March 2008 has come to an end and it is time for another review.  Many events, both planned and unexpected took place during the month.  Some helped me to progress toward my goals, while others slowed me down.  The reason I was slowed down was that I am still not firm enough to stick to all my work schedules, despite the ‘anti-procratinations’ strategies that I have learnt.

Looks like the coming months will be get tougher due to new personal challenges ahead; and as usual, I’d probably have to face them alone too.   

While browsing at the toy section of a departmental store on last weekend, I saw a nice looking Sylvanian Family House on sale there.  A sample of the said house was on display and I was tempted to make an impulse purchase to house my baby My Little Pony toys; or just to place it on my 3-D Vision Board, at the Wishing Corner of my room.

Actually, my logical mind knows that I can just use a cut out or print out photo of my dream house for my Vision Board.  Using a model or toy house will take up space and collect dust too, since the house is too big for my glass cabinets.  By right, anything that does not have a proper ‘home’ or location to stay in my room or house is considered a “clutter”.  This is how the Home Organizers define clutter - homeless objects that build up everywhere and anywhere in our homes.

It did not help that my 2 fellow My Little Pony collector pals who were with me that day, were egging me to buy that toy house; not just because I looked so keen on it, but also because their legs were tired and they wanted to go sit down somewhere for a drink.  So they figured that the fastest way to tear me away from the display house and the nearby boxes filled with it, was to persuade me to buy it and then leave.  Friends who have gone shopping with me all know that I can take a very long to decide to buy something, whether the thing costs under $10 or much more than that. 

I realise that I tend to get distracted easily by new sights and sounds wherever I go, or during whatever I do.  No wonder it can get a bit difficult to accomplish my tasks at times.  At least I become aware of my shortcoming and the next step is to be mindful of it at all times, so as to correct myself whenever I get distracted again.  It looks like the saying “how you do anything is how you do everything” holds true to me when applied to my bad shopping habits…

I came across an interesting fantasy pony role paying game site called PonyIsland some time ago and I bookmarked it to check out later.  The cute pony characters there are modelled after My Little Pony.  It has been a long while since I first found PonyIsland.  I am not into gaming, hence I have not played it yet. 

Nevertheless by reading the tutorials and rules of the game, it looks quite enjoyable for horse and pony lovers in general, since you get to manage your own stable of mythical ponies in a magical land.  My favourite pony breeds to choose from their list of available breeds are the KirinPony, PhoenixPony and DragonPony.  I really love the pony art they use.

One thing to note though is that it is a paid game ($14 for 6 months, or $23 for a year), and that you need to log in at least once a week to ‘receive a salary’ to feed and maintain your ponies.  The lovely custom pony characters also provide great ideas for pony customizers to turn them into 3-D versions, using existing custom bait My Little Pony toys.  So here’s something else for My Little Pony fans to do online during a ‘toy drought’.  How cool is that!  

I watch Disney Channel and this short song clip has been showing for the past month.  It’s really catchy and it has a nice following of fans too. I always look forward to hearing and seeing it during the commercial breaks. Here it is, enjoy!

Song Lyrics:

I dream all day till I am free,
The clock is slow on an overload,
But I’d rather take it easy.
It’s school all week till I get home,
Just you and me, some great TV,
Feeling good just like we should.

Can’t wake up on Monday,
It’s too tough on Tuesday,
And Wednesday I’m in overtime.
Just getting by on Thursday,
I’ll be fine on Friday.
When can we let the fun begin?
Tune it on the weekend!

Drawers, including those concealed ones (in wardrobes), are another form of favourite storage choices for toy collectors to store their collectible toys.  Bedside drawers also make good homes for My Little Pony toys, especially for the baby ponies and the newborn ponies which are much smaller and shorter.  Hence you can fit more of these little ones into the drawer space than the regular adult ponies. 

Basically when your toy collection starts to grow exponentially during the ‘rapid growth’ stage, you will find yourself become more ‘creative’ in storage solutions so as to accommodate all your new incoming toys.  Sometimes when you run out of storage ideas, or you feel too tired upon reaching home with the new toy, you tend to leave the new addition/s on whichever most convenient surface you can find.  You thought that you will keep them properly later when you are free, which almost never happens.  When you do finally decide to find a proper storage space in your room/house for the extra toy/s, many weeks or months had already passed since you brought them home.  This is a result of unplanned collecting. The mentality then is to ‘collect first and think about storage later’.

Unplanned collecting and storage of toys will eventually lead to having your room and even your house, become overrun by toys.  Although collecting toys is just a hobby, it needs to be done in an organised manner, if not it can get out of hand.  Not to mention, it also burns a big hole in your pockets.  Hence you need to set aside a monthly budget for your toys so as not to overspend and result in the storage problem too. 

Basically we need to have a plan for everything we do in life, and to take actions according to that plan.  This applies to toy collecting too.  At the end of the day, how we do anything, is a startling reflection of how we do everything else in life.  If you are a very organised person, the ways you collect and store your toys show it clearly.  If you wish to have a better idea of the kind of person you are, just observe how you run your toy collecting hobby and the answer is there.  If there is room for improvement, go head and do it now and you will definitely be rewarded in the end for your efforts!

Toys can also be stored in the wardrobe.  Some larger wardrobes have extra closed storage spaces above the usual area meant for the clothes.  These upper storage spaces tend to be too high up to keep items that are commonly used.  Hence they are perfect for storing toys that need not be accessed often.  A disadvantage is that the toys would be a little inconvenient to access since they are stored so high up.  You also need to label the toys boxes for easier identification of which toys are stored in which boxes.

The other most common alternative is to pack the loose toys into Ziploc bags and then store them inside boxes, which are subsequently stacked aside neatly in some part of the bedroom or hobby room.  This method is able to save space by keeping more toys of various sizes in an area but the downside obviously is that the toys cannot be seen.  Then again for various reasons, some collectors do not want their toys to be seen (by others) so this method is suitable for them. 

There are many ways to store your collectible toys.  Some methods are planned, others are not.  For the latter, the storage methods used usually depends on the available space in the home as the toy collection builds up. 

Ideally, collectors would like to display their loose collectible toys on shelves for easy viewing or admiration.  The best is to use cabinets with glass doors to keep out the dust as well.  If the toys are arranged neatly and in themes, the effect would visually appealing to any toy collector.  The shortcomings are that this method is usually not space efficient, and not all the toys can fit into the glass cabinets, even if they are custom made for the toys.  The room may even end up looking like a mini museum, not that the toy owner actually minds.

Come again tomorrow to read about other toy storage methods…

It is already Easter Sunday, and the latest set of core 7 G3 My Little Pony sets have not hit the stores here yet.  I am still waiting to own the gorgeous unicorn pony Sweetie Belle, and the pretty new pegasus pony Starsong.  I am not keen on the earth ponies in the set as their characters have been repeated and released way too many times. 

Somehow the recent sets of regular My Little Pony toy lines have began to bore me and I have lost my overall excitement for new releases.  Besides, the long for them to be sold in Singapore kills whatever anticipation that I have left for them.  I am reluctant to import them on my own in case they do appear in the retail stores later.   Hence I waited and waited, and I am still waiting for Sweetie Belle and Starsong to come but the chances are getting more and more remote by the weeks and months.

Maybe in another month’s time, I would have waited so long that I no longer want them anymore.  This would be considered a self-comforting kind of delayed gratification at its extreme…

I am still taking a break and I will heading out to enjoy myself today at the first Singapore My Little Pony meet for this year.  I will definitely check out departmental stores to see if they have new toys (that I collect) in stock!

To be continued when I return from my ‘outing’ today…

…I am back from the Pony meet and from my window shopping trip earlier than planned because of a heavy downpour in town.  There were new stocks of toys that I do not collect and I only managed to visit 1 store.  That store was rather crowded because other shoppers were also seeking shelter from the rain there like me and my pony collectors group.

During the Pony meet, I made a small sale and also received a cool Ponyville 4-pack (consisting of Ribbon Wishes, Lavender Lace, Flippity Flop and Bay Breeze) from another collector who had just returned from Australia with it.  That was so thoughtful of him!  I also laid eyes on the blank white pony, which Hasbro calls Decorate Your Own Pony.  The other pony collectors brought theirs to ’show off’.  I was not keen on getting my own though. 

Overall I had a great time meeting and catching up with other My Little Pony collectors today.  I look forward to our next mini My Little Pony meet soon!