Fancy Pants Baby Ponies

The Fancy Pants Babies (Or "Baby Fancy Pants Ponies" as per the box) were a set of six new characters released in North America in 1989. The set comprised one unicorn, one pegasus and four earth babies. Three of the set had First Tooth moulds and came with a painted first tooth, meaning they sometimes get confused with that set. They were also sold with a sippy cup, another traditionally First Tooth baby accessory. Three of the set also had a different colour forelock to the rest of the mane, whilst the other three did not. Most mysteriously of all to me, as a British person, is the use of the word 'pants' in a very British context, despite the meaning in America being different. The box describes them as 'playpants' though, maybe that's different?

While they came with an array of standard baby accessories, they also all had big mesh neck bows which were a unique accessory for this set.

This set is unique among all mainstream pony sets in that the baby ponies were made in Thailand, not China or Hong Kong. There are other ponies made in Thailand, but they are extremely rare and do not seem to have been part of the main line in the same way. Thailand-made Fancy Pants Babies, however, are standard release in North America.

The word 'Thailand' is quite long, and baby hooves are tiny, meaning that it is split up on the hoof as shown below.

Baby Starburst's Hoofprint

To make things more complicated, four of the six ponies in this set were sold in a related set in the UK and continental Europe during 1990. These baby ponies were called the Playtime Babies, and amalgamated Fancy Pants with Playtime Baby Brother ponies into a single release. The four Fancy Pants babies in the European set were made in China. There are some colour variations between the two sets.

The North American set came in pink boxes, while the European ones came in orange boxes.

Baby Splashes (Thailand) Mint in Box
North America
Image from Shivhae


Baby Splashes (China) Mint in Box
Playtime Baby Set (UK, 1990)