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Twinkles the Cat

Apr 28, 2025
5 min read

Updated: Jan 20

CHARACTER(S): Twinkles the Cat

  • Portuguese (Brazil) name: Gato Bigodinho

  • Argentinian name: Gatito Parpadeo

YEAR OF PRODUCTION: 1984

PLACE OF PRODUCTION: Hong Kong

MANUFACTURING COMPANY: Hasbro

TYPICAL PRICE ONLINE: $10 individually, but often sold as an extra with ponies or as part of the Pretty Parlor play set

OTHER COMMENTS/INFO:

  • Released with the Pretty Parlor Play Set, alongside his best friend, Peachy!

  • The Brush Me Beautiful Boutique, a recolored sequel to the Pretty Parlor, included a recolored, white version of Twinkles, named "Snowball" or "Catnip"

  • Peachy, Twinkles, and the Pretty Parlor Play Set had a full re-release together for MLP's 35th anniversary (links are to the re-releases)

  • She is about 1.75 inches tall (4.5 cm)

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Table of Contents

 (Images sourced from My Little Wiki)

Media Appearances

  • Twinkles the Cat appears in the background of the first G1 MLP Special, and is featured several times in the UK G1 MLP Comics. He is also featured in some picture books

While the style the ponies are drawn in stays largely consistent throughout the UK comics, the way Twinkles is stylized changes quite a bit, as seen above -- Image sources: Heck Yeah Pony Scans

  • Twinkles is featured in a surprising amount of merchandise!

  • Media is inconsistent with Twinkle's gender/pronouns, with use of both "she" and "he" to describe them.

  • Snowball is featured a handful of times in the G1 comics, treated as a separate character from Twinkles

Twinkles and Snowball in Issue 72 of the UK G1 MLP Comic -- Source: Heck Yeah Pony Scans
Twinkles and Snowball in Issue 72 of the UK G1 MLP Comic -- Source: Heck Yeah Pony Scans

Twinkles in "A Problem for the baby Ponies" -- Source: Heck Yeah Pony Scans

USA Twinkles


  • Both the stripes and the face details are black

  • This version of Twinkles was also sold in Canada

  • On the right, for comparison, is the UK Twinkles, who is mostly the same, but has eyes placed closer together, at a slightly lopsided angle


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Euro Variant 1

  • This variant was for sure sold in the UK, and seems to have been sold in some other European countries as well - Belgium, Greece, Finland, Germany, France, Italy, and Sweden

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The Greek Twinkles appears to be this variant. This is interesting because the Greek set was made in Greece!

Greek:

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Italian:

  • My Little Wiki lists the Italian Twinkles as being a white cat, similar to Snowball from the Brush me Beautiful Boutique. All footage I can find of the set though, seem to feature this Euro variant - Although there isn't much to work off of

  • The video shows the Italian set with an orange Twinkles

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The Dutch/Belgium release, the Finnish and the Swedish release of Twinkles all fit the variant! These were sets are all labeled as made in Italy.


Dutch/Belgium:

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Finnish:

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Swedish:

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Euro Variant 2

  • This variant was sold in France, Germany, and the UK

    • The initial releases of the Pretty Parlor in UK appear to have had the other Euro variant, while the later UK Mail Order Pretty Parlor, which came with Snuzzle instead of Peachy, had the long-eyes version

  • Her facial features, particularly her eyes, are stretched out/elongated

  • He appears in one of the Pretty Parlor ads in the Argos Catalog from the UK alongside Peachy, though this isn't a guarantee he was ever sold with her, as sometimes catalog images don't match what ends up being sold


UK:

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French:

  • France had two Pretty Parlor releases, virtually identical but with slightly different accessories. One had a Twinkles that resembles the first Euro Twinkles, and one that resembles the second one

  • In France, Twinkles is called Pussey le Chat

  • Twinkles appears the same on the box for both French Versions, as they just reuse the US box but translate it to French

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German:

  • This long-faced variant shows up in one of the Pretty Parlor sets from Germany

  • Germany also, like France, did have a version sold with the other Euro variant of Twinkles, though

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Spanish Twinkles

  • There were two releases of the Pretty Parlor in Spain, one with the Piggy Pony style Peachy, and one with a standard-style Peachy. The Piggy Pony one for sure had this unique variant of Twinkles, I'm unsure about the other.

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No-Face Twinkles

  • There may or may not be a variant of Twinkles sold with no facial features - It's hard to know, because her facial features tend to degrade and fade over time anyway. In fact, it can be very hard to find a Twinkles with a fully in-tact face!

  • My Little Wiki says the faceless Twinkles may have been released in France, but does not show any photos of a faceless Twinkles with a French set

  • MLP Accessories does attribute a faceless Twinkles to the Mexican set, although My Little Wiki seems confident Twinkles got a different mold in Mexico. It was possible there were simply two (or more) releases.

    • The faceless Twinkles that is attributed to the Mexico set has indents for where his eyes and whiskers go, which is not usually the case for Twinkles

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Mexican Twinkles

  • The Twinkles sold in Mexico uses a different mold - It appears very similar to (if not the same) as the mold used for Custard in Strawberry shortcake. This mold was actually used for Twinkles in the Basic Fun re-release of the Pretty Parlor

  • There is not a lot of footage of her...

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Brazilian Twinkles

  • The Twinkles released in Brazil was made in Brazil by the company Estrela

  • Brazilian Twinkles has orange stripes instead of black stripes, but still has black facial details

  • His name in Portuguese is Gato Bigodinho (which means "Little Mustache" or "Little Whiskers"

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Argentinian Twinkles

  • There were several releases (at least 4) and variants of the Pretty Parlor in Argentina. While it seems there were just two variants of the Parlor itself, the accessories differed between releases. In turn, there are multiple Twinkles variants.

  • The Pretty Parlor, and Twinkles, sold in Argentina were produced in Argentina by the company Top Toys

  • His Argentinian name is Gatito Parpadeo

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Peruvian Twinkles

  • There were four releases of the Pretty Parlor in Peru, at least one of which included a unique beige-colored Twinkles variant! Her eyes are very small, and she has either no whiskers or very faint, easily faded ones

  • There is another Twinkles variant believed to probably be from Peru, who is orange but has small eyes and differently drawn whiskers

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Columbian Twinkles:

  • The Columbian release includes a unique, yellow-toned Twinkles with what appears to be a slightly different mold! He also has very differently drawn stripes and whiskers

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See Also:




Comments

This website is purely for educational/archival purposes. I do not own the rights to My Little Pony, and most photos on this site are not my own. I provide image sources if the source is still available online, but there are far too many photos for me to ask each person for permission (and some are from users who are inactive or not possible to contact -- i.e., from sites like Worthpoint) - The whole point of the site is collecting as many photos as possible. I try to ask permission on social media or forums that I'm active on, especially if I'm using a lot of photos from one person. If you own one of the photos on this site and do not want it here, message me and I will remove it. This isn't meant to take credit from or upset anyone; It is just for fun and to help record the existence of these toys. If you are made uncomfortable by me using your photos, I will remove them for you.

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