Would you debox a G1/G2/G3 pony?

[ponycake]

Reading through these posts it seems like an attack on anyone who opens their ponies even though I know that is not the intention. Opening a pony does not destroy it. I also don't find collections of boxed ponies nearly as appealing to the eye.

Opening a pony so old does destroy it in my eyes. That's your opinion. You take it from something rare and turn it into another common loose pony. And I find collections of boxed ponies much more appealing to the eye. 

[Tropical_Sunset]

A year or so ago I came into the possession of a G1 MIB MGR Flower Bouquet.  Someone gave her to me.  I want to collect the MGRs, as one of the two ponies I kept from my childhood is an MGR, but I didn't see her as part of my collection in that box.  She didn't "match" my loose MGR like that!  I considered opening her for quite some time, then decided to just sell her and maybe find another nice, loose Flower Bouquet sometime. 

MIB/MOC ponies are extremely cool to see and I'm glad there are collectors out there who keep them that way.  But MIB/MOC collecting is not for me.  So, no, I don't think I'd debox a G1 or G2, I'd sell the pony and try to buy a loose version of it.

I still only have my childhood MGR... :/

[nemubones]

I wouldn't debox them period.I would be too nervous since its more an investment at that point (not to say deboxed ones aren't) but minty ones are getting rarer and rarer. Plus, if its one with a mechanism or gimmick, I'm gonna play with it. I have mint in box toys but sometimes its just nice to hold them like you did as a child or even an adult for that matter.

[Snapdragon]

I've been debating just such a question lately - I have a G1 pony in terrible packaging (to the point where the damage is leaking through the card and damaging the pony too!!), and I've been hesitating to open her ever since I got her, simply because she's a G1! G3s I feel no qualms about - if it's a G3 and I need it, it's probably gonna get opened, excluding super-rare G3s of course! So many people have nabbed them as 'collectibles', I think we won't be at any risk of running out of MIB G3s anytime soon!

If it's your pony and your money - you can do whatever you want with it. Plain and simple! But if you come to other collectors looking for approval or kudos, you are unlikely to get it, especially if it's a super-rare MIB you just deboxed! So debox with care, or keep it to yourself if you can't deal with the resultant grumbling! (I mean, ideally we should all just say 'hey, capitalism, deal with it!', but this isn't an ideal world, and people will argue about everything!) Personally, I do feel a certain amount of 'concern for the community' should come into play - do you REALLY need to debox that MIP Rapunzel? - but ultimately, it's your money and your toy. The community didn't pay for that MIP; you did!

I also wanna add: Do not permanently alter anything if you are have collected for less than a year. I only say this because I've seen new collectors get excited and do something ("I'm gonna cut my mint G1 pony's hair cuz I love mohawks!") that they later regretted once they became more "seasoned" collectors. If you want to open that MIB G1, great! You wanna buy all of the Mountain Boys and max out your credit card, go for it! But maybe wait 6 months to make sure you wanna do it, you know?

[Carrehz]

I've been debating just such a question lately - I have a G1 pony in terrible packaging (to the point where the damage is leaking through the card and damaging the pony too!!), and I've been hesitating to open her ever since I got her, simply because she's a G1!

It's up to you, of course, but imo if *I* had a pony with packaging that was that badly damaged, I'd free the pony. Is risking damage to the pony really worth keeping them in the package? (Plus they're not really "mint" in package in that case anyway, lol) I do see your point, though .

I also wanna add: Do not permanently alter anything if you are have collected for less than a year. I only say this because I've seen new collectors get excited and do something ("I'm gonna cut my mint G1 pony's hair cuz I love mohawks!") that they later regretted once they became more "seasoned" collectors. If you want to open that MIB G1, great! You wanna buy all of the Mountain Boys and max out your credit card, go for it! But maybe wait 6 months to make sure you wanna do it, you know?

You hit the nail right on the head.

[Shy Violet]

I love opening my G4's and dolls, it's fun and exciting so I can see the appeal of opening a G1 MOC. I bought some G3's 10 years ago in store and saved them MIB all those years with the intention of giving them to future children so yes I let my daughter debox them and play with them even though they were no longer in production. I don't collect G2's at all and if I found one MOC in the wild I would sell her to a collector in the community.

As for G1's, I only have 1 MOC G1 and she is an Argie that I bought 20 years ago on ebay when they were going for $20. Oh how I wish I had bought more, lol! I would love to have MOC's but they are out of my price range. I would never open a MOC G1 unless they were in danger of being damaged by mold or ink or whatever. I think they are very special and so HTF MOC plus expensive to collect, I would not feel good about decarding. I do believe everyone has the right to do what they want with their ponies but like someone else mentioned, it upsets a lot of collectors so don't expect people to be ok with it. I think it's great you got to have a special experience opening your pony BanditPony, and that makes her meaningful to you. It's a sensitive subject but in your case of it being only 1 pony and for a personal, meaningful experience, that doesn't upset me. I would however be absolutely devastated if I sold a MOC and the buyer decarded it. So in that scenario, yes I absolutely would be picky about who I sell to. I do overall prefer MOC ponies to stay MOC. Once they are decarded you can never go back and it takes away one more MOC from the community. I do think community is important because the ponies circulate through each of us and we are all helping each other with our collections.

[Mirnyj]

I wouldn't open an older pony. If I found a need to have the pony loose I would preferably trade or sell the MIB to get a mint loose one to replace it.

[daffodil101]

I love opening my G4's and dolls, it's fun and exciting so I can see the appeal of opening a G1 MOC. I bought some G3's 10 years ago in store and saved them MIB all those years with the intention of giving them to future children so yes I let my daughter debox them and play with them even though they were no longer in production. I don't collect G2's at all and if I found one MOC in the wild I would sell her to a collector in the community.

As for G1's, I only have 1 MOC G1 and she is an Argie that I bought 20 years ago on ebay when they were going for $20. Oh how I wish I had bought more, lol! I would love to have MOC's but they are out of my price range. I would never open a MOC G1 unless they were in danger of being damaged by mold or ink or whatever. I think they are very special and so HTF MOC plus expensive to collect, I would not feel good about decarding. I do believe everyone has the right to do what they want with their ponies but like someone else mentioned, it upsets a lot of collectors so don't expect people to be ok with it. I think it's great you got to have a special experience opening your pony BanditPony, and that makes her meaningful to you. It's a sensitive subject but in your case of it being only 1 pony and for a personal, meaningful experience, that doesn't upset me. I would however be absolutely devastated if I sold a MOC and the buyer decarded it. So in that scenario, yes I absolutely would be picky about who I sell to. I do overall prefer MOC ponies to stay MOC. Once they are decarded you can never go back and it takes away one more MOC from the community. I do think community is important because the ponies circulate through each of us and we are all helping each other with our collections.

Totally agree with all that!  It is a tricky subject- and Snapdragon's so right, it's one of those decisions that shouldn't be made in a hurry.  I remember years ago I was very tempted to open MIBs, but now I feel no need to at all.  Time really can change the way you feel about things.

If I still felt the urge to de-box things, I would try and satisfy that craving another way-- by opening current or recent toys (be it a later gen, or another collection like monster high.)  There's a lovely seller on Etsy who makes Pony Boxes (can't think of her name off the top of my head), and she does the most beautiful packaging - she types out the original back card stories and prints them out illustrated with the pictures from the original cards.  There are beautiful, creative ways to re-package ponies that can give, while obviously not exactly the same, a similar feeling of joy and wonder to de-carding.

[Artemesia's Garden]

You wanna buy all of the Mountain Boys and max out your credit card, go for it! But maybe wait 6 months to make sure you wanna do it, you know?

On topic, I agree with Tropical_Sunset, I'd never open a G1.  Although I can't say i wouldn't have just few ponies MIB one day, but they would have to be doubles for display purposes. ALthough that isn't likely to happen because I'd never be able to decide who the 'just a few' would be. With ponies, it's never just a few 

[buddyboymama]

G1: No! Unless the packaging is damaging the pony (ink stains or mold). Even then, I might have to trade/sell it on to someone else to decard, because I don't think I could bring myself to do it.
G2: No. I don't have much interest in G2, so I would leave them for people who do.
G3: Yes. Unless it is rare/hard to find. I even have several really common ones I bought (at KB Toys, lol) when they were released, but I still can't take them out of the packages.

[elffypony]

I wouldn't open a G1 or G2 pony, but I would open a G3 pony. I don't really think it's that bad if a person bought a MOC G1 and decided to open it because it's their pony, they can do what they want with it. 

[BlushingBlue]

I would never open a G1 or G2 unless the pony was being actively harmed by the packaging (mildew, etc). I would be terribly tempted though! I have a MOC G1 that I've been eyeing for years. She's a common pony, and the card is in pretty rough shape. Plus I found her at a thrift store, so it's not like I would've wasted a ton of money if I opened her. But in the end I always get a hold of myself. I'd like to claim it's out of MLP solidarity, but don't think it's my community conscience at work. She's not rare enough to be saved for posterity, and I can't imagine a MOC collector wanting to buy her. It's more like an anthropomorphized respect that she clung to her card all through the years, even though she must have gone through heck, so who am I to part her from it? But if it was a replacement for a favorite childhood pony, like Glory, I don't know that I would be able to resist the temptation to open her, so I resist the temptation to even buy her MOC in the first place! Someday I'll find a lovely minty loose Glory, and I'll be glad I didn't ruin a MOC to get her.

G3s are totally fair game though! I think the only G3s that have been spared in my deboxing frenzy are the art ponies, since they display so nicely in their boxes anyway. Oh, and the birthstone ponies because I didn't want to deal with their tinsel. The G3 release had both the benefit of a mature collecting community and the ubiquity of the internet to ensure plenty of MIB survivors even 10+ years later. Of course, if everyone thinks the same way, then maybe they'll be scarce in another 10 years. Even then, I still won't regret having opened most of my G3 collection because all those awkward boxes were a nightmare! I don't know how MIB collectors do it!

[Sparkle Pony]

Just wanted to chime and and say that if I saw any pony being damaged by it's packaging, I would remove it instantly.  Poor pony!

[northstar3184]

I'd probably debox a G3, but I'd definitely leave G1s in their packages.

Unless its a special pony like Mimic or Ice Crystal. Then I'd have to free them. 
(Of course that's a joke)

[Taffeta]

I think there's something different at stake when you're talking about a package actively damaging a pony. I can understand why people then take the decision to decard, because - for example, if the issue is damp - it's easier to dry out the pony and the card separately and then save both, rather than lose everything.

I also totally agree with the more than 1 year rule. I think if you have a collecting mentality, you're going to go through collectables that you love forever and some you get then think, nope, and sell them on. You want to know that when you sell them on, you can get back some of that investment.

Some of my ponies I got from a carboot sale here, and they are in their boxes, and all their accessories are still on the card, but eh ponies themselves have been removed. I still keep them in their boxes because of how it looks, but in those situations, they're already opened and it's up to the new owner in my opinion.

I also had a lot of ponies when I was about 14 which came on cards from a clearance store. They were Christmas and birthday gifts, or I bought them myself. Sister had some too. We did not know about online collecting, or MIP, or anything like that. We had almost all of the 1993 and 1994 UK pony releases during those years, and ALL of them got opened.

It was only when I discovered online that I understood about all of this kind of thing. I don't say I regret what we did then, because we didn't know. But I think, once you do know, and you have all the information available to you, it's something that has to be seriously thought about. It's fine to say, it's my pony, and it's my choice - that's absolutely true. But when you join a site like the Arena, you choose to become part of a community. And when you do that, then, simply, the community is also an important consideration. I don't think that, if you are willing to post here and share your pony info, your life and your interests with people here, then it's right to consider the overall community impact of how you choose to treat that collectible, since it does affect everyone in the long term.

I think Banditpony's story is an exception, and it ought to be an exception, not the rule.