Getting Giddy!

Taobao: A Love/Hate Relationship

Taobao.com, oh how I both love and hate thee.

I love going on and looking through all the incomprehensible (i.e., in Chinese) listings and finding new unreleased ponies or better still, variant ponies that will probably never be released at all. On the flip-side of this it's getting to be a bit of a chore trying to keep up with the many variants that are appearing and my need to have one of everything is causing this to be a bit of a sticking point for me.

The variants are great to see though; some of them clearly as a result of factory workers testing things, making errors or even making some of these variants on purpose as they've caught wind of the fact that people will pay good money for them. I'm not sure which of these is most likely to be the case, or if all these factors are in play at different times but particularly with the case of the many Applejacks appearing lately with all sorts of different coloured tinsel in their hair, I think they may have been testing to see which colour worked the best. How the stock gets out of the factory and onto Taobao is anyone's guess but theft or raiding the bins are the two scenarios I'm most inclined to believe.

I've decided to take a bit of a different approach to Taobao, given that my ordering from there has gotten a little out of hand lately and that the many variants, or rather my need for them, are starting to do my head in. Anything that looks likely to be released relatively cheaply in future, mainly the Blind Bag figures, I'm going to leave and wait until they're released to purchase them. The exception to this being the Blind Bag sized ponies released in sets for Toys R Us, as they can be quite expensive on eBay, aren't readily available in the UK as they are US releases it seems, and the sets come with one of the Mane Six which I already have. If unreleased ponies are cheap on Taobao I will most likely order them from there are they're likely to be cheaper than when they hit the shelves and I can have them a lot sooner. The added benefit of them not having been released yet is that if I order an extra one for resale it will pay for my own order too. I don't go mad and order loads of any one item, two is usually my maximum (one for me and one for resale) so as not to take them away from others wanting to order for themselves. I can still work it so the majority of my collection pays for itself but not be overly greedy and hog the market on Taobao ponies.

As for variants, I've decided not to even keep lists of them any more, i.e., they're not longer on any of my want or need lists. I'm just going to buy ones that I really like as they become available to me but not strive to get one of every single pony, just the ones I like the best. That way I'm hoping that collecting them will return to being an enjoyable experience rather than a chore with me thinking "oh god, not another one I need to buy or add to my list".

I think one of the things that kept me buying ponies from Taobao, or buying them from a third party on eBay was the 'fear' that they would never be available again; that they would never be a regular release and therefore I would miss out if I didn't buy the pony now. There's an obvious risk with buying these ponies on eBay as there are other people to bid against you and bump up the prices, unlike on Taobao where it is a fixed price that you pay. So when to take the risk? Who knows. It seems to have paid off for me on a few occasions, at least the ponies I paid a lot for, such as Minty, Sweetie Blue and the Yellow Filly haven't been released yet; and the version of Diamond Rose I bought before she was released properly has her symbol on the opposite side, so they were very much worth it. Cherry Pie, on the other hand, I paid quite a bit for alongside Diamond Rose and the version I bought turned out to be a general release in the end. It is definitely a gamble but luckily when it comes to buying these on eBay rather than direct from Taobao I have been more successful than not so far.

I feel quite selfish to say this but I do sort of hope that Minty, Sweetie Blue and the Yellow Filly never make it to regular release, at least not without the regular release being different in some way, like the symbol being on the opposite side, slightly different hair colour or different eyes, for example. On the one hand I want these ponies to be available to my fellow collectors and I certainly don't want to come across as selfish, but at the same time I paid a lot for them and want them to remain limited to justify their cost. I'd be happy if they were released with some sort of variation though, that way everyone could still have them and I would retain the exclusivity I paid for.

There are some blatantly ridiculous fraken-ponies on Taobao though. Those in particular that spring to mind are G3 plushies which have had a head-swap, Blind Bag ponies which have obviously just had their heads switched, and even G4s with obvious head-swaps; the most notable being an adult G4's head on a filly's body! Clearly someone has heard people like variants and taken it to the extreme! Now these, I would never buy, it's obviously just someone swapping body parts around. 

My agent is particularly good and very patient with me adding more and more things to each of my Taobao orders. The only frustration I have is that the time it takes for me to find a pony, add it to my order and for them to then act on it, usually due to time differences between here and China, often means that I miss out on ponies as they become out of stock before they order them on my behalf. This problem didn't often happen before everyone and their dog started to order from Taobao; when there were only a handful of people brave enough to entrust agents to order on their behalf and tackle the language barriers. It was inevitable that more and more people would start to use the service which is great because as a community we can get more of these ponies but for individuals, especially those of us who were doing this from the offset, it does get a little frustrating.

In conclusion, I do have a slight addiction to Taobao and it's many offerings but I need to take the same approach as I do with my general collecting of G4; I don't need to have everything and every variation of every pony, just the ones I like.

Pony Sales Boom

I'm not entirely sure why, though I'm also not complaining, but my pony sales seem to be going through the roof, as does the number of auctions for lots that I'm winning, so much so that I've maxed out the credit card I have especially for purchasing pony lots for resale and dipped into our bank account for extra funding. It's a  good job we've just been paid. So successful has my bidding been that I'm actually starting to be more picky about the lots I bid on, rather than just going for everything that's worthwhile cost-wise; ignoring such lots with particularly baity ponies or extremely common ponies in them, namely Peachy; I seem to have somehow managed to acquire a Peachy army lately with one or even two appearing in every lot I buy.

Another reason the credit card has maxed out on lot purchases is that eBay was giving me hell on Tuesday when I was trying to list so I had to abandon the listings. They would have ended yesterday, as I always end my auctions on Sundays and therefore I would have been able to pay off the lots that I'd sold, but as this couldn't happen I couldn't pay the card and hence dipped into the bank. A minor issue as they will still be ending and cash coming in for them, albeit a week later.

I seem to have gotten to grips with the work involved with buying and selling lots, or pony flipping as I've started to call it. To begin with it did seem like somewhat of a chore but I've developed a system and now instead of sitting on my own in the kitchen to do the hair-styling portion of events, I do this sat in the front room with Joe watching TV, namely Mythbusters which we've gotten into quite a bit lately.

Also for sale at the moment I have several new G4s and some G4 variants found on Taobao so I'm hoping to make a bit extra cash from their sales to put towards the Taobao order I put in recently, as well as the ongoing one that I seem to be ever adding to. 

Ramblings...

The My Little Pony wargames idea has been put on a back burner temporarily as Joe has some rather crappy news on Monday about his job. Very long story short, they haven't particularly good to him of late which culminated in them telling him that in one month he can either accept a job there at £6k less than his current salary or be made redundant. On Tuesday, after he pointed out another position he could have been considered for he has since been offered that role on £3k less than his current salary which is still rubbish news but at least we can live on it, which we couldn't have done if he'd had to drop £6k. So instead of fun things like pony wargaming we've spent one evening with my parents hashing out ideas and generally griping about the whole situation whilst getting somewhat inebriated and two evenings job searching and filling out applications. Luckily he’s found several jobs of interest to him including one in particular. Readers, please keep your fingers, hooves or anything else crossed for us.

Remaining on the wargaming theme for another paragraph, I was at Joe’s local club a couple of weekends ago and he and his mates have this thing where they ‘declare shenanigans’ on a fellow wargamer who they believe to be ‘being creative with the rules’. I’m not a hundred per cent clear on the ‘rules’ of shenanigans but if shenanigans is called on you, you must prove what you’re saying is correct. If you are able to prove it is correct, the person who declared shenanigans is beaten with a broom. Anyway, back-story aside, I told the boys that there is a pony named Shenanigans and given the recent press coverage Joe has had a lot of stick and/or amusing pony-related comments at the club so everyone was suitably amused by the thought of declaring shenanigans involving a pony being produced. Needless to say that I hit eBay when I got home and bought Shenanigans for Joe. It was a little difficult to part with her when she arrived, especially knowing she would be living in a wargaming bag for most of her life, but I feel the reactions will be worth it. He hasn’t been to the club much since so I’m still awaiting a report on that one.

I’ve spent a little (read: lot) more money on ponies than I should have done lately. I’ve just won auctions for some variant G4s on eBay which I’m really pleased about and am awaiting a final invoice for postage on a sizable order from Taobao. Other than those I’ve recently received quite a few ponies such as Granny Smith, Cadence, Shining Armour, Spitfire and Gilda Ponyville-sized ponies, Crystal Princess Celestia and several eBay lots for resale.

I really do have my work cut out for me this weekend getting all those ponies from lots cleaned and photographed for eBay. I’d better find some motivation from somewhere as I really need to re-sell them in order to pay them off and fund this ever-growing habit of mine.

It’s rather exciting at the moment as every time I log on to eBay, the Arena or Taobao I’m seeing a new pony or new variant G4. It must be that time of year (dare I say it; the Christmas countdown) when new toys are about to be released. We have new Ponyville-sized ponies on the way in the form of Toys R Us sets of three and a new wave of blind bags (which I just pre-ordered from Germany after a heads-up from a good pony friend) as well as sightings of brand new Ponyvilles on Taobao which, from past experience, will most likely be future blind bag releases. There is a strange character who appears to be a barber pony, given that his symbol is a comb and scissors and he has a moustache. Those who have watched FiM haven’t seen this character before judging by the reactions to him on the Arena. Initial comments about him are that he appears evil or annoyed and some have likened him to Sweeney Todd. I personally love anything different like this and think he looks great. I was pleased to see characters such as Granny Smith and Spitfire made into actual toys, as characters like this (not the usual pretty pink types) never made it into toy-form in the G1 line. I would have loved to see the likes of Hydia, Reeka and Draggle, albeit that they were human rather than ponies, made into actual toys. Mr Moochick and his rabbit would probably have been made into toys if Hasbro had taken the same approach then as they do now, based on the characters we are starting to see from FiM making it to toy shop shelves.

Some of the new character releases were a surprise to me as I still haven’t watched FiM. Not that I haven’t tried. When I was off ill from work last year I sat at the computer and watched the first two episodes on YouTube and while ever I thought they were great I just don’t enjoy sitting watching things at a computer, I prefer to be on my sofa in front of the telly. It’s taken until now to get Joe to download season one for me and that failed to download so take two will come soon, but as I said above we’ve been somewhat distracted by more pressing matters. It will happen though, which should please my friend Chris.

In other news, I’ve decided to enter a couple of my customs into one of the competitions at Ponycon. They probably won’t win given the calibre of artists entering the competition if previous years are anything to go by but it will be fun to try none-the-less. I’m also entering a photo I took of my pony pile when we did the photos for Chat magazine and I’m re-making something that I made a few years ago which unfortunately met its demise in storage. It was a scene of a grassy hill with trees on it and three unicorns galloping through. The horses are Britain’s Farm horses, so are on a much smaller scale than MLP and more ‘realistic’, if you can refer to three colourful unicorns who leave a trail of glitter as they gallop realistic that is.

War Horse

Joe and I spent quite a while going through the Warhammer pony idea last night. We went through one of the 40k codexes and came up with some 'equivilant' pony troops and special characters. One of the ones I'm most excited about testing is the special character Derpy who's going to be a 'Monstrous Creature', which is a 40k term for a big ass creature who can do a lot of damage. As Derpy is Fashion Styling sized and her character very clumsy I thought we could have a lot of fun with her stomping accidentally on a troop of Space Marines and knocking over bits of buildings onto them.

We did away with the idea of firing rainbows from their eyes in favour of slightly more canon ideas, such as pegasi controlling weather, unicorns essentially being psychic and certain abilities for special characters fitting their personalities, such as those I mentioned for Derpy. Joe insisted that Spike make an appearance in this whole thing which of course I completely agreed with.

After I went to bed Joe wrote some of the rules up more in-depth so when I get home from work I'll have a catch up with him to see how it's progressing. The general idea is we'll test the game at home to make sure it works, first on a small scale then on a larger scale, and then Joe will book a table at his Wargaming club for us to have a go there and amuse his mates!

My Little Pony vs Warhammer

My husband, Joe, is very much into Warhammer and all things wargamey. While on the way home from an eye appointment yesterday evening, after calling into Games Workshop for him to decide which Tyranids he was going to add to the army I went completely off on a tangent, as I do, and declared we should have a game of My Little Pony vs Warhammer. I suggested Joe should write various rules for a Pony army in the style of Warhammer 40k and we should battle it out to see who wins.

Various ideas were thrown around including special characters (initially the Mane Six from FiM as well as Celestia and Luna) with their own special abilities, like Rainbow Dash controlling the elements and Pinkie Pie having some sort of hyperactivity related power. We discussed firing rainbows from their eyes and that the abilities they had should all be 'happy-related' and as I wouldn't want any of my actual ponies modding to carry weapons all their abilities would be of the psychic type. Plus, it wouldn't be very fitting for a pony to carry a weapon, not with the happy theme we'd have going on.

I've given it a bit more thought since then and it would be good to incorporate some things from the old shows like one of the ponies could carry the Rainbow of Light and unicorns should be able to 'wink', even though the actual characters and figures would be G4/FiM, solely because of the various sizes that they come in (blind bag sized, regular brushable single-sized and fashion styling sized) would fit very well into this idea.

Joe said he was going to work on this. I think it'd be great fun and will of course keep you posted!

Yes, I'm Still Alive

I figured two months was probably a long enough time away from the blog and I'd better get my arse in gear and write something. I didn't really realise the reason for my blog hiatus until this last week or so. I figured, and it was probably true in the beginning, that it was just time, or a serious lack thereof. I seemed to have so much to do with work, selling on eBay and trying to get into shape that blogging was the furthest thing from my mind.

All of the above seem to have calmed down somewhat now. Work is nicely quiet and ticking over, selling on eBay has slowed to just ponies rather than ponies and all manner of chaos from the loft, and I lost just short of 1.5 stone getting into shape. Go me. Since I last blogged I got new hair, had laser eye surgery, went on holiday, came home with food poisoning and sorted a lot of crap out in my life including some financial worries. So all in all you could say that was a good enough reason for a bit of blog-free time but the actual reason, I have come to realise, is that I was really de-motivated with my collection.

I love my ponies, always have, always will. They make me happy just to see them and knowing they're there in all their rainbow-like glory. However, the financial situation I just mentioned meant that I didn't have any resources to expand on my collection and as a very active and ambitious collector this was very hard for me. I felt out of control with all the new G4 releases which I was determined to keep on top of so as not to get behind and have a backlog to catch up. This just wasn't happening. I didn't have the cash for this, even with my pony sales as the cash from that was required elsewhere, nor did I have the cash to build the collection of my beloved G1s. Two things happened to make me realise where my demotivation stemmed from, the first being the resolution of this financial difficulty and the second being a large influx of cash from a very lucrative run of pony sales. The resolution meant that all the profit from the pony sales could be used as intended: to fund my collection. Once I was able to catch up with the latest G4s and get those up to date, as well as purchase a couple of G1s and a bargain G3 exclusive I realised my seemed lack of pony interest wasn't a lack of interest but demotivation due to finances, and is thankfully over and done with.

Since my little boost I'm now really looking forward to Ponycon again. I was concerned I wouldn't have any cash to go with but now I know I will. I've been researching new releases and new discoveries, making sure my inventory and need lists are up to date and I feel back in the swing of all things pony. So now I've rekindled that spark I should imagine I'll be here a little more often to bleat on about which of the many ponies I ordered over the past few days have finally arrived. Today saw the arrival of the Twice as Fancy Project Pony, who I can't wait to place with her sisters. In fact, I'm off to do that now...

A Random Thought...

... about the time when swine flu was announced to have broken out in Mexico and I had a Mexican pony en route. The chances of catching the virus from a packet and a pony weren't exactly probable but I was taking no chances. When the package arrived it was handled with gloves and thrown straight in the bin outside. Mexican Cotton Candy was dunked straight into a sink of anti-bacterial washing up liquid and given a vigorous scrub. I seem to recall holding my breath while doing all of this too. That was my random memory, just thought I'd share.

The Media

Life has been in mild chaos for a short while, hence the lack of blog posts but here I am now, and with a semi-rant too. The media. I have mixed feelings at present about the media. On the one hand I had a rather nice article written about me in Chat magazine

And on the other hand The Sun have struck again: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/4323785/Wacky-Sarah-spends-20k-on-a-lot-of-Pony.html

The first article is the one that was planned all along when Natasha posted on the Arena about a potential article. Although they still managed to get "now that's bonkers" in there I am happy with this piece and it's what I imagined it would be; a fun article in a slightly trashy magazine that was just for a bit of a laugh.

After this came out last week The Sun decided they wanted in on the action and Natasha contacted me to ask if I would be interested in selling the story to them. What I'd wanted to do had been done, the Chat magazine piece that is, but with cash as tight as it is I accepted purely based on that. I was promised a magazine article, a read-back for accuracy and no online coverage. Guess what? No read back, it's in the newspaper instead and it is online! I haven't even entertained the idea of looking at the comments online, bunch of arse holes who don't know me making comments on my life and what I do with it, I think not! Despite my Arena post saying "please don't tell me" about the comments, people have mentioned them, so I know they're there.

Some people really suck and to those who do, how dare you pass judgement on me and what I do?! I think you assume that MLP is all I do too, based on the comments on the Daily Mail website in March. Comments such as 'get a life'. I have got a fucking life thank you very much you silly twat, unlike some of you who have nothing better to do than bring others down! Well, you ain't bringing me down this time sunshine! Fuck you and the horse you rode in on (pun very much intended). There are many aspects to me, not just my pony collecting; I love to spend time with friends and family, I like a good night out at the pub, cinema, gigs, I love my garden, my cats and most of all my husband. I'm loud and brash, I swear like sailor, but I'm basically a good person who doesn't deserve ripping to shreds because I also love to collect My Little Pony. It's just a bit of fun, they're cute and pretty: GET OVER IT!!

There, I said it. I've tried not to get all defensive over narrow-minded comments up until now but I can't keep quiet any longer.

And now that's out of my system, to all my wonderful family, friends and pony collector compadres, I hope you enjoy the articles and don't mind my ranting too much, it was much needed.

In conclusion, the media suck. This post should have been a happy one regarding the Chat article and it ended up being negative due to the fucking Sun again. 

A Catch Up Post and a New Arrival

I have been insanely busy lately! So much so I haven't known whether I was coming or going and completely overwhelmed with ponies to process for ebay as well as general household jobs and having to try to fit that around a full time job! It's worth it because the money is coming in from these pony sales and not only paying for my collection but also helping to pay for our holiday to Tunisia in July; I'm counting down the days!

I've learned a few lessons lately with regards buying ebay lots, the first being, read the damn descriptions! I mean, I do when I'm buying ponies for myself but with lots I tend just to look at the photo and price, but I bought a lot lately which I thought was five ponies with accessories; turns out it was just the accessories and no ponies. Drats. I should have read the listing but I really dislike auctions where there are things in the photos that aren't included in the actual sale. The other was don't buy bait lots! Far too much work!

So hopefully now I'm up to date with my ebaying, my own ponies and my housework I should be frequenting my blog a little more often.

My new arrival yesterday was a variant FS Princess Luna, with no tinsel or glitter. Very pretty. I don't even have the original yet and now I have a variant of her, go figure. I've been working out a couple of trades on the Arena so I should have original FS Luna en route soon, as well as FS Pinkie Pie, all in exchange for a couple of pony t-shirts from Primark and a Shining Armour.

New Arrivals

Today I received a shoe box filled with Euro exclusive goodness! A seven-pony lot which I purchased for one single pony; alternate hair Baby Candy! I paid more than I normally would for this lot for resale simply because she was in it and of course I will be keeping her. I'll make some of the cash back by selling the others, which are duplicates, and then cover any surplus with the other lots I'm selling. That's the beauty of buying lots and selling them on individually; the ponies are now pretty much paying for themselves. That, and me having my hair done, ahem.

The Post Office

I seem to have spent rather a lot of time, and money, at the Post Office lately. It's the only place I know where you hand your cash over and come out with less than you went in with.

The pony sales are going very well and are the main reason for my regular, lengthy, Post Office visits but as well as that I decided to give up the ponies in my bait box, so I have been sending those out to members of the Arena, free of charge, they've just paid for postage. They really were the batiest of baits and I couldn't see myself doing anything with them, especially as some of them have been in that box since I first started collecting nine years ago! There were mouldy ponies, rusty ponies, ponies with bits missing; even a fakie head! I considered letting them go before but never got round to it. They were all spoken for in less than 24 hours of my post on the Arena. I'm just glad someone can make use of them instead of them being wasted under the spare bed. I hope I get a few 'after' shots of what people have done with them! That would be pretty neat.

In other news, Baldy, the pony who I gave to Olivia to have the presenters of Look North sign, has met a tragic end! She was left in a dressing room for one of them to sign and ended up being thrown away! Poor Baldy! I asked Olivia about her yesterday and she sent a very apologetic reply telling what had happened and that she had ordered a new one to have signed. Bless her, I would have sent another pony but I bet she felt bad telling me. She was going to tell me once the other had arrived and been signed. I'm looking forward to seeing the new pony, complete with signatures, but can't help but wonder which one she's bought; in other words I'm sincerely hoping they're not going to be signing a rare pony! I doubt it, she probably picked a similar looking one, or a cheap one from eBay. Still, I can't help but wonder.

Primark have a new pony t-shirt in, well some Primarks do, my local one doesn't. Typical. I went at lunchtime, all hopeful, and they just had the Gusty one in that I already have. I was going to offer to buy them on behalf of people on the Arena but I'll have wait to see if they get them in stock first. So far, we've had pony knickers and two t-shirts from Primark this time around; I hope there are more to come!

New Arrivals

This morning the postman brought me So Soft Hearthrob and Surprise; only one to go then I have a complete set of So Soft ponies and Cherries Jubilee is en route.

I cleaned up various ponies for listing on eBay tomorrow which was quite hard work given that I'm a bit under the weather and don't have much in the way of energy or patience so I'm not entirely looking forward to the listing phase of the process but hey, needs must. 

New Arrivals

I've been pretty under the weather this week, which is quite apt as it is, yet again, pissing it down. Stupid April showers. More like April downpours. So that's why the blog's been quiet but luckily I've received various ponies and won various pony auctions this week which have helped to cheer me up, as has having my hair done.

Yesterday I picked up two parcels on the way to work, one of which contained the last two of the birthday ponies I ordered. Poor things were stuck in customs for ages, they took a month to arrive. I am now the proud owner of Garden Glow, the last Sweetheart Sister I needed to complete all the Sweetheart Sisters and So Soft Wind Whistler. I also received my latest order from Taobao which containted Princess Cadance and Shining Armour as I don't want the playset they will come with when they are officially released, just the ponies themselves, so I thought 'why wait?' I ordered an extra Shining Armour to sell on eBay but he's not selling for a vast amount so I have arranged a trade with someone on the Arena for (fingers crossed) Fashion Styling Applejack.

I also received two pony lots to do up and sell on yesterday and another earlier in the week which also contained a pony for me.... German Princess Tiffany! She's gorgeous and can't wait to unwrap her from her neck brace to see what she looks like now I've cleaned her and done her hair.

I intended to list my next lot of eBay ponies on Tuesday but I just didn't have the energy! I'm shattered and I'm full of cold so I crashed and burned instead; same yesterday and same will apply tonight, though my friend Chris is trying to get me to sign up to Twitter so I may have to do that tonight unless I can pursuade him that the world won't end if this waits, along with my eBay listings, until the weekend.

All Photo'd Out

The pony photography session was somewhat troublesome to begin with. Firstly, I thought my camera was charged but it turns out it actually wasn't, so that delayed proceedings. I selected a really nice spot in front of some pretty foliage in the garden, set it all up and then when I went back outside the sun had come out from behind a cloud and was glaring right on that spot so it was too bright to take photos there. I relocated but I didn't like the background but by this point a huge cloud was wandering across the sky so my original spot was now nicely shaded again. Naturally, once I'd set back up there the cloud shifted course and the sun came back out. Off I go again and this time found a suitable new area. From then it went relatively smoothly, aside from one or two creepy crawlies wandering into my shot and a few instances of dead leg. I'm now fully caught up on my pony photos; thank goodness for that! I'm back to feeling pretty tired now so I'm looking forward to my nice hot bath later, followed by lazing in front of the telly.

A Pony-Filled Day Ahead

I've been pretty run down this week and feeling the effects of being extremely busy for the last couple of weekends with not much time to sit and relax, so today while Joe is out I expected to not be doing a great deal other than sitting around in my pyjamas, eating chocolate (as my diet starts tomorrow!) and watching The L Word. I also fully anticipated a hangover as I was out with friends at our local haunt last night and played an epic game of Kings (drinking game) with Desperados as my tipple of choice. However, I have awoken in a very good, if not a little silly, mood and don't much fancy sitting on my arse all day; I'm going to pony!

The weather is lovely (finally!) so I'm venturing outside, once I've finished rambling here, to photograph the ponies that I cleaned up last weekend, then order prints of them for my album, which is now huge since I added the refills I bought for it. I also have ponies from the lots I bought to list on eBay and then I may consider some laziness for this evening.

New Arrivals

Yesterday I was woken up by the postman, which was strange as it was about 3.30 in the afternoon so he was pretty late. I was napping because I wasn't feeling too well but felt a lot better to see my new additions. This was another eBay lot that I'd bought so the majority are for resale but there were four new ponies for my collection. It was a foreign auction and I couldn't use Google Translate at the time as it's blocked at work (I work in a college so I suspect it's blocked to prevent students cheating in foreign language classes) so I was guessing at some of the information. I knew there were two definite new additions as 'Spain' was mentioned, so no matter which pony this was, I didn't have her already as I don't have any Spain-marked Spanish ponies, just a few No Country Spaniards and a Piggy. This one turned out to be Hopscotch. There was also alternate pose Moonstone who I didn't have. When they arrived, the Sunlight in the lot turned out to be Italian and there was a different version of Italy Cotton Candy that I didn't already have so it was a great lot to receive.

New Arrivals

The day before yesterday my new addition was Play and Care (Euro) Baby Lickety Split, aka "Non-Beddy-Bye-Eye" Baby Lickety Split. I got her for a really good price and have wanted her for a while so was very pleased when she landed.

This set of baby ponies caused me some confusion lately; I wasn't sure if they were UK only or European and I was confused about Baby Heart Throb and whether or not the one that I had previously thought was a German release was the same as the Play and Care version. Luckily my Arena friends cleared it up which resulted in another pony being added to my want list, as there are two different Baby Heart Throbs; the Play and Care version and the German version. It just goes to show that even a seasoned collector can learn something new.

I prefer to refer to this set as 'Play and Care' rather than 'Non-Beddy-Bye-Eye'; much like the European set of 'Movie Star' ponies, I prefer that name for them rather than 'Non-So-Soft'. The 'Non' names were obviously a result of US collectors, who are our majority, discovering them and comparing them to their 'Beddy-Bye-Eye' and 'So Soft' ponies, but the addition of 'Non' implies a negative to me and that they are alternate. They certainly are alternate for the US girls and boys who grew up with their versions but to we UKers they are the standard and as such I prefer their true names.

New Arrivals - Derp Derp!!

My new arrival yesterday was the amazing Derpy! As yet unreleased, extraordinarily expensive Derpness! I love her, she's amazing and she smells like pineapples. Chi, if you're reading, thank you a million times for selling her to me! My new favourite G4 has landed.

Derpy, much like G4s Minty and Sweetie Blue, are ponies which cause me to have mixed feelings about their release. On the one hand, I want everyone to be able to have one because I have so many fantastic pony friends on the Arena, but on the other there is a very small part of me that hopes they aren't put on regular release. This isn't intended as a selfish wish, I don't 'wish' it, but the collector in me of course wants to have that rare, sought after pony, plus there's the amount of money that I've spent on them! Seeing Derpy for sale for £14.99 in Toys R Us would be slightly annoying given the price I paid for her! That said, if that did happen then I would still have no regrets. It's always risky spending a lot of money on an unreleased pony as it may one day be released, but what if it's not? Plus, I do want my fellow collectors to be able to have these as well.

To the BBC...

Well I was very pleased with the way the BBC piece turned out, Olivia did a great job with it and she definitely picked out the best bits to use! Joe looked adorable on it, I'm really happy we did this together, it makes it even more special.

My Dad's going to attempt to get it onto a DVD for me but if all else fails I'll video it with my iPhone and then at least I'll have a permanent copy if it.

Without further ado, here is a link to it:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-17668955

The Filming

The filming for the BBC went well. Olivia who did the interview was very nice and put me at ease, or at least more at ease than was! I was pacing around the place just before she arrived and kept declaring "I'm scared".

She asked me various questions, most of them the usual; 'why do you collect?', 'why ponies?', 'which one's your rarest?' and the like. Then she took some shots of me messing around with ponies on the shelves and brushing one of their hair, which I was a bit dubious about as I don't really tend to sit and brush hair, but I did it anyway. She filmed me cleaning up a pony and then took various shots of the pony room, including one of our cats, Magpie, sat on the bed. She also interviewed Joe, who is now kicking himself for declaring that he has his own My Little Pony, which just happens to be a pink baby one.

I have mixed feelings about watching the programme; 98% good; it's exciting and I can't wait, but I don't like seeing myself on film or hearing my voice and I don't want to have made myself look like a complete dork! By that I don't mean looking like a dork by talking ponies, I mean in general! I guess we shall see what it's like tonight at 6.30.

Joe's had some texts from his friends who have seen the programme this lunch time! We haven't missed it as they air the same show at lunch time and tea time, but this just means that it's definitely happening today! Scary! Exciting!

I asked Olivia to take a pony for the presenters of Look North to sign so she took 'Baldy', as she was dubbed, and she will come back to me with various autographs and I will re-hair her. I only decided to do this in the few minutes before she arrived to do the filming; I've never prepped a bait as fast!

On the magazine front, I had my 'read-back' of the article over the phone at lunchtime today. It seems I'm talking to journalists almost daily at the moment, it's bizarre! The article was really nice and will also feature some other people with their collections which I like the idea of. There was only one part which was incorrect, which was the hair colour of Rusty (Reverse Gusty) so now that's corrected it's good to go. I still don't know when, I don't mind when, I'm just happy it's happening.

BBC Update...

I had a call from the BBC this morning to arrange a time for them to come and do some filming for Look North. They wanted to come round straight away! I took one look at myself, my house and the many ponies currently in neck braces (they've been cleaned, they have tissues wrapped round their hair) and swiftly told them I was unavailable today. They said they'd call back to arrange another time but I wasn't expecting them to ask to come later today! I could get everything in order and Joe would be back from gaming by then so I agreed.

Since then I've been frantically tidying the chaos that is my house but decided I needed a break so I came to talk pony and have a cuppa.

Left to do, I have hoovering, dusting, de-neck bracing of ponies and making myself look less like a vagrant. Wish me luck.

Pony Salon

I finally found the motivation I needed to clean the unclean ponies! It began with cleaning up the pony lots that I bought, which have also now been listed, what an undertaking that was! I figured my own ponies weren't as unkempt as the ones from the lots so it couldn't be that bad, right? Thankfully it wasn't too bad and now I have a bunch of girls and boys awaiting their photo taking.

I was hoping to take the photos today but even though it's stopped raining it's still pretty wet outside and I don't relish the idea of sitting on the wet floor to photograph ponies. I hope it dries up as I really would like to get them done.

New Arrivals

Yesterday I received my second lot of ponies to clean up and sell on and also my set of 2012 McDonald's ponies that I bought from someone on the Arena.

Today I arrived home to my third lot of ponies as well as a package containing more of the ones I ordered with my birthday money. As a surprise the seller, also an Arena member who I've dealt with a lot in the past, included some more McPonies as a gift! She's such a sweet girl and it was a really nice surprise! I'm going to trade some of the ones I bought myself and keep the gifts.

The birthday ponies were Sweetheart Sister Pretty Belle (I remembered the name of a Sister!), Sun Glider and Twist.

I also received some refills for my photo album and the last of my perspex display racks, which are actually intended for nail polish bottles but fit G4s in perfectly.

I'm just waiting for two parcels now, fingers crossed they'll arrive tomorrow!

Put on the Telly... to the BBC!!

Yesterday I came home from work to a card through the door from someone at the BBC which said "Give me a call about the ponies". I thought it was for the radio but it turns out that it's for the TV show Look North! They want to put me on TV with my ponies!! Wow, this whole magazine article idea got way out of hand. I like it, it's fun!! The guy from the BBC is calling me tomorrow to talk about it.

And now I have The BBC by Ming Tea stuck in my head, hence the blog title.

Customs Charges

This post comes with a warning about ranting and potential foul language!

Between 2003 when I started to collect ponies and about last summer I had, at most, three or four customs charges. Whatever, I can deal with that, even the £40 one I had to pay on a lot of about 100 ponies. However, this year alone I have so far paid nearly £100 in customs charges! What the hell happened?! Why have they suddenly gone nutso checking packages?? To top it all off they don't just charge the VAT aspect, they also charge an £8 handling fee every time! What a crock of steaming festering shite that is!! Not content with charging VAT on things that, if bought in the UK wouldn't even have VAT on them because they are second hand and bought from private sellers, they also want to charge me for the "privilege" of them going through my stuff, something I very much do not want them to do in the first place! What a bunch of arse holes! There is no point what-so-ever in trying to speak to anyone regarding the charging of VAT on secondhand goods because anything run by HRH (insert sarcastic salute here) or our sham of a Government is just too big and arrogant to actually listen.

It looks like I'm going to have to take serious consideration as to where I'm purchasing my ponies from in the future, which will obviously have an effect on what is available to me. It will also affect my new venture of buying pony lots, though I have to say the majority of the ones I'm finding are worth buying in order to re-sell are in the UK, due to the cost of overseas postage, so the effect on this will hopefully be minimal.

The fly atop this steaming mound is that the woman who attempted to deliver a package today to Joe while I was at work was a complete and utter bitch to him, declaring that payment by credit card and cheque were not possible, it had to be cash only, which he didn't have on him, so she stormed off stating the package would have to be returned to America if we weren't able to pay! She picked the wrong people to mess with! Joe was straight on the phone to UPS customer services which resulted in a phone call from the bitch, who was swiftly kicked into touch by Joe who demanded immediate re-delivery since discovering she could have taken credit card or cheque payment and at the very least she should have arranged a re-delivery once we had payment available, and as a stroke of luck for us but not so much for her, her boss lives on our street. He will be visited by a disgruntled Joe later today. The moral of the story? Don't fuck with Joe, especially over his wife's ponies.

Rant over.

My Fondest Pony Memories...

Some of the best pony-related memories I have are those when my Grandparents used to take me pony hunting to the second hand market in the town where I live. Actually nowadays you'd call it pony hunting, but at the time, in the mid-80s you didn't exactly have to try very hard to find them. There were literally tables and tables of heaps of ponies! There were two or three regular sellers who took various other toys to sell, but mostly they sold My Little Pony in these vast mounds. I was always so excited to go to town on Tuesdays with my Grandparents in school holidays because it always meant ponies! I loved looking through the piles of ponies, finding the ones I didn't have and choosing the one I would be allowed to have that day. If I asked my Granddad really nicely he'd sometimes let me have two if I couldn't decide on just one.

My Granddad passed away when I was 17. One of the many wonderful things that My Little Pony reminds me of is him.

The Quest for the Holy Grail

Every collector has that one pony that turns their eyes to the size of saucers every time they see or hear mention of her; the Holy Grail. A lot of us have mini grails or grail-esque ponies; ones we really want but will be relatively easy to obtain, at least in comparison to the Holy Grail. The Holy Grail, or just Grail, is the one you dream of, you will save and save for, and pray that when eventually you have the funding, she will be available for you to buy.

This is my Holy Grail; Greek Ladybird

(I don't know whose picture this is, I found it on Google, if it's yours let me know who you are so I can credit you, or if you want me to take it down)

The first I heard of her was when she appeared on eBay, way back before I joined the Arena or even knew Greek ponies existed. I was in awe, and my eyes? Yep, saucer-sized. She's been the pony I've wanted most ever since; my Grail. I'm not sure what it is about her, I mean I like ladybirds and I like the sitting pose but I don't know what it is that makes me want her so badly. But I do.

Someone was selling one on the Arena a few years ago and I was scrabbling for some sort of solution to allow me to buy her. I offered a payment plan to the seller but it was too long a time for her, understandably, it was about ten months! I sold all sorts to raise the money (not ponies of course) but alas I couldn't raise enough. Since then I've resigned myself to the fact that I will get her someday, but it's going to take some time. I actually bought a pony much more expensive than Ladybird, and indeed I could have bought my Grail instead, but another chance to buy the alternate pony again in the future were slim to none, so I chose to wait for my Grail. I have a tin, which I cannot access without the use of a tin opener, which I keep dropping cash in - odd bits of change here and there and hopefully soon some notes too - and when it's full I shall get my Grail.

I nearly had her just a couple of weeks ago. She was for sale on eBay at just below £500 and Joe being the sweetheart that he is said he would buy her for me for my birthday. So he bought her, paid for her and she was on her way... when I went onto the Arena to find a thread in the Nirvana Forum about a Ladybird on eBay with the wrong head... it was the one we had bought! I could overlook her few marks and non-display side symbol rubs but I couldn't get past the fact that she had a Cotton Candy head in place of her own. Thankfully the seller was very understanding and hadn't intentionally sold half a Ladybird to me, so I returned her for a full refund. It was nice to have her for the short time she was here and I was sad to send her back but I couldn't settle for half of my most coveted pony. She was really cute though to be honest, if the seller lowers her price I'd be tempted to get her back. I offered him $150 for her when I had her in hand, but even that was more than I wanted to pay. I think I would pay $100; what's that? About £75? Yeah, I'd do that. I'd have to have a complete Ladybird as well though, it would be rude not to.

So my quest continues. Maybe my buying and re-selling of pony lots can aid me in my quest?

Shelving Project: Phase II

Yesterday Dad came round to help me with Phase II of a two-phase shelving project in the pony room. I added new shelves probably about a year ago when I started to collect G4s and needed some more room for my customs and always planned to add more shelves, as well as some little display houses for Petites and G4 Pony Friends. Yesterday was phase II; I didn't think it would come around so quickly but those G4s just seem to be breeding! Joe is highly amused by my "phased" approach to shelving.

I once started to put a shelf up on my own in the pony room and quickly discovered I needed a masonry drill. Luckily Dad has one and even more lucky was the fact that he came along with it because frankly the thing is terrifying. We have a good system, I pass him what he needs, I hoover the red brick dust up as he's drilling and we have a good laugh while we're shelving. He's always more than happy to come and help with shelves and even turned the top of an old desk into a big shelf to put all my plushies on. As someone who regularly jokes that the cause of any problems I may have, financial or otherwise, is to do with having too many cats or tattoos (just my Dad's sense of humour) I would have thought that 'too many ponies' would have also come into that, but he has not once said anything of the sort. I think so long as it's making me happy then he's happy, Mum too.

For as long as Hasbro continue to make ponies I'm sure B&Q will continue to make shelves. And then there are always home extensions that can be built. Ahem.

Giving up My Little Pony....

Did I scare you? Did you think I was giving up ponies? As if! Has hell frozen over? Have pigs sprouted wings? Have bears stopped shitting in the woods? No! Well I'm even less likely to give up my ponies, so come on now! Tisk. April Fools?

No, what I'm referring to is when I did give up My Little Pony. When I 'grew out of them', or so I thought. I had about a hundred ponies when I was little. They lived in what my Mum called an 'Ali Baba basket', that is, a tall wicker laundry basket that looked like one a snake charmer would have. They lived in there when I still played with them but they had been sat there for a very long time, untouched, in my bedroom. I was happy for them to just stay there, they weren't in my way. I never did anything with them any more, they were just there, part of the fixtures. My Dad has a thing about getting rid of things that are no longer of use and had pestered me to think about giving them up for some time. I finally conceded and didn't think too much of it, except for I couldn't let my favourites, Applejack and Fireball go, they stayed in my box of memories. So off my girls and boys went to the charity shop without much of a second thought.

Oh how I regret that now! If only I knew! Well, I say 'regret', I don't really 'do' regrets, there's just no point. What's happened has happened and there's no changing it so regret really is a wasted emotion in my mind. That said, do I wish I'd kept them? Yes, of course I do. They were some of the most loved and played with ponies imaginable so as a collector I would of course have had to get some upgrades as well as my childhood ponies, but I would love to have them now. They'd have their own little place, for all the hair-cut and mega-frizzy girls who'd spent hours with me in the bath! They'd be their in all their rusty mangled glory! I remember one time me and my cousin decided it was a good idea to see if they could fly and proceeded to throw them out of my bedroom window when my parents weren't looking. The same cousin took it upon himself to post them all through my Grandma's letter box. You know who you are - Daniel!! Excellent memories made for very baity ponies. I only hope that some other collector discovered them and at the very least customised them into something beautiful again. I'm going to choose to believe that happened, I don't relish the thought of them in a landfill somewhere.

The two ponies I kept, Applejack and Fireball, sadly I have no idea what fate befell them. I know I kept them but for the life of me I cannot find them. I've moved house four times since I last saw them and although my parents still live in the house I played with them in, we still can't find them. Even as recently as last year I got upset about them, wishing I could find them, which has a lot to do with the fact that my Granddad bought Fireball for me, but Joe has helped me accept that they are gone. It's such as shame. I can cope much better knowing that I gave up the majority of my childhood ponies because, even though there was gentle persuasion from my Dad, it was my decision. I chose to keep Applejack and Fireball and now I don't know where they are and I just want them back, I didn't choose for them to go. Alas, I know I'm not going to get them back.

My new Applejack and Fireball, along with all the other girls and boys who keep them company in the pony room are, however, very much here to stay!

Pretty Bow

When I first began collecting, my sole point of reference for pony information was Dream Valley. I still love Dream Valley though now the Arena has taken over as my reference point of choice. The 'International' section of Dream Valley has since been taken down, but back then it included information of an illusive pony, which was only rumoured to actually exist, at least any more than just the one pictured. Pretty Bow. At the time I suppose you could say she was my Grail, though I didn't know of the existence of the term until I discovered the Arena. I never thought I would own her, I never really thought anyone would, she was just a little piece of information, never likely to appear in pony form.

That is until I saw her in a lot of four ponies on eBay! I couldn't believe my eyes! There she was, Pretty Bow, the mysterious, illusive pony! She actually did exist. Joe thought I'd seen a ghost when I silently led him towards the computer and just pointed. I watched for days as no one else bid. I couldn't believe she was there, let alone that I was the only bidder. I got up at about 3am on the day the auction ended to make sure my bid won, and it did!

When she arrived she was a mess! I knew this from the listing photo but I didn't care. She had chew marks and only half her hair. I re-haired her with an exact match both in colour and texture and I was in love.

Fast forward to the time I joined the Arena and I discovered the Nirvana Forum with its wealth of information about foreign ponies and I discover Pretty Bow is actually an Argentinian Flutterbye variant who is relatively easy to come by and not altogether that costly. Oh.

But I don't care! I still call her Pretty Bow and I still love her just as much and have no regrets! She is one of my favourite ponies and at least I have a funny story to tell!

New Arrivals

On Wednesday I received a pony who I've wanted for a really long time; Mail Order Stockings. I don't know why it's taken me until now to get her. She was another pony that I bought with my birthday money and I still have another few to come!

I received my first eBay lot today and they all look really good. I can't wait to clean them up and get them listed. There was a nice surprise in the lot in the form of Italian Peachy. In the photo I didn't recognise she was Italian as it was a group shot so I was pretty impressed as I don't yet have Italian Peachy - well, I do now! A surprise Nirvana!

Lofty

When I was little I always wanted Lofty. I'd seen her in books and on the TV and I really wanted a Lofty of my own.

I had a friend called Liz when I was about five who said she knew a girl who lived nearby who had a Lofty that she didn't want and she'd probably give her to me. I was really excited by the thought of going to visit this girl for what seemed like the longest time, which was really probably only a couple of days, but to a five year old wanting a pony it felt like a life-time! When we finally went to visit her she, of course, didn't have Lofty which meant I wasn't going to be getting her either. Dammit. Reminds me of the time another friend told me she had loads of horses and that I could buy one from her for two pence. Kids!

I later found out why Lofty was so illusive and that is because she was never released in the UK. The So Soft ponies didn't make it to our little unworthy island. Of course, one of the first ponies I bought when I started to collect later in life was Lofty. I bought the first flea bitten one I found on eBay because I still wanted her just as much as when I was little. I later bought a mint condition one and de-flocked my tatty Lofty and also rehaired her so she looks all pretty again. This inspired me to buy another, de-flock that one and rehair her with pink hair.

In short, I heart Lofty.

What's in a Name?

My last post, where I mentioned about not being particularly good at remembering the names of Sweetheart Sister ponies got me thinking about pony names.

It seems I can remember the names of the ones I knew as a kid, whether I had the pony or they were featured in the TV show or story books, but unless the names are blatently obvious I'm not always so good at remembering them otherwise. I didn't have any Sweetheart Sisters when I was a kid and don't even remember them, hence their names are somewhat ellusive to my sieve-like memory. I'm also pretty bad at remembering Baby Sea Pony names, as well as whether or not I have certain ones in my collection.

The Dutch had the right idea when naming their ponies; Shell Pony, Cat Pony, Star Pony, nice and simple. Not that I don't appreciate a good overly descriptive floral name of course.

You really do sometimes have to wonder what the workers at Hasbro were thinking, or smoking, when they came up with some of the names. Otherwise very pretty girls lumbered with names such as the rather gastric 'Windy' and 'Floater'; the ones where I think they forgot that their target audience was small children with such offerings as 'Woosie' with drunken, dancing mice as her symbol; the ones that perhaps reflect on Hasbro's state of mind during the naming process: 'Whizzer' and 'Speedy'. I know, I know, they're perfectly innocent in reality, but they probably should have considered what some of these things sounded like. Maybe they did and they just had a good sense of humour?

However, nothing will excuse 'Baby Splashes' as the name for a Drink 'n' Wet pony. Really Hasbro, that's just gross.

There were some I didn't know the names of when I was little, like the Bright Bouquet family; they were known as the Heartthrob family, which frankly I like much better. Pegasus Heartthrob could be their cousin. Me and my friend also renamed a couple because we thought they looked more like boys than girls. Baby Bridesmaid became Baby Pageboy, which I really can't see now, there is nothing boyish about that pony at all. Baby Apple Delight, probably because of the buzz cut that I gave him, also look more like a boy and was nicknamed BAD, his initials, because he was the naughty one of the family. He's now a she again too. Poor thing must be so confused. There were some which retained their masculinity though and no matter how hard I try I just can't make them be girls again; Rainbow Rider (aka Streaky), Buttons, Tuneful and Gingerbread, to name but a few.

I was bored the other day. Joe was hogging the TV with his Xbox gaming and I wanted something pony to do so I went to the pony room to see how many of their names I knew. Despite what I said above about not always remembering the ones I didn't know of as a kid, I got 85% right, including the newer generations. Go me.

New Arrivals

I arrived home from work today to two packages containing Sweetheart Sisters; two of the four Sisters I ordered with my birthday money that I needed to complete the set. I'm notoriously rubbish at remembering Sweetheart Sisters names so we have Posy Rose and the white one with pink hair and red lipstick, possibly named Happy Hugs? I could look it up but I'll only forget it again anyway!

Yesterday I received G4 Fashion Styling Rainbow Dash which was also a birthday pony, this time from Joe. We went out shopping on my birthday and he intended to get me two of the Fashion Styling ponies from Toys R Us but unbelievably they had sold out of all My Little Pony stuff! Fail TRU. Well, I say all My Little Pony stuff, they did have those hideous alien-headed G3.5s in. So in fact, I was right the first time, they had sold out of all My Little Pony stuff. Those abominations (and it takes a lot for me to stretch to using that word as it creeps the hell out of me) have never been nor will they ever will be My Little Pony to me. I digress. Due to this sudden sell-out of ponies, Joe ordered me two online, which is good actually because last time we were in Toys R Us I don't recall Rainbow Dash being there.

Yesterday Mexican Skydancer also landed. I now have all four Mexican versions of Skydancer, my favourite pony, for my Skydancer army. This one is the one with the pale pink streak in her mane and small symbols. She's pretty grubby but as with all Mexicans, gorgeous regardless.

Now, where's that motivation I need to clean up these new arrivals, as well as everyone who has arrived since... oh my God, before my last birthday?! Oops.

Skydancer

Skydancer is my favourite pony. I love her colours, the rainbow hair and the fact that she can fly. She was the character I loved most as a kid, from the TV show, and that followed me into adulthood. My favourite toys when I was little were Applejack and Fireball, but there was always something I loved about Skydancer's character that somehow overrode those as my current favourite.

I don't even recall Skydancer making that much of an appearance in the TV shows to be honest, so she must have made quite an impression with her brief time on screen. I remember her helping to paint and hang the banners in Escape from Catrina (I think) when she managed to knock over a bunch of paint and get it on the banner, but the other ponies didn't mind and helped her up. She sounded quite tomboyish too. Clumsy tomboy? Sounds like someone I know. I think that's why I related.

Skydancer was my pony persona for a long time, with my eBay name being Skydanser, with an 's' because someone had already taken the correct spelling. It wasn't until I decided to just be 'me' online rather than sit behind a screen name that I decided to change my name on the arena and eBay to Sarah-Bee. Now I have a pony persona called Bee but Skydancer will always be my favourite and have a special place in my heart.

Lots and Lots of Ponies...

I've decided to do something I should have been doing for a long time; buying ponies in lots from eBay, cleaning them up and selling them on individually. It's something I've thought about doing before but haven't always had the funding so I cured that by having a dedicated credit card for this little endeavour. The plan: buy ponies, clean ponies, sell ponies, pay credit card, buy ponies for my collection with the 'profit'! I've got one lot on they way and my eye on several more lots on eBay. Hey, I might even get a few ponies in these lots that I haven't got yet, that'd be a good bonus. That way, I figured, ponies - with a little work from me - can start to pay for themselves. It's also one extra pony related activity that I can get involved with that allows me to search for a buy ponies without ending up in the red!

Read All About It!

As I mentioned in my last post I was in various newspapers on Friday. This all began with a post from a lady called Natasha on the Arena, asking if anyone would be interested in being interviewed for a piece for a magazine about collecting My Little Pony. I think initially it was intended to be a piece about collecting in general but as only I and one other girl came forward it ended up being individual interviews. At first it was intended for magazines but then Natasha mentioned newspapers and asked if I would be ok with that. I agreed, I couldn't see the difference personally, but this was because I was told that I would be proof-reading anything that was going to be published by a magazine before it went to press, so I assumed, as you would, that the same went for newpapers...

I was shocked to discover that an article about me was on the Daily Mail website! I was informed of this by my friend Ceri at work. Initial thoughts were those of "oh my God, I didn't know this was happening yet" mixed with those of excitement, but then I saw the comments made by readers of the Daily Mail at the bottom of the article. At the time, there were only negative comments which were really quite hurtful. That was something I didn't expect from all of this, online publishing with the ability for readers to post comments. After an afternoon of being in complete shock and complete upset, followed by a night of getting absolutely trollied in order to try to forget the day I'd had, it sank in what had happened and I became ok with it. The online publishing occurred through a misunderstanding and the people making negative and derogatory comments, well they can just bite me! I don't even have the time of day to go into that here, they're just small-minded idiots, 'nuff said.

I felt a little bit famous for a while there! People were posting on my Facebook page with stories I didn't even know were published and people were sending texts telling me I was in actual newspapers as well as online. I have to tell you though, I feel so sorry for celebrities. I had one tiny, microscopic snippet of what they have to deal with and it was insane! The exaggeration and sheer bullshit, which I will henceforth refer to as "artistic license", of the press is mind boggling! In my interview with Natasha I told her I'd spent about £8k on my collection and just insured them for £10k so naturally the press decided this was actually £20k and published that overinflated figure instead. They also referred to Joe, my husband (though they said he was my boyfriend) as "long-suffering" and said that I'd "persuaded" him to buy me ponies as gifts. Talk about sensationalising it! Joe said nothing of the sort, he's very supportive of my hobby and the gifts were definitely voluntary. The Sun also stuck their oar in with what does seem quite a negative piece, with many inaccuracies.

Well, I did feel the need to right a few wrongs there but I'll consider that done now and get back to the good stuff. I've had an offer from a magazine for my article and am awaiting the contracts to come through. It's all very exciting and back on track to what this should have been to begin with. Though I have to say, now the dust has settled even the newspaper stuff is fun! Watch this space for magazine scans and in the meantime, here are a couple of links to the online stories...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2118633/My-Little-Ponys-biggest-fan-dedicated-Pony-Room-1-000-strong-collection-worth-20-000.html

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/features/4212065/Woman-29-is-obsessed-with-My-Little-Pony.html

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/my-little-pony-fan-29-builds-769548

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/23/sarah-butler-my-little-pony_n_1375193.html

On a slight side-note, the photos were so much fun to do. Joe and I spent an afternoon taking them and had a blast! The best ones aren't shown in the articles. Under the big pile of ponies in the articles is... me! We took various shots of just my head poking out, then my arms, then the various stages of me trying to get up. They're really funny and they should have used some of those in the papers I think; it would have shown more of a sense of humour about all of this than the papers have shown. Initially I pictured the article, very tongue-in-cheek, with our amusing snapshots in publications like 'Women's Own', alongside such revelations as "Woman gives birth to three-headed alien". In other words, a bit of a laugh. The best of the photos show that. I would love to post them but magazines can get "a bit funny" about that when they're planning to use them, apparently, so I shall wait patiently and post them after they've published their piece.

My Little Blog

I kept a blog to help me through a difficult time in life and I really enjoyed it. As it was aimed at helping me out in a specific area it outgrew its usefulness and I no longer needed to write in it, but I do miss writing and thought what a perfect way to get back into it, blogging about my hobby; My Little Pony.

So this is My Little Blog. As this is me, I cannot guarantee PG13, despite the subject matter at hand, hence the ‘adult warning’ on here, you know, just in case.

I’ve been collecting My Little Pony since 2003 when I left college and the prospect of having to grow up scared the crap out of me! I looked for something to help prevent me from growing up completely and turned to the toys I loved as a child. The last toys I played with in my early teens were Britain’s Farm toys so initially I decided to collect those, but they just weren’t having the desired effect. Back to the drawing board. I went on a search on eBay for the things I loved when I was growing up. There were Care Bears, Keypers, Rainbow Brite, all of which were making me feel very warm, fuzzy and nostalgic, but then: My Little Pony! That’s it! That’s what I’m looking for! These small, plastic, colourful horses symbolised everything that was childhood for me and they really did, and still do, have an air of magic surrounding them. I bought Cotton Candy first and then Tootsie and it swiftly spiralled into a full-blown obsession, ahem, I mean collection.

The rest is pretty much history. I have over a thousand ponies in my pony room and I plan to own one of every known pony, which is quite a feat when you consider all the many Nirvanas out there. It is something which, in all honesty, is not likely to ever happen but why aim any lower than what I want to accomplish? At the very least I will always have something to look for, to aspire to and to add to my beloved collection. I mostly collect G1 ponies but have also started to collect the new G4s. The difference is I want every G1 whereas I want just the G4s that I like, and I don’t intend to own every variation of the Mane Six which Hasbro will no doubt throw our way. I also collect exclusive G3s and have a few other G3s and so far one G2 which I bought just because I thought they were pretty.

Some of you will know me, either in person, from the My Little Pony Arena, or both. For those of you who don’t, my name’s Sarah and I go by the screen name Sarah-Bee. You’ll find me on the Arena most days and you’ll often see me on eBay buying ponies and selling things in order to buy more ponies!

I’m currently looking at other pony-related things to do as well as buying ponies, as my bank account, wallet and husband are all screaming at me in pain. The blog is one of those things, the other is continuing with my pony photo project. That is a photo of each pony I own, nicely groomed and displayed in a photo album. The reasons behind this project are varied; it is partly because I also love photography as well as ponies; it is a reason to clean the ponies up when they arrive because I seriously need motivation on that front; it serves as a photo inventory of which ponies I have and also for insurance purposes I have to keep a photographic record as well as written inventory. That reminds me, I need to buy more refills for the album... Other things I’m doing are adding yet more shelves to the pony room to house the ever-expanding G4 collection and I’m starting a scrap book.

The scrap book has come about because on Friday I was in various newspapers with my pony collection and I needed somewhere to put the clippings, so I figured why not add photos from Ponycon and various other clippings or print-outs of pony related articles?

Well, that’s the introduction to my new blog; a place for me to ramble on about ponies, to ‘squee’ at my new arrivals and entirely possibly go completely off on a tangent.