Gusty in Europe
Gusty's European release is a bit murky, in part
because we lack all of the evidence to know exactly where she
was and wasn't sold. It is clear that some countries, like
Germany and Austria, had an Italian version of Gusty who was
probably sold on the same art style of card as the Hong Kong
Fable Ponies (in fact, it is from this German translated card
that the name Fable Pony - Fabelpony - has its origin). Other
countries, like the UK, did not get Gusty until 1987, in the Movie Star
set.
Inbetween the North American Hong Kong
release in 1985, and the 1987 Hong Kong Movie Star release is
the Hong Kong 'Fable' set, including a version of Gusty with
GLITTERY purple leaves and GREEN eyes.
Gusty - comparing the eye colours
Gusty - Comparing symbols
As the above comparison pictures demonstrate,
Fable Gusty had the same symbol as the earlier 1985 North
American Gusty, but her eye colour was very distinctly green
instead of aqua blue. Comparing my loose ponies, it seems that
Fable Gusty's eye colour is a little lighter in shade than that
of the Movie Star version, but that may be just due to batch.
Both 1985 Gusty and Fable Gusty also seem to be made of the
plastic that more easily discolours. Again, this may be to do
with batch alone, but the eyeliner between Fable and Movie Star
Gusty also seems different. Movie Star has heavier eyeliner.
All three ponies have the same hoof markings in
the same location, including Pat Pending.
The Fable version of Gusty was sold in parts of
Scandinavia (at least Norway and Sweden), Finland, Australia and
South Africa. She may have been sold in other places as well but
the evidence has not yet come to light. Her release in Denmark
is unknown, as Denmark had some of its own style cards during
this period and it is not entirely clear how much the sets
overlapped.
Although the cards are illustrated in the UK
style, and say 'distributed in the UK', this set never
was.
Fable Backcard, 1986 (Skyflier's shown)
Nordic region, South Africa and Australia
Although not all the Fable ponies were pictured on their
backcard, Gusty was one of those who were. She is pictured with
a pink ribbon, and we can theorise that her accessories matched
her North American release, as the handful of MOC Fables that do
survive seem to suggest this. This would make the pink ribbon
illustrated accurate as well, but I am not aware of a surviving
MOC Fable Gusty to confirm this 100%.
Fable Gusty was not sold in the United Kingdom. We can
theorise that she was originally intended to be - as there was a
lot of promotion in the UK comics for all the early unicorn and
pegasus ponies, and Gusty was introduced along with them, not in
the following year with the other Movie Star Ponies. Why she and
her set were not released in 1986 in the UK is unknown, but the
set does not appear in the 1986 Hasbro catalogue. This suggests
that the decision was taken by Hasbro UK themselves, and was not
dictated by a store lack of interest.
Gusty's Character
Gusty was depicted as a bit of a grump in the animated series. She
was a little caustic in her observations and was unkind to Wind
Whistler in Crunch the Rock Dog when Wind Whistler had trouble
expressing her feelings. Animated Gusty also had the ability to
make breeze from her horn.
In the UK comic, she could not have been more different. Gusty's
UK persona was as one of Ponyland's succession of 'nurses', and
she was frequently drawn with a nurse hat or called 'Nurse Gusty'
by baby ponies. Her responsibilities were twofold - one, to look
after medical issues, and two, watching over the baby ponies.
Gusty did not have a backcard story in the UK,
but her factfile entry associated her magic to autumn leaves.
Not only did she have the magical ability to make the leaves
'burst with colour', she was also able to return fallen leaves
to the trees, presumablty meaning she could reverse or control
the autumn leaf fall.
Fable Gusty's backcard story is unconfirmed, but, based on
other Fable cards I have seen, I suspect it to have been an
abridged version of the 1985 North American backcard story.
