1986-7: Twinkle Eye Ponies

SPEEDY

Salmon pinkish unicorn pony with blue, white, yellow and lavender mane and tail, white and aqua rollerskates symbol. JEWELLED EYES.

Speedy is a complex character. Cast as the energetic, fun-loving, adrenalin junkie that loved to skate her way around ponyland, it isn't just her fellow ponies that she wound up giving a headache! Though Speedy was released in every country that Twinkle Eyes were sold in, she seems to have multiple editions. Firstly, we know for sure that in North America she was first sold as part of the three new characters in the early 1986 set. Then she was pulled over to be a sixth wheel in the 1987 set with five new characters. In the UK, she was sold as part of a set including Sky Rocket, Tic Tac Toe, Locket, Fizzy and Sweetie. And in Europe she seems to have been sold in two colours - the more common salmon and the paler colour, as shown below.

It is not clear to me right at the moment whether or not the darker version of Speedy also had a continental European release. The style of card on which she was sold is the same style as was used for this set in France, too (but I have not confirmed which version of Speedy was sold in France). The card style is different from that in the UK (you can see an example of this on TicTacToe's page), and Speedy in the UK appears to have been always the darker version also sold in the United States.

PALE SPEEDY (SOLD IN EUROPE but NOT IN THE UK) (image from my collection)

PALE SPEEDY, MINT ON GERMAN CARD (Thanks to Rosie Apple for this image)

As part of the UK set, Speedy was one of the last year of ponies to be sold with a round puffy sticker. Only the UK release of this set seems to have been issued with such stickers - there is no sign of a sticker on the German packaged pony above and this seems in keeping with other European packaged ponies from this year. The UK were doing their own thing again ;)