Family's (and others) reactions to your collection?

[koolkaci86]

I always have got mixed reactions.

My big collection is Sylvanian Families which stands at around 2500 figures, 1980s buildings and furniture. I no longer collect newer buildings because of being moaned at about space. Understandable though.

I've also recently started recollecting G1 MLP after selling my smallish collection between 2006-2010. I missed them too much but am now just collecting the ones I like/ones I had as a child. Don't think people have particularly cottoned on to the fact I am collecting ponies again yet.

Generally I think my family think I am a little crackers but always support me, particularly with Sylvanians by cutting out vouchers and telling me which shops have offers on. The G1s are a bit harder because people can't just buy me them as my main source for them is Ebay or the Arena. I did finally tell my friends I collected Sylvanians and regularly put pictures on my Facebook. I have explained it to them like this. I have a friend who collects books (she easily has 1500), I have a friend who enjoys travelling, I have a friend who collects Tinkerbell and then a friend who has lots of pets. So really it's just about what we enjoy spending our money on. My friend who enjoys travelling is perhaps the least understanding. However, I did say to her that I have no desire to travel and I find her jetting off somewhere once a month bizarre but then I am a bit of a home girl. I also get friends saying "Oh but you're trying to save for a house". Which yes I am and I know if I didn't collect anything I'd get there much quicker but I'd probably be unhappier for it and once I'd bought my own house I'd end up wanting to recollect anyway. I wrongly thought selling all my ponies would help me get a house quicker but the reality was house prices/mortgages went funny in the recession so unless I had a huge deposit I wouldn't get a mortgage anyway, so I ended up out of ponies, without a house and without a large chunk of my Sylvanian collection. So I decided budgets were the way forward so I can have the best of both worlds. However, my friends still don't really understand this part but that's why we're all different.

And I think most people collect something, even unintentionally - clothes, DVDs, mugs, CDs etc it's just that toy collections are a bit more unusual. Particularly ponies and Sylvanians. However, whenever I go to toy fairs nobody bats an eyelid at all the car and train collectors there. Always makes me smile. Each to their own I guess

[zzzova]

I always been a bit weird so it didn't really surprice my family.
My dad evan drow me 4 hours to get my display case and when he comes over he asks about my new ponys, looks at them and poke them whit his dirty hands xD (he is a building worker and comes by on his lunch break :p). Hw is more supoortive about my ponies than my manga, wich is really werid sense he "collect" comic books (he buys like 3 a month and never trows them out)
My mother thinks it's cute and kinda happy about it, since she was the one that bought them for my and my sister when we was small, and she helpt me go trow all her storage rooms to find them
MY sister thinks its cute/I'm cute (a bit weird since I'm the older one) and my broders really dont care.

My bf thinks its awesome and he is really happy about it :p He thinks its thanks to me that he plays magic the gathering (he was a bit worried that it was to Nerdy, but I bought a lot for his birthday, told him that he already was a nerd so there was nothing to worry about and that he should go for it) so he is happy that I found something to.

I have two frieds I known for about 7 years; one stared collecting ponies the same time as me and the other one think we are wierd, but she did that before and we think she is weird 'cus she loves cars so its fine 
My other freands dont really care (as I sad: I was already weird so it didn't surprice them ) 

[Sarah-Bee]

Mine have all been really good about it. Before me and my hubby Joe got together we were friends and he had his "OMG why have you just spent £30 on THAT" moment and then realised it was no different to his Warhammer collecting and then when we got together he saw how happy it made me and now he couldn't be more supportive. He buys ponies for me as gifts, doesn't mind me bleeting on about them all the time, goes to car boot sales with me and even to Ponycon
 
My friends all like that I collect ponies, just because they see it makes me happy
 
My parents are really great too, Mum came round just to look at them the other day since I'd just put some new shelves and stuff up, and Dad was the one who put the shelves up for me yet more shelves that is, and was happy to help. He also listened to me going on about them for a bit and didn't mind when I wasn't helping him so much because I was getting distracted by my ponies hahaha
 
 

[Taxel]

I started collecting after I moved in with my boyfriend, so he got to adjust to collecting at the same time as I did. He's very supportive, even if he doesn't like G1s (what I mostly collect). He teases that they don't look like horses, lol. He thinks horses should be elegant, so he likes SHS best I believe. I collected dolls since before we began dating, so I don't think ponies was too far off. He's always been super supportive. For my birthday one year he worked his butt off to buy me a Taeyang. He prefers the ponies over the dolls though, hahaha.

My boyfriend's family is also supportive, or at least don't mind it. His mom and uncle have bought me pony presents (you shoulda seen my Christmas haul from them, omg xD) and his grandma has commented on how cute they are (she's only ever given me money and Neopets NC cards for gifts).

I don't talk to other family members much, but my parents bought me some G4s for Christmas. My aunt/uncle and grandma bought me toys two Christmases ago when I was collecting the LPS Blythes. I doubt my ponies would/do bother them. Not sure if my grandma knows I collected them though, so we'll see how it goes if I'm able to visit during the summer and ask if we can check our yard sales together (we did that a lot when I was a kid, and even back then we looked for horse stuff). xD I'm not really close with any other family members, but I'm sure they'd be tolerant at the very least and most would likely be supportive even if just for the fact that it makes me happy.


Edit; Oh, and friends!
Hm, well my only close friend got me into pony collecting so yeah. xD And beyond her I don't care what anyone thinks. I don't really have many friends, but no one I've mentioned it to/has seen my Facebook cares enough to say anything if they "disapprove".

[ApertureScience]

My parents don't exactly support it, but they don't try to stop me either.  Plus, I get a decent allowance every month that I can spend on anything I want, and I think that they're just happy that I'm spending it on ponies and not alcohol, tobacco, or weapons (which I couldn't buy legally if I wanted to because of my age).  They are kind of encouraging me to see about getting a job designing ponies for Hasbro, though.  And they seem to like my customs, even the craptastic ones. 

[Skeen]

My family is supportive, in that they don't care one way or the other.  I'm self-sufficient, stable, and happy.  What do they care what I send my extra money on? 

Now, my friends and husband and coworkers are supportive in a GOOD way, lol!  I've gotten SO MANY PONIES from them for free over the years.  I wouldn't have a lavender Dream Castle if not for them.  Mr. Skeen has a knowledge of ponies that continually surprises me.  The other day he said, "Oh, by the way, I saw a BIN on ebay for (pony I wanted).  The price was a bit higher than I thought it should be but I got it anyway since she came with some accessory.  Don't know if it's hers or not but you don't have one.  I looked.  You're welcome."  And he went back to his video game. 

[Mohawk]

My sister is the best; we played with our ponies together as kids, and every now and then she gives me one of her old ones. My father has few opinions about anything. My mother... just laughs, although sometimes she gives me that silent, disapproving, why-are-you-wasting-your-money look when she sees me get more. (She gets how poor I am. What she doesn't get is that I actually budget for ponies because they're that important to me.)

My non-brony friends all take it in stride, because they know that my "pony thing" is possibly the least weird thing about me.

[TheBeatlesPkmnFan42]

My mom thinks they're cute. My dad teases me, and my brother likes G4. My mom likes my 3.5 Starsong!