Spotlight on Mexican Ponies by Shelti and Scarlet
This Article was written and compiled by Shelti and Scarlet with help from diana_arcuri and CuteyStorm
I am going to quote some information in this article from my friend, Peppermint Truly's web site "Mexico Pony Paradise"*. Some of the ponies she has listed on her web site (with no pictures just descriptions) may exist or the may not, and until they step forward into view they are only speculation. *the Mexican Pony Paradise website is no longer available
I strongly suggest you visit Mexico Pony Paradise for pictures of Mexico ponies and more information. There is quite a collection of pictures of Mexico ponies and variants at this site. At the time of writing this article Peppermint Truly was not available for technical advice about Mexico ponies, but she is truly the expert and spent a lot of time putting her website Mexico Pony Paradise together.
Lily Ledy and Auriken: Two producers
I want to also Thank Scarlet. She has supplied information for this article and also provided ponies and information to Peppermint Truly which were used on the Mexico Pony Paradise web page, and I consider her our resident Mexico pony expert.
This information was supplied by her, and makes a lot of sense:
\"Lily Ledy was the first Mexican brand that was working under license of some European brands that gave them permission to manufacture certain toys in Mexico. That was from 1982-1984. There were many orders from people that wanted to have Lily Ledy toys but there were not enough toys being produced to deliver. Brand Pypsa tried to rescue it and bought Lily Ledy but couldn't afford the costs. Auriken tried the same thing and bought the rights of Lily Ledy to continue manufacturing toys including the mould ponies but they were not given permission to use the stamp / seal made in Mexico. They could not afford to continue making the toy either and finally Hasbro bought the rights of all of that chain of little brands back. Hasbro decided they were only going to only manufacture their toy brands in China and Hong Kong because it was more cost effective then to have each Country making toys for their own market and in their own packaging. It made it much easier for Hasbro to control their products by doing so.\"
There were two Makers of My Little Ponies in Mexico in the 1980's, both licensed by Hasbro.
The first Company was Lily Ledy which only produced the first set of Collector Ponies: Blue Belle, Cotton Candy, Blossom, Snuzzle, Butterscotch, Minty plus Peachy and Lemon drop. But they were produced in two sets, flat feet and concaved feet, with very different body styles for both sets. Lily Ledy clearly marked the feet of the ponies they produced with their stamps. They also produced other popular toys from the 1980's such as Strawberry Shortcake, Star Wars, Cabbage Patch Kids, Care Bears, G.I. Joe, Spiderman, and others
Auriken which was a large Company making toys for several other brands, took over making MY Little Pony when the Lily Ledy Factory burned down. They were the major maker of almost all of the My Little Ponies that were released in Mexico including another set of collector pose ponies.
According to Mexico Pony Paradise:
\"Auriken also chose to import several ponies. They imported ponies and translated the boxes and cards to Spanish, printing their logo on them. It is believed they did this because of the limited amount of ponies they were producing. Since there was such a high demand, it was cheaper for them to produce small amounts of ponies and import the rest. This also allowed them to offer ponies with release dates closer to US release dates.\"
Mexican Features: Feet
There are several versions of Mexico Ponies Feet where the collector poses Mexico pony is concerned. Lily Ledy Con Caved Feet, Lily Ledy Flat Feet and Auriken Flat feet. I also found a picture of an Auriken Cotton Candy with small con caves in the back feet.
I would like to thank exin_goblin (from eBay) for permission to use this picture
The Lily Ledy ponies, whether the concaved version or the flat foot version are marked with writing. They are marked Mexico with a very distinct stamp on the left front foot bottom. They are stamped Lily Ledy on the right front foot bottom.
The Auriken ponies with flat feet have a very distinct look. Their flat feet are somewhat splayed out like the foot of an elephant and even if the Lily Ledy pony had no stamp it would not be confused for an Auriken pony. Note the angle and shape of the feet patterns are also very different between all 3 mould types.
Auriken produced their set of Collector pose ponies with flat feet, but as can be seen with the Cotton Candy pony, not quite true and looking at the later Auriken produced ponies: Prince ponies, Rainbow, Sundae Best, Earth ponies and others, the feet still have no writing on them and they can be concaved or a mix of both. Even the same pony can have a variation of the feet as in the Perfume Puff parlour pony (shown below).
Thank you Scarlet for this picture of the Perfume Puff Parlour Pony
Apple Jack, Banana Surprise and Swirly Whirly
Starshine and Peppermint Crunch
Thanks to exin_goblin (from eBay) for permission to use these 5 pictures
My first thought about the feet was, on the ground flat, raised con caved, but as seen by these pictures of like body moulds, that is not a true assumption.
It does seem the baby ponies and twins produced by Auriken all have con caved feet.
The feet were not the only difference between the mould styles, even within the Lily Ledy Company. Lily Ledy besides making the collector pose ponies with flat and concaved feet, also made different body configurations of the collector pose ponies. One mould style, the con caved foot Lily Ledy, the pony's front legs are shorter, which gives her a tipsy appearance and she looks to be standing on her front toes. And yet the Lily Ledy Flat Foot pony is the same body size and style as the normal US version Collector Pose pony and stands very squarely. The body material is a bit courser to the feel (heavier in make-up), but still has a semi slick appearance to it.
Mexican Features: Body
The Auriken collector pose pony on the other hand fits right in between the two Lily Ledy body styles in size. The body material is much softer and has a slick feel to the finish, much like the ponies produced in Brazil. This is not just the case with the collector pose ponies, but all the Auriken ponies.
Mexico Pony Paradise Regarding Mexico Pony Material Characteristics
\"Their plastic is softer, most of the times it's squishier around their tummies and harder at their feet. It doesn't have a high quality, so they often get \"wrinkles\" under their bellies. However, for certain ponies (those in Skydancer's pose), their plastic seems to be harder and of different texture.\"
Mexican Features: Eyes
The eyes are also different between the two manufactures. The Lily Ledy eyes are large with a heavy flat paint look to them, with dark upper eye liner which extends slightly past the outer edge of the eye. They have two upper lashes and two lower lashes.
The Auriken pony's eyes are smaller and have a shiny paint look to them. At least in the collector pose mould, there is a heavier eye liner along the bottom part of the eye that sweeps out towards the outer edge. The shape of the eye lash seems to have been up to the talent of the person painting them on. From the varied eye and liner formation, it's pretty clear the actual eyes were stamped with the fine touches being hand done. The white dot within the black also can vary in size and location within the eye.
The Mexico Pony Paradise web site describes the collector pose eyes:
\"For collector ponies their eyes show stronger lines, and their left eye is distinctively larger than their right one. (This applies for all versions of collector ponies except Lily Ledy Flat Feet Ponies).\"
I found this not always the case, my Auriken flat foot bluebell has the left eye larger than the right eye, but my Auriken flat foot Minty, both eyes are the same size, small. My con caved foot Lily Ledy Minty, both eyes are also the same size. But the uncommon sized left eye is a clear indicator of a pony being from Mexico.
Mexico Features: Heads and Hair
Lily Ledy also glued the heads on to their ponies Auriken did not. I have found the con caved version Collector pose ponies have the line-up marks on the front of the neck. The flat footed version does not. The Auriken pony also has the line-up marks on the front of the neck. The heads of the Lily Ledy and Auriken collector pose ponies seem to be smaller appearing at the neck line then the body side of the neck line, leaving a ridge appearance with the body appearing larger than the head.
Hair of the Mexico ponies varies as to texture. It is also prone to fading and frizzes easily. This may be due to the materials which were available for manufacturing at the time and why the hair varies so much. The hair is usually very long, both the mane and tail and they have long forelocks/bangs.
The mane is sown in two rows, except in the case of the Prince ponies which have 3 rows on top. The tails are held in place with a clamped over piece of metal with a pull string in the centre or a large Lead washer. This was used to pull the tail into the body cavity and then the metal was clamped to keep the tail from being pulled back out. The clamped over washer looks much the same as the washers used to keep Italian ponies tails in place. I found in checking my own Collector pose ponies, both Lily Ledy and Auriken collector pose have a heavy lead washer. Of course lead is something which causes health problems so please remember this if handling or disposing of such a washer. It does not cause tail rust like so many other Collector pose ponies suffer from.
Lily Ledy Minty and Auriken Prince Emerald
I do not have other versions of ponies, other than my prince ponies (all of which have the metal clamp) or the collector pose ponies to compare other methods of securing the tail. My one set of twins (rattles and tattles) also have the clamped over metal with the pull string. These clamp overs can cause rusting of the hair. It may be the Lead washers Auriken used at some point became illegal to use because of health issues and they switched over to the clamp over method.
The Mexico Pony Paradise web site describes the tails this way:
\"Their tails are usually held with some sort of cord or string. It usually even pokes out of their tail holes. There are certain ponies that have their tails held with some sort of wax\"
Variations to Mexico Ponies and additional ponies
There are a number of variations in colour, symbols and hair within the Mexico Ponies made by Auriken. The Sundae Best Ponies and Prince ponies are two good examples of Variants in colour and style. Because there are so many variations as far as symbol size, and I think there are 3 different versions along of Skydancer, I once again suggest using the Mexico Pony Paradise web site as a good starting point and reference guide to some of these variations.
diana_arcuri had some information on accessories which came with twin ponies \"Ohhh and also, a little detail I found by chance today, I remember that Newborn twins had their accessories. By looking at Dream Valley's page, if you look at Year 5 ponies, scroll down to Newborn twins and their photos. I can tell you that I found a piece of the old accessories that came with my ponies, if you look at the pics of Dibbles and Nibbles, you see them in a canopy with pink \"bassinet\" I have a yellow bassinet. Maybe, as stated in the green letters there, it's a different accessories version. I don't remember the colour of the canopy (I believe that it was aqua) I believe that Rattles and Tattles stroller is the same colour as stated there.\"
She also remembers Loving family Ponies were sold in a store in Mexico.
\"I remember that when I was little, there were loving families sold in Mexico, I'm not sure about them, or the boxes where they came. But I do remember that they came all together in one box. I saw a box of Apple Delight family in a store when I was little, I wanted so much those ponies, but I could never get them. It was later when I saw pictures of MIP family ponies where I knew that in other places they weren't sold as one-box sets. I could be wrong... but this is a strong childhood memory I have and looking at how some ponies were brought and placed in boxes here in Mexico, then it's something that could be valid.\"
It's been pretty well determined Big Brother Ponies were never made or released in Mexico. The Prince Ponies, which were variants of their US Princess Pony counterparts, are as close as we get to BB ponies in Mexico. The back of the Box for Mexico Prince Ruby shows the entire set of 2nd Release Princess ponies, but only the 3 Prince Ponies which were released in Mexico have writing on the balloons above them: Prince Emerald (Moondust), Prince Ruby (Dawn) and Prince Sapphire (Misty)
Mexico Baby Sea Ponies
Acuarela / Watercolor seem to be the only version of Baby Sea Pony to date which have been found.
diana_arcuri related in a Nirvana thread about Mexico Baby Sea Ponies \"I received 2 Seaponies when I was little. I have that one (referring to the pinkish Salty/Misty version) and the yellow one. Looking at the back card below, the yellow Mexico Water Colour sea baby pony would be Spray. This would be Foamy according to MOC comparison with pony colour and float Thank you Sea Pony Utopia web site for a Foamy comparison picture.\"
The following information was supplied for this article in an email with pictures of her ponies.
\"What I do remember is that my yellow sea pony came with a blue frog (?) floater. By looking at the images of sea ponies fromwww.mylittleponycollector.com, it's the same description... It matches Foamy's description, including the floater. Also, Misty's description matches, including the purple duck floater. My purple duck floater and it has a mark that says © 1984 HASBRO INC. on the bottom. What I can say is that the plastic never seemed as bright as in the photo included on the MLP collector's website... My pony was always a pale colour and Misty is made of a harder plastic than Foamy.
Something that I have to say, my parents gave me this ponies when I was little, I'm sure they came in a box. But they both have markings.
Misty has a mark that says \"1984©HASBRO\"
Foamy has an (ALMOST UNREADABLE) mark \"1986©HASBRO\"
There is no Country initial noted on either one of her ponies.
Thank you to CuteyStorm who supplied some of the Mexico Baby sea pony pictures and following information:
Baby sea ponies have no country of origin on the bottoms of them (at least none of the ones I'm looking at). Her hair seems different in addition to her float. I don't have my American one's comb so I don't know the difference there. But her ribbon is a different colour and it's a lot thicker (width wise) than an American ribbon.
Mexico Baby Sea Pony Salty
MOC Misty and information Courtesy of Sea Pony Utopia
Thank you to Scarlet who supplied the above Mexico Baby sea pony pictures and the following information:
\"I'm sure the Mexican sea ponies have different shape on hair and body I don't think it's made in china and then came here and used the box, I have the orange one and a green one with floats, there's no stamp on bottom or tail.\"
There are 3 Water Colour Baby Sea Ponies listed and named on the Mexico back card as seen in the picture. So as we see with the Mexico Prince Ponies, only 3 Baby Sea ponies can be expected to be found which were made by Auriken for the Mexican market. They are Salty, Spray and Surfy. They appear much like the other Water Colour babies made, except for slight differences as mentioned above by people who have them in their collections. And as seen in the pictures the hair appears to be much longer then their other Country counterparts. They also appear to have no Country stamped on the bottom of the curl of the tail.
As you can see the Mexico Pony is a Very worthy Pony to Collect. Because the ponies have hand painted on Symbols there is a wide range of differences to look for. Not only can a collector look for Variations of the same pony, but variations in the make-up of the eyes and symbol size or perhaps even the number of symbols a pony may have.
LIST OF MEXICAN PONIES supplied by Scarlet along with pictures of her collection
LILY LEDY with seal stamped on the foot / Con caved feet & Flat Feet
Collector Pose
Cotton Candy
Minty
Bluebelle
Blossom
Butterscotch
Snuzzle
The face was different on Lily Ledy ponies; they had a cuter face than Auriken.
The Mexican Pony Paradise web page also refers to Lemon drop and Peachy as being part of the original run of Collector pose Ponies made by Lily Ledy, but there are no pictures on the web page of these ponies either con caved or flat feet. There is a picture of Peachy in the Arena Gallery, but no indication of who she was made by. I do have a Flat foot Lily Ledy Minty in my personal collection so we can assume that Lily Ledy made Stamped Flat feet of at least the Big 6 also.
AURIKEN non sealed, flat foot
Cotton Candy pink hair
Cotton Candy with white hair
Blossom
Blossom ( there are some variants in the eyes, the hair, the foot, the body)
Minty (some variants in the eyes, the hair, the foot, the body)
Butterscotch (some variants in the eyes, the hair, the foot, the body)
Bluebelle (some variants in the eyes, the hair was longer than lily ledy, the foot, the body)
Snuzzle (some variants in the eyes, the hair, the foot, the body)
Peachy (some variants, one was pink body hair, and purple hearts.)
AURIKEN BABY PONIES
Blossom concave
Cotton Candy concave
Quackers concave
Baby Blossom with wings concave
2 little twins Pegasus concave - Nibbles and Dibbles (name supplied by diana_arcuri)
Rattles and Tattles
North Star
Moondancer
Baby Glory
There were other babies in the picture on the box's these babies came in. But it appears that perhaps Auriken did not have time to make them before they went bankrupt.
AURIKEN ADULT EARTH PONIES
Applejack (variations in long hair, symbols, and colour symbols)
Bowtie (variations in body colour to grey and hair type with curl and colour
Cherries Jubilee (variations in body size and symbols)
Posey (variations in hair colour and symbols, one with different colour mane pink and white)
Blossom in cherries jubilee pose (one with straight hair and the other with curly hair)
UNICORNS
Moondancer
Twilight variants with mane colour one is purple the other lilac or seems
Starflower (variants in symbols, mane colours, eyes)
Pinwheel (variants in positions and kind of symbols, mane colours, eyes)
PEGASUS
Medley (green colour body and rainbow hair)
Firefly (pink with rainbow hair)
Skydancer (3 variants, in hair colours, and the symbols)
Starshine (never seen this with nice symbol)
SUNDAE BEST
Peppermint Crunch
Peppermint Crunch white and purple hair
Banana Surprise
Banana Surprise white and purple hair
Swirly Whirly
Swirly Whirly white and purple hair
PRINCE
Prince Moondust
Prince Sapphire
Prince Dawn
MEXICAN EXCLUSIVES
Perfume puff pink pony with stars
FLUTTER
Tall, leggy pony in Flutter mould with purple mane and tail, long hair. Mexican flutter mould, but it doesn't have the wings or clamps on the back for wings.
Note from Shelti: And once again I want to thank everyone who helped to compile and supply information for this spot.
The Nirvana Spotlights were kindly written and donated to the MLParena by members. Please respect the Nirvana Spotlights and the MLParena and do not take pictures or information for use on eBay, personal sales or webpages.
A big thank you got Shelti who saved each of the spotlights. This spotlight was first published in 2006.