1987:

SEA SPARKLE BABY SEA PONIES

Yes. I know the link image above is ugly. But it's at least clear, I hope, in navigating the baby ponies and their floats in this section.

The Sea Sparkle Baby Sea Ponies are different from other Baby Sea Pony sets in many different ways. They are the only set to have incorporated coloured streaks in their mane. They also had 'symbols' of a sort - in the form of necklaces printed around their throats. They also introduced a new style of float - the lobster - which three of the set came with.

And finally - perhaps most emphatically -they were the only set of Baby Sea Ponies not to be sold at ALL in the United Kingdom.

To me, that's a big shame, because they are perhaps the prettiest of all the Baby Sea Pony sets. As it is, they are generally the most difficult Baby Sea Ponies to track down and match, pony to float.

Observant people will also have noticed two exampled of Repetitive Naming Syndrome among these characters - "Salty" steals the North American name of a Big Brother Pony, and "Sea Breeze" takes hers from one of the second year Adult Sea Ponies. Seaspray's name is also "borrowed", but since Adult Sea Pony Seaspray and Baby sea pony Seaspray were never sold in the same country, that one can probably be forgiven.

Still, it is a sign of things to come...