaging and promotion, but it didn’t happen in the UK as such. While I agree that this set are different in terms of no repeated characters, they can also be seen as a hurried attempt to bridge the gap with the movie to put ponies out that the kids would want to buy after seeing the film. There’s a high chance that Buttons with the 3 buttons symbol may even have been left over ponies not yet flocked rather than the true “Buttons” design – but we’ll never know. The Fact File does not include a Buttons with this symbol, only the buttons and stars version.

The Fact File is obviously not perfect. It does have some errors, significantly from 1982-3’s line. I don’t actually know 100% what we had here that year. I only know that the Parlour was around, the Show Stable was about to come out, and the Flat Foots were here in some capacity, but what is unknown. The first publicity material I have is 1984, which is Blossom and company. So while I agree that Standard Pony makes sense, in another way, from a UK perspective, I also feel there’s a risk in moving too far from what they were originally marketed as here (which isn’t necessarily the same as other places).

I almost feel like in the early years ponies like the Rainbow Ponies weren't actually the same as My Little Pony. I have this recollection of something saying something like My Little Ponies and Rainbow Ponies sold separately, or some such...certainly that is the way the Fact File presents them.

The “My Little Pony” tag is also often used in the UK marketing for a specific pony in place of a name. The one surviving UK TV commercial that I know of from 1985 uses it in advertising Ponywear:
http://www.etherella.com/scrapbook2/1985media.htm
(link at the bottom).

The only other UK advert that I have digitalised at the moment is the Party Pony ad, and this uses the term Party Ponies throughout, but never once does it say My Little Pony. It's 1988, so probably at this point for Hasbro UK there's a distinct difference. The Party Ponies are from the My Little Pony line, but they are not officially "My Little Pony" ponies, they are "Party Ponies". If that makes sense.

Germany,Baby Bienchen etc
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There was an old rumor in Germany that Honeycomb was a part of their MLP range (probably fueled by the Baby Honeycomb pony). But it could also have been an assumption from backcards like this one.
I remember that, and the confusion. But having the baby doesn’t mean having the mummy. We had Baby Ribbon, don't forget, and Baby Heart Throb, but no Mummy versions in the Play and Care Sets here in the UK. We also had Quackers and Baby Fifi, but not the parent ponies, although Quackers was used to advertise Pretty Ups, I think, with Twilight and Crumpet and Angel (ponies as a kid I thought were made up xD)
It’s also possible that the fact Baby Bienchen is so different from Honeycomb in colour scheme actually implies she was designed based on drawings of a pony, rather than on a pony actually released. With Hopsi, Bloemen and Kirschbluete so accurate really to their mother’s features, Bienchen being the odd one out would make sense if she was a baby for an adult not released there.

I also think it’s interesting how the German publicity for that Baby Pony set showed Baby Zitroenchen in the Ember pose, possibly meaning they used the one we had with the stroller or the Spanish one for photos but actually released a different one instead.
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The fact of the matter is that the more we know, the more we need to know :)
Title: Re: Scandinavian Gusty puffy sticker (for all you sticker obsessed collectors, like me)
Post by: Ponyland on August 21, 2015, 08:29:01 AM
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I almost feel like in the early years ponies like the Rainbow Ponies weren't actually the same as My Little Pony. I have this recollection of something saying something like My Little Ponies and Rainbow Ponies sold separately, or some such...certainly that is the way the Fact File presents them.
This I can maybe ad something to, in the swedish story books with tapes the "Little ponies" aka My Little Pony referred to the Earth ponies. (They didn't use the term Earth pony when talking about them) and the other gimmicked ponies was an other category of pony. something like: "The pegasus ponies was soaring trough the sky and observed the Little ponies playing on the ground".
For me this has always been a way of distinguish the earth ponies from other set's. (as the Little ponies first and foremost was earth ponies in 1983, and later spin offs added pegasi and unicorns and rainbow ponies) And that's why I have picked up the already used therm for them: "Standard Ponies" to describe them as the original style sort of in the first years. This standard set of ponies disappeared after the Pony Friends though, and everything became mixed set's with special gimmicks. (The Movie Stars is kind of in the middle of this transformation. In UK you could see them as a new standard set, although very different, but here they where not according to advertising and the fact that we had the Pony Friends along side them). :)


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in the UK line, they are actively marketed as “My Little Pony”. This also includes the Movie Star Ponies, even though it’s not true for that set in other countries.
Yes that is correct, since they didn't have any "label" on them like in France, neither did they in Sweden (although advertising used the "movie Pony" term.

In the US the set of Pegasus ponies and Unicorn  ponies got distinguished from the standard set of My Little Pony with a label, although they shared the same backside of the card and was closely associated with each other.
But the Fable Pony set in Sweden didn't have any label, only the german one had it. But still there were a need of separate them from other set's in advertising.

On the fact file though they are all grouped together, and that sort of make sense when you are talking about characters rather than toys that appears in movies and comics (ponies that was just a normal earth,peg or unicorn just as you described) even if they aren't present as toys they will still be there in the "pony universe" just as Lofty and Ribbon and they are not divided in their set's. The fact file is more a extended part of the comic's in that way, and not a folder to promote ponies from the same year and range.

But when we are talking about the actual toys and releases of them in set's, they are grouped after the year of release (as they are in the Hasbro UK catalogues sent out to dealers) . And there is some logic behind having a standard set each year as a basic supply of ponies (all the countries got them, even if they missed out on other set's) and match them with other "spin off" set's  depending on what suited the marked in each country. :)

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The first publicity material I have is 1984, which is Blossom and company. So while I agree that Standard Pony makes sense, in another way, from a UK perspective, I also feel there’s a risk in moving too far from what they were originally marketed as here (which isn’t necessarily the same as other places).

I have UK advertising for the first set of 6 from 1983. It is veeery British! :lol: (sorry no pictures available atm.)
Yes there is a bit of a difference from the UK marketing and the Swedish/German marketing. But you did at least have the argos catalog with the "Movie Pony" label to it. I haven't found any UK advertising yet with a "standard pony" label, but I do get a feeling that this Standard pony- thing comes from Hasbro UK originally in some way. I don't know why two different countries, associated with the company but not with each other, would use it otherwise.

But I will keep on digging for information to puzzle it all together! :)
(I love mysteries!)   

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I remember that, and the confusion. But having the baby doesn’t mean having the mummy.
Yes, and I totally agree with you. I'm sure that they never had the mummy! :) But if they had the backccard with her present on the artwork she must have been known of, and recognized when the baby appeared in 1988. I think that is why the rumor started.

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I also think it’s interesting how the German publicity for that Baby Pony set showed Baby Zitroenchen in the Ember pose, possibly meaning they used the one we had with the stroller or the Spanish one for photos but actually released a different one instead.

I have that folder to, and it is the spanish version of Baby Lemon Drop pictured. The funny thing is that the first advertising we got for our baby it was actually the UK baby pictured in a pink stroller!  :lol:, the second ad showed her as the spanish version though that is the official one that we got.
But there is a swedish rumor that the UK version actually got sold here (as a small quantity/left over perhaps) but packed with the pink stroller. Some collectors have her since childhood.

I found the second ad on my photobucket from 1987: (here you can see Gusty as the "filmponny" -movie pony)
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 (http://s90.photobucket.com/user/Norrskensljus/media/My%20little%20pony/Swedish%20ads/Monteradplaymix1-smaller-fixad-text.jpg.html)

I don't have a picture of the first ad, but there you se the UK version in a pink stroller, and also they mention the "standard ponies".

Title: Re: Scandinavian Gusty puffy sticker (for all you sticker obsessed collectors, like me)
Post by: Taffeta on August 21, 2015, 09:31:31 AM
I'm on the tablet, so can't write a long response, but I am still inclined to disagree with it being a Hasbro UK term, rather than a European one used in various places. For the whole of my childhood they were My Little Pony, and I have found nothing as an adult collector to challenge that terminology. Much as I am fascinsted by different European lines, my focus has always been to classify what was sold here by the terms used here. Otherwise there is no difference from conforming to US set names, so, for me, until there is evidence to the contrary, in release here they remain 'My Little Pony' or simply just 'Ponies'.

The fact file also came from Hasbro UK with horseshoe points, so the way it wanted to present its products to its audience is also implicit. Remember, the actual backcard stories for many of the ponies appeared in this, especially for the year of production. It should not be thought of other than commercial advertising at the child's level, and the classifications used tie in directly with Hasbro's UK's own classifications and trademarks. In this regard, because it is direct from Hasbro, it is not the same as the comic. It is more like a glorified collectafile advertising the line so far.

I feel that if Hasbro had intended a different term, my list would also record it. I don't think there is a need to make European lines with different characters and marketing strategies conform to one interpretation, anyway.

I would love to see the 1983 UK material if and when you have a chance!

Edit to add, just looking at my Hasbro list and I realise Gypsy's set are entirely absent O.o. Gusty's set are under 1987 with the tag My Little Ponies.

Some other interesting set names include Rainbow Familt Ponies for the Sunbrights etc, Glittering Ponies (also in comics) for the glittery shs and the playschool babies written as Playskool...
Title: Re: Scandinavian Gusty puffy sticker (for all you sticker obsessed collectors, like me)
Post by: Ponyland on August 22, 2015, 12:35:00 PM
I went home today and managed to snap some pictures of a few moc's.

I couldn't get to the UK advertising folder that I have, it was to much stuff in front of it (the whole room was temporarily  flooded of things from the garage). I will try later when everything is in order again. :)

But I managed to find my Hasbro UK toy catalog from 1986 (sent out to retail dealers to order the supply from)

The My Little Pony set with Gypsy is referred to the "original set" of My Little Ponies. (as a contrary to the other set's available) So they don't use the name "standard pony", although it is quite close (the meaning behind it is the same). :)
(I'm not saying you should use it because of this or any reason, just that it is a way to talk about them and include them in the "earth pony" - category without upsetting Gyspy and Honeycomb). ;)

Spoiler
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 (http://s90.photobucket.com/user/Norrskensljus/media/IMG_9563.jpg.html)

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 (http://s90.photobucket.com/user/Norrskensljus/media/IMG_9537.jpg.html)



Here is my Water Fall (Sprinkles) MOC. Compared to the Baby MOC. Both sold in Sweden during 1987-88. The card is the same for them, (just adapted for each set. It is clearly a way to distribute left over ponies on a cheap card with no artwork in the back of it).
The Sprinkles MOC is the only know that has been preserved. I bought it last year from the swedish collector who owned it before me.
Spoiler

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 (http://s90.photobucket.com/user/Norrskensljus/media/IMG_9553.jpg.html)

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 (http://s90.photobucket.com/user/Norrskensljus/media/IMG_9554.jpg.html)



Here are my swedish standard ponies. ;) And my german bow-tie moc I checked the stickers for Applejack and Bow Tie, and they are both copyright 1985. The sticker for my german one is hidden quite well so I can't see if there is any copyright. Lucky we were able to spot it at your MOC!
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 (http://s90.photobucket.com/user/Norrskensljus/media/IMG_9560.jpg.html)

(The swedish applejack has a green ribbon, and not a yellow).
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 (http://s90.photobucket.com/user/Norrskensljus/media/IMG_9566.jpg.html)

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 (http://s90.photobucket.com/user/Norrskensljus/media/IMG_9562.jpg.html)

German Bow-Tie
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 (http://s90.photobucket.com/user/Norrskensljus/media/IMG_9567.jpg.html)




My two Pony Friends. The only two of these 2 characters that exists MOC what we know of, so I'm really happy that I was able to buy them! :)
Spoiler
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 (http://s90.photobucket.com/user/Norrskensljus/media/IMG_9556.jpg.html)

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Funny thing is that the package mentions a sticker, but there isn't one included. But this goes with the idea that this was an early 1987 set, and that the movie stars was introduced later this year. The sticker must have been discontinued late in the process of this set, as Cupcake and Truly is featured on the card, but the sticker- text isn't removed.
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 (http://s90.photobucket.com/user/Norrskensljus/media/IMG_9550.png.html)



My swedish sold Movie Stars.
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 (http://s90.photobucket.com/user/Norrskensljus/media/IMG_9558.jpg.html)

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 (http://s90.photobucket.com/user/Norrskensljus/media/IMG_9569.jpg.html)

Here the sticker isn't included in the text, and no sticker is present in the moc.
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 (http://s90.photobucket.com/user/Norrskensljus/media/IMG_9570.png.html)
Title: Re: Scandinavian Gusty puffy sticker (for all you sticker obsessed collectors, like me)
Post by: LadyGuinevere on August 22, 2015, 01:32:14 PM
Fascinating conversation! I do think I prefer the term 'Original' over 'Standard' myself :)

I have a MOC Wind Whistler on UK card (style at least, I think the information on it is also) that I think I bought from a Swedish collector. Though on second thoughts I'm not sure on that since I know I got her from ebay. Could be still. Anyway, she also has no sticker.

That PE advertising picture seems very familar to me, but I don't think it would have been in the UK comic, since Trickles wasn't sold here (although I got one second hand as a child). Could be in the German comic though?

Post Merge: August 22, 2015, 01:38:25 PM

Or I do also have Swedish and Finnish comics. Could be in there (though I've had the German comics longer and the memory feels a bit older)
Title: Re: Scandinavian Gusty puffy sticker (for all you sticker obsessed collectors, like me)
Post by: Ponyland on August 22, 2015, 02:00:44 PM
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That PE advertising picture seems very familar to me, but I don't think it would have been in the UK comic, since Trickles wasn't sold here (although I got one second hand as a child). Could be in the German comic though?

Post Merge: August 22, 2015, 01:38:25 PM

Or I do also have Swedish and Finnish comics. Could be in there (though I've had the German comics longer and the memory feels a bit older)

I't wasn't used in Germany. The photograph was taken in Sweden for the distributor PLAYMIX by the swedish photographer that I acquired the stickers from. :) So it most likely comes from the swedish comics that you have.
Title: Re: Scandinavian Gusty puffy sticker (for all you sticker obsessed collectors, like me)
Post by: Taffeta on August 22, 2015, 02:03:56 PM

But I managed to find my Hasbro UK toy catalog from 1986 (sent out to retail dealers to order the supply from)

The My Little Pony set with Gypsy is referred to the "original set" of My Little Ponies. (as a contrary to the other set's available) So they don't use the name "standard pony", although it is quite close (the meaning behind it is the same). :)
(I'm not saying you should use it because of this or any reason, just that it is a way to talk about them and include them in the "earth pony" - category without upsetting Gyspy and Honeycomb). ;)

I was thinking on this a bit more last night, actually, and realising that we're looking at this in two different ways based on the ponies that we actually did and didn't have here.

Your scan is reassuring to me actually, because it confirms what I said - the set was called "My Little Pony" by Hasbro in 1986. The word original is included but not capitalised - it's adjectival, but it isn't the name of the set itself. (Although I will own now that through all of my childhood I differentiated the early ponies by calling them "Originals", and I have card file entries from pre-internet collecting where carboot sale ponies were classified under that collective name).

Either way, the reason I think we differ on this is that for Sweden - and Germany - the concept of "My Little Pony" and Standard Ponies is really applied to Earth Ponies, because in Germany and in Sweden there were other ponies than Earth Ponies available in early sets. That isn't the case in the UK. The first original style My Little Ponies (outside of playsets) with a horn or wings are Gypsy and Honeycomb. Majesty is in the fact file section, true enough, and so is Sprinkles, but Majesty is promoted in the comic advert as the "Royal Unicorn Pony", and in Hasbro's list she's catalogued only as "Dream Castle with Majesty Pony" so the "My Little Pony" tag isn't officially attached. Sprinkles is a different problem, as she doesn't even appear in the Hasbro list, and Hasbro UK appear to have gone with their own earth style pony first, before conforming to the global pegasus. I am curious to find any marketing material for the UK that includes her rather than Cascade, as I have not yet seen any even though I know she was sold here because I have both UK-release boxes.

My point is that, although all the early unicorns and pegasus ponies were included in our comics and on our merchandise, their lack of release here means they didn't really have a "name". It also allowed ponies like Paradise, Ribbon and Lofty to sneak in from the SS set, without any real knowledge why. These also didn't have or need a "name" because they weren't being marketed here.

Basically, then, "My Little Pony" applied officially to the original ponies sold here, and by extension, unofficially to the ones not sold here, which also comprised the unicorns and the pegasus ponies.

In our stories, the earth ponies were sometimes referred to as "little ponies", but the term was also used collectively to include the unicorns and the pegasus ponies as well. Again, the words were not capitalised - they weren't "classification names" so much as descriptions - they were ponies and they were little, as opposed to being "My Little Pony" in the sense of the Ponywear advert or (I believe) the box to the original Grooming Parlour which talks about grooming My Little Pony's hair or some such thing.

To the UK market, then,  My Little Pony didn't = Earth Pony. My Little Pony = all the ponies that Hasbro shoved in the fact file, official releases and those used for merchandise and stories only, and that's kinda where it's all come from.

 The list I have from Hasbro calls the 1987 set My Little Ponies as well, because to Hasbro UK - and to most of the UK kids, probably - they're an extension of the same. I think most UK collectors, if you asked them about their childhood, would probably think of these ponies in conjuction with one another back then, even if now they know all the differences in distribution and such.

I think the fact that the Fable Ponies happened in Germany (and in Sweden, and other places) means that there was more distinction between Earth, Unicorn and Pegasus pony before the Gypsy/Honeycomb/etc set came out. They were sold on different cards to the Earth ponies, and even the North American cards state "Unicorn" and "Pegasus" on them, as opposed to just the My Little Pony rainbow. Because the only original unicorns in the UK are Gypsy and Gusty, this differentiation never happened. Gusty, North Star, Wind Whistler, Honeycomb and Gypsy just became part of the same set of "My Little Pony". Also, within your definitions of Standard My Little Pony, you include only Earth pony sets, and by this same token, separate the Movie Stars. In the UK, though, Hasbro proved there was no distinction by INCLUDING a pegasus and a unicorn in the same set as the earth ponies. This didn't happen in other places, which again suggests "Standard Pony" in parts of Europe was a term applied to Earth ponies to separate them from the Fable/unicorn and pegasus ponies also on release, whereas in the UK the mixed species meant they were not "standard".

Nuances like that are interesting, but I think it's probably why both Germany and Sweden approached it from a different angle than here. You had ponies we never had. Hasbro UK didn't need to differentiate here because there was nothing to differentiate until 1986. Hasbro could have separated Gypsy and Honeycomb, but they didn't, because there was no precedent to do so. Therefore they were just My Little Pony, and so it went on to 1987's set as well.

Ironically, the only sets on my website that I catalogue that way are the sets from 1986 and 1987. This is because they are mixed species sets, and therefore can't be defined as Earth, Pegasus or Unicorn.

On another note, that photo was definitely taken using Groom & Style Posey and Cherries Jubilee as models, rather than what was actually sold. The UK pony comic didn't really ever include Posey and CJ with these four, as in one comic there was a competition to win one of the four new characters, and then they were used as a foursome to advertise ponywear:
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CJ and Posey are part of the set because they're on the card and we know they are - but the emphasis was on the new four. I forget how the comic competition was worded, and I can't get at my comics easily right now.

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Here is my Water Fall (Sprinkles) MOC. Compared to the Baby MOC. Both sold in Sweden during 1987-88. The card is the same for them, (just adapted for each set. It is clearly a way to distribute left over ponies on a cheap card with no artwork in the back of it).
The Sprinkles MOC is the only know that has been preserved. I bought it last year from the swedish collector who owned it before me.
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That Sprinkles is quite awesome. I haven't seen one like it before, but it does add credence to the idea of the overpopulation of global Sprinkles ponies! As I mentioned before, the Waterfall here had Cascade and then Sprinkles. I've the three different English language boxes I know of - the North American (white base), the Cascade box and the Sprinkles (green base) box, and the stamps inside the Cascade and Sprinkles boxes are months apart (but Sprinkles has a different, later product number). The instructions inside are the same and both dated 1985 except for names of ponies being changed and the artwork for Cascade has no wings. I don't have instructions for the North American release waterfall, but I tend to assume the artwork was taken from that to ours, because it looks like it was originally Sprinkles but was modified to fit Cascade.

My Cascade box is earlier in terms of date than my Sprinkles one, but it's possible they were sold simultaneously here. I really think, though, that Hasbro produced too many Sprinkles', and they got distributed around the world. Your Swedish carded Sprinkles ("Waterfall!" with Duck Soup and stuff was maybe one way of selling some of those ponies - it's worth mentioning that the waterfall with the green base is stated on the box as having been made in the UK. I know that the green base didn't travel very much - France had the white base, I believe, and so did Italy. Possibly that's why Sprinkles here had the waterfall - because it was already in production with Cascade before that point.

The Waterfall is one of my points of UK intrigue even now. :)

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Here are my swedish standard ponies. ;) And my german bow-tie moc I checked the stickers for Applejack and Bow Tie, and they are both copyright 1985. The sticker for my german one is hidden quite well so I can't see if there is any copyright. Lucky we were able to spot it at your MOC!
Spoiler
It's probably under her tail or beneath her legs. I had to really look for mine - I didn't think she had one until I started really looking closely, so I'm glad that information was of loose.

Hopscotch aside, your earth ponies look the same as the Groom & Style were here (except you mentioned sticker variations). Certainly the cards appear to match exactly the ones I have for Applejack and Bow Tie. Applejack's ribbon is very green, though...I wonder what the reason behind that was or if it was just a one off batch with a different colour. Guess we'll never know.

Quote
My two Pony Friends. The only two of these 2 characters that exists MOC what we know of, so I'm really happy that I was able to buy them! :)

In a sense I actually think that more interesting than Truly and Cupcake; certainly more useful in determining which Cherries Jubilee and Posey were part of that set. Definitely no doubt that your Cherries Jubilee had curls, even though ours didn't. I really feel that Hasbro UK did that on purpose, because the entirety of the set in the UK had straight hair, and dove brushes. They were really made to seem like they belonged as a release - they were separate from the curly/straight variations of the Groom & Style before them and Cherries Jubilee was modified to conform. Even SS Cherries Jubilee has curly hair, so it's an interesting design choice. I'm sure CJ and Posey remained in the set because of the animation.Otherwise, keeping Tootsie would have made more sense, because she already had straight hair. (Unless, of course, it stemmed from the fact Cherries Jubilee and Posey were still in basic production because of the So Soft set, and so it saved production money to keep these two rather than Tootsie. Maybe that could also explain white Tootsie, as she is a unique green colour, but white was a commonly used colour and would probably have saved dying costs.)
Quote
My swedish sold Movie Stars.
Spoiler

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Here the sticker isn't included in the text, and no sticker is present in the moc.
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Hrm. By comparison, and it's not a great picture, but my Shady...
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You can't actually see in this image the sticker she has, but it's behind her hooves - it's featuring North Star and says cinestars, which I think is usual. It's interesting that the French release got the stickers, the Scandinavian one didn't, and the UK one seems to have done but it's not certain whether they all did. It really depends where my Wind Whistler came from. The card she was on doesn't mention a sticker either, indicating it's the same card probably as yours:
Spoiler
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As I mentioned, she came from overseas. I don't have my original Shady's card any more, and I don't have a UK release card therefore to compare it with. The stickers do exist, but it is possible they were only present for a short time. The ponies themselves are fairly common in comparison, so it would make sense. Other release packages from 1987 over here do specify a sticker, even if other language releases do not...so I think there's more to be done on that subject before we know entirely what the situation was. Going back to the Argos catalogue picture that I showed before, it's telling that, while other pony images from this year and this store catalogue showed stickers int he advert, this one does not:
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Nor does it mention it in Argos' description. Compare with the descriptions for Flutter Ponies from the same catalogue:
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Maybe they really didn't have stickers in the UK for the full run. I have seen stickers for this set - namely Gusty - on ebay from the UK on playsets and things sold here, so they must have had them for a while - but for how long is the key question.
Title: Re: Scandinavian Gusty puffy sticker (for all you sticker obsessed collectors, like me)
Post by: Ponyland on August 22, 2015, 02:42:04 PM
Quote
Hopscotch aside, your earth ponies look the same as the Groom & Style were here (except you mentioned sticker variations). Certainly the cards appear to match exactly the ones I have for Applejack and Bow Tie. Applejack's ribbon is very green, though...I wonder what the reason behind that was or if it was just a one off batch with a different colour. Guess we'll never know.

Just a quick reply before bed, will cover more later. :)

The cards are the same, but the accessories differ. The ribbon is actually different for bow-tie as well, but it isn't the color but the fabric type. It's the same type that was used for SS ponies. (A silky version, the groom & style ponies had a wider and not as silky type that was used for mostly all ponies before 1986). Applejack has the same type, so thats why I can see that they both are later releases (and with the sticker confirms it as well).

I think they just needed to go with the ribbon types available for 1986, and they just decide to give her a green while at it. I don't think it has anything to do with just a batch difference in this case.

I'm a real accessory nerd so I have studied ribbon types closely as I want to match all ponies and document them. ;)

Another interesting thing is that I actually have a shy-pose curly haired applejack that is most likely swedish sold too ( she comes from childhood collection). She is significantly darker orange than the US release. And her symbols have a different shade of red, this makes her look like a totally different batch. (I have never seen another noel like her in the US). The swedish collector poster sent to Club members shows her as a curly shy pose as well next to CP Bow-Tie. She is a real mystery pony! I think she might have been mixed in with CP applejack in the beginning maybe, but I have never sen another one here in Sweden so that must have been a very limited number.

edit with picture of the Swedish Ponnyklubben poster from 1987.
This poster cover the full range of ponies sold in 1987 up to the point that it got sent out.

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Tootise is pictured as green, posey doesn't have magenta tulips. Applejack is in the shy pose. Moondancer is white. Surprise name is missspelled to Surprice (acctually quite common misstake, I do it all the time.. Maybe a swedish thing..  :lol: ) and Fabel Pony Gusty has jumped down to the Movie Star row. (They didn't think there was a need to picture two Gusty's).

The Pony Friends ponies are missing though. And Sprinkles, Baby Lemon Drop and the Play and Care Babies. And Playset ponies

I have a vague memory of another poster like this, but with a green-ish background. Maybe they are on that poster. I hope that I will find it someday! :)
Title: Re: Scandinavian Gusty puffy sticker (for all you sticker obsessed collectors, like me)
Post by: LadyGuinevere on August 24, 2015, 02:04:54 PM
Your rainbow set is interesting - two from year 1 and four from year 2! Is the card noticeably different for them?
Title: Re: Scandinavian Gusty puffy sticker (for all you sticker obsessed collectors, like me)
Post by: Taffeta on August 24, 2015, 02:57:47 PM
Not to mention Megan in North American release costume...
Title: Re: Scandinavian Gusty puffy sticker (for all you sticker obsessed collectors, like me)
Post by: Ponyland on August 25, 2015, 03:11:24 AM
Your rainbow set is interesting - two from year 1 and four from year 2! Is the card noticeably different for them?

We got them in 2 rounds. On the US released card and on a different "standing" card that looks similar to the german card but with HK ponies and english text. I Bought Tickle from an old toy store here on the US card, and I have Flutterby on the standing card from a original swedish collection.

So we did get more characters in the end (I have Windy as a childhood pony). I will have to see if there was anyone we missed out on though, its a bit murky right now from my memory.
But the toy advertising catalog that I have from the old toy store (where I bought Tickle on the american card) do mention a range of 6 different characters, so I think the poster is correct on that for 1987. And I think that the 6 different characters you see there on the club poster was sold on the US released card, and it isn't different in the artwork. So they just picked out half the available characters on that card then for our release.

Quote
Not to mention Megan in North American release costume...

Yes she was an official part of our pony range, the one you got is an UK exclusive.  :) I will dig out more advertising for you.
Title: Re: Scandinavian Gusty puffy sticker (for all you sticker obsessed collectors, like me)
Post by: Taffeta on August 25, 2015, 03:44:11 AM
I find it interesting how those characters appeared all across Europe and in our comics and merchandise but not in UK stores. Aside from Confetti's Wedding Bells, none of set 2 were ever sold here, which makes me wonder what Hasbro UK's decision processes were for ponies in this country. First set Rainbows are quite common and almost certainly did 1984 and 1985 because their UK release card style is 1984ish without a story...so why did Hasbro UK only sell Confetti and not try for any of the others?

Another of those last minute budget decisions maybe? Who knows...add it to the mystery pile. I think about 50% of the characters kids in the UK in 1983-6 grew up with officially didn't get a release here.

I recently acquired a Sunlight card from a collector here who said she got it in Sheffield as a child. All her other Rainbow cards were the normal release for the UK (Moonstone, Windy, Starshine) but this Sunlight's was what I would call a US release style Rainbow Pony card. She is certain it didn't come from anywhere outside the UK, and nobody sent it to her. First time I've seen what I would call US style cards associated with Rainbow ponies already on sale here...
Title: Re: Scandinavian Gusty puffy sticker (for all you sticker obsessed collectors, like me)
Post by: Ponyland on August 25, 2015, 04:39:25 AM
This is how the toy catalogs look like from our official distributor in Sweden.
Left one is for spring 1987 and right is for autumn 1987
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Here is the content:

1987 Spring toy catalog:
Features Shady mentioned as a "Standard Pony" (should be from Pony Friends), Magic Star as a Movie Pony.
Baby Blossom from Play and Care I, Baby Firefly from Baby ponies with bottle, and baby Lemon Drop (UK version but with pink stroller). And Flutterbye, probably from the standing type of card that I got.
Also Megan & Sundance in box, Pretty and Pearly baby Sea ponies, the Pony Purse and Lullabye Nursery.

This is the advertising that introduce Ponnyklubben (it was PLAYMIX that managed it). After sign up to it the
poster was sent out.
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The 1987 autumn catalog I posted earlier.
Movie ponies, Rainbow ponies, Baby Lemon Drop as Spainsh with pink stroller, Megan & Sundance, Pretty and Pearly baby sea ponies, and Baby Buggy. Also first introduction of Paradise Estate.
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An ad for December introduce the Adventure Boys and the dance school (incorrect pony though, should be a regular baby Half Note, not a BBE). Also mentions Paradise estate again, and lot's of ponies are standing in it. I think the picture of it was taken at the same time as the introduction of it in the autumn catalog.
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Quote
I find it interesting how those characters appeared all across Europe and in our comics and merchandise but not in UK stores. Aside from Confetti's Wedding Bells, none of set 2 were ever sold here, which makes me wonder what Hasbro UK's decision processes were for ponies in this country. First set Rainbows are quite common and almost certainly did 1984 and 1985 because their UK release card style is 1984ish without a story...so why did Hasbro UK only sell Confetti and not try for any of the others?

It could be just as with the Fable Ponies, I think that it was probably planned that you should get the standing card's too that we got here. They look very similar to your version of the first set of Rainbow Ponies and is made by Hasbru UK.

We got Confetti in 1986 too, and she kind of introduced the whole pony range with her big wedding that every pony was invited to at the Dream castle. I don't have the ad avaliable (it's stuffed with my other ads that I can't reach). And along side her the other rainbow ponies were sold (probably on the standing card). 

Title: Re: Scandinavian Gusty puffy sticker (for all you sticker obsessed collectors, like me)
Post by: Taffeta on August 25, 2015, 04:51:30 AM
Another interesting observation is that that's not a UK released Pretty & Pearly Baby Sea Pony. I have her mint on card from the Benelux and the card style is indeed the North American style artwork. I am sure I took a better picture of her, but for the time being:
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Should I assume from that advert that your set matched theirs or was it a mix and match set? I remember spending a lot of time in 1998 when the only online pictures of the US Set were from DV's insert scans going through and identifying the differences between the release we had here and the one in North America, so that I and my trade partners knew what was what and what ponies we both needed. I've always loved Sea Ponies.

 I knew there had to be a difference, because two of the ponies were different, and in the end only one pony is the same between the two releases. We didn't get the looking up pose here at all.

It seems like Sweden wasn't just importing from Hasbro UK but also Hasbro Rhode Island, and maybe other places as well (or putting its own orders in). Who really knows with the Fable Ponies.

Interesting that Shady is not a Movie pony in that image, even though she was a Movie Pony. Unless, of course, she wasn't sold as a Movie Pony in Sweden but only as a Pony Friend? Just because she's on the card, we've really learned that doesn't mean anything at all.

I love learning about releases in different areas. Ponyland, I wonder if I might be really cheeky and ask whether I can borrow the images of your Pony Friend CJ and Posey for the Scrapbook? I would like to reorganise my 1987 page a little so that Truly and Cupcake are a little more clearly defined as separate. I can't put a complete separate page for the set, but at the very least I can make the distinction (and I think that it would be awesome to have the Pony Friend CJ on the CJ page with Groom & Style and 1986 My Little Pony C.J!

(I am also really waiting with bated breath for when you dig out this very British advertising for the FF ponies. If it's anything like Bow Tie and her birthday suit, it will be hilarious)
Title: Re: Scandinavian Gusty puffy sticker (for all you sticker obsessed collectors, like me)
Post by: Ponyland on August 25, 2015, 05:11:02 AM
Quote
Interesting that Shady is not a Movie pony in that image, even though she was a Movie Pony. Unless, of course, she wasn't sold as a Movie Pony in Sweden but only as a Pony Friend? Just because she's on the card, we've really learned that doesn't mean anything at all.

Oh, she was! I'm 100% positive as I have seen her on the Movie Star card here in Sweden (with the brown eyeliner) The wole set got discovered in that old toy shop I mentioned before (where I got my Trickles, and my Bride Confetti)

I have just never seen her on the Pony Friends card. But this advertising kind of proves it. I think they where sold just in the early spring of 1987 but got discontinued before the autumn. And maybe that's why they aren't on the club poster (the only characters not represented is Cupcake and Truly though) so they might just have missed them when putting it together.

Also the Play and Care babies II got sold at the same time as the Pony Friends, but baby Blossom is the one that represent the PaC set on the ad. It could be that both I and II was sold at the same time in the spring 1987 and they just randomly picked Baby Blossom to represent them.

( Play and Care I was avaliable in 1986 too, but not the Pac II set)


Quote
Should I assume from that advert that your set matched theirs or was it a mix and match set?
I haven't found out so much about the baby Sea Ponies yet. But it could be that we got the US version of card and ponies. I will have to investigate that a bit more though! But as the picture was taken here in Sweden it could be like that, but the ad has lot's of small errors everywhere, so I could be that a batch of ponies got shipped to them for photograps before the release that didn't match properly.
I will continue digging for proofs! ;) I haven't found any MOC baby Sea Pony at all in Sweden so far.


edit:
Quote
I love learning about releases in different areas. Ponyland, I wonder if I might be really cheeky and ask whether I can borrow the images of your Pony Friend CJ and Posey for the Scrapbook? I would like to reorganise my 1987 page a little so that Truly and Cupcake are a little more clearly defined as separate. I can't put a complete separate page for the set, but at the very least I can make the distinction (and I think that it would be awesome to have the Pony Friend CJ on the CJ page with Groom & Style and 1986 My Little Pony C.J!

I think that could be arranged. ;) it's kind of important to me that they get represented properly, and that they are a 1987 release that is different from the Movie Stars, as they where sold along side each other and not instead of or as an exteintion of them.
 
It would also be great if they could be linked together with your UK set with Gypsy in some way with the reusing of the card but a year later and the Hopscotch character (but the ditching of Snowflake in favor of Cupcake and Truly).
Title: Re: Scandinavian Gusty puffy sticker (for all you sticker obsessed collectors, like me)
Post by: Taffeta on August 25, 2015, 06:21:24 AM
Yep. I am going to do some work on 1986 and 1987 My Little Pony sets and see if I can't do that exact thing. I may need to borrow your moc images on groom and style card to to do it properly, but sincevthese 'uk' cards cause so much confusion, I think it needs to be done. Let me know if you mind my doing this, as it is easier to write something in with evidence to back it up.

I will be interested in what you discover about the baby seas. In the UK our first set was same as North America, but on different card. Same names...I think some accessories may differ but I am not certain without checking back.
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Second set only Beachcomber is the same in both UK and North America. Water Lily is in Tiny Bubbles' pose and Sunshower and Ripple in Sea Star's, Sea Star and Tiny Bubbles rereleased instead of Surf Rider and Beachcomber. Benelux definitely had the US style card and the same ponies as that release. My 2 have the wrong stickers, though for ponies from the right set. (Flat, like North America). I don't know if the six we had here were issued elsewhere. Some Twinkle Eyes sold on this card, I got mine from a seller in Germany. Cards here dated 1987.

UK release card (Water Lily)
Spoiler
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Tiny Bubbles.
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No Celebrate in the UK.

No Sea Sparkle Baby Sea Ponies in the UK.

Watercolor Baby Sea Ponies - four of six sold in the UK and Germany confirmed on blue bordered cards.
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 Foamy, Wavedancer, Seashore and Sealight. Misty and Seawinkle not in the UK but def. In Germany on German cards with US style art, so they had both. EinhornBaby has one of them and loaned me a picture.

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According to the card Chrissytree has from childhood, they were called Colour Change Baby Sea Ponies here.

Post Merge: August 25, 2015, 05:22:18 PM

Adding to this and double posting, but I have something to add on the Movie Star Ponies.

I was looking at your pictures and I realised there's a difference between the card of your ponies and the card I have for Wind Whistler. It's the top left hand pink oval with the text in it. Yours says six to collect. My card for Wind Whistler says As seen in the My Little Pony film. It's a subtle difference, but a difference all the same.

I did think that this might be the UK/Scandinavia variation because I was looking at the picture BabyDoll loaned me and it looks like her Wind Whistler has a sticker with the same card you have, but it isn't mentioned in the text. Perhaps not though. Perhaps it's not that simple...but it is a difference all the same.

I need to ask Chrissytree if she has a card for this set from her childhood...
Title: Re: Scandinavian Gusty puffy sticker (for all you sticker obsessed collectors, like me)
Post by: Ponyland on August 29, 2015, 10:22:19 AM
Quote
I was looking at your pictures and I realised there's a difference between the card of your ponies and the card I have for Wind Whistler. It's the top left hand pink oval with the text in it. Yours says six to collect. My card for Wind Whistler says As seen in the My Little Pony film. It's a subtle difference, but a difference all the same.

I did think that this might be the UK/Scandinavia variation because I was looking at the picture BabyDoll loaned me and it looks like her Wind Whistler has a sticker with the same card you have, but it isn't mentioned in the text. Perhaps not though. Perhaps it's not that simple...but it is a difference all the same.

OMG!! This is really exciting news!!

Then we can actually separate them into two slightly different releases rater than just a batch variant (with the eyeliner) that continued to be sold over here!! And it isn't a sticker with the text "six to collect", it is printed on the card. So Hasbro bothered to change the card when they distributed  them over here.

I wonder why they changed it though? "The movie" was up on the cinemas in 1987 here around the same time that the set got released, so I don't understand the reason to change it. I have 2 swedish movie posters in my collection. I will have to check the dates for when the movie had its premiere here.

"As seen in the My Little Pony film" this sounds very British to me. But you are sure that yours came from abroad? (Although not Sweden because of the black eyeliner) If it was in the hands of a collector it might have crossed the border before?

_________________________________________________

On to another thing...

I'm working on mapping the danish release of ponies. As we often say "Scandinavia" on swedish sold ponies I feel that it is important to make collectors understand that Denmark had a different carded (and a bit crazy  ;) ) range of ponies.
I was contacted by a danish toy collector wondering about some danish moc's that he had acquired. He wanted to know what I knew about them.
(I got really excited to see these sneak peek pictures!)




The first 6 earthlings, (italian made ponies). And on a "US type" card with danish text. I have seen similar before in other countries in Europe. It's quite similar to the BENELUX version of this set.
In Sweden we missed out on this set entirely.
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I have seen evidence that some of the first Unicorn and Pegasus ponies also was sold like this (italian made ponies) but probably on the "US type" Uni/Peg card. And they where probably available at the same time. I'm guessing around 1985.

The white italian Moondancer is rumored to have been sold in Germany, BUT she wasn't an official part of their range of ponies. They only got the Fable Ponies, but without any Moondancer. I think that the white one that often surface over there actually has traveled across the border from Denmark. (It's only a  short trip away with the ferry, and they sell toys on the boat too).


 __________________________________

 Around 1986 the craziness starts! ;)


HK made Sparkler, but on a danish texted earth pony card. I guess this is their version of the Fable Pony set, as they needed those characters too.  :shocked: Not sure why they decided on the earth pony card and not the Fable Pony card. And I still need to figure out if Powder and yellow Moondancer was a part of this set, or if they just had the 6 characters that Germany got (no real need to distribute Moondancer twice if the italian version where available).
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It looks like they got the UK version of earth ponies with green Tootsie. No danish text, so I think this is just simply an import. Doesn't need to be official either. BUT at the same time they had the white Tootsie (also sold in Sweden) but on a uni/peg card with danish text.  :shocked: This could be a version of our swedish set with Hopscotch, Snowflake and white Tootsie. It makes some sense at least.
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And the baby ponies (that we also got in Sweden on the same card but with english text) had a danish texted card.
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I'm really hoping that he will sell them to me sometime so that I can examine them more, and document them properly. For now he will hold on to them though. :) But I'm happy that we could learn a bit more about the danish release of ponies.
And maybe find a new way to describe ponies as the "Scandinavian" term isn't really correct if Denmark isn't included... I'm not sure they had the Pony Friends.


Title: Re: Scandinavian Gusty puffy sticker (for all you sticker obsessed collectors, like me)
Post by: Taffeta on August 29, 2015, 10:41:52 AM


OMG!! This is really exciting news!!

Then we can actually separate them into two slightly different releases rater than just a batch variant (with the eyeliner) that continued to be sold over here!! And it isn't a sticker with the text "six to collect", it is printed on the card. So Hasbro bothered to change the card when they distributed  them over here.

When I said sticker, I meant a puffy one inside the package, not a sticker on the card. Sorry for not being clear. I'm not certain, but it looks like something between her hooves behind her tail. Babydoll has the pony, though...I'm only working from an image and I might be wrong. I've yet to see an English language MOC with a puffy sticker, despite knowing the things exist.

As you say, two distinct releases at the very least, in English language.

Quote
I wonder why they changed it though? "The movie" was up on the cinemas in 1987 here around the same time that the set got released, so I don't understand the reason to change it. I have 2 swedish movie posters in my collection. I will have to check the dates for when the movie had its premiere here.

I'm a bit confused about it too. They're sold as movie ponies in 1987 in Argos, but in absolutely nothing else I know of over here is that connection made. Hasbro refer to them as My Little Pony, Ponies, basic ponies...they appear in stories without any connection to the movie themes or characterisation (in the UK, for example, Shady was the psychadelic visionary with her magic sunglasses, Magic Star was the most magical pony in ponyland and had a wand...Wind Whistler was decidedly frivolous...and Gusty was the kind and gentle ponyland nurse, just to cover four really different characterisations). They never had a card story but their factfile entries back that characterisation up. Hasbro UK did a terrible job of linking these with the movie, despite the movie coming out here. This happened in July 1986, according to the comic advert. I had Shady as a kid, but remember absolutely zero about the movie nor the fact she was apparently connected to it in some way. If I didn't know better I'd almost imagine there was a completely different non-movie style card and we'd all been duped somehow, but that's nuts.

Also with both versions of Buttons, there were seven, not six. Did you have both versions too?

Quote
"As seen in the My Little Pony film" this sounds very British to me.
It is. It's funny how it's advertised here as the film but Argos used the word movie. Movie is a much more common term here now than it was in the eighties. Film would've resonated better, probably. I don't know. Hasbro UK probably packaged the ponies, though, and their copyright is on the card, so I don't know if much can be made of that.

Quote
But you are sure that yours came from abroad? (Although not Sweden because of the black eyeliner) If it was in the hands of a collector it might have crossed the border before?
I know that I bought it from abroad, because in transit from abroad the pony fell off the card. That's why I am certain. WHere it originated from I am not sure, but it came to me from abroad and nothing was said then that it had originated in the UK. As we've discussed before, stickers happened in the UK in 1987, apparently!

My other one, Shady, is French and came from Paris. A girl I knew there found a whole ton of them. She kept Shady for me because she knew I wanted one. I do know that the Dutch (Benelux?) release of this card is bilingual, and isn't the same as the French - the French name for Shady is also not the same as the Canadian one (Incognito not Petit Ombre), which suggests a lot of different releases and translations and stuff going on in two parts of the world.

I haven't seen a German one.

Quote
On to another thing...

I'm working on mapping the danish release of ponies. As we often say "Scandinavia" on swedish sold ponies I feel that it is important to make collectors understand that Denmark had a different carded (and a bit crazy  ;) ) range of ponies.

All that Danish information is super interesting, and especially because the card style for the ponies where Danish text is involved is more based on the style of card used in North American releases, not those produced here. Whereas Sweden seems to have gone much more down the "UK" style line (sorry >.>) in terms of packaging, Denmark has gone a completely different direction. I have been a bit uneasy about the term Scandinavian pony for a while, but without knowing for sure...

Those cards do remind me a bit of the German Bow Tie, whose card had no name on it but "Mein Kleines Pony" instead...

Slightly annoyed that we seem to be the only country in Europe not deemed worthy of a fable pony equivalent ><
Title: Re: Scandinavian Gusty puffy sticker (for all you sticker obsessed collectors, like me)
Post by: Ponyland on August 29, 2015, 10:49:05 AM
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Slightly annoyed that we seem to be the only country in Europe not deemed worthy of a fable pony equivalent ><

*pat on head*
 :shrug:


edit:

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Also with both versions of Buttons, there were seven, not six. Did you have both versions too?

Nope, she is a UK batch. I think as it has been mentioned before that she probably slipped over from the SS line in the beginning. And that they just a bit later changed her design. It's not so expensive to alter the design on paint works in the factory, and they probably just had their reasons (like with PaC baby Heart Throb).   

Post Merge: August 29, 2015, 11:10:28 AM

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All that Danish information is super interesting, and especially because the card style for the ponies where Danish text is involved is more based on the style of card used in North American releases, not those produced here. Whereas Sweden seems to have gone much more down the "UK" style line (sorry >.>) in terms of packaging, Denmark has gone a completely different direction. I have been a bit uneasy about the term Scandinavian pony for a while, but without knowing for sure...

Those cards do remind me a bit of the German Bow Tie, whose card had no name on it but "Mein Kleines Pony" instead...


I think this can have something to do with the card of the Benelux countries. They got A LOT of "US type" card and ponies. Not as a foreign import, but more as a official range of ponies adjusted to their own languages.
Denmark is like the gate in to Scandinavia, and has a lot more continental influences because of that. So I think that they maybe had the same kind of distributor as Benelux, maybe they collaborated.
And it will be very interesting to find out where the ponies got packed. It can't really be in the US because of the use of italian ponies.

I will have to dig out a little more pictures of German moc's as well to compare with.
It's fun with our german Bow-Tie moc in that way that it is the only version where they kept the "My Little Pony" rainbow logo and added the german text as a translation below.
But they still used a Hasbro UK card, and not the US type card like in Denmark. We need to find out where the connection is..


edit again:

here is a pic I borrowed from google for comparison:

Benelux sea shell
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and the danish:

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 (http://s90.photobucket.com/user/Norrskensljus/media/WANT/Skaumlrmavbild%202015-08-29%20kl.%2018.26.56.png.html)


edit again:

Benelux card first version "US style" cards
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Greek card (used the same year in Europe, and it is a "US style" card)
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 (http://s90.photobucket.com/user/Norrskensljus/media/Skaumlrmavbild%202015-08-29%20kl.%2022.04.27.png.html)

Danish card (this is the second "US style" card and not the first that came with italian ponies.
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 (http://s90.photobucket.com/user/Norrskensljus/media/Skaumlrmavbild%202015-08-29%20kl.%2022.09.07.png.html)

"to all children who believes in adventures, a beautiful little fantasy pony with hair to brush (groom) and style" -translated from the front of the card.


I really want to know what kind of sticker this tootsie came with!!  >_<
Title: Re: Scandinavian Gusty puffy sticker (for all you sticker obsessed collectors, like me)
Post by: Taffeta on August 31, 2015, 06:04:03 AM
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Slightly annoyed that we seem to be the only country in Europe not deemed worthy of a fable pony equivalent ><

*pat on head*
 :shrug:

We woz robbed >.>


edit:

Quote

Nope, she is a UK batch. I think as it has been mentioned before that she probably slipped over from the SS line in the beginning. And that they just a bit later changed her design. It's not so expensive to alter the design on paint works in the factory, and they probably just had their reasons (like with PaC baby Heart Throb).   
Which one was the UK batch? Big buttons or Buttons & Stars? Big Buttons is on the card and on the insert, but I have a MOC one on my site which was sent to me from someone in your part of the world and the symbol is Buttons and Stars...

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I think this can have something to do with the card of the Benelux countries. They got A LOT of "US type" card and ponies. Not as a foreign import, but more as a official range of ponies adjusted to their own languages.

Agreed. In fact, I'm pretty sure there was both, as (I think I posted before) I have Princess Moondust all marked up in English but with stickers on to indicate distribution in Holland and Belgium (no mention of Luxembourg). The only packing difference is 2 points instead of 3 on her box (my Pristina and Sunbeam both have 3, I think...). I am a little sure that one of my MOC Megan and Sundance wear cards is also in English with the American art style but has the age guidance in Dutch and French in the top corner. We didn't get Megan and Sundance wear here as far as I am aware, although we did get Pretty Ups and Pony Packs, and with ponies not sold here pictured on the card and inserts. There are some sets here, too, where it's not clear whether our packaging was the same or different from the North American release. Ponies like Sparkle Ponies and Sundae Best had only a coloured border around the very rim and a different colour of name bubble, the art was all the same. You wonder why they bothered, especially with the Sparkle Ponies, where no names changed. I think the Sundae Best may have had slightly different stories but I would need to get my cards out and check. Summer Wing boxes over here seem to have been the same as the US box, but with UK distribution marks on them. It kinda proves that there's not one simple way of doing things, even here where we're meant to be distributing stuff. It makes me wonder if everything was decided on a set by set basis and the same rules didn't always apply from year to year or even pony by pony.

I used to have that Benelux Seashell, but I got rid of all my MOC Italian ponies after some unpleasant experiences in the community with another member over them. You're right, though, there's a similarity and a geographic closeness that makes that make sense. I've actually been to Denmark (and Sweden, but only by train to Malmo for the day  ;)) and they are very close to the Benelux.

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I really want to know what kind of sticker this tootsie came with!!  >_<

LOL ;) So close, and yet so far ;)

When you add to this equation the fact there was a Dutch/French language release of the Movie Stars (UK style card) and that some sets appeared in German in both UK "style" and US "style" packages, I think that we're only really scratching the surface of what we think we know.
Title: Re: Scandinavian Gusty puffy sticker (for all you sticker obsessed collectors, like me)
Post by: invaderhorizongreen on September 02, 2015, 08:45:24 AM
This is very interesting, I never knew there were slight differences in them.
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