Nirvana Variant Theories

Use this prefix for threads about MLP items manufactured outside of the USA, exceptionally rare items, variants, and prototypes.

ElpuntThing

Truly Sweet TV Fan (she/her)
Joined
Jul 10, 2019
Messages
192
I just thought this would be a fun idea for a thread, to be frank!

The documentation of international variants sometimes seems like work that is never done, so not many people have delved into why changes were made. It often seems to be a case of "we don't know why, but in italy she looked like this! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯"

For some things the answers are obvious: the factory that burned down; the lines that are missing molds for whole races; the early discontinuation in north america... But many others are completely esoteric. Some colour changes were made for no apparent reason whatsoever.

So this is a place for speculation! Share your theories for why changes were made, from reasonable to wacky. Feel free to ask about things that are popular fan-theories that you haven't seen confirmed, too. G1 will obviously be the main theme of this thread, since hasbro got their stuff together after G2, which is not as well-documented, but feel free to bring up any gen.

I will start with my home country, the UK, and So Softs. No SS was ever sold here, so we never saw a lot of those characters at all (boo!). A set of six unflocked "NSS"/"moviestar" ponies didn't really fill in the gap, since so many SSes were important in the TV show. Why were these ponies forbidden from british lands? No one knows.
My suspicion is that it had to do with cleanliness and toy care! We all know some SSes didn't age well at all, and since MLPPP mentions that any bathing changes the texture, I think there was fear about the higher humidity and general wetness we have here. This is supported by the fact that early UK packaging contained instructions on how to braid pony hair to keep it neat! In particular, kids who play outside will often have to do it in the rain because it can rain for days on end which is more than some can stand to stay indoors. This would definitely cause ponies to get wet, which they are fine with, or muddy, which can be wiped off from every pony except so softs. Hasbro UK recognised that as they were creating a toy for children to play with, they needed to make choices that would make them more durable in the specific environment here. (Makes you wonder why they gave the go-ahead to flutters, though!)
 
Someone didn't agree with how something was done and changed. Or confusion. Or different factories. Or a chance to re-release them, but decided to make changes.
 
Mexicans with extra long hair: if they are toys with hair to brush and play with, why keep it short?
Also with the rainbow-haired: What's better than a rainbow?
Also, the Principitos/Prince sets. Why did the US even limit them to just princesses?!
 
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Also, the Principitos/Prince sets. Why limit them to just princesses?!

While there's the issue that (Mexican) Spanish neutral is usually the masculine way..There's a big difference between Princesa (Princess) and Príncipe (Prince). And there's the need for oficial (more) male ponies!
 
While there's the issue that (Mexican) Spanish neutral is usually the masculine way..There's a big difference between Princesa (Princess) and Príncipe (Prince). And there's the need for oficial (more) male ponies!
What I meant is that the US limited them to just princess ponies, which seemed like a shame. I thought the Prince ponies were actually an amazing concept :) I should really fix my wording haha
 
I agree! Princes and Princesses would've been awesome! I never really understood why they were so insistent on having model differences between male and female ponies anyway...
 
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