Spotlight on South African Ponies by pinkkittywinks
*picture pinkkittywinks
Very little is known about South African ponies. This spotlight aims to bring together the little that is known about these rare and strange looking ponies.
Before I begin I would like to say and extra special thank you to Stormy31685 and Kasin for helping me with this spotlight, for answering all my questions and for letting me use their pictures.
I will refer to South African ponies as SA ponies through out the spotlight.
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Where are South African ponies from?
South African ponies were sold by Prima Toys, a South African toy company. This company is still going today and was one of the distributors of G3 My Little Pony line in South Africa.
Many Nirvana ponies were made by local toy companies under the name of Hasbro. For example, El Greco produced the Greek ponies, Auriken produced the Mexican NC ponies and DAG produced the Italian ponies. One could say that the SA ponies fit into this category in that the ponies made by a local toy company under Hasbro. However, the back card does not state where the ponies were made only the name of the company Prima Toys.
This theory of the ponies being locally made in South Africa doesn’t quite fit with the SA ponies hoof markings. South African ponies’ hooves are marked “made in Hong Kong”. The hoof markings are barely legible but you can still make it out. One could argue that it has been badly blanked out as is the case with some no country ponies.
Another line of thought is that the SA ponies weren’t actually licensed. It is possible that a mould was made using a Hong Kong pony and that this mould was used to produce a line of “My Little Pony’s’”. That may explain why they still have the Hong Kong under their feet. *kasin
In conclusion one can see that there is still no concrete evidence that SA ponies were actually made in South Africa.
Where these the only "Hasbro" ponies to be sold is sought Africa?
As well as the strange SA ponies South Africa is known to have got the Pony Friends Truly and Cupcake, as well as a whole host of other regular release ponies. *ladyg
Where have South African ponies been found?
Loose South African ponies have been found in the UK, South Africa, Germany, the Netherlands and the USA.
Who are the South African ponies?
All the SA ponies which have been found so far are from year 2 and it possible that the whole of the year 2 line was produced and sold. *kasin
Here is a list of the following variants have been found so far;
Earth
Bubbles (yellow with blue hair)Applejack (orange with yellow hair)
Seashell (green with green hair) (this is the only variant of seashell in a standing pose)
Bowtie (dark blue with pink hair)
Blossom (lilac with pink hair)
Cotton Candy (pink with pink hair)
*thank you stormy31685
*thank you kasin
Rainbow
Sunlight (green with rainbow hair)
Windy (lilac with rainbow hair)
Moonstone (blue with rainbow hair)
Skydancer (yellow with rainbow hair)
Starshine (white with rainbow hair)
Parasol (half finished version found, pink with rainbow tail)
*pinkkittywinks
*thank you kasin
Pegasus and Unicorn
Medley (yellow with blue hair)
Moondancer version 1 (white with pink and yellow hair)
Moondancer version 2 (white yellow and pink hair)
Firefly oddity (green head, pink body and blue and green hair)
Heartthrob (white with red hair)
Powder (lilac with white and pink hair)
Sparkler version 1 (blue with red and pink hair)
Sparkler version 2 (blue with pink and red hair)
*thank you louhma
*thank you kcat
What makes them special?
As one can see most of the SA ponies resemble their HK cousins, however there are others who look completely different. For example, Medley is bright yellow instead of green and Seashell is in a standing pose instead of sitting.
*thank you kasin
The Body
If you look at a SA pony you will notice they look a bit odd. This is because some of them are made up of different pony body parts! Bubbles has Moondancer’s walking pose body and Firefly’s open mouth head!!! Seashell has a Moonstone’s proud pose body and a Firefly open mouth head. Windy has a Moonstone’s head and a Moondancer’s walking pose body.
The plastic body of a SA ponies is VERY hard.
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The Hair
The hair is similar in texture to Brazilian ponies in that it is very fine and frizzes. The hair colours also appear to be unique to SA ponies too (I have yet to find an exact hair match for my SA Sunlight with any other MLP pony) All the SA ponies appear to have long flowing manes that go right down to their hooves and quite a long tail.
The most noticeable and unique feature though is their rooted tail! Instead of having a single tail hole with a tail held together by a washer like all other ponies, they have a stitched tail instead. The tail of a SA pony is rooted in the same way as a pony mane.
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It has also been noticed that some SA ponies shed their hair very easily when brushed and others do not.
*pinkkittywinks
The Hoof Markings
South African ponies are all marked “© 83 Hasbro Pat Pend. Hong Kong” the hoof markings are only just legible, compared with a normal Hong Kong pony.
*pinkkittywinks
Hoof markings can be misleading. Mexican, Spanish, Greek and Argentinean ponies can all have no country stamp markings on their feet and it is only by looking at the ponies’ features that can one identify their country of origin. Despite being marked Hong Kong it is clear that this is not a Hong Kong pony!
As mentioned earlier In this spotlight one could argue that due to the illegibility of the stamp it could have been badly blanked out as is the case with some no country ponies or that the HK stamp was just left or forgotten about.
Eyes
All the South African ponies that have been discovered so far all have blue eyes. The pupil, eyeliner and eye lashes on all known ponies are black. The eyes are very different to Hong Kong eyes which are cleanly printed on. South African pony eyes are very fuzzy looking as if they have been air brushed on. The only ponies that have similar style eyes to a South African pony are Italian ponies with airbrushed eyes.
HK Sunlight and SA Sunlight eye comparison *pinkkittywinks
SA Sunlight and Italy Minty with airbrushed eyes eye comparison
*thank you sosilver for Italian Minty with airbrushed eyes
Symbols
The symbol of the SA ponies only resembles their HK cousins in passing. They are printed on in one block colour and are quite small in scale.
Comparison of SA Sunlight and HK Sunlight’s symbols*pinkkittywinks
Conclusion
From looking closely at South African ponies, one can see that they are unique in the world of MLP; though they still do bare a passing resemblance to their Hong Kong cousins. There stand out features include their mixed up poses and a rooted tail. Like many Nirvana ponies such as Greek and Mexican ponies it is thought that SA ponies were made by a local toy company under the Hasbro name, however there is still no hard evidence that SA ponies were actually made in South Africa.
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.
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This spotlight was first published on April 19, 2008.