1987: Twinkle Eye Ponies

TIC TAC TOE

Yellow earth pony with red, pink, dark green and green mane and tail, red and green noughts and crosses / tic tac toe grid.JEWELLED EYES.

Tic Tac Toe, like Cotton Candy before her, was one of those ponies who gave away the fact the toy line's roots were in North America. Although she was sold in the UK under the same name, and although the pony comic and the factfile made a big deal of her playing 'tic tac toe', the game itself is actually called noughts and crosses in the United Kingdom. I'm sure this caused great confusion for many kids, and her choice among the UK selection seems a touch bizarre.

Oh well. Either way, we got her.

Tic Tac Toe is memorable for the fact that she has lurid orange twinkle eyes - something none of the other Twinkle Eye Ponies have. Though her fact file entry does not give any hint to magic, her comic appearances often referred to enchanted game pieces and once, a big black box which had some kind of magic about it.

Among collectors, she is fairly sought after, and difficult to find in good condition. In Germany she was called "Trixi". There has been some debate as to how this set were sold in the UK - but the Mint on Card image to the right seems to solve this puzzle. The UK set (comprising Tic Tac Toe, Locket, Speedy, Sky Rocket, Fizzy and Sweetie) probably were all sold on the same white card, and certainly all six would have had the puffy stickers (which were phased out in North America by this time).

TIC TAC TOE (GERMAN/EURO CARD)

The above image shows that the accessories for the UK release and the European release of this pony matched, although both differed from the US release. This change seems to have happened because all the released Twinkle Eyes in the UK and European line came with shooting star combs, meaning Tic Tac Toe's accessory was changed here to match the rest of the line.