1991:

BABY BALLERINA PONIES

Although when taken in context, these baby ponies appear to be a natural progression from the Sweetsteps Ballerina Ponies of the previous year, within the UK line they were something completely new and fresh. Despite having similar colour schemes in many cases to the Sweetsteps Ballerinas, they were different in that they lacked the fancy accessories or the symbol on their back. These baby ponies were as poseable as the adult set, but completely without symbols.

They were also sold worldwide, whereas the adults were not.

For this reason, they are not that rare on the second hand market, although there are some minor variations to do with curly/straight hair. My sister and I had all four of them between us from new, and from our ponies alone, Baby Sweet Steps and Toe Dancer had curly hair, whilst Baby Tippy Toes and Baby Soft Steps had straight hair. There are, however, versions of Baby Sweet Steps and Baby Toe Dancer with factory straight hair. PLEASE BE CAREFUL not to confuse these with curly haired ponies whose hair has lost its curl -the texture is different!

BABY BALLERINA CARD FRONT, PROMOTING THE GIMMICK
(From Baby Soft Steps' card, UK)

When stood up straight, it's clear that all four of the baby Ballerina ponies have a basic looking up baby pony pose. Surprisingly, considering their malleability, it is very unusual to find these with broken limbs on the second hand market. I guess they had pretty tough joints!

Baby Ballerina Ponies were one of the sets which, on German cards, showed up in the UK at discount market stalls at the end of the MLP line (around 1995/6).