Moondancer who's that?!?
Although Moondancer, Glory and the other Unicorns and Pegasi from that year appeared in the UK franchise via the comics and art work they were NEVER released in toy form, neither were their babies.
There were a lot of ponies from the US line that never made it to the UK in official channels, especially in the early years, and in the anniversary year.
(I was little and somehow one of my local stores had an american packaged pony, oh the excitement at seeing all those new ponies and then never having them released. ;_
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From what I can recall there were a lot of ponies not released (some of this is taken from etherella's site other bits from my memory) I've tried to go in release order:
Already mentioned the early Unicorns and Pegasi.
Baby Ember? If found she was rare on the ground, but it's believed that she wasn't sold in the UK.
Of the first baby ponies only: Baby Cotton Candy and Baby Blossom.
We did however gain Baby Applejack.
I'm a bit confused as regards to the sea ponies of all years so I'll leave them to others, sorry! I know that the UK did get exclusives but some were clearly bad swimmers unable to handle open water...
UK waterfall release was TWO different versions! one was different to US, gaining a green base and Cascade. The other was exactly the same.
NBBE Baby Cuddles alongside other version, same with Baby Half note. Was she released in the US?
Normal Baby Tiddly Winks was the only version sold.
Second set of Rainbow ponies were not sold in the UK.
Confetti was but as a very different pony since she was in a different pose and getting married. Although they never revealed who her groom was.... Poor Confetti!
Of the Pegasi and Unicorns from that year only Gusty appeared on the market.
So softs? No such thing, ever.
Twinkle eye ponies (year 1) were released but some were renamed. No Sweet Stuff she was Sweetie over here.
Megan is also confusing to me. I know she was released but I've personally never found her, and her release history is confusing to me so I'll just quietly whistle and walk away.
Second year Twinkle eyes, didn't include Sweet Pop.
Third year Twinkle eyes didn't include: Mimic, Quackers or Bright Eyes.
BBE ponies were replaced with the play and care babies, but they didn't release any version of Baby Shady or Baby Lofty.
Molly and Baby Sundance never appeared.
Birthday Party set never appeared but was replaced by Tutti Frutti and her own party set.
Baby Sleepy Pie was supposedly never officially marketed/sold in the UK but in the early 90's you could find her in shops as overstock from the US.
Milky Way from the Party Ponies set (otherwise known as the Twice as Fancy ponies) was sold with both glittery and non-glittery symbols.
Princess Ponies were renamed and were not supposed to come with Bushwoolies but dragons instead. But as my own Princess Ruby will tell you.... by the 90's they did... and they could also be found in variant forms, again my Ruby is case in point. Weird girl.
First Tooth Baby ponies were released in the UK unlike many of their parents. (And yes Hasbro I am shaking my fist at you for making most of my babies orphans!) But they could be found in the Scandinavian club packaging as all mine came this way.
Newborn Twins (year 1) ONLY Dibbles and Nibbles and Sniffles and Snookums appear to have been released in the UK.
MLP friends never appeared, ever.
Baby Crumpet? Nope.
Slumber party set are a bit more tricky. As the set they weren't released but you could buy them as overstock in the 90's in clear bags. I bought both Pink Dreams and Sleepy Head this way. Rumour has that Baby Nightcap and Sleep Tight would appear randomly in playsets.
Soft Sleepy Newborns? Nope.
Satin Slipper Sweet Shop? Nada.
Second Sets of Twice as fancy ponies and Princess ponies never made it across the ocean.
Peekaboo babies couldn't swim either it seems.
I'm not getting into the Happy Tails debate. I managed to find one in a bootsale as a child but this doesn't necessarily mean they were generally released.
Newborn Twins (year two), three sets appeared: Fleecy and Fluffy (I think they have different names in the US?), Tuggles and Toddles (again renamed?), Sandcastle and Shovels (don't think these two were renamed as I've heard people talk about them online).
Neither Cranberry Muffin and Blueberry Baskets made an appearance.
Of the Candy Cane ponies, Mint Dreams and Lemon Treats weren't released officially.
Sea Flower and Shoreline were clearly landlubbers.
Fancy Flower and Frilly Flower loved home too much to travel.
The family ponies liked the UK so much they had MORE children and gained accessories that you could buy seperately!
The fancy pants and baby brothers make my head ache! Of the two sets they became conjoined in the UK and travelled without: Baby Countdown, Baby Racer, Baby Waddles Baby Leaper, Baby Sunnybunch and Baby Bows. I'm hoping I've got that right, as I've said, they give me a headache.
Ballerina's, Prom Queen group, Sparkle babies (they were replaced by Starlight babies) were all water shy.
As were the Pretty ponies from 1991, eyelash princesses, Princess baby buggy also clearly couldn't float over here.
And Firefly was afraid of getting her wings wet.
Moving onto 1992: Flower Fantasy, Colourswirl, Sundazzle, Paradise babies, little twins, mermaids, Soda sippin' and sweet kisses didn't appear. (This was the year I looked at a US box as a child! *cries*) Sweet Kisses did sortof appear but they were completely redesigned.
From here on, the US stopped production and the UK had two years of eurowide-exclusives; although with some sets i.e Blubberchen etc not appearing.
WOW
mg:! That list is a lot longer than I thought it was going to be! Sorry about that! And I've mostly/ ONLY answered the question about what WASN'T available. Yikes! Things are made more difficult by the fact that a lot of ponies that were released, especially in the later years were done so under different names and sometimes the releases were completely altered! I've hinted in some cases at things that replaced US ponies but to be honest the UK line was a lot smaller, even including ponies that were UK exclusive (or most often Europe-wide exclusive, this is different to Euro-exclusive which included beings such as Baby Blubberchen which seemed to have been mostly German but included other neighbouring countries as well. White Tootsie, from what I can gather was also only released on the continent so it makes sense that it would be hard to buy her from the UK. There were also ponies from the US that would appear on the continent that wouldn't appear in the UK!). Prices though I can't really comment on as I try to buy from toy fairs and bootsales so that alters price understanding.
As for the difficulty in gaining UK exclusives well... the UK market back then would have been a pop. of approx. 50 million? Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong! So numbers would not have been at the same level for a UK release in comparison to a US release. You're looking at roughly a third of the number of people? Maybe more maybe less, this is being done on guesstimates. Although some ponies seem to proliferate more than others: oh Baby Bow Tie I am sick of seeing your face in lots dear girl. 00)
The issue of UK ponies is also confounded by how ponies were released in the 90's which is where my memory comes into play.
In the later years, and especially when MLP stopped in the US, US overstock came to the UK often packaged in clear polythene bags or as extra ponies in UK playsets. My schoolhouse for example came with Lemon Drop.
I've steered clear of somethings, such as the playsets on principle as most of mine came secondhand in the early 90's. Show Stable, Castle, Crimp and Curl Hair salon, Kitchen, Schoolhouse, and KissCurl's grooming parlour came first hand; but in the case of the Castle I know that it likely came from overstock sources (the shop it appeared in was the same place I managed to get a number of US-only ponies that came over after the US stopped production). Also all of mine, if bought firsthand would have come from either year of issue or shortly afterwards so you're looking 1987 onwards.
I've also stayed clear of the mail order's though as a rule you could say most didn't come onto the UK market. Some did however!
Anyway, I hope that was at least slightly useful, if only to find out what didn't appear! Ponywise at least, again I'm not going to comment on the playsets since I had a friend who had a lot of US ponystuff as a child because her extended family travelled there an awful lot and she definitely had the US showstable but I'm not sure if it arrived via the US or not. :/
