The MLP Arena
Pony Talk => Off Topic => Topic started by: Broken Irishwoman on July 28, 2019, 01:04:05 PM
-
This probably seems like a stupid thing to ask on a toy forum, but I am genuinely curious, because... I didn't. :lookround:
The thing is, we would really love to start a family, and we both love toys very much. Ponies, obviously, but also Sylvanians and other sweet things. I would be delighted if our children would play with all the Sylvanian stuff we have, but if they are anything like me, they will not appreciate it and possibly ruin it, too. :crazy: I didn't ruin my toys on purpose, but I wanted to make them "better". I was flighty and had all these horrible, "uncute" interests. To illustrate my concern: Most of my barbies ended up as Chuckie or other monstrous things, for example. :ninja: I was a weird child, seriously. Nothing like the Broken Irishwoman I am today. :P Sometimes I find it hard to believe that I was the way I was...
So what about you? Did you actually play with your toys the way they were meant to be played with? I'd like to think that there are also normal kids in the world, who actually like cute families and want to imagine a peaceful, loving family life when they play with them. :P
-
I think I appreciated some of my toys better than others. Growing up, my dad was in the Air Force so we moved every 2-3 years and we would have a garage sale every time we moved so we went through our toys and got rid of the ones we didn't really like anymore. I don't think I intentionally destroyed any of my toys but my Baby Frosting shows that I once took a pen to him (I always saw that one as a boy-probably because it was green and not pink or white) and even though he has pen marks, I still loved him and plan to keep him forever.
As far as play goes, my brothers' GI Joes used to ride into battle on the My Little Ponies and after playing in the dirt, they'd have a pony spa day. When I played by myself they had adventures like in the cartoons, meeting up with my stuffed animals and other toys. I also used them to put on puppet shows. So I guess I played with them like they were "supposed" to be played with--like toys. :)
-
I cherished my toys. I was actually very protective over them and would get angry if another child ever damaged them. I was not a sharer
Sometimes I'd cut hair though. I'd happily snip away at tails in order to make them more suitable for the show ring. >_<
-
I always tried to take care of my toys, but they usually ended up getting broken or worn out eventually. I did cut the hair and fur of several toys, but my ponies managed to make it out without even a single hair trimmed.
I think the only toys of mine that are still in decent shape are my Care Bears. But even some of those were chewed by the neighbors' beagle.
-
My dad was in the military too, and we also didn't have a lot of money. It was pretty well drilled into mine and my brother's heads that if we intentionally destroyed a toy, we would be unlikely to get another and if we didn't keep track of them, we may not get a replacement. In fact, the only time I remember getting a damaged toy replaced was when someone stepped on one of my Transformers and broke her. It was an accident, so it was no big deal. (Yes, I totally did own Transformers, LOL. I was also sick with bronchitis at the time.)
As a result of this, we still had the vast majority of our toys. In recent years, we've been giving them away to deserving children or charities. We treated our toys like treasures, and there's still many we won't part with.
-
My sister and I were both pretty appreciative and careful with our toys, especially our ponies! We never wrote on them, or put makeup on them, or gave them haircuts, or played roughly with them. Well, that's not quite true...my sister did cut one toy's hair because she was mad at me and I'd given her that particular toy, but she instantly regretted it and cried for hours afterwards. We enjoyed giving our ponies gentle baths after we'd played with them outside, so they never became stained or anything like that (I was a weird nerdy child who actually got on the internet and researched pretty much anything I became interested in, so I found out about tail rust at like the age of seven or eight and groomed my ponies with care accordingly).
My sister was about four when she got her first pony, and despite being three and a half years apart, we were each others' best friends and were inseparable. As such, we loved playing 'family' with our ponies/other toys. I usually played the daddy figure, or else the sort of...caretaker-type character, and my sister often chose to play the baby ponies. It was sweet! Sometimes we'd take our ponies to a 'drive-in movie' (aka use toy cars to drive them to the living room in front of our TV and watch the G3 movies with them while munching on popcorn) or take them to the local Friendly's in our bicycle baskets, where we treated them to ice cream. I have very fond memories of our stories that we made up together.
-
I think if you want your toys to remain pristine and unsullied . . . don't give them to a child. Some kids are gentle on their toys, some kids are rough on their toys, and some kids are gentle on some and rough on others. I was very gentle with My Little Ponies, but I cut up a bunch of antique doll clothes. (I wanted it to fit my plush dogs and it didn't fit well because it was made for baby dolls, so out came the scissors . . .) I cut the hair on some dolls and I put make-up in an antique doll's hair "to make her more colorful." (It never came out.)
Sure, it's good to teach kids to treat their belongings nicely, BUT . . . toys are also there as "practice" before kids get ACTUAL really nice belongings. With the expectation that, yeah, some things are going to be wrecked. I think it is unrealistic and frankly unfair to expect a kid to never cut something up or draw on it.
Also: I think it's admirable to want to share your own toy interests with your child. But do keep in mind that your child is going to have their own interests, probably based on whatever is popular in their grade at the moment. Imagine if, when you were a child, you wanted MLPs but your parents continually gave you Buck Rogers stuff because they loved Buck Rogers when they were little. I think I would've found the first couple Buck Rogers things interesting, but then grown increasingly sad that I never got the stuff I actually wanted.
-
We didn't have a lot of money so the few toys I had was very well cared for. I did write on and cut the hair on a fakie and I did cut the fringe on Milky Way but that was all. The minute the fringe was off I realised it would not grow back and I was devastated.
I did have a friend as a kid who got everything she pointed at, I remember seeing a commercial for a Barbie and I mentioned I wanted her to my friend. Next time I was there she had the Barbie and did not allow me to play with her. (No she was not a good friend but the only one I had at that time.) Another time I went there, the Barbie was missing a leg and had been chewed on by their dog and friend didn't care. She also had a Fizzy I dreamed of saving.
When mom was a kid there was a fire in their apartment complex and she lost all her toys except one doll and the dolls crib. Mom kept that doll and crib in her bedroom when I grew up. As she knew the hurt of loosing toys she never made us get rid of ours, but to keep and decide for ourselves what we wanted to do with them when we were old enough to choose. Hence why all my treasured childhood toys are living in my library/ponyroom today.
-
I wasn't intentionally rough with my toys, but they did take on a very 'loved' appearance. I still have my favourite childhood beanies and they all have untidy fur, scratched eyes, no tags etc. Some have stitches where they've been repaired, some have some paint or glitter on them where they 'helped' me with painting or whatever. They're not collector's pieces but I love them more than I could ever love pristine versions because they have so many happy memories associated with them. I definitely appreciated them (and still do!) but that doesn't mean I just kept them neatly on shelves!
It's also worth bearing in mind that kids are naturally a bit more heavy-handed/clumsy than adults. My girlfriend loved her childhood ponies and would never have scribbled on them or anything like that, but they did get broken sometimes, e.g. Little Flitter's wings came off as a result of enthusiastic 'flying'. But that just meant she got to play Hospitals, with her dad and his supply of superglue as chief surgeon!
I also have to say that I loved playing with my parents' childhood toys when I was little. They always seemed really special to me! But of course I liked to have my own toys too.
I had to laugh at the idea of playing happy families type games with Sylvanians. It's what they're designed for, but my childhood Sylvanians had the most insanely soapy storylines with people cheating on their spouses and single parent families and people living in poverty and all sorts :lol:. (I think the 'poverty' storyline came about to explain why not all the families had proper furniture, because I was still saving my pocket money to buy it. I used to have notebooks with 'Plans to Improve Life in Sylvania' and lists of what I needed to buy. I was a very odd child :lol:.) But I'm sure there are some children who play a more idyllic version of Sylvania!
-
I was usually good at looking after my childhood ponies. They nearly all got given away so I hope many of them are with collectors now.
The soft toys I had were much more shabby because I used to take them out of the house with me a lot. One that I still have went absolutely everywhere for years
-
A toy is meant to be played with, not necessarily handled with white gloves. So if a toy develops wear and tear-- then that's most likely because it WAS loved and played with.
A toy that isn't appreciated is most likely shoved in a corner and ignored.
That said, I got my curious side out on mcdonald toys because I knew they were cheap. So my friend and I deliberately do damage to those toys to kind of see what would happen. XD Although then we got banned from eating McDonalds but it wasn't that big of a deal since I didn't like the food.
-
A toy is meant to be played with, not necessarily handled with white gloves. So if a toy develops wear and tear-- then that's most likely because it WAS loved and played with.
A toy that isn't appreciated is most likely shoved in a corner and ignored.
That said, I got my curious side out on mcdonald toys because I knew they were cheap. So my friend and I deliberately do damage to those toys to kind of see what would happen. XD Although then we got banned from eating McDonalds but it wasn't that big of a deal since I didn't like the food.
I agree you there! You should see the Transformer I mentioned... she has worn out joints, chipped paint, and is just a mess to behold. But she was loved. No, she's not collector's material, but she was one of my favorite toys. The same with a bunch of my Barbies and stuff. Yes, they're still in good shape, but a Collector wouldn't buy them!
-
I was very careful with my toys. They were loved and have normal wear but that’s it. I had a collector attitude somewhat as a child, especially with my American Girl doll. I would cry and grieve any lost or damaged pieces or items that I let go and later regretted.
My mom was always trying to get me to get rid of toys but I stood firm on certain things like my ponies. There are still many things that I did let go and really regret. I don’t understand why my mom was like that either because she resented my Grampa selling of a bunch of their toys instead of letting them keep them. She did save a few things like her Midge and Alan dolls, baby doll, and a metal kitchen cupboard. She would let me look at them but not play with them and I knew they were special to her.
-
I valued my toys because when I was small we had times when there was really not a lot of money. I remember my sister and I had some toys handed down from our cousins (fun games, mostly from my male cousin, my female cousin didn't seem to have as interesting taste xD) and also some donated by neighbours (like a couple of railway sets I used to run down the path in the garden we had when we lived still in Birmingham).
There were often toys I wanted that I never had because of cost - Crimp & Curl hair salon was one of them, the Ghostbusters HQ was another (the latter I made my own from a box xD). I used to make a lot of things for my toys because the actual sets were too expensive. I had a few pony sets from new when they went on sale (Dream Castle was apparently the last one in Boots following Christmas 1986? And I had it for my birthday that year as a result).
Ponies only ever came at Christmas/birthday or with Christmas or birthday money or if I saved up for a very long time. They were also often bought by grandparents. Other toys similarly. I only had a limited amount of money so had to choose carefully and from what was there in the store. Choosing a new toy - and increasingly it became a new pony - became a very special event to the point I remember choosing a lot of them and that most of the time the one I went to buy wasn't there...I would always go home with a pony, though, because I'd saved up for one and pony displays changed. I learned to love the ponies I had rather than stamp my foot and whine over the ones I couldn't find.
I never cut my ponies' hair. I cried when my mother had to cut a tiny piece of Stargleamer's tail to untangle her from Songster after the two of them had an unfortunate Christmas day meeting.
I wrote my names on their hooves and doing so meant two that strayed found their way back to me (Snowflake was almost stolen, Sky Rocket I left lying around inside school. It was a tiny school and I was the only kid with my name so everyone knew they were mine).
BUT my ponies did sometimes do things like go on nature trail walks or swim in puddles, or abseil out of windows or stuff like that. They would also sleep over at friends' houses because we'd do a night swap so we got to play with each other's ponies for a bit, and one of my friends managed to wash the curls from Strawberry Fair's hair. My Mountain Boys - 2 of them - got cracked hooves and someone deliberately broke Wild Flower's earring (never found out who, but it wasn't in my bag so someone must have either taken her out to play with her behind my back or done it on purpose) and those things upset me. However it didn't stop me from taking ponies to school or playing with them fully.
I played with them but I looked after them as much as a kid can. I never did anything to actively abuse them.
I really liked doing their hair, too.
Other toys, pretty much the same. I would be really upset if a toy got damaged badly and needed repairing, even if it happened in normal play. I remember one of my parents accidentally broke one of my ghostbusters by messing with the arm too much and it had to be glued back on. I also ran a toy train off the dinner table when I was about four...my mother warned me if it fell off the table it would break..and I had to see if she was right...and she was...and there were tears. It was a thomas the tank engine wind up train thing and my mother, after scolding me for being stupid, wrote to the company and got a replacement face - but he always had a broken front set of buffers after that xD.
I think I valued every toy I had because I didn't get new toys every week. And I was absolutely ok with second hand.
I tried hard to keep the accessories for things safe but lost a few bits and pieces over the years.
I also played with my Mum's childhood dolls (much more interesting than the dolls available for my age range, my mother was a kid in the 50s xD) and my Dad's puppets (sometimes, when he let us...they're very precious to him).
-
I loved my toys! I didn’t harm them intentionally and I never cut them or drew on them. I wanted them to be as mint as possible, but I still played with them. I took them outside, and on boat trips to the beach. I loved my ponies, keypers, sylvanians and my stuffed toys. My playmo sets and my Barbies. I really, really took care of my toys- but my sister was a little bit more reckless so I used to “save” her toys by kidnapping them and hiding them under my bed. She always found out though, and I got seriously yelled at by my mom :lol:
-
I would say that I appreciated my ponies. But by being my favorites, they still got a lot more wear than all my other toys. :) And I did play with them with friends and siblings who were not always as gentle as I would have liked.
I didn't have many other toys of my own. Most toys were up for grabs by anyone interested in playing with them in our household.
-
I tried very hard to keep my toys in good condition. I treasured all of them, and a replacement would never have been “the same”, to me. I never even DREAMED of scribbling on them, chewing, cutting, or otherwise vandalizing them. I honestly can’t understand kids who do those kinds of things—I couldn’t understand them then, and I still can’t now. I didn’t take my toys to school, etc., or even share them with other kids most of the time... because I knew that those kids weren’t careful, like I was.
But at the same time, I was a little kid. I did kid things. I took toys outside, I played with them in the snow, I brushed their hair too hard... I tried SO hard to keep everything nice, but there were plenty of times when I simply didn’t know any better.
Example of my childhood logic: Snow = frozen water. Water = what we use to clean things. My thinking as a little kid was that snow, therefore, was a perfectly safe environment to take my toys out into. I didn’t realize that the moisture would make plush matted, or that getting waterlogged wasn’t safe for things like dolls and ponies. I thought that as long as I kept my electronics and small, easy-to-lose-in-a-drift-of-snow toys inside, everything was good. So naturally, my toys developed wear and tear through the course of my being a child (and not a collector, well-versed in the art of preservation).
Basically, there are two types of kids: those who appreciate and respect their belongings, and those that don’t and deliberately vandalize and destroy them (think of Toy Story’s Andy, juxtaposed with Sid, lol). Teach your own kid/s that stuff isn’t free, and that they need to appreciate what they have. But remember that even kids who really, honestly do their best to take care of their belongings will still end up causing general wear and tear. Hence the term: “well-loved condition”. :) I think sharing your collection with your kids is a wonderful idea (some of my happiest memories are of my mother letting me play with her own childhood toys), but just be sure that you are okay with the inevitable wear this will put on said toys. If there are special items that you want to keep “minty”, I would put those off limits, and maybe try to buy your child a cheaper alternative of their own (i.e., modern Sylvanian cat family, instead of a vintage set).
As for the kids who aren’t yours... Well, just try to keep the “Sids” of the world away from your collection, until they can learn to respect others’ property. >_<;
-
I always took good care of my toys. I remember being devastated when someone was over at my house and broke the leg off my Ariel doll and to make matters worse her parents didn’t offer to buy a replacement. I played with all but one of my MLP sea ponies in the bathtub and as a result the only one that didn’t have to be thrown away due to mold is the one I wasn't allowed to play with in the tub. The wings broke off of flutter Yum Yum even though I was very gentle.
Ponyfan
-
In my own way, yes. I did things like give my stuffed animals hair trims and I wrote with marker on the bottoms of some of my toys, but it was all for very good reasons. I never intentionally ruined my stuff. I was rough with my dinosaurs and accidentally broke some of them, but it was not on purpose. Even after they were broken I'd still play with them. I hated when my mom wanted to throw toys away so I would always try to fix anything I damaged.
-
Thank you all for the replies, I read them all, and I really appreciate each and every one of them! :D
And they do make me feel better. :P I'm so glad to hear that most of you took really good care of your toys, and that they were special to you. That does give me hope! Of course our children (God willing) will be free to choose what toys they want to play with, if it's not what we would have chosen, then so be it! But I would be delighted if they would love Sylvanians (for example) as much as we do. ^.^
Some of you wrote that your families didn't have much money, and that makes me feel even guiltier for the way I treated my stuff. Because we didn't have much either, so my parents must have cringed a lot at my actions. :crazy:
-
Don't feel guilty! For a lot of kids, that's how they learn about the consequences that actions have. "Oh, I cut my doll's hair impulsively . . . now it's short forever and I'm sad." It's a lot better to learn with something like a toy instead of "Oh, I didn't wear my bicycle helmet . . . now I have a concussion." :P
Also, if your parents weren't buying replacements for toys you roughed up, then you really weren't costing them any extra money. ;)
-
Short answer: yes.
My mother only had a handful of toys growing up. In particular two dolls. The lessons from those was something pressed upon myself and my brother as we had some toys but they were typically not the "new" or "current" but the clearance or second hand. We did not have a lot of money growing up but we had what my parents could.
I would also say that a good lesson was when I accidentally broke my first Barbie and my mom threw her out. It was the 1983 Great Shape Barbie (for a quick reference, it is the one used in the Toy Story films). I think I was 4 or so. My cousin (2 years older than me) had showed me how her head could move and I pushed too hard I guess and broke her head. My mom got tired of it falling off and she threw her out clothes and all. So when I got my next Barbie (1985 Dream Glow) I was a lot more careful (also when playing with my other dolls like Strawberry Shortcake etc).
Another thing that happened when I was a kid was one time (I think I was 8) my mother removed all my dolls and my Barbie Townhouse (and by removed I mean took the dollhouse apart and hid.) I honestly can't remember the why, but I remember they were gone and they had to be earned back. (For some reason I think it had to do with the continual messiness in my room or something I honestly can't recall.)
-
Don't feel guilty! For a lot of kids, that's how they learn about the consequences that actions have. "Oh, I cut my doll's hair impulsively . . . now it's short forever and I'm sad." It's a lot better to learn with something like a toy instead of "Oh, I didn't wear my bicycle helmet . . . now I have a concussion." :P
Also, if your parents weren't buying replacements for toys you roughed up, then you really weren't costing them any extra money. ;)
Haha, thanks! I guess you're right. :P
-
I tried to be careful with my toys, never cut any hair or marked them up. But they were well-loved and cherished. My Star Wars toys, in particular, saw a lot of my backyard and the neighbor's sandbox. A few got lost, sorry guys.
Didn't have a lot of money growing up so toys typically only showed up for birthdays or Christmas so I took care of them. That said I was willing to share and clearly remember one kid breaking the wing off one of my dragons. That was that and I wan didn't want to share anymore but I was at school (kindergarten). The teacher saw what happened and said I was being rude for not sharing. Or keeping to share....that's how I rolled. If you broke my things on purpose I had the agency to say "am not sharing any more".
Teach kids age-appropriate ways to value their belongings, actions have consequences and teach them to respect other peoples belongings.
-
I was really gentle and careful with my toys when playing with them, but I was horrible about putting them away. 99% of the damage they sustained was because I didn't put them away properly and they got stepped on, scraped against something, or caught on something. Oh and then there were the ones I forgot outside/lost and found after the snow melted. But yeah I didn't like to share because I thought other kids would break or steal my stuff (which was honestly true with my step sister) but a lot of it also got lost or broken because I didn't put things away.
-
I did look after most of my toys I say most as I had baby dolls when I was little but I put the clothes they came with on my teddies/ponies (if they were fitable) instead and the dolls soon went to the charity shop, my barbies I kept for a little longer as my mum liked them to, and I had my first pony when I was 4 and they endured as did the sindy/marx horses and if I have kid(s) they will be getting their own toys and will not be touching my preciouses !!
-
Eh...totally depends on how much I liked the toy. If I had scissors and a cheap plush from McDonalds, I found joy in cutting them up (horrible! I know!). My LPS though? They were taken care of fairly well. We did shout "Earthquake!" and shake their houses in the middle of playing with them, but the damage they sustained wasn't due to me, they were due to my younger sisters.
-
To my knowledge, I kept all of my childhood toys in the vest condition I knew how to. Faded G1 glitter symbols and removed plush tags are the worst I got. Heck, I thought clothing was permanently attached to dolls for the longest time.
-
Took pretty good care of my toys. Spoiled, only child here, nobody else around to play with, or to destroy them for me. I wore Teddy Ruxpin out well into my early early teens. Yes, I am a weirdo, but that bear was the only thing that would put me to sleep at times. He still plays, but his mouth no longer moves.
I also had a very unhealthy attachment to a stuffed dog (that I have openly admitted here more than once) that went everywhere with me until I was 10... The only other toy that I actually wore out with so much attachment. Needless to say I still scour thrifts to find a replacement. In all seriousness, 1981 America Wego black terrier; never found one on ebay and I've been searching regularly for almost 20 years.
This one is a knock off that my BFF found one time; it's not the same, but it does the trick for now.
visitors can't see pics , please register or login
Scarring moment... when my parents got rid of my care bears toy box and everything in it except 2 cheer bears, 10 ponies and all my barbies, I think I was 12 when this happened...