Lucky Ponies (1997) - Meritus
Meritus Industries Inc. had several pony trademarks, along with the more well-known Darlin' Dinos. These were themed in a similar way to Hasbro's My Little Ponies, but I think Meritus' Lucky Ponies take the cake in trying to emulate the style of colorful, brushable ponies with symbols. In the fakie pony community, these are often referred to as chubby fakies, named by Ahrian on her now unavailable fakie id site, Ahrian's Fabulous Fakie Guide.
Unfortunately, Lucky Ponies seem to be one of those toy lines lost to obscurity. Justia Trademarks lists the line as 'Cancelled', so it can be assumed they did not run for very long. As to why, I found a thread on here trying to identify another pony toy, and discovered an interesting post by the user Oldmeritusman, claiming to be the son of the company:
http://ghostofthedoll.co.uk/Forum/index.php?topic=1129.15
Now the credibility of this claim should be taken with a grain of salt of course, as it's the only post he's made, but he mentions they had a small pony line that hasbro stopped them from distributing. Whether this line actually
was Lucky Ponies or not remains to be seen.
Was
is certain is that they do resemble my little ponies closely, albeit a bit more horse-like in their molds.
As their name suggests, they had a horseshoes and clovers theme, many of them featuring the two in their symbols, though not all.
They came with some accessories, but I have very little information on them. According to Skimble, a reputable fakie pony collector, they came with crowns, brushes and combs.
http://my-little-fakie.livejournal.com/9086.html#comments
On Ahrian's fakie guide, there was apparently the flower cart mentioned above, but the image itself is lost, as the wayback archive did not save it.
Here are the only two back card images I've been able to find, both of which are from this thread, provided by mayanbutterfly:
http://ghostofthedoll.co.uk/Forum/index.php?topic=1073.0
Horseshoes and ribbons on the front, clovers on the back and some artwork featuring accessories.
Also the five M's forming a star would be Meritus' symbol.
The ponies themselves have markings of identification on their bellies, reading:
(C)1997 M.I.I.
MADE IN CHINA
They have painted hooves that match their single-tone hair color, several raised leg poses, some have open mouths while others have closed mouths, and they all have purple painted eyes. The eyes themselves appear to be painted in the opposite direction of the eye mold, which is really weird:
Here are all of the Lucky Ponies I have been able to find so far, though many of these images are not mine so the source is provided:
Purple ponies:
Horseshoes symbol
Yellow Ponies:
Horseshoes and Stars symbol - by fakiesrpeople2 on My Little Imposter Pony
Ribbons symbol - by Mermaid on Mlp Arena
Blue Ponies:
Horseshoes and Stars symbol - by Mermaid on Mlp Arena
Clovers symbol - by Sukeile on supony.blogspot.com
Pink ponies:
Horseshoes symbol - by wildshadow on mylittlefakie.proboards
Stars and clovers symbol
(Note the crown and necklace, though I don't know if the hair clips were also LP accessories) - by cody_sunday on Mlp Arena
Smilie face and flowers symbol (apparently glittery?) - by luckygirl62 on eBay
Robin's Blue ponies:
Glittery Shooting Star symbol - by kayveryn on mylittlefakie.proboards
White Ponies:
Stars and Moon Symbol
(Note the necklace) - by cody_sunday on Mlp Arena
Most of these ponies have their symbol all over both of their sides, but some only have it on the flank similar to actual My Little Ponies.
Seeing as these were made in 1997, perhaps they were a response to Hasbro's G2 release?
That's pretty much all I have on these guys. I'd love to collect them myself, so while this may not be enough to get it properly listed on here, I hope it comes as some help to those wondering about that occasional fakie with an M.I.I. stamp.
If anyone else has images or information, feel free to contribute!
