How are There Still MIB/MIP G1s?

[HelloGoodbye]

This may be kind of an odd question, but how have G1s in the box or package survived this long?  I don't think I ever left a toy in the box as a kid.  Are they left over stock that was never sold and wound up in the hands of collectors, or did adults collect them in the 80s and leave them in the box like a lot of collectors with G3 and G4 today?  This is probably a pretty random question, but I was just wondering.  I mean MIB/MIP aren't common by any means, but they also aren't totally unheard of, so there must be some sort of reason for them!   I'm glad that they exist though, since the packaging is so pretty and it is fun to see.  Plus the back card stories are adorable! 

[PinkRosedust]

I think it's a mix of old stock and MAYBE the occasional toy collector. I'd say a lot of it is also gifts that were hidden away to be wrapped later but forgotten/lost, then years later rediscovered and donated or yard-saled. Probably very few were actually kept in the packaging after being given to a child - though that could be the case if the pony they were given was a double, and meant to be exchanged at the store but never was.

[mlpkatie]

There are some kids out there who leave them in the box. My cousin, when she was little left a lot of her toys in the box. Also, if a child had a parent who was a collector and had stuff in the box, they think they should leave theirs in the box as well

[mellowhen]

I think mostly it's the parents that see the value in said current toy craze and keep them stashed away from the kids. My dad had a lot of Pokemon merchandise stashed away from my sister and I (but we found it eventually. haha) Same thing happened with Beanie Babies, and, obviously, ponies.

[MorningGlorysParadise82]

I definitely agree with the parents stashing them and forgetting them. Also there are instances of overstock and there are some horse collectors that may have bought them and kept them unopened. I will say from a collector's stand point, I am SO grateful for those MIP ponies otherwise I would not know what color ribbon, comb or hair accessory went with which pony!

[SeashellnBubbles]

TBH i think we have all the Barbie collectors to thank for many of them...they were kind of the trail blazers of collecting MIB and concise collection notes of what went with each doll. That may have carried over to the Pony generation and parents who actually loved them as much as children did, not only for the toy but for the lovely box and card art featured. Forgetful parents are definately to thank for a lot of them, though, and overstock shuffled away into storage for years. Recently a member here purchased a bunch of MIB (I want to say Argentina, but I may be wrong) ponies that had been in a toy shop all these years and had only been discovered since the place was closing for business. Awesome!

[ButtercreamDream]

Most of the stories I've heard of people selling MIB ponies involved them being bought as presents and forgotten.  My mom is terrible for that.  She buys all sorts of stuff on sale, and then goes looking through her bins of stuff when she needs a last minute present for someone.

I'm sure it's really a mix of all of these answers.

[LadyMoondancer]

A combination of parents buying them and forgetting them and old store stock!

People keeping ponies MIB / MOC on purpose was not really a "thing"in the 80s.  I mean, I'm sure there were some individuals who did that with MLPs (I think there's board member who kept her Summer Wings MIB?), but that was really, really, really rare.  They were regarded as toys, be opened up and played with.

[HelloGoodbye]

How interesting!  I never thought that maybe parents would buy them and forget about them.  That makes so much sense, though!

[Kitkumi]

I actually have a MIB G1 pony completely by accident thanks to my fiancé. Apparently someone got his mom a MLP toy as a baby shower gift because at the time no one knew if she was having a boy or a girl. Once he was born, the still-packaged-pony was just put in to a box along with the other girlish stuff and put in to the attic in case his parents had another kid that ended up being a girl. That didn't happen, so jump forward twenty six years. After my fiancé and I had and been dating for years, he apparently made an off handed comment to his mom that I like MLP, which made her think of the toy, and she just went ahead and dug it out and gave it to me So I can say that, in my experience, the pony is MIB simply because it had indeed been forgotten about.

[Dorothy Rose]

That is a fabulous story!  ^____^

I know when I was a kid, I had a friend who had a Barbie (or two?) that she keep on a top shelf in a box.  I asked her why and she said it was a collectors item and should never been taken out of the box.  We were...seven, maybe?  So, late 80's-ish.  I thought it was the weirdest thing I'd ever heard of!  Skip forward to Ty Beanie Babies and a similar story happens.  With these, at least there was no packaging, persay, so we could actually play with them, but I was quickly informed and in no uncertain terms that the tags were NOT to be removed.  Again, I thought it was the weirdest thing ever, but apparently, some kids my age understood the whole MIP concept much better than I did as a kid.  Even now, I prefer my ponies to be unboxed, but I can appreciate the value of a MIP pony.

[hathorcat]

I think the bulk of them have been old stock which shows up and over time have fallen into the hands of collectors. The bulk of MOC/MIBs on the market nowadays are being sold by collectors. Even the odd exception is often someone finding old store stock.

That combined with the occasional left over gift and even some toy collectors from the 80s makes up the balance.

[Hervoyel]

I'd say a lot of it is also gifts that were hidden away to be wrapped later but forgotten/lost, then years later rediscovered and donated or yard-saled.

I think this is more common than people might imagine.  My mother recently had some foundation damage due to an icestorm in her basement and had to renovate an area that had last been re-arranged a couple of decades ago - she found a hidden wall shelf that ended up behind a layer of office shelves.  On those hidden shelves were about a year's worth of toys that she'd bought to give as gifts that ended up in the wall for years.  No ponies in that case, but some Star Wars and Muppets toys - all in their original condition. 

[Galactica]

I agree old store stock accounts for a lot of them (it's how I got a lot of MIB Rainbow Brite and Jem stuff)

But I also think that sometimes adults collect toys- and maybe they liked the packaging and kept them all minty. 

I'd say a lot of it is also gifts that were hidden away to be wrapped later but forgotten/lost, then years later rediscovered and donated or yard-saled.

I think this is more common than people might imagine.  My mother recently had some foundation damage due to an icestorm in her basement and had to renovate an area that had last been re-arranged a couple of decades ago - she found a hidden wall shelf that ended up behind a layer of office shelves.  On those hidden shelves were about a year's worth of toys that she'd bought to give as gifts that ended up in the wall for years.  No ponies in that case, but some Star Wars and Muppets toys - all in their original condition. 

THAT is pretty dang awesome.

[claricesponies]

A combination of parents buying them and forgetting them and old store stock!

People keeping ponies MIB / MOC on purpose was not really a "thing"in the 80s.  I mean, I'm sure there were some individuals who did that with MLPs (I think there's board member who kept her Summer Wings MIB?), but that was really, really, really rare.  They were regarded as toys, be opened up and played with.

Well, one size doesn't fit all because I was a child of the 80s and when my parents bought stuff for me I was forced to keep most things "in the box" because it might be valuable some day. This is sad but some times I would sneak the toys out of the box, play with them and ended up being a pro at "putting things back". I thank my parents for this today but as a child I only got to play with half my toys.