The MLP Arena
Pony Talk => Pony Corral => Topic started by: LadyMoondancer on September 04, 2022, 09:11:48 PM
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I see there was a prototype of a Fancy Swirl pony (aka Celestial) at MLP Fair West! And also a prototype of a unicorn with a pony skateboarding symbol!
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The the prototype has the symbol of the lower righthand pony, but her body colors are different She is a pegasus.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CiEogjLvsKd/
"The purple splotchy one was supposed to be a celestial prototype, according to Summer Hayes, and it's made of resin, making it extra heavy. "
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I saw her! I wish I'd taken better photos - I totally planned to take way more than I did, but I kept getting distracted by sales bins! :lmao:
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Eat my shorts
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Hey! I took that picture! :D Thank you for sharing about this! I was so happy to see prototypes!
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Huh. Maybe they couldn't figure out how to do the swirls like they wanted and that's why they scrapped them?
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Huh. Maybe they couldn't figure out how to do the swirls like they wanted and that's why they scrapped them?
(Disclaimer - I haven't seen the photo yet, still wrestling w/ Instagram lol - so I might be way off here)
I remember reading a while ago that there was a Monster High char (Kala) who was originally intended to have swirly/marbled skin, but they had to scrap it because the plastic mix kept reacting badly and burning, or something like that? I wonder if something similar happened here?
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I see there was a prototype of a Fancy Swirl pony (aka Celestial) at MLP Fair West! And also a prototype of a unicorn with a pony skateboarding symbol!
OMG that's so cool to see! but i think I can honestly see why these we're not made the swirls look really messy! All though i kinda wish they had found another gimmick to give them then :what:
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@Carrehz and @BlackCurtains-It could be! Marbling with vinyl might result in more of a blotchy mess than silicone, which would turn out different every time for each pony in the line. Maybe the colors would be affected, too. That might be why the design idea was scrapped. It's different than the colorswirls, which have a more solid wavy surface line. It's hard to say!
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Oh, I just thought this was a prototype with sloppily applied paint. XD It is really cool to see, but if that's how they would have turned out, I would not have loved this set that much!
The Bart Simpson pony is so funny, though!
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I see there was a prototype of a Fancy Swirl pony (aka Celestial) at MLP Fair West! And also a prototype of a unicorn with a pony skateboarding symbol!
OMG that's so cool to see! but i think I can honestly see why these we're not made the swirls look really messy! All though i kinda wish they had found another gimmick to give them then :what:
I'm not sure why they didn't go with the Glow N Show type body for these? That would've fit the line really well, like a see through vinyl with glitter lines? Or stars inside and then the star symbols on the outside? Ah well! :)
Post Merge: September 05, 2022, 11:01:21 AM
Oh, I just thought this was a prototype with sloppily applied paint. XD It is really cool to see, but if that's how they would have turned out, I would not have loved this set that much!
The Bart Simpson pony is so funny, though!
Honestly I thought it was a design for a paint pony, too! I was confused until Summer mentioned celestial and it didn't click for me until after the Fair! XD
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Eat my shorts
:lol:
That prototype looks pretty rough. The skateboard pony is cute.
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Seeing that celestial prototype is interesting...I agree that a Glow-n-show type body would work well if they weren't able to do the swirly style body.
The skateboard pony is amazing! I wonder if it would have been part of a series, or just a one-off.
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Since the prototype is painted resin, I imagine it was an early concept design. (Also since the pony colors and breeds changed between the pegasus prototype and the artwork, ha ha.) They probably were either planning on having marbled vinyl, or vinyl of one color with paint for the marbling similar to the Colorswirl ponies.
They must have gotten very far into production, because the artwork is definitely intended for a backcard. You can see the empty space where the story would be printed.
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It's interesting seeing the prototype, but I have to agree it doesn't look well done. I wonder if they were trying different paints to mimic what the final design would look like on a pony?
Speaking of prototypes, I didn't find out until I was an adult that the Sweet Delights Snow Cone maker thing never made it past the prototype stage.
I love the skateboarding pony.
Ponyfan
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I love that skateboard pony symbol haha!
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What a cool find! Thanks for sharing!
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That's incredibly cool! I do agree that the first one does look rough. I cannot help but wonder whether there are (or were) later prototypes in existence, maybe with manually painted "marbling", as mentioned by somebody else earlier in this thread.
"Bart Simpson" is really cool, too. I have a couple of guesses about what she may have been used for:
*Something related to My Little Pony Tales, I just get that kind of feeling from that design.
*A sports themed line, maybe ponies who all have skateboards? In which case it would remind me a little of the Rollerskate ponies, maybe those replaced them later.
Now, imagine if these were actually released for an anniversary event...
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What's the pegasus with the square hole in her side supposed to be?
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Okay finally got Instagram to work (or rather I remembered to try and wrestle with it again XD)
The Celestial prototype is interesting, rougher-looking than I was expecting. I wonder if there are later protos, maybe this was just them playing around with ideas? Weird seeing a regular-mold Celestial - fsr I always picture them as being in the Bride mold, I dunno why.
OMG I love the skateboard one :lmao:
Square cut-out peg I imagine was going to have a 3D symbol? Like the princesses.
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Yeah, the pegasus is Princess Pristina and the cut out is for her gem. :) I'm not sure what her purpose was--maybe she was somehow used to create the factory molds? Like, I don't know what's up with her neck, doesn't seem like it could to fit on her body.
They had other Princess ponies there too:
https://www.instagram.com/p/CiGngOGJaa5/
Off with their heads!
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Yeah, the pegasus is Princess Pristina and the cut out is for her gem. :) I'm not sure what her purpose was--maybe she was somehow used to create the factory molds? Like, I don't know what's up with her neck, doesn't seem like it could to fit on her body.
They had other Princess ponies there too:
https://www.instagram.com/p/CiGngOGJaa5/
Off with their heads!
Oh. Thank you Lady M.
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The rollerskates would be the obvious connection but...there aren't any unicorn or pegasus ponies used in the whole of the lines from 1993 and 1994. They even remade the baby unicorn pose without a horn to fit their 'more real worldish' look. It may just have been an experiment with a mould they had to hand, of course, we've seen that before. I just get the impression that it might have been something else that was mooted prior to the actual roller set being projected. The symbol is very intricate, unlike the actual roller ponies. I just can't see a relationship between it or anything in 1993-4 (including MLP Tales) unless it was literally just a symbol base experiment.
The detail on the pony does remind me a little of the detail on the talking pony symbols, though obviously it has no relationship to them. I wonder if it was actually a different roller or skateboard related project following the dance and prance which never actually happened??
I'm relieved at the possibility that the celestials were going to be regular poses...though probably again not that one given the artwork. I always picture them having pearly plastic. We know pearly plastic was possible, we saw it with the sea ponies and then later with the hairdos, which is a a much more pearly finish. Given that they could paint on stripes for the colorswirls, would it have been so difficult to make a pearly base and paint on swirls for the celestials in pearly paint? Or are the colorswirls actually what we ended up with instead of the celestials, because it was just easier to use that for the concept??
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Or are the colorswirls actually what we ended up with instead of the celestials, because it was just easier to use that for the concept??
Honestly, the more I see of the Celestials, the more I get the impression this is indeed what happened. Cause the art of them does look more like they're in the Bride molds than regular pony molds? Could be that this proto was just them using w/e mold was lying around for a test run, or maybe they switched to the Bride molds halfway through production... and then eventually turned into the Colourswirls instead? I dunno, I'm just speculating, but... the two sets are close enough that I can't believe they're 100% unrelated, you know?
Heck it might even explain why the Colourswirls ARE randomly just in the Bride molds... I always wondered what was going on there. There doesn't seem to be any particular reason for it... but if they started off as Celestials then it'd make sense... to use a more unique mold to make them stand out and seem more otherworldy? and then they just stuck with the poses even after the designs changed? Hmmmm. I wonder if we'll ever get the full story behind this set...
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Concerned Pony met a prototype! :lmao:
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:rofl: Love that photo!!
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:lol: what a funny picture
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Great to finally see a Fancy Swirl prototype after all these years! Even if it appears to be in early developement, so who knows what the final product would've looked like, or how far it got into developement. It seems sometimes the backcard art was done in advance before the actual toys were finalized, so that could possibly also be the case here. Not sure where the idea that they would've been in the bride pose comes from? To me the artwork looks more similar to the Glow 'n Show backcard, not quite as long-legged as the Pony Bride or Princess art. Having a set of four ponies all in the same pose would be unusual, but of course not impossible.
Heck it might even explain why the Colourswirls ARE randomly just in the Bride molds... I always wondered what was going on there. There doesn't seem to be any particular reason for it... but if they started off as Celestials then it'd make sense... to use a more unique mold to make them stand out and seem more otherworldy? and then they just stuck with the poses even after the designs changed? Hmmmm. I wonder if we'll ever get the full story behind this set...
I think it makes some sense for the Color Swirls to be in the bride pose. They have stripes of colors circling around their bodies, and with longer legs there is more area to circle around. They could've gone with the SHS poses too, but those are even thinner, so it might be hard to fit these designs on them. Another explanation could be that Hasbro just wanted to get more use out of this pose and not just use it for one-offs.
In the end it seems Hasbro couldn't work out a way to get Fancy Swirls to look the way they wanted. And we haven't seen anything similar to them since. I feel like the concept could've evolved into the Glow 'n Shows, Fancy Swirls or Flower Fantasy, which are all variations on ponies with designs that cover their entire bodies.
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I was just speculating. For some reason I've always thought the Celestial art looked more like the Bride mold than anything.
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I actually think they look more like flutter pony moulds, and especially since dabble and scribbles happened, I wouldn't have been surprised to see them in those poses.
But the Color Swirl connection is realistic to me. It was something they could do, that was easier than what they first hoped. That said, the hairdo ponies are *really* pearly, and I imagine that if they could do that, they could have put stripes on a pearlised body at the very least. The hairdo ponies are officially the 1993 range, so maybe a little later - but not by much?
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To me they look like "normal" pony molds in the later backcard style. It's hard to say for sure because all ponies were drawn more "leggy" around that time . . . but the legs do look less exaggerated imo.
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Although I don't know why they would make them all earth ponies if they were normal ponies. They don't look like Sweetheart Sisters . . .
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Concerned Pony met a prototype! :lmao:
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Snapdragon, :lmao: My coffee almost flew out of my mouth when I saw that picture!
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LadyMoondancer, those prototypes look really interesting! Thanks for the photos! :ohyeah:
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Awww, thank you for the thanks (hee hee) but Chocolate Starfire took the pics that made all this speculation possible. <3
Concerned Pony is a treasure, as always. <3
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Although I don't know why they would make them all earth ponies if they were normal ponies. They don't look like Sweetheart Sisters . . .
Yeah, I think that's what always stuck in my mind, the curious lack of unis/pegs in the set - they usually only did that if they were one of the earth pony-only molds. Definitely feel like there's some big part of the puzzle we're missing here.
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So cool! I can see why looking like that they didn't get finalized thought. They always look so beautiful in the promo art. In fact that's the shirt I'm wearing today!
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Although I don't know why they would make them all earth ponies if they were normal ponies. They don't look like Sweetheart Sisters . . .
That's a good point! They look to be from before Hasbro phased out unicorns/pegasi completely. When the gimmicky sets didn't have a unicorn and/or pegasus there was usually a reason for it (ie the gimmick made horns/wings inconvenient or they were in some specialized mold)
Maybe since they have antennas on top of their heads, also adding a horn to one of them might've been seen as redundant. The lack of pegasi could be because the swirly pattern they were to have all over their bodies wouldn't have worked with, or didn't look good on wings. The existence of the pegasus prototype kind of speaks against this, but maybe that was just a designer grabbing whatever mold they had on hand to get an idea of how the pattern would look on the pony. It looks far from final in any case.
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Although I don't know why they would make them all earth ponies if they were normal ponies. They don't look like Sweetheart Sisters . . .
That's a good point! They look to be from before Hasbro phased out unicorns/pegasi completely. When the gimmicky sets didn't have a unicorn and/or pegasus there was usually a reason for it (ie the gimmick made horns/wings inconvenient or they were in some specialized mold)
Maybe since they have antennas on top of their heads, also adding a horn to one of them might've been seen as redundant. The lack of pegasi could be because the swirly pattern they were to have all over their bodies wouldn't have worked with, or didn't look good on wings. The existence of the pegasus prototype kind of speaks against this, but maybe that was just a designer grabbing whatever mold they had on hand to get an idea of how the pattern would look on the pony. It looks far from final in any case.
The point about the mold is an interesting one. Makes me curious about how each set was developed over the years.
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Awww, thank you for the thanks (hee hee) but Chocolate Starfire took the pics that made all this speculation possible. <3
Concerned Pony is a treasure, as always. <3
Ok, then thanks also to ChocolateStarfire! :)
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I got A photo of them, which was linked earlier in the thread; I'll repost it in case anyone can't get IG to work! At the time it was more of a perfunctory photo, because I figured that we had already seen these prototypes! :blush: I wish I had realized before the event ended!!
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Awww, thank you for the thanks (hee hee) but Chocolate Starfire took the pics that made all this speculation possible. <3
Concerned Pony is a treasure, as always. <3
Ok, then thanks also to ChocolateStarfire! :)
You're welcome! :D
Post Merge: September 09, 2022, 10:09:33 PM
I got A photo of them, which was linked earlier in the thread; I'll repost it in case anyone can't get IG to work! At the time it was more of a perfunctory photo, because I figured that we had already seen these prototypes! :blush: I wish I had realized before the event ended!!
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I think the issue here was that they weren't really announced and folks seemed more interested in the booths and events rather than the prototypes. I wish that there was a presentation set up so that we could have learned more about them? Ah well.
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oh wow, these are very cool to see!! Never even heard of Fancy swirl ponies, they would've been gorgeous I bet. Though I imagine those antenna would've broken off or gotten lost if removed over the years for sure.
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Huh. Maybe they couldn't figure out how to do the swirls like they wanted and that's why they scrapped them?
(Disclaimer - I haven't seen the photo yet, still wrestling w/ Instagram lol - so I might be way off here)
I remember reading a while ago that there was a Monster High char (Kala) who was originally intended to have swirly/marbled skin, but they had to scrap it because the plastic mix kept reacting badly and burning, or something like that? I wonder if something similar happened here?
I first saw the post on mobile at work and I thought she was badly painted too, the marbling is a much better explanation, thank you!!
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thanks a million for sharing photos and a bit of history :-) really loved seeing the celestial prototype
admittedly I had thought they were going to be produced in the bride pose so yep, thought we got the colorswirls when celestial pony idea was scrapped. Admittedly I also had thought it was a paint job style NOT a vinyl mix so seeing that prototype explains alot :-) huge thanks for post!
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Oh wow! No headgear though? Thanks very much for sharing these photos.
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Yes, I was wondering where their antennae things were too! It doesn't even look like there's a space for them (like how the Pristina proto has a hole for her gemstone)... Really makes me wonder if this WAS just them testing different ways of doing the marble/swirl effect (which would explain the discrepancy with this proto being a pegasus, when the art has them all as earthies), or maybe the antennae were a later addition? :what: