The My Little Pony Scrapbook: G1 in the UK and Europe

1987

Baby Bonnet School of Dance


Dance school bonnet shaped playset

Baby Bonnet School of Dance
with Baby Half Note

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Ponies Sold in 1987 in the UK Movie Star Ponies | Mountain Boy Ponies | Birthday Party with Tutti Frutti | Princess Ponies (Set 1) |Snuzzle's Grooming Parlour | Megan and Sundance (Second Edition)| Twinkle Eye Ponies (UK Set II) | Flutter Ponies (Set II) | Newborn Twins (Set I, Partial) | Pretty & Pearly Baby Sea Ponies (UK Release)| Paradise Estate | Dream Castle | Lullabye Nursery | Baby Buggy | Baby Bonnet School of Dance

Other 1987 Ponies Twinkle Eyed Ponies (North America/Italy) | Pony Friends (Ponies) | Stockings | Pony Friends (Animals) | Soft Sleepy Newborns| Sea Sparkle Baby Sea Ponies | Satin Slipper Sweet Shoppe | Crimp & Curl Hair Salon (Perm Shoppe) (UK:1988) | Slumber Party Gift Set | Rainbow Ponies (Europe) | Twice as Fancy (Party) Ponies (UK:1988) | First Tooth Baby Ponies (UK:1988)| Big Brother Ponies (UK:1988) | So Soft Ponies (III) | Purse with Baby Crumpet | Baby Blue Ribbon

Playset also sold in 1988 and probably 1989 in the UK. Available in the UK by Mail Order in 1990.

 Playset also available in North America in 1984 and 1985, possibly also 1986. Available by Mail Order in 1992.

Baby Half Note
Baby Half Note: Lavender baby pony with aqua mane and tail (curly or straight), ballet shoes symbol

Pony Data
Set Baby Bonnet School of Dance with Baby Half Note
(Regular or Beddy Bye Eye)
Asst. Number 4888 (BBE version confirmed)
Accessories Pink and yellow bee, pink and yellow swan, pink and yellow rabbit, dance sign with paper cards, tutu, legwarmers, floral headband (pale pink or lavender and white), white dance shoes (UK only), dance bar (pink or yellow), ballet box (yellow or pink), pink bow handle, pink rack with hooks, sticker (puffy in the UK, flat in the US), aqua blue butterfly brush, ribbon (colour unknown), ((star pants in box, bonnet - UK only, probably with regular eye baby)) .
Pose Baby Tiddly Winks (regular)
Baby Shady (Beddy Bye Eye)
Distribution Worldwide
Other Versions Set sold with regular eyed baby and beddy bye eyed baby at different times in different places.
Baby Half Note BBE
Baby Half Note: Lavender baby pony with aqua mane and tail, Beddy bye eyes, ballet shoes symbol

The Baby Bonnet School of Dance in the UK

The Dance School was, as the name suggests, shaped like a baby bonnet, with a pink bow that also acted as a handle. When closed, the front displayed an image of three baby ponies in dance attire. This front flap also featured three wheels, which could be turned by a side cog to make the ponies pirouette. It was intended for baby pony (and friend) use, so these wheels are too small for an adult pony.

This is unfortunately the only playset from my childhood from which I no longer have the box. But the good news is that the UK release seems to have had the same box as that released in North America. No special UK releases in this playset. The set pictured at the top of the page is my own childhood set, with as many of the pieces as I can still find (the ballet bar is still missing somewhere in the abyss, but I am pretty sure mine was pink...). I am sure that you will have noticed which version of Baby Half Note is sitting there - and we'll come to that in a moment.

packaging

Baby Bonnet School of Dance
UK Hasbro Catalogue, 1987
(Image from Pranceatron)

...Because as you can see, Hasbro advertised it in their catalogue with the Beddy Bye Eye version of Baby Half Note. And here is where things get a bit weird!.

Baby Half Note in Two Acts

Officially, the UK did not have Beddy Bye Eye ponies. Baby Sleepy Pie snuck in somehow - still not sure how - and Baby Cuddles was sold officially as having 'Lullabye Eyes'. We did not have a BBE version of Baby Tiddly Winks, or the main BBE baby set. But we DID have Baby Half Note with Beddy Bye Eyes.

Going through all the paperwork, 1987 was the first official year the Dance School was sold in the UK. The Hasbro UK catalogue and the Argos Catalogue both show her with Beddy Bye Eyes, as does her box. Though this set was probably available in North America as early as 1984-5, it was never sold there with a regular version of Baby Half Note. So it is reasonable to assume that the earliest issue of this set over here was with Beddy Bye Eye Baby Half Note.

There are known accessory variations for this set, but it is not clear whether they are influenced by when or where the set was on sale - pink and yellow options for the box, and the ballet bar are equally easy/hard to find. There are also tiara variations in pale pink or pale blue (there may also be a white version or it may be faded). I am pretty sure I got both of these in the UK - my own Baby Half Note came with a pink tiara.

Dance School Tiaras
Dance School Tiara Variations

The cards used for the dance school sign were the same between releases, although the sign itself could be a pale pink or a slightly bolder one. These signs were meant to indicate the show that was being performed.
Dance School Sign and Cards
Dance cards from the Baby Bonnet School of Dance

The playset continued to be sold after 1987 -  I got my Dance School in around 1988. It came with a baby Half Note with regular eyes, in the Baby Tiddly Winks pose. This is also how the set was promoted in the autumn/winter 1988 Argos catalogue. This helps reinforce the idea that 1987 = Beddy Bye Eye and 1988 = regular eye version.

Dance School Argos 88
Baby Bonnet School of Dance featuring regular Baby Half Note.
Argos Catalogue, Autumn/Winter 1988
Image courtesy of Retromash


The baby that came with my playset also had curly hair and aqua eyes. My close friend at primary school also had a Dance School around the same time, and hers also had a regular version - but with purple eyes and straight hair. This baby is now part of my collection, so I can vouch for the whole history of both the ponies pictured below.
Comparing Baby Half Note
Baby Half Note - Aqua and Purple Eyed Versions
(UK, circa 1988)
Baby Half Note Face to Face
Face to Face Comparison

Playset Anomalies in the UK

Sharp eyed people will have noticed my Baby Half Note is wearing little white shoes. These were not sold with the playset in North America, but were part of the release (at least with the regular eye baby) here in the UK. These are her shoes, and I remember as a kid finding it hard to get them on with the legwarmers also in place! These shoes are also pictured in the Argos catalogue image. Argos was known for opening and posing their products for their own photos, so this is good evidence corroborating the shoes as part of the UK release. It is possible this was also how it was pictured in the 1988 catalogue by Hasbro - but I don't have this so can't be sure.

Some other accessories were included in these playsets in the UK - at least one Mint in Box set has been found to contain not only the shoes, but a party pants box with panties, and a baby bonnet that looks like it belongs to Baby Cuddles. It is unclear whether all releases in the UK had these bits and pieces included. Mine had the shoes, so probably it did - I do have vague memories of dressing Baby Half Note originally with panties under her tutu, but I can't be sure about the bonnet.

These accessories may not have been sold with the Beddy Bye Eye version in 1987.

Baby Bonnet School of Dance via Mail Order

Although a regular eyed version of Baby Half Note was never sold in North America with the playset, there was a Mail Order release of a group of playset ponies Statside in around 1988. Baby Half Note was one of these ponies. It seems highly likely that the regular-eye babies we saw in later years were leftover from this Mail Order offer - or were simply produced alongside it for convenience.

Playset Ponies
"Playset Ponies"
Mail Order, North America, 1988
Image courtesy of Chrissytree
The existence of purple and aqua eyed variations seems to be a peculiarity of later batches - the flier shows an aqua eyed baby, meaning she was probably the pony available first. My childhood pony has aqua eyes, so this fits the timeline very well.

The Playset Ponies were offered more than once via mail order, up until 1992. It is not clear what version of Baby Half Note was sold in this release.

The Dance School seems like a playset that never really went away. After being released in the 1980s in various parts of the world, it appeared on various mail in offers in the early 1990s. Here in the UK, it featured on a flier including Magical Breeze, which closed in February 1991. This release pictured the Dance School with Baby Half Note, as standard. The pony featured was the Beddy Bye Eye version, but it is not clear what version was actually provided. It was offered for £9.95 or 60 horseshoe points - a large amount of points considering how scaled back pony points offers had been in the UK up to this point!

Dance School Mail Order
Baby Bonnet School of Dance: Mail Order
UK, 1990-1

 
A more peculiar mail order release existed in North America in 1992. Here, the Dance School was offered as part of a mail order release, but instead of coming with Baby Half Note, it was advertised as coming with Pearly Baby Surprise. It was offered for $18.95 and 3 horseshoe points, or $21.20 without points (plus P&P).

Baby Surprise with Dance School
Baby Bonnet School of Dance with Baby Surprise

This release seems designed to clear out any excess ponies that had not yet been claimed. These are ponies which did not appear on the UK second hand market at the end of production, and so it seems that Hasbro was able to distribute them via other methods in the US.
Thanks to Chrissytree for the flier picture of Baby Surprise and Dance School.

Baby Half Note and Friends: Character/Personality

Baby Half Note was first introduced to the pony faithful in a story around Spike and Baby Lucky's birthday. It involved a magic key - probably sparked by Baby Lucky's happy-go-lucky magic, and Locket - a good indication that the Dance School was introduced in 1987, which is when Locket also went on sale. Locket discovered Baby Half Note and her dance friends on an island, and with the magic of the key, helped bring them to Ponyland. Baby Half Note adopted the same birthday as Baby Lucky and Spike the Dragon following her arrival.

In the UK comic, the rabbits, swans and bees that came with the playset had names. The rabbits were Hop and Jump. The bees were Pandora and Iris and the swans were Lucinda and Yolande.

Playset Ponies Sold in the UK in 1987