Wavebreaker in the United Kingdom
The adult sea pony situation in the UK has always been a bit odd.
Hasbro decided not to sell unicorns and pegasus ponies, but went
out on a limb and dropped Sea Ponies on in there instead.
Moreover, they created original characters, right at the very
beginning, which does seem like a risk.
Weirder still is Wavebreaker herself. She is, to all intents and
purposes, the same pony as Wavedancer, but her name, box and
accessories are different. The yellow shell is unique to the UK
release, and was not sold in North America. Whether you consider
them two distinct ponies or one pony with a range of shell shades
to accessorise with is really up to you!
"Wavedancer"
North American Release and shell, 1983
(Pony is the same as UK Wavebreaker)
The UK boxes are different from those sold in North America,
too. They are designed as though to display the pony
'underwater' through the cellophane bubble. They are not easy
to find mint in box, and the bubble can come away from the
sides as the glue dries out. The shell and pony were held in
place by a card inlay, also in blue, and the brush and comb
were tucked into the bottom of the box under cardboard loops.
The pony's name was in black on the front corner, and the
ponies were each named on the back, but they had no box
stories.
Italian-made versions of Wavebreaker do exist in other parts of
Europe. They have an I on the tail, instead of a HK, denoting
their manufacture. These are often a paler pink and can fade to
almost white, making them look quite distinctive.
Wavebreaker's Character
Wavebreaker appeared in the early comics and book stories. The
sea ponies would often get involved in helping the earth-bound
ponies, sometimes with sung warnings and sometimes direct
intervention. Wavebreaker was a surfer, who enjoyed riding the
crest of waves. This identity is mirrored in Wavedancer's
backcard story, and was probably borrowed from this for both
pony characters.
Wavebreaker is one of the few early My Little Pony sold in the
UK who were omitted from the Factfile, and she had no backcard
story. Her personality is thus entirely derived from her
appearances in the early stories and comics. Given the use of
the US names in early stories, it is possible that all of the
character information from the US ponies were given to
storywriters in the UK, including the names - but the ultimate
ponies sold turned out to be different.
