Wow, I'm on a roll with content again, guys! It's been a while since I did a Throwback Thursday post, so I thought I'd post one after all this time. I grew up in the 1980s, and I was absolutely wild for My Little Ponies. I collected them as a child, but stopped actively looking by the early 1990s. I got hit by the nostalgia bug for them about ten years ago, so I keep my eye out for them whenever I go to flea markets. (You don't see the original ponies at yard sales or thrift shops anymore, it's all the newer ones from Friendship is Magic, which I have zero interest in.) I was incredibly lucky to get this from an indoor flea market that my aunt went to earlier this year.
The content is below the cut!
(First, some quick advice for anyone who is interested in the original MLP: there were TONS of knockoff ponies made by other toy companies, and lots sold in dollar stores and the like. When you go to flea markets and look in the vendor bins, 9 times out of 10, you're looking at knockoffs. It's very, very easy to tell them apart, though. Real MLP are made by Hasbro, and you can tell by turning the pony upside and looking at the bottom of its hoof. If it doesn't say Hasbro, it's a knockoff. They're also very solid and a little heavy, with graceful sculpting and "doe eyes." The quality of the plastic and the hair is also very high. If this seems a little out of place, it's because I keep running into these cheap knockoffs being sold for the price of the real deal at retro/vintage shops and flea markets, and the vendors have no idea what they're actually selling. This is my attempt at a PSA.)
In this case, I was very quickly able to tell that this was a legit MLP--the label was intact and had the correct HASBRO logo--but I was intrigued because I had never seen a vintage MLP plush toy before. I wasn't quite sure what it was.
After some extensive Googling, I was able to readily determine what I had. Back in the early 1980s, Hasbro made plush toy versions of the second through fourth lines of My Little Pony toys (referred to as "Year 2," "Year 3," and "Year 4" by collectors). This specific plush toy is a plush version of a pony from the second line (or "Year 2") of toys, called Starshine. The Year 2 ponies were known as the "rainbow ponies," due to their rainbow-colored hair, and were manufactured between 1983 and 1984.
Here is the image of the original Starshine "hard" pony:
And here, for comparison, is the plush "soft" pony:
Hasbro did a pretty good job adapting the Starshine design into a plush toy; obviously, they couldn't easily replicate Starshine's original pose, hence her standing on all four feet instead of rearing up. The only quibble I have is that original Starshine's mane is blue, green, yellow, and a pinkish-red, while plush Starshine's is blue, green, yellow, and lilac purple. Original Starshine's mane just looks better.
She comes with a loop of thread so you can hang her from something!
I cleaned her up the best that I could, although she's still got some stains here and there. But her cutie mark is clean and intact, and I'm amazed that her hair is in such good condition!
My only other complaint is that even though Starshine's hooves seem to be weighted a little bit, it's not always enough to get her to stand up all the time.
Before I end this, massive thanks must go to the My Little Pony website Ponyland, which has been an invaluable resource in figuring this all out. Also thanks to the My Little Pony wiki for cross-reference pictures!
This has really rekindled my excitement for collecting vintage toys; maybe I'll get started up again? Although I don't know where I'm going to keep all of these! In any case, hopefully I can find some more wonderful vintage toys to share with all of you! Miss Scarlett, signing out!
