1987: Mountain Boy Ponies

TORNADO

Blue shire pony with pink mane and tail (dark blue streak in mane), white tornado symbol. FRECKLED.

As a child, I have to admit I never saw the appeal of Tornado. Of all six characters his was the least appealing to me, and I never thought much of his colour scheme. As an adult, having finally seen him in all his blue and pink glory, it's dawned on me how attractive a pony he actually is.

And that is the biggest trouble with Tornado as a pony. Nine times out of ten, he is found with white hair (coarse and frizzy, often), and not his original pink. There is no doubt, however, that Hasbro meant him to have pink hair. He features 0in both his backcard and the 1987 insert with pink mane and tail. There were no hair variations on Mountain Boys, and any white-haired Tornados are faded out.

Tornado's personality was restless and impatient, keen to get to the start of the next sentence before he reached the end of the one before. The fact file mentions him finishing off the phrases of others - a most annoying habit for a pony to have!!

Tornado is perhaps the hardest to find Mountain Boy by dint of the difficulty finding one with perfect pink hair. Partly, however, it depends on distribution for different characters appeared more strongly in different parts of the UK. It's my belief - though I never saw him new - that Tornado was intended to have curly hair like Thundercloud originally, but I have yet to see one on E-Bay or anywhere with perfect curl.

To add a postscript to this Mountain Boy thing, recently collectors as a whole learnt that there existed a Tornado made in Thailand, belonging to one of the UK collectors in the community. Not much is known about this pony or whether or not there are more, but he was found at a car boot sale in the UK. Having seen him at the Manchester Convention, his primary distinguishing mark - aside from his hoof stamp - is how squishy his body is. At a glance he looks like any other Tornado - so I urge all collectors who have MBs to check their hooves!

TORNADO: MADE IN THAILAND
(Picture Courtesy of Lady Ruby)