The My Little Pony Scrapbook: G1 in the UK and Europe

1983

Peachy, Twinkles and the Grooming Parlour



Blue and white stable

Peachy and the Grooming Parlour, correctly shown in the 1985 Argos Catalogue.

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Ponies Sold in 1983 in the UK The Collector Ponies (Flat Footed).
Possibly mingled in with The Collector Ponies (Concave Footed), but this is a bit more grainy and evidence is sketchy as to how this really worked. The Grooming Parlour (With Peachy) also came out in the UK in around 1983.

Other 1983 Ponies The Show Stable (UK:1984)

Peachy's Grooming Parlour also available in 1984, 1985 and 1986 in the UK.
Peachy
Peachy: Peach earth pony with pink mane and tail, pink hearts symbol
orange kitten
Twinkles: Orange cat with black stripes (Worldwide)
Pony Data
Set The Grooming Parlour Playset (1983-6) sold with Peachy and Twinkles the cat (Worldwide, including UK)
Asst. Number ?
Accessories pink cat basket with pink strap, pink bridle and saddle, yellow and white hats, ribbons, name tags featuring ponies from 1984-6 (UK) or the Collector Ponies (North America). Pink heart brush, pink comb.
Pose Collector
Distribution Worldwide (and then some!)
Other Versions Flat Footed Peachy.
Snuzzle's Grooming Parlour
Kiss Curl's Grooming Parlour
Flat Foot
              Peachy
Flat footed version of Peachy, found only in North America. This version may or may not have come with the playset in the early days.


The Grooming Parlour in the UK

I can already see some people twitching at the name I've used here, especially since in the recent (2018/19) retro release of the playset, the boxes even sold over here named it the 'Pretty Parlor'.

This is indeed an accurate name for the playset. But not here in the UK. It's the North American name. Here we were more mundane and practical about the set and what it was for. Here it was sold as the Grooming Parlour, and so were all subsequent releases

packaging

The UK Grooming Parlour Box featuring Peachy

The Grooming Parlour was also one of the earliest My Little Pony products to feature a commercial here in the United Kingdom. (A link to the full advert on Youtube is available by clicking on the below still; this site has no control over videos being taken down.)

commercial
            still

The My Little Pony Grooming Parlour commercial, UK

The Parlour was sold in North America in the early part of the line, and first appeared here in 1983. A prototype image can be found in the winter 1983 Argos catalogue, and you can see this image on the main page for 1983. This was a very cheap and popular playset, however, and would continue to be sold in some form or another through to the early 1990s.

Of course, not all these releases were the same. The original release, with possibly the most common G1 pony on the second hand market, Peachy, was sold between 1983 and 1986/early 1987 in the UK. She was sold with a range of accessories, and a kitten companion known as Twinkles. The main difference between the parlour in the UK and North America seems to have been the name tags. Because of the continued later release, the name tags for the parlour over here featured ponies from later years, whereas in North America they featured the Collector Ponies.

Because Peachy was sold for so long and because her playset was so popular, there are many different minor batch differences between versions made in Hong Kong. She was also made in other places and these versions were sold outside the United Kingdom.

Flat Footed Peachy

While there shouldn't be a Flat Footed version of Peachy, there is one. She only ever shows up in North America, suggesting she was a very early batch of the character made before the alterations to the pose that led to all later ponies having concave hooves. This version may have been sold with early versions of the Grooming Parlour in North America (under the release Pretty Parlor). It is also possible she came as part of a set with a version of the earlier My Pretty Pony, as one exists with Peachy's colour scheme - although one such set like this did exist involving Butterscotch I do not think this has been confirmed for Peachy. The best assumption at the moment is that she was an early version of the playset pony that was later modified, and that her modification came too early for her to ever be released in the UK.

Peachy and Twinkles in the United Kingdom

Peachy appeared in a few early stories in the comic, and also reappeared again later on when Kiss Curl and her parlour were introduced. Peachy and Kiss Curl were shown to be great friends, despite the fact one had displaced the other in stores. Because Peachy remained on sale for so long, she was still relevant enough to be featured on the cover of MLP & Friends in 1987.

ponies at the
          grooming parlour

Peachy on the cover of MLP & Friends #2

Her kitten, Twinkles had a more wide ranging presence, appearing as a member of the Paws & Claws club.



Playset Ponies Sold in the UK in 1983