1987: Party Ponies

MILKY WAY

Pinkish purple unicorn pony with white mane and tail (blue streak in mane), glittering silver stars symbol over back and haunches, stars on cheek.

Okay. First, my apologies for my childhood Milky Way, who refuses to look presentable in photos no matter how much I wash her or groom her hair!

There has been a lot of conflicting information on the subject of Milky Way and how she was sold. Let me clear the mystery up for everyone:)

It's a well known fact that the above, silver-starred Milky Way was sold in the North American release. As I understand it, she was the only version of Milky Way ever sold in North America.

In parts of continental Europe - certainly in Germany, Austria and France - the version of Milky Way that was sold did not have the glittering silver stars, but painted white ones across her body and on her cheek. Because of this, many collectors have labelled her the "UK" version of Milky Way. But, as I've already mentioned, the messy pony at the top of the page is my CHILDHOOD Milky Way. So...obviously that's not quite right.

MILKY WAY: WHITE STARRED VARIATION

The answer to the conundrum actually lies in my childhood, because at the same time as I was choosing and buying my silver starred Milky Way, my best friend at the time was also choosing to buy that pony - only hers had white stars. I remember it clearly because I was excited that our ponies were the same, but different. We made them twins, and they were easy enough to tell apart.

So, the answer to the puzzle seems to be simple. Since both she and I bought our ponies new in the same area of England at the same time, and we both bought them from English stores on English cards, both versions of Milky Way must have been sold in the UK. And to further back it up, I have since acquired my own loose Milky Way with white stars from a carboot sale over here.

To confuse matters, Milky Way was illustrated on her backcard with silver stars. This was the same backcard sold in the UK and in Europe, and the same back card on which the MOC white starred Milky Way shown on the top right hand side would also have been sold!

MILKY WAY with silver stars
(from Dancing Butterflies' UK backcard, 1987-8)

Of the two, the silver starred version is more common second hand in the UK (though not always with very nice condition stars).