What started you collecting ponies again?

[spottedslug]

It's all HER fault. *points*

[klein]

I loved ponies as a kid and had a very large G1 collection, Applejack and Firefly were my favorites. They eventually got kind of forgotten and packed up in the attic. I think I had randomly picked up a few G3.5 ponies in the like Target holiday section because they were kind of cute but it didn't really respark the interest in me. I became friends with Requiemart/DGRequiem who customizes ponies and was amazed by all her lovely customs on display and my interest was peaked a bit, I bought the Junko Mizuno art pony and a few of the other art/SDCC ponies. Then my now six year old daughter started watching Friendship is Magic and it was nearly so wretched as the other cartoons she watched, why it was pretty cute! There's an Applejack in this series, too? Heck yeah I'll watch some of this with the kid. Then she wanted some of the toys so we went shopping, I happened to spot a Fashion Style Applejack. Applejack was my very favorite as a kid, surely one pony for mommy would be okay  . It somehow escalated to the child and I both having pretty much all of the G4 toys, then I went back and got a good number of G3s that I liked and replaced some of my favorites from my childhood G1 collection, not to mention getting a few I always wanted but never had.

[Ledbyrd]

I am really enjoying reading everyone's stories!

For me it was a combination of things. I grew up playing with ponies in the 80's. My Mom saved a few of my childhood ponies for me but not all, so I always had those on display in my house.

When my daughter was born in 2010 I found that I had a renewed interest in toys, particularly the toys that I had enjoyed as a child. As she grew and started watching bits of tv here and there I noticed that there was a new  My Little Pony cartoon on the kids channel, FIM. She loved to watch it and I found myself enjoying it too, so we would watch it together. I loved the art style and purchased a few toys for her and then found myself collecting a few blind bag ponies for myself.

I thought that would be the extent of my collecting. The bulk of the toys that I bought were for my daughter. Then her older cousins passed down some G3 ponies and DVDs to her which she of course loved as well. So we started looking in second had shops for more G3s to play with.

It was then that I started to find G1s and I decided to keep those for myself. Then I started to check my local Craigslist for ponies and found more G1s that way. Before I knew it I had a pony stash of my own! So here I am with a growing herd and an awesome online community to hang out with.

[scarletjul]

I had a couple as a kid but it was never really a big thing to me, though I always loved Wind Whistler. 

Flash forward to seven years ago.  For my birthday, my best friend fave me a g3-themed birthday present.  There was a puzzle, play-doh and g3 Merriweather.  I was already a toy collector and once I saw Merri, I just knew she needed a friend.  So that very night we went to TRU and bought Silver Glow.  The next week, I decided to check out eBay and rediscover g1 ponies.  My collection exploded from there. 

[Aflame]

i have a photo of me and apple jack at bodnant gardens in 1984 she was my first pony and i still have her and all my childhood ponys  (about 150) when they stopped making the g1s i stopped collecting  and as i got older i saw less and less around and finaly i had them up in the attic where they stayed for about 2 years over this time my mum got cancer and passed away. as she had brought  most of them for me i wanted to see them again so i got them down and had a massive spa weekend for them being surounded by them made me feel less sad  as they hold alot of memories , one day i went past the librery and they had new computers so went in and tried them looked on ebay and there was laods of g1 for sale also met my OH by then and he started getting  them for me i also found the arena  and joined up  now i have lots of pony mates and partner that doesent mind my collection

[Keelee_von_Cupcake]

My ex-boyfriend of many years is a huge brony, so he of course liked for me to watch Friendship is Magic with him. I like the show, and I love toy collecting, so I thought starting to collect a few ponies here and there would be a fun activity we could do together. Fast forward two years later, and I have new a boyfriend now, but the colorful plastic ponies are still here, and I am always on the lookout for new ones to add to my herd!

Besides all that, one of my favorite toys as a child was my G1 Pony Bride (she's still a treasured part of my collection ). I don't think I had any other MLPs, but I did have lots of ceramic unicorns and other little plastic animal toys I just loved. So between that nostalgia, and my discovery of the Arena (which both helps to fuel and facilitate my collecting with the awesome discussions and sales pages), I'm hooked!

i have a photo of me and apple jack at bodnant gardens in 1984 she was my first pony and i still have her and all my childhood ponys  (about 150) when they stopped making the g1s i stopped collecting  and as i got older i saw less and less around and finaly i had them up in the attic where they stayed for about 2 years over this time my mum got cancer and passed away. as she had brought  most of them for me i wanted to see them again so i got them down and had a massive spa weekend for them being surounded by them made me feel less sad  as they hold alot of memories , one day i went past the librery and they had new computers so went in and tried them looked on ebay and there was laods of g1 for sale also met my OH by then and he started getting  them for me i also found the arena  and joined up  now i have lots of pony mates and partner that doesent mind my collection

What a beautiful story, I'm so glad your ponies hold so many happy memories for you.

[Sarah-Bee]

When I left College I was terrified by the prospect of having to grow up so I looked to get some of the toys I loved as a child to keep me from growing up entirely. Of course I found my beloved My Little Ponies and the rest is history

[mlp4me]

I never stopped liking ponies. It just so happened that I found ebay in 2000 and collecting began more actively again...

[HelloGoodbye]

I was a little kid during the G3 era, and I had tons and tons of ponies (I still have all of them!) and they, along with my Breyer horses, were my undisputed favorite toys.  Even once I "outgrew" them, I still would buy them in the store just because I loved them so much.  The only times when my collecting cooled off a bit were when there were periods without a lot of new releases.  I was suitably crushed when the main era of G3 with all of its awesome variety, but I still bought G3.5 and liked them well enough.  Then G4 came out and there was suddenly more ponies for me to collect!  I was psyched, and started to become involved in the online G4 pony community.  Then last year, I was browsing ponies on eBay, and I saw G1 Milky Way.  I had known about G1 for quite some time, and had always been really interested in them, but actually getting one intimidated me for some reason.  But I knew that I had to have that Milky Way.  I have no idea why, but she just needed to come home with me.  I put in a really over priced max bid, but managed to get her for a good deal anyway  , haha.  Shortly thereafter, I found the Arena so I could learn how to properly clean up my new G1, and then some more G1 ponies followed.  Now I have at least one pony in every generation, and I'm having a great time collecting!  I never really stopped getting ponies, actually, but I would say right now is a high point!

[elffypony]

I started collecting ponies after finding out about FIM online, watched a couple of episodes and then decided to take my G3's out again! I soon found the ponies when they were just released in the UK, got Pinkie Pie who was my first pony since and the rest is history! 

[Ivy]

I never really, truly stopped.... When I was 13 I got my last in-store pony (Whirly or Baby Yo-Yo can't remember which was the last) and then my mom deemed me too old to be getting them for presents anymore and I didn't really get an allowance..... When I was 16, I got a job and with it money - no more ponies in stores *boo* so I started buying them second hand... I used to come home with 15-20 ponies a week from our flea market - I did get six coloring books on clearance at Wal-mart in '94. I've been collecting them ever since.

[otocolobus_manul]

When I was young, I went through a brief g3 phase, but stopped collecting around g3.5 due to being creeped out by the new designs. I gave away my childhood collection, holding onto only a few that had sentimental value to me. Years later I started watching FiM, and was well aware of the merchandise but had no desire to buy any of it... until I was waking through Target one day and happened to see the white Celestia/Pinkie Pie set. I knew I simply had to own that show-accurate Celestia, so I decided to grab it. Then I needed a Luna/Rarity set to match, and then the Mane 6, and the CMC, and the Wedding Castle to display them all... now I've got ponies from 4 different gens and am in the process of converting an unused room in my house into a display room:')

[Juliepants]

I played with G1s from being a little kid, I had a couple from new but mostly second hand ones. I remember going to the toy shop once and my mum, my sister and I being horrified cos these ponies were too skinny! G2s. Where had our beautiful chubby little ponies gone?!!
Eventually our ponies ended up in my mum and dads loft (I'm so glad she never threw them away!) I talked about them fondly over the years, always reminiscing about my happy childhood playing with them. My sister in law said she'd had loads as a child. My husband bought me the movie as a wedding present in April 2005!!
Then one day, in march 2007 I suddenly decided to search on them on eBay. Oh the joy!! I bid and won straight away on a Masquerade!! So she was the first pony I bought as an adult. And from there it sparked off my love again. I got all our ponies out of my parents loft, my sister kindly said I could have any claim she had to them. So that was about 30ish ponies. I slowly but surely added to them in fits and starts, sometimes not doing anything for months, sometimes loads close together. Then my sister in law kindly said I could have hers too, I bought them from her, felt too bad to just take them, it did us both a favour, fab to save on postage and packing! My husband has bought me a couple over the years, he jokes he doesn't like them but secretly doesn't seem to mind too much. He knows my dream is to have them displayed one day. I attended my first ponycon last year, bought a number there, so exciting!! So now I gave about 100, I've had a massive spurt this year, really loving buying them at the moment, so if I make it this years ponycon I dread to think how many I'll get!
Jules xx

[sweetiebabyfizzy]

I never actually stopped collecting. While ponies weren't being sold in stores I was looking at thrift stores and yard sales. It wasn't "cool" to still like ponies then, but oh well! That was before the internet for you youngins'. 

[U2QueenBee]

For me it was G3s coming out...I think I had started to look at what my childhood ponies might have been worth and when I saw that ponies were being released again it just struck that nostalgia chord, with them being very reminiscent of G1s, and I started collecting.  Never got into G3.5 as I just didn't like the shape of them so it has tapered off since then, although I do have a couple G4s and I enjoy the FiM show.