My dad was a stay at home dad for many years, which was fairly untypical in the early 90's - my parents didn't have much money to buy new toys, so he'd take us carbooting every Saturday where we'd always pick up new ponies and other 80's/90's toys.
We used to sit and have a sandwich in the same cafe after a morning's hunt, and the lady who owned the cafe would always ask us which new ponies we'd got. She always makes me smile when I think about her.
Though we got a few ponies new, most of what we acquired was done this way. It was always fun trying to find ponies to add to our family. We made it our mission to save ponies. It didn't matter that I already had 3 Moonstones, I had to adopt them if I found them.
We had all the main playsets except Paradise Estate and Satin Slipper Sweet Shoppe (I was convinced they didn't exist until the internet told me otherwise) and it was so much fun setting everything up in our sitting room. I remember before we found a Dream Castle, we made our own one out of egg boxes. I also remember making baby pony beds out of cassette tape boxes and hankies for blankets.
We got into BIIIG trouble one day - I was about 3 at the time, but my older sister who was 6 convinced me to cut up my clothes to make clothes for Bubbles - she had no tail and often complained it was cold. Mother was not amused, especially when we tried to explain why!
When my older sister stopped playing ponies, I had a younger sister (3 years younger than me) to infect with pony play! She loved pokemon, so I converted my pony stable into a Pokemon Care Centre for her figures. Chief would act as the ambulace and bring in injured Pokemon to be healed by the ponies. Ash Ketchum would always get a stern telling off for not looking after his Pokemon properly!
I also used to play with: Littlest Pet Shop, Fashion Star Fillies, Care Bears, Barbies, and well, anything else I could get my hands on.