1990: Playsets: The Picnic Pony

SWEET CLOVER

Pink earth pony with dark pink/pale pink mane and tail, yellow and orange flowers symbol. (UK release version).

If Rosette had a mild identity crisis, Sweet Clover had a considerably major one. For several years she was known in parts of the collecting community under various names - Picknick-Pony (the german set name), Kleeblätt (the German actual name), Cloverleaf (a translation of the German name), Clover (erm...not sure about that one) and others.

Her real identity in English is "Sweet Clover, The Picnic Day Pony", and this name appears not only on her box (see above image), but also on Rosette's box and in one edition of the My Little Pony comic, where she appears for the one and only time as part of a 'win a playset' competition.

Sweet Clover is also confusing on other levels, too. There are two distinct versions of her. The pinker version (shown above and in the MIB picture) belongs to the United Kingdom release, whilst the other version (below) belongs to parts of continental Europe (certainly Germany, which might suggest she needs the name Kleeblätt' instead!)

SWEET CLOVER: Variation, continental Europe.
Peach earth pony with pink/dark pink mane and tail, bouquet of orange and yellow flowers.

Usually, it is the continental version of a pony which is harder to find of the two versions, but, in the case of Sweet Clover, the opposite is true. I don't know how she was promoted in Europe, but there are far more peach versions around on the second hand market than there are pink ones. Because the peach one was so common for a while online in the late 1990s, the price of both ponies plummeted, but in recent years she has become more hard to find in both forms. I am unsure right now which is more sought after by collectors - but it remains the case that for every pink Sweet Clover that surfaces online, there will probably be five or six peach ones available.

Sweet Clover's playset accessories were more original than those belonging to her friend Rosette, but still encorporated some re-releasing - her plates are based on the same design as those which came with Tutti Frutti some years earlier.

The pale pink in Sweet Clover's hair is the fading kind - white streaks are not a variation, but sun damage.