New pony day!

Today my latest Etsy order came.

I had sort of been wanting a Twinkle-Eye pony (one of the G1 variants; I kind of want at least one example of the different G1 variants and I already have many of them - the three pony "races," baby ponies, glitter ponies, first-tooth babies....)

Twinkle-Eyes are a little tough because sometimes the eyes go dull and look bad. But Ponies in the Sun had a Masquerade (one of the well-loved ones, from what I tell by reading the pony blogs) for a decent price and in good condition.

I've spoken before about how the yellow ponies are my favorite ones. Part of it is Because Fluttershy, but part of it is it's such a cheerful color (and it's one that holds well; some of the lilacs, for example, fade).

And I like the blue/green hair on her.

Here's a close up of her eyes:

I think the G1 designers were actually pretty good at figuring out stuff that would appeal to little girls. Glitter! and Ballerinas! and jewels in the eyes, like here.

(The backstory, at least from the UK magazine, isn't quite so happy - these were ponies kept by goblins (IIRC) in a mine, they went blind (!) from being in the dark. After being rescued - by the G1 iteration of Applejack (again, IIRC), they were healed and their eyes were sparkly).

Masquerade's cutie mark is carnival masks:

Yeah, I think she was a good choice for a Twinkle-Eye for my herd.

I also ordered a G3 - apparently Ponies in the Sun has started carrying a few G3s. I don't intend to start collecting these, but she had one that was just too pretty for me not to order (and again: the price was good)

Royal Rose:

This hits a lot of things that makes my inner little girl happy: purple, pink, pink hair, tinsel hair, rosy pattern, sweet smile, Pegasus.

The plastic on these is a little different- it has almost a pearlized quality and the wings almost have what looks like a blush on them.

Apparently G3s had a heart painted on their leg - a precursor of the thing today's ponies have (in G4 it is actually a QR code you can use for online content. I guess. I don't have anything that will read the QR code).

According to the Wikia on these things, she came out in 2006. Which amazes me. I was already a tenured professor when she was made....unlike the G1s, most of which were made when I was in high school. I REALLY wasn't paying attention to toys that much, I don't even remember this line coming out and I thought G3 was a lot earlier but I guess they were not.

Standard comment: it always amazes me how happy these silly things make me. But they do! I guess you can't explain happiness and it is idiosyncratic to every person. (And I think it really is, for me, a remembering of what I was like when I was a little girl - Ponies weren't around yet but I think I would have liked them if they had been. I loved all kinds of animal toys and had dozens of stuffed toy animals and a whole giant box full of those tiny plastic zoo animals that you could buy at the five and time. I was really interested in animals, both in toy form and in real form - and I guess my niece is like me in that regard, she's really interested in animals)