Updated 16 Jan 2015
I am NO LONGER living in Australia or Singapore. My current address is now in NYC, USA. I reside in Queens, so if you have any pony help, feel free to contact me!
I am afraid I have not much to sell at the moment since I did not bring much with me when I came over from Singapore.
These are what I have for sale at the moment:
-Merry Treats - part of tail cut
-Seabreeze - Tropical pony
-LPS red dragon - Asian exclusive for Chinese New Year?
-lots of Target baggie G4 ponies of mane six minus Twilight Sparkle, plus Lily Blossom, Lyra and Cherrilee
Monday, December 7, 2009
Sunday, November 8, 2009
TAF Babies
Remember my old post of the first Singaporean pony meet 2 years ago in August 2007? Then, I only had Baby Dancing Butterflies and Baby Sweet Tooth, oh and a custom earth Baby Sweet Tooth. Last year, I acquired Baby Love Melody and Baby Milkyway when I visited the USA in 2008 June-August. Finally, after a loooong time of separation, I've finally COMPLETED my TAF Babies today 9th Nov 2009!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Top row: Baby Sweet Tooth(custom), Baby Sugarberry, Baby Love Melody
Middle row: Baby Up, up & Away, Baby Sweet Tooth, Baby Milkyway (custom)
Last row: Baby Dancing Butterflies, Baby Milkyway
Mexican Ponies
I normally couldn't care less about variant ponies, but Mexicans are just some of those "other" ponies I need to have. I'm not out to get them all, and I think I am quite focused on what I want. I aim to eventually own the following:
Moondancer - rivals the US regular version because I like her pose better (owned)
Rainbow Medley - why, she looks just lovely with the rainbow hair! (owned)
Alternate Pose Blossom - when I saw her it was OMG, MUST HAVE, I love her 100 times over the regular US version (owned)
Blue Belle with sky blue eyes (Auriken)
Baby Moondancer - I love her darker hair colour than the US one
Rainbow Firefly - this is not a must have, but nice to have to go as a pair with Medley
Starflower & Pinwheel - I just love their hair colours!
MOONDANCER
Notable difference is that Mexi Moonie has a pink streak instead of lavender, and much longer hair that touches the ground. She has metallic symbols like Italian Moondancer does, and has a forelock. Considering how shitty Mexican ponies normally are, this pony is what a lot of people would consider as GREAT condition. She was yellowed when she came, but I think sunning did her some good. She's still off white, but much better than before. She has some stray marks, but still lovely!
BLOSSOM
When I saw Renee's Blossom in NYC, I feel in love with her even though Renee's Blossom is in terrible condition with the poofy hair and discoloured body. Mine's not the best, but she's pretty decent with some faded marks on her. Her cheek blush has discoloured to white, and has a nick on the display side. I tried to recover it with pale pink paint, so now she looks like she has baboon's arse for her cheeks.
MINTY
This pony wasn't an intentional purchase. I was bidding on something else, and since she doesn't look too bad, I decided to buy her to bulk ship to save on shipping. She's not my favourite colour, but still a lovely addition nonetheless.
Twinkle-Eyed Ponies
Ok, I've decided to keep my post count down by grouping ponies up instead making individual posts for every character. I'll update the posts bit by bit as I get new pics of my ponies.
SWEETPOP
If I have a choose a favourite among the Twinkle-Eyed set, it has to be Sweetpop. Even though I was more well acquainted with TV featured characters like Gingerbread, Galaxy and Fizzy, I'd still pick Sweetpop over them any day. It is kind of funny since my friend and I deem Sweetpop, Sky Rocket and Speedy to be rather "Singapore" -ish ponies since unlike the other countries where they had a second set of TEs carrying later characters like Locket and Tic Tac Toe (even if they didn't get Mimic like North America did), all we got in Singapore were the first 6 TEs and these 3 additional mid-set ponies. The oddest part was that we had Sweetpop, Sky Rocket and Speedy in abundance!!! I remembered walking into the shopping centre and finding no other TEs (or maybe a sparse one or two hiding right to the back of the peg), but just these 3 ponies. It made me wonder if they were just unpopular, or was Hasbro just pushing the sales of new characters. Anyway, their impression on me has cemented. I love Speedy and Sky Rocket, but they're less unique because they came out in Europe as well. In fact, I still love Speedy, but somehow Sky Rocket's colour just doesn't stick for me. Sweetpop must exude some mysterious charm of her own that made me fall for her. Normally, I will choose a unicorn as my top favourite since I am almost always partial to unicorns over pegasus ponies. However, Sweetpop's colours smoothly won me over. She had to be in my favourite colour - BLUE and a nice cool looking one at that, and her hair colours just shout "POPSICLE", coupled with a matching name and symbols. She is simply perfect. Mimic may have won the majority vote for mayor, but I'll always choose Sweetpop.
ALTERNATE SWEETPOP
I bought this pony off PKW on the MLPArena. She gave Sweetpop alternate hair colours that I thought were quite fitting as well. I purchased her in a wink. PKW also specialised in one thing - de-BBEing & de-TEing ponies. She can remove their flawed eyes, clay them and paint them to look like they never had externally implanted eyes before. I do not Sweetpop even without the jewel eyes but I still feel rather sorry for her. I don't why but I see the jewel eyes as a TE pony's most treasured asset, and to lose them is SHAME! How can I let my pony live in embarrassment for the rest of her life? She's plastic and can live at least a few hundred years down the road without deteriorating, so that's quite a few centuries of shame - BAD. Lucky for her, there's a craft store near my place that sells flat base rhinestones in many size. Seems like the a trend to buy these nowadays for sticking onto an iPhone. I don't own one, but I'm happy that my ponies benefit from its popularity. Sweetpop is now a TE again, and best part is that her eyes are detachable, so that I can choose to let her be TE or normal, according to my mood.
UNICORN SWEETPOP
FIZZY
NEON LOCKET
I'm not sure why my camera wouldn't pick up the right colour, but when I bought this Locket, she was so discoloured that she's evenly neon pink throughout. The photo makes her look normal, but really she's discoloured. Not the regular lavenderish pink you normally have. It's kind of a waste since Locket's hair and eyes are almost perfect, and she comes with her comb pick and original ribbon. I've decided to keep her seeing how interesting she looks ^^ I'm getting a new Locket soon, hopefully, that one won't be discoloured.
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
WHY Nirvanas?
This is actually my quick response to a comment on the MLPArena regarding nirvana. I know it's kind of long .... as said it's a quick response, so I used a lot of "quick language". lol
"I think a lot of the foreign ponies look cheap and kind of... crummy.So, apart from being rare, what's the appeal?"
Honestly, Hasbro produces every pony for about 8 cents each, so I doubt any pony is actually considered "good" quality. And some were made from recycled plastics. The good news is though, plastics last for a very long time! Bad news is, some plastics don't retain their qualities (such as colours...etc) for as long. Wherever the ponies are made, they all have their own fair share of problems.
Not expounding nirvana holy scrolls here, because even I don't favour all the nirvanas out there. I only care about those occasional ones I am interested in. Normally "nirvana" interest sets in when either you have most of the common ponies out there, or you come from the country that sold them, and hence directly relates to you in many ways more than one. IMO, nirvanas are more considered an "add-on" aspect of MLP collecting, but you won't die if you miss out on them. And nirvana is such a wide and blanket term used that it's meaning is somewhat inaccurate, because I normally refer to nirvanas as super grails that are extremely hard to come by and cost anything above a pair of limbs, however, some people use it to refer to ponies of exotic origin, and some of which like some Argie ponies or Italians, aren't neccessarily hard or expensive to acquire. I do agree that a lot of the nirvanas are not as durable to play, mainly the hair, which goes frizzy easily. Most of the South American ones fit that description, but definitely not the Greek and Italians. What I find interesting about collecting these ponies is that
1) They're of a different make, and come with a "flavour" or style of their own that you don't normally find in mainstream ponies, and it's not always for the worse. Some I feel are actually made prettier than the US ponies.
2) They come in interesting colours that the US normally wouldn't sell, and hence makes collecting a whole lot more interesting with a larger variety to choose from.
3) They provide a new avenue of extra "new" characters for us veterans to collect, especially for those running out of ponies to collect, eg. owning all US ponies.
4) They sometimes make characters that collectors thought should have been made in the 80s, but weren't done by the US. An example would be Baby Minty. Lots of collectors love Minty, and some wished she has a baby, and the Greeks answered that call. However, she's super htf, so those desperate to own her would pay through their nose just to own her. Maybe that's partially due to sentimental value, but hey whatever it is, it's called a "nirvana/grail" pony - if it is not, then you probably wouldn't care paying for one in the first place.
5) It provides insight on how ponies were adapted to fit a different culture in the past, which from a cultural or marketing point of view are all equally interesting.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Just in case anyone cares to know more, here's my little summary of each origin:
Italian - Normally easily available and quite cheap to obtain. A few select ones go for decent mid-high prices mostly due to popularity such as Italian Gusty, which has green hair very different to the US counterpart. All Italians have blue eyes, and normally have painted matte or metallic symbols instead of glitter in the US, and their colours tend to be more intense and vibrant. Only downside is their often shoddy paint job, eg eyes not painted within contours.
German - Some don't consider these as nirvanas as they are produced in HK/China. Commonly known as "German exclusives" and only extends to certain sets of ponies like the Nestie Babies, the Play & Care Babies with Baby Buttons, CJ, Hopscotch...etc, alternate hair colour Sundae Best & Princess Ponies and the 3rd set of Rainbow Ponies with Raindrop & Nightlight. Their prices range from $25-80, depending. The baby ponies are sought after mainly because many collector own the adult version of the ponies to later discover they have babies too. I don't know why, but collectors have a strong major inclination to reunite the mums and the babies together, which also explains why Greek Baby Minty is such a must-have!
Spanish/No Country (NC) - Why Hasbro didn't use their factories in China remains a puzzle, because random select sets/characters are produced from this origin. There is a difference between a Spanish pony and a NC pony, mainly the Spanish ones have the word "SPAIN" clumsily etched onto their hooves. The NC ones do not have any country on the foot at all. However, they all might have been from the same factory because the make of the ponies feel like they are all the same. This is why Spanish or NC ponies, they are generally lumped together as a single category of ponies.They are most notable for the pretty 2nd set Rainbow Ponies they made, namely Starflower, Pinwheel, Confetti, Flutterbye, Tickle and Trickle. The ponies have slightly longer hair, the colours not as intense at the US versions, and the symbols are all painted with either matte or metallic paint, kind of similar to the Italians. They make nice replacements for the US versions because they are very pretty, and they also do not have the symbol rust problems, cancer and age spots that so plague the US release of the 2nd set Rainbow Ponies, especially Confetti, who's infamous for brown cancer age spots, Tickle for rusty symbols that eat into the plastic, and Pinwheel for rusty symbols plus plastic discolouration of neon pink spots. Other ponies with Spanish/NC alternatives are Sundance(most common of all), Tootsie, Cherries Jubilee, Snowflake (funny it's only her, haven't heard of Hopscotch, Honeycomb or Gypsy), and various members from the family pony sets. The mommies are commonly found as NC ponies.
French - These ponies are easy to recognise because they have "FRANCE" imprinted under their foot. These ponies received mixed responses because they can look VERY SIMILAR to their US counterparts, and yet some consider them exotic, and charge higher for them. They are indeed a lot harder to come by. They look like they are nicer with better quality, but really personally, I feel their plastics can be kind of thin in places. They generally have painted symbols, mixed with metallic ones, but the paint work is a lot more durable than the Italian or Spanish ponies. The hair is also a different texture from the US ones, like they are thinner and hold their shape better when it comes to curls, but I am assuming harder to defrizz as well. Medley, Twilight and Glory can be expensive despite looking almost like the US versions. However, it does seem like white French ponies do not turn cream easily like the US ponies do. They stay nice and white all the time, so white Frenchies are worth holding onto!!! Some ponies do end up as variants. The notable ones are Moondancer (different hair & symbolcolour), Bowtie & Cotton Candy have a different type of pink hair - the fading pink opposed to powder pink, and have a tendency to turn white over the years, making them a nice different. Then, there are the sitting ponies Bubbles and Seashell who have freckles instead of cheek blushes. There are also a few rainbow ponies that have been found with solid hair colours, so they do generate some variant interests.
Scandinavia - these only apply to very specific ponies. Even then, the ponies are not true Scandinavian ponies. The ponies are made in Hong Kong and are applicable to the coloured Birthflower Ponies, yellow Moondancer, white Tootsie, leaf green eyed Gusty with glittery symbols, NSS Cupcake and NSS Truly. Some of these ponies have been known to be released in other countries too, just not the USA or UK. Yellow Moondancer and white Tootsie are often found from Dutch countries too. Australia sold the alt colour Birthflowers, yellow Moonie and white Tootsie too, so sometimes, these ponies are termed "Australian" ponies. New Zealand and some other Asian countries received them, but Australia is the biggest country/market in the Asia Pacific region when these were sold there, so to make life simple for everyone, most people are happy to term them as Scandinavian or Australian. You can call them Singaporean, Malaysian, NZ, whatever (as long as the ponies were sold in those countries), but most collectors are not well versed with these places, so just use Australian, because most people know and recognise Australia.
Greeks - Only refers to early releases from Greece that were made by a factory called El Greco, and NOT Hasbro. Plastics are normally soft and squishy, and smell "sweet" - personally I do not find the smell sweet, but that's how a lot of collectors describe it. Eyes are thickly painted on with small pupils - some would describe them as "Egyptian eyes". Symbols are matte or metallic. Ponies have extremely intense and vibrant colours, which makes them very different from their US counterparts, some even come in different poses & colours. The Greek releases are a bit like G3 core 7s now. They will make let's say Firefly, but you can find the pony in many different colour combinations. It also seems they have a thing for releasing all the characters at least once in the colour orange, persoanlly, the only orange variant I like is Twilight. Very sought after Greeks are normally Baby Medley (baby never made in the US), "Ladybird", an easter Greek pony not sold anywhere else in the world, Baby Bluebelle and Baby Minty.
Basically what I love about Greek is them making all the ponies that I already love, but they make ponies like Sunbeam and Windy so much prettier in Greek style! Normally Greeks are found in rather decent condition, but the big killer for them is their symbols, which are paint that are known to "bleed" into the plastic through the years.
Argentinian - TCommonly referred to as "Argie" ponies. These ponies have normal looking pony poses, but their colours are all haywire, and the element of green seems like a favourite in their midst. Green body, green hair, green streak....it's green heaven for collectors. Green is a rare treat in US ponydom. These Argies use it like there's no tomorrow. These ponies were quite common at one point of time, and aren't as common now. A year or two ago, it was like a factory blowout on ebay, and I think that was pretty much all the MOC & MIB supply there is lol cos they're not as common anymore that prolly explains the slightly jack in their prices. Some US ponies are made in rather interesting colours in Argie. My fav has to be cream coloured Love Melody and first tooth Baby Moondancer, whom I'll own someday and call it Baby Nightlight instead.
Mexican - I used to think these ponies look horrible, not them really, just the condition they're often found in. I heard the Mexican sellers really dig them out from the ghettos LOL don't know how true! However, we are starting to find rather decent condition Mexicans on ebay as of late, so that's a good sign! Quite a few ponies are made true to their US design, but they show characteristics of much longer hair, painted symbols, or even spotting a different pose!!! One of the favourite grails will be Moondancer who is made in Glory's pose. For those who find that the US version looks a bit deformed, the Mexican one is for you. Mind you, she won't be cheap, because there's more than 100 ebayers who want her just as bad as you! The Mexicans do have some very nice looking ponies, but they can do better with the hair. It is also note worthy that the Mexicans have some very odd looking baby poses, like what looks like a Baby Firefly's head on a Baby Cotton Candy's body for the earth baby pose, and what looks like a Baby Ember's head on a Baby Firefly's body for the baby pegasus' pose. Baby Cotton Candys are normally quite easy to come by on ebay, and range roughly from $9-15 for pretty good condition ones. The baby pegs tho....hmmm, you might get a chance at Baby Surprise, but if you are aiming for pegasus Baby Blossom, please raise your credit card limit!
Peruvian & Columbians - I can't say much on these, we need other nirvana collectors to shed light on these ponies since I don't own or keep check on them. They do seem pretty similar to Mexicans IMO, and I think if you are to go for them, you might as well go for the Mexicans which are the cheaper alternative, except the few really nice ones like pegasus Peruvian Baby Blossom and Baby Medley. Or the Columbian "daddies"!
Brazilians - Not made by Hasbro, but a factory called Estrela. Also notorious for frizzy hair - it seems like a common fare for many South American ponies. They are also very recognised for their "shiny" plastic, and extremely well loved for making some of the very popular characters such as Magic Star & Paradise as normal ponies instead of So Soft ponies with flocking in the US. Also, some characters end up as a different breed. Example would be Truly as a peg. Most notable is the lack of unicorns in Brazilian releases, all of them are converted to earth ponies, such as Ribbon, Twist & GUsty. Gusty seems like the most popular of all, and her baby receives no lesser attention - always expensive to afford. They also make unknown characters that collectors assume are hybrids of US ponies fused together like the rainbow pony in a sitting pose, which has the colours of Sunlight, but more aqua-ish, but has Bowtie's symbol. The Brazilians babies are rather popular as they are the non-BBE answer to some of the US ponies like Baby Cuddles, Baby Tiddly Winks and BabY Lofty. Baby lofty is the most sought after because she is the only one not to have a NBBE counterpart at all in the US or Europe, and set completers are all out to get her. I was one of them, and I finally own my own. *is so proud!!!!*
Africans - last but not least, Africans. I can't remember what the last verdict was on them, but I know someone on the board is the expert on these. I'm not sure if they are real MLPs OR very well done fakies, because they come in all these hybrid poses and have tails sewn on in plugs rather than stuffed in as a bunch. All I remember was seeing an African Bubbles (colours are all correct, but she's in Moodancer's body with some other's pony's head) on Aussie ebay. I wanted it so bad, but it ended at $75, which is a no-no for me. The seller was in Sydney.
I hope this explains why some collectors collects nirvanas. Not everyone collects them for the value or is nuts over them to get heightened attention, but there really is something VERY INTERESTING about these ponies that nirvana collectors (or rather...pony archeologists) are crazy to unearth and discover. Call us extreme pony fanatics, we're not only crazy about ponies, we want to know all and more about them.
"I think a lot of the foreign ponies look cheap and kind of... crummy.So, apart from being rare, what's the appeal?"
Honestly, Hasbro produces every pony for about 8 cents each, so I doubt any pony is actually considered "good" quality. And some were made from recycled plastics. The good news is though, plastics last for a very long time! Bad news is, some plastics don't retain their qualities (such as colours...etc) for as long. Wherever the ponies are made, they all have their own fair share of problems.
Not expounding nirvana holy scrolls here, because even I don't favour all the nirvanas out there. I only care about those occasional ones I am interested in. Normally "nirvana" interest sets in when either you have most of the common ponies out there, or you come from the country that sold them, and hence directly relates to you in many ways more than one. IMO, nirvanas are more considered an "add-on" aspect of MLP collecting, but you won't die if you miss out on them. And nirvana is such a wide and blanket term used that it's meaning is somewhat inaccurate, because I normally refer to nirvanas as super grails that are extremely hard to come by and cost anything above a pair of limbs, however, some people use it to refer to ponies of exotic origin, and some of which like some Argie ponies or Italians, aren't neccessarily hard or expensive to acquire. I do agree that a lot of the nirvanas are not as durable to play, mainly the hair, which goes frizzy easily. Most of the South American ones fit that description, but definitely not the Greek and Italians. What I find interesting about collecting these ponies is that
1) They're of a different make, and come with a "flavour" or style of their own that you don't normally find in mainstream ponies, and it's not always for the worse. Some I feel are actually made prettier than the US ponies.
2) They come in interesting colours that the US normally wouldn't sell, and hence makes collecting a whole lot more interesting with a larger variety to choose from.
3) They provide a new avenue of extra "new" characters for us veterans to collect, especially for those running out of ponies to collect, eg. owning all US ponies.
4) They sometimes make characters that collectors thought should have been made in the 80s, but weren't done by the US. An example would be Baby Minty. Lots of collectors love Minty, and some wished she has a baby, and the Greeks answered that call. However, she's super htf, so those desperate to own her would pay through their nose just to own her. Maybe that's partially due to sentimental value, but hey whatever it is, it's called a "nirvana/grail" pony - if it is not, then you probably wouldn't care paying for one in the first place.
5) It provides insight on how ponies were adapted to fit a different culture in the past, which from a cultural or marketing point of view are all equally interesting.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Just in case anyone cares to know more, here's my little summary of each origin:
Italian - Normally easily available and quite cheap to obtain. A few select ones go for decent mid-high prices mostly due to popularity such as Italian Gusty, which has green hair very different to the US counterpart. All Italians have blue eyes, and normally have painted matte or metallic symbols instead of glitter in the US, and their colours tend to be more intense and vibrant. Only downside is their often shoddy paint job, eg eyes not painted within contours.
German - Some don't consider these as nirvanas as they are produced in HK/China. Commonly known as "German exclusives" and only extends to certain sets of ponies like the Nestie Babies, the Play & Care Babies with Baby Buttons, CJ, Hopscotch...etc, alternate hair colour Sundae Best & Princess Ponies and the 3rd set of Rainbow Ponies with Raindrop & Nightlight. Their prices range from $25-80, depending. The baby ponies are sought after mainly because many collector own the adult version of the ponies to later discover they have babies too. I don't know why, but collectors have a strong major inclination to reunite the mums and the babies together, which also explains why Greek Baby Minty is such a must-have!
Spanish/No Country (NC) - Why Hasbro didn't use their factories in China remains a puzzle, because random select sets/characters are produced from this origin. There is a difference between a Spanish pony and a NC pony, mainly the Spanish ones have the word "SPAIN" clumsily etched onto their hooves. The NC ones do not have any country on the foot at all. However, they all might have been from the same factory because the make of the ponies feel like they are all the same. This is why Spanish or NC ponies, they are generally lumped together as a single category of ponies.They are most notable for the pretty 2nd set Rainbow Ponies they made, namely Starflower, Pinwheel, Confetti, Flutterbye, Tickle and Trickle. The ponies have slightly longer hair, the colours not as intense at the US versions, and the symbols are all painted with either matte or metallic paint, kind of similar to the Italians. They make nice replacements for the US versions because they are very pretty, and they also do not have the symbol rust problems, cancer and age spots that so plague the US release of the 2nd set Rainbow Ponies, especially Confetti, who's infamous for brown cancer age spots, Tickle for rusty symbols that eat into the plastic, and Pinwheel for rusty symbols plus plastic discolouration of neon pink spots. Other ponies with Spanish/NC alternatives are Sundance(most common of all), Tootsie, Cherries Jubilee, Snowflake (funny it's only her, haven't heard of Hopscotch, Honeycomb or Gypsy), and various members from the family pony sets. The mommies are commonly found as NC ponies.
French - These ponies are easy to recognise because they have "FRANCE" imprinted under their foot. These ponies received mixed responses because they can look VERY SIMILAR to their US counterparts, and yet some consider them exotic, and charge higher for them. They are indeed a lot harder to come by. They look like they are nicer with better quality, but really personally, I feel their plastics can be kind of thin in places. They generally have painted symbols, mixed with metallic ones, but the paint work is a lot more durable than the Italian or Spanish ponies. The hair is also a different texture from the US ones, like they are thinner and hold their shape better when it comes to curls, but I am assuming harder to defrizz as well. Medley, Twilight and Glory can be expensive despite looking almost like the US versions. However, it does seem like white French ponies do not turn cream easily like the US ponies do. They stay nice and white all the time, so white Frenchies are worth holding onto!!! Some ponies do end up as variants. The notable ones are Moondancer (different hair & symbolcolour), Bowtie & Cotton Candy have a different type of pink hair - the fading pink opposed to powder pink, and have a tendency to turn white over the years, making them a nice different. Then, there are the sitting ponies Bubbles and Seashell who have freckles instead of cheek blushes. There are also a few rainbow ponies that have been found with solid hair colours, so they do generate some variant interests.
Scandinavia - these only apply to very specific ponies. Even then, the ponies are not true Scandinavian ponies. The ponies are made in Hong Kong and are applicable to the coloured Birthflower Ponies, yellow Moondancer, white Tootsie, leaf green eyed Gusty with glittery symbols, NSS Cupcake and NSS Truly. Some of these ponies have been known to be released in other countries too, just not the USA or UK. Yellow Moondancer and white Tootsie are often found from Dutch countries too. Australia sold the alt colour Birthflowers, yellow Moonie and white Tootsie too, so sometimes, these ponies are termed "Australian" ponies. New Zealand and some other Asian countries received them, but Australia is the biggest country/market in the Asia Pacific region when these were sold there, so to make life simple for everyone, most people are happy to term them as Scandinavian or Australian. You can call them Singaporean, Malaysian, NZ, whatever (as long as the ponies were sold in those countries), but most collectors are not well versed with these places, so just use Australian, because most people know and recognise Australia.
Greeks - Only refers to early releases from Greece that were made by a factory called El Greco, and NOT Hasbro. Plastics are normally soft and squishy, and smell "sweet" - personally I do not find the smell sweet, but that's how a lot of collectors describe it. Eyes are thickly painted on with small pupils - some would describe them as "Egyptian eyes". Symbols are matte or metallic. Ponies have extremely intense and vibrant colours, which makes them very different from their US counterparts, some even come in different poses & colours. The Greek releases are a bit like G3 core 7s now. They will make let's say Firefly, but you can find the pony in many different colour combinations. It also seems they have a thing for releasing all the characters at least once in the colour orange, persoanlly, the only orange variant I like is Twilight. Very sought after Greeks are normally Baby Medley (baby never made in the US), "Ladybird", an easter Greek pony not sold anywhere else in the world, Baby Bluebelle and Baby Minty.
Basically what I love about Greek is them making all the ponies that I already love, but they make ponies like Sunbeam and Windy so much prettier in Greek style! Normally Greeks are found in rather decent condition, but the big killer for them is their symbols, which are paint that are known to "bleed" into the plastic through the years.
Argentinian - TCommonly referred to as "Argie" ponies. These ponies have normal looking pony poses, but their colours are all haywire, and the element of green seems like a favourite in their midst. Green body, green hair, green streak....it's green heaven for collectors. Green is a rare treat in US ponydom. These Argies use it like there's no tomorrow. These ponies were quite common at one point of time, and aren't as common now. A year or two ago, it was like a factory blowout on ebay, and I think that was pretty much all the MOC & MIB supply there is lol cos they're not as common anymore that prolly explains the slightly jack in their prices. Some US ponies are made in rather interesting colours in Argie. My fav has to be cream coloured Love Melody and first tooth Baby Moondancer, whom I'll own someday and call it Baby Nightlight instead.
Mexican - I used to think these ponies look horrible, not them really, just the condition they're often found in. I heard the Mexican sellers really dig them out from the ghettos LOL don't know how true! However, we are starting to find rather decent condition Mexicans on ebay as of late, so that's a good sign! Quite a few ponies are made true to their US design, but they show characteristics of much longer hair, painted symbols, or even spotting a different pose!!! One of the favourite grails will be Moondancer who is made in Glory's pose. For those who find that the US version looks a bit deformed, the Mexican one is for you. Mind you, she won't be cheap, because there's more than 100 ebayers who want her just as bad as you! The Mexicans do have some very nice looking ponies, but they can do better with the hair. It is also note worthy that the Mexicans have some very odd looking baby poses, like what looks like a Baby Firefly's head on a Baby Cotton Candy's body for the earth baby pose, and what looks like a Baby Ember's head on a Baby Firefly's body for the baby pegasus' pose. Baby Cotton Candys are normally quite easy to come by on ebay, and range roughly from $9-15 for pretty good condition ones. The baby pegs tho....hmmm, you might get a chance at Baby Surprise, but if you are aiming for pegasus Baby Blossom, please raise your credit card limit!
Peruvian & Columbians - I can't say much on these, we need other nirvana collectors to shed light on these ponies since I don't own or keep check on them. They do seem pretty similar to Mexicans IMO, and I think if you are to go for them, you might as well go for the Mexicans which are the cheaper alternative, except the few really nice ones like pegasus Peruvian Baby Blossom and Baby Medley. Or the Columbian "daddies"!
Brazilians - Not made by Hasbro, but a factory called Estrela. Also notorious for frizzy hair - it seems like a common fare for many South American ponies. They are also very recognised for their "shiny" plastic, and extremely well loved for making some of the very popular characters such as Magic Star & Paradise as normal ponies instead of So Soft ponies with flocking in the US. Also, some characters end up as a different breed. Example would be Truly as a peg. Most notable is the lack of unicorns in Brazilian releases, all of them are converted to earth ponies, such as Ribbon, Twist & GUsty. Gusty seems like the most popular of all, and her baby receives no lesser attention - always expensive to afford. They also make unknown characters that collectors assume are hybrids of US ponies fused together like the rainbow pony in a sitting pose, which has the colours of Sunlight, but more aqua-ish, but has Bowtie's symbol. The Brazilians babies are rather popular as they are the non-BBE answer to some of the US ponies like Baby Cuddles, Baby Tiddly Winks and BabY Lofty. Baby lofty is the most sought after because she is the only one not to have a NBBE counterpart at all in the US or Europe, and set completers are all out to get her. I was one of them, and I finally own my own. *is so proud!!!!*
Africans - last but not least, Africans. I can't remember what the last verdict was on them, but I know someone on the board is the expert on these. I'm not sure if they are real MLPs OR very well done fakies, because they come in all these hybrid poses and have tails sewn on in plugs rather than stuffed in as a bunch. All I remember was seeing an African Bubbles (colours are all correct, but she's in Moodancer's body with some other's pony's head) on Aussie ebay. I wanted it so bad, but it ended at $75, which is a no-no for me. The seller was in Sydney.
I hope this explains why some collectors collects nirvanas. Not everyone collects them for the value or is nuts over them to get heightened attention, but there really is something VERY INTERESTING about these ponies that nirvana collectors (or rather...pony archeologists) are crazy to unearth and discover. Call us extreme pony fanatics, we're not only crazy about ponies, we want to know all and more about them.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
