Watercolor Baby Sea Ponies, WatercoloUr Baby Sea Ponies, and Colour Change Baby Sea Ponies

The Watercolor Baby Sea Ponies - or Colour Change Baby Sea Ponies - were the last set of Baby Sea Ponies to be released. Hasbro were extremely ambitious with this release, including baby ponies with bodies and hair which changed colour in hot water. In theory, they changed back when they had cooled down, but over time, many baby ponies have become stuck either in one or other colour version - or somewhere in the middle. Sometimes in a very not-pretty shade of goose poop.

The set used two of the existing Baby Sea Pony poses, and all of the species of float available, meaning each baby had a different species of float from her setmates. Three of the ponies used names that were used for the original three North American Sea Ponies. Hasbro's name recycling machine was going full tilt in America by this point. These names were also used in the UK, but since we didn't already have ponies with those names, it was less of a jolt!

UK, North American and European Releases of Watercolor/Colour Change Baby Sea Ponies

The release of this set has always been mired in mystery and confusion - at least, outside of North America. To begin with, it was thought that this set did not come to Europe - and then, that it was in Europe, but not in the UK. Both of these have been demonstrated to be false, although the set did not appear in a UK Hasbro catalogue, and nor is it mentioned on the list of ponies Hasbro intended to release here anywhere between 1988 and 1990.

The American release is very straight forward - six ponies with heat-sensitive bodies and manes, sold with combs, ribbons and floats. They were part of the 1988 release and had the assortment number 4635. Here, the set name is Watercolor - spelled the American way. Another catalogue image has floated around, with the name spelt WatercoloUR, creating ideas that it came from the UK catalogue. The image is the same as the American catalogue, and so is the assortment number. But this is probably a Canadian or even an Australian catalogue entry, rather than being from the UK (even though Canadian cards ultimately used Watercolor).

Why can I be sure of this? The real giveaway is the assortment number. The carded ponies I have on the European/German card from 1990 have a different assortment number - 4655. Although I don't own this card in English, I have seen it and have verified that the UK card also has this second number. That, plus the long delay between the North American release and that in Europe makes me think that the catalogue image was a red herring.

The North American version of this set contained all six ponies. The cards were yellow, and the ponies were all drawn on the back, with Sealight on the front of each card. (Canadian cards were bilingual but used the same art as that from the USA)

Seawinkle, Mint on Card
USA version, 1988

The European style of card was pale blue with blue borders, and had Mainsail under the rainbow (strongly indicating the 1990 release). The example below is from Germany, but was the same as that used in the UK. Only four ponies were included in this release - Foamy, Sealight, Wavedancer and Seashore. Misty and Seawinkle were not included. Their names did not change in the UK release and were the same as those in North America. Their names were translated in France and Germany.

Foamy, Mint on European Card
German edition, 1990

The set also appeared as one of the collection of baby ponies available in 1990, although they only appeared on a handful of set backcards, and then it was only Foamy who was pictured.

Baby Ponies available in 1990 featuring Foamy from the "Colour Change Baby Pony" set
Newborn Yo-Yo's card, UK, 1990

Both the UK card and the ponies themselves are not common in the UK. I am not sure I have ever found any. This raises questions about how widespread their release was. No known example of a UK carded pony survives Mint on Card, either - in stark contrast to other babies from this year, all of whom are relatively easy to find, and for whom backcards, MIP ponies and packages tend to survive in some numbers.

The set were definitely sold in Germany and in France, as cards in German and French exist. They were probably also sold in Austria and possibly Switzerland. It is possible that they had other releases on American import cards which have not come to light, or that English carded versions were more prolific in other areas.

There was also a release of all six ponies in Germany, on an American style card translated into German. The style of card, including the addition of the coloured border around the edges, suggests that this release may have occurred in 1989, and then been replaced by the set of four release in 1990.

Wavedancer, Mint on German Card
Circa 1989
Image from EinhornBaby