1986: Special Sets

BABY SLEEPY PIE

White baby pony with beddy bye eyes, blue mane and tail, pink and purple teddy bear with nightcap symbol.

Just to muddy the waters a little, Baby Sleepy Pie came onto the scene in 1986. Featuring the popular gimmick of the year - beddy bye eyes - she was sold with a special unique purse which had a pocket on the front to carry her in. The idea, it seemed, was for her to be an out-and-about pony - carried about by her loving "pony mummy" as she went about her daily activities.

The theme was so popular that it was repeated in the following year with a new Baby Pony, Baby Crumpet. The purse was also different in style.

Officially, Baby Sleepy Pie and her purse were not sold in the UK. Unofficially, large numbers of them appear on the second hand market. The most likely explanation is that, when Hasbro shut down pony production in the United States, Baby Sleepy Pie was one of the several American-line-only little ponies that came across the sea to be sold cheaply with playsets or on market stalls. Though I never saw Sleepy Pie sold this way, it seems the only answer, as her purse has not been found in the UK. Though she appears in animation briefly, she was never involved in any of the UK merchandising or literature, and so must have come here as an end of line sell-off.

BABY SLEEPY PIE'S PURSE