The MLP Arena
Pony Talk => Pony Corral => Topic started by: Khoufu on February 05, 2018, 10:36:33 AM
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I was too young to recall opening a G2 pony toy, and I've never even seen a NIB/MOC G1 pony in real life. How cheap can they get? What are some cheaper NIB/MOC ponies I could keep an eye out for, if I want to experience opening a real G1 pony?
EDIT: I wouldn't mind opening a complete in box pony that's already been opened. I'm still curious about relatively cheap MIP G1 ponies. I could probably convince myself to hold onto one.
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I've seen g2 that aren't all that high
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Wait you want it to open? Go for a 35th aniveresary g1 they sell at target 10 bucks each
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I have never heard of cheap MOC G1 ponies. No offense, but isn't it satisfying enough to open a G1 anniversary pony? Dunno what is "cheap" to you but I wouldn't want to buy a 100€ MOC just so I can open it. For that money you could open multiple of the new Bridge Direct ponies.
G2s can be found cheaper than G1s. I think 20€ is fair for a MOC G2. In general I'd say some Euro exclusives are harder to come by because collectors inflated their worth. HoustonCollector seems to be a G2 guru, maybe he can weigh in?
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Deboxing is a very contentious issue in the pony community and on the arena...threads relating to it often end up locked because of that fact.
Personally I am very against deboxing of anything no longer in stores.
My reasoning is that there are a limited number remaining of these items, especially G1.
If you debox a MOC or MIB pony, you take away the chance of one other collector somewhere to have that pony MOC/MIB. There are lots of loose ponies already. If you debox a pony, you might take away from someone else their chances of getting their grail. Think about the most valuable pony to you in your collection. Then think of someone taking it and cutting off its hair and ripping its head off before taking it away. To people who collect MOC ponies, that's essentially what deboxing is.
In a more clinical sense, deboxing makes the price of MIP ponies go up as well because of the supply and demand issue. I have been here 20 years. I have seen massive inflation in areas where common MOC ponies got deboxed or decarded en masse (eg Greek, Argentinian ponies) and now are very much more expensive MOC.
Nobody can tell you what to do with your own ponies. You are entitled to treat your property in any way you see fit. But it is one of the more controversial things in the community.
In my case, I collect mostly UK MIP of which there are very few surviving examples. Just one decarded pony ever might take the last example of that pony out of the community forever. There are more examples of some US ponies, but that doesn't mean if everyone deboxed a pony for their own amusement that would stay the same.
If you really must debox a G1 pony, I suggest you look for one in a wrecked and mouldy package affected by damp or some other condition whereby leaving it in the package could damage the pony and be unhealthy or unsafe.
However, I really hope you will decide not to do it. We are not in a world any more where there are enough G1 ponies still in package for everyone to just relive their childhood. I genuinely think sometimes thinking of the community and the collectors who come after us is as valid as believing we have the right to treat our collections how we see fit.
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I saw someone say that there are some 50€ Italy ponies. I saw some NIB g1 baby set for $20 on ebay a couple years ago and was hoping that wasn't a particularly rare instance.
I love opening toys late at night when no one else is awake, so I can really enjoy it, but usually they're $10 90s Star Trek action figures. The 35s would be fun but they aren't packaged the same, and they are repros of history, not actual pieces of history.
I was hoping there was a common one just so I can unbox SOME pony, just to experience it once.
I don't want to add to any controversy, I was just curious.
And I would be more than happy to debox one in an already wrecked box.
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I would agree that the only cheap g1s that are boxed/on card are the 35th anniversary ones. I haven't seen g1s on card go for less than £50, (I'm not an expert I'd check with others) As for g2, the worldwide releases are usually quite cheap.
As a money saving alternative: Maybe some will pop up on ebay where they kept all the packaging, and then you could ask the seller to put it back in the box and then you could (kind of) open it like it was new? Not sure if ponies like this come up often, but they would certainly be cheaper than a MOC. :)
I know others will likely disagree, (and I honestly don't mean to upset anyone) but I don't think a few seconds of ripping a pony off a card would be fun for long, especially after you would've probably spent at least $50 on it and now it's open, and won't ever be MOC again.
I know they're toys, not endangered species, but it seems a shame to take one out. But they're yours once you buy them, so of course you can open them if you like :) also shipping may be killer but there were some mouldy moc g2s on uk ebay ;)
Mlp sunsparkle x
(I sincerely apologise if I upset anyone, please know it was not my intention xx)
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Frankly, the whole subject of this thread upsets me :/
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If it'd make you feel better, complete with box would also probably satisfy me, so long as it's like Sunsparrkle suggested: put back in the box so I can still experience opening it, even if it isn't sealed. That's how I got my 1998 Furby, though it was advertised as NIB. Technically it was new and in box, the box was just opened.
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I was actually about to suggest that. Those do come up on ebay sometimes. And because the seal is broken and the ponies have been removed previously, they tend to sell for lower prices too.
They're technically deboxed already.
It;s technically not experiencing history if in the process you are also destroying history. As a historian, I really dislike the 'history' argument.
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If it'd make you feel better, complete with box would also probably satisfy me, so long as it's like Sunsparrkle suggested: put back in the box so I can still experience opening it, even if it isn't sealed. That's how I got my 1998 Furby, though it was advertised as NIB. Technically it was new and in box, the box was just opened.
If that's the case, you might wanna shoot for a playset that is sold with the box. I've never seen a cheap pony on card.
I DID see a $10 MOC ponywear set at some thrift shop near me, but I have no easy way to display it and MOC isn't as fun for me. I doubt $10 is run of the mill pricing for ponywear that's still on card, but I can't bring myself to break open anything like that knowing the limited amount of them. :silly:
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I saw several Greek ponywear on ebay for little more than that, "NIP" aside from the box being open. Ponywear is meant to be worn! Honestly buying semi-NIP ponywear seems like the best way to get a complete outfit all at once. I'd almost be tempted to get a semi-NIP g2 Sky Skimmer cuz she had some tiny accessories that I lost long ago.
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Ya, I definitely would not advise opening up something that the collectors' community has taken care to specifically NOT open for 30 years. MIP is rare and desired and the prices of those pieces reflect that. And I guarantee you, there's no magical moment when you pull apart the packaging. It's just opening a box or pulling a plastic bubble off a piece of cardboard. It's the same as ripping the packaging off a new toy, except that new toy is still being produced and released. And as Sunsparkle said, it lasts a brief moment and is completly un-doable.
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I actually really enjoy deboxing toys and looking at the goodies, like the scratch cards in Star Trek figures for old giveaways from 1993, or posters, but since that's a big part of the joy, as I said I would be happy with complete in box, as long as it's complete aside from internal packaging.
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I really would not suggest opening MIB Greek ponywear. :/ It is not cheap because it's common, it's cheap because someone somewhere found a few boxes of it in storage and it hasn't full "infiltrated" into the community yet. Back in the day the same thing happened with MOC Greek ponies (not all of them, but a lot of them) and they were selling for $20 and $30. Well . . . that didn't last and now they're back to being rare again.
To be honest there aren't any 'common' MOC / MIB G1 ponies, aside from the 35th (and 25th) anniversary ponies.
I would suggest looking for an already opened complete MIB pony . . . You can put them back in the box, take them out, and so forth, because of the nature of their packaging.
You could also buy a G4 and debox it, as far as the 'feeling' you get it's exactly the same. ;)
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Yall keep suggesting the same thing, which I've said is a doable compromise. XD
Also, opening a modern toy isn't the same.
So would it be a good idea to get that NIP Greek ponywear now rather than later?
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I get what you mean. I wish I could go back in time and re-live de-boxing a G1. For some reason I remember being in Toys R Us and having my parents buyingthem for me, and I remember receiving them as a present but I don't remember opening the actual box.
I don't know if I would be able to open a MOC/MIB G1 because I think the packaging is fantastic. Hell, I can't even bring myself to open the 35th anniversary Blue Belle I just got from Target.
But I understand the want and the magical moment that you open it and it is yours and the smell of the plastic and the shiny-ness of the hair. It is your money and if you want to buy it and unbox it, then I think that is fine, too. I don't think it is bad or wrong to do so.
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Yes, you understand!
I guess I just wish they weren't so rare. At least I got to see my sister open a G2, back during early G3.
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I think people are suggesting the same thing over and over because your not getting how big a deal it is to the community not to decard a G1.
All of us would love that feeling of opening a G1 and reliving our childhood but in the end decide it's not worth it to permanently destroy a piece of pony history. These items are limited and once it's done it can't be undone. Like others have said, no one can tell you what to do with your own possessions but this is a very sensitive subject.
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I have quite a few boxed G2 ponies or mocs from which the card had come loose from the plastic. So I would suggest to search for a boxed pony who already has been taken out once.. I actually know where to buy one, boxed sweetberry for €15, she looks moc. But that is in the Netherlands. Anyway, good luck searching :)
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*FLAIL*
First Mods warning. These threads NEVER end well!
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I think people are suggesting the same thing over and over because your not getting how big a deal it is to the community not to decard a G1.
All of us would love that feeling of opening a G1 and reliving our childhood but in the end decide it's not worth it to permanently destroy a piece of pony history. These items are limited and once it's done it can't be undone. Like others have said, no one can tell you what to do with your own possessions but this is a very sensitive subject.
This.
It's not about the price either, not especially.
I already tried to put it into context about people and their individual grails and that destroying a MIP pony might be the same as someone destroying your most precious pony possession.
Reality is that nobody has the right to tell you or anyone else what to do with something you've bought yourself. And in the past it was not as frowned on as it is now. We've learned for the most part that decarding actually has a hugely detrimental effect on the community and each other. Ponies that were cheap MOC in the past and were frequently decarded as a result now cost a lot more. The obvious US example is the watercolour baby sea ponies.
I bought four of them for about $15 each MOC (one fell off her card in transit though so she's not MOC) because at the time there were LOTS of them and they weren't that popular. Now if you go looking for a watercolor baby sea pony MOC you'll find the prices between $70 and $100 at least. Sometimes more. (Annoyingly for me the one that I had that fell off her card in transit seems to be the most hard to get of the set, sigh).
The thing about decarding in the middle nineties or early 2000s is that there were still a lot of ponies coming out of warehouses and appearing in clearance stores and markets, especially here in the UK. But now we're 20ish years on since that time. There aren't endless warehouse stocks of these ponies now. There are only the ones circulating between dealers, those which are being sold by collectors selling up, and those which fluke out of people's attics.
My sister hates MIP stuff as a rule, and she and I are total opposites in this. But she does understand my reasons for not liking to decard, and she's said many times she wouldn't decard a G1 because of the fact she might be taking something away from another collector. In return, I've worked hard to get her loose versions of the ponies she really wants and loves. That way we coexist peacefully with very different views. It is possible for that to happen without it ending in a fight.
It is a private decision but the moment it gets mentioned on here it becomes public domain and we are all aware of it. And some of us it upsets very much when people talk about it so casually. Whether we have a right to intervene or not is secondary to whether we have the right to feel upset about it, which is why it becomes so contentious.
In my case, as I said before, I collect UK carded ponies mostly. Some years ago a seller listed a ton of UK carded rainbow ponies on ebay. I have one of them, but the one I really want is Windy, and when she came up, I didn't have the money. I've spent the last ten or so years looking for her, but she has never come up again. All those ponies and yet where are they now? I don't know if they got decarded or if they're just with collectors. I have no idea. But UK stuff doesn't survive in as copious quantities as US stuff does. Most European stuff is in smaller quantities and there are fewer in existence in general because of the market sizes. So I do wonder, sometimes, if there still is a MOC Windy out there for me to find. Or if it's already too late.
I have a few ponies like that from my childhood that I am trying still to get on their original cards, but who knows if they even exist. I know most of them existed...but whether they still do or not, that's harder to say.
I keep talking about sorting and downsizing and organising my MIP collection, but honestly, discussions like this remind me why I shouldn't, because at least while they're with me, they're safe. I know I have some ponies in my MOC collection which are probably the only surviving examples. There's a lot that can be learned from a pony MOC - correct accessories, stories, details from the card, the card itself, release date, release style, batch number...lots of things. I collect MOC ponies and I collect cards from ponies to preserve as much of that history as I can, because there are still people who recycle pony packages and still people who destroy MOC ponies. And this discussion will always come up, but whenever it does it makes me doubly committed to protecting as much of that pony history as I can for the future. We've seen a lot of websites disappear and information vanish over the years. A tangible MIP pony provides all that evidence and information all over again, so we need them.
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Jeez I get it, I'm not gonna unseal a g1 pony. The more expensive they get, the less likely people will want to, anyway.
I'm still curious which ponies aren't as expensive but I don't see myself getting a NIP g1 unless I get lucky, anyway.
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I think ebay is going to be a good indicator of what’s cheapest G1s.
One alternative would be to buy a boxed set of the Fantasy Rainbow Unicorn Fakies and open that instead? To be honest I think they’re made of the same plastic as G1s so i’m pretty sure you’ll get the same smell and feel. (we know that hasbro was just cranking out ponies in 1983 and they truly probably used the cheapest plastic possible - aka Modern Fakie Plastic. My G1 Medley feels like a chew toy). Just an idea.
Edit - Here’s a youtube channel where a guy decards 90s toys:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1PJBA6YWQq-Tt3xOExkUhA
... so we don’t have to! :)
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I agree with everyone that is against decarding or opening MOC/MIB items. I’d love to own a MOC G1 pony but it hasn’t happened yet because most MOC g1s are now out of my price range. I do have a MOC Great Skates though. I was so excited to finally get something G1 MOC. Great Skates probably isn’t the rarest set of Pony Wear that’s still MOC but if I open it (something I won’t do) that’s one less MOC Great Skates and one day it might be last MOC Great Skates left. Opening it just makes it a mint , loose Great Skates and less valuable as a piece of pony history.
Ponyfan
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Whoa, totally disagree that Hasbro used "the cheapest plastic possible." Yes, G1s are squishy compared to later gens. They are meant to feel "soft" (as opposed to harder plastics, like those you'd see on action figures, or brittle plastics like My Pretty Pony.)
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I think ebay is going to be a good indicator of what’s cheapest G1s.
One alternative would be to buy a boxed set of the Fantasy Rainbow Unicorn Fakies and open that instead? To be honest I think they’re made of the same plastic as G1s so i’m pretty sure you’ll get the same smell and feel. (we know that hasbro was just cranking out ponies in 1983 and they truly probably used the cheapest plastic possible - aka Modern Fakie Plastic. My G1 Medley feels like a chew toy). Just an idea.
Edit - Here’s a youtube channel where a guy decards 90s toys:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1PJBA6YWQq-Tt3xOExkUhA
... so we don’t have to! :)
That's a neat channel, thanks for the link. Tbh one reason I decard so many 90s trek figures is cuz they're harder to find loose irl.
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Whoa, totally disagree that Hasbro used "the cheapest plastic possible." Yes, G1s are squishy compared to later gens. They are meant to feel "soft" (as opposed to harder plastics, like those you'd see on action figures, or brittle plastics like My Pretty Pony.)
I actually think that...probably...while it's mass produced plastic and undoubtedly full of things you wouldn't find in contemporary plastic - the way that many ponies have stood up to the test of time prove it's not that bad in terms of quality. I mean, we can't compare it that easily to the plastic of newer generations but we do know that there are G3 and even some G4 ponies who have serious issues already. For example, G1 ponies probably will all suffer the plasticizer issue at some point, but there are G3 ones already in that situation, and the divine shine ponies are the most tragic example of deteriorating twenty-first century plastic :/ And then there's the hair issue - G1 ponies very rarely suffer from brittle hair disease, and only tend to do so when the hair's been exposed to chemicals or really bad conditions. But we have examples from G3 and G4 of ponies where the hair fibres are already rotting and falling away. Aside from being a real health hazard risk for kids in an entirely different way to second hand G1 ponies, it's really sad that in 30 years we might not see some of the ponies of now standing the test of time.
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It's weird how Barbie, despite being probably the #1 selling doll, has way worse hair than MLPs. Like, that blond mass looks sleek and lovely in the box, but start playing with it and it gets perma-frizz. I have never seen a thrift store Barbie with what I would consider truly nice hair (sleek and silky.) I believe Barbie hair is made from saran, while MLP hair is (more expensive?) nylon.
According to Ruth Bush (Hasbro employee & G1 team member) the G1 hair came from a small company in Italy. I think she said that they went under around 1988(?) or so and they had to switch suppliers.
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It's weird how Barbie, despite being probably the #1 selling doll, has way worse hair than MLPs. Like, that blond mass looks sleek and lovely in the box, but start playing with it and it gets perma-frizz. I have never seen a thrift store Barbie with what I would consider truly nice hair (sleek and silky.) I believe Barbie hair is made from saran, while MLP hair is (more expensive?) nylon.
According to Ruth Bush (Hasbro employee & G1 team member) the G1 hair came from a small company in Italy. I think she said that they went under around 1988(?) or so and they had to switch suppliers.
I heard that before too. I'm guessing it only really hit Hasbro bigstyle when it came to the 1991-2 year as that's the year where the later produced versions of ponies/batches that mostly ended up in Europe had some really bad hair at times. And also where you see lots of variation in hair colour and texture. I think they were still experimenting. The old fading pink also disappears around that time (although pale pink that fades did still exist it wasn't quite the same as it had been, you had more with the style of hair like Love Story and Nice & Spicy which looked pale pink but didn't fade so easily).