How to tell apart a NSS and a deflock?

[Mirnyj]

Just a small thing I've been pondering today... If NSS:s are So Softs without flocking, how can you tell a real NSS and a deflocked SS apart? I'm just so curious about this...

It would be great if someone had photos of NSS with their deflocked SS counterparts to show off too. 

[Elwyn]

Just a small thing I've been pondering today...

Wild guess... You saw NSS Truly on finnish online auction site? 

[kitkatvintage]

NSS Truly & Cupcake have a distinct brown colored eyeliner, as do the other ponies sold in that set (Hopscotch, Posey, Cherries Jubilee, & Shady). Deflocked SS ponies have true black eyeliner.

Also many deflocked ponies will have tiny traces of flocking somewhere such as near the mane plugs, or in the holes under Truly's feet. Even for an expert deflocker, it's difficult to remove 100% of the flocking.

[Mirnyj]

Wild guess... You saw NSS Truly on finnish online auction site? 

Nope, I actually stood in the shower when this came into my mind. Just the usual.

[hathorcat]

Yup - as KKV says - its really obvious when you see them side by side. on the eye-liner.

Another great place to check for flocking is inside the neck seam as often hair gets stuck there and missed by a customiser.

And of course most so soft ponies have an extra dimple on their bottom Part of the MLP mould has a dimple at the tail so that the machiner would know where to punch the hole for the tail. However, because the pony is flocked before the tail is punched it is almost impossible for every single so soft to have her tail put in exactly where the dimple is. Therefore when a so soft is deflocked often you find that there is a dimple on their bottom where the tail hole should have been punched.

[reanna-mator]

In the case of Wind Whistler, her NSS version has pink and blue whistles. The SS version has just pink whistles.

[Mirnyj]

So the NSS:s really are totally different ponies than the SS ones. I really thought that they were just left unflocked... Shame on me...  What about so called "Movie Stars", is there any other reason to call a NSS a Movie Star but release location?

I'm so full of stupid questions tonight. 

[lovesbabysquirmy]

Movie Stars were marketed in the UK but they are alike to their US counterparts aside from the NSS/SS differences.

[hilamb]

Oh, great question. I have been pondering that too.

[hathorcat]

They are not really NSS - non-so-soft is very much a made up name to use for comparison [kind of like how people say NBBE Baby Gusty - that's not her set name she wasn't releases in a Non Beddy Bye Eye set, they were called Play n Care Babies].

NSS ponies are Movie Star ponies - technically that's their set name - which they get from their French release of the set [Cine Stars] as in the UK the set did not have a name. Movie Stars got a reasonably wide European release, not just in the UK, although they were sold and marketed by Hasbro UK and thats sometimes where the confusion comes from. The 6 in the set are not simply unflocked versions of their so soft counterparts - they are almost all different in their own way; Buttons has a different symbol, Wind Whistler is a lighter colour, Gusty has different coloured eyes and Magic Star is a completely different pose.

Its a bit like the fact there is a Surprise and then a So Soft Surprise...we dont call the first release Surprise NSS she is part of the Pegasus and Unicorn set

The only other 2 ponies which were not part of the Movie Stars set but which had a release in the US flocked and outside the US not flocked are Cupcake and Truly. They were part of a set just out in Scandinavia along with Posey, Hopscotch, Cherries Jubilee and Shady. This set didnt have a set name.

[Mirnyj]

Thank you for spreading your knowledge, hathorcat, I fel a lot... or at least a bit wiser now.