Kasin and a few other oldbie collectors have seen the pony first hand and we dont think this prototype was mass produced. Its conceivable from the catalogue photo that it was intended to be mass produced. Perhaps there were a few CP sundances made and distributed early on? Then plans for factory production halted for whatever reason and samples destroyed. All but one so far.
My cp sundance and prototype painting time are examples of pre-production prototypes. So if she was intended to be a US or UK release judging by the catalogue photo something stopped hasbro from taking the pony into full scale factory production for distribution.
We have seen hasbro do this with other catalogue prototypes. The first tooth baby sundance comes to mind. I wish that prototype would surface.
I found an old arena post and a member mamed Karlee seemed to have some very good insight into the prototype process.
Link
http://www.mlparena.com/archive/Forums/viewtopic/t=158570.html...............
Summarized below
karlee says
Hopefully I can shed a little light on some of the prototype process for those interested and i should state that because no one has ever really taken the time to track down MLP designers and ask these kinds of questions, most of this is based on experience with other Hasbro prototypes and from the first hand experience i have with the protos in my collection.
There were never any strict guidelines determining just how many examples were to be made for each prototype stage so there's no hard and fast rule for trying to figure this out. The general industry consensus would be that possibly one or more wax casts would be made directly from the wax sculpt. The sculpt and/or those casts would be used to create the roto molds but it's very possible that another was used to create hardcopy prototypes (resin casts made from the original wax prototypes). The hardcopies would most likely have been hand painted and used as final paint masters where one would stay in house and one would be sent to the factory. It would not have been uncommon for more than one hardcopy to be made. Once the production molds were ready, the molds would need to be tested and those resulting items are known as first or test shots. The majority of the MLP prototypes on the market are first shots.
To break it down:
First stage: wax sculpt
Second stage: hardcopy
Third stage: first shot
When it comes to collecting prototypes, it's not how many were made, but how many survived. As of now, i have yet to see any surviving wax sculpts in collections and the picture Lancer posted below is probably the only G1 hardcopy i have seen before (more on that to come). There are several first shots out there.
hathorcat wrote:
d this is how we go about getting copy and standard images before launches - sometimes the tweaks which happen during production havent been finialised by the time we need artwork or photogtaphs therefore product developers have to actually "build" the item - usually we use clay/wood or heavy plastics depending on the item - this is why sometimes the picture on an advert or on the packaing might look different than the actual product. its quicker now than we used to be; research and design to product develpment is a faster process than back in the 70s and 80s but this is an old fashioned method which has been going on for years and i assume its how hasbro will go about things. sometimes to convince a client or a marketing manager or a reseach panel that a product will sell you have to show it to them - you cant put a product into production produce 10000 bow ties and hope that little girls will just love them, you have to create 1 bow tie and pitch to an audience and creating that 1 bow tie in a studio rather than in a factory is easier and cheaper.
I would assume that Hasbro's MLP process would be quite similar to that of their other lines. The very first step for the R&D team would be to come up with ideas for new ponies in a meeting. From there these ponies would be designed as sketches and then progress to more detail art renderings known as presentation art. This art would be presented to managers and once approved, the designer would create sculpture sheets (also known as turn arounds) which show the ponies from several different angles. These sheets would go to the sculptor who would start the 3D prototyping process as outlined above.
Now, because MLPs reuse bodies and heads over and over, it could be surmised that the R&D team would have blank first shot bodies around the workshop which they could mix and match and paint up based on their newest ideas. These pieces could have been used in presentation or in catalogue and box photography. It's also plausible that because of this, the wax sculpt and hardcopy processes may have been skipped for ponies utilizing pre-existing body parts. Again, i can't see the pics above so i can't comment on them but this is certainly a plausible explanation for them.
In the vintage days, Hasbro wasn't as concerned about keeping track of prototypes as they are now. More often than not, these prototypes come from the people who were involved directly with the line. Often they kept them for their portfolios as examples of their work, simply because they liked them, to take home for their kids, or because they worked on the concepts at home. Over time, they get tucked away and come out during spring cleanings or when collectors and dealers come knocking on their doors. A lot of collectors from other hobbies spend a considerable amount of time networking with former employees which is how most vintage prototypes come to the marketplace.
G3 protos come from the factories in China, which is where the majority of the modern first shots seen on ebay from all toys lines originate. There are fairly lax security measures in the factories and stuff just happens to "walk away".
Lancer wrote:
But, unlike these three girls, she's ceramic. We figured out the ones on the pamphlets were made of plastic because of the visible neck seams, but the ones on the backcard appeared to be solid (and maybe ceramic-ish) like my baby.
Lancer, that's a GREAT piece! Are you sure it's ceramic? Is it possible that it's resin? I've not heard of ceramic being used in the production process before as it's too fragile and harder to cast. Resin seems much more likely and would fit into the process making it a hardcopy. How is the hair affixed to the head?
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