White earth pony with red and dark green striped hair, Santa
with candy cane symbol
| Pony Data | |
|---|---|
| Set | Christmas Pony (1991-2) |
| Asst. Number | 4623 |
| Accessories | Green christmas tree comb, yellow ribbon |
| Pose | Posey |
| Distribution | North America, UK, Germany. Probably other parts of
Europe. |
| Other Versions | - |
| search engine by freefind | advanced |
After umpteen years of different ponies playing Pony Christmas
in the My Little Pony comic, at last Hasbro got with the
programme and actually produced a Christmas-themed character.
Although there had been Stockings in 1987, her colouring was far
more ambiguous and less festive than this new character, whose
red and green hair are extremely distinctive and rooted long.
Merry Treat was sold in North America in 1991. She also seems
to have got to Europe before she reached the UK, and certainly
appears on inserts in Germany in 1991.
Her UK release seems to have come, at last, in 1992.
The card in North America was white, but in the UK and Germany at least, it was blue, with green patterned borders. She appeared in a pretty Christmas photo setting on the back of her own card, as well as being illustrated, and having a story. You can click on the below image for a larger version of her UK backcard.
Merry Treat was sold with a comb unique to her, in the style of
a Christmas tree. This comb was also given away as a free gift
with an edition of the My Little Pony comic. Her ribbon was more
standard yellow. (Mine has tinsel, but that's definitely not
original!)
Merry Treat was such a special release that her packaging broke
the established set template for releases in 1992. Although her
card bore the 'classic collection' stamp and had patterned
borders, it was a much darker solid blue than most other ponies
available at this time. Most notable of all, however, was that,
instead of Tuneful, she appeared under the rainbow on her card.
The "tag" in the corner - "Holiday pony for a wonderland of
fun" was copied direct from the American card, and stands out
because the word 'holiday' in the UK has a different nuance. I
guess kids probably didn't notice though!
One other anomaly is that although her card calls her Merry
Treat, she was often labelled Merry TreatS in the comic. Which
is not at all confusing.
Unsurprisingly, Merry Treat loved Christmas!
She loved it so much that she would be impatient for its
arrival, and would often ask if it was Christmas time yet in
the comics.
Merry Treat was introduced in a story with the
Dance and Prance ponies, called the December Disco - where
it became apparent she had been invited to Ponyland by
Majesty in order to help out with Christmas matters.
