What new things are people learning about Collecting Ponies?

[kissthethunder]

Never replace and metal bits on nirvana ponies in your possession even if you always replace the washers of normal ponies with twist ties to prevent rust issues. It angers the pony gods and effects potential resale.

[Shy Violet]

When I first started collecting in '98 the biggest discovery for me was Nirvanas and country specific ponies. I've been obsessed with UK and Euro ponies ever since and always loved Nirvanas too. I can't think of any new things I've learned more recently.

[Foxtale]

Echoing a big discovery was Nirvana ponies. I was blown away that they made ponies after 1991 in other countries. Even more so I was surprised G2 lived on for so long outside the US.

It maybe also sound silly but it wasn't until I started collecting that I realized that they made ponies out of all the characters on the VHS tapes since I was so young and never saw any of those ponies.

[Taffeta]

This shouldn't be a past tense question, because I'm pretty sure we're all still learning. Even if we know a lot about a generation we know best, it doesn't mean there aren't still ponies we haven't seen from other generations or other concepts we don't yet know about.

I have a few things though, from different points, both as a childhood collector, a teen collector and an adult collector.

As a child, I learned the following lessons:
Washing curly pony hair and grooming it means no more curly.
Baby Sea Ponies really are not designed to go underwater unless you want mould.
Ponies with wings do not actually fly, no matter how hard you throw them.
The best way to get a sunshine pony's hair to change colour when you can't go in the garden because Dad is working out there is to dangle them out of the window on a shoelace.
Dance and Prance Ponies and Brush and Grow Ponies are not compatible.
Baby Brother Bright Bouquet's mouth is not meant to open properly, trying to make it open further with a paperclip is only going to end in tragedy.
Putting pencil shavings in brush and grow hair and then brushing them out makes the hair shine more (absolutely rubbish but I totally believed it as a kid)
Boys are scared of unicorn ponies if chased at hornpoint around the playground.
Shady's hair does not glow in the dark (although I actually was convinced it did until I got a glowing magic pony and realised that it probably didn't)


As a teenage collector coming online in 1997 (I was 15) I learned the following:
Firefly existed. So did Medley. So did all the other ponies from childhood stories I had begun to give up on.
Minty is actually green and not purple like the Fact File says.
Italian ponies exist and have blue eyes.
Carboot sales are awesome.
Half the ponies I grew up with didn't exist to people on the other side of the world.
So Soft Ponies are not plush.
The ponies on the inserts for 1987 wearing Pretty Ups/Ponywear were not made up -Quackers, Angel,  Twilight, etc did exist.
American names for ponies often repeat and thus lack imagination.

In order to help the online community I did a lot of investigation into what I grew up with. Some of the things that came out of that were as follows:
-UK Baby Sea Ponies have different poses and so does Confetti
- Twisty Tail had a different pose here too.
-Starlight Babies are not the same as Sparkle Babies.
-Italian Ponies existed in Europe but not in the UK.
-SeaSpray and High Tide were and are not the same pony. But Wavebreaker and Wavedancer are.
-Plush Honeycomb exists.

As an adult collector, I think since having my site I've learned a lot of things and have been taught a lot of things by other collectors. For example, I learned from Sel and Chrissytree that the Watercolor Baby Sea Ponies were sold in the UK. I learned from Lady G that Princess Amethyst here mostly had a purple hat, not the one she was always drawn with.

The biggest thing I've discovered over the years is that Hasbro Uk really made absolutely no sense with a lot of its release decisions and Hasbro in various parts of Europe were not a whole lot better. For that reason there are at least six versions of Baby Mischief, two versions of Sweet Clover, Tutti Frutti, Rosette etc and a lot of variation that really has no logical explanation.

Also that no matter how much you repeat that same information about stuff in the UK and/or Europe, it gets widely ignored and you or other people ultimately end up repeating it again and again, which gets very frustrating. Although people don't repeat most of the original myths about ponies in the UK, there is still an overt tendency to assume or believe something must be a 'UK variation' without doing the proper research to prove it, and that still drives me nuts. Twenty years on and I still have to tell people that white Tootsie wasn't sold in the UK, because some online ID sites still say she was.

Also, if you name a pony something, and everyone sees that pony on your site, that name suddenly becomes the pony's name. Bobbie came from our pony originally, if I had known that would happen I would have given her a much cooler name. But the name has taken on a life of its own - it's become Bobbi, Bobby, Bobbie and it now has also been applied to all kinds of other similar variations. Even though the name Bobbie only actually applied to the original pink haired no symbol version. The others are not Bobbie, but they get called it nonetheless.

In terms of other generations, I've seen a lot of ponies from G3 especially that I don't remember from when I was buying them. I also have learned a lot about G4, especially things like Holly Dash being hard to find and Starswirl as well (both of which I bought by fluke without knowing, so that made me kind of happy!)

Overall, though, I think we're all still learning stuff.

[SkyCakes]

This shouldn't be a past tense question, because I'm pretty sure we're all still learning. Even if we know a lot about a generation we know best, it doesn't mean there aren't still ponies we haven't seen from other generations or other concepts we don't yet know about.

I have a few things though, from different points, both as a childhood collector, a teen collector and an adult collector.

As a child, I learned the following lessons:
Washing curly pony hair and grooming it means no more curly.
Baby Sea Ponies really are not designed to go underwater unless you want mould.
Ponies with wings do not actually fly, no matter how hard you throw them.
The best way to get a sunshine pony's hair to change colour when you can't go in the garden because Dad is working out there is to dangle them out of the window on a shoelace.
Dance and Prance Ponies and Brush and Grow Ponies are not compatible.
Baby Brother Bright Bouquet's mouth is not meant to open properly, trying to make it open further with a paperclip is only going to end in tragedy.
Putting pencil shavings in brush and grow hair and then brushing them out makes the hair shine more (absolutely rubbish but I totally believed it as a kid)
Boys are scared of unicorn ponies if chased at hornpoint around the playground.
Shady's hair does not glow in the dark (although I actually was convinced it did until I got a glowing magic pony and realised that it probably didn't)


As a teenage collector coming online in 1997 (I was 15) I learned the following:
Firefly existed. So did Medley. So did all the other ponies from childhood stories I had begun to give up on.
Minty is actually green and not purple like the Fact File says.
Italian ponies exist and have blue eyes.
Carboot sales are awesome.
Half the ponies I grew up with didn't exist to people on the other side of the world.
So Soft Ponies are not plush.
The ponies on the inserts for 1987 wearing Pretty Ups/Ponywear were not made up -Quackers, Angel,  Twilight, etc did exist.
American names for ponies often repeat and thus lack imagination.

In order to help the online community I did a lot of investigation into what I grew up with. Some of the things that came out of that were as follows:
-UK Baby Sea Ponies have different poses and so does Confetti
- Twisty Tail had a different pose here too.
-Starlight Babies are not the same as Sparkle Babies.
-Italian Ponies existed in Europe but not in the UK.
-SeaSpray and High Tide were and are not the same pony. But Wavebreaker and Wavedancer are.
-Plush Honeycomb exists.

As an adult collector, I think since having my site I've learned a lot of things and have been taught a lot of things by other collectors. For example, I learned from Sel and Chrissytree that the Watercolor Baby Sea Ponies were sold in the UK. I learned from Lady G that Princess Amethyst here mostly had a purple hat, not the one she was always drawn with.

The biggest thing I've discovered over the years is that Hasbro Uk really made absolutely no sense with a lot of its release decisions and Hasbro in various parts of Europe were not a whole lot better. For that reason there are at least six versions of Baby Mischief, two versions of Sweet Clover, Tutti Frutti, Rosette etc and a lot of variation that really has no logical explanation.

Also that no matter how much you repeat that same information about stuff in the UK and/or Europe, it gets widely ignored and you or other people ultimately end up repeating it again and again, which gets very frustrating. Although people don't repeat most of the original myths about ponies in the UK, there is still an overt tendency to assume or believe something must be a 'UK variation' without doing the proper research to prove it, and that still drives me nuts. Twenty years on and I still have to tell people that white Tootsie wasn't sold in the UK, because some online ID sites still say she was.

Also, if you name a pony something, and everyone sees that pony on your site, that name suddenly becomes the pony's name. Bobbie came from our pony originally, if I had known that would happen I would have given her a much cooler name. But the name has taken on a life of its own - it's become Bobbi, Bobby, Bobbie and it now has also been applied to all kinds of other similar variations. Even though the name Bobbie only actually applied to the original pink haired no symbol version. The others are not Bobbie, but they get called it nonetheless.

In terms of other generations, I've seen a lot of ponies from G3 especially that I don't remember from when I was buying them. I also have learned a lot about G4, especially things like Holly Dash being hard to find and Starswirl as well (both of which I bought by fluke without knowing, so that made me kind of happy!)

Overall, though, I think we're all still learning stuff.

That is many new things that are exciting to learn. As for past tense I changed the title to reflex this better.

[Shabi]

The saddest thing I learned about ponies is that G4 Neon Rainbow Power hair bleeds colors into the body
And the happiest thing I learned is that G1 and G2 existed! Growing with G3 and G4 made me think ponies were great discoveries of my age like microwaves and washing machines.

[banditpony]

That there were so many ponies that I never knew about (specifically nirvanas).

And... rubberband rot. T_T

[orangepeachmango]

im learning new things every day. i always think i have the g1 roster down but then i turn around and by god theres another pony ive never seen before in my entire life! even though theyve been discontinued for 20 years, its like therye still being released! im always learning about pony merch and pony accessories.. theres so much i dont know. of course, nirvanas are a big "had no clue" about. I used to really really not like applejack but after seeing the columbian and french variants i think i need one x_x she looks sooooo beautiful when not orange! i had no clue she came in other colors! its a learning experience.

[Blue Haired Ken Doll]

I learned to avoid harsh chemicals when cleaning ponies! Might not skrew stuff up now, but we don't know what it could do tp the plastic down the line!

[BlueyBirdy]

I learned to only ever use plain white kitchen roll/paper towels when cleaning ponies, especially if using nail varnish remover. Ended up removing a stubborn mark on a Italian G1 Windy and giving her a new yellow one as the dye leaked out of the piece of kitchen roll. (Thankfully the yellow mark wasn't as bad as what I removed!)

[FarDreamer]

I have a lead for a a new way of removing pony cancer that doesn't involve soaking the pony in hydrogen peroxide out in the sun (ergo avoiding all the side effects).  It's just a lead right now so nothing to report yet.

[Leave a Whisper]

This shouldn't be a past tense question, because I'm pretty sure we're all still learning. Even if we know a lot about a generation we know best, it doesn't mean there aren't still ponies we haven't seen from other generations or other concepts we don't yet know about.

I have a few things though, from different points, both as a childhood collector, a teen collector and an adult collector.

As a child, I learned the following lessons:
Washing curly pony hair and grooming it means no more curly.
Baby Sea Ponies really are not designed to go underwater unless you want mould.
Ponies with wings do not actually fly, no matter how hard you throw them.
The best way to get a sunshine pony's hair to change colour when you can't go in the garden because Dad is working out there is to dangle them out of the window on a shoelace.
Dance and Prance Ponies and Brush and Grow Ponies are not compatible.
Baby Brother Bright Bouquet's mouth is not meant to open properly, trying to make it open further with a paperclip is only going to end in tragedy.
Putting pencil shavings in brush and grow hair and then brushing them out makes the hair shine more (absolutely rubbish but I totally believed it as a kid)
Boys are scared of unicorn ponies if chased at hornpoint around the playground.
Shady's hair does not glow in the dark (although I actually was convinced it did until I got a glowing magic pony and realised that it probably didn't)


As a teenage collector coming online in 1997 (I was 15) I learned the following:
Firefly existed. So did Medley. So did all the other ponies from childhood stories I had begun to give up on.
Minty is actually green and not purple like the Fact File says.
Italian ponies exist and have blue eyes.
Carboot sales are awesome.
Half the ponies I grew up with didn't exist to people on the other side of the world.
So Soft Ponies are not plush.
The ponies on the inserts for 1987 wearing Pretty Ups/Ponywear were not made up -Quackers, Angel,  Twilight, etc did exist.
American names for ponies often repeat and thus lack imagination.

In order to help the online community I did a lot of investigation into what I grew up with. Some of the things that came out of that were as follows:
-UK Baby Sea Ponies have different poses and so does Confetti
- Twisty Tail had a different pose here too.
-Starlight Babies are not the same as Sparkle Babies.
-Italian Ponies existed in Europe but not in the UK.
-SeaSpray and High Tide were and are not the same pony. But Wavebreaker and Wavedancer are.
-Plush Honeycomb exists.

As an adult collector, I think since having my site I've learned a lot of things and have been taught a lot of things by other collectors. For example, I learned from Sel and Chrissytree that the Watercolor Baby Sea Ponies were sold in the UK. I learned from Lady G that Princess Amethyst here mostly had a purple hat, not the one she was always drawn with.

The biggest thing I've discovered over the years is that Hasbro Uk really made absolutely no sense with a lot of its release decisions and Hasbro in various parts of Europe were not a whole lot better. For that reason there are at least six versions of Baby Mischief, two versions of Sweet Clover, Tutti Frutti, Rosette etc and a lot of variation that really has no logical explanation.

Also that no matter how much you repeat that same information about stuff in the UK and/or Europe, it gets widely ignored and you or other people ultimately end up repeating it again and again, which gets very frustrating. Although people don't repeat most of the original myths about ponies in the UK, there is still an overt tendency to assume or believe something must be a 'UK variation' without doing the proper research to prove it, and that still drives me nuts. Twenty years on and I still have to tell people that white Tootsie wasn't sold in the UK, because some online ID sites still say she was.

Also, if you name a pony something, and everyone sees that pony on your site, that name suddenly becomes the pony's name. Bobbie came from our pony originally, if I had known that would happen I would have given her a much cooler name. But the name has taken on a life of its own - it's become Bobbi, Bobby, Bobbie and it now has also been applied to all kinds of other similar variations. Even though the name Bobbie only actually applied to the original pink haired no symbol version. The others are not Bobbie, but they get called it nonetheless.

In terms of other generations, I've seen a lot of ponies from G3 especially that I don't remember from when I was buying them. I also have learned a lot about G4, especially things like Holly Dash being hard to find and Starswirl as well (both of which I bought by fluke without knowing, so that made me kind of happy!)

Overall, though, I think we're all still learning stuff.

I laughed so hard at the mental image of you trying to get ponies to fly and little you charging at boys with colorful unicorns! X'D

[Prince Primbrose]

A weird thing I learned and still have to remind myself of now: So Softs are no more water permeable than any normal pony. Underneath the flocking, they're still plastic! But for some reason I still think that the ponies are going to fill up with water when I wash them... Can't wrap my head around it.

[aintnobuffalo]

I learned that there will always be a Minty I need. Haha! I originally just wanted one, and then realized there are a lot of different poses, then I realized there are many variants, then I kinda wanted each MIB in addition to out of box, then I noticed that the different fadings of pink hair felt worthy of adding more to my collection, and now I want all of the merch I spot. Oh, it is just never ending with ponies.

[SkyCakes]

A weird thing I learned and still have to remind myself of now: So Softs are no more water permeable than any normal pony. Underneath the flocking, they're still plastic! But for some reason I still think that the ponies are going to fill up with water when I wash them... Can't wrap my head around it.

However, maybe you may confuse them with seaponies? I know mine fill up with water. Although I have sea ponies on my mind or something.