Play & Care Set Baby Ponies in the United Kingdom - The Second Set

"Baby ponies love to play and need lots of care and attention. For 1986, there are four new Baby Pony Play & Care Sets, and each BabyPony has lullabye-eyes, which close when it's time for a nap, and open wide with excitement when it's time to play."
                                                                                                                                                         ~Hasbro Trade Catalogue - UK, 1986       

Following the success of the first set of Baby Ponies under this label in 1985, Hasbro released a second set in 1986, this time with four little ponies. These four characters also saw a release in North America, but all of them had Beddy Bye Eyes.

A weird thing happened with this set in the UK.

The above quote highlights Hasbro's initial intention was to sell the set here with Beddy Bye Eyes (what the UK called 'Lullabye Eyes), and these are the babies pictured in the 1986 catalogue, where they are shown with open and shut eyes (as per the US release). The boxed image at the bottom of the page, however, shows Baby Lickety Split with regular eyes.

Play and Care Set Baby Ponies Ribbon and Lickety Split in regular form
Argos Catalogue, 1986

In real terms, as the above picture from Argos demonstrates, the baby ponies were only sold here with regular eyes. No mention is made of this gimmick in the catalogue description, either, which focuses more on their accessories. In fact, the whole open-and-shut eye thing didn't reach the UK until 1987, and was mostly promoted around the Baby Buggy with Baby Cuddles.

It seems Hasbro changed their mind at some point mid-production. Why they did this is unclear. There are two possibilities - one is that the US line was ending production, and so keeping the set in production with the eye mechanism was more expensive than creating regular baby ponies. And two is that Hasbro had feedback that suggested the UK market wasn't ready for this kind of pony gimmick at that time, and so they scaled it back to something more like the original set, which had been successful in 1985.

The other notable thing about this set is that these were the earliest baby pegasus and unicorn ponies to be sold in the UK.

Although all six characters sold in the equivalent Beddy Bye Eye set were featured in the UK pony comic, only four were actually released in the UK. Baby Shady and Baby Lofty never saw a UK release.

Play and Care Set Babies and Baby Tiddly Winks, plus Baby Shady and Baby Lofty
Comic issue 27, UK 1986

"Non Beddy Bye Eye Baby Ponies".

Play and Care Set with Baby Lickety Split, 1986
Image from Rosse

Each baby came with a wide array of accessories to help her new 'Mummy' (or Daddy) take care of her, and these too were specifically detailed on the box top.

 These babies, like the first set, were modelled after existing adult ponies. There were some notable differences, however. Baby Heart Throb had two versions - which you can read up on on her page. Hasbro's selection of baby ponies for the UK was also interesting. Aside Baby Lickety Split, whose mother had been available in 1985, none had parent ponies on sale in the UK by 1986. The following year, in 1987, an adult version of Gusty was sold here, but adult versions of Heart Throb and Ribbon never had UK releases.

The accessories for the baby ponies sold in the US and the UK were broadly the same between this release and the Beddy Bye Eye one, with one notable difference - the nappy box, which in the UK was blue, cloudy, and featured Baby Cotton Candy. The North American version was yellow. This distinction is probably because the US call them diapers, and so there was a need for a change of wording. The UK set also had puffy stickers, while the US set had flat scented ones instead.

Baby Heart Throb and Baby Lickety Split were both sold with curly hair, and the box back warned against combing their hair when wet.

Grooming advice, Baby Lickety Split's box
1986, UK

Play and Care Set Babies in Europe.