Collecting vs Playtime

Winged Mirage

Rainbow Rainbow Pony
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So tonight I watched Toy Story 2 with my parents, and it was a lot of fun. I’ve always really liked that movie. One of the reasons I like it is because of the interesting question it raises with “toys should be played with until falling apart” versus “toys can be collector items to be preserved for young and old”. The movie goes heavily with the former, but I think the latter is a good point as well.

And we are all here, collecting ponies and other toys XD. Thoughts?
 
I was always that kid that believed my toys were alive. Even before Toy Story ever came out. Which is probably why my toys were always pristine even though I played with them a lot (I was an only child for 10 glorious years).

Even still, the weirdo nerdy toy collector in me still feels like these toys have a life and a story to tell. I love to think that like Woody and the gang my toys have stories to share. I do sometimes agonize over getting rid of toys because I feel bad and like I’m abandoning them. Toy Story 2 did NOT do me any fovours in those feelings.
 
I can see some people wanting to collect them for future generations. Me though, I want to play with them. I don't buy mint on card Ponies for just this reason. I'd just open them up. Best to let someone who'd appreciate them on card to have those. Half the fun of owning toys to to get them out and play with 'em, clean them, display them... I say enjoy them as you will, but mine are gonna have glorious adventures and gallop across my floor until I'm dead and buried.

And maybe even after. I think haunting my toy collection could be a lotta fun.


I was always that kid that believed my toys were alive. Even before Toy Story ever came out. Which is probably why my toys were always pristine even though I played with them a lot (I was an only child for 10 glorious years).

Even still, the weirdo nerdy toy collector in me still feels like these toys have a life and a story to tell. I love to think that like Woody and the gang my toys have stories to share. I do sometimes agonize over getting rid of toys because I feel bad and like I’m abandoning them. Toy Story 2 did NOT do me any fovours in those feelings.
Many cultures believe that items can be imbibed with an energy of their own by years of handling by a loving owner. Shinto followers in particular believe that objects can 'become' and have souls. Many NA tribes believe in manitou, or essence/spirit that lives in any kind of object, be it a tree, a rock or even a home or toy, so the feeling that items are 'alive' isn't really too farfetched in certain societies.
 
I don’t really play with them anymore, but cleaning up ponies and knowing that these were probably beloved toys that would have been thrown out otherwise makes me feel good as a collector.
 
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I can see some people wanting to collect them for future generations. Me though, I want to play with them. I don't buy mint on card Ponies for just this reason. I'd just open them up. Best to let someone who'd appreciate them on card to have those. Half the fun of owning toys to to get them out and play with 'em, clean them, display them... I say enjoy them as you will, but mine are gonna have glorious adventures and gallop across my floor until I'm dead and buried.

And maybe even after. I think haunting my toy collection could be a lotta fun.



Many cultures believe that items can be imbibed with an energy of their own by years of handling by a loving owner. Shinto followers in particular believe that objects can 'become' and have souls. Many NA tribes believe in manitou, or essence/spirit that lives in any kind of object, be it a tree, a rock or even a home or toy, so the feeling that items are 'alive' isn't really too farfetched in certain societies.

Like the velveteen rabbit!

I love playing with my ponies, especially since I downsized so much. I do enjoy a few of the new in box g3, g4, and monster high dolls. The g4 is only the brushable sized power ponies set. Their hair, especially maneiac's, is so perfectly styled. I know I would miss it and the stories on the boxes. I'm enchanted by the g3 slh ponies. For the international ones, I would really like them in the box. I won't let go of the oob ones I have, though. My girl and I love playing with them.
 
I have so much trouble opening MIB ponies (I'm talking about G4 ponies.) I must be crazy! I like to have one in the box and one out to play with, but sometimes it's really hard for me to open them because they look so pretty in the box. I have Dewdrop Dazzle and Meadow Flower in the box, but I can't bring myself to open them. Especially after they get retired and the value goes up, or when I take them out and there hair is terrible.

Also, it really bothered me in Toy Story 2 when they showed Woody being restored. Toy collectors in general frown upon restoration and it usually decreases the value of the toy. Again, I think I'm just crazy!
 
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Well he was being sold to a museum, and also the guy was a sleaze, so he probably tried to sell him as “new”.
 
For a year I thought some to aka my big sister doll wanted to kill me. Yes mother a five year old should watch child's play at age 5. I already hated that doll. But after I got over that I loved to play with ever thing and was momma bear to my toys.

Now I collect I call it my toys retirement but I still believe they come to life. Go rid of that kid sister doll and I love child's play now.
 
Sometimes I feel bad for nor giving the ponys much attention, but I still love them all :ponylove:
I am more of a collector, would love to play, maby not enaugh fantasy. Just sometime when I feel sad I take one with me for staying on my side while waching a movie (at home:lolpony:) or something like that.
But my son (2,5 years now) loves to play with them and that maks me really happy :flutter2::rolleyespony:
Maby strange question but has anyone a tip how to play? :blush:
Screenshot_20200329-214435.jpg
 
Aww that’s adorable :3

As for playtime advice: don’t think too hard about it. Just mess around and see what your style is. There’s no “wrong” way to play.
 
I always invented in depth stories and worlds, or drew from books and tv. As wingedmirage said, you can't do it wrong. Although, to keep the ponies nice, stay away from water.
 
While I don’t necessarily play with my toys like Andy does I love them all and whenever I get one in a box I have to open it , I don’t wanna leave them trapped while everyone else is free lol
 
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I can see some people wanting to collect them for future generations. Me though, I want to play with them. I don't buy mint on card Ponies for just this reason. I'd just open them up. Best to let someone who'd appreciate them on card to have those. Half the fun of owning toys to to get them out and play with 'em, clean them, display them... I say enjoy them as you will, but mine are gonna have glorious adventures and gallop across my floor until I'm dead and buried.

And maybe even after. I think haunting my toy collection could be a lotta fun.



Many cultures believe that items can be imbibed with an energy of their own by years of handling by a loving owner. Shinto followers in particular believe that objects can 'become' and have souls. Many NA tribes believe in manitou, or essence/spirit that lives in any kind of object, be it a tree, a rock or even a home or toy, so the feeling that items are 'alive' isn't really too farfetched in certain societies.

I think the ponys send out what they got over long time. I mean several times wehen I got a bundle of ponies there where some which where not the reason I bought the lot. And when I got them there are these special ones which are so beautyful... And not even the ones that made my biy the lot. I just think these where threated very vell bedore I got them.
 
I saw Toy Story but didn't think that deeply about the movies messages...

Toys could be played with or just left in a show room, up to you and your parents...
 
This is honestly a topic I think about quite a lot. If I don't take them in from GoodWill will they get tossed away? Will they be sent to landfills? I think of toys as toys but also as art. What's the difference between someone's 300 dollar anime figure and my g3 Hidden Treasure brushable? They are both sculptures. One was simply meant to be more durable for handling! At the end of the day, I tend to only want something mint on card/in package if the packaging itself is art. A lot of g4 packaging holds no artistic value to me so it doesn't hurt me to take it out of box. Altho like others have said, if I can acquire it out of box I would prefer to because buying it mint in box and then taking it out,,, it feels as if I am taking away an opportunity for someone who collects differently from me to be able to own that object in that condition. So unless there's no other way for me to buy it or buy it not entirely roughed up, I'll go for used. I did used to, and still sort of do, (and perhaps this WAS because of the Toy Story movies) think that my objects had thoughts and feelings. Perhaps a bit of Shintoism? Altho Shintoism does not believe that objects have feelings, only natural things, non-manmade. And for a long period of time... I was not afraid of my dolls, as I collect a lot of playline dolls. But I had enough friends over and tell me that they were creepy that I started to believe it. (Apparently this is something that happened to both of my parents, my father with dragons for which I don't know all the details, and my mother with her collection of unicorn figurines and objects while she was in a religious area and some guy convinced her that they were of the devil. Of course she later became pagan agnostic and greatly regrets getting rid of them all :sadpony:)
It had gotten to the point where I had made sure that every single figurine, doll, whatever in my room was NOT staring at my bed where I slept. This honestly required quite a lot of finangling and was quite annoying! I've recently been getting over it, and I'm not quite sure when I started the road trip back.
I really do think it depends on the item and it current condition, and there isn't an across the board thing. I mean these things were (at least most! unless it was a collector item!) meant to be played with! Something I think about quite a lot. I grew up with the original Skydancers. They're quite pricey these days to collect!! Should I no longer play with them so I don't end up decreasing their value any further? I worry that maybe they will get sun damage from sitting on my shelf out on display... But at the end of the day they're probably one of my all time favorite toys and playing with them is SO MUCH FUN I just!! I could never tell myself "okay these are worth a lot so we can never play with it again". I just can't. They still are my toys. And I'll never sell them. So as long as I'm playing with them the way they were meant to be(and not accidentally flying them into a lit fireplace oh my god that poor little girl can you even imagine :cry:) I think at the end of the day it's all fine and good!
 
This is honestly a topic I think about quite a lot. If I don't take them in from GoodWill will they get tossed away? Will they be sent to landfills? I think of toys as toys but also as art.

Sweetheart, don't worry the unsold toys won't wind up in landfills...
After Graduating College, while looking to start my Career, I worked at Good Will.
We would tag everything with 4 or 8 different colors. We would rotate the Sale Colors. The color that was sitting there the longest would go know sale. 1 color would be 1/2 per week, if a certain color was sitting there for nearly 1 month (after being half off for a week) it would be pulled from the floor and shipped to a different store location.

Otherwise it would possibly go to a developing county, like shoes that are too stained too sell or way out of fashion...

Always feel free to donate to GoodWill, you could *possibly* even get a tax write off (fleamarket vendors donate unsold items after Fleamarket season ends as do Businesses that are going out of Business and donating their extra stock which they couldn't sell).

I hope that helps ease your mind...
 
Toys are meant to be played with, but that doesn't mean they can't also be preserved. A well made toy can last for years and can be passed down to the next generation as a toy. Its simply a matter of taking care of it.
 
I have so much trouble opening MIB ponies (I'm talking about G4 ponies.) I must be crazy! I like to have one in the box and one out to play with, but sometimes it's really hard for me to open them because they look so pretty in the box. I have Dewdrop Dazzle and Meadow Flower in the box, but I can't bring myself to open them. Especially after they get retired and the value goes up, or when I take them out and there hair is terrible.

Also, it really bothered me in Toy Story 2 when they showed Woody being restored. Toy collectors in general frown upon restoration and it usually decreases the value of the toy. Again, I think I'm just crazy!
Some frown upon restoration. Others do not. Don't lump us all in with your personal code of collecting.

There are plenty of people, whether they do it themselves or pay others to do it for them, who rehair, sew, paint, sculpt, clean, fix up electronic/mechanical parts, re-stuff and replace lost accessories/clothes to toys that have seen better days and make them like new again.
 
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Sweetheart, don't worry the unsold toys won't wind up in landfills...
After Graduating College, while looking to start my Career, I worked at Good Will.
We would tag everything with 4 or 8 different colors. We would rotate the Sale Colors. The color that was sitting there the longest would go know sale. 1 color would be 1/2 per week, if a certain color was sitting there for nearly 1 month (after being half off for a week) it would be pulled from the floor and shipped to a different store location.

Otherwise it would possibly go to a developing county, like shoes that are too stained too sell or way out of fashion...

Always feel free to donate to GoodWill, you could *possibly* even get a tax write off (fleamarket vendors donate unsold items after Fleamarket season ends as do Businesses that are going out of Business and donating their extra stock which they couldn't sell).

I hope that helps ease your mind...

Thank you, that does ease my mind quite a lot! <3

Some frown upon restoration. Others do not. Don't lump us all in with your personal code of collecting.

There are plenty of people, whether they do it themselves or pay others to do it for them, who rehair, sew, paint, sculpt, clean, fix up electronic/mechanical parts, re-stuff and replace lost accessories/clothes to toys that have seen better days and make them like new again.

I agree with this, I think most people who like playline toys actually prefer to restore them! At least that's what I've seen of the community. <3
 
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