The My Little Pony Scrapbook: First Tooth Baby Ponies

The First Tooth Baby Ponies - A Little More Grown Up!

The Baby Ponies with First Tooth (generally known as First Tooth or FT babies among collectors) were first sold in North America in 1987, and joined the UK line in 1988. They were popular enough to remain in the line in 1989, making them relatively common second hand.

Unlike most ponies from this year's release, they were sold in almost identical packaging to that used in North America, and had the same names and accessories across the board. Minor differences in the UK and North American packaging include slight spelling/language modifications in the story (eg 'Mother' for Mama) and the style of hook at the top of the box - the North American boxes have a 'hanging hook', while the UK boxes often (though not always (have a punched hole (thanks to Chrissytree for this observation).

Baby North Star (US Box)
1987

Unlike most ponies from this year's release, they were sold in almost identical packaging to that used in North America, and had the same names and accessories across the board. Minor differences in the UK and North American packaging include slight spelling/language modifications in the story (eg 'Mother' for Mama), and a slightly lighter/smaller font for the text on the back. The assortment number and safety information is also printed differently on the UK box compared to the North American box.

Comparison of the boxes, UK vs USA

The biggest difference between the two, however, was the font used on the rainbow.

Comparing the rainbows on First Tooth boxes

First Tooth Boxes from the USA (1987) and UK (1988) showing the updated rainbow font.

The North American boxes also usually have a 'hanging hook', while the UK boxes often (though not always (have a punched hole (thanks to Chrissytree for this observation). In general, though, the art design and contents were the same, including all the names of the ponies. You can see more pictures of UK boxed First Tooth ponies by visiting Chrissytree's site, here.

Like earlier baby sets, the First Tooth Babies came with an array of accessories to help take care of them, but instead of cribs and nappies, these babies had tootbrushes, toothpaste and party panties. They were pitched as being a bit more grown up than the original babies, although they were the same size - and each baby sported a large single tooth from the front lip. This sounds weird, but it's not as bad as that. They were also included in the animated series, where they were often long-suffering babysitters for the Newborn Twins.

Hi there!

All the babies were based on existing adults, although not all of those adults were sold in the UK. All were new characters except Baby Lickety Split, who probably got a reprise on account of her movie stardom.

The set was also unusual in that it did not have any baby unicorn ponies. This was in spite of the fact Baby Fifi's 'mother' pony, So Soft Fifi, was a unicorn. The babies were also offspring of ponies from different sets/styles - Baby Tic Tac Toe and Baby Quackers were the children of Twinkle Eye ponies, whilst the other four were the daughters of So Soft ponies (or regular release ponies, depending on country). Three new poses were introduced for this set - two baby earth poses and one baby pegasus pose.

The First Tooth baby poses were re-used for some later sets, so not all baby ponies with a first tooth are actually First Tooth babies.

First Tooth Babies in other places

Aside the largely uniform release between the UK and North America, this set was also sold in other countries. In France and Germany, the ponies were first released around 1988, and the box was translated to suit the local market.

First Tooth Babies in
Germany
Baby Ponies with First Tooth
As promoted in German catalogue, circa 1988

As was usual for the eighties, Italy had its own style of box, but the pony and accessories included inside were largely the same. Based on the rainbow, it seems likely that these were part of the 1987 line in Italy, though this is not confirmed.

First Tooth Baby Lickety Split in Italian Box
Image from Shivhae

One outlier in this uniformity was in the Netherlands, where they were sold on cards, lacking most of their accessories - just a toothbrush for the road! These cards were dated 1988, and used the new style rainbow font.

Baby North Star Mint on Dutch Club Card
Image from Shivhae

The back of their card heavily promoted the Dutch My Little Pony club, so this has been termed the 'club' release.

Baby North Star - club card back (Netherlands)
Image from Shivhae

They were also sold in the Benelux region in English boxes with a Benelux sticker. I believe they also had cards in Spain, though I'm not sure if they also had releases in box.

The style of artwork on the Spanish cards is very reminiscent of the style of art used on the UK Loving Family Pony cards, which makes me wonder if Hasbro UK ever considered this reduced release for over here as well, then changed their mind...

1988

Baby Ponies with First Tooth

"Chomp"

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The First Tooth Baby Ponies - A Little More Grown Up!

First Tooth Babies in other places

Ponies in this Set: North America (1987), UK and other European countries (1988-?)