Quarterback
Quarterback was introduced to the UK market in 1988, as one of
the Adventure Boy Ponies. He had originally been sold in North
America as one of the Big Brother Ponies from 1987. He was
American Football themed, and so was his name. It is odd to me
that this one Hasbro didn't change the name of, as the symbol
could be interpreted as a rugby ball, and NFL was not a thing in
the UK in the 1980s. But I guess maybe the helmet made it
difficult. It's always annoyed me that his helmet says "Pony's".
I am not a fan of misused apostrophes, and this seems to be one.
:)
Mint on Card Quarterback
UK, 1988
Image from Babydoll
Like all the Big Brother releases, Quarterback was sold with a
hat and bandana (called a scarf, or a neck scarf in the UK) as
well as a comb. The bandanas were the same style between ponies,
but in different colours (each brother had a unique colour). The
hats were specially designed to fit that pony's theme, and so
were only sold with that specific character.
Quarterback's streak in his mane is intentionally white. He also
should be curly but mine has lost his curl.
Quarterback is the only Adventure Boy pony I had to import from
the US. I have never found him second hand here (although he was
sold here, as the carded example above shows) and he does not
seem to come up on the second hand market as often as some of
the others. This may be because he was only sold in the first
set, as First Base and Trucker are also harder to find than
Tracks, Tug and Tex.
Quarterback - accessory variations
Quarterback can be found Mint on Card with both the darker
pink and lighter pink grasshopper comb. One example can be
seen on the MLPWiki
and another on Chrissytree's
Weebly site. The above carded version looks like the
darker pink comb but it's hard to tell. Quarterback and Tornado were on
sale simultaneously in 1987 (T in North America and Q in the UK)
and 1988 (T in Scandinavia and Q in the UK) and it is absolutely
possible that both were sold with both versions of the dark pink
grasshopper comb. Either way, Quarterback definitely was.
There is also an elastic colour variation on Quarterback's
hat. I don't know if these are regionally specific but the
one I have (from the UK) has paler pink elastic, and the ones
I've seen online (from US sellers) have darker pink.
Quarterback's character
I don't remember Quarterback playing a prominent role in the pony
comic, perhaps because of the awkwardness of his sport and it's
non-existence in the UK at the time. But there was one very odd
story that appeared in the comic around 1991-2, long after
Quarterback was no longer on sale. For some reason, Quarterback
was trying to organise an American football game right around the
time the
Romance Ponies and cohort were running the Sweetheart
Parade. Quarterback wanted nothing to do with this parade, so Love Token
drugged him with a love lozenge (!). After this Quarterback met a
sprite called Nimblefingers, with whom he struck up a rapport, and
who he later took to the parade.
So much wrong on all kinds of levels. Seriously. No.
Quarterback and Nimblefingers at the Sweetheart Parade
My Little Pony Comic, circa 1991-2
