Germany:

Baby Ponies

One of the biggest misunderstandings relating to UK/Continental releases in the early years was caused by this set, and, when you stop and think about it, it's easy to see why so many folk got confused.

Hasbro were having a merry party in 1984-7 with their baby ponies across the world. It's still a mystery to me why different baby ponies appeared in different countries, and why there are a few characters who overlapped and a few which didn't.

I have split the ponies up according to where they were sold, partly for ease of reference and partly because I typed myself raw for a long time telling people that certain ponies were not sold in the UK.


BABY-PONYS, German Advertising booklet 1987
(Click thumbnail for full page view)

This set of characters were sold in Germany and in Austria for certain, and probably in Switzerland, though I haven't any actual confirmation of this. In one German advertising booklet, Baby Lemon Drop is amusingly shown in her UK pose, and Baby Buttons' symbol...almost looks like three buttons, though it's hard to tell for sure.

Whether they were sold in any other parts of Europe is open to some debate. This of course does not include Baby Cotton Candy, (who was sold in this set under the name Baby Karamell), in the US set, and in the UK sets respectively. As far as I can determine, there is no significant variation between the Baby Cotton Candy we had in the UK and the ones sold in other countries. She is and remains one of the more common baby ponies on the second hand market. Baby Lemon Drop was, of course, also part of the UK line, but sold in a different pose and with different accessories.

Each of these ponies was sold on card and lacked the Play and Care Set accessories that earlier sets possessed. . This was not uncommon for continental Europe, as the original set of baby ponies (Baby Glory, Baby Moondancer and so on) were also sold this way (on different cards) in several European countries (including Scandinavia but NOT in the United Kingdom). These often had painted, not glittery symbols - and are sometimes put with this set. It's my belief they were probably the set that predated this one. You can find more about these and other variations on the first set theme from the links on the Play & Care set pages, so I won't spend any more time on them here.

It's my understanding that these ponies formed part of a 1987 baby pony set, and were on sale at the same time as the Regenbogen-Ponys.

Apart from the universally sold Baby Cotton Candy, I have referred to these ponies by their German names on this page, as these are their correct issue names. However, many of them also have corresponding English names based on their appearances, so I have included those in the link frame also.