Pretty & Pearly Baby Sea Ponies - North America and some of Europe.

Baby Sea Ponies got messy in 1986-7, in large part because the set that was sold in North America - and most of Europe - was not sold in the UK. We had our own release in 1987, which can be found on their own page. The reason this is so peculiar is that so much of Europe defaulted to the North American release, as opposed to a split between the two sets. It is hard to know what cards these were sold on all across Europe, but we do know that the releases in most places matched the poses of the ponies sold in North America. As the Swedish insert above suggests, this version of the Pretty & Pearly Baby Sea Ponies was sold in Sweden, but in 1987, rather than in 1986. This means that Sweden had pearly sea ponies at the same time as the UK - but not the same set. Confused yet?

In the Benelux there was a release on a translated American card. Collectors in the Netherlands have indicated that this set was not sold there. The carded release is in French and Dutch, but may only have been sold in Belgium and Luxembourg. This is at present unclear, but it is certainly true that not all UK-style UK marked packages were sold in the UK, so this is possible. Belgium (Unica) and the Netherlands (Otto Simon) had different import organisations, and both are printed on the back of these cards, but it may well have come down to local demand.

Sunshower Mint on Card (Benelux, 1986-7)
(North American card art)

Four new characters were introduced with this set, with two re-releases from the previous year. Three of the new characters had a new pose,  with the head in a 'looking up' position (as shown on the MOC Sunshower, above. The final new character, Beachcomber, had her head turned to the side. Sea Shimmer and Surf Rider were re-released from the previous year, with updated pearly sheen, to complete the set. Beachcomber is the only pony that is common between the US and the UK sets, without amendments. This seems to relate to poses - each set had three ponies in two different poses. In North America (and Europe), those two poses were 'head turned' and 'looking up', whereas the 'looking up' pose was not sold in the UK, making the selection different.

Ponies in this set were sold with a flat, scented sticker, rather than a puffy one. As you can see from the image above, sometimes the stickers were not correct to the pony, particularly in the European release.

Thanks to KitKatVintage for the picture of Sea Shimmer.