The Phony Pony Herd

Yesterday I wrote that I would try to get some snaps of  all of my Japan copies of the HR circus pony and the others that were made to go with them.

 I think they are charming and constantly have my eyes open for them when I am out antiquing.

There are some size variations - sometimes I think it is a scale variation and that there are two different sized sets of the same molds, other times I wonder if it is simply one company copying another (i.e. a copy of a copy) and changing the size a bit to avoid copyright issues. Sadly, the labels are usually missing from the horses when I find them so I do not always know who produced them.

In this group, my Shiken is the smallest, with the broken-legged new one just a bit larger, and finally a much larger Kelvin. Note the other differences in him - he's not sitting on his hocks, and his front legs are slightly different from the other two. His tack is blue and brown/orange instead of gold, but he does have the red heart.

 These three are unique to themselves thus far in my collection. The most recent one (on the right) looks a little bigger and chunkier than the other two.

Here are the "true copies," ones that you have no doubt are knock-offs of the HR Head Up circus pony. The larger Kelvin is on the left, then the new broken-legged piece, a Shiken, and the real Hagen Renaker on the right. It's hard to tell from the photos, but the HR has a creamy color due to the slip that was used to make him, while the others are a stark white bone china.

A size comparison, with the horses in the same order, HR on the right. You can see the body color difference better in this picture. He's also a little rounder.

Another HR (left) with the first. He has some light grey shading on his nose and legs, better eyes, and the early scalloped harness. His ears are a little more pointed, too.

I once did an Anything Goes class for GLC called "The Phony Pony Circus" where I used some of these and one real HR Head Up circus pony. (Go here to read about it.) It was fun and I may pull it out for an upcoming show that's on my calendar.

My collection of circus ponies first began with the Hagen Renakers, expanding only when I realized that the piece I was considering buying on eBay had black hooves. Thinking it was a variation, I bought him, and when I had him in-hand, I realized that he was a copy. That prompted my ongoing search for more of these cuties. I like them just as much, if not more, than the originals.