Pinwheel in North America
Pinwheel was sold in North America as part of the second
release of Rainbow Ponies, issued in around 1985. She used one
of the new poses for the year, as well as having the updated,
more daring colours in her hair. These Rainbow Ponies still had
four colours, but were generally bolder in shade than the first
six ponies had been. Pinwheel was sold on the same kind of
horizontal card as those from the first set, but now there were
ten ponies pictured instead of six.
Pinwheel was not sold in the United Kingdom, although she did
appear in stories around 1986-7.
Pinwheel in Other Places
Pinwheel was part of several European releases, where she was
often found made in Italy or Spain. She was also available
through subsequent horseshoe point mail in offers up to around
1986. Some anecdotal evidence suggests this set - on the US card
- might have appeared in Sweden and Norway as well, possibly as
end of line imports.
The Scandinavian/Australian/South African Rainbow Pinwheel
Pinwheel was sold in at least one of the Rainbow Pony
releases in Scandinavia (at least, Sweden and Norway), South
Africa and probably also Australia. This release happened
probably around 1986-7, based on the design of the card. These
cards were in English and the pony was made in Hong Kong.
Pinwheel appears to have been sold with the same accessories
across her various releases. These seem to have been consistent
irrespective of the style of card the pony was sold on, although
batch colour differences are possible between releases, due to
different production years and countries. The below comparison
gives a taste of some ways in which she was sold in different
parts of Europe. She was also sold made in Italy, though I am
unsure which of the two card variants she featured on.
Comparing Pinwheel and accessories on this card!
"Girouette"
Spanish Pinwheel (NC) Mint on
French card
"Pinwheel"
Pinwheel (HK) Mint on English card
(Scandinavia/S.Africa etc)
"Molinillo"
Spanish Pinwheel (Spain) Mint on Spanish Card.
Thanks to Shivhae for the french carded image and Leikin for
the English carded image.
Pinwheel's Character
Pinwheel had the rather disconcerting ability of making pinwheels
appear when she blinked her eyes and shook her mane. I imagine she
had a hard time washing her hair and clogged up the shower
frequently...but this trick did make her popular with the baby
ponies, especially when they went out on a windy day.
