What drew you to MLP?

[Miniature Sheep]

I caught a couple of episodes of the original cartoon on TV and was also given a load of old G1s (along with some story books and a wooden puzzle!) that used to belong to my aunt, and the rest is history.

[DalaPony]

I was a horse mad child and I loved horse-themed toys.  Something about MLP just attracted me more than most other toys, maybe the pretty colours and friendly faces of the ponies   My best friend was also into ponies, and we collected together and had our own little imaginary pony world.  I guess my adult collecting started through nostalgia for those times.  There's something immensely comforting about having all my favourite ponies around me 

[ponyqueen]

Ponies, unicorns, pegasi, rainbows, glitter...

[Terra]

I got into them about 10+ years ago as a teenager; watching rented g1 DVDs.

I always liked colorful animals, but I never really persued mlp as a kid. When I was a kid I had one mlp that I have no idea where I got it from (summer wing glow) and a fantasy filly that I bought myself (Prisma) -- but I was generally kind of weary of getting into anything """girly""".

I'm not exactly sure what suddenly got me into them after not caring fpr them much when I was actually the target audience. I just really got into the stylized design of G1s/G3s, and I think something about ponyland was appealing while combating gross depression I was having. Alllsooo, I was starting to figure out that people applying gender to consumer prefferences was kinda bs. :k

[Kittywhiskers]

It fit with my love of animals, fantasy stuff and bright colors. I was particularly interested in horses as a kid _{(well, aside from my thing about cats, cats have always been awesome)}. So My Little Pony looked like something I might like. But dad said no, we didn't have much money for toys and he thought all things MLP were stupid and terrible anyway. I was still curious, but my dad's irrational hatred of all things vaguely resembling MLP meant that I couldn't even look at a pony for more than a few seconds unless it was given to me by someone else. I eventually got some fakies this way, and have since lost them.

Fast forward several years, to when I eventually heard about the brony phenomenon. I was curious again. I looked up a few episodes of FiM, used that show to convince my dad that ponies were not the spawn of Satan, fell face-first into G4 fandom, started collecting and got into the other generations later.

[hathorcat]

As a kid...I honestly think it was just the toy of the moment...so like many kids "I wanted MLP". However I also adored animals of any kind so I think that combined to make it the perfect toy for me.

As an adult why I got in to collecting...I have absolutely no idea. It really was a random day I wanted to find my childhood toys and when I couldnt find them I took to the interwebs to help me track something down I really would love to know why it tickled my fancy but I just cant think why.

[PJSparkles]

Well, as a little girl, my mom picked some ponies up from garage sales. my sister and I played with them until we got obsessed with barbies and they sat in a box for a long time after that

as an adult, the FiM show got really popular, so I was casually interested in it and watched a little. I liked the art since it reminded me of the powerpuff girls (probably no small coincidence as lauren faust is married to craig mccracken ) which was a HUGE part of my life from childhood to tweenage years. I think once we bought my sister a nurse redheart from walgreens since she had just had surgery and she really likes girly stuff, so we got her it to make her feel better

Then, some time later, I was in line at target and there were some cheap basic ponies by the register. I saw a lyra that I thought was cute and picked it up, not thinking much of it. Then, I wanted to get one of each "type" of pony (alicorn, pegasus, earth)....and that was a slippery slope to colorful horse collecting

During the early stages of my pony craze, I dug around the basement and found my childhood ponies that my mom refused to let me get rid of when we were moving I'm still convinced we had a twilight that I can't find, though.

[lostpony]

I was born in 1971.  I was into star trek, Cosmos, the Lord of the Rings and science fiction.  In the 80s I disovered computers and MLP was some weird little toy with hair in TV commercials.  Last year I bought a couple G4 McDonalds toys because I liked them and was suddenly obsessed with Rainbow Dash trinkets including figures, buttons, a glass, "backpack"s, plushes, T-shirts, sheets, lunchbox, thermos...I watched some fan Pony Music Videos on Youtube then watched all of FiM in order in a week or two.  Someone I bought a plush from suggested I sign up here and I found a lot of G1 ponies here so I bought some on eBay and the G1 series DVDs.  The first time I held a G1 in my hands a couple weeks ago (Pony Bride) it didn't look strange anymore, but like oxygen.  I have 4 G1 ponies and more on the way.  I am one third of the way through G1 and I don't recall life before pony.  I have gone pony crazy and buy anything pony wherever I can find it, MLP or not, and anything that will take good pictures together with ponies.  I am a Pony.

[bladed]

i cant really say. i dont remember NOT having mlp.

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[Aflame]

before i got in to MLP (when i was 4) i got one of these for my birthday visitors can't see pics , please register or login

and when i saw an mlp in woolworths i was immediately attracted to them and my mum got me apple jack
visitors can't see pics , please register or login
heres me with aj at bodnant gardens
when they stopped making G1 i stopped collecting , but when my mum passed away  i started to collect again from ebay and then found this lovely place ! plus lots of pony friends at pony con xaflame

[mlp4me]

The original cartoons... I've been hooked since the late 80's. Then they stuck around over time and started to multiply.

[SweetLemons]

I love girly, pink, and glittery things so when I heard that the new My Little Pony reboot was actually watchable, I was INSTANTLY magnetized to it. I love pastel stuff too so the G1's and G3's are like candy to me while I still love G4, the color scheme and overall idea of G1 and G3 is just 

[Sugarberry]

Dolls just weren't appealing to me as a child.  I grew up in a retirement community along a river, making friends with wild ducks and any stray animal in the neighborhood.  Ballet, gymnastics, Girl Scouts, horseback riding lessons- it was all activity for me until one night when I got hit with child's arthritis.  I was paralyzed for two weeks at age 7.  This coincided with the die-casting plant my father worked at having problems and shutting down (because of murders in the owning family- which were found out later).  Because dad was out of work, our family had no health insurance.  Two weeks of hospital nearly bankrupted our family.  It took years for recovery- financially for the family and physically for me.  Mom became a scout leader to make activities that I could participate in without need for money.  But- the gymnastics, horse lessons and ballet I loved were all beyond reach.  Breyer horses cost a fortune, and breakable- no way could we afford them. Then a couple years into all this, along came these colorful, smiling little horses, and they were only a few dollars.  Depressed from the illness and being isolated at school because I couldn't see properly (we'd not know this for another 3 years), I was isolated and the other kids stopped playing with me.  Schoolwork suffered and the ponies became rewards and incentives for doing well on homework.  That was how my collection started.  When the cartoons came on later, it became the resounding 'gotta get them all' that *almost* holds true even now.

[BuckinghamAlice]

I had heard good things about FiM, so I started watching the show on netflix and just completely marathoned the first four seasons.  And then I just wanted to have a look at some of the older pony toys and did some googling and was basically thinking "huh... I need... all of them..."

[Leave a Whisper]

Dolls just weren't appealing to me as a child.  I grew up in a retirement community along a river, making friends with wild ducks and any stray animal in the neighborhood.  Ballet, gymnastics, Girl Scouts, horseback riding lessons- it was all activity for me until one night when I got hit with child's arthritis.  I was paralyzed for two weeks at age 7.  This coincided with the die-casting plant my father worked at having problems and shutting down (because of murders in the owning family- which were found out later).  Because dad was out of work, our family had no health insurance.  Two weeks of hospital nearly bankrupted our family.  It took years for recovery- financially for the family and physically for me.  Mom became a scout leader to make activities that I could participate in without need for money.  But- the gymnastics, horse lessons and ballet I loved were all beyond reach.  Breyer horses cost a fortune, and breakable- no way could we afford them. Then a couple years into all this, along came these colorful, smiling little horses, and they were only a few dollars.  Depressed from the illness and being isolated at school because I couldn't see properly (we'd not know this for another 3 years), I was isolated and the other kids stopped playing with me.  Schoolwork suffered and the ponies became rewards and incentives for doing well on homework.  That was how my collection started.  When the cartoons came on later, it became the resounding 'gotta get them all' that *almost* holds true even now.

*hugs* thats heartbreaking.