As the sky darkens and the wind whistles hungrily around the castle, you wander up and down the long, lonely corridors of the citadel. Outside, weather-beaten banners struggle violently against the lean, icy gusts. The atmosphere unnerves you, and you catch your breath upon detecting soft footsteps slowly creeping up behind you. Swinging around, you face your pursuer--a lavender unicorn with pink buttons on her flanks. She blinks.

"Oh, I'm sorry . . . did I startle you? I only wanted to get a closer look--I've never seen a human before," explains the blue-haired pony.

"That's okay." You give a mental sigh of relief.

"I'm Buttons," adds the unicorn. "I had a little insomnia, so I wander around, maybe take a look at the My Little Pony prototypes . . ."

"What are those?"

"Oh! Well, you know how that Hasbro company made 'My Little Pony' toys that resemble us--" You nod in assent as she pauses. "Well, before they mass produced the toys, they'd often take pictures for their brochures. Sometimes the mass-produced ponies would be different from the brochure ponies. So the ones in the brochures wouldn't be exact copies--they'd be prototypes! There are lots of prototype ponies; you can see some of them here in the castle. Want to take a look?"

"Sure!" Following Buttons, you soon discover a room full of pony prototypes . . .

Actually sold in Baby Shady's Beddy-Bye Eye pose, Baby Sleepy Pie is shown here in Baby Blossom's pose--with normal eyes! Because two of the other ponies in the advertisement--Baby Moondancer and Posey (non-So-Soft) are from Year 3, I believe that Baby Sleepy Pie was originally going to be released in that year.

This adult pony was also pictured in Baby Sleepy Pie's advertisement. She appears to be a completely purple earth pony in Gingerbread's pose, but her colors don't match any of the ponies from Year 4. She certainly isn't a Twinkle-Eyed pony--her eyes are painted on and her hair is monochrome. (And to confuse the matter even more, it looks like the artists drew in some of her mane--or at least added painted highlights to it.) And she doesn't look like a So-Soft pony either. Who the heck is this?? Also in this picture is another shot of Baby Sleepy Pie in Baby Blossom's pose. The picture editors outlined her mouth in black so it would show up better, which at first made me think she was a Beddy-Bye Eye pony (with an open mouth); however, when I compared Baby Shady and Baby Blossom , I discovered that she must be in Baby Blossom's pose; otherwise, her left foot would be in front of her right. The girl is holding her with her body tilted down.

I discovered these Twinkle-Eyed prototypes in a UK comic (strutting their stuff in Ponywear with Jewelry.) At first glance, everything looked fine. Their bodies were right. Their hair was right. Their symbols were probably right, although I couldn't actually see them since they were wearing clothes. But I had the nagging feeling that something was different. I looked closer. What was up with their eyes? The eyes of these Twinkle-Eyed ponies all match their bodies! Masquerade has yellow eyes, Sweet Stuff (or Sweetie, as she's known in the UK) has bluish-grey eyes, Fizzy has greenish eyes, and Gingerbread has clear eyes! The store-sold versions, on the other hand, all had different eye colors. Masquerade's eyes were green, Fizzy's were pink, and Gingerbread's were blue. (I'm not sure about Sweet Stuff's eyes, never having seen her in real life.) Anyway, I think that these Twinkle-eyes actually all have clear eyes which reflect the body color behind their eyes. (If you take the head off a Twinkle-eye, you will see that bulges of plastic hold their eyes in place.) Their eyes also seem to have more facets than normal, but that may just be the camera angle.

Now, I find this very interesting. These pictures of High Flyer (left) and Glow (right) are from a Hasbro Toy Fair catalog. What's strange about these ponies? They've traded wing designs! The wing colors are accurate when compared with mass produced ponies, but High Flyer actually had the squiggly wing design while Glow had the more intricate striped wings. (To see the mass produced versions, go here.)

From the same catalog: Little Flitter with a powder blue symbol instead of a dark pink one!

The Happy Tails ponies were in the same catalog. Here's a prototype of Romper in Lickety-Split's pose. She was actually sold in Tootsie's pose. Also, her symbol was changed from yellow to pink and her tail ring became blue. (To see the mass produced version, go here.)

Here's another one . . . Squeezer in Shady's pose instead of Bow-Tie's! In stores, the ring around her tail was actually purple. (To see the mass produced version, go here.)

This Tossles prototype is identical to the one sold in stores . . . almost. Her symbol has been reversed! All the Tossles I've ever seen have had the standing bear on the right and the sitting bear on the left. Also, her tail ring was yellow. (To see the mass produced version, go here.)

Like the other three Happy Tails in the catalog (shown above), these three ponies have tail rings that match their bodies. However, the storebought versions had different colorings. Tabby's tail ring was blue, Woosie's was pink, and Tall Tail's was purple. However, they are accurate in all other respects, which is more than you can say for Tossles, Squeezer, and Romper. ^_^ (To see the mass produced version, go here.)

What's wrong with this picture? Maybe the fact that Raincurl is blue instead of white?

This version of Satin 'n Lace is in the collector pose! At least, the caption says she's Satin 'n Lace . . . Cynic that I am, I find myself wondering if Hasbro didn't have the bride pony available for the picture and just used Cotton Candy instead. After all, you can't see her symbol in the photo. And I can't help noting that the pony appears to be pink, not lavender.

At first glance, I didn't see anything amiss regarding these Twice as Fancy Baby ponies. But wait--why aren't Baby Up, Up, and Away and Baby Sweet Tooth raising their left hooves? And Baby Milky Way--she's turning her head! Closer inspection revealed that these Twice as Fancy Babies are also Peek-a-Boo baby ponies with turnable heads! This is most noticeable on the baby unicorns, who are in a completely different pose. Also, Baby Love Melody is a darker purple than she should be.

It's a small difference, but a difference nonetheless . . . the colors on Sky Rocket's symbols are reversed. My own Sky Rocket has a purple rocket with a pink nose and streamers. (Mine is the mail order version . . . I don't know if this holds true with the storebought version.)

Right colors, right symbols, wrong pose. Baby Sugarcake (yellow) and Baby Gametime (pink) were actually sold in Ember's pose, not in Lucky's!

The prototype of Love Letter, a Romance pony, had light pink hair, the same fading shade found on Posey. But in stores, she was actually sold with dark pink hair, like Truly's. Her pose and symbol remained the same.

Another Romance pony, Love Story was initially pictured with dark pink hair, but was actually sold with light pink hair. (Maybe Hasbro accidentally switched Love Letter's hair for Love Story's?)

Only the symbol of Love-in-a-Mist's prototype held true; she ended up with a different pose (Tootsie's), a different body color (peach), and a different hair color (purple).

Although she is shown here in the pose of Baby Tiddley-Winks, Baby Alphabet was actually sold in Ember's pose. Also, her symbol ended up being a book displaying capital and lower-case "E" . . . not "A".

From the same set as Baby Alphabet (the Playschool Baby ponies) comes Baby Countalot. The prototype is in Baby Sugarberry's mold, but this was changed to Baby Blossom's mold when she appeared in stores.

Like Baby Countalot, Baby Schoolbag is pictured in Baby Sugarberry's pose but ended up in Baby Blossom's mold. Interestingly, Baby Schoolbag was marketed as a boy despite being in a pose common for baby girl ponies. There was also a prototype of him in a Playtime Baby Brother mold (with feathered Clydesdale hooves.)

The fourth Playschool Baby pony is Baby Pictures. She is almost portrayed correctly in this picture . . . but not quite. While her pose and colors are correct, her symbol changed before she was released in stores. The prototype's symbol shows an orange crayon and a red crayon crossed over each other. The store-bought version, on the other hand, had three crayons as her symbol--one red, one yellow, and one striped with both colors. Also, the middle of the crayons (the "wrapper") was filled in with the appropriate color of paint instead of showing through to the pony's blue body.

The prototype of Good Weather, the Holiday pony, is in Shady's pose. By the time she reached the shelves of toy stores, she was in Up, Up, and Away's pose.

This unknown Cookery pony was shown in the 1991 booklet standing beside Vanilla Treat, Nice 'n Spicy, and Cherry Sweet. The fourth pony in the set was actually Sweet Delight; like the prototype, she was pink with blue hair. But there the resemblence ends. Sweet Delight is an earth pony in Tootsie's pose with four tiny cakes as her symbol. The unnamed prototype, on the other hand, is a pegasus with two large gingerbread men as her symbol.

Ah yes, the ever-popular kitchen playset, never released in the US. I have never seen this version actually for sale. I am convinced that it is merely a prototype of the version which was sold. When the Kitchen finally hit the stores, the cat door and kitten were gone and the scene from the "window" showed a white pony with hot pink hair standing in front of a rainbow. Some collectors seem to have the impression that this is a Spanish version of the Kitchen, probably because collectors usually garner information on the various sets of ponies from the Dream Valley website which, in turn, originally derived the information on the 1991 non-US ponies from a Spanish brochure (or so I believe.) However, the kitten-Kitchen also appears in British brochures, although it was never sold in Britain (again, as far as I know.) If you DO have this playset, please let me know! (Remember, it's the one with the cat-door!)

The first thing I noticed was Baby Berrytown's pose. She was actually sold in Baby Blossom's stance, not Ember's. Also, the store-sold versions had a blue tricycle with pink wheels. On further inspection, I found that the entire family had different hair colors. The last three streaks are orange, dark blue, and purple when they were actually light coral, light green, and dark pink when sold in stores.

Baby Sunbright's symbol is actually a green fish with orange fins and orange splashes.