Pony Friends Cupcake
Cupcake was sold in 1987 and maybe early 1988, in
Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland and South Africa. She may also
have seen a release in other places but this is not confirmed.
She was NOT sold in the UK. While there has been some discussion
about the release year for this set, the rainbow font uses the
old style Y, which was replaced in 1988. This suggests that even
if she was still on sale in 1988, her first release was probably
1987.
She was sold in these places on a card in
English, pictured below.
Pony Friends Backcard 1987
Image from Inger and Monika
There is some debate about eyeliner with this set. It is
generally accepted that a Cupcake without flocking and with
brown eyeliner is definitely an authentic Pony Friends Cupcake.
The pony pictured at the top of this page has brown eyeliner,
and came from South Africa.
There is also a grey area, however, around those with black
eyeliner. All So Soft ponies had black eyeliner, so all deflocks
also have black eyeliner. Whether this is decisive,
however, is uncertain. See
Truly's page for more details on this.
Things you can look for:
- Evidence of flocking in gaps between the mane plugs, on
the hooves in the grooves where the dates are stamped, etc.
- Evidence of damage to the symbol around the edges
- Evidence that the head has been removed - many deflocks
are done with head removal
- Evidence of harder plastic
- Evidence of chemicals used to remove glue on the pony's
body.
- Where the pony is being sold from/what the origins of the
pony are
These are difficult to be conclusive about without having the
pony verified by independent witnesses. It is generally safer
if you are not sure to go after one with brown eyeliner.
Cupcake's Character
Unsurprisingly, Cupcake's persona in both animation and the
American So Soft backcard story related to baking. In the
animation, she had no magic of her own, although her backcard
story mentions her producing fireworks by kicking her heels (which
is a bit...odd...honestly) after arranging her cakes in a rainbow
to impress her friends.
Cupcake's Pony Friends backcard story also went along the line of
cakes and baking, and was as follows:
"Cupcake is named after the delicious dessert she
enjoys making. All her cakes are extra special!
She decorates them all and sometimes bakes them with a magical
surprise inside!
But Cupcake's favourite part of making the dessert is eating
them with all her pony friends!"
The spelling of 'favourite' and the general vocabulary of this
story does suggest that the set might have been targeted for a UK
release, but ultimately, it didn't happen. This story is correct
for the release in the Nordic region, South Africa, and possibly
Australia.
We can only wonder at the magical surprise within the cake, as she
was never in the UK comics.
