Rehairs or restored nirvanas: Not an issue to me. As long as its tastefully and skillfully done, go ahead. Even full rehairs are alright to me. I had PKW rehair my Brazil Heartthrob as she had a buzz cut, and she looks fab!
Favourite colours: Purple (either dark plum purple or light lavendar purple though, not too keen on the middling pinky-purple
) Black, and Forest Green
Why I collect my armies: Well, I remember Gusty as a childhood pony. I too remember choosing her out of many others at a car boot when I was much younger, and she's been my favourite pony ever since. When I found out about her variants, I wanted them all, and eventually ended up feeling sorry for the unloved, less well-kept Gusty's at ponycon, and so those came home with me too. Now ill take all the Gusty's I can get
The Heartthrob army grew when I bought a lovely Italian HT, and then followed up by buying the stunning Brazilian not long later. She's in my favourite pony pose, and she has some amazing variants too. I guess both my armies started off as variant armies, but grew to incorporate any of that pony!