1988: Sparkle Ponies

STAR HOPPER

Store release: Dark aqua glittered unicorn pony with yellow mane and tail streaked with gold tinsel, magenta and aqua flying saucer symbol. NO symbol on cheek.

As has already been mentioned, the Sparkle Ponies are a confusing breed, and keeping the store issue and the mail order release on the same page seems the easiest way of preventing further confusion about these releases!

Star Hopper was the first Sparkle Pony to be introduced into the My Little Pony comic universe. She made her debut in edition 100, where she featured on the front cover and in a story inside entitled 'A Sparkling Surprise'. Aptly, it was Milky Way who first tracked down this elusive new species of pony.

Star Hopper also introduced Sunspot in the course of her story and claimed that she got her sparkles due to an enchanted experiment with a teacup and a saucer that flew out of the window, returning to douse them both with moondust and glitter. Yes, if you believe that, you will really believe anything. Pictures of all of the set appeared in this edition also, and oddly enough Star Hopper was illustrated with white hair throughout.

Mail Order Edition: Aqua glittered unicorn pony with white main and tail streaked with gold tinsel, magenta and aqua flying saucer symbol, small symbol on cheek.

Star Hopper is one of the two Sparkle Ponies that is easy to tell edition for just at a glance. Store sold Star Hopper had yellow mane and tail, whilst the mail order edition had white instead. She also has quite a distinctive body tone difference - the mail order, as can be seen by the photos, has a much denser body and is much greener in hue, whereas the store sold version is more translucent and has a darker aqua body.

There are some colour variations in the Mail Order for some of the Mail Order Sparkle Ponies, and this is one of the most distinctive that I have found. The image below compares the two Mail Order variations with the store sold one, and it is clear that there are differences in the symbol and the body tone/consistency.

COMPARISONS OF STAR HOPPER RELEASES: L-R Mail Order #1 (dark tone, larger symbol), Mail Order #2 (light tone, smaller symbol), store release (yellow hair, dark tone).

Officially, the mail order versions were not sold in the United Kingdom. Unofficially, there have been claims that some were found sealed onto cards both here and in North America, as if Hasbro were getting rid of surplus stock.

Such claims remain unverified, but may explain the small number of mail-order Sparkle Ponies that have been found in the United Kingdom.