[img]http://www.mlparena.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=362901&g2[/img]
*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 an 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.

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 is 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 Ponys’”. 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.

Were these the only ponies to be sold in South Africa?

As well as the strange SA ponies South Africa is known to have got the NSS Truly and NSS 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, Australia 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 an illustrated list of the following variants which have been found so far:

Earth

[img]http://www.mlparena.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=362917&g2[/img]
Bubbles (yellow with blue hair) *thank you stormy31685

[img]http://www.mlparena.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=362905&g2[/img]
Applejack (orange with yellow hair) *thank you kasin

Seashell (green with green hair) (this is the only variant of seashell in a standing pose)

Bowtie (dark blue with pink hair) (known to exist but no picture available)

Rainbow

[img]http://www.mlparena.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=362943&g2[/img]
Sunlight (green with rainbow hair) *picture pinkkittywinks

[img]http://www.mlparena.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=362913&g2[/img]
Windy (white with rainbow hair)*thank you kasin

Moonstone (no description available) (No picture available)

Pegasus and Unicorn

[img]http://www.mlparena.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=362895&g2[/img]
Moondancer (white with pink and yellow hair) *thank you louhma

[img]http://www.mlparena.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=362893&g2[/img]
Medley (yellow with blue hair) *thank you kcat

Playset

Sprinkles (white with red hair) (No picture available)

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.


What makes them special?

The Body.

[img]http://www.mlparena.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=362890&g2[/img]
*thank you kasin

If you look at a SA pony you will notice they look a bit odd. This is because they are made up of different pony body parts! In fact they only ponies that have the matching head and body from the same mould are Moondancer and Medley!

Bubbles, Applejack, Bowtie and Sunlight all have 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.

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.

[img]http://www.mlparena.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=362903&g2[/img]
*picture pinkkittywinks

It has also been noticed that some SA ponies shed their hair very easily when brushed and others do not.

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.

[img]http://www.mlparena.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=362908&g2[/img]
*picture 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 normal 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.

[img]http://www.mlparena.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=362898&g2[/img]
HK Sunlight and SA Sunlight eye comparison *picture pinkkittywinks

[img]http://www.mlparena.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=362915&g2[/img]
SA Sunlight and Italy Minty with airbrushed eyes eye comparison *thank you so silver 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.

[img]http://www.mlparena.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=362911&g2[/img]
Comparison of SA Sunlight and HK Sunlight’s symbols *picture 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.

Prices
As SA ponies are so few and far between so it is very hard to give a price range. They could sell for anything between $100 and $1000 plus.

Links

Seashell’s page
wave.prohosting.com/ka...iePage.htm

My Little Pony Collector
www.mylittleponycollec...ponies.htm

Kasin’s SA Pictures
smg.photobucket.com/al...n/[/quote]

Thanks so much pinkkittywinks!+help! the spotlight is fab...I hadn't seen the AJ one...she's gorgeous!!!

Yay thank you so much PKW I love SAs So mysterious..

Yay! so much beautiful ponies!! I love the SA ones, but I dont own one myself (yet, I WILL have one, one day :P)

Thanks for the spotlight! Its great!

Sizzling Hot
Great Spot and lots of work
Thank You PKW for putting it together
and everyone who contributed

Wow!! How interesting!!! Thank you PKW for the hard work and the explaination on SA ponies!!! Love the pics and thx for those who provided pics. I learned a lot reading this!!! How COOL!!!

yet again, ANOTHER bunch of ponies to add to the ever-increasing want list... very informative page, thankyou!

wow look at that bubbles and moondancer

wonderful spotlight, I love these so much. Thank you for making it. ^.^

Oooo neat spot light the south aftericans are odd ponies!

Big thanks to pinkkittywinks and contributers Kasin and Stormy31685. I really enjoyed reading it! I learned a lot since I didn't know much about these gorgeous ponies.

Woot for SA spotlight! Thanks so much for putting this together! I'm still after that elusive SA Moonstone photo though... *has yet to see her*

I'm convinced that SA ponies are hasbro knock offs... but regardless, they're interesting.

Thanks for all the info and awesome pics


T

I'm not so sure... Prima Toys are the distributers of the G3s in South Africa - why would Hasbro give that contract to a company that had ripped them off big time in the 80s?

Piggy ponies were once thought to be fake. If they can be legitimate, why not these?

Great spotlight, pkw!

How cool! Thanks for the info... It's very interesting!