So, 2002... We're all a year older and wearier and probably
uglier. By now it's really obvious that Christ decided not to come
at the turn of the millennium. As a people, we acknowledge that
the world will not be coming to an end any time soon, and "Y2K: The
Movie" is an embarrassment to all mankind. Also, it took a while,
but people finally seem to get the idea that because there was no
year 0, the actual millennium turnover happened last year,
without incident. People hardly noticed because they were all out
getting more piercings and tattoos which are, amazingly, still
considered popular.
Meanwhile, back at headquarters... Hasbro has taken the initiative
to produce brand new My Little Ponies that are set to be sold the
following year, and Empire Toys has completed its slow crawl toward
death. The new Big Boss, Alpha International takes the Grand
Champion reins. The collectors are teased with pictures of new
horses and products throughout the summer, and the first Alpha
offerings show up at Wal*Mart in the fall of 2002. But there
is only half a set, as three of the
six anticipated breeds do not touch the shelves at all in 2002.
(They do not start showing up until late 2003, more than twelve
months later: The Anglo Arabs, The Hunter/
Jumpers, and The Quarter Horses.)
2002 also begins the new and weird trend of Blue Ribbon Foals
. It looks like Alpha doesn't want to make a special, exclusive
Blue Ribbon horse, so they turn 18 foals into Mail Order-only
offerings. These are the 6 babies from 2001, 6 from 2002, 3 from
2003, and 3 from 2004 (or that goes the information we have so far.
Your Results May Vary) even though only half of these foals have
parents at the time. Only the 6 2001 foals and 3 of the 02s come
from happy, stable families; the others are parentless until further
notice.
After much speculation on the "Other 2002 Horses," it turned out
that they were never intended (?) to be 2002s at all, but the first
half of the 2003 set. Alpha has never clearly assigned a year to any
of its horses, so it could be that 2002 was always meant to be a
half-set, or that "3 Breeds a year" is going to be the norm from
2002 and onward.
Also in 2002, Alpha has stopped putting group photos on the backs
of the packages. The pinkish/mauve box is the same, but the back
has artwork of real horses (a picture of that can be found at the
bottom of this page) so there is no way to know for sure which
horses belong in which yearly set. This means that we Webslingers
are somewhat at a loss for getting pictures of these new horses,
and I have had to create my own group photos for 2002.
Personally I think the artwork is a bad idea, and not just because
it makes my webpage-building more difficult. For everybody,
(kids and we adult collectors) one of the great parts of getting a
toy is turning the package over and drooling over the others in the
set that you really, really want, and the new packages make that
impossible. Remember how much you used to stare at the backs of
those My Little Pony packages? Pointing at the ones you want?
Tracing them and going, "You. And you. And then you. You, only if
I can get an allowance raise..." Maybe the Alpha designers are a
little out of touch with their childhoods. But you didn't hear that
from me... ^__^
Getting onto business now, here are the 6 confirmed 2002 horses.
After looking at the pictures for weeks and months, we finally
got our Gypsy Vanners with their pinto markings and fancy tack,
the new Appaloosas that are a mixed result, and the palomino
Arabians that are mediocre. There were some irritations involved
in this year's bunch (Alpha opted to use ugly versions of both
the Barb Stallion and
our treasured
Arabian Mare) and no one over there seems to get that we want our
appaloosas to have blended-edge blankets or leopard spot
patterns for a change... But these are still attractive horses
and most of them are highly original. This is not a bad first
effort from Alpha, and they may be able to make GCs as well as
Empire did, if not better. The good news is that (Probably thanks
to Rain :o)) the Pinto has finally made a place for himself
in the Grand Champion ranks, and we may get to have pintos every
year from now on. (Take THAT, 1996 through 1999!)
Here are the first six horses, half of the set:
Appaloosas...Piebald and Bay blanket. Mare and Stallion in #1. Mare: "Ah Pah Ahl" Stallion: "Mr. Chips" Foal:"Spicy Salsa"
Gypsy Vanner Clydesdales...Piebald and bay pinto. Mare and Stallion in #2. Mare: "Lady Fair" Stallion: "Moonriver" Foal:"Fair Skies"
Arabians...Palomino. Mare and Stallion(s)in #3 and #4. Mare: "Ice Sculpture" Stallion: "Fire Flame" Foal:"Golden Sunshine"
From left to right they are:
"Fair Skies": Gypsy Vanner Foal (Lady Fair X Moon River)
"Spicy Salsa: Appaloosa Foal (Ah Pah Ahl X Mr. Chips)
"Golden Sunshine": Arabian Foal (Ice Sculpture
X Fire Flame)
Here are the three foals to this year's horse couples.
I think
I remember their being sold in twos, (each with a friend from next
year?) so it was confusing for a while which breeds belonged to
which year. Well actually we thought this year would turn out
all six breeds, but this is the half set of foals to match the
half set of grownups that are the only actual 2002s, and the other
half is for next year. (Confused?)
These are
really cute! All are in different colors and, for the first time
since 1995, we have pintos and appaloosas to give the set
variety. It's great to see foals with such character, instead
of bays and chestnuts over and over. Spicy Salsa is
really a cutie (and my favorite) with her blended blanket and
irregular spots. She is just too sweet the way the white fades into
this soft pinky color around her li'l horsie rump. A shame the two
appaloosa parents couldn't have been done with the same
blended blankets, or this family could be as attractive as the
chestnut appies from the mid 90s.
Fair Skies is nice but an odd one, because he
appears to have been molded in black, though his
coloration is mostly white. So he was painted over in
white, but the layer of it is not thick enough, so you can
see this grayish color showing through underneath. But still a
very cute draft foal - Aren't they all?
Golden Sunshine... This 2002 bunch has raised some questions
about Arabians and their possible coloration. This foal's ID card
describes her as a cremello (yes, the
candy bar), which seems odd since pure Arabians are said to be
recognized only bay, chestnut, gray and black.
She is perfectly cute, but there have been a lot of palominos
recently in this standing foal mold, and they can be hard to tell
apart.
This is the package artwork that first appeared in
2002.
It's quite pretty (Wonder who did it..?) but I think photos of the
year's releases would be the better way to go. Perhaps they
were trying to save money, and will use this package from
year to year. That's what Breyer does, so maybe it's a trend.
It's encouraging to see such well-rendered horses here, no sign
of wacky proportions; makes me
imagine what awesome new molds could be in store for us in the
years to come.
