1987: Mountain Boy Ponies

THUNDERCLOUD

Lavender shire pony with dark pink mane and tail (dark bluestreak in mane) white cloud, yellow lightning bolt and blue rain symbol. FRECKLED.

Thundercloud was pitched as the wisest of all the Mountain Boy Ponies. He was great friends with the Wizard who lived inside Misty Mountain (the Mountain Boy Pony home), and he was always a great source of advice for adult and baby ponies alike. He also always gave the impression of being both calm and gentle, though the fact file cites him as occasionally "stern". He was also involved in a comic sense in the discovery of the Merry Go Round Ponies, which was all tied up with a whispering whirligig (No, don't get me to explain!) and Twirler of the Dance and Prance Ponies, too!

Like Ice Crystal, Thundercloud wasn't always Thundercloud's name. In pre-production (and in fact, early promotion), he appears as "Storm", a name given to him in the Hasbro booklet and the list sent me in 1995. This name also appears on one of the nametags for Snuzzle's Grooming Parlour, which - after much discussion, UK collectors have dated to early 1987. By the time the pony was released, of course, Thundercloud was very definitely his name. But there is still that "Storm" name tag which hints at the X-Pony he might just have been!