1988 was a bit of a watershed for the My Little Pony line. It
marked a shift in the design of the logo - with the font changing
to a new style (made most obvious by the straight tail of the Y,
rather than the curled tail from earlier years). In the UK and in
Europe, card styles also changed quite dramatically, and many
ponies sold in these releases had cards with coloured borders
around the edge in this year - as shown on the Party Pony card,
below. Each set had their own border colour, which is a theme that
Hasbro would return to in later years.
Strawberry Fair Mint on Card (Party Ponies, 1988 UK)
Although the insert featuring Strawberry Fair on the front
(the Collector Booklet, featured above) is dated 1987, in fact we
can confidently place it into 1988. Aside the font change and
packaging style changes, the new characters listed within it did
not appear in Hasbro's list until 1988, nor did they appear in the
comics until this year. Some of these sets were originally sold in
North America in 1987, while others were introduced simultaneously
with the North American release.
This year marked a return to conformity - the sets on sale in 1988
were largely sets available in other places, and there was none of
the confusing wrangling that typified 1986. With that said, there
were still unique spots here and there that marked the line out. A
new version of the Grooming Parlour came with a new pony, Kiss
Curl, who did not see release stateside, while there was the
biggest wave yet of UK-specific set and character names. (While I
will note the American names on pony pages, all ponies on this
site are filed under their UK names, as is correct for their
release over here.).
Commercials in the UK also took on the "My Little Pony Mommy"
jingle, although mostly they avoided actually calling the target
audience "My Little Pony Mummies." The Crimp & Curl Hair Salon
commercial stated "I'm like a My Little Pony Mummy," for example,
whilst the Party
Pony advert avoided the phrase completely, beginning instead
with "I take care of the Party Ponies."
Some sets from 1987 were also repeated this year, including
several playsets. From 1988, ponies were no longer sold with
stickers, not even in the UK.
All this following the bigger picture didn't stop a wide range of
pony products being offered to the UK in this year. The Flutter
Ponies were replaced by the smaller, sturdier Summer Wing
ponies, with their 'butterfly' wings, and more newborn twins were
also made available - although still in limited numbers, and not
the characters missing from the 1987 North American set.
Two versions of the 1988 insert were released in the UK, both
dated 1987. They give us a glimpse into the release schedule of
the ponies in this year - the Magic Message Ponies appeared on
the first insert, and so were probably around in early 1988. The Sundae Best,
however, featured on the second insert, and so probably ran over
from 1988 into 1989. They are officially included on Hasbro's list
for 1989, but I have included them here because I think it likely
they were around before the turn of the year.
I have also included the Happytails Ponies here in the "Sold
in the UK" section. These were not actually an official part of
the UK line, and so it is hard to know exactly when they appeared
in the UK (1988 or 1989 seems the most likely) They were sold
through a store exclusive import offer and so they do not exist on
any UK paperwork. You can draw your own conclusions where they
really belong.
Some ponies that were sold in 1987 in the UK also made it into
parts of Europe in early 1988, such as the second set of Twinkle Eye
Ponies . Other ponies, like the Flutter Ponies, remained on
sale in these places even after they were no longer available in
the UK.
