I take my ponies out of storage from time to time but I live in a very humid environment and more than once I've found my ponies have white fuzz growing on them (ew). So I wipe them down with soft baby wipes and put them back in storage, but next time I take them out, it's back again. Sigh. I've tried storing them in cardboard boxes and now I'm trying big rubbermaid totes, but I think moisture might still be able to get in there. Does anyone have suggestions for keeping mold away from 200+ ponies? It only seems to get to my G1's. My G3's and G4's seem to be fine, for the most part.

I was wondering if I could buy those silicone gel packs you find inside shoes and purses when you buy them, or something similar to that. Could I keep some of those in the totes full of ponies and would that solve my problem?

Thanks in advance for your advice!

I know vinyl blind box figures are a dime a dozen these days, but I found a cute new series at the store where I work today. I bought a couple and I think they're adorable, so I was wondering if anyone else collects them?

They're called Cloud Cats and they're made by a company named Paka Paka. They're about 3 inches tall and pretty heavy (definitely solid vinyl, not hollow).

If anyone else has any and wants to become a trading partner with me, let me know! I wouldn't mind getting a few more and I don't think there's any way to tell which figure is inside, so I suspect I'll have quite a few duplicates soon.

Each toy comes with 1 vinyl and a double-sided flyer that tells you about the cute characters and also shows all the different options/rarities.

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While I organize my very cluttered pony closet for sale items, I thought I would first try to find homes for my extra Crystal Creatures.

These are a build-able toy from Mega Construx that comes inside an egg filled with slime. The gimmick is to dig the pieces out of the slime and assemble the creature. The eggs are sealed but there's a code on the bottom to tell which creature is inside.

I have some Series 1 and Series 3 for sale. I'm selling them for $11 each plus shipping. If you would rather I open the egg and take the pieces out of the slime before mailing to you, I'm happy to do that. It would probably make the package a good deal lighter.

My Photos:
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The following are the characters I have for sale. (Please note most of these photos are from online sources because my eggs are still sealed. Not my photos.)

Series 1:

Aquagem
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Rubywing
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Rosestone (x 2 in green eggs, x 1 in pink egg)
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Nightsky (in sky blue egg)
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Series 3:

Blushwing
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Flutteris (x 3)
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And here's the photos of the series characters together from the company website

Series 1:
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Series 3:
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Okay so I know I'm late to the party, but I just bought my first toy that came with slime and I just... oh god. I can't believe what I've been doing. It took me 45 minutes to get this toy put together!

So I bought some Crystal Creatures from Mega Construx. It's a cute toy, it's a fantasy creature that comes in an egg and it's about 15 pieces that you snap together to build it. BUT ALL 15 PIECES ARE IN A PUDDLE OF SLIME WHY.

Has anyone else had to deal with slime in kids toys? I imagine yes, because it's such a popular thing with kids toy today. What is the appeal here? I found it extremely aggravating to deal with!

So first I opened the egg and took out this big pouch, and cut it open. Inside was 15 plastic pieces floating around in this silvery slime. I was worried because I was like "Well this is gross, how am I going to get them out and dry them off?" So I grabbed a couple napkins and sat down at a table and pulled out the pieces one at a time.

At least the slime kinda seems to stick to itself, so that made it a little easier for clean up. The toy pieces weren't WET, per sey, and the slime kinda peeled off the plastic as I pulled it out of the pouch. The problem was that it got stuck in the little nooks and crannies of the toy pieces and I had to dig out the slime with a paperclip. Ugh. Hassle.

The slime stuck to my hands a lot, but I was able to get most of it off by trying to dab at my hands with a bigger chunk of slime, and the little pieces stuck to it. I collected the slime on the napkins and then threw it away because I'm sure as hell not going to keep it to play with.

Then of course I realized I was missing a tiny claw piece of the creature, so I looked everywhere, panicking, then went back to the trash and pulled out the slime napkin and of course I found the claw that had been stuck in the slime and I missed it.

So it took me like 45 minutes to get all these pieces out of the slime, and then assembled the creature. Is THAT the point of slime in kids toys? Making the kids enjoy the toy by making it take almost an hour to put it together? I really don't see the appeal.

What are your thoughts on slime? Have you had to deal with it a lot? Are there a lot of toys like this with the pieces swimming in slime and you have to clean them up before you get your toy? Do you have any cleaning suggestions, because I definitely got it on my jeans and I hope it washes out.

Finished product:

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Sorry for the random post today, but I don't have other friends I can gush about animal trivia with. And I'm just so fascinated by this book I got from the library!

The title is "The Rise of Wolf 8" by Rick Mcintyre. It's written by one of the scientists who studied the wolf packs that were reintroduced to Yellowstone National Park in the 1990's. I'm about halfway through it now, and every chapter has such interesting situations!

To set the scene for you, all wolves were wiped out of Yellowstone in the 1920's. Then in the 90's it was decided to reintroduce some wolf packs to the park to try to fix the ecosystem. In the years between, the elk and bison herds in Yellowstone grew to giant sizes and they were really hurting the ecosystem. Certain plants were suffering and almost wiped out in some areas, from overeating.

So a few different packs were introduced, mostly by catching certain wolf packs (or lone wolves) in Canada and bringing them to Yellowstone. The author of the book spent years just walking out into the park and observing them all at a distance. The things he tells us about how wolf society works is just so cool!

The main wolf that the author talks about in the book is, of course, the one called Wolf 8. He became an alpha male at a very young age (like an 18-year-old human) because he found a nearby pack where the alpha male had just been shot and killed by a hunter who had snuck into Yellowstone. (They caught the man and he went to jail but, of course, it was too late for the dead wolf.) Wolf 8 was the runt of his own pack and was picked on growing up, by his three older, larger brothers. So not a big surprise that he left his pack as soon as he could.

When Wolf 8 found the new pack, the female alpha had just given birth to the late alpha's pups. She had been pregnant when he was shot. Wolf 8 befriended her pups and helped raise them with her, just as if he was their father!

The author pointed out that this is rare in the animal kingdom. Many animals, like lions, will wipe out offspring from other males. But wolves will adopt pups that aren't theirs. He theorized that this is one reason why we were able to bond with wolves and how they evolved into dogs over time.

He also talks about other wolf packs in the book, because multiple packs were introduced into Yellowstone Park. One pack they brought from Canada into Yellowstone had a very big, very aggressive alpha male. They named that pack the Druid Pack. In fact, when they transported that pack to Yellowstone and opened the back of the transport truck, the Druid alpha male was standing in the back of the truck staring at them. He had woken up from his tranq and busted out of his cage and was just standing there, in wait for the humans to open the back of the truck hahaha! Very macho guy.

So when they put the Druid Pack into Yellowstone, the alpha moved his pack directly next to Wolf 8's territory. And it wasn't long until he was leading his pack into the other pack's territory, and one time the author witnessed a fight.

Wolf 8 was at the bottom of a hill hanging out with his half-grown pups. The female alpha was off hunting. Druid Alpha led a few of his wolves into the territory and came over the top of the hill and spotted Wolf 8 and the pups. (Are you picturing Anakin and Obi Wan and the "I have the high ground!" scene? Because I am lol.)

The Druid Alpha started running down the hill toward Wolf 8. The author didn't know what would happen, because if Wolf 8 had to run uphill to fight, he would lose a lot of energy and strength getting up there and could likely be killed. Druid Alpha was bigger, older, and more aggressive than Wolf 8, who was a small, young runt. But if Wolf 8 ran away, the pups would probably be killed by the Druid Pack.

To the author's amazement, Wolf 8 ran right up the hill and jumped on the Druid Alpha and fought him and WON. After a short fight, he bit the Druid Alpha hard on the face and then jumped back, and the Alpha got up and then the Druids ran off back to their own territory!

The author theorized that it was specifically because Wolf 8 was a runt, that he was able to win in the fight. He had three brothers that were all bigger than he was, in his old pack. So he had a lot of experience fighting larger opponents. And he fought so hard to protect pups that weren't even his, biologically.

I'm only halfway through the book but all of this is just so interesting. It's like an action movie! I just wanted to tell someone about these amazing things happening out there in the world that most of us never know about. 

This might be a shot in the dark, but I thought this would be the place to ask. If anyone would know, it would be here.

I work at a bookstore but we have a section for popular children's toys. Yesterday one of my coworkers was talking about a (new? or newly popular) Hasbro girls toy that a bunch of customers keep coming in and asking if we have, but apparently it's a Target-exclusive?

Curious, I asked my coworker what the toy was, but he said he didn't remember the name of it. He just remembered that everyone kept asking us for something that is only at Target, and he said it was similar to the little LOL surprise dolls.

Any ideas what it could be? I'm just curious about new toys and I like to know what the new big things are for kids.

Rainbow Dash has been my favorite pony since her introduction in 2003, and I've been collecting merchandise of her for almost as long. It's been a while since I took updated photos of my collection with the latest additions, so today I took some! 


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Let's bring back this fun Arena game from long ago! If you haven't played before, here's how it works: The first poster asks a question, and the next poster has to name 5 ponies with characteristics matching the first poster's request, as quickly as they can.

Here's an example:
Quick! Name 5 ponies with names that start with the letter B!

The responder would then post:
Bowtie
Bunches o' Fun
Bonnie Bonnets
Big Mac
Bonbon

Then they would post their own "Quick! Name 5!" question.

Let's begin!

Quick! Name 5 food-themed ponies!