What sparked your desire to collect MLP?

[Einhornbaby]

I got my first ponies in 1986 when I was four. During childhood I built up a nice collection of around 30 +/- G1 ponies plus fakies. I always wanted mooooore ponies back then andf there were soo many I wanted to own... but sadly, pocket money isnt much when your goal is to own all the ponies lol. When I grew older I stopped collecting (for a while) then.
In 2003 my daughter was born and in 2004 I started thinking of my old toys. I digged for my old ponies and thankfully they were still there (I had kept 5 in my closet back then while the rest went into storange). Ebay was my next stop, I soon realized that there were brand new ponies (the G3 were just hitting the stores in my area) and soon bought some. My first new pony was Daisyjo and the same week I found some G1 on a fleamarket. Had to buy them and soon realized that I was able to buy all the ponies I ever wanted as a kid. And so I did... lol. At first I only wanted those I had seen in a sticker collecting book that I owned (Firefly, Medley, the Rainbow ponies and so on...) but with finding so many nice ones on the local fleamarkets I soon dropped from that idea lol.
Today I own around 1000 colorful plastic ponies and I still need more of them <3

[Skeen]

Ponies were always my favorite toys as a kid, and one day after they had stopped being made I was at my best friend's house, where her family was cleaning out their attic.  She had a ton of ponies and playsets in her room and we spent all day comparing her ponies to the ones I knew I had.  We decided to collect because we thought that our two collections together would be pretty sweet, and the rest is history. 

[candiedapples]

I've only been buying ponies for about four years, and have a pretty small group so far. I had a few treasured G1 ponies from childhood, but didn't really start buying toys again until Friendship is Magic came out. At first I thought I would just limit myself to G4, but have thrown the floodgates open and more G1 and G3 have entered my collection. The TAFs, especially Sugarberry, were what started me on G1 again as an adult. As for G3, I had a couple of neat finds at the thrift store, and I would love to collect more of the Comic-Con and other special ponies. I haven't bought a single pony since last summer or fall, but there are a lot that I am still interested in and I expect that my collection will keep growing!

[littlexflitter]

I played with My Little Pony as a child, but I only owned two of them. I don't remember them being toys I was particularly interested in. I mean, I loved playing with them at friends' houses, but I didn't pick them when given the opportunity to select my own toys or make birthday gift wishlists.

I started collecting them in 2003 when G3 was released. I spotted one on the shelf at a Toys 'R Us and instantly went:

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It coincided nicely with me being a teenager who had just gotten a job--I actually had spending money but very little in terms of obligations, so I started buying them. At first my family was like, "Haha, she's indulging in a funny little quirk," but then I was researching and tracking new releases. At that point I was a "collector." (I dabbled in older generations, but I really prefer buying a new pony in a store as opposed to online/garage sales/vintage shops/etc.)

I've had to pause how active I am at different times, depending on my financial situation (a lot has changed since 2003!), but I still really feel something about My Little Pony toys that I don't feel about other collectibles.

[shabbychicdee]

they were my favorite toy growing up in the 80s and i had lots of fond memory's of them and i can remember seeing the first lot to come out (the flat foots) and falling in love with them.
the collecting later on was sparked by all my fav 80s toys all being sold or given away by my brother when i left home.   so the want to see them again snow balled into becoming a full on collector
now im just a part time collector now as im very happy with my herd and now i can just squeeze them all into my cabinets 

[Alzatia]

That I've been a huge toy collector most of my life and fell in love with the current show, which then made me really appreciate the franchise as a whole, and now I have a full room of pony stuff.

[hathorcat]

Ponies were my favourite toy as a little girl but for many years I put them aside as I grew up...however some unknown and random kick of nostalgia made me decide to search out my childhood collection one day. Only to discover my mum had kindly given them away to a little girl who would appreciate them more. All of a sudden a curious "awww wouldnt it be nice to find those ponies" became "I MUST FIND THEM ALL...MWWWHAHAHAHAHAHAH". Goodness knows how long later, I am still here, still collecting and loving the hobby.

[Taffeta]

But now I have actually started collecting MLP G1. So what changed? Well, I think it might come down to one pony ... Fizzy.

Fizzy is a lovely pony to begin with! My sister's first pony was Fizzy. She had her second hand, on her third birthday, all wrapped up in paper and she was so excited because she had her own pony for the first time, instead of just playing with the handful I had.

Erm, going back to the question in hand.

I always had MLP growing up. I had my first pony (Windy) when I was 2 so I don't really remember not having them. We didn't have tons of money when I was growing up, so generally I got a pony either at Christmas or birthday, or occasionally if I saved up money for them or my grandparents decided to spoil me or something.

Pony buying was therefore a pretty significant event for me.

In the early days I was influenced a lot by my parents as to which ponies I had. You can tell, looking at them xD. My Mum chose Windy, Baby Blossom, and I think Cherries Jubilee. My Dad chose Masquerade, Snowflake and Shady xD. I think he also had a lot to do with me getting Tropical Breeze with my birthday money when I was 6, too.

As time went on I would pick a pony from each set that I wanted, since there wasn't really a chance to get all of them, but almost always the one I wanted from the set did not for some reason show up in the local stores here (bad distribution). I had a pony (Sunburst) when my sister was born, and another (Rainbow Magic) to cheer me up when my mother was in hospital. Pretty much ponies marked every significant event for me as a young kid.

I never totally stopped with the ponies, but I did put them away for a bit when I started secondary school. It really didn't last, though, and we began carbooting a while after that (1994?) when I discovered that MLP were no longer being sold in shops. My first carboot ponies were Lickety Split and Parasol. A school friend of mine also gave me her old ponies, which I had grown up playing with enough to think of them as my own, somehow. (Well, they sort of are now )

In 1997, I discovered the internet, and Dream Valley, and all the ponies I didn't have and hadn't heard of. When I found that, somewhere in the world, Medley, Powder and all the ponies that had been in the comic growing up really existed, I was so excited. I'd leave posts on the old pink TP but I had no email so could only leave my phone number.

Then, one day, an American collector actually phoned that number. We wound up trading a lot of ponies and I was lucky enough to meet her and her grandkids in the Summer of 1998. She has since, sadly, passed away, but I will never forget the memory of that day, and all these ponies that I had never seen before in real life. I still know which ponies they are in the collection.

My sister and I always collected together. Some ponies we both have, some she has, some I have. I like it better that way. It was something we did together.

I collect on and off these days, among many other interests and commitments. My passion was opening up the UK information to the global community, and it is still looking at the UK's history, the variations, the oddities and such like. I find the Nirvana really pretty, but I am not driven to try and get every one of them. Maybe one or two, if they are affordable. You said about it being such a demanding thing to collect - but I don't think so. You choose your niche and collect what makes you happy.

To date, my collection is missing only one mainstream pony - Baby Sugarcake - but there are still things I'd like to add to my collection, especially MIP things from my childhood on UK card.

I'm glad I collected as a child, and even more glad I had the opportunity of carbooting and collecting online in the late 1990s/early 2000s. I think it's a harder collectable to begin now, because of rarity - but also a nicer one, because the community is so global now, and it really wasn't back in 1998.

I hope that sort of answered the question O.o. I guess the summarised version is that I don't really know what life would be like without a pony somewhere in it, since they've always been there, one way or another. I graduated both times with Rainbow Dash (G3 and G4), so they literally have been involved in most every important event of my life

[CloudyGlow]

I wish I remembered.  I don't even know what my first pony was!  It was probably one of the g3 wave 1 ponies.  Either Kimono or Pinkie Pie.  I'm thinking it was Kimono.  It probably boiled down to me being 13 and in a toy store and seeing the ponies and thinking "oh hey those are pretty, I'll get one".  I've always liked collecting things and for whatever reason decided to give ponies a go.

[palaisdejouets]

I started collecting them in 2003 when G3 was released. I spotted one on the shelf at a Toys 'R Us and instantly went:

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Hahahaha that gif is perfect!

G3s have really grown on me. I used to not be interested when I found them at the thrift store but now I am appreciating their charm!

But now I have actually started collecting MLP G1. So what changed? Well, I think it might come down to one pony ... Fizzy.

Fizzy is a lovely pony to begin with! My sister's first pony was Fizzy. She had her second hand, on her third birthday, all wrapped up in paper and she was so excited because she had her own pony for the first time, instead of just playing with the handful I had.

I didn't even have to own Fizzy to be inspired by her -- I actually just got Fizzy a couple weeks ago, and had been buying other pastel-ish ponies for some time. Anyway, that story about your little sister is the sweetest! Also, Taffeta, I really have appreciated reading your posts especially in the CP Sundance thread. That was all so fascinating!!!

[NoPonySpecial]

It was this dang website. I was going to just remake my childhood collection but NO, people had to keep showing off all these beautiful, unique ponies that had to keep worming their way into my heart. Thanks a lot, guys!


( Just kidding, no regrets!  )

[Aadra310]

Ponies were always my favorite toys as a kid, and one day after they had stopped being made I was at my best friend's house...

Hey!  That friend is me!     We started wanting to acquire more ponies in about what, Skeen, the 7th grade?  Tail end of 6th, maybe?  Anyway, Skeen had ponies I'd never even seen before!  We got started before the "Interwebs" was really part of the collecting world.  Heck, I REMEMBER when eBay got started. 

So, part of the draw for me was that we always made new discoveries!  There wasn't a mlpwiki or anything like that.  I remember finding a Dance n Prance and not even being sure if it was a real MLP.  Same with a soda sipping pony (weird hole in mouth!) and Skeen bought our first dream beauty only because the eyes were the same as MLP.  We weren't sure what it was!  Part of me is a little bummed for new collectors as there are far fewer mysteries to uncover these days.  But, the upside is a huge community! 

[Starflight]

Hi grew up in the 1980's and like others getting a pony was a big deal!  I got my first pony the unicorn powder for my fifth birthday as I was a horse mad little girl.  I have about 12 original mlp gen 1's that I kept in storage until recently when my mum moved.  I have brought them home and my girls (3 and 2) are playing with them.  I've recently been buying some on eBay, I bought a couple of "bait" lots and have washed them up. Some are missing tails but they are still gorgeous.  I'm not sure if I will be a display collector as I love that the ponies give joy through playing, so at the moment my girls can play with them.

I'm currently searching for the gen 1 ponies I always wanted...plus I recently found out there's a pony gen 3 Starflight who shares a name with my first real horse so am trying hard to find her.

My girls have some new ponies, they don't quite hold the same excitement for me and tbh I'm not sure of their names lol

[FullMoonFever]

My first pony was from a friend of the family when I was about 5.  It was the March Daffodil birth pony.  I still have her, she's in horrid shape but I don't care!  Then my parents would surprise me occasionally with the mail order ponies, so I have several of the Mail Order versions of the ponies, like Pinwheel, Sprinkles and Confetti (Sprinkles and Confetti need replacing, they're in pretty bad shape as they were my favorite ponies.)

I got back into ponies when I saw a G3 Applejack on a shelf.  Applejack is my absolute favorite pony, I would love to own one, but I've never managed to get one. 

Sadly I have had to sell most of my collection (a few I wish I hadn't, like the macaw G3 unicorn, I really miss that one.) 

Anyway, that's my story and I'm sticking to it!

~Jenn

[Ember1]

They have always been with me.. Ever since I was born.. My Little Ponies were the theme on my 1 yr old birthday party. I don't ever remember a time without them.