1984-7:PLAYSETS

The Dance School was one of the smaller earlier playsets, and it folded up, with a bow shaped handle for easy carriage. Many of these are found broken second hand, indicating that they weren't really designed for carrying a lot of stuff inside! (Please ignore the yellow ribbon in the picture - this was my childhood solution to resolve the issue of a handle that kept falling off!)

As the name suggests, the playset was shaped like a bonnet. When opened out, it revealed a mirror (with a barre across it - my picture above does not show the barre, as I've misplaced it, but it came in either pink or yellow and slotted into small holes on either side of the mirror. You can see it illustrated in the insert below). THe floor at the front had three wheels on which the baby ponies could stand and be turned to "twirl". The mechanism to do this was on the side, and all three wheels turned at once. Baby Half Note came kitted out in her dance outfit, with a dance case (this could be pink or yellow) and a series of signs to announce today's dance show. The Dance School made an energetic showing in the My Little Pony movie.

DANCE SCHOOL sign and show title cards

Baby Half Note was first introduced to eager UK children in a many part story involving Locket and a bunch of keys. The story sticks in my mind and was so significant that the whole lot got reprinted in the 1987 favourite stories book. The story went that it was Baby Lucky and Spike's birthday and Sunbeam was organising a party. Somewhere in this was a card involving keys and one of the keys went flying off across Ponyland, with Locket in hot pursuit. The key led her to an island where Baby Half Note and six animal friends were stranded, waiting for a rescuer. After Locket had visited, the key took the Baby Pony to Ponyland, where she wound up sharing the birthday and dancing for them. During this time, the Dance School had appeared in Ponyland as a huge packaged birthday surprise. It might sound odd, but it was cute and as a kid it was definitely a favourite story of mine ;) Baby Half Note was a sweet, playful baby who always wanted to help out. She even found the Loving family Ponies by 'dancing into danger!'

In the cartoon series, the characterisation for Baby Half Note was fairly lacklustre - unfortunately a fact with a large proportion of the ponies brought into the cartoon for only one or two episodes. She played a part in Bright Lights, where she had her shadow stolen by a puppet singer and his evil boss.

BABY BONNET SCHOOL OF DANCE (1987-8 Insert)

There were two editions of Baby Half Note. In the UK the both were sold with the playset and appear to have been sold so simultaneously, since I got my Dance School for Christmas, 1987. My set came with a puffy sticker, but I don't know it other editions did or not.

The above insertpicture is from 1987-8 and appears to show Beddy Bye Eye Baby Half Note. In North America, it seems to have been more commonly (if not exclusively) the Beddy Bye Eye Baby sold with the playset. The Original version was sold through Mail Order at a later date. The Beddy Bye Eye one was offered through a mail in offer in the UK in around 1989, suggesting she was the later release of the two here, but it is not clear.

BEDDY BYE EYE and ORIGINAL
Baby Half Note

There is also a variation on the original theme - both of which came with the playset in the UK (since I had one and my friend had one, and so I know the full history of both ponies). My childhood pony had aqua eyes, curly hair and a lighter body tone than my friend's pony, who had purple eyes and straight hair.

COMPARING THE TWO: AQUA EYES/CURLS VS PURPLE EYES/STRAIGHT

FACE TO FACE COMPARISON

Baby Half Note's six animal friends were given names in the UK via the comic. The swans were Lucinda and Yolande, the rabbits Hop and Jump and the bees Pandora and Iris. These were sold with the playset -three in pink and three in yellow.