Ah, Lady Lessons.
The best circumstantial evidence that she was going to exist is...
The school comes with her glasses :)
BUT the box shows Sportstime wearing them.
THe only other evidence is really vague - the fact that the pony comic never invented a pony until the Tales series came out, and Lady Lessons is in the comic I *think*.
There's nothing I've ever found in Hasbro material to suggest she existed, and I think I've seen the Hasbro booklet for this set. I certainly have seen all kinds of schooltime baby variations in production photos, but never her. It's also interesting how Love Token is basically the same colouring but with a different symbol, as if they just shunted it over to her production instead.
All grasping at straws but still fun.
Miss Hackney I think was always a myth, but Lady Lessons? I dunno.
Next time on Cryptid Ponies
The same could also be the case for the kitchen, since we know there were five symbols designed for the cookery ponies (with the gingerbread one going unused).
There were also no new with-pony playsets in the UK after 1988. The school would've been around 1990, so I can believe they debated it, but decided against. The kitchen? Not a chance.
Hasbro do not advertise the kitchen, ever, with the gingerbread pegasus. That's a bit odd, if that was originally their sale plan.I don't think the gingerbread symbol would've gone with the kitchen. If anything, I think Sweet Delight's final symbol goes better with the kitchen and the gingerbread symbol fits better in the Cookery set (giving each pony their own speciality).
Even earlier, doubled up poses were actually the norm of set release. Tootsie and CJ, for example. Bow Tie and Applejack. And so on. The idea that it's odd is odd in itself. There's no reason to think that it is.In the early years of MLP it was the norm for sets to have two of each pose. At this time they were also coming out with new poses every year. In the later years it's very rare to see a pose repeat in regular adult pony sets (unless there was some gimmick that required altering the molds). Perhaps they didn't realize the earth pose they chose for Sweet Delight was already used in the Cookery set, and at that point it was too late to do another revision.
Mm, honestly I don't think Hasbro UK/Europe as a rule cared much about the rules set down in the original line, because we see them messing around with glittery symbols on earth ponies (Snowflake), no stripe in the unicorn hair (Gypsy) and such very early on. That set also breaks the 2 of each pose rules that were floating around at that time, but still has 2 ponies in the CJ pose (CJ and Snowflake). Though that's another discussion that gets more complicated if you throw in different European releases - my point is that it's not odd to have 2 the same pose, but it's not odd not to :)
however the Great Hair ponies are both...CJ pose.
Frankly, and not to go off topic, but Twisty Tail is a lot weirder, because WHY make her in a walking pose?
I don't think the LM pose was withdrawn from the BnG set for balance issues. If it was, then Hasbro would've not made Love Letter that pose. They changed the pose of L-I-A-M, but not Love Letter. They also didn't change the poses of Skylark or Pretty Beat, which, if they went to the trouble of changing Twisty Tail, they would surely also have done.