1989: Sunshine Ponies

SAND DIGGER

Yellow earth pony with aqua/white mane and tail, pink, green and blue buckets and spades symbols with sand grains.

Sand Digger has several special memories for me, because she was my childhood Sunshine Pony and many was the happy day my sister and I would put our Sunshine Ponies on long ribbons and hang them out of the window to catch the sun. (Yes, I am serious. This poor pony above has survived being forcibly abseiled down the side of my house!)

It seems that Sand Digger was special to Hasbro as well, however, as she was the pony used to advertise the set in the comics and on the front of the Sunshine Pony card (although it was Mainsail that stood beneath the rainbow of every pony sold around the same time).

In the comics, Sand Digger didn't have any specific magic that I can think of, though she often appeared with orange hair, (not magenta) thanks to 'Mr Sun'. She seems to have had a collection of buckets and spades, however - one tiny one of which she donated to the Newborn Ponies for their special Petite Pony friends to plant a Christmas tree in. (Aww.)

For some reason the Sunshine Ponies were not sold in the United Kingdom with ribbons, only combs. Each was sold on a bordered card in yellow.

Sand Digger was sold in the UK.