In 1982, TOMY released Pony Plates, a Western-themed variant on its popular Fashion Plates design kit. Rather than designing haute couture fashion, children ages 6 and up could create personalized ranch scenes complete with horses, barns, and wilderness landscapes. Yee-haw!
Pony Plates shipped with 15 plastic plates to be assembled three-up into the toy’s base. Once the plates were snapped in place, kids placed drawing paper on top and created an outline of the picture by rubbing the side of a black crayon over the paper. From there, kids used six coloured pencils to complete their scene.
The toy’s base also served as a convenient storage compartment, making Pony Plates a perfect companion on family road trips.
Pony Plates was on the market for three years before it was put out to pasture.
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