1991:

GLOWING MAGIC PONIES

aka Glow & Show Ponies

The Glowing Magic ponies were one of Hasbro's more unusual pony creations, and they developed on the theme of earlier styles such as the "Sparkle Ponies" by using translucent plastic embedded with special patterns and shapes. These were generally hearts and stars, the latter of which glowed in the dark, giving the pony their set name.

The North American name for this set was Glow 'n' Show Ponies. Despite that fact, however, when the US-made My Little Pony Tales cartoon aired in the early 1990s, these characters made a guest appearance in one episode where they were referred to as "Glowing Magical Ponies." In this episode, all of the four ponies from the set had wings, even the unicorn pony, Dazzleglow. This meant that only Starglow, the pegasus, was correctly illustrated. However, the animated versions were enough like the store-sold set to be inter-identifiable.

The Glowing Magic Ponies did also play a part in the UK pony comics, though not as far as I remember during the era of My Little Pony Tales. Instead they partook in the more classical My Little Pony stories - in particular Dazzleglow.

It must be added at this juncture that there are *many* variations in the Glowing Magic pony set. I will talk in more length about these on the individual pony pages.

Hasbro never did like to make things easy for themselves!