Being a MLP collector struggle

@Hoshiharetsu I am glad that you got the confidence to stand up for yourself! My family does not mind mine. My boyfriend tries to look for things for me too. @Ology i am sorry that your parents have done that. Truly I don’t think that these toys are worthless considering how much they are valued not only in money but in our hearts and such. Also none of us are acting poorly in our collecting I am glad that we haven’t let anybody stop us from doing what we love! @Virelai I love that idea keeping up with every new one! But I definitely felt the same as a kid when I realized how people started viewing it I was kind of scared what people thought too! Because everybody in the school would joke about it and look down upon it. It is very sad... but I think less of that goes on nowadays. @Caseysealia some of my friends were open to it but not all. And I think my friends I have now enjoy to hear about it. I do the same to my friends. I am glad that you have supportive friends and such!

I agree. I feel like if bronies did not do such strange things to mlp I wouldn’t care / be nervous as much.
 
@Hoshiharetsu I am glad that you got the confidence to stand up for yourself! My family does not mind mine. My boyfriend tries to look for things for me too. @Ology i am sorry that your parents have done that. Truly I don’t think that these toys are worthless considering how much they are valued not only in money but in our hearts and such. Also none of us are acting poorly in our collecting I am glad that we haven’t let anybody stop us from doing what we love! @Virelai I love that idea keeping up with every new one! But I definitely felt the same as a kid when I realized how people started viewing it I was kind of scared what people thought too! Because everybody in the school would joke about it and look down upon it. It is very sad... but I think less of that goes on nowadays. @Caseysealia some of my friends were open to it but not all. And I think my friends I have now enjoy to hear about it. I do the same to my friends. I am glad that you have supportive friends and such!

I agree. I feel like if bronies did not do such strange things to mlp I wouldn’t care / be nervous as much.
Thank you! And I'm glad your friends opened up. Yes, I hate bringing it up and while people have been nice about it, it's hard to be associated with Bronies. Its really annoying because G4 is my least favorite gen anyway
 
You’re welcome @Caseysealia . My accepting friends are newer friends to me. My old friends did not like it. I have actually met 2 bronies in real life. they seemed to genuinely enjoy the show nothing else, and even tested me on quiz of the tv shows and I lost. They were serious about it haha. That stuff I don’t mind and I find that fun. I like that mlp had more fans and more viewers because I feel like as long as people love mlp it can continue on for generations! But I do not like the downright disrespectful stuff about it.
I don’t know those people anymore though. And the stereotype theyve brought to society to pick at pony fans definitely is annoying. :cry:
 
You’re welcome @Caseysealia . My accepting friends are newer friends to me. My old friends did not like it. I have actually met 2 bronies in real life. they seemed to genuinely enjoy the show nothing else, and even tested me on quiz of the tv shows and I lost. They were serious about it haha. That stuff I don’t mind and I find that fun. I like that mlp had more fans and more viewers because I feel like as long as people love mlp it can continue on for generations! But I do not like the downright disrespectful stuff about it.
I don’t know those people anymore though. And the stereotype theyve brought to society to pick at pony fans definitely is annoying. :cry:
It's awesome to find friends that accept things like that. I recently found a friend that while she doesn't collect ponies, she is definitely a fangirl, so she understands. It's great that you met nice ones, I have too. Unfortunately, the creepy ones make up for a lot of the fandom, especially these days. It's really hard because they trash talk older gens, make it unsafe for children online and at cons, and are rude to older fans. But it's great that there are some cool ones!
 
It is awesome! And that is nice to have friends that will want to listen to you about your pony collecting, i always worrry I bother my friends with it too much lol. And it is sad that it is like that. I feel like some people will only want to look at the negatives about it and judge it for the entire fan group. It is a bit ironic that they will judge not only the older generations but older fans too and be rude when they are fans of a show that has “friendship is magic” in the title. You would think they’d learn something from the show:(
 
It is awesome! And that is nice to have friends that will want to listen to you about your pony collecting, i always worrry I bother my friends with it too much lol. And it is sad that it is like that. I feel like some people will only want to look at the negatives about it and judge it for the entire fan group. It is a bit ironic that they will judge not only the older generations but older fans too and be rude when they are fans of a show that has “friendship is magic” in the title. You would think they’d learn something from the show:(
Same! As nice as they are about it, I don't want to talk about it too much. And even tho they are nice about, I still get embarassed talking about it. Yes, people have made comments about it as a whole because of FIM. Yeah! They love the show so much yet can't learn from it. It's horrible. I hope the fans that join the fandom with G5 will much better behaved
 
Yeah I get what you are saying. I worry I annoy my friends when I talk about it. I do too sometimes. It is horrible too. I hope so too. I have high hopes for g5. I hope MLP will go on for generations.
It sucks that some g4 fans were disrespectful but When I look at the bright side, g4 was successful enough for hasbro to make a g5. Hopefully people will realize that not everybody is weird about it. I’m sure little girls growing up in g4 will one day collect ponies for the same reasons we did , and the people who were in it for wrong reasons will forget about MLP and move on to other things and will be forgotten. That will leave the people who genuinely loved MLP like us. So it is embarrassing now but I hope in the next few years we won’t have to feel that way anymore. Sadly today that is just how some people will act ...
 
It’s kinda similar to the Sonic fandom: a lot of good normal people, but then you have the weirdos, and then everyone acts like whoever likes Sonic is a perverted furry. Like...no. The games and characters are fun.
 
I'm in my mid 40's and I don't give a frack what people think about my collecting. I never have cared about other people's opinions. Having said that, I wouldn't say most people are negative, but I did have one incident with a friend of mine.

Last year was a particularly low period for me. I bought a few ponies trying to perk myself up. A friend of mine, who knows I'm unemployed, gave me a hard time about spending money on ponies rather than going out with him to eat and drink. I was super pissed, because I always went out when he invited me and I never missed any important events he asked me to go to. We didn't speak for three months. When he called me, I said don't ever mess with the ponies. They have been there for me when no one else has been. The amusing part of the story is that this friend is now my man servant (boyfriend, but I still have trouble using that word). He never says a bad word about the ponies and he now helps me search at thrift stores. He's learning to identify fakies. AND, he's coming to the Canadian Pony Meet with me in August.
 
That definitely true about the sonic fandoms I’ve always loved those video games and never understood why people made fun so much until I was older but that did not stop me from enjoying the game lol.

That is good that you stood up for yourself even if you were going through a lot. i Agree with you for what you did. He shouldn’t have been rude or angry about it at all! I feel the same about my ponies too. It is like they bring color into my life when it is dark times is a good way how I explain it. That is good that he has changed his ways about MLP and is now a supporter and helps you find more! That is awesome!
 
(hope no one minds me bumping this to share my experience!)
I first got into MLP at 13 when FIM started, and I kept quiet about it because I was bullied and it was "childish." After the bullying let up and I was old enough that childish things were ok again, I still didn't talk because of the brony reputation. It wasn't until discovering old-gen fandom that I found people who didn't make me ashamed to like ponies!
 
Yeah I get what you are saying. I worry I annoy my friends when I talk about it. I do too sometimes. It is horrible too. I hope so too. I have high hopes for g5. I hope MLP will go on for generations.
It sucks that some g4 fans were disrespectful but When I look at the bright side, g4 was successful enough for hasbro to make a g5. Hopefully people will realize that not everybody is weird about it. I’m sure little girls growing up in g4 will one day collect ponies for the same reasons we did , and the people who were in it for wrong reasons will forget about MLP and move on to other things and will be forgotten. That will leave the people who genuinely loved MLP like us. So it is embarrassing now but I hope in the next few years we won’t have to feel that way anymore. Sadly today that is just how some people will act ...
If they're true friends, they won't mind hearing about ponies from time to time. I hope future gens will have better behaved fans... Yeah! I just hope they don't see things that scar them from My Little Pony tho. I agree with you 100%. Hopefully the next gens are so girly and sweet that it scares them away, especially seeing as there won't be new content for g4...unless g5 is just like it....Hopefully not tho. I make sure people know I'm not into the new ones when it gets brought up. Most of my friends played with them growing up so they understand the nostalgia for it, and are awesome about it. But I still get ashamed when I see what Bronies do, because they aren't caring about kids, or other fans who don't wanna be involved in their gross work... They're horses so the whole thing is just so creepy...
 
Friends who love to hear infodumping are the best kind of friends, IMO! Of course it's totally reasonable to have close friends who don't want to hear about the interests you don't have in common, but I've had LONG conversations with a bestie that were a lot of fun. Either she talks about astrophysics and I ask questions, or I talk about ponies and she asks questions. She's exceptionally interested in the astrophysics of the G4 universe XD
 
Yeah I have high hopes that g5 will not be the same as g4. Also it seems a lot of the gross stuff has slowed down because g4 is ending so a lot of people probably matured from it. I feel the same I get scared to share in fear I will be judged in the wrong way. It is creepy and wrong very upsetting. I think people in general have grown up a bit though... and I feel the same way! I love when I have friends that want to hear all of my pony stories. Even better when they say “I have old ponies I don’t want anymore, do you want them?” woo!! Supportive friends are the best. Also i don’t think anybody minds the bumping of this thread. I want anybody to be able to share their experience because we seem to have all gone through similar experiences with ponies and we can help each other through it and just talk it out. We should never be ashamed of this hobby it is fun! The same thing happened for me i was at the awkward age to still enjoy it, then it was just “weird” for me. I am glad that you do not feel bad about it anymore and are glad to be in the fandom
 
I'm not much of a collector but I've ALWAYS been drawn to Ponies. I use to have a baby sitter that had real ponies as a kid on her farm, I painted ponies in kindergarten and I had a G1 Gusty from very early childhood that would go everywhere with me (outside, in the car, in the bath, etc) and little tiny hard plastic mlp figures that were glittery and glowed and stuff. As a little boy my dad was never happy about me playing with MLP and Barbie, but my mum was very set on letting me play with whatever made me happy.... and all the girls I was friends with also had mlp (twinkle eyes, so soft) and stuff. When I was in my mid 20's I kinda decided I was a bronie coz I loved them so much but mostly the kinda g1-g3 shape, FIM style ponies were never really to my liking aesthetically.... I even remember before FIM thinking how different g3 was to g1 and wishing they would stay truer to the original aesthetic (little did I know LOL). But at the time as a self proclaimed bronie I rescued two different abandoned unloved dirty giant MLP G3 Plushies one from a park festival and the other from the side of the road and took out the stuffing and cardboard tube bones they had out and completely cleaned and restuffed them.... I tried to connect with the Bronie crowd for a while but it wasn't so much my thing as I had a flatmate that was a full on FIM bronie... and now in my 30's I ordered 4 G1 MLP from a local NZ trading site I told a few friends, they didn't understand necessarily, but their was definitely no conflict but I laughed about it and they seemed happy if I was happy. 3 of the G1 have a few issues (short hair, rubbed eye, etc...) But honestly since I ordered them they are all I can think about... eeek. So excited to see them and look under the feet and clean them up. So I guess it's interesting with so many people feeling kinda insecure about the "when will you grow up" aspect of it... When I guess for me the "why do you like such *girly* things" aspect of it has always been the more pressing thing for me... however anyone who knows me, knows that I am who I am, and that I'm not apologizing for it :) I hate being told to grow up. But in all honestly I don't care if I ever do X
 
Exactly, you reach a point in your life where you stop apologizing and feeling ashamed of what makes you happy. Some people get there faster than others and people who really tease or give you a hard time about it are only putting you down to make themselves feel better for some reason. One of my little brothers grew up loving "girly" toys, probably because he had me as a sister with all my dolls and ponies and such and I remember our father would give him a hard time about it and the parents would try to encourage him to play with "boy" toys. As an adult I think back to that and how awfully wrong it was, and how that makes your child wonder if there is something wrong with them and they have to hide their feelings. Everyone is different and that's what makes the world great, we just need everyone to realize that but until that day comes, never let anyone make you feel ashamed or embarrassed, cause people like that are just trying to point out "flaws" in you to hide their own.
 
That is a good childhood story I am glad you got to ply with what you wanted growing up. I love to try and restore vintage ponies too. It is interesting to see it from another side too. I agree. I will always be myself and that is that. I agree people should let the kids play with whatever toys . I try not to let people’s judgement get to me. I haven’t been judged for it for awhile though because I keep it with close friends, but i don’t care what people have to think.
 
I generally don't tell people I collect unless I know them well enough to be able to predict their reaction. I'm a bit of a tomboy and I work in a male-dominated field, and my girlish side is private and something that I cherish, so I really only like to reveal it to someone I trust or someone who shares the interest. If I do tell a stranger or an acquaintance that I don't know very well, I usually try to phrase it like 'Oh I enjoy collecting and restoring old toys, specifically vintage My Little Ponies'. That way they think of it like a neat quirky hobby instead of a weird obsession.

I don't really like being thought of as part of the brony fandom either, because I've found that the public view on it is pretty negative ;u; There is some good that has come of it, of course, as I've seen a lot of really awesome newer fans who came in with G4 become collectors who truly enjoy the hobby and that's fantastic! But by and large, there has been a lot of weird stuff that it has done over the years that I'm not comfortable being associated with. Also I'd been in the community (lurking quietly unregistered because I was like...nine or ten years old) since before G4 was even announced, and I'm proud to have been a fan of the toy line before it became an actual 'fandom'.

Soooo yeah I generally don't tell people unless I know them well, because to me this hobby is a private enjoyment that I will really only share with people I trust/those who enjoy it as well <3
 
I'm open about my collection for the most part. There have been a few times I've met someone who I thought would react negatively, but in the end when I eventually told them they were cool about it. My family and friends all support my collection, and people who find out for the first time either think it's cool or simply don't care much about it.
 
Yeah I have high hopes that g5 will not be the same as g4. Also it seems a lot of the gross stuff has slowed down because g4 is ending so a lot of people probably matured from it. I feel the same I get scared to share in fear I will be judged in the wrong way. It is creepy and wrong very upsetting. I think people in general have grown up a bit though... and I feel the same way! I love when I have friends that want to hear all of my pony stories. Even better when they say “I have old ponies I don’t want anymore, do you want them?” woo!! Supportive friends are the best. Also i don’t think anybody minds the bumping of this thread. I want anybody to be able to share their experience because we seem to have all gone through similar experiences with ponies and we can help each other through it and just talk it out. We should never be ashamed of this hobby it is fun! The same thing happened for me i was at the awkward age to still enjoy it, then it was just “weird” for me. I am glad that you do not feel bad about it anymore and are glad to be in the fandom
It is! My Little Pony should be safe for kids! It makes me so sad sometimes. My mom banned me from My Little Pony when I was younger because of what she read about Bronies. AAAAAAA SAMEE!!! My best friend is so supportive and kind. She loves hearing about my ponies, as she had tons when she was little. I love having others to talk to about this!! It makes me feel better, so thank you.
 
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