1988:
PRINCESS
PONIES
The second set of Princess Ponies were very different from their 1987 predecessors. These characters had no attendants - bushwoolie or dragon - and as well as having hair streaked with tinsel, they also had a 'spritz' of the same colour tinsel at the front of their heads. Sort of a glitzy forelock, if you like. (Well, it was the eighties!)
When new, each Princess came with a crown hair clip to hold these spritzes in place. As is probably to be expected, considering the more limited nature of their distribution, the accessories for these princess ponies are more difficult to find (especially their very small crown clips). I don't have a complete set of these but I believe that they came in one of three styles - a diamond embossed clip, an oval embossed clip (this one was the most pointy of the three!) and a circle embossed clip.
Accessories released with the second set of Princesses: wand, clip, ribbon and comb
(Princess Pristina's Accessories pictured)
The second set also had wands, ribbons and combs like the original year of Princess Ponies did. Each ribbon was narrow and edged with gold, and each pony had a different colour. The wand colours were also more experimental than the previous year. They did not have damsel hats, nor attendants.
Nominally Princess Taffeta and Princess Pristina are the more difficult characters from the set to find, although because of the nature of their hair, the tinsel spritzes can often be cut, damaged or just raggedy!
This set was not sold in the UK, although some weird and wonderful variations using parts of some of them have appeared here from the very end of the line. You can find out more about these in the variant section. The second set of Princess Ponies did see a release in Europe, however only in limited and specific locations and the nature and timing of this release is unclear.
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They appear to have been distributed in the Benelux countries (specifically Holland and Belgium), in the same style of box as the US release but with stickers on in Flemish/Dutch and French. It is not clear whether this release is related to why some 2nd set Princess Ponies had 2 horseshoe points on their box and why some had three.
HORSESHOE POINT DISPARITY
