Why do you collect toys?

[Ariana]

I’m always trying to figure out exactly WHY I collect toys, and I came to another realization as to why I might do so.

Looking back on my childhood, I was forever OBSESSED with toys. More than any other child I knew of (even though like all kids love them)…I loved them more. I constantly had to look at every toy section in every store and it was a huge deal if a toy store around me was closing (such as the old KB Toys brand, the Disney store in my mall, etc.). I remember vividly the large amount of toys sprawled out in my playroom and I still love to see pictures of myself when I was little and seeing all my old toys. We went to NYC once with family friends and were going to stop at FAO Scwartz (a now closed, enormous toy store in the city) after it’s renovation, but as we got there we realized that it was still under construction and not yet opened! I cried hysterically for the rest of the day and was inconsolable, and I still remember it vividly. I overreacted to the point of it being extreme.

I also remember how shocked I was to know that my friends started growing out of toys around 5th grade. 5th grade??? I was still sneaking small toys in with me (such as little bobblehead turtles in my pencil case) and getting notes from the teachers saying to my mom that I couldn’t bring any more toys to school with me! That is so early, I thought! When they said they didn’t play anymore, I was completely taken aback and had to hide my playing and going to toy stores from the public eye, always terrified if people from my school saw me carrying around toys or in toy stores. This fear continued until around high school, as I still hid my playing and collecting toys from many of my friends, but then I realized that it was okay to be different and love toys. I realized then there was a huge toy collecting community and as long as I labeled myself a collector, I felt more comfortable with my toy obsession and knowing that there were many others like me!

Of course, I only really started collecting MLP at age 12 (LPS was the first major toy line I collected starting in 2005 when I was 10), and then my love for toys grew even more. I was open to girlier toys (I was more into Pokemon, fantasy creatures, stuffed animals, and dinosaurs in my younger years and hated dolls), in my “second childhood”, which I labeled from lasting from age 12 onward, as I liked LPS, MLP, Care Bears, and other girlier colors and toys. Finally in high school more people were aware of my collecting and my love for ponies and Hello Kitty and the like, and I felt so much better about myself that I didn’t have to hide anymore. My love for toys might be a little extreme in other people’s standards, but for me it’s perfectly okay and I’ll never ever change! I still feel the same excitement as a child looking in toy aisles or finding toys secondhand- the same drive to find rare and cute toys!

Does anyone else have a similar story or realization to how they started collecting, or how they became okay with being a little different than their peers and never growing out of their toys?

(I'm still not over how kids grow out of toys at 5th grade, mind you!) 

[ponyqueen]

What a sweet story! I love collecting ponies (and a few other special items) because it connects me to my childhood, and innocent afternoons playing with our toys. We rotated playing with ponies, barbies, legos, stuffed animals, dollhouse, lps, and doing art projects. Everything we curated was earned over years of Christmases and birthdays, lovingly given by Santa, Mom, and... that's probably about it!

And now I continue to hunt and collect many amazing and beautiful, rare, or international ponies- but the most cherished are still the ones that we know Mom picked out for us.

[Baby Crumpet]

I'm not too sure, actually.

I've always collected things, from a very, very young age. I used to - and still mildly - collect Beano Annuals. I had thousands of the comics, buying them every week, but there were so many, and then I discovered the annuals. Only the really old ones from the '30's had massive value, so I could go to carboot sales and cart four or five away from someone for as little as 20p! I read them constantly, had plastic sleeves for them.

When that obsession waned, it was shared with pokemon, then sonic the hedgehog, doctor who, sherlock holmes, attack on titan and many other things I'm probably forgetting.

As I child I always had to be collecting something. Had to be obsessed with something. It was just part of who I was, and still am today. It got to the point that my father used to carry a list of all the beanos I didn't have, just in case.

Ponies is just another obsession, I guess. It isn't even the longest lasting - Pokemon lasted for 7 years, as did the beano. It's just another of my quirks. I always have collected things, so it just so happens that it's plastic ponies that are older than me. I might stop, I did fall out of it for a year or so recently, but I'll never get rid of them. I still have my Beanos and my pokemon games.

Maybe ponies are a return to my childhood obesssion of collecting? I can't quite be sure. They make me happy, though, so I'm not too fussed on the how or why of things 

[Shy Violet]

Your story reminds me of my own a little bit. I was also one of those kids that was still secretly buying and playing with toys while all the other kids had grown out of them. Apparently the other moms were telling my mom that there was something wrong with me because I was still so obsessed with toys when the other kids were over it.  That pisses me off, finding that out as an adult because there is absolutely nothing wrong with kids playing with toys and I think a lot of kids would play with them longer except for the peer pressure that it's not cool. I even see it with my daughter who just finished grade 3 and she suddenly threw all her toys in bags and told me to get rid of them because it's embarrassing and she doesn't want her friends to see.  I of course didn't get rid of them so she's slowly letting a few back into her room because she really still likes them and doesn't want to stop playing, it was just the peer pressure. Anyway, I stopped buying and playing with toys for my junior high years but luckily my mom is a hoarder and kept them all. I can't remember what exactly got me back into collecting but I remember in high school, probably grade 10, they were doing immunizations. I hung out with the more alternative crowd so I think people were more accepting of differences rather than fitting in. I was scared to get my needle and brought my care bear to school and guess what, she was a big hit and all my friends passed around Cheer Bear and hugged her while they got their shot. I had this moment of realization that no one was going to make fun of me for liking carebears and they thought it was cool. So I guess I had the confidence after that to just be myself and part of who I am is loving toys and collecting. At that point I got my old ponies and carebears out of storage and had them proudly displayed all over my teenage bedroom for all my friends to see. I was actively collecting from garage sales and discovered ebay. My boyfriend at the time was super supportive and would pick up toys for me if he found something. So I think it's interesting that I've always been more drawn to toys and collecting, it's part of my personality. I collect other toys too and went through other phases as well but that is the gist of my pony journey. I don't know what it is but they just make me happy and I have the confidence now to not care what other people think of my collection. 

[reanna-mator]

Aww. Thanks so much for sharing for your story. It's a lot about nostalgia for me, both for personal feelings and an overall sense of times when I was younger and things seemed simpler. I think that has a lot to do with why I can walk into my walk-in closet pony room and immediately feel soothed. I'm kind of an anxious and high-strung person and so I like to surround myself with things that fill me with warm memories.

[Shaiyeh]

aw


I'm not sure why I do... Ponies are the only thing I *really* collect, although I pick up plushies if I can and like them (not very often, but I LOVE plushies and always have. I had so many as a kid. Crazy amounts. ), and I've recently started slowly getting into Monster High. Those I like because of their theme, and I want them all in a coffin shaped cabinet in the future.

The ponies... well, I always just loved them. They're pretty. I think the shelf is a beautiful decoration in our living room. It's exactly the amount of pastels and kindness I need. I can't really explain it, I just love them, and find them so nice to look at, especially ordered nicely in nice shelves.
I love restoring and styling their hair. All in all, they reduce my anxiety and stress quite a bit.
It's not really connected to my childhood, either. I just... really like ponies. xD

[PeachyPie]

So much pony love 

It's a lot about nostalgia for me, both for personal feelings and an overall sense of times when I was younger and things seemed simpler.

I couldn't agree more Reanna-Mator 

I wasn't a big toy collecting child. I really only had a few ponies and two ponies (G1 Yo-Yo & Tappy) that I took absolutely everywhere.

I just love ponies and everything about them. They make me happy.

[Tak]

I don't consider them toys. They're my little friends.

[Twilight Pink]

To keep my looks youthful 

[shadowlark]

Honestly, for me, I think it's just my OCD. I have to have complete sets. Like, I loved the first season of Prison Break and bought it on DVD when it came out. Slowly lost interest throughout the following seasons but still HAD to buy them on DVD. So when I rescued my childhood ponies from my parents a few years ago it suddenly became my new OCD obsession. Now I think it will drive me crazy unless I get every US release. Might take years, but I'm ok with that. Might cost me a ton of money, but I figure I could spend money on worse things. And I love taking a manky old pony and making him or her beautiful again!

[Sweet Stuff]

I'm quite similar in that I've always had an affinity for toys I've had. When I was younger I loved to collect every figure, although we aren't the wealthiest family so it never really happened.

I collected many toys throughout my childhood, from My Little Pony to Polly Pocket, dinosaurs to Littlest Pet Shop, to Barbie and My Scene, Trollz, Puppy in my Pocket and more...

I had a LOT of Polly Pockets (as in the newer, larger ones, but also many of the small older ones) when I was little, and from my bedroom to the upstairs hallway, I set up all of the playsets (as well as my large dollhouse, Sabrina the Teenage Witch house, My Little Pony G2 Royal Castle + Magic Kitchen, and others) and created a huge town for my Polly Pockets. I loved to set up and display, and then play of course. My dad cursed it - always tripping on things in the hallway.
I did this set up with all of my toys I had.

When I got rid of my toys, I was sad to let go.

I've always been the type that likes figures most out of merchandise for things. I first started collecting Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles a couple of years back after falling in love with the new show. My siblings used to have many of the old figures, but not now. I'm working my way through buying as many figures as possible. I didn't have a job for ages so I don't have many to be honest, but now that I have a job I'm working on getting more. TMNT figures are completely in contrast to MLP. I quite like having the opposites in my room.

On to MLP collecting, I had always wanted to rekindle a G1 collection (with potentially other gens mixed in) but also did not have the money for that. It's still hard work now, as a majority of ponies tend to be sold in the US naturally, and shipping is way too hefty to fork out for every pony. (Baby Sweet Stuff...) On a side note, my mum likes to pretend she finds it annoying but she's always attempting to find ponies in charity shops and car boot sales, however there's rarely any found here. She did snag me a 1992 Polly Pocket "Fairy Fantasy" though!

All of this collecting leaves my eBay watch list in a full state nearly all of the time!

Anyway, I just find it fun collecting figures. I like collecting things that can be posed and put on display. I need to get a nice, big display cabinet though. Currently my ponies are cluttering on top of my DVDs, making it hard to get DVDs out and my TMNT figures have ran out of room on top of my bookshelf.

I'd like to collect a whole bunch more figures, but I figure it'd be wise to stick to these 2 collections, as with many gens/iterations, they both get very pricey... I'm a child at heart, and as someone who works with children I relate so well. I talk about both MLP and TMNT with many of them.

[scarletjul]

Part of it is nostalgia.  I loved all sorts of toys as a kid (CPK, Disney, Barbie) and I really missed them as an adult.  I like to stay connected to my childhood; to a more innocent, more creative time in my life.  This is one way to do it.

As a kid, toys also helped me feel less lonely when there was no one around to play with.  I didn't live close enough to my school to meet up with friends often and I couldn't expect to play with my much older sisters.  But I could always play by myself.  I'd make up elaborate stories for my dolls and stuffed animals and ponies.  I could play for hours. 

Now, I don't need that but I appreciate what my toys once represented and how important they used to be to me. 

[Twizel]

For me, it is because as a child growing up I was not allowed to have toys except for birthdays and Christmas. Growing the large collections my friends had was impossible. Once I had my own income in college, I began collecting those toys I had wanted as a kid.

Now, I come up with background and story for each pony/character in my collection, and use it as a form of world-building and escapism.

[Miniature Sheep]

Collecting ponies started out for me as a nostalgia thing, I just aimed to replace my childhood favourites but I also stumbled upon other ponies that appealed to me in the process, so I got those (or added them to my seeking list!) as well. I think ponies represent a little oasis of something simple and uplifting when life feels too complicated. The toys that I collect in general (usually Halloween-themed things like black cats, ghosts and even a fluffy eyeball!) are an aesthetic thing; I love spooky stuff but it's hard to find decorations to that effect that aren't horribly tacky, so toys are a fun way of getting those vibes into my digs without resorting to bits of tat all over the place!

[MANIMAL!]

Because I hate myself! :'(