African My Little Ponies
A
huge thanks to Kat for all photos and information on this page; she retains
all copyrights. You can visit her at Katrina's
Pony Page.
The My Little Ponies below
were produced by Prima Toys, a South African toy company. The card information
reads:
© 1985 Hasbro Bradley, Inc., Pawtucket R.I. USA All Rights Reserved.
The back hooves read: © 83 Hasbro Pat Pend." and "Hong Kong". I'm not sure if other companies
could have made African ponies in other places as well or if Prima Toys was
the only My Little Pony produced in Africa. The text on the card reads: "Hello,
I'm a cute pony. I love adventure and making new friends. Please be my friend,
and comb and braid my long silky hair and tie it with ribbon." It is
very similar to South American cards in appearance and text.
Click on the card thumbnail (right) to enlarge it.
There are other similarities
to South American cards: the cheaper body plastic, the same hair that becomes
brittle over time, odd colors and poses, oddly painted eyes, and the list
goes on. If I hadn't seen the cards that go with these, I would have assumed
they were South American. The similarities are probably due to the same condition
in South America and in Africa. They probably wanted to mass produce the toy
at a inexpensive cost.
Kat also reports other variants: Moonstones, Windys, Sprinkles (white with
red hair), and others.
Applejack
(earth pony) is orange with yellow hair. She has no freckles, her mouth is
pursed, and she has blue
eyes. Her symbol is seven red apples. She varies form the U.
S. version in several ways, the most obvious is pose. This version is
in a Moondancer style pose (without the horn) and the U. S. version is in
a she pose. Also, they vary in eye color, freckles, open-mouthed and closed-mouthed,
and green stems on the apples.
Seashell (earth
pony) is mint green with yellow hair. She has silver seashells as her symbol.
She is obviously
different
than the U. S.
Seashell. She doesn't have a blaze, her mouth is pursed, she stands in
a unicorn's pose (minus the horn) instead of a sitting pose, and she has green
eyes.