It's been almost a year...

... but here's a teensy update.

I knew I'd be bad at keeping up this blog but I didn't know how bad!  it's currently early January 2016 and I last updated April 2015. :(  As a small apology to any hypothetical readers, here is my lovely lady that came in the mail today, plus the one pony I got for Xmas!

Lemon Drop has been pretty high on my wishlist for a long time <3  I've had trouble finding an auction for her (bc I'm lazy I tend to just go to eBay instead of directly with other collectors) that is a decent price and also has a matched head/body.  This girl tends to have discoloration mis-matching.  I have seen so many auctions for her on eBay and Etsy where she's a fair price but with a differently-colored head from her body!  She just arrived today and tbh I had totally forgotten that I bought her, so she was such a blessing for me today.  I'm feeling pretty crappy today and I admittedly cried when I opened her.

so much plaid in my life...

I don't know if you've ever bought from spoosh* on eBay but I've always been very very happy with the ponies I've bought from him!  And I've gotten a fair bit in the last decade.  The prices are possibly arguably a bit high but not for my tastes -- I'm always willing to pay more for nice ponies!  And his auctions are always so reliable!  I know for a fact I've bought my G1 Parasol and G3 Sunny Daze I from him (I'm sure there's more that I forget) and they were exactly as described, so I recommend his auctions!  

Anyway, Lemon Drop is from spoosh* and I am so, so happy with her. <3

Mirror Mirror is another beauty that I've always admired.  Something about her soft coloration has always appealed to me.  I think (??) she's the only magic message pony that I've really desired.  Her symbol is in a state that is mostly the default but does show a bit of the princess in the mirror.  It doesn't show well in this picture and I haven't tested it with my thumb, but if I apply a fair bit of auto-contrast you can see the princess!

can you see the princess hidden in the mirror...?

Okay, admittedly it works nicer on Instagram.  

I haven't checked her non-display side, which I've only just learned has a witch instead of princess!  I will have to get properly edited shots of both her symbols.

I really want to work on growing my G1 collection in 2016.  I've been collecting since at least 2004 and am still lacking in a lot of basic wishlist ponies.  So hopefully I'll grow my collection a good amount this coming year :)

Pony mail!

I was really jonesing to buy some ponies this past weekend and I'd just gotten paid for some art commissions, so I made a couple purchases on eBay.  (I know, but I still do a lot of my pony shopping on the 'Bay just because it's easy)  My G1s came yesterday and G3s today.  Super fast, I'm so thrilled.  I forgot what it's like to get lots of pony mail; I don't usually buy so many at once these days!

I've had the lavender star-symbol Baby Ember for many years now, but never got around to the rest of her doppelgangers.  After cruising eBay for a while and not really deciding on any G1s to buy, I eventually found these three in a lot together!  Not super-high on my list of desired ponies but definitely a collecting goal that I can scratch off, nonetheless!  

I'm officially out of room in my G1 nursery though, so maybe I shouldn't buy any babies til I get my new shelves this summer...

The G3s were all from the same seller.  I wasn't gonna get this many G3s during this shopping binge, but the combined shipping sweetened the deal so I grabbed these three girls!  

Sweetberry is another pony that I don't specifically love, but she's the only one of the original G3 cast of eight that I was still lacking.  So, again, I was able to mark off a collecting goal.  And tbh that feels as good as getting a beloved pony.  

Starswirl is to replace mine which has gone missing.  I haven't been able to find her anywhere and I have no idea where she could be.  I don't think I would've sold her or given her away, always loved her. D:  So I just got a new one.  

And omg I've wanted Darling Dahlia since she was released but she was too expensive second-hand back ten years ago.  She's been high on my want list since that time, so it's amazing to have her in my hands, finally!

They all need a bit of TLC on their hair.  I don't buy dirty ponies anymore because I've become too lazy in my old age to do full washings and tackle restoring.  Their hair is all in great condition, it's just a bit messy and tangled.  Quick shampoo/condition and comb-through and they'll be gorgeous.  Pink Ember does have some gray smudges on her nose that didn't show up in the photos and weren't mentioned, but hopefully they'll come off.  If not, I just won't take macro shots of her face *shrug*  not that I take many photos anymore...

I NEED TO USE THIS BLOG MORE I KNOW but I do go through phases where I'm in a collecting mindset more than others.  I see my ponies every day, think about my collection, but only update this blog and buy ponies in rushes a few times a year. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Collection!

Here's everyone!  Sorry about the Instagram shot, I really will have to unpack the fancy camera soon here. :p

My collection.. actually.. seems very small to me displayed this way.  

I have the G1s two rows deep with risers, since they won't all comfortably fit in a single row.  And I'm going to need to do my G3s two rows deep as well!  I don't like how they look on top of the shelf like this (I'd rather put my few small plushes and large accessories/playsets up there - things I don't mind gathering more dust!)  I don't want to display them much lower on the bookshelf though, because the cat will play with them.

So.  Eventually we'll get another bookshelf like this.  I'm not actually liking the glass-front hutch for ponies these days, it's not as bright as I'd like.  Don't get me wrong, I'm really happy having all of my collection together again* but I'm really dissatisfied with the display at present.

I'm liking this setup though:

Not crazy about the G2s in the castle windows, though.  I like my collection displayed in rows, lined up, shelves looking full.  Like a "proper collection".  I'm not a fan of the more organic/natural look for pony displays, where they're all like in little scenes and such.  It's cute for photos but I like whne collections look like collections.

Once I move some things around I think the G2s (and two G4s) will have a nicer, cleaner display.

** I DONT KNOW WHERE MY SEAPONIES ARE.  I only have two, but one is Celebrate with all of her accessories and she wasn't with my pony bins at my mom's house.  I'm really mad about it - she was minty and with all her accessories and I got her for a good price!  I have no clue where she is.

WIP - new collection setup

My poor G3s have been packed up since the middle of May and we didn't get our furniture until three days ago, so I finally got them out of the dreaded plastic tote.  I've been concerned about mold and pony!cancer lately so I really wanted them out and in the open air.

Today I finally cleaned up the boxes and whatnot in the study enough to make room to unpack them!

New home for my G1s.

 

Apologies for the sad phone picture, but I finally have most of my G1s in their new home!  

There's quite a few missing.  Namely my Year Ones (Cotton Candy, Minty, and the other collector ponies) as well as most of my Year Twos (Applejack, Firefly, Majesty, etc).  When I grabbed my G1s from my parents' place last August, I noticed that the first half of the top row was developing some mold (this kind).  I think it started from FF Butterscotch but it went down to Majesty! (they were lined up more-or-less in order of release)  So they're still in baggies, probably a dozen ponies.  I need to research how to take care of it; I've used bleachwater in the past but half of them have glitter symbols. T___T

I'm also missing about a half-dozen or so that were on display at our old place (these guys were all at my parents') and are still in a box somewhere... I forget where I packed them. ;__;  When I do get them unpacked I'll probably have to find a new spot for the Sunny Daze shrine (and put the two other G3s I have here with it)

I have a fair bit more Sunny Daze merch, but in August I finally got the fifth release of her, so I have each of her brushable releases!  It's taken me enough years.

It's nice to have almost all of them all out, finally, though.  Now I can hopefully get around to grooming them; they looked good before but they've been in storage for six months or so and their hair's all flat and sad LOFTY'S FACTORY CURLS  /mourns softly  Seriously though, I think I'll feel better when I get everyone together.  I can really feel the incompleteness. :P

Completionists.

completed set of Dazzle Bright ponies (2005)

I'm not really a completionist when it comes to my collection.  While some people collect with the intent to acquire all the ponies in a set, just as many people cherry pick their favorites from here and there with no real rhyme or reason to their selection.  "Why collect an entire set when you don't even love them all?" they ask.  And I mean, it's a fair question.  Why waste money acquiring ponies that you think are ugly, just to get the whole set?

There's a lot of discussion about what makes a collector's mind tick.  Do people with certain traits tend to be collectors of things?  Personalities?  Situations?  Is it a hoarding behavior, is it just the good feeling of getting stuff (not dissimilar to "retail therapy")?  Giving in too much to nostalgia?

As a collector of something, there's often a certain satisfaction in the act of acquiring itself.  Sure, at the end of the day, the ponies on the shelf are your reward, they're what really makes you happy.  But the hunt is a big part of it too.  There's a major satisfaction in saying, "Well, I have them all now."  It's very nearly impossible to collect ALL the ponies!, especially so for most collectors.  So we go by sets.  I have all the first and second set of Rainbow ponies.  I have all the Flutter ponies.  Maybe even better than the feeling of owning those ponies is the anticipation when you just need two more, just one more, and when you get your hands on the last one.

And see, that's okay.  I'm not knocking that.  At all.  There's nothing wrong with that (unless of course you're going broke because you want to collect every So-Soft in mint condition before Christmas).  It's one of the joys of collecting.

When the G3s were coming out, I was collecting them as they hit the shelves.  But I missed a few, especially early on.  I missed about half of the first eight main characters in 2003.  I don't even like Wysteria all that much, but I really had to have her to complete that set.  I still need Sweetberry, I think she's the last one, and I don't like her at all.  But I just can't shake the feeling of needing all eight together.  The feeling that they need to be reunited (let's face it, I personify my ponies way too much).

I made sure to get the entire Dazzle Bright set pictured above.  I had three, I might as well get all six, I reasoned.  It irked me to have the set half-finished.  So I got the last three, and I felt good for a while.  Then I noticed just how many G3s I was amassing.  And I started weeding out a couple to get rid of.  I don't like Ribbon Wishes but I kept her.  I couldn't break up the set!  I got rid of a few more, some that I liked a little more than Ribbon Wishes, even, but I kept her with her sisters.

Bleh.

About a year after I first considered getting rid of her, I finally did.  And... it was hard.  And I don't even like her.  But that stupid collector's brain kept nagging me.  To shut it up, I also got rid of Beachberry and Coconut Cream, both of whom I kinda like.  (actually Beachberry's still in the outbox and I keep considering putting her back on the shelf, I can't decide if I wanna keep her or not!)  And the nagging need to keep the set together slowly subsided.

Then there's sets where I have one pony from it, or two or three, and I don't think twice about it.  I'm not sure why I feel committed to completing some sets and not others.  I don't like Star Hopper but dammit I have to get both variations of her or I'll never die happy, you know? (it's those sparkle ponies, they're addictive)

I still feel good when I look at that group picture up there, though.  Something about having complete sets makes me ~feel like a real collector~ as if that's even a thing.  I feel... competent?  Dedicated?  I'm not sure exactly what it is, but it feels good.  And I still regret getting rid of them at times.  Not a lot, just enough to make me sigh and pout for a few seconds before I get over it.