Loving Family Ponies: Baby Pony Playsets

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.

There were three release sets in total - Playpen and Duck, Trolley and Rattle, and High Chair and Bottle. These could come in at least two different colours. I remember having a white playpen and yellow duck as a child, but I have seen mint on card versions with yellow playpens as well.

The known versions are as follows:

White playpen/yellow duck
Yellow playpen/white duck
Pink high chair with yellow tray/dark pink topped baby bottle
Yellow high chair with pink tray/pink topped baby bottle
Aqua trolley with yellow handle/blue and yellow rattle with blue elastic
Pink trolley with aqua handle/aqua and yellow rattle with pink elastic

Several of these accessories were previously released with earlier ponies, although there were some slight batch colour differences.

The Loving Family baby accessories were made available in the UK and several countries in Europe, either on translated cards or English cards with import labels. They were only sold in 1989, and did not appear in the 1990 catalogue.