DEAR HASBRO: LET'S TALK ABOUT SPIKE

Considering that he's been there for every incarnation of the franchise, it seems only fitting that you would've included him in the very first piece of Friendship is Magic merchandise, the Gift Set (which also included Twilight Sparkle, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, and the re-colored Princess Celestia), so . . . well done.

Except . . . not really well done, when you think about it.

Here's the thing. You could argue this point, but the way I see it, there are twelve recurring characters who are necessary for the show to be what it is: the Mane Six (obviously), Spike, the three Cutie Mark Crusaders, and the two Princesses.

Now, other than being a boy and being a dragon, what makes Spike different from Twilight Sparkle, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle, Princess Luna, and Princess Celestia?

I swear this isn't a trick question, but here's a hint:

That's right! Of the twelve crucial characters, Spike is the only one who walks around on two legs! And yet, for reasons best kept to yourself, every single time you turn him into a toy he's on all fours.*

But really, what do I know?





Love & stuff,
Ryan



*You could make an argument that the plush Baby Spike is exempt from the all-fours rule, but I'd rather pretend this toy didn't exist for two reasons: 1) They all look creepy to me. 2) SPIKE IS ALREADY A BABY.

DEAR HASBRO: RAINBOW PONY COLLECTION

Dear Hasbro,

I feel like we should discuss the (Target Exclusive) Rainbow Pony Collection for just a few moments.

LOOK AT THIS SET. LOOK AT IT. SERIOUSLY, JUST SHUT UP AND LOOK AT IT.

It is very nearly almost perfect! You've got Pinkie Pie (pink), Applejack (orange), Fluttershy (yellow), a male Pony who hasn't appeared on the show called Emerald Ray (green), Rainbow Dash (blue), Twilight Sparkle (purple), and Rarity (white). Brilliant! Really and truly, well done. I mean, I've never actually felt like buying any of these tiny figures --- none of them really look right; in particular, Rainbow Dash is a re-color of Fluttershy, who is basically Applejack (who is missing her hat) without wings --- but how can I resist when they're in such a charming little set like this? I mean, Rarity would obviously approve if I purchased something so . . . dazzling!

(Technically, the set is missing a red Pony --- Big Macintosh, anyone? --- but I can overlook that.)

The problem is that I first found out about this set back in May and it's almost August now and THE SET STILL DOESN'T SEEM TO BE AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE.

May to almost-August. That's a lot of days of getting on the Internet and never getting around to three of the five things I got on the Internet for because I spend an hour scouring eBay and target.com and tumblr and anywhere else I can think of to see if maybe, just maybe, someone out there has managed to get their hot little hands on an actual physical copy of the set and can maybe, just maybe, point me in the right direction, because all I want to do here is give you some of my hard-earned money, Hasbro.

Seriously, if I could find this set I think I'd be willing to pay fifty dollars for it. Let's consider that, shall we? Each of these Ponies is completely stationary, with un-brushable hair, and only two inches tall, so they're worth MAYBE three dollars apiece. Three times seven is twenty-one. So I'm willing to pay you more than twice its worth.

Okay, I'm just gonna step back and catch my breath for a second.

I'm good.

I have exactly one other friend who cares about Ponies as much as I do. We've been discussing the total lack of this set's availability in the real world or the online world every time we've gotten together since we found out about it, and she recently pointed out that, most likely, it probably won't be released until the holidays.

Alright, fine, I can accept that.

But seriously, wouldn't it make more sense to release the set as it is ASAP and then release another holiday-themed version of it (example: replace everypony's Cutie Mark with a snowflake) around the holidays? I mean, it just seems to me that, if you did that, you could, you know, MAKE MORE MONEY.

But what do I know?





Love & stuff,

Ryan

P.S. This is probably the dumbest idea ever, and I feel like an idiot for even thinking it, but I'd totally buy another version of this set that was just, well, Rainbow Dash in every color of the rainbow.

How and Why I Gave The Vampire Diaries Half a Chance

Long story short: This is all Adam's fault and I may never forgive him.

Long story long:

As any fan who's not completely unobservant can tell you, The Vampire Diaries is "based upon the book by L. J. Smith." Or, more accurately, book series. There are four books, published in 1991 and 1992, that inspired the show: The Awakening, The Struggle, The Fury, and Dark Reunion.

Considering how much I (obviously) love the show, this may come as a bit of a surprise, but I have never given any of the books a chance, and probably never will.

Let's back up . . .

I'm twenty-four years old. It's probably pretty safe to say that I read a lot more than the "average" twenty-four-year-old. When I was twelve, though, I read even more. Picture what Hermione might have been like if Ron and Harry hadn't saved her from the troll and finally befriended her. That's not how bad I was. Picture what Hermione might have been like if she never got a letter from Hogwarts, never discovered that she could do magic, and was stuck in a school that did not even come close to meeting her intellectual needs. That is how much I read. Basically, I only ever did things like go to church or mow the lawn or go to bed at a decent hour* because my parents said I absolutely had to.

So, obviously, I spent more than a little bit of time of at the local library. I was, in fact, there so often that most of the staff recognized me and most of my family, and at least two of them knew me by name. I read whatever I could get my hands on - mostly Animorphs (which, to this day, is still one of my favorite pieces of fiction in the history of fiction), any sort of mystery, M. E. Kerr, Neal Shusterman, Walter Dean Myers, Jean Thesman, Gregory Maguire, Louise Rennison, and Paula Danziger. Even if I didn't actually take it home and read it, I had a passing familiarity with pretty much everything in the library's juvenile fiction/YA section . . . including The Vampire Diaries.

Now, I want to be perfectly clear. I have no lack of respect for L. J. Smith. According to the "paying your light bill" theory of writing talent (Stephen King?), she obviously has enough to fund quite an early retirement, so more power to her. But I never ever felt like reading any of her books because, despite featuring enough occult elements to send my mother into conniptions (which was usually my definition of a rollicking good read), even when I was twelve, they sounded ridiculous. Here's what I gathered from reading the backs of the books and occasionally skimming through them: After meeting her super-hot vampire boyfriend and his dark and mysterious vampire brother who also wants her, Elena Gilbert has a bunch of misadventures that lead to the following complications: She dies. She comes back as a vampire. She dies again. She comes back as an angel. She has different sets of wings that do different sorts of magic. She lives happily ever after or something.

Sorry, but I'm just not going to read that. Unless there's a cute girl (preferably with superstrength) running around killing them and looking like a total badass, I have never cared for vampires very much. Drinking blood is icky.

Fast forward to the fall of 2009. Wont as I am to hang out in bookstores, I was aware that the series had been adapted for television almost as soon as it happened, even though I haven't had "real" TV at home since before I was old enough to drink. So I saw the posters and the tote bags and the re-released actual books (now with actors on the covers) and they brought back vivid memories of my twelve-year-old fed-up-ness; my reaction at the time was basically, "Even if this was a good idea, True Blood already did it better, bitches."

Fast forward again to the very early spring of 2011. My best friend in the world, Adam -- well, okay, he's one of my ten or so best friends in the world; I'm pretty blessed in that department -- had recently come out to me (note that I realized he was gay about three seconds after meeting him . . . in December of 2008) and we were bonding over how much we were attracted or not attracted to this or that actor from this or that TV show, blah blah blah. He very quickly told me that he had just started watching this fairly new show called The Vampire Diaries and fallen heels over head for both of the male leads and I should start watching it so I could fall equally hard. But I told him about how familiar I already was with the books, and how much I was not interested in them, so for a while the subject was dropped.

In the last week of April 2011, my depression, which I had spent basically my whole life denying (note: It probably would have been a lot easier to start dealing with when I was twelve if I hadn't been stuck in such a shitty school at such a crucial time in my life. But that's water under the whatever at this point), spiraled the hell out of control. So I took a medical leave from my job and enrolled in some pretty intense group therapy and found that I had a maddening amount of free time. Which, to be sure, is a very very very good thing. Therapy is exhausting. Even though you look forward to it, you dread going there every day; even if all you do is listen, you spend the rest of the day feeling burnt out. You're not allowed to drink or use drugs, so you have to deal with your feelings all on your own, which is probably fairly new for you (let's face it: if you were more accustomed to dealing with your feelings all on your own, you probably wouldn't have landed yourself in group).

So, obviously, I spent a lot of that free time on the Internet. I finally started watching My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, which was SUCH a good thing -- to make another long story very short, when you're dealing with depression and feeling totally alone in the world even though friends you didn't know you had have suddenly come out of nowhere to tell you how proud they are that you're finally dealing with depression, it does you an insane amount of good to hear that loyalty + laughter + generosity + honesty + kindness = friendship, which is literally the exact same thing as magic -- but there were only so many episodes, you know? They couldn't take up all of my free time.

Anyway, one day I got bored enough to read about the show on tvtropes.org (which, if you've never visited, I don't recommend unless you tell someone you're going there first and ask them to check up on you; otherwise you'll still be poring over character pages six days later, and your list of stuff to check out will be about a mile high), where I came across a bit of information that radically altered my entire stance on the show: Bonnie was a witch. She was also the main character's best friend. THE MAIN CHARACTER'S BEST FRIEND WAS A WITCH.

The sound I made when I read this was pretty fricking hilarious.

At this point, we need to talk a bit about my history with witches.

When I was two or three, my mother sat me down to watch The Wizard of Oz. Now, obviously, I was already familiar with the concept of witches -- we've always been a fairly Disney-heavy family, and Mom has this big book of fairy tales from when she was a kid that she made sure to read to all three of her children because she's a good parent like that -- but, up until then, when I heard the word "witch," I mostly thought of Ursula from The Little Mermaid or The Queen from Snow White and got all terrified (note: I was afraid of The Queen, not The Hag; I didn't really start to believe that The Queen was entirely fictional until I was at least seven years old, and for the longest time I honestly believed that she was going to jump out of my closet and eat me whenever I was naked -- yeah, I know, analyze that one).

The Wizard of Oz was different, though, right from the start. I don't know what it was, but something about The Wicked Witch of the West made me fall in love with her right away. I couldn't figure out why she was supposedly so "wicked," either. If a house fell on me and my shoes miraculously survived, I'd certainly want my little sister to have them, and I'd be pretty angry if a total stranger showed up and took them from her.

And then there was Glinda. The Good Witch of the North. Right. Good. SAYS WHO? First she gives the dead woman's shoes to the girl who inadvertently killed her, even though her sister obviously deserves to keep them, then she sends Dorothy off on a quest to meet the Wizard so he can send her home. Then, AFTER THE WHOLE MOVIE HAS ALREADY HAPPENED, she conveniently remembers that, oh hey, the shoes she forced her to steal have the power to take her home whenever she feels like it.

I think it's safe to say that this was the first time in my life a fictional character made me so angry.

I just flat-out did not get it. The "Wicked" Witch was clearly misunderstood and mistreated; the "Good" Witch was clearly a manipulative little snot. Oh, and also? Her dress was tacky.

So, ever since then, I have been absolutely fascinated by the notion of witches in fiction. Good or evil, funny or serious, ridiculously powerful or not so much, pseudo-realistic or entirely made-up, whether they actually call themselves witches or not, their presence in a story almost always ensures that I'm going to enjoy it about ten times more than I would without them.

(For those who are curious, some of my favorite witches include: Willow Rosenberg and Tara Maclay from Buffy the Vampire Slayer; Frau Totenkinder from Fables; the Sanderson sisters from Hocus Pocus; certain characters from Robin McKinley's Sunshine; Elphaba and Glinda from Wicked; Granny Weatherwax, Nanny Ogg, Magrat Garlick, Agnes "Perdita" X. Nitt, and - most especially - Tiffany Aching from Terry Pratchett's Discworld books; Nico Minoru from Runaways; Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty; Rita Repulsa from Mighty Morphin Power Rangers; pretty much any witch from any fairy tale ever; Juniper, Gentian, and Rosemary from a short story in a book I read long ago that I think was called Things That Go Bump in the Night; Twilight Sparkle from My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, because yes, she totally counts; Professor McGonagall and Molly Weasley from Harry Potter; Thessaly from The Sandman; the witch queens from Stardust, either the book or the movie; all three generations of Owens sisters from Practical Magic - the book, NOT the movie**; Marnie and her family from Halloweentown and its sequels; Endora from Bewitched; the cool aunt from The Mists of Avalon; Nancy, Rochelle, Bonnie, and Sarah from The Craft; and Rachel, Alex, and Daphne from the godawful stories I've been writing all my life.)

Sooo, when I finally found out about Bonnie, I fell out of my chair and thrashed about for a second, snatched up my phone, and quickly typed up a text message to Adam: "If you wanted me to watch The Vampire Diaries so much, why the FUCK didn't you mention that the main character's best friend is a witch?!" Always one to take things in stride, he nonchalantly replied, "Elena's best friend Bonnie is a witch. Now watch."

So I did, and I haven't looked back since.

Which you'd think would be the end of this post, and it probably should be, but I feel compelled to mention that the witchcraft is not what kept me watching. As I said, I got into the show while I was going through therapy. It turns out that experiencing fiction and feeling what the characters feel is a pretty excellent way to cope with depression (and quite a bit easier than therapy, although it's obviously no substitute), so it was the (platonic) relationships between the characters that made me go from "alright, I'll give it a chance since there's a witch at the center of things" to "sweet holy Moses, I actually thoroughly enjoy this show!" I really started to fall in love with Elena in the pilot when she follows Jeremy into the bathroom and he tells her that she needs to "chill herself," and my heart melted a little later in the pilot when Stefan said "You won't be sad forever, Elena." So, yeah, there you have it.

Oh, also, the fact that my mother is indirectly responsible for my fascination with witches will always be deliciously ironic. Heh.

More later.

Much love,
Ryan










*Which, by the way, Mom and David? Do either of you have any idea how often I stayed up reading by the light of my glow-in-the-dark watch? Because it was a lot.

**The movie isn't bad, but it's so different that Warner Brothers could've given everyone different names and probably gotten out of paying Alice Hoffman any royalties without any kind of legal repercussions.

HEY EVERYBODY LOOK WHAT I GOT

CHEERILEE!

The cool thing? This the third time a straight girl has given me a Pony since I got out of therapy. This time is super-special, 'cause I received her as a housewarming gift.

Seriously, I am so effing excited. I've got so many amazingly awesome things coming my way in the next couple of months (and the next couple of years) (and the rest of my life). September is going to rock out loud.

Simple Ways Hasbro Could Be Making SO MUCH MORE MONEY

Once upon a time in the 1980s, My Little Pony (briefly) sold better than Barbie.

[NOTE: I'm not actually 100% sure if this is true, although I could swear I've read it before several times -- when I tried to find it somewhere to verify it for this post, well, it was nowhere to be found -- but it sounds likely to me, so let's nod and smile and keep going.]

Once upon a time in 2009, Hasbro clearly had no idea what to do with the franchise. You could tell, because they got it into their heads that it would actually be a good idea to just keep re-releasing the "Core Seven" over and over and over. "But hey, it's okay! We're going to focus on their personalities! That'll make it worth it to buy all seven of them over and over and over! You'll eventually stop noticing that we're not producing any Ponies other than the Core Seven! We promise!"

Once upon a time in 2010, Lauren Faust saved everything. She had quite a bit of help, obviously, but no one involved with the project would have been involved with the project if she hadn't dreamed up a magical little show called My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic.

[NOTE: Interestingly, five of the Core Seven have appeared on the show so far -- two of them as mane characters -- and they've all been vastly improved by it. Particularly Rainbow Dash, who is at least twenty percent cooler now than she was then.]

Because it is just that good, FiM has amassed a huge following of fans who are, well, not little girls.

Which means that we have much more disposable income than fans who ARE little girls.

Which is money that we would love to give to Hasbro in exchange for merchandise.

Unfortunately, Hasbro is still somewhat unsure of how to handle the franchise. A complete list of all the merchandise they've released so far, as well as some that's coming soon, can be found here: http://www.mylittleponynews.com/p/g4-my-little-pony-checklist.html#plush

I'm not saying that's not impressive, because it really is. I'm just saying there's so much more that they could be releasing, and they're pretty much sitting on top of a veritable gold mine right now. Just off the top of my head, here are several ways they could be making QUITE A BIT of money off of us:

Season 1 on DVD
The word "duh" seems wholly inadequate all of a sudden. Fortunately, this is apparently on its way!

Non-Brushable Figures
the Mane Six in their "action poses" from "Dragonshy"
the Mane Six wearing the Elements of Harmony
Nightmare Moon
Opalescence, Gummy, Winona, Angel, and Spike
the Mane Six as fillies
the Mane Six after they've been "cursed"
the Mane Six dressed up for the Gala
the Mane Six after going crazy (happens to Applejack in "Applebuck Season," Pinkie Pie in "Party of One," Rarity in "Suited for Success," Twilight Sparkle in "Swarm of the Century" and "Look Before You Sleep," Fluttershy in "The Best Night Ever," and Rainbow Dash in "Sonic Rainboom")
Spike as a hatchling
the Cutie Mark Crusaders (duh)
gift set: the Cutie Mark Crusaders with scooter, helmets, and wagon
every single character who has ever appeared on the show, including but not limited to: Twilight Sparkle, Rarity, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom, Granny Smith, Big Macintosh, Nightmare Moon, Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, Zecora, the Wonderbolts, the hydra, the manticore, the Diamond Dogs, Lyra, Bon Bon, Derpy Hooves, Ditzy Doo, Octavia, the twins, Applejack's entire family, Twilight Sparkle's parents, Mayor Mare, Philomena, Little Strong Heart, THE GREAT AND POWERFUL TRIXIE, the Ursa Minor, Snips and Snails, Prince Charming, Gilda, Mr. and Mrs. Cake, DJ PON-3, Braeburn, Rose, Daisy, Lily, parasprites, Hoity Toity, Photo Finish, the sorrowful serpent, Owlowicious, the Shadowbolts, Cheerilee, Princess Celestia's guards, Pinkie Pie's family, etc. etc. etc.
==> most of whom could be released in MULTIPLE POSES, and seriously, we'd still buy them all

Brushable Figures
Scootaloo
Sweetie Belle
Apple Bloom
six gift packs: each of the Mane Six with their pre-Fim counterparts
gift pack: ELEMENTS OF HARMONY
Nightmare Moon
Princess Celestia -- but make her the right color this time, duh
Zecora
Derpy Hooves
re-release: Rarity . . . with her hair all one color, and maybe even styled correctly
re-release: Twilight Sparkle . . . twenty percent less pink
re-release: Applejack WITH HAT
gift pack: PARTY OF ONE
gift pack: Fluttershy vs. the cockatrice
gift pack: Fluttershy vs. the dragon
gift pack: Rarity and Sweetie Belle
gift pack: Applejack, Apple Bloom, and Big Macintosh
gift pack: Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo
gift pack: Rarity vs. Applejack
gift pack: Twilight Sparkle and THE GREAT AND POWERFUL TRIXIE
gift pack: Rainbow Dash and Gilda
gift pack: the Cutie Mark Crusaders in costume
Cheerilee with eighties hair
Pinkie Pie in disguise
Pinkie Pie as a Pegasus Pony (what? I'd buy it)
Applejack with Bloomberg
and so on and so forth

Playsets
Rainbow Dash's House (DUH)
Rarity's Boutique
Sugar Cube Corner
Twilight Sparkle's Library
Sweet Apple Acres
Fluttershy's House

Plushies
Scootaloo
Pinkie Pie
Rarity
. . . and whoever else ya feel like

Sooo, there you have it.

I'm just saying.

Best Friends

Friendship is Magic - Why I Can't Pick a Favorite

Okay, before I say anything about any of the characters individually, there's something I simply must point out:

This is probably just me being too anal for my own good, but I love the fact that the Mane Six consist of two Earth Ponies (Applejack and Pinkie Pie), two Pegasus Ponies (Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash), and two Unicorn Ponies (Rarity and Twilight Sparkle).

Also! Again, this is probably just me being too anal for my own good, but it fits, so hear me out. Applejack, Fluttershy, and Rarity -- all of whom have names that are one word long -- have coats in colors that a real horse might have. Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, and Twilight Sparkle -- two-word names -- well, not so much.


Alright then. The thing is, I can't pick a favorite character because I LOVE THEM ALL. Here's why . . .

Twilight Sparkle
* She is such a bookworm (bookpony?) that she lives in a library.
* It's never explicitly stated, but it is heavily implied that, before she met the other five, she had never really had any friends in her whole entire life. (Sure, she and Spike are awfully fond of each other, but he is technically her assistant. Also, there's enough of an age difference that she thinks of him as a little brother. Or perhaps a son, since she did hatch his egg and all.)
* She was instrumental in using the Elements of Harmony. Which, let's face it, was the coolest scene in the entire series. So far.
* All Ponies have a special talent, and all Unicorn Ponies have a knack for some sort of magic, but Twilight Sparkle's special talent IS magic. She can do pretty much anything. What's interesting is that she never verbally casts any spells. The way her magic works is, she does some research and then she thinks really hard and her horn glows and stuff happens. Soooo, maybe this is a bit of a stretch, but she's the main character of a show aimed at little girls and she has the power to use her brain to affect the world around her. I love her so much for that.
-> The one bad thing I have to say about her is that she has a slight tendency to forget that she can teleport. Even though she does it in the theme song.


Applejack
* Along with Spike, she's the only classic character whose name was allowed to be used for the new show, since Hasbro had lost the rights to all the others. Spike and Applejack. Think about that for a second. The creators sure did, and the jokes have been made on the show itself. I am not kidding.
* Maybe it shouldn't be, but I find it adorable how she calls everybody "sugar cube."
* Bloomberg.
* I love that moment where she admits that she figured Twilight was just spoutin' a load of hooey . . . but, hey, they really DO represent the Elements of Harmony after all.

Pinkie Pie
* Think of any situation that could possibly happen. Pinkie Pie's response? Throw a party!
* She frequently breaks the fourth wall and defies the laws of physics for the sake of a joke or a sight gag. Every single time, it is hilarious. And awesome. Honestly, she's so awesome that I can't even talk about her.
* Which is remarkable, since I thought she was going to be my least favorite character.

Rainbow Dash
* Before the show, she was not a Pegasus Pony. And her "rainbow" hair was blue, purple, pink, green, yellow, orange, and more pink. I mean, she was still probably my favorite G3 Pony, buuuut now she's 20% cooler. (That was an in-joke, by the way.)
* In the first episode, when she casually boasts that she can clear the sky in "ten seconds flat," it literally takes her ten seconds of screen time.
* The Sonic Rainboom may be the coolest thing I've ever seen that didn't involve a seventeen-year-old blonde girl using a stolen rocket launcher to destroy an unkillable demon.


Rarity
* In the second episode, she KICKS THE MANTICORE IN ITS FACE. Despite being about one-tenth its size.
* I can't back this up with any hard evidence, but I have a theory that, while Twilight obviously has much more raw power, Rarity has more control over her telekinesis.
* There's nothing new about a TV show aimed at little girls having a character who's obsessed with fashion . . . but how many of them actually sell their own clothes out of their own boutiques?
* Also, it's rather common for the fashionable character to be the most stuck-up . . . but Rarity is best friends with Fluttershy. Speaking of . . .

Fluttershy
* In the second episode, she actually defeats the manticore. By being nice to him!
* How 'bout that time she stared down a cockatrice and shrugged off the whole "being turned to stone right now" thing?
* "Dragonshy."
* Honestly, she may be the most timid Pony in Ponyville (the word "shy" is IN HER NAME), but she's also clearly the last Pony in Ponyville -- nay, in all of Equestria -- who you ever want to piss off.

Spike
* He's not a Pony, but he may be my favorite character in the whole show.
* He's a dragon.
* He's a BABY dragon.
* He's a baby dragon who EATS GEMSTONES.
* He's a baby dragon who eats gemstones and BREATHES GREEN FIRE.
* He's the only character who's ever remarked upon the weirdness of Fluttershy, a Pegasus Pony who's afraid of heights.
* He's always ready to mock anything that needs mocking.
* He has a crush on Rarity.
* Oh, God. That scene in "Party of One" where Pinkie Pie interrogates him. Oh, God.

Ponies I Want

YES, I am writing about Ponies tonight. I really should be writing about recovery, since I have been back at work for a month and a day now . . . but I'm not entirely sure exactly what recovery even means! Which I could, you know, write about (who cares what it officially means? This is MY blog), but it's just a tad overwhelming. Actually, even the thought of writing a list of Ponies I'd like to add to my collection (which, let's face it, I could do at the -- it's 11:11 -- drop of a hat) seems just a tad overwhelming.

I could be annoyed with myself for feeling overwhelmed by something as simple as my own thoughts (riiight, "simple" -- shut up, I could really use a Pensieve), but I'm gonna go ahead and choose to . . . not be annoyed. 'Cause this process is, well, a process, and sometimes it's less easy than it is at other times. The important thing is that recovery is happening. And that's not just my own personal opinion; people literally cannot shut up about how much happier I've been since I went to group, how awesome I am at my job, how awesome I am at life in general, how amazing it is that I was able to make so much progress in such a short time, what a great listener I've become, etc. etc. etc. I've even been told that the improved morale at my store probably has a lot to do with me being back (um, the coworker who said so also happens to be one of my best friends in the entire world, buuut).

Eurgh. I'm rambling, and who knows if it's making a lick of sense?

Anyway. Ponies!

I want -- nay, I must have -- the following basic figures from the current Friendship is Magic line:

APPLEJACK
PINKIE PIE
LILY BLOSSOM*
CHEERILEE
SNOWCATCHER (probably won't get her unless I can find her for way cheaper than $31, which is her current asking price on eBay -- and that would be fine, since finding her on eBay for $31 was the first I've ever heard of her)
LUNA

There are also a ton of other characters from the show I would happily snatch up if they were turned into toys, chiefly Zecora, Nightmare Moon, Big Macintosh, Granny Smith, Lyra, Bon Bon, THE GREAT AND POWERFUL TRIXIE, Gilda, Little Strong Heart, Derpy Hooves, and the Cutie Mark Crusaders.

Especially the Cutie Mark Crusaders! Why they haven't been released as a three-pack (for which I would gladly give Hasbro close to $30 of my hard-earned monies) is a mystery that may never get solved. I know you can get Sweetie Belle in a gift pack with Pinkie Pie, but having her without Apple Bloom and Scootaloo would just be sad.

One character from the show who HAS been turned into a toy that I DON'T want? Princess Celestia! When little girls are complaining that she's not supposed to be pink, you are doing something wrong. Take note, Hasbro.
   That being said, I will eventually buy the gift set, which unfortunately includes her, for Spike. Despite not being a Pony, he may be my favorite character.

Also, I currently have three different versions of Rainbow Dash -- FiM basic, Ponyville, and pre-FiM basic (back when she was an Earth Pony who needed an umbrella). I'd like to eventually have at least six of her. Not that I'm a tad obsessed with her or anything.

The only non-FiM Pony I really want at the moment is the very first Pony I ever owned, who I have found on eBay in FANTASTIC condition. The good news there is that I am currently the highest bidder; the bad news there is that the auction lasts for another six days, so some jerkface could totally outbid me at the last possible second, and in the meantime I have to wait.





Sigh.

Tomorrow is gonna be great, and I swear I'm not just saying that.





*Purple Pegasus Pony with yellow hair. SHE IS SO GORGEOUS THAT I CAN'T STAND IT.

Found This on Tumblr and It's Brilliant

Please excuse me as I go die of laughter.