My Little Pony

This Christmas, I decided to make all of my friends and relatives a series of customized designer toys. It’s a medium I’ve been working in for a few years, I’ve had similar pieces in shows, and I’m just getting good enough at the techniques for these things to be acceptable presents. My sister, however, requested a completely different kind of custom toy : a My Little Pony. I quickly decided that the more pure and innocent something is, the mroe fun I’d have destroying it to re-mold it in my image.

While many My Little Pony collectors (not unlike action figure collectors) stick to the core MLP collection, the customization of Ponies has been around for years. Any toy can be seen as a blank canvas for redesign, and there are many toy artisans out there who repaint their Ponies to display colors that they prefer, or make their ponies look like superheroes or other fictional or non-fictional characters. This act became so prevalent and popular that Hasbro recently started releasing My Little Ponies in their pure plastic form – solid white and ready to be customized any way the owner saw fit.

This kind of appreciation for interpretations of licensed, copyrighted properties didn’t exist just a few years ago. The advent of buzzwords like ‘2.0′, ‘crowdsourcing’, and ‘mash-up’ have all lent a certain credibility (as well as remove the taboo from) taking an existing property that you love and interpreting it how you see it, or would like to see it. There have been no official My Little Ponies done up in solid black, or wearing a spiked punk collar, or an Iron Man mask, or brandishing a bloody murder weapon – but fans around the world have taken the Pony form and constructed these things, with Hasbro’s implied blessing. While I don’t mean to imply that they’re commissioning My Little Satans, they’re certainly willing to look the other way when these pop up on eBay. Other companies have not been so kind when it comes to this type of reconfiguration of their properties.

I’ve had pieces in a number of custom designer toy shows throughout the world based on these same principles. The companies that create these forms have always had enough of an understanding with their audience that they understood that these forms will be reinterpreted. More than a few artists who worked independently on destroying and reconstructing various designer toys have made careers out of the process, and been hired by large toy companies to ply their design skills. So, it’s nice to see a toy juggernaut like Hasbro embrace the philosophy that made the designer toy market so great.

Just one look over at Animeamy’s DeviantArt page reveals the scope of what’s possible with the basic My Little Pony form – everything from the horrific, to the licensed, to the adorable. Mari Kasurinen’s website shows off an impressive number of beautifully crafted Ponies (with more than one Batman, so I’m automatically a fan). A set of Ponies based on the four horsemen of the apocalypse recently sold on eBay for about $100, and you’ll see a wide selection of customs on any given day. Most of them remain affordable.

My creation for my sister, which is still a work in progress, is probably a little farther afield. Once you rip the head off of a Pony and replace it with a ghost, you’ve probably alienated most of the My Little Pony purists. So, take a look around you at your toys, your clocks, your everything.

And then mess ‘em up and reconstruct them.

An interview with Hillary DePiano, a fiction and non-fiction author best known for her play, The Love of Three Oranges, and her e-commerce blog, The Whine Seller. Hillary is a collector of both My Little Pony and She-Ra: Princess of Power toys and has authored collectible guides to both (the MLP book is The My Little Pony Collector’s Inventory: A Complete Checklist of All US Ponies, Playsets and Accessories from 1981 to 1992). She is also a frequent contributor to the blog at My Little Pony Collecting.com.

Hillary DePiano With Project Pony 'Silver' At My Little Pony Fair, 2008

Hillary, when did you first fall in love with My Little Pony?

I was pretty young when My Little Pony first hit stores but I think it was a given that I was going to like them from the start. There was a stable that offered pony rides near my house growing up and I was a frequent visitor there until they turned it into condos. There were also unicorns on my childhood wallpaper long before MLP existed so I may have been conditioned from birth. While I am not sure quite what distinguished them from any other toy I had as a child, I know they remained my favorite toy long after I had tossed others aside because I didn’t have to dress them. I am a very low patience threshold when it comes to putting on tiny doll clothes and I used to feel really weird about leaving my Barbies naked so I just never played with them because they took too long to dress. Ponies had clothing but if I got bored before I finished dressing them, I could just leave them naked because horses’ aren’t supposed to wear clothes!

Another thing I think cannot be discounted was the affect of the cartoon show. My Little Pony Tales was often very weird and very dark. I think that strange mix of sugary sweet from the toys but weird and dark from the cartoon series really captured my imagination as a child and made me keep returning to them again and again. I think that unlike a lot of cartoons from the 80s and early 90s, instead of advertising the new toys as most shows did, the MLP show really just made me like the pony toys I already had all the more.

When did you consider yourself a collector?

The first time I ever even though of MLP being something collectible was when I saw some MLP figures at a doll show I went to with my mother. I was still pretty young and all the ponies they had for sale I already had so I didn’t buy any but that planted the seeds. I looked at those MLP figures that were only a year or so old alongside all these dolls, some of which were hundreds of years old, and an association was born. Even then I started to realize that these were my generation’s collectibles.

The real moment I became a collector came many years later, however, when a toy store called Lionel Kiddie City was going out of business. My mom and I found hundreds of mint in box MLP items, some from the very first years of the toy line, and bought a ton of stuff I didn’t have. I was older at this point and I came to the sad realization that I probably shouldn’t open a lot of what we bought that day because it would probably be worth more someday if I left it in the box.

DePiano's MLP Collector's Inventory Guide Book

I could kick myself, because if we had bought everything in the store back then, now, it would be worth over 10 times what we would have paid. Items that are worth hundreds of dollars today were on clearance for pennies! We could have make thousands of dollars. But there was no eBay back then so I couldn’t conceive of the online community of collectors that exists today so there was no reason to buy anything with the anticipation of selling it. So as much as we did buy, we left a lot of really good stuff behind.

But at the time, at that awkward age between kid and teenager, I sat there surrounded by toys I couldn’t wait to open rationally knowing I really shouldn’t open them. That was the moment when I became a collector before a kid with toys. I was thinking more of the future value of the items over the desire to open the packages.

Describe your collecting habits… Are you methodical, with a list of “needs” or do you serendipitously discover & buy? Do you own multiples of the same pony or piece or do you replace pieces so that you only keep the pieces in best conditions? Do you find your collection spreading & sprawling, branching out to include other related items (knock-offs, other plastic ponies, horses in general, toys from the same maker, time frame, etc.)

I decided long ago to only collect parts of the My Little Pony line instead of everything. Many of the subsections of the main toy line (such as Petite Ponies, Dream Beauties, Plush, etc) I sold off long ago when I decided to focus only on the basic ponies and playsets. There are a ton of MLP items and I felt like it was insane to try to get everything so I focused on certain elements. As large as my collection is, you definitely couldn’t say I had a complete collection.

I used to keep two full sets of MLP but I sold one entire collection off so that I now only keep one of each pony. This decision was both financial and a real space saver. Ponies are small but when you have them in the quantities I do, boy, they can start to take over.

I run across a lot of ponies when selling items on eBay through PricedNostalgia.com and I always make sure to check my collection before I sell anything. If I come across something in better shape than what I have, I do a trade and keep the better one. I also make sure to keep anything I didn’t already have in my collection. The one exception is if the lesser condition pony is one from when I was a kid, I usually keep my old pony as well as the nicer one.

Hillary in Priced Nostalgia's Booth At MLP Fair, 2008

As I get older, I find that I spend more time streamlining my collection rather than expanding it to include more. My Little Pony is a massive toyline spanning several decades so if you really wanted to collect every single thing, it could easily be a lifetime quest. I find myself making decisions based on space a lot of the time. For instance, I recently decided to sell off all of my mint in box pony items. Perhaps this preference stems from the Lionel Kiddie City incident, but I have always preferred the loose ponies to those MIB. I like to be able to touch them and the mint in box ponies are worth a ton so it just made more sense to me to sell off the MIB for the money and keep the loose ponies that take up less space. I also don’t aggressively seek out international or variants like some collectors. If one crosses my path and I like it, I’ll keep it but I won’t get involved in crazy bidding wars over a rare piece.

But some collectors only collect mint in box items. There are some sellers who focus on just a single pony, getting every possible variation of that one character. I think one of the big appeals of My Little Pony collecting is that there are a lot of different ways to collect so no two collections are exactly the same.

Tell us the story of one of your collecting ‘holy crap’ moments — best deal you ever got & thought you’d pee your pants, the most you’ve ever paid for a piece, the longest lengths you’ve ever gone to get a piece for your My Little Pony collection.

The Lionel toy store find was a really great Holy Crap moment but another great one was pretty recent. My husband and I were at a flea market and we are both pretty good a playing it cool when we spot something rare but I saw a rare pony mint in box. I asked the seller how much casually and actually handed her a wad money before she had even answered with the price. This should have been a sign to her that I was a little over eager but I only paid $10 for this pony that I later sold on eBay for just shy of $400. You see ponies so rarely at flea markets or garage sales that when you do, it’s hard not to grab them really quickly like another collector is breathing down your neck. When I was younger and we didn’t see any ponies on a flea market trip, I would assume another collector had been through first. Now I think people are just smarter about their value.

My dad is my favorite person to go pony hunting with. He is totally useless at spotting them and refuses to rummage in bins to look for them. But he loves it when I find one I didn’t have before. Every time we would get back into the car he would say, “So did we get any we didn’t have before?” and would eagerly examine whichever one was “new.” It always made me feel like we were a team because he got so excited for one we didn’t have. My husband is also getting rather good at it. My brother-in-law called to say that he picked up an MLP item for me at a garage sale and, upon hearing the description, my husband was able to identify the pony by name. I think he may have lost street cred for life with his brother for that but whenever he busts out a random pony fact he earns major brownie points with me.

I have never really paid ridiculous amounts for a pony. To me, part of the fun of collecting is getting the pony I want for the price I want to pay. I try to leverage trades, coupons, gift certificates, credit card points, whatever I can. It means that my collection grows more slowly than the collection of someone who just outright buys what they want instead of waiting for the deal but, for me, the thrill of the hunt is half the fun of collecting. The only time I ever just outright buy a pony is if it is at a convention where I can physically touch and examine the pony before I purchase. I am usually willing to pay a little more in person if I get to really get a good look at it in person.

Is your collection complete? Are you still searching for a ‘Holy Grail’ piece?

Since new My Little Pony items are still in stores to this day, it’s impossible for anyone’s My Little Pony collection to be complete. New ponies come out every day. Mine will never be complete. I tend to pick a random pony to obsess over and that becomes my current grail. Then, once I get that pony, I pick a new one. I get an $100 eBay voucher once a year from my credit card so I always spend that on an MLP item since that is just a bonus so completing sets I am after usually moves at a rate of about a pony a year.

DiPiano At The 2005 My Little Pony Convention

For the longest time, my grail was Twice-As-Fancy Munchy. Most ponies have flowers or other cutsie things on them but Munchy has hot dogs and hamburgers on her. I was amused by the randomness of her and was after her for a long time until I snagged her at the 2007 convention. My current obsession is getting all of the Twice-As-Fancy baby ponies. These were a mail order only offer so they are hard to find and, as such, more expensive. I just ordered what should be the final one of those on eBay about a week ago.

Then once that set is complete, I will obsess over the United Kingdom exclusive male ponies, the Mountain Boys. I just used this year’s eBay voucher to get my very first one so now I am going to work on bit by bit, getting the rest of the set.

And so it goes, bit by bit, as every collector knows…

The Greater Lansing Woman (a magazine, not a genus or species) has pulled together a list of ten things worth collecting. While any collector will scoff at such a list and provide their own Top Ten, these are online and inviting commentary — which I shall do hereforth. Their list doesn’t appear to be taken from any other source, and I think they put a bit of thought into it, providing anyone in need of a collection with something they can run with. Here we go:

1. Quilts. While I’m not a Guy’s Guy, collecting quilts sounds a bit lame to me — compare it to collecting carpet samples or throw pillows; a quilt is utilitarian, and is often hand-crafted from whatever the maker had on-hand at the time, removing any sort of basis for price comparison. However, as the Wifey and I discovered at a recent local auction, people get all stitched-in-the-ditch when handmade quilts are up for sale. Things I found unassuming (and might sniff once and leave at the foot of the bed if presented with one) were going for well over a hundred bucks each. They fall into the gray area between art and utility, and if there’s anything that demands a premium it’s items with more than one interested audience. Toss in the modern interest in decorating with real antiques, there’s also people looking for a hundred-year-old quilt for a stylish guestroom. Aside from inherent value and wide reach, if you’re a fan of soft and snuggly collectibles and teddy-bears are a little too creepy for you, quilts are right up your alley.

2. Cast Iron. The casual collector might be interested in collecting just what they like to see on their shelves, which works well — but a high-end cast-iron collector has to be a bit more careful. Replicas abound, and are quite difficult to detect due to the traditional manufacturing methods. You might even have the trouble of telling whether something’s original 19th century, was made in the early 20th century from the same molds, or a 21st century version made for the decorating market. Once you’ve got your appraisal skills fine-tuned, make sure to build some stronger shelves.

3. Dog and Cat Figurines. Like the cast iron, there’s such a wide range of items encompassed here. High-end collectors need to know their thing; casual collectors just need to limit their focus, lest they become known as the crazy lady with a den full of tiny, dead-eyed creatures.

4. Nancy Drew mystery books. I’m surprised this market isn’t already dominated by focus on the earliest of editions, but eBay sellers don’t seem to be obsessive over the edition number. Farah’s Guide is considered the premiere price-guide for keeping track of the 2,745(!?!) printings of Nancy Drew books since 1930. Between the books, a TV series and a recent movie, Nancy Drew has had more impact than just the books. Also remember collecting books makes you an intellectual, even if you never predicted how Nancy would solve the mystery.

5. Little Golden Books. Now, here’s a series of books that demand a premium based on their edition. Little Golden Books, between being beat-up by loving children, and now three or four generations of those loving children wanting to reclaim something of their childhood, makes these a desirable and increasingly rare commodity. There’s also the plus of those long-discontinued books with socially unacceptable topics, like Little Black Sambo, that mostly can only be found in private collections. If you like digging through boxes of colored-in kid’s books with loose boards, hit the rummage sales and you’re sure to find some charmers every weekend.

6. Christmas. The List here focuses on antique Christmas ornaments, completely missing the Hallmarkified modern Christmas collectibles market. This is a good collection for people without the interest or stamina to remember publishing dates or maker’s marks: collecting modern ornament series shouldn’t be overlooked. When it comes to the antique Christmas collectibles, though, you might want to note the care and safety required if you’re going to use it during the Season: the glass is very fragile, paper and celluloid decorations are very flammable, and the electrical items were (or have become, due to age) fire hazards.

7. Star Trek, Star Wars. They go from Christmas, which these days amounts to anything related to the last 1/4 of the calendar, to a rather specialized pair of collectibles. As far as pop culture icons go, these are two of the biggies in the past thirty years, especially to the rapidly-aging Generation X. This is also, strangely, a guy-oriented collectible (probably all the guns and busty characters), one of the few where a guy can devote a whole room to non-sports collectibles and not have his buddies nudge-nudge about it. “Hey guys, wanna come over for the game? Oh, and I got some great new carnival-glass candy dishes I gotta show you!” The ‘grown-up playing with toys’ stigma has faded in the past decades — especially now that those toys are worth a pretty penny.

8. Kewpie Dolls. This one surprised me, because it’s not a common collectible, but it’s got all the hallmarks of a good collection: common but not everywhere; a cultural connection that most people can identify; quality and age makes for a nice range of price; and a variety of styles to keep it interesting. With such a long production timeline and their share of knockoffs, research is always a good idea; a Kewpie price guide, is always a help.

9. Western & Cowboy Decor. Cowboy stuff has always been a popular decorating motif, as the article points out, but there’s a bunch more to western & cowboy collecting than just the decor: Marx’s Johnny West action-figure series, silent cowboy movies, comic books, Louis Lamour novels — and, depending on how they’re used, can count as decor if you’re that interested in defining your collection that way. As with the Star-Something collectibles, this is largely a guy-focused like of collecting, although moms (like my Wifey) are often attracted to it when setting up a newborn boy’s bedroom. The romanticism and fantasy-world of the cowboy, train-robberies and indian-oppression aside, appeals to a very deep American vein in many people.

10. My Little Pony. If all the modern-pop-culture collectibles seem to be boy-focused, here’s a shining example of where girls — sorry — women can relive their happy fantasies of childhood through their collections. My Little Pony is a long-running example (we bought a new one for my niece last month), but there were loads of these toys in the 1980s when marketers began to really catch on to the focusing of fantasy-toys, combined with colorful cartoons, marketed directly to young girls. Remember, pre-seventies the toys for girls tended to be fantasies of their own impending adulthood (Barbie, tea sets, baby dolls), so a chubby rubber pony with rainbow hair and a birthday cake branded on its butt is quite a left turn from a peeing baby doll. Rainbow Brite, the Smurfs, Popples, Care Bears, Jem — there’s so many to pick from, it shouldn’t be hard to pick a favorite and run with it. While girl play-time involved far less smashing with bricks and firecrackers than boy toys, they weren’t as careful as one might have ideally expected…not as many toys survived as you might think.