Giving a G1 to a child

[Taxel]

I'm sort of looking for opinions and advice here.


I've always been very against giving G1s to young kids, but less so about baity ones (the baity-er they are, the more okay with it I am). But back in November I met my boyfriend's little sister for the first time. She's four years old and just the cutest thing. She was absolutely terrified of me until she saw me finger combing the hair of Baby Firefly, my travel pony, to relax. After that she adored me. I spent so much time with her balanced on my knees while she looked through the photos of my ponies on my site over and over and over again. I even let her play with Firefly for a bit, while being carefully supervised of course.

Her favorite ponies of mine were Baby Firefly and my "Eagle pony" (a custom I sold a while back). I'd really love to get her a baity baby Firefly of her own; I'm sure she'd love it (and I'm positive her mom would be fine with it). I'm really particular about how I want the Firefly to be - very short mane and tail so it can't get messed up, no bite marks or missing limbs, paint rubs/scratched preferred, marks are preferred (but no written names), scratches/scrapes on the body are okay, no trace of mold/pindot/smooze is okay and I need photos of the inside of the pony to be sure. And on top of that I of course plan to clean the Firefly better than I've ever cleaned a pony before, and probably multiple times just to be sure. I'm not even sure she'll still like MLP by the time I have money and find a Baby Firefly I approve of, but if I get the chance I'd really like to do this for her. But, as a collector, I'm still kind of torn about it. :/

[Emberfly]

I personally wouldn't worry about giving a G1 to a child, especially a non-mint one.  It's when they start loving to death the minty rare ones that I start to cringe.  There are children out there who are also very gentle with their toys and keep them in amazing shape.

[sweetlittlejenny]

Yeah, I wouldn't worry too much. My daughter had a few of my G1 ponies for awhile. Until I realized she wasn't really playing with them.
Unless she's the type of kid who draws on her toys or takes scissors to them I would just give it to her and let her be. Maybe just tell her not to take it in the tub.

[Tiggums6]

My daughter loves climbing in the pony boxes and I have no problem with that, I just remove the ones that  I don't want their hair fiddled (think candy cane) or ones like the pretty pockets, with breakable bits. She really likes the UK ones it seems. Of course, I wouldn't leave the rarer ones where she could get to them, and Dream Beauties are shut up out of sight, it's simpler like that. Oh and they were originally designed as a toy, so they are fairly durable. And later on when she' bigger, it'll be  noooooo pens or scissors!!

[Tirac]

Do G1s have any known toxic chemicals due to plastic breakdown? I don't think a four year old would put a pony in their mouth, but I've heard of certain plastics releasing rather bad chemicals and know sometimes older toys can have them.

I don't think I ever really found out if G1s can have toxins in their plastic.

[Taxel]

I didn't see her put a single thing (except food) in her mouth all the days we were there. We spent the night and stuff, and it me it didn't seem like she was still into nomming on toys, though I could be wrong. She was very careful with my Firefly, but that might've been because it was mine. Her other toys seemed hit and miss as far as care goes. Her Shining Armor is entirely red on one side, but I don't know if she or one of her big brothers did that. Her vinyl Fluttershy was perfect, her Cadence was fine (messy hair), and I don't remember seeing any other ponies. If I got her a G1 I imagine she'd likely be told to be gentle with it, that its special or something. She's EXTREMELY well behaved, like it was honestly really shocking.

[Honey Buzz Oregon]

My 4 year old plays with them all the time. We played with them as kids so I see the big deal about letting them play with them now

[shadowlark]

Could you get a fakie and customize it into a Baby Firefly for her? Then she gets a nice Baby Firefly and you don't have to worry about her destroying a G1.

[Nappercasper]

My 18 month niece has picked up some of my double g1s they are not mint nor clean. She wasn't meant to pick they up. But cleaned her hands after. But she was happy she does have her own g3s lol but of course she wants my stuff only natural!

[prancingstag]

Last November I gave my two year old niece some baity animal friends that cleaned up nicely. My brother told me that she loves jungle animals so I got her a Kingsley, Zig Zag, Spunky and Creamsicle, and also a Sundance of her own. To be honest she's more interested in playing with people than toys, so most of the time the "hos" (she called all of them horse) remained sitting in their gift box. She also has a fascination with untying things and taking things off (especially her shoes and socks, to the constant dismay of her daycarers) so the craft ribbons I put on their tails were pretty quickly untied and shoved away amongst the tissue paper. She brushed their hair a little bit with the combs I'd gotten for her, but overall wasn't really interested. It was her birthday weekend so there was a LOT happening, visitors, friends, lots of presents, pass the parcel, ice cream and cake, so she didn't focus on any one present for too long. I'll be seeing her again sometime between April and June, so I'll be able to see if she's given them any more attention since.

Personally, I don't see a problem with giving some of the more common G1s to children. I love them to death, but I love them as toys, and I like the idea of them continuing to be played with (not destroyed) by respectful children. I tend to anthropomorphise ponies a little bit and by my reasoning, they were created to be played with, so a happy child playing equals a happy little pony with a second lease on life in the toybox. And I also figure that there are so very very many MLP collectors and people who, in general, understand their rarity and value, that it is unlikely we would ever completely run out of the commons. Maybe fifty years down the road when even Sundances are a rarity, I'll regret giving one to Annabelle, but for now it only seems right to have a big plastic pony held in tiny little hands.

[Taxel]

Could you get a fakie and customize it into a Baby Firefly for her? Then she gets a nice Baby Firefly and you don't have to worry about her destroying a G1.

I considered it, but I don't think it would work. There's no way I'd be able to afford it and I'd worry too much about paint scraping/peeling/chipping/scratching/etc. She may be a well-behaved little girl, but she's still four years old and has three older brothers that live her. They're all pretty well behaved, but the boys are still rough. I worry that a custom pony would just be destroyed and a huge waste of money on my end. If she was older or didn't have so many brothers a custom might work, but I don't think its an option for her.

[Mermaid]

I would say getting her a good condition baby firefly with regular hair would be fine. Baby firefly isn't a high dollar/demand pony. And who knows, maybe it'll spark something in her like it did to all of us and she'll be a future collector.

My niece has had g1 ponies since she was 4 that I gave her, she's 15 now. She still loves them.

[Tiffymh1fan]

What about a G3 Baby or even G4? She may like to have the same pony as you, but this is what I would suggest... Give her a different pony to expand her pony knowledge
You could always tell her its Fireflys new friend, and that way it will have its own personality. Even the difference in look can be explained, Its a different age plain & simple. You would not have to worry about customizing, cleaning ect.. You wouldn't have to worry about it being overly handled if it was G1. If shes anything like all the kids I have watched in the last 16 years, boy or girl, they don't have issues about getting new toys lol. Just find out what her fav color is, what shes into... Flowers, love of animals, style & fashion (my daughter was nuts about fashion even at 4 so rarity would of been her choice then, but now at 8 she has come to love Pinkie Pie because, "Shes Crazy")
Also as a side note, a custom is great but the kiddo would have to be worry about the paint coming off.
 
I started my daughters Pony Collection at 4, a good age  But I must admit I got her Ponyville ponys that could not ruin the hair just to see how she handled them. The Playsets were a hit! Than I moved onto Mcdonald Ponys with just some hair just to see how she did taking care of them. I have some of those Ponies that have frizzy hair now, but I rather those than a G1 at that age. Now she does good with G1s and loves them, but she respects them and takes good care of them. her favs are still the Mermaid ponies

[Sarah-Bee]

My friend has a four year old who is the best behaved child I have ever witnessed! She came to visit as she's pony mad and had heard about the pony room. She played with the G4s very respectfully and had a bit of a look at the G1s but she preferred to be sat on the bed with the G4s I gave her a Peachy and a Lickety Split from my sale box that day and since then I kept putting ponies from all gens in a box to give to her for Christmas. There were no rare ponies, just commons, and apparently it was practically all she played with on Boxing Day morning (when she received them at my friend, her Dad's house, after spending Christmas Day with her mum as her parents are no longer together). It was great and really odd but good for me as I don't really 'do' kids lol

[Taxel]

I would say getting her a good condition baby firefly with regular hair would be fine. Baby firefly isn't a high dollar/demand pony. And who knows, maybe it'll spark something in her like it did to all of us and she'll be a future collector.

The type of baity I'd be looking for is almost entirely for my conscience, and a little bit for my wallet. I'd never give a nice condition G1 to a child under any circumstance; I'd feel so guilty about it. But I wouldn't give anyone a pony I wouldn't display in my collection. The hair thing is the same reason basically. I couldn't stand seeing a G1 with totally horrible ratty hair! She loves the ponies she has now, but their hair made me cringe a bit. I really wanted to have a nice spa day with poor Cadence. xD

What about a G3 Baby or even G4? She may like to have the same pony as you, but this is what I would suggest... Give her a different pony to expand her pony knowledge

I've been planning to give her some G3s/G4s I don't want no matter what I do about the Firefly issue. She seems to really like ponies and I'm pretty sure she only has three; what a crime! Haha. She just got to excited when she'd get back to Baby Firefly's picture on my website, and he was the one pony she really seemed to connect with aside from Old Applejack (G1) and "Eagle pony" (a custom I don't own anymore). I thought about Applejack, but she might not like short hair on her while my Firefly has cut/messed up hair so that's how she knows him.