1987: Party Ponies

DANCING BUTTERFLIES

Yellow pegasus pony with yellow mane and tail, blue and pink butterflies across haunches and back, one pink butterfly on nose.

Dancing Butterflies is a mouthful and a half to say or spell when you're six years old, so my poor pony generally got nicknamed "Butterfly" or "Dabu" when I was small xD. Her monocolour theme makes her quite striking, and she featured the new pegasus pose for the 1987 release. I have to say that it really suits her; although the Spanish and Brazilian variants of this pony feature a different pose, to me this one is the right one for a pony billed as a graceful dancer.

There are some variations within the releases of Dancing Butterflies here in the UK, probably relating to batch.

My own childhood pony came with curly hair, though these have mostly dropped out now. However, the Dancing Butterflies given to me by my childhood friend has straight, silky hair, which has never been curly. (I can be sure of that, because I played with her as a child with my friend for many years - and my friend's ponies were always immaculate). The probable cause behind this is that, unlike the North American release, the UK had this set released at the end of 1987 and it continued to be released through 1988 as well. For that reason, there are probably two years worth of pony releases wrapped up in one packaging style and name, which would account for why some ponies come from the factory curly and some don't.

This image compares the releases quite nicely. You can see that, aside from the hair difference, there is a minor difference in body tone as well, implying different release batches. My childhood pony is included for reference, as she illustrates nicely how a curly haired pony looks with her curls gone (quite different from the straight release who never had curls in the first place). The one in the middle is what I think of as a standard Dancing Butterflies, with curly hair, but it can be quite hard to find one in this condition.

Having straight or curly hair from new doesn't affect the value of the pony.

DANCING BUTTERFLIES
(Backcard story, UK, 1987-8)

Dancing Butterflies' story character in the comics was, logically, linked with butterflies. She spoke to them and danced with them...as I suppose a butterfly-mad pegasus pony is wont to do! Her backcard story makes her out to be a shy pony and a graceful dancer - both features that also appeared in the comic at times.

Her name was the same in all English language release issues.