Time Travelling Shopping Trips!

[Lady Frostbite]

Oh Carrez, you remind me ... I'd try and steal the prototype Once upon a Zombie dolls! The Pocahontus, the Tinkerbell, ones that never came out, and try to get my damn hands on Alice 

oh man did Alice never come out after all? D: I never collected OuaZ but I remember there was a lot of talk about her back in the day.

She did indeed! She's now on Amazon US only, and their main site hasn't been restocked in forever. They had a prototype Prince Charming and Snow Queen (the prototypes were given away), but I have saved expo images that show complete and finished Snow White and Tinkerbell from when Wowee had the license

[Taffeta]

Ponywise, I'd go back to 1987 specifically to buy the Newborn Twins I could never find, Princess Pearl, who I could never find, Lightning, who I could never find...and also to make five year old me keep her Mountain Boy stickers and backcards -.-.

I'd also go visit Hasbro's office and locate that wretched Paradise prototype and spirit it away so it would never disappear and I'd finally have the real Paradise I expected to find as a kid.

I'd probably also go and give Hasbro UK a piece of my mind in 1985-6 for not selling the early unicorns, pegasus, rainbow ponies here. I'd make them change their minds so that kid me could have them and so could other UK kids. I've never forgiven Hasbro for that.

I'd also like to obtain whatever material I could from Hasbro UK. Also stores. I'd want to go and collect every store catalogue, take photos of store shelves everywhere I could manage, so that all the gaps in my pony knowledge of the UK were finally filled. I'm not really interested in doing a round tour of collecting rare MIP ponies, but having proper data on everything with pictures and stuff would be awesome Also of course all of the Hasbro booklets for stores and the television commercials. And as many of the other prototypes as I could manage to rescue so that they would have a safe place and we would be able to know all about them. Perhaps then I'd know the secret of Baby Susie's story.

In terms of other things, I always wanted a Fashion Star Filly as a kid. And while I have some now, it's not the same. So I'd like to go back and buy myself the one I was obsessed with (Arielle I think?) back then.

I'd also go and buy some Jem dolls. Because as a kid I hated the blond blue eyed doll army and Jem had dolls that were neither, and I might have actually loved them - but I didn't ever watch Jem as a kid, because the only thing I knew about Jem was the advert on my pony Vhs and that made them look like witches or something since it used the Abracadabra video :/

And Moondreamers! I never had them as a kid :'( I wanted them though! Whimzee and Crystal Starr especially.

Oh my goodness, and I just remembered, the Ghostbusters HQ! I had the four Ghostbuster figures that pulled funny faces but my folks couldn't afford the HQ so I had to make my own from cardboard boxes. I always wanted it though

I would go and buy stuff from Japan too - but not really Takara, except that they'd probably pay my rent for a few years, so maybe I would hoard them for that purpose. But I'd be most interested in tracking down things like the two Saiyuuki dolls I still don't have (they come up so infrequently and I'd like Hakkai at least).

In terms of other things - as a historian - I'd quite like to take a trip back to get an original copy of the text I study, although it'd take me forever to read it xD. Also other texts, other material, and right now, particularly, all kinds of books and tourist material from the last century, because it's interesting and so hard to find...

 But also I'd like to answer a few ongoing historical questions that are still bugging me - both in UK and Japanese history. I don't want to change anything, just see for myself what happened as historians cannot agree. And of course I'd like to bring some souvenirs back A proper Japanese tachi or an old bow and arrows would be great - none of this katana rubbish.

Finally, I guess I'd go back and obtain VHS of any TV show I didn't manage to record as a kid and which doesn't yet have a DVD release.

[glitterball]

Oh...

Body Shop: buy big bottles of my fave perfume oils, before it all changed, late 80s early 90s were the best times for me!

Boot sales - to buy big retro rhinestone brooches that were out of fashion and  we're going 10 a penny ...

Buy lots of extra Karisma colouring pencils before being discontinued, I have my stash but a few extras would be great!

Attend a Wimpy bar in my home town, also visit the mall when it used to have a fountain, both gone now. memories of going to Wimpy after buying my Grooming Parlour lol

[Lady Frostbite]

Oh...

Body Shop: buy big bottles of my fave perfume oils, before it all changed, late 80s early 90s were the best times for me!
Attend a Wimpy bar in my home town, also visit the mall when it used to have a fountain, both gone now. memories of going to Wimpy after buying my Grooming Parlour lol

Oh, heck, I miss The Body Shop's Daisy soap :c and their Dreams perfume and shower gel ...

There was a building in the city that had the imprints from Wimpy still there! I vaguely remember Wimpy at another town as well, that surprised me!

Visit a Baker's Oven in my hometown. Memories ...

[BubbleTea]

I'd clear stores of any and all Grand Champions.

and Kenner Jurassic Park.

[Taffeta]

I have genuinely seen an active, functioning Wimpy somewhere in the last year and a half.

I just can't remember where.

While I am assuming it's no longer a chain...it weirded me out.

I have memories of hiding under the table in Wimpy when I was four (!) and at a friend's birthday party because Mr Wimpy appeared and I was terrified of people dressed up in those kinds of suits. So everyone else was excited and I was hiding Ah, memories.

I had forgotten the Body Shop oils...as a teenager my friends and I would go there a lot.

Also, C&A. I find it weird whenever I go to Europe and see C&A since it died such a long time ago here.

[mlp4me]

Everything from the Disney store in 1990's...
MLP merchandise and clothing, mail order offers, just everything too.
VHS copies of X-Men the series & Spider Man would be purchased along with every other 80's-mid-90's Disney Afternoon cartoon; too many to list!

[Sky_Rocket_Sammie]

Indiana Jones toys because they never showed up in my area.
VHS tapes of both Ewok movies
Those 80s movie magazines, see the movie and buy the tie in the magazine.
The 90s Disney Store snowglobes

There was this big tree/green alien looking monster with red eyes and I received it one Christmas (85-ish). It was 12 inches plus, ugly but I loved it.

[Carrehz]

omg I didn't even think about taping stuff!! There's definitely some rare/lost stuff I'd want to tape (or try and liberate the master copies >_>)... "Hurry" from The Glass Princess, couple of censored cartoon scenes that only exist in low quality now (looking at you, Rocko's Modern Life), promos and trailers.. that kind of stuff.

[SnorkMaiden]

I'd go back to the 90s / early 2000s and buy so many books! There are dozens of books I used to get out of the library, and now I either can't find them anymore because I don't remember the titles, or they're really pricey.

[Miniature Sheep]

I would definitely go back to the 90s and get some Sega Saturn games that I was only able to play the only demos of when I was a kid, such as Panzer Dragoon Saga and Baku Baku Animal. I'd also pick up a whole bunch of blank tapes with interesting colours and designs on them - there are some really gorgeous Axia tapes out there but they're like hen's teeth! Oh, and Kitty In My Pocket. Those little leaflets showing off the other kitties you could get were the bane of my childhood - don't show the kids the Unobtainium!!!

[Taffeta]

I would definitely go back to the 90s and get some Sega Saturn games that I was only able to play the only demos of when I was a kid, such as Panzer Dragoon Saga and Baku Baku Animal. I'd also pick up a whole bunch of blank tapes with interesting colours and designs on them - there are some really gorgeous Axia tapes out there but they're like hen's teeth! Oh, and Kitty In My Pocket. Those little leaflets showing off the other kitties you could get were the bane of my childhood - don't show the kids the Unobtainium!!!

My sister and I had a pretty much full set of Kitty in my Pocket when we were kids. I think Naynie sold most of hers, I have no idea what happened to mine. Maybe they're still in the attic. But somehow we got pretty much every single one between us o.O. Most of the horses too, and some of the dogs. Maybe we fluked it??

[little.fox]

Fashion Star Fillies and Popples, especially Pretty Bit. Loads of mlp merchandise of course!

[freezestime]

Friends, has anyone thought about the practicalities of getting the things you want in this hypothetical situation?

Spoiler

First thing I can think of is what happens if you travel back in time to 1983 with a smart phone and a vape to take pictures?

Your clothes stand out, you use words that're from our time? You could probably stick out like a sore thumb, but if you go even further you might land in a place where foreigners cannot get in or not, leading to horrible things.

Plus with stores of the 1980's/1990's you can get a general idea of what's there so you don't have to guess where to find one, with medieval Europe you'd have to research where to find something then deal with the repercussions like the plague and arrows.

And getting the mail order ponies wouldn't be a guaranteed thing, you'd need an address, clip off the horseshoe points, mail it in, wait then get it.
There'd be other ways of definitely getting them, but they're unethical, such as nicking it off a child or going into the factory, sneaking in the packaging area and grabbing them, resulting in an extra being made or someone else missing out on them.

But with this, you'd have to track down which mail order was made at which factory, at what time, the building layout, safety precautions, blending in or who got them, how to get the item from them, ect.

I know it's a fantasy and all but even then, there must be some things that need consideration.

[Carrehz]

Practicality doesn't have a place in fantasies :p That's boring.