1987: Mountain Boy Ponies

ICE CRYSTAL

Pale green shire pony with white mane and tail (dark green streak in mane) Chips of blue-white ice and white 'stars' symbol. FRECKLED.

For some reason that I have yet to fathom out, Ice Crystal seems to be the big favourite Mountain Boy among collectors. Of all of them, he is the one who has easily attracted the most E-bay attention, and it's perhaps on account of his slightly unusual colour scheme - not since Minty had there been pale green and white in this way.

In terms of his character, I always thought Ice Crystal was the only sane one of the bunch. He was obviously a winter pony, and he had special magic associated with that season - allowing him to freeze water into ice and, more significantly, make ice slides for the other ponies to play on. For this reason - much loved by Baby Ponies!

Unlike Tornado, whose hair often fades from pink to white, Ice Crystal's hair was always meant to be frosty white. In Hasbro's original naming, in fact, Ice Crystal was called "Frosty" - this name appears in both the Hasbro promotional booklet and the list of ponies they sent to me in September 1995 (which is presumably based on the same sort of documents). By the time the pony went into production, however, his name had been firmly changed to something which, probably, excited less trouble in copyright circles.