I think that it's still something I am more obsessive about than she is, possibly because autism makes interests more vivid.
I think that it's still something I am more obsessive about than she is, possibly because autism makes interests more vivid.
I’m autistic as well (also diagnosed in my early 20s), and I like the way you phrased that: about interests being more “vivid”. :) That’s something I love about ASD... For most of my friends and peers, the ability to take joy in little things like toy ponies and 80s cartoons faded away as they grew older. For me, that joy is still there, and as “vivid” as ever. That’s a great gift, as far as I’m concerned. ^_^
Of course, one doesn’t have to be autistic to love toy collecting or ponies! But I do think it’s enabled me to hold on to that wonderful, childlike sense of excitement when it comes to toys and such.
I think that it's still something I am more obsessive about than she is, possibly because autism makes interests more vivid.
I’m autistic as well (also diagnosed in my early 20s), and I like the way you phrased that: about interests being more “vivid”. :) That’s something I love about ASD... For most of my friends and peers, the ability to take joy in little things like toy ponies and 80s cartoons faded away as they grew older. For me, that joy is still there, and as “vivid” as ever. That’s a great gift, as far as I’m concerned. ^_^
Of course, one doesn’t have to be autistic to love toy collecting or ponies! But I do think it’s enabled me to hold on to that wonderful, childlike sense of excitement when it comes to toys and such.
Yes, this exactly :D I once explained it to someone as saying, I grew up but didn't grow out of things I grew up with. So I can enjoy books and films and such aimed at adults, but I can also still enjoy stuff aimed at children and don't see a problem with that.
I also connect very strongly to ideas and imagination and creative stuff around things. They say we have no empathy, but I have empathy for people *and* objects which apparently is not unusual for autistic folk but somewhat annoying at times. It means I can't walk by the scribbled on pony at the carboot sale without wanting to rescue her...and don't even get me started on how I feel when some food item passes its expiry date and I have to throw it out. Yes, I have apologised to expired food before.
But all this is part of the 'vivid' and I think it makes interests fun. It's not that other people can't enjoy them too and I think sometimes those people enjoy them in total other ways that maybe I can't ever reach out to - but I like being able to make that connection and thus enjoy something in depth :D
Because I want to.
No, really, because they are cute and a display of toys looks way more awesome to me in a home, rather than the stuff I see portrayed in interior decor magazines. Buy another coffee table or "update my sofa"? ............. why? Change out my towels seasonally. What ?
Because I want to.
No, really, because they are cute and a display of toys looks way more awesome to me in a home, rather than the stuff I see portrayed in interior decor magazines. Buy another coffee table or "update my sofa"? ............. why? Change out my towels seasonally. What ?
I don't understand the people who do that.
I put it down as one of the mysteries of society that I will never fathom out.
They soothe my PTSD. That's the raw truth of it. When I get back repressed memories or I'm going through bad spells, I spend a lot of time in my pony room rehairing, making curls, taking pictures, and generally just being around the calm tender faces of smiling plastic ponies.
For a long time I carried a pony with me as a grounding technique for anxiety and panic attacks.
They soothe my PTSD. That's the raw truth of it. When I get back repressed memories or I'm going through bad spells, I spend a lot of time in my pony room rehairing, making curls, taking pictures, and generally just being around the calm tender faces of smiling plastic ponies.
For a long time I carried a pony with me as a grounding technique for anxiety and panic attacks.
There's a lot of nostalgia for MLP for me, but a lot of it is that I'm just hardwired to collect things. MLP is by far my biggest and longest collection, but it's not the only one. I am a collector, and that's just who I am. My choice to aim that at MLP has a lot to do with my love of MLP as a child.This applies to me, too. Collecting/hoarding runs in my dad's side of the family so I'm hardwired to do it too. I collect several things, enough so that my friend got me a figurine of the Collector from Guardians of the Galaxy cuz he said I'm "the Collector" in his eyes.
I *loved* MLP as a child, and that has carried into adulthood for me.
They soothe my PTSD. That's the raw truth of it. When I get back repressed memories or I'm going through bad spells, I spend a lot of time in my pony room rehairing, making curls, taking pictures, and generally just being around the calm tender faces of smiling plastic ponies.
For a long time I carried a pony with me as a grounding technique for anxiety and panic attacks.
I have PTSD, social anxiety and depression myself, and my collection of pre-loved G2s helps take me back to a time before all that, back to the days spent playing with my original herd in the 90s. I focus on collecting the ones in need of TLC because they make me happiest - the ones who have spent 20 years in a box make me sad and, in my opinion, have less personality. Haircuts and pen marks make me think "who was the child who loved this pony enough to do this?" - hence my username. :)
I wish my second-hand (or uh, "innumerable-hand") ponies could tell me their stories.
I bought a G1 lot from the UK a few months ago, all the ponies had 'Lynn' written on their hooves. I'm so curious about her.
I wish my second-hand (or uh, "innumerable-hand") ponies could tell me their stories.
I bought a G1 lot from the UK a few months ago, all the ponies had 'Lynn' written on their hooves. I'm so curious about her.
I wonder this all the time too! Especially when I get ponies from other countries. I wonder what kind of places they've been to or seen that I haven't experienced and I wish they could tell me about their previous lives. It would be so interesting :D
Because I want to.I agree with this so much. I mean, it's one thing to rotate towels to spread the wear and free one set up for laundering. But to buy a new set every season as those mags no doubt imply? Bleck.
No, really, because they are cute and a display of toys looks way more awesome to me in a home, rather than the stuff I see portrayed in interior decor magazines. Buy another coffee table or "update my sofa"? ............. why? Change out my towels seasonally. What ?
When I was a kid I loved toy horses, both realistic and fantasy ones. I used to play with them all the time. Along with some Barbie horses I only had a couple of fakies that I thought were real, and I also watched the show. Later I put my toy horses down the basement when I got too old for them. Then my mom, my sister and I eventually set to work cleaning out the basement, giving away a lot of childhood toys to Salvation Army.
A little later G4 began, and I started watching it and thinking back on my childhood ponies.
Years passed and I was home from college for winter break. Christmas had always been an overwhelming affair for my family, and what I did to relieve stress was clean. This time I had decided to clean out my closet, it acted as a storage that was about to burst. Lo and behold, way in the back at the end of my cleaning session I happened upon my box of childhood ponies, the very ones I was sure I had donated way back when. Apparently my mom had convinced me not to give them away with everything else. She knew they held more sentimental value compared to other toys, and were something that belonged to me alone, since I shared most toys with my sister.
I was hit with such a strong wave of nostalgia, finding them after believing I had donated them years ago. I had never experienced this kind of feeling before.
They weren't in the best of conditions so I cleaned them up, and after the reunion I began collecting G1 ponies and some fakies! The end.
-snipped!-
That is a very good story :) What a special moment! I keep on hoping I will randomly come across my childhood ponies, but there is less and less of the basement left unturned as the years pass by, lol.
I love this so much, I always think about how much some of my G1s could have seen over the past 30 or so years, they don't have feelings obviously but if they did would they miss their old owners, do they wish they were still played with?
I wish my second-hand (or uh, "innumerable-hand") ponies could tell me their stories.
I bought a G1 lot from the UK a few months ago, all the ponies had 'Lynn' written on their hooves. I'm so curious about her.
I wonder this all the time too! Especially when I get ponies from other countries. I wonder what kind of places they've been to or seen that I haven't experienced and I wish they could tell me about their previous lives. It would be so interesting :D
I love this so much, I always think about how much some of my G1s could have seen over the past 30 or so years, they don't have feelings obviously but if they did would they miss their old owners, do they wish they were still played with?
I wish my second-hand (or uh, "innumerable-hand") ponies could tell me their stories.
I bought a G1 lot from the UK a few months ago, all the ponies had 'Lynn' written on their hooves. I'm so curious about her.
I wonder this all the time too! Especially when I get ponies from other countries. I wonder what kind of places they've been to or seen that I haven't experienced and I wish they could tell me about their previous lives. It would be so interesting :D
I love this so much, I always think about how much some of my G1s could have seen over the past 30 or so years, they don't have feelings obviously but if they did would they miss their old owners, do they wish they were still played with?
I wish my second-hand (or uh, "innumerable-hand") ponies could tell me their stories.
I bought a G1 lot from the UK a few months ago, all the ponies had 'Lynn' written on their hooves. I'm so curious about her.
I wonder this all the time too! Especially when I get ponies from other countries. I wonder what kind of places they've been to or seen that I haven't experienced and I wish they could tell me about their previous lives. It would be so interesting :D
I always liked to think that after a pony has been loved and played with and ultimately makes it into the home of a collector, it's like their 'retirement'. Being a toy of a child was sort of like their job and now they get to enjoy a nice easy life out at 'pasture' :lovey:
I don't think that pony collecting is immature or unintelligent. I feel sorry for people who feel that way. It's perfectly possible to be an adult and understand the real world and its problems and challenges and still love plastic ponies from your childhood. I'm really glad they're a part of my life, even though to the outside world they'd just be seen as an 'autistic obsession'...
:iconclap:I don't think that pony collecting is immature or unintelligent. I feel sorry for people who feel that way. It's perfectly possible to be an adult and understand the real world and its problems and challenges and still love plastic ponies from your childhood. I'm really glad they're a part of my life, even though to the outside world they'd just be seen as an 'autistic obsession'...
Agreed, 100%.
Although I am also autistic, and I prefer to use the term "passion" or "enthusiasm". Why is it acceptable for an adult to follow everything a particular group of overpaid men do with a ball, but not to still love the toys they grew up with? I for one still have my baby blankies in my bed, and I'm not ashamed to admit it. Maybe the world would have fewer problems if it let a bit more whimsy and happiness in.
Also, computer games. Gaming is acceptable. Also men collecting toys is often more acceptable. There are a lot of disparities.
If it's socially acceptable to collect He-Man and TMNT toys as an adult, it should be just as acceptable to collect MLP as an adult.
Also, computer games. Gaming is acceptable. Also men collecting toys is often more acceptable. There are a lot of disparities.If it's socially acceptable to collect He-Man and TMNT toys as an adult, it should be just as acceptable to collect MLP as an adult.
THIS.
I have been hitting a wall with my friend recently over this issue, I think they are embarrassed about me but they wont admit it, I cant wear cute clothes or collect girly toys but they can collect model trains and planes. It annoys me to no end
Also, computer games. Gaming is acceptable. Also men collecting toys is often more acceptable. There are a lot of disparities.If it's socially acceptable to collect He-Man and TMNT toys as an adult, it should be just as acceptable to collect MLP as an adult.
THIS.
I have been hitting a wall with my friend recently over this issue, I think they are embarrassed about me but they wont admit it, I cant wear cute clothes or collect girly toys but they can collect model trains and planes. It annoys me to no end
I attribute it to them not wanting to be seen as not masculine, Its not like I play with the ponies I have, I just enjoy searching them out and giving them a new lease of life. Oh and they are soooo cute. But he doesn't get that :|
Also, computer games. Gaming is acceptable. Also men collecting toys is often more acceptable. There are a lot of disparities.If it's socially acceptable to collect He-Man and TMNT toys as an adult, it should be just as acceptable to collect MLP as an adult.
THIS.
I have been hitting a wall with my friend recently over this issue, I think they are embarrassed about me but they wont admit it, I cant wear cute clothes or collect girly toys but they can collect model trains and planes. It annoys me to no end
I find this so sad, though it says more about them and their insecurities than you.
Don't get too disconsolate, just do what makes you happy - your real friends will accept it as it is part of you, and we all come as a 'package'.
I am between those ages, I admit I am quite embarrassed about my collection sometimes, I live with 5 other uni students and when they come into my room I can see them looking at my display and it being an elephant in the room. We are all good friends but they don't mention my ponies and I also don't mention them :shocked: This pony con thing does sound tempting :P
Also, computer games. Gaming is acceptable. Also men collecting toys is often more acceptable. There are a lot of disparities.If it's socially acceptable to collect He-Man and TMNT toys as an adult, it should be just as acceptable to collect MLP as an adult.
THIS.
I have been hitting a wall with my friend recently over this issue, I think they are embarrassed about me but they wont admit it, I cant wear cute clothes or collect girly toys but they can collect model trains and planes. It annoys me to no end
That is why you need to come to Ponycon. Because the moment you step into that room you realise you are normal and everyone else is odd for not collecting ponies ;) And you will also be in a room full of ponies. Which is never bad.
Seriously, though, that does suck. I found it hardest to be open about my collecting between the ages of about 15 and 22ish. When you get older than that people around you hopefully grow up and get over themselves a bit more. Not that it's a hard and fast rule, but I have no intention of hiding my ponies when people come to visit. One of my friends also still has her ponies back in Israel although she hasn't dug them out yet, she remembers some of them. The first place outside of my family that just accepted it was at my first job where I had ponies on my desk and one of my colleagues made a little daisy sticker for her, another gave her an L plate because I was trying to learn to drive at the time, then someone else added a welsh flag...and she became something of an office mascot. (She was one of the G3s. Pink pegasus. Forget her name but she has a gem symbol. It might be Twilight Pink?) Before that I also had Shenanigans in her school clothing on there. I also had a colleague whose kid was into MLP and so i brought her some back from Ponycon :) It was really refreshing because I felt like I'd crossed that threshold a little.
Unfortunately people want to "be adult" and don't realise that collecting kid's stuff doesn't make you juvenile. Not respecting other people for who they are and what they like is juvenile.
Why do I collect?
Partly it's because I simply like the look of them. The different colours are pretty and cheerful. There's an innocence to them that so many toys today don't have.
Deeper down though they were a big part of my childhood. I have over dozen surgeries as a kid because my of severe Scoliosis with one side of the curve crushing my heart and on the other side crushing my right lung. I loathed the hospital and surgeries and there were many time I wanted to die. I also wasn't allowed to be active outside or play with kids unless it was at my house because my parents were afraid I'd fall and break or unhook one of the steel rods attached to my spine. It happened on three occasions from falls when I didn't listen and went out running with other kids, so their worries weren't unwarranted.
I got my first pony, Gusty, from my grandmother and it started being that I got ponies as gifts from my family when I would be in hospital or going to be. I even have a Magic Hat that a nurse brought me on a surprise visit on her day off. Those ponies gave me something to look forward to after surgery, a new pony waiting. I can think of Woosie, Primrose, Sundance and Applejack off the top of my head as hospital time ponies.
Eventually I made it through all my surgeries and I was able to go out on my own and loved on Saturdays to take my new bike and find yardsales. Of course it was to find ponies and dang, back there yard sales were gold mines for ponies.
I'm not at age 40 and still enjoy collecting. I have my regular every day job and normal life duties, bills etc but I also have fun hunting down new ponies or working on customs. I still have every one of those ponies that were given to me over the years and they aren't going anywhere. They're a part of my childhood that wasn't always easy but also bring a lot of good memories.
I got to know Kirk Hindman and his wife through mutual non-pony friends a few years back.
It was awesome to get to attend my first MLP Fair this year and see Bonnie Zacherle and hearing her presentations with her book about making ponies and she'd noted that she's met adults who told them about having ponies when they were sick or in hospital and that it meant a lot to her. I have to admit that I felt a bit choked up listening to her talk about that and so when it was time for her photo/autograph session, I was glad to have the chance to thank her as having been one of those hospital kids in the past. That as a child who lost the will to live, ponies were the needed escape that I needed to keep going. There weren't any hospitals or scary needles or surgeries in that world of play.
Ponies are a part of me and that's why I collect. :)
...
Also, computer games. Gaming is acceptable. Also men collecting toys is often more acceptable. There are a lot of disparities.If it's socially acceptable to collect He-Man and TMNT toys as an adult, it should be just as acceptable to collect MLP as an adult.
THIS.
I have been hitting a wall with my friend recently over this issue, I think they are embarrassed about me but they wont admit it, I cant wear cute clothes or collect girly toys but they can collect model trains and planes. It annoys me to no end
Seriously, though, that does suck. I found it hardest to be open about my collecting between the ages of about 15 and 22ish. When you get older than that people around you hopefully grow up and get over themselves a bit more. Not that it's a hard and fast rule, but I have no intention of hiding my ponies when people come to visit. One of my friends also still has her ponies back in Israel although she hasn't dug them out yet, she remembers some of them. The first place outside of my family that just accepted it was at my first job where I had ponies on my desk and one of my colleagues made a little daisy sticker for her, another gave her an L plate because I was trying to learn to drive at the time, then someone else added a welsh flag...and she became something of an office mascot. (She was one of the G3s. Pink pegasus. Forget her name but she has a gem symbol. It might be Twilight Pink?)
...
Unfortunately people want to "be adult" and don't realise that collecting kid's stuff doesn't make you juvenile. Not respecting other people for who they are and what they like is juvenile.