How do I tell!?! Mo vs Store !

[CopperBluJu]

I am driving myself nutts trying to determine mail orders, year 83-84 and year 84-85. This is what I know how to identify
Originals 6 - Flat foot vs Concave
Bowtie, Applejack, Firefly, Medly- short hair vs long hair
Moonstone- symbols vs bold symbols
Parasol, starshine- salmon pink vs heart throb pink

But what about the second release of cotton candy and blossom? I think there are three releases anyway, How to I tell the second release from the collectors pose (im not talking about the retro releases from a few years ago) Was there any others released like that?

Majesty- were there two releases? is there a way to tell???

Flutter ponies- Rose dust and lilyis there a picture of the difference? am I right about the second release having larger faces and eyes.

Would anybody have comparison pictures ?

Thanks so much!

[Thunderwing]

I have heard that to tell the difference between the store version and the mail order version for Majesty and Sprinkles, is that the store version has that hair that sweeps back along their neck, and the mail order version has the hair that lays sideways the way most ponies' does. Also heard that Sprinkles mail order was pink, but not sure if that applied all the time or not.

[lunar_scythe]

The cp set was actually released several times, just to make it worse!

[hathorcat]

Unfortunately a lot of it is rather confusing. I ll try and go set by set

1) For the original 6 its not as simple as FF v CF - both versions were actually store released. The mail orders were all CF releases; all of them have a colour difference in body and symbol to the store bought versions. So you need to go by body and symbol colour.

2) Bowtie, Applejack, Firefly, Medley - none of these ponies were ever offered via mail order - the hair length difference is between the different years - short hair in year 2 and long hair in year 3.

3) The hair difference colour in the Rainbow ponies is also not store bought/mail order - it is simply down to the year of their store release as well as how they were released [i.e. packaging style]. The way to tell the difference in their store bought/mail order version is to do with a slight difference in body colour in addition to the mail orders having a more matt symbol and a much much finer glitter.

4) Majesty did have a MO release; however again its not as easy as the hair profile. She was released in store with both the hair line to her horn and after her horn - it was something which was corrected during the DCs release which happened over the course of a couple of years. The easiest way to tell the MO version is that she has a "softer" eye. Its the same "soft eye" which can be seem on the other playset ponies which came in the MO set. 

Edit: 5) Also yes the difference in the flutters is a "fat head" v "thin head" thing - in the ponies which are in the Peach Blossom pose there is also a slight difference in their body pose and leg positions.

[ValeofSpring]

Wrote this while Hathorcat was posting, so I apologize for any overlap!

Hi!  You can probably find discussion threads on some of these ponies individually, which may include pics--I know that Blossom and Cotton Candy in particular have come up a good bit over the years.  Cotton Candy, for me, is pretty easy to distinguish b/c the CF one from Year 1 (released as what I would call a "pose correction" after FF) is pale pink like the FF one.  Then for Year 2 Cotton Candy was re-leased in more of a medium pink (I'd say this one is most common).  The MO is a very bright bubble gum pink. 

I have never heard positively if you can go on the change in the pink/red hair stripe for Rainbow Ponies to distinguish releases.  Hasbro made a TON of all the early ones, so it's hard to tell if some of the differences are between factories, supply orders, etc.  If Sunlight and Skydancer have hair color differences (as they only had one release), that would be one way to get at an answer!

I can tell you that if you look closely at multiple Year 2 Sunbeams, short-hair Medleys, and short-hair Fireflys (and made the other peg/uni bunch), there are variations in thin vs thick symbols.  So confusingly it seems Hasbro may have thickened the symbols within the course of Year 2 (at least the glitter symbols).  Thus the Rainbow Ponies may also have experienced these changes while in Year 2, rather than between Year 2/3.

Majesty was first released with odd hair as her hair as not rooted up as high as other ponies.  This was likely to accommodate the damsel hat or a prototype crown.  Hasbro realized this looked weird AND was unnecessary so they corrected it while Majesty was still in-store.  So yes, there are in-store releases with normal hair.  I have heard that there are symbol differences between store and MO Majesty but I'm not sure what they would be.

Yes, MO Sprinkles is Firefly-pink, so very easy to tell apart from store Sprinkles.  Store Sprinkles (always lavender) does have some hair changes though so there are some in-store variations.

There have definitely been several threads about Lemon Drop, who really has a crazy number of variations, esp if you include internationally!

In summary--you aren't the only one scratching your head about a lot of this!

[gypsyunicorn]

Wow
That's way too much to take in
Are there any pictures detailing differences on some of this
Soft eye?
Glitter?
Color differences?
Etc.

[ValeofSpring]

I did a little bit of digging around for the Collector differences--I had to go to the archived Arena pages to find pics. 

WARNING:  There is some misinformation in these threads.

The important thing to remember about Cotton Candy (as I mention above) is that there are TWO CF (concave-foot) in-store versions, one from second half (more or less) of Year 1 and the other from Year 2.  CF Year 1 is pale pink (looks a lot like FF) and CF Year 2 is medium pink.

If you look at ChipsteRJ's photo is the thread below, you can see several of the different varieties of Collector Ponies together.  In her pic, the Cotton Candys are (L-R) 1) FF 2) CF Year 1 3) MO.  Note that the MO is very bright--looks sunburned.  Year 2 Cotton Candy isn't in this pic.  I believe at the top of the pic is MO Blossom, who tends to be a tad pinker (she may also be a graying store version--hard to tell).  Next to her is FF Blossom. 

http://www.mlparena.com/archive/Forums//viewtopic/t=245875.html

On this page are some other comparison pics:

http://mlparena.com/archive/Forums/viewtopic/t=246282/postdays=0/postorder=asc/highlight=bubble+gum+cotton+candy/start=15.html

Note again in MsTwilight's photos that Year 2 Cotton Candy isn't present.  Which is funny as I think she is the most common!

This thread includes a good photo from Leiken w/ MOC versions of Cotton Candy and Blossom in Year 2/Year 1 CF/Year 1 FF order:

http://mlparena.com/archive/Forums/viewtopic/t=265698/postdays=0/postorder=asc/highlight=collector+color+colour/start=15.html

Hope this helps!

[CopperBluJu]

Wow this all looks great! I'm starting to breathe easier. I will probably be back with pics to confirm.