As you can see from this image, three of the four baby ponies are in different poses. Baby Alphabet had a different symbol, with an a-b symbol instead of the E-e she was sold with. Baby Schoolbag was also moulded in a Baby Boy pose, with feathered hooves. Baby Count-A-Lot was originally shown here in a walking First Tooth Baby pose. None of these ever made it to store shelves. They were shown with duck combs, but were not sold with these.


These issues were not really resolved in time for the backcard photo, which still shows Baby Count-A-Lot and Baby Alphabet in the same poses as before. Baby Alphabet is now shown with an A-a symbol, but this is still not correct. Baby Schoolbag is now in the same walking First Tooth pose as Baby Count-A-Lot. Only Baby Pictures is correctly represented. The combs shown were still also not correct for this release.

In fact, the set had a unique style of comb, which was moulded into the numbers 1-2-3-4.

Confusions and Pose Corrections

In fact, when the set were released, both Baby Schoolbag and Baby Count-A-Lot were in Baby Blossom's pose, whilst Baby Alphabet was in Ember's pose. These were very conservative pose choices, and it is unclear why they went through so many more interesting options first. Baby Alphabet also ended up with an obscure E-e symbol, which seems a lot less logical than the original a-b.

I remember vividly as a child feeling a disconnect with this set and the comic stories, which is a major reason why I never bought any of them. In particular, I was confused by Baby Schoolbag, who had been written in the comic as a boy pony, and had had feathered hooves in the promotional insert and comic illustrations. This is not the first example of a baby boy pony in a female pose - Sniffles the Newborn Twin covered that base in 1987 - but it was still a pretty big difference from how he was depicted in all the promotional material.

The ponies were always drawn in the comics as per the insert image, so Baby Schoolbag had feathered hooves and Baby Alphabet her a-b symbol.

The other big confusion that came out of this set goes back to when European release sets were first becoming known to the online world. For a long time, prominent American ID sites insisted on calling Baby Count-a-Lot "Baby Abacus", despite the fact she was never called this in English. As time has gone on, it has become apparent that Abacus was her name in Spain, making it a correct name - just not in the English language release.

Baby Count-A-Lot has a known release variation; more about this on her page.