Yeah it has! When I started watching it as a teen, I was like, "oh yeah, I had some old pony toys as a kid! Wonder where those went...". After years of watch FIM and wondering about those lost toys, I rediscovered them hidden back in my closet. Finding those old toys is what kicked off my decision to become a vintage toy collector, and got me into going to flea markets with my dad, something he had already been doing for years. It really helped strengthen my bond with him over collecting cool toys, and not feeling as ashamed for wanting to collect toys as an adult. Deciding to collect G1 and vintage fakes is what encouraged me to join this forum too. 

I never really got involved with the FIM fanbase/community or merch while watching the show, aside from listening to all of the cool fan music that was created! I guess you could say joining this toy forum ended being my first experience integrating with the pony community, and it's been a pretty positive place! I will say my 2016 BF was a fan of the show too, which surprised me but it was so much fun to talk about it with him, he was super nice.

I don't have anyone in my RL age group to discuss collecting vintage children's toys, nor would I really dare to bring it up with friends, but my dad is a collector of diecast and sometimes we go looking for collection items together. Because he is also a collector of sorts, I feel much more comfortable occasionally discussing pony stuff, but even then I really only scrape the surface of my interests with family. It's just too hard to share things I like that I feel family wouldn't respond positively to, even if they're not mean about it.

I think takaras are wonderful and part of that is because I'm into fakies. Real takaras are very hard to come by, and I geniunely regret not talking about them to my aunt and uncle back when they lived in Japan, though I wasn't even collecting anything back then!

I find as a collector it's very lucky the internet has come around, as there are many other platforms to share your collection now such as this very Arena!

Lucky Ponies by Meritus are my favorite, I also think Sunshine Ponies are pretty cool!

Wow, that crazy! I love it, and hope I can find a cool discolored pony for myself!

I've had fakies who's rotted manes fell right out, but of actual Hasbro ponies I think my worst case so far was a very baity Sugarberry. Dried curly hair that's gotten crazy frizz never brushes out the same, and on top of that she had a terrible mane cut paired with lots of pindot. Such a shame.

There was also a Gingerbread who had some strands come out in clumps, but it wasn't enough to really leave visible bare spots, thank goodness.

They were just fakies, but the timeline goes like this. I played with them, got too old, still kept them in my room, eventually stored them in the basement, came back to clean up basement years later, debated donating them, ultimately didn't, moved them into the back of my closet, forgot about them for several more years, over time tons of stuff got piled up on top of the storage container, fim starts airing, remembered I had ponies and convinced myself I did donate them, looked for them in the basement in false hope, gave up the search, several more years pass, eventually cleared out my entire closet to clean and rediscovered them by chance.

Now they're on my bookshelf. 

My doll wishlist isn't really on here, but it consists of monster high, ever after high, bratzillas, pinkie cooper, moondreamers, SSC clones, furry families

I'm thinking of getting a furby too, but they're just so expensive!

My pony wishlist in my sig is mostly G1 (which I prefer to find myself second hand), vintage fakies (Lucky ponies, Sunshine ponies, Nostril fakies), dinosaurs and other Meritus animal toys.