Hello I'm new/old to the arena. I've been familiar with the arena since it was in it's infancy. I've always been shy and a bit intimidated by the incredible people on here. I've put my foot down and FINALLY decided to join!
I guess I'll follow the lil introduction layout and try to keep it brief (soooo impossible for me).
How old are you? I'm 31 years old. (Which means I've pretty much been a G1 collector since birth!)
Where do you live? State, Country? I live in Northern California. Not the Bay Area... the rural stuff north of there.
Do you work or attend school? Profession or major? I've never grown up and got a career yet... I'm a part time student part time worker. I will say some of my jobs have taken me to some incredible places like working in Yellowstone or Sequoia National Parks. I've also made friends the world over because of these silly jobs.
Who are the important people in your life? Good question, I don't really know. I guess my close friends would be my answer.
How long have you been collecting? Off and on since birth. I grew up with G1's and they were my toy of choice. I had no desire for Care Bears or Rainbow Brite or Barbie it was all about the ponies!
Which generations of ponies do you collect? G1, G2, G3 or G4? I mostly collect G1's since they have the nostalgia factor and I just really like the colors and styles of their cutie marks best. I also have some G2's from when they were released in North America but I don't actively seek them out.
I did collect G3's and was only missing about a dozen of the U.S. released ponies before I gave that up. I've since downsized my G3 herd since they just sit in bins under my bed being ignored since I don't have space to display them. I took a large lot of them to Brazil and donated them to an orphanage for Christmas. Ponies ran about R$25-30 in Brazil. That's like close to $15 US (when I was visiting a few years ago). Toys are only for the upper middle class and rich in Brazil and I just couldn't take it and decided to do something about it and make some kids very happy. Me and my friends spent all day making cute little packages with the pony, a brush, back card, and a little ribbon for each one. They turned out darling and it felt so much better to give them up for a good cause than it did to collect them in the first place. I guess being from the U.S. I just couldn't imagine kids growing up without toys of their own to cherish.
What made you want to collect ponies? I loved them as a kid and started to (re)collect a lot of 80's toys when I was in high school from the local thrift stores. I was known as the "Pony Girl" at my local Goodwill for years! I then discovered eBay and it's all history since then. I still prefer to buy them in person from someone or from another collector because I enjoy chatting about them and sharing stories and info but every once in a while I cave and pick something up online (I just had to FINALLY get Gypsy
.... so weak). I've also been lucky enough to attend the Pony Fair a few of the first years it was running and met some really wonderful collectors. I'm old school so the obsession with Friendship is Magic confuses me a bit.... I will say I am really happy to see a whole new generation of fans including the much maligned Bronies. Don't worry Bronies you have a friend in me! Promise!
Tell us about your collection! Like I said I mostly have G1's... I'm sitting right around 200 at the moment. It's a modest collection to say the least. I have a few British imports as well including the collector's pose Bowtie, Gypsy, Kisscurl and a few NSS. I really want to get my hands on some Brazilians and having toy obsessed friends in Brazil I'm always having them keep their eyes peeled for those elusive Brazilian ponies. No luck yet but who knows maybe one day. I randomly (I'm sure she's American) bought a Majesty in Mexico for 5 pesos once. She cost me less than half a cent! The exchange rate was 11 pesos to the $1 at the time! She's one of my pride and joys since she's bright white and in good shape, she was missing her tail but that was easy enough to fix!
My G3 collection is still decently large. I have all the Target Holiday ponies and a all of the first and second set of girls. I refuse to part with them! I'm probably still sitting on 150 of them. They're still under my bed binned up sadly.
I think another question should be added to this list though. That is:
What brings you to the arena? I'm here to learn about customs and restoration. I am a sucker for rescuing toys from my local thrifts when the pop up. I just can't leave a tangled up mess of sad scrapped up G1 to languish. I have to buy them! I really don't plan on selling my collection and I do mark the ones I've worked on so people know if they've been altered. I certainly wouldn't dare restore a Rapunzel or something like that but a Moon Dancer SURE! I try to be ethical about my ponies to the best of my ability. That said I'm also interested in learning to make customs. I'd mostly like to do G3's or maybe a few waaaaaaay baity G1's. I've really loved what I've seen in the custom world the past few years and would like to learn to create a pony masterpiece myself.
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