Loving Family Ponies
2.4 Children, pony-style.
The Loving Family Ponies
UK insert, 1989
The Loving Family Ponies
UK insert, 1989
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The Loving Family Ponies were probably first released in North
America in around 1988, but they did not get to the UK until
1989. When they did, however, they were the 'theme' set of the
year, with Mummy Apple Delight on the front of the insert, and
Mummy and Baby Bright Bouquet used as props in adverts for the Sweet
Dreams Crib and Scrub-a-Dub Tub). In the UK and
Europe, special play accessories
were also made available which were designed for the baby ponies
to use.
The release included three themed families - Apple Delight
(white), Sweet Celebrations (blue) and Bright Bouquet), with
parents who had specific characteristics, and offspring which
inherited characteristics from both parents. The Daddy ponies
were made in poses with feathered hooves, while the mother
ponies used existing adult female poses. Baby boy ponies used Baby Lucky's
pose, while the girls used standard baby girl poses. In this
regard, they were very standard, even using a 'Twice-As-Fancy'
style marking that covered the haunches. This has led to people
confusing them loose with Twice as Fancy/Party ponies.
The release of these ponies is more complicated in Europe than
it is in North America, where the sets were sold in 'Gift Packs'
of three - with Mummy, Daddy and one baby (either a girl or a
boy). These 'Gift Packs' were also sold in the UK, in imported
American boxes, albeit they were often amended with labels to
say that the ponies were made in China, rather than Hong Kong.
While there has been a theory that the Gift Packs were one of
Woolworths's imports from North America, in fact, they were
included on the list Hasbro sent to me, and seem to have been a
regular UK release, albeit in American box. The Apple Delight
family was also offered through the Argos catalogue as a gift
set in 1989 and 1990. Although the text says "babies", it seems
like only one baby was included with this set.
The other form of release that the Loving Family Ponies had in
Europe was individually. Each parent and baby was sold on their
own card, and the adult and baby releases were considered by
Hasbro to be different assortments, both from the gift sets and
from one another - as the 1990 catalogue below shows.
In the UK at least, the individually packaged Loving Family
parents and offspring were sent to stores in boxes of 24.
However, while the babies were sent in equal numbers
(probably six of each character per box), the parents were
sent with a ratio of 3 Mummy ponies to 1 Daddy per box. This
meant that probably, the box contained eighteen Mummy ponies
(six of each character) and six Daddy ponies (two of each
character).
As mentioned above, the UK had both the Gift Pack sets and the
individually sold parents and babies for this set. The Gift
Packs were in American boxes, illustrating only one baby with
each family.
The stories are not edited to alter the spelling of Mommy to
Mummy, showing that these were directly distributed over from
the US line, and may well have happened because of surplus stock
in the USA (no Canadian packages have been found here). Given
that the UK release was a little later, this would make sense -
as it seems as if both Gift Sets and individual ponies were
available here simultaneously.
The individual UK and European cards had different backcard
artwork, which resembled that on the insert (shown at the top of
the page). The families had stories in collective sets, and the
UK English story was basically the same for each family as the
American gift pack story, but here there were amendments, to
include multiple baby ponies, and to change Mommy to Mummy.
