The My Little Pony Scrapbook: Playtime Baby Ponies (1990)

2 + 4 = 6

The Playtime Baby Ponies were actually a mix and match set, picking out two ponies from the Playtime Baby Brother pony set, and four from the Fancy Pants Baby Set. Both of these sets had been on release in North America in 1989, and each had comprised six characters. But for some reason, Hasbro in the UK -and in most of Europe - decided that selling all twelve characters here was too much of a risk, and so instead they merged the two themes, to create a set of four girls and two boys.

Although the UK catalogue image (above) used American release ponies for their promotional material, the actual box showed the ponies with their correct colour schemes. It also notes they are all Made in China.

Playtime Baby Box, UK, 1990
Featuring ponies as they were actually sold

For this reason, there are some common set details and some variations. The two boys have freckles, and their heads turn from side to side in a mechanism similar to the 1988 Peekaboo Baby Ponies. All Playtime Baby Brother ponies have this characteristic. They were also sold with striped neckscarves (bandanas).

The girls all have painted panties with repeated symbols patterned across them. They also all have coloured forelocks in a different shade from the rest of their mane, and came with big mesh bow ties. These characteristics were common to the Fancy Pants Baby set in North America - although here, there are two major exceptions. One - not all of the American released Fancy Pants babies had a coloured forelock, and two, all the American release Fancy Pants babies were made in THAILAND, while those in Europe were made in China. This led to variations which will be explored in more detail on individual pony pages.

A side note here - American ID resources often describe the Thailand Fancy Pants babies as the 'normal' version and the Chinese European babies as the "variant". But variant and regular are subjective depending on where you live, and this description ignores the fact that the Chinese versions were sold in more countries than those made in Thailand. They were also made in a more standard place of manufacture.

It is more productive to differentiate them as the Fancy Pants version (made in Thailand) and the Playtime Baby version (Made in China).

Baby Splashes Mint in Box
UK, 1990

The set were all sold in orange coloured boxes, with orange patterned borders. The front featured Baby Paws and Baby Starburst, while Mainsail appeared under the rainbow. All European releases were in this format, translated into a number of different languages. In Greece, these seem to have been sold in English packaging.

Each baby was sold with an array of accessories, some of which were either repeated from early baby releases, or used the same moulds.

Some of the baby girl ponies used first tooth baby moulds. Though this tooth was painted, they were not officially "First Tooth Baby Ponies".

Playtime Baby Ponies

Mix and Match

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2 + 4 = 6

Ponies from this set (UK and Europe, 1990 - MADE IN CHINA)

Playtime Baby Brother Ponies (North America, 1989 - MADE IN CHINA)