Opening MIB! ❤

[Luxrayx]

I wish Hasbro would release G1 replicas, but with replica packaging as well. De-carding a genuine G1 and getting a completely mint pony sounds nice, but not nice enough to destroy one of the few MIBs that still exist.

[poniesthatsparkle]

I don't think I could ever bear to open a MOC/MIB pony, especially a G1. I can't even bear to open a G3 sometimes! I just recently got the G1 View-Master reels MOC and I can't even open those, despite how much my family wants to see them.

As for G4 ponies, I don't mind too much since their packaging isn't all that appealing and pretty like the older gens. I only have a few ponies I intend to leave unopened.

[Khoufu]

As someone who loves to open MIP toys from before my time (early 90s Star Trek mainly), I respect the MOC pony community enough to not give in and open even my MOC G1 ponywear. My sister got to open a g2 a few years after they disappeared from shelves, and we both got to open a MIB 1983 Care Bear as kids around 2003, so at least I have those memories. I love feeling like I'm a kid in an earlier decade. With Star Trek, it's justifiable because their accessories are hard to find loose.

Thankfully I've unboxed g2, g3, and g4 while they were new, though I was too young o recall opening the g2.

[Ponyfan]

The 35th Anniversary ones provide a nice middle ground for me. I have one of each in their boxes and I don't intend to open them, but I also got a second Minty to open and keep on display. It was a lovely experience. 

I also have a set of 35th anniversary ponies MIB and a set of 3 duplicates that I plan to open.


Ponyfan

[pikkupapupata]

@ Ponyfan : I like them a lot; I wouldn't mind getting more to have open, but I haven't had the money lately, and I haven't seen any when I've gone to Target recently. Plus I'm waiting for any information on the Rainbows being released, because I want to snag all of them too.

[SaraMari]

I personally don't see the point of spending all the money on a MOC pony then just opening it? It's like you are paying this money for something special, being MOC is what makes it special, and then you just take that away?

As others have said it won't be the same, anti-climatic is a great description. I like collecting MOC toys because I feel good about owning something that stayed in the package 30 years despite the odds!

I don't remember opening ponies when I was a kid, I just tore the packages open during the car ride home. To me playing with the pony was my primary concern. Opening one now would probably feel equally uninspiring.

[MightyRose]

I have loved reading all these responses! It is so wonderful to read about everyone's love for ponies MIB or not ❤
I just want everyone to know that I do not intend for this to become a debate in any way, we are all adults who are fully capable of sharing our experiences without becoming heated thanks to everyone who has shared their opinion! I hope to hear more   

[MerryAnvil]

I likely would never buy an older pony MIB/MOC since I like being able to actually pick up and touch my ponies, but in the unlikely event that I were to find one in the wild, I'd leave it untouched. I might even just sell it since I don't really have a desire for a MIB/MOC pony. I know, I know...it's sort of weird. I've just never liked having a collectible that I couldn't interact with by touching it directly. Sometimes I really enjoy just picking up a random pony and staring at it, wondering about its past and brushing its hair. So I think I'd definitely just sell any of the MIB/MOC ones I got, and use the money to buy the same ponies loose.

I grew up with G3s and I carefully unboxed the ones I got when I was little and saved the boxes (I was a really weird kid okay, I liked the box art and backcards enough to want to save them), but I'm not sure what happened to them all. Probably got ruined in one of the floods we had  Very sad day.

I do, of course, unbox any ponies that I can still find in stores (G4s/Retro Ponies) and save their packaging (which I've now learned to store in my closet in a watertight and mostly flood-proof container, haha).

[SpookyTrees]

This is a bad subject and usually ends up getting locked by the moderators because people disagree on it so broadly.

I don't intend on getting into a heated debate, but there are people for whom MOC items are grails.

My feeling is that if you don't understand MOC collecting, that's fine. But there's a difference between not liking MOC and destroying it.

If that doesn't make sense, imagine your personal grail pony or item. Imagine someone taking scissors to its hair, scribbling over its body and then shoving it away in a cupboard because they'd had their kicks with it.

That's how it feels when you collect MOC ponies and see people glorifying in their destruction. I mean, I hate piggy ponies, but I'll sell one if I find it. I've never cut a pony's hair before, but I'm not going to cut off a piggy's hair because I don't like them and I;m curious to know what it would feel like to do it to a pony. Ditto Takara ponies. Ditto anything. My point is, just because you don't value or like something doesn't mean someone else wouldn't treasure it. If you have MOC ponies but don't like them, it's better to sell them to someone who does and get the loose ponies. That way you make 2 people happy and nothing gets destroyed.

As someone who collects UK MOC ponies, which are much rarer in general, a decarded pony may mean removing something permanently from the community. So I feel very strongly about this.

If something is still in stores, that's different. They're still being made and thus taking one off card does no particular damage. But with old stuff? Nope. I don't debox G3 now either.

That's my perspective. I won't defend it or argue it. In simple terms, a pony is a toy. It doesn't need rescuing from it's package and it doesn't care if it was never played with. But people have feelings and grails and hopes and taking something precious from someone else is not in my view something a collector should do. Yes, we can all treat our property as we like, but that doesn't mean we always should.

I have been here long enough to see several decarding collectors who swore they were never going to sell and therefore it didn't matter ultimately sell up on ebay. Between them they took about a thousand MOC out of the community, and prices have gone up as a result. All these things for ten seconds of bubble tearing fetish which really means nothing unless you're a child in the eighties or nineties because none of us can recreate what we thought and felt then when we brought a pony home from the store (or wanted to).

I hope you were not offended by what I said. I understand and respect your opinion completely and wholeheartedly.

Some context behind my comment.

I was 9 in 1983. Ponies were a HUGE part of my childhood, with my dad being my biggest gifter. I spent a LOT of time in our Children’s Hospital and each time I went I was gifted a new pony. I’d line them up on my hospital room window ledge to guard me through another long stay.

My dad ended up suddenly selling them at a garage sale at some point when he and my “mother” split in the ‘90’s.

He was diagnosed with Early Onset Alzheimer’s at 50. But was showing signs much earlier (the pony selling fiasco made sense to me now.)

My father has essentially been a vegetable for the last decade and I suffer alone. It’s a trauma to see.

I have a VERY strong connection to my ponies as I’ve been slowly replacing my childhood herd, which were mostly gifted to me by my dad.

I’m now showing signs of Alzheimer’s. I’m young.

So life is short. I definitely hope to have a MIB pony to open. I only intend to do one. But it’s a dream of mine. It will do so many things for me. I won’t even get into them all but it mans a lot to me. And it may never actually happen because they’re expensive and I have young children of my own. But a girl can dream.

So please don’t think that anyone who opens a pony up does it out of bad reasons. *hugs* That would upset me very much if you thought I was being cruel or blasé about it.

[Emberfly]

I had intended to be a deboxer but couldn't bring myself to do it when the time came (story under spoiler).  I agree, there's value in the item being boxed/carded and with the items also available opened I don't feel there's a reason to open something that may someday be the last sealed item of its kind.  But I agree that the idea is tempting.

Spoiler

I had always wanted the pony castle as a kid and never got it.   So when I started pony collecting as an adult, it was one thing that I really wanted.  My dad bought me my first castle but I wasn't complete, then I bought another one that was more complete and in better condition.  That wasn`t enough.  I found a MIB one that I bought fully intending to open to enjoy, almost like creating an experience I would have like to have as a kid.  When I got the castle I couldn't bring myself to open it.  It something that can never be undone.  It felt like I would be destroying something rather than creating an enjoyable experience.  Years later, I bought another opened castle to play with.  I still have my boxed castle and I love it for what it is.

[LadyMoondancer]

I do remember opening my first ever pony, Moondancer, but . . . like . . . the 'opening the packaging' part wasn't exciting to me, it was that I was getting a new toy that was exciting.  (I did love and keep the backcards, but the actual opening 'process' wasn't anything notable, it was just what you did with a new toy.)  I actually remember having anxiety over the opening of Moondancer because I was afraid the grown up helping me open her (either my parents or siblings, can't remember) who were using a butter knife to slide under the bubble would accidentally cut her hair in the process.  In retrospect, a butter knife would not cut pony hair, lol.  But I was genuinely worried at the time.  I don't remember ever noticing or caring about 'new pony smell' as a kid.

When I first started collecting (late 90s, but before I was on the internet) my sister found three of the Rainbow Babies for sale at a local surplus store and gave them to me for Christmas, and I did open them.  And to be honest I regretted it very quickly.

A MOC pony is special in a different way than a loose pony, and it loses that specialness once it's opened.  For example, I remember how Baby Sunribbon's mane fell in this beautiful silky straight sheet . . . UNTIL I ran her brush through it the first time.  I mean, it didn't 'ruin' her hair, but her mane did sort of poof up and it never laid so beautiful ever again.  So, I do regret opening her.  A formerly-MOC-pony is exposed to all the things 'other' ponies were;  even sitting on a shelf all the time, not being played with, my Rainbow Babies got dust on them and surface dirt and the cats knocked them down several times because that's what cats do.  One of them got a small permanent mark on her, which just kills me.  I absolutely regret opening them.

Opening a MOC also typically destroys the graphic on the front of the card where the bubble was glued down.  (I'm very happy that the 35th anniversary ponies are sold in 'box' style packaging.)

I totally get opening currently produced ponies, though . . . Every time you buy a Pinkie Pie off the shelves, Hasbro makes another Pinkie Pie to replace her.  Same with The Bridge Direct.  Also it's easy to put The Bridge Direct ponies back in their boxes after they've been opened.

[Artemesia's Garden]

I'm with Taffeta on this subject but then I treat ponies like museum objects. I don't collect MOC, my ponies are a handling collection and if I get ponies that are very minty I have been known to sell them to someone who collects mint ponies. I would never deliberately degrade the condition of a collectible object. Sometimes conserve or restore ponies but I try to do the minimum possible to stabilise condition or make cosmetic actions reversible. It's often difficult to decide when/whether to de flock so i usually get a second opinion. I never work on MOC ponies so I can't really comment under which circumstances it might be ok to decard ponies for conservation reasons.

[Khoufu]

I personally don't see the point of spending all the money on a MOC pony then just opening it? It's like you are paying this money for something special, being MOC is what makes it special, and then you just take that away?

As others have said it won't be the same, anti-climatic is a great description. I like collecting MOC toys because I feel good about owning something that stayed in the package 30 years despite the odds!

Opening and old toy is very exciting for me. I wait till I'm all alone at night, and then I open them when no one's around to judge me. Granted, these are usually  $10 Star Trek figures from the 90s, so they're inexpensive to open, at least for now. I wouldn't spend $100 on a pony just to open it, as fun as it would be.

[Loa]

Sorry, but these topics never end well!