1984-7:PLAYSETS

Baby Half Note was first introduced to eager UK children in a many part story involving Locket and a bunch of keys. The story sticks in my mind and was so significant that the whole lot got reprinted in the 1987 favourite stories book. The story went that it was Baby Lucky and Spike's birthday and Sunbeam was organising a party. Somewhere in this was a card involving keys and one of the keys went flying off across Ponyland, with Locket in hot pursuit. The key led her to an island where Baby Half Note and six animal friends were stranded, waiting for a rescuer. After Locket had visited, the key took the Baby Pony to Ponyland, where she wound up sharing the birthday and dancing for them. During this time, the Dance School had appeared in Ponyland as a huge packaged birthday surprise. It might sound odd, but it was cute and as a kid it was definitely a favourite story of mine ;) Baby Half Note was a sweet, playful baby who always wanted to help out. She even found the Loving family Ponies by 'dancing into danger!'

In the cartoon series, the characterisation for Baby Half Note was fairly lacklustre - unfortunately a fact with a large proportion of the ponies brought into the cartoon for only one or two episodes. She played a part in Bright Lights, where she had her shadow stolen by a puppet singer and his evil boss.

There were two editions of Baby Half Note. In the UK the both were sold with the playset and appear to have been sold so simultaneously, since I got my Dance School in around 1987. The above insertpicture is from 1987-8 and shows Beddy Bye Eye Baby Half Note. In North America, it seems to have been more commonly (if not exclusively) the Beddy Bye Eye Baby sold with the playset. The Original version was sold through Mail Order at a later date.

There are at least 2 versions of the Original Baby Half Note - one has curlyish hair and aqua eyes and the other silky rod-straight hair and purple eyes. This can probably be put down to batch.

BEDDY BYE EYE and ORIGINAL
Baby Half Note

Baby Half Note's six animal friends were given names in the UK via the comic. The swans were Lucinda and Yolande, the rabbits Hop and Jump and the bees Pandora and Iris. These were sold with the playset -three in pink and three in yellow.