I started drawing up a map many years ago when I wrote a MLP fanfiction series.  I don't know where it went unfortunately - otherwise I'd scan it and give everyone a laugh!

I think it's the top off of one of the lanterns, isn't it?

Yes, my Piggy Pony.  I wouldn't have got her at all except that she was sold as part of a big carrier bag of ponies (mostly fakies) for £2 and I wanted another pony in the bag.  She terrified me...my mum said she looked like a real MLP but I laughed and said "of course not" and refused to even look at the poor pony due to her spooky, rusted eyes.

She lived in my fakie box for about four years before I found out the truth!  The worst bit is that I have a vague recollection of seeing two ponies that looked like "that weird scary fakie" at a car boot sale that same summer...which I left there, of course.  Still don't know if they were real piggies or not.

Then there was a plush pony at a charity shop.  I remember it being white with eyeshadow and my mum saying it couldn't be real because "real MLPs don't wear eyeshadow".  Possibly it was Hasbro Softies Honeycomb.  Another time I remember leaving a hard plastic carousel horse at a toy fair.  I'm not sure but it might have been Circle Dancer.  I try not to think about those times.  I was only a kid then so it's possible my memory is playing tricks and the piggies, Honeycomb and Circle Dancer all really WERE fakies, but it still makes me sick to my stomach to think about it!

Yes, Minty and Mainsail were both originally produced with incorrectly coloured tails.  The error was only corrected when the second wave was released three or four months later.  So both versions were probably produced in equal numbers and I doubt it affects her value really.

Sorry, I can't help on value, I struggled to sell some on eBay recently but I think there's still a market for them outside the UK.  (International shipping probably put people off of buying mine!)

Never!  Gosh, it took me forever to even start selling duplicate ponies, I could never throw one away!

Truly.  She was my favourite in the cartoons as a child (well, after Lancer but there was no toy made of him) and I scoured car boot sales for her every weekend.  Never found her, of course, as she wasn't sold in the UK.  I can just imagine my childhood self finding her on the doorstep!

Well, any step towards the end of sea circuses is a step in the right direction.  However, I'm going to be the controversial, odd one out here.  I think Seaworld were pretty much forced into this by all the negative publicity they've received since Blackfish.  They feared they'd lose more supporters over Tilikum's inevitable death so they had to do something to make the public think they were taking all their comments on board and were putting the interests of their animals first.

So yes, I'm glad they've agreed to stop breeding orcas.  But this is very definitely a marketing ploy and it's working.  The public are brainwashed and people who were anti-Seaworld before have suddenly decided to buy tickets because of this.  It's a step in the right direction but it's a tiny step and for the wrong reasons.  This was obviously planned well in advance.  Bear in mind they have a 1-year-old orca, bred from an underage orca.  I understand they also have two pregnant orcas so orcas in captivity are not going to be a thing of the past any time soon.  Also, they don't seem to have made any statement about buying orcas bred in captivity from elsewhere from what I've seen?

I'm very involved with several dolphin/whale conservation groups and most people agree with me.  I'm all for the end of these majestic creatures being made to perform humiliating tricks but I fear this is just some careful wording in order to get ticket sales back up.  There are horrific things happening out there to dolphins and whales - not specifically at Seaworld but Google the "Taiji dolphin hunt" to see the amount of dolphins being slaughtered in Japan.  The fisherman claim it's tradition (nonsense as it's a relatively new thing) and they hunt the dolphins for their meat but the meat actually contains mercury and is worth a pittance compared to the money they make selling performing dolphins to aquariums.  Nothing will change until these gross places are shut down for good.  And I fear this move by Seaworld is just going to encourage people to visit and undo all the good that has been done so far.

(Not trying to start a debate, this is just my opinion!)