The MLP Arena
Pony Talk => Pony Corral => Topic started by: LadyMoondancer on July 29, 2016, 08:20:55 AM
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I could swear I saw unpainted white Furbob prototypes. Apparently they were meant to be included with a set of ponies (like the Bushwoolies), but then were canceled?
Does anyone have pictures of these? Possibly they were shown at the MLP Fair or other MLP event?
Edit: Looking at the MLP Fair's website, they mention that some of Ruth Bush the toy designer's favorite pieces were "the Flutter Pony Hideaway, Fairy Tails, and the Furbobs of Pony cartoon fame." So I am guessing the Furbob pictures are from the MLP Fair.
Did she also bring, or have pictures of, the Flutter Pony Hideaway? Or describe it? It sounds amazing! :)
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Yes, pictures of Furbobs!
I've saw the hideaway on facebook...
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Yes, Ruth Bush brought them to the recent Fair, along with a bunch of other cool stuff! :lovey: They were pretty neat, and she let me hold them! She brought photographs of the Flutter Hideaway prototype and the detailed drawings used to make it... "mechanicals" I think she called them? Plus the illustrations for the sheets of stickers that would have been applied. She didn't have an actual prototype of it, but she said that one might still exist somewhere in "the vault" at Hasbro. (Yeah...) She also had drawings of the Fairy Tail bird playset that was going to be a remake of the Flutter Pony Hideaway mold, because of course Hasbro loves to reuse their playsets -- even playsets that get scrapped! :P
I took some pictures, but I don't have them uploaded anywhere. Plus they're just cellphone snaps in a dim room, so not the greatest. ^^; (Honestly, the lighting and set-up in the pavilion were awful for such an interesting presentation. The lighting was better at the paid talk but you didn't get to peer through all her nifty mementos because there was 1) no room to spread them out and 2) other presentations sandwiched on either side of the time slot. :cry:) Hopefully someone with a proper camera got some good pictures of all her wonderful unproduced items and will share them! Seriously, so much good stuff... Princess pony jewelry! A sink to go with the Scrub-a-Dub tub! Weird "baby flutter pony" winger prototypes! A set of patchwork(??) ponies! It really felt like the hundreds of things that actually got produced were just the tip of the crazy pony iceberg. :lol:
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Okay, I have GOT to find that Flutter hideaway, to see what it looks like! ^^
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Would love to see those photos, even if they aren't very clear! I can sculpt/cast/kitbash and while I've never attempted a project like recreating an un-produced play set, it would be fun to try! Is the play set a house or a tree or clouds or what? It sounds adorable.
I always imagine flutter ponies going through a pupating stage, and emerging from hanging cocoons. I guess I blame Serendipity books for that one. Also they're bug ponies. Heh. An ideal flutter hideaway has a room for that in my opinion.
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I had tickets to her private talk so I did get some pics of the artwork. Wish I had taken more now, but we were told not to zoom too much :D
I only had my cellphone as well.
Ruth also had a HUGE table of artwork, but sadly no photos allowed :(
Furbobs- we got to hold them!
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Seapony Fountain/Tub
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Flutter Pony Hideaway
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One of Ruth's ideas for Yarn Ponies
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Ohhh, thanks for sharing your pics! They look amazing! Is that a TAF Buttons in Mimic's pose in the one pic? I love the sea pony sink and what looks like ponies with colorful blazes!
Did she say which ponies the Furbobs were meant to come with? The 2nd set of Princesses, perhaps?
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Ohhh, thanks for sharing your pics! They look amazing! Is that a TAF Buttons in Mimic's pose in the one pic? I love the sea pony sink and what looks like ponies with colorful blazes!
Did she say which ponies the Furbobs were meant to come with? The 2nd set of Princesses, perhaps?
of course! I wish I had more lol. I know that MLPforever also took a lot of pics!
And yes I think it is! Underneath it say TAF Ponies :)
She didn't say which set they would come with. I think they got scrapped before they could decide. She did talk a lot about varying her characters and how Hasbro had very specific instructions for which colors would be used for each furbob. It was so cool to hear about!
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Lovely pictures! :heart: Thanks so much for posting them!
Here's a crop of a scan of the polaroid of the prototype. (An "official" Fair image, and better than a cell pic of a polaroid in a dark room!)
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There was also a concept drawing of the Hideaway done by Ruth that was really pretty and available as prints at the Fair, but I ran out of money so hard this year. ^^; (There was also an exquisite portrait of Tiny Bubbles that I would love to have. I hope the Fair has extras that they'll put in the online store...) Hopefully someone bought one that doesn't mind sharing a photo of it.
As I understood it, the "concept" of the Flutter Hideaway was a little cottage in the clouds that the Flutter Ponies could use (somehow?) to manipulate the weather. The base was sculpted with white clouds and the footprint was pretty square. There was a little belfry window that could open, where there would be a spinner(?) with a sticker of different weather patterns on it. Little weather symbols decorated the gingerbread-style scalloped gableboard too. (The stickers and eaves were different on the FT bird house, and it had a lot of cute perches tacked on, but it was otherwise very similar.)
The furbobs had "PRINCESS PONY" labels on their turn-around sheets, so yes, they probably were intended to go with the 2nd edition Princesses (or a 3rd edition or who even knows :P).
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This is the picture I took of their design specs at the first presentation. (I wonder what happened to furbob #2? :blink:) I got there super early, so Ruth and her husband and I chatted for a while. She invited me to take all the pics I wanted, but most of them were so awfully dark that I just deleted them straight away. :( Of course, I didn't dare use a flash on her lovely artwork, so I just coped with what I could get. C'est la vie.
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:wow:
Love pkw xxx
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Wow! It's great to see the stuff that was planned/prototyped that never got made. The Flutter hideaway would have been a great play set and the seaport sink looks nice too. It's interesting about the Furbos.
Ponyfan
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Lovely pictures! :heart: Thanks so much for posting them!
Here's a crop of a scan of the polaroid of the prototype. (An "official" Fair image, and better than a cell pic of a polaroid in a dark room!)
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There was also a concept drawing of the Hideaway done by Ruth that was really pretty and available as prints at the Fair, but I ran out of money so hard this year. ^^; (There was also an exquisite portrait of Tiny Bubbles that I would love to have. I hope the Fair has extras that they'll put in the online store...) Hopefully someone bought one that doesn't mind sharing a photo of it.
As I understood it, the "concept" of the Flutter Hideaway was a little cottage in the clouds that the Flutter Ponies could use (somehow?) to manipulate the weather. The base was sculpted with white clouds and the footprint was pretty square. There was a little belfry window that could open, where there would be a spinner(?) with a sticker of different weather patterns on it. Little weather symbols decorated the gingerbread-style scalloped gableboard too. (The stickers and eaves were different on the FT bird house, and it had a lot of cute perches tacked on, but it was otherwise very similar.)
The furbobs had "PRINCESS PONY" labels on their turn-around sheets, so yes, they probably were intended to go with the 2nd edition Princesses (or a 3rd edition or who even knows :P).
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This is the picture I took of their design specs at the first presentation. (I wonder what happened to furbob #2? :blink:) I got there super early, so Ruth and her husband and I chatted for a while. She invited me to take all the pics I wanted, but most of them were so awfully dark that I just deleted them straight away. :( Of course, I didn't dare use a flash on her lovely artwork, so I just coped with what I could get. C'est la vie.
Wow!! That is so neat!! I love the detail that went into this piece, it was defiantly made with lots of love. <3 Thank you everyone for sharing!!
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I'm so so sad I missed this presentation and I was at the fair! :( such cool things!
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That is SO cool! I would Love to have a Flutter Hideaway! I sometimes think I'd like to get my Flutters and future Wingers a place of their very own and wished Hasbro had made one. Had no idea they were actually thinking about it.
The furbobs and sea pony fountain is cute.
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Wow. The Furbob prototypes are adorable! So much personality. :D I really like the concept for the Yarn Ponies too. They look like they would have been fun. Gracious. The Flutter Pony Hideaway would have been such fun. What a cute idea. That seapony fountain looks interesting. Would love to know what the plan was for it.
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WOW! I've been a G1 collector since the 80's (well, kid-lover-of-ponies and now adult collector XD ) and I had no idea any of that existed! That is so cool! Thanks for sharing the pics!
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And just when you think you know everything about G1... Some cool surprise shows up again. Always. XD
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Just amazing! What a gorgeous set, and what truly breath-taking artwork from a very talented artist!
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Aw! I so want furbobs and a flutter pony hideaway! So cute! I wish they'd gone into actual production. I wonder why they didn't. :what:
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Something about "how many is too many play sets?"
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Huh, the flutter pony hideaway resembles those flutter valley little tree houses they had in MLP the movie; which kinda makes sense, if you think about it.
But Okay, I HAVE to use the flutterpony hideaway in my mlp stories now!
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It's really cool to see the concept art and prototypes of what could have been. I am mildly intrigued by the yarn ponies though. Would they have been made out of actual yarn? It kind of looks like it based off the description, but I can't tell if they would have been patterns/kits, so people could make their own yarn ponies.
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I'm very interested in what looks like a beach themed gift pack, and the 2 sets of ponies with blazes and other spots. I wonder what those would have been like, and why they weren't made?
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It's really cool to see the concept art and prototypes of what could have been. I am mildly intrigued by the yarn ponies though. Would they have been made out of actual yarn? It kind of looks like it based off the description, but I can't tell if they would have been patterns/kits, so people could make their own yarn ponies.
The manes and tails would have been actual yarn, but the bodies would have been just sculpted to look like it. :)
I'm very interested in what looks like a beach themed gift pack, and the 2 sets of ponies with blazes and other spots. I wonder what those would have been like, and why they weren't made?
The gift pack was picnic themed. :) There was a picnic table with an umbrella, a blanket, a picnic basket, and various little picnic-y bits and bobs. Like the birthday party and slumber party packs before it, it would've had an assortment of five ponies in the current styles for the year. It looked to me like the concept showed a TAF pony, a big brother pony, peek-a-boo baby twins(?), and a newborn. (Ruth could neither confirm or deny at the time; it had been decades, after all! ^^;)
The five ponies with the colorful markings were called something like quilt ponies or patchwork ponies or something to do with sewing. I'm afraid I can't quite remember what. :( Their concept drawings were in the gallery space, but weren't available for photographs. Their blazes and stockings were all painted in cute little fabric patterns. (The fabric prints reminded me of the Fancy Pants babies'... um, pants.) It was neat to see more "horsey" markings on ponies again! :biggrin:
As to why they didn't make it into production... Ruth said that there was an economic downturn in 1987 that caused Hasbro to cut back on its planned offerings. People didn't have as much money to spend on frivolous things, so Hasbro didn't want to put out a lot of big-ticket items like play sets and party packs. :( And the patches ponies could've just been an idea that didn't pan out for one reason or another... Maybe they were too expensive to produce or didn't test well. Maybe management just didn't think they were a good fit for the line. (I like to think that they could've been an inspiration for the Fancy Pants babies though. ^.^ The Fancy Patch Mommies?)
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It's really cool to see the concept art and prototypes of what could have been. I am mildly intrigued by the yarn ponies though. Would they have been made out of actual yarn? It kind of looks like it based off the description, but I can't tell if they would have been patterns/kits, so people could make their own yarn ponies.
Maybe they'ed look like lala loopsy?
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This all looks like such a treasure trove! I hope someday all of these photos, concepts and information can be released to the general public, like in a book or something.
The furbobs would have been cool to see released. I love seeing elements of the cartoon incorporated in the toyline. Unless they were originally created with the intention of releasing toys of them, but if they were intended to go with the second set of princess ponies, that would have been two years after their episode originally aired. And by then all of the characters from the TV show would be gone from the shelves. Then again, at that point there might have been plans to continue the tv series, and we would have gotten an episode with the second set princesses along with the furbobs.
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after reading all these comments about the flutter pony hideaway and the furbobs, I just want to say thanks for appreciating the effort that went into these, even if they werent produced....It was a most fun time for me and its nice to know there are pony fans out there...
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after reading all these comments about the flutter pony hideaway and the furbobs, I just want to say thanks for appreciating the effort that went into these, even if they werent produced....It was a most fun time for me and its nice to know there are pony fans out there...
Hi Ruth Bush! Welcome to the Arena! :hug:
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THIS THREAD IS SO AWESOME! Ahem, I had no idea any of this existed! I want that playset!!! The presentation must have been amazing!!
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after reading all these comments about the flutter pony hideaway and the furbobs, I just want to say thanks for appreciating the effort that went into these, even if they werent produced....It was a most fun time for me and its nice to know there are pony fans out there...
Wow! Hi Ruth Bush! Those designs were great! Welcome to the Arena. :thumb:
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Oh my! Hello Ruth Bush, it is such an honor to have you here! The furbob molds look incredible! I, and I think all of us, are so grateful to be able to learn about this chapter of MLP history. It's a pity the pictured items never made it into production, but at least we now know about them!
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Fascinating stuff, especially those Furbobs - they are conspicuously misshapen but hold a certain charm. I also question why the Flutter Hideaway was denied being put into production - did Hasbro think that their wings would break on the doorframe? Did Hasbro plan for another year of Flutters but discontinued them abruptly, rendering the Flutter Hideaway pointless? Will we ever discover the truth behind it?
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Hi Ruth! :D Wow, the Arena is the best, we bring in all the most awesome people of this fan community!
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I also question why the Flutter Hideaway was denied being put into production - did Hasbro think that their wings would break on the doorframe?
Well if that's why, this decision didn't stopped lots of poor flutters to be wingless.
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I'm super late to the party but omg, Furbobs!! So cute!!! I wish they'd produced them, I always liked them in the cartoon. And it would've been great to have a Flutter pony playset, too ^^
Those Yarn ponies are really intriguing, haha.. not sure if I like them or not but they're certainly interesting! And I looove the ponies with stockings/blazes.
Also - welcome to the Arena, Ruth! ^^
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I also question why the Flutter Hideaway was denied being put into production
Because the economic downturn that year (1987 I think) meant that parents would be tightening their purse strings on non-necessary purchases, and it wouldn't have made sense to put a glut of playsets on the market. :)
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aww this really made my day. i can't believe how awesome this is after so many years as a collector and an obsessive accessories and playset collector there is always something new to learn.
when i first read this this morning i thought i had woken up in an alternative universe :lol:
im also very intrigued to know what the seapony fountain was for, maybe a place for the baby sea ponies to float in.
and see better pics of the ponies that look like they had patches? blaze? that would have been very cool.
AND to know a G1 designer is here on the arena :worshippy:
Ruth you have created some beautiful stuff there :heart:
im dying to see more close ups of the picture, :biggrin:
pps i neeeeed that flutter playset
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Welcome Ruth Bush! Thanks to you and others for sharing these wonderful images . . . the artwork for the Flutter Pony house is just beautiful (the G1 artwork was sooooo fantastic--I was so lucky to enjoy it when new in the 80s!).
I *always* thought that Hasbro should have done a picnic set (I wanted one so desperately), so I feel vindicated that at least one was planned if not put into production. I'd love to see better pics of that.
Again, so great to see the wonders of could-have-been! :)
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I love the yarn ponies! I feel like that's a set that needs to be custom made. lol
I also love that she said that Fairy Tails were one of her favorites. They are one of mine too. :)
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The furbobs ❤️❤️❤️ I would have hoarded them as a child!!
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I have to say, what Ruth brought to the fair was amazing. It was really nice to see all the thought and efforts that went into the line but didn't make the cut. Perhaps there were many other things that we've clamored about for years that were thoughts that never made it to fruition. It was nice to get that little glimpse inside the world.
The furbobs and the Flutter Hideaway were super interesting but I'd die to have that little Flutter house! I always wondered why they didn't make one when I saw Flutter Valley in the movie. It's the same reason I don't buy my boys their 5th Imaginext set. Money and room to store it. :lol:
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I saw these pictures on Tumblr (of all places) and I've been drooling over them for a few days now! I really wish I had been able to go to the fair this year -- these would have been SO COOL to see in person!
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after reading all these comments about the flutter pony hideaway and the furbobs, I just want to say thanks for appreciating the effort that went into these, even if they werent produced....It was a most fun time for me and its nice to know there are pony fans out there...
I'm very thankful to you for sharing this! I love seeing the process behind how a toyline like this is conceived. All the hard work, brainstorming, designs and ideas that in the end never materialized.
Because the economic downturn that year (1987 I think) meant that parents would be tightening their purse strings on non-necessary purchases, and it wouldn't have made sense to put a glut of playsets on the market. :)
Do we know it was meant for a 1987 release? I think it'd make more sense for it to coincide with the release of the movie, when the Flutter Ponies were still new and a big deal. But in the end they may have decided they had enough playsets as is, and would rather focus on marketing the huge Paradise Estate.
im also very intrigued to know what the seapony fountain was for, maybe a place for the baby sea ponies to float in.
and see better pics of the ponies that look like they had patches? blaze? that would have been very cool.
It's been said it was a sink that was meant to complement the Scrub-a-Dub tub. The bathtub also has a sea pony motif, even though sea ponies were out of production by the time it was released. Makes me think it was designed a lot earlier. I suspect that a lot of the sets from later years are actually ideas that might have been initially scrapped, but brought back when they needed new sets to release (e.g. Megan & TAF Sundance, Drink 'n Wet Babies, Rainbow Babies).
Among all this amazing stuff, I also noticed the card artwork for the Pony Friends include the unreleased human companion dolls. I want to see this artwork so bad!!
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Wow, this is really interesting stuff! The furbobs are really cute.
I'm pretty curious about what the plan might have been for the "yarn" ponies. Was this intended as a line of plush ponies?
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Among all this amazing stuff, I also noticed the card artwork for the Pony Friends include the unreleased human companion dolls. I want to see this artwork so bad!!
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!!! I didn't notice this!! aaaaahh I want to see the full version so much ;__; I've always loved those prototype dolls.
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oh man I think I would have been a very happy kid if we had the furbobs :D XD
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I also question why the Flutter Hideaway was denied being put into production
Because the economic downturn that year (1987 I think) meant that parents would be tightening their purse strings on non-necessary purchases, and it wouldn't have made sense to put a glut of playsets on the market. :)
AH! this makes perfect sense, because all the pieces are are totally adorable. Couldn't have been the design or quality. The crash began in Hong Kong, and traveled across the world. US and Canada it was known as "Black Monday" oct, 19, 1987. Terrible year, and was the largest one-day market crash in history. So yeah, kinda put a stop to the growth of the more frivolous purchases of the pre-crash mid 1980's.
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!!! I didn't notice this!! aaaaahh I want to see the full version so much ;__; I've always loved those prototype dolls.
They must have been really close to release before they were cancelled. The actual backcard looks like they edited out the human companions at the last minute, and even left in Baby Sundance (and apparently Spunky and Kingsley switched places): http://mylittlewiki.org/w/images/c/c4/ZigZagBackcard.jpg
So sad we missed out on these!
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Love seeing some of the images again. Seeing all of Ruth's artwork and hearing her stories were one of the highlights of my Fair experience this year. Such beautiful and detailed pieces (and creative) that were produced (and not produced).
There were a lot of the Flutter Hideaway posters so I wonder if they will be sold again next year. I was so busy with my booth I regret not having a poster autographed. >.<
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Love seeing some of the images again. Seeing all of Ruth's artwork and hearing her stories were one of the highlights of my Fair experience this year. Such beautiful and detailed pieces (and creative) that were produced (and not produced).
There were a lot of the Flutter Hideaway posters so I wonder if they will be sold again next year. I was so busy with my booth I regret not having a poster autographed. >.<
poster, aw aw is there any pics of the posters, can someone scan them. would love one too ;)
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!!! I didn't notice this!! aaaaahh I want to see the full version so much ;__; I've always loved those prototype dolls.
They must have been really close to release before they were cancelled. The actual backcard looks like they edited out the human companions at the last minute, and even left in Baby Sundance (and apparently Spunky and Kingsley switched places): http://mylittlewiki.org/w/images/c/c4/ZigZagBackcard.jpg
So sad we missed out on these!
I never even noticed Baby Sundance on that backcard before now!! (I mean, I knew she was there, but it didn't click with me that she was leftover from the prototype stage until now.. if that makes sense XD) aaaaa I wonder why they got so far just to cancel them in the end..
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Wow, how cool is this!? All these years later and these photos of prototypes and artwork of things that were never released are still around. That's amazing! And of course it's always sad too, learning about even more MLP goodness that could have been.
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The Flutter Hideaway sounds like a play set I dearly would've loved to have for my flutter ponies. It's so creative and unique. All that exquisite detail!! It's really a shame it never made it to production. I love the idea of these mischievous ponies romping around playing in the clouds while manipulating the weather!! :whoa:
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Welcome to the arena Ruth Bush!
Yes, Ruth Bush brought them to the recent Fair, along with a bunch of other cool stuff! :lovey: They were pretty neat, and she let me hold them! She brought photographs of the Flutter Hideaway prototype and the detailed drawings used to make it... "mechanicals" I think she called them? Plus the illustrations for the sheets of stickers that would have been applied. She didn't have an actual prototype of it, but she said that one might still exist somewhere in "the vault" at Hasbro. (Yeah...) She also had drawings of the Fairy Tail bird playset that was going to be a remake of the Flutter Pony Hideaway mold, because of course Hasbro loves to reuse their playsets -- even playsets that get scrapped! :P
I took some pictures, but I don't have them uploaded anywhere. Plus they're just cellphone snaps in a dim room, so not the greatest. ^^; (Honestly, the lighting and set-up in the pavilion were awful for such an interesting presentation. The lighting was better at the paid talk but you didn't get to peer through all her nifty mementos because there was 1) no room to spread them out and 2) other presentations sandwiched on either side of the time slot. :cry:) Hopefully someone with a proper camera got some good pictures of all her wonderful unproduced items and will share them! Seriously, so much good stuff... Princess pony jewelry! A sink to go with the Scrub-a-Dub tub! Weird "baby flutter pony" winger prototypes! A set of patchwork(??) ponies! It really felt like the hundreds of things that actually got produced were just the tip of the crazy pony iceberg. :lol:
What "vault"? Tell me more???