Twinkles... the cat with no face?

[Sunshine]

So, I recently bought a lot of ponies and accessories on eBay that arrived today (yay!). Everything in the group was in really nice shape overall. They were all early ponies, many with glitter symbols, and overall, everything was nice. Even the accessories were very nice, some paper products were included and they were all stark and mint and crispy. What I'm trying to convey here is that, whoever had these ponies as a kid took REALLY good care of their stuff.

As I'm looking through everything... all of a sudden I see this:
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A Twinkles with no paint on it! Like, nothing at all. Not a hint of paint on the body. Now, I mentioned the above state of the other items because I wanted to say that I definitely do not believe someone would've taken the paint OFF this Twinkles, or that it has been rubbed off in any way, shape or form. Clearly, it was just NEVER painted.

Anyone else have a pet like this? Obviously a factory error but.. how common is this? I've personally never seen one not painted before but I know that it had to happen more than once...

Anyway, any info would be helpful... or... I guess maybe a price check on something like this? I have no idea, lol. It's kinda creepy.

[Sugarberry]

By any chance, is there a mould number underneath your Twinkles? 
I have a Brandy that came from Greece that has no markings, nor a mould casting number.  The plastic also feels hollow, not like our solid ones here from the states.  I have 6 different Twinkles from many countries, but none that match the Brandy, so it's a strong possibility that your Twinkles originated from the same place. 

Lucky find in your lot!  If you want to sell her, keep me in mind. 

[Sunshine]

Gosh I can't tell if it's a 1 or a 4 on the bottom. Let me go get my batteries for my GOOD camera and see if I can get a shot of the bottom...

EDIT: Okay the photo isn't very good after all, it's hard to see the contrast... but here's my best shot:
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Looks like a 1?

[Bow Tie]

It's a 1!

[Sugarberry]

   Looks like a 1 to me too, with very shiny plastic like the ones I've gotten from England and the main body of Europe.  Casting moulds are each produced with a number, so that if a flaw happens in a product, they can tell which mould is responsible- but not all countries used them that way in the 80's and into the 90's.  Mostly it was Western countries that did- so this could be US, Canada or England/ Europe then, but most likely England or Canada judging from the shiny plastic in the picture.    Still very cool- and definitely a neat addition to a collection.  One last question- does it feel hollow or solid? 

Here are some of mine so you can see why I was asking-
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See the Twinkles to the very far left -  that one came from Canada with very shiny 'harder' plastic.  She's more hollow than the two US ones on far right which are a softer and heavier rubber plastic.  And that's the Brandy with no face markings next to the US Twinkles.   

[Sunshine]

  Looks like a 1 to me too, with very shiny plastic like the ones I've gotten from England and the main body of Europe.  Casting moulds are each produced with a number, so that if a flaw happens in a product, they can tell which mould is responsible- but not all countries used them that way in the 80's and into the 90's.  Mostly it was Western countries that did- so this could be US, Canada or England/ Europe then, but most likely England or Canada judging from the shiny plastic in the picture.    Still very cool- and definitely a neat addition to a collection.  One last question- does it feel hollow or solid? 

Here are some of mine so you can see why I was asking-
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See the Twinkles to the very far left -  that one came from Canada with very shiny 'harder' plastic.  She's more hollow than the two US ones on far right which are a softer and heavier rubber plastic.  And that's the Brandy with no face markings next to the US Twinkles.

Those are SO cool!! I never even knew to look for variations in the pets...

To me she feels quite solid actually and hard, she's not quishy like the duck soup I had nearby... haven't had a chance to grab the other Twinkles I have to see if she feels the same or not

Post Merge: February 28, 2013, 09:29:35 PM

Sugarberry - do you happen to have an idea of a Price for this kind of thing? Just wondering what she would be valued at if I were wanting to sell?

Post Merge: March 01, 2013, 04:05:51 PM

Looking for a PC on the no-face Twinkles??

Also, I found my other Twinkles that I had... it doesn't look to have any mold number on the bottom, and the tail is extremely thin and squish-able... Sugarberry (or others) - do you have any info on that kind of Twinkles?

[hathorcat]

Think how many times the Pretty Parlour got released and in so many countries - multiple years, in stores, via mail order, in just about every country that got an MLP release. The number of Twinkles which were produced over the years is probably terrifying

Like Sugarberry I seem to have accumulated a Twinkles army over the years as she often shows up in accessory lots. There are so many different finishes to them in their plastic [thin and shiny to thick and matt], in their paint work [thick black paint, circle eyes, oval eyes, brown paint, well defined whiskers, no nose painted - an incredibly variety] that it must all be down to individual batches made at different times. These were cheaply and quickly made so finish was probably not key.

The fact that some have mould numbers on their base and some dont is probably due to multiple factories manufacturing the product. Hasbro traditionally use at least 3 3rd party factories for production of their lines; so similar to what we see with some G3s, it is most likely that some factories used the mould system in order that they could track moulds which were deficient and other factories did not use this system. Hence why you get some Twinkles with numbers and some without.

As for your non paint Twinkles, I havent seen one with no paint anywhere yet to be honest - some with no face but with stripes, some with no stripes but a face but not one with both sides of the paint missing. Personally I have 2 without the stripes - yes the paint does rub off and over time and play it could vanish completely but you would normally see at least some kind of shadow where part of the plastic has been less exposed to sunlight and air if there was originally paint. And like yours the ones I have with no stripe clearly never had paint.

Unfortunately I don't think her being missing her paint is going to add to her value. It certainly doesn't devalue her but not everyone is on the look out for an oddity Twinkles and unfortunately it is also something which someone could easily recreate if they took acetone to their Twinkles. Perhaps at best someone will pay an additional couple of $ for her but I wouldnt expect much more than that.

[Sunshine]

Think how many times the Pretty Parlour got released and in so many countries - multiple years, in stores, via mail order, in just about every country that got an MLP release. The number of Twinkles which were produced over the years is probably terrifying

Like Sugarberry I seem to have accumulated a Twinkles army over the years as she often shows up in accessory lots. There are so many different finishes to them in their plastic [thin and shiny to thick and matt], in their paint work [thick black paint, circle eyes, oval eyes, brown paint, well defined whiskers, no nose painted - an incredibly variety] that it must all be down to individual batches made at different times. These were cheaply and quickly made so finish was probably not key.

The fact that some have mould numbers on their base and some dont is probably due to multiple factories manufacturing the product. Hasbro traditionally use at least 3 3rd party factories for production of their lines; so similar to what we see with some G3s, it is most likely that some factories used the mould system in order that they could track moulds which were deficient and other factories did not use this system. Hence why you get some Twinkles with numbers and some without.

As for your non paint Twinkles, I havent seen one with no paint anywhere yet to be honest - some with no face but with stripes, some with no stripes but a face but not one with both sides of the paint missing. Personally I have 2 without the stripes - yes the paint does rub off and over time and play it could vanish completely but you would normally see at least some kind of shadow where part of the plastic has been less exposed to sunlight and air if there was originally paint. And like yours the ones I have with no stripe clearly never had paint.

Unfortunately I don't think her being missing her paint is going to add to her value. It certainly doesn't devalue her but not everyone is on the look out for an oddity Twinkles and unfortunately it is also something which someone could easily recreate if they took acetone to their Twinkles. Perhaps at best someone will pay an additional couple of $ for her but I wouldnt expect much more than that.

Very good points, thanks hath! I didn't expect her to be anything super special. I'm totally stoked to have her, I took out my own Twinkles (as mentioned) and she's definitely a black paint... I'm going to try and collect more Twinkles, I love Sugarberry's collection of all the pets, it's so interesting.

Thank you for all the info! I love my creepy no-face no-stripe Twinkles... hehe

[Sandi]

Reminds me of Blanca from Animal Crossing. 

http://animalcrossing.wikia.com/wiki/Blanca
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[kittybethy]

I collect those Twinkles!!

 Even if she has no face, she is cute!