Well, in one of those, the internet is wonderful moments, I was contacted by the culprit behind the cute that you see above! Turns out, the photo above was taken by one of our own, namely Ianthe99 (aka Amber) of the MLPTP. I asked her if she’d be willing to give us a little “behind the scenes” info about both the photo and how it ended up in the calendar and she was kind enough to agree.

AND, because she’s extra awesome, she also gave us a few more pictures from that same day which you can see after the interview below.

OK, I gotta ask: what was going on when you snapped that photo?

Well, I was rearranging my pony collection. I was getting ready to put all of my gem G3′s on a separate shelf. So I pretty much just took them all and dumped them on the couch. Next thing I look over, Biscuit has curled up right in the middle with them… so out comes the camera. I got lucky and was able to sneak one under her paw.

How did it end up in the Cute Overload calendar?

If I remember right, I posted it to a Livejournal community dedicated to cute cat pictures. People kept telling me I should submit it to Cute Overload..so I did. She wound up on the site. Then, a while later, someone from the site contacted me and told me they were using it for the calendar, and asked me if I would like a copy! It was pretty neat!

Do you remember what other ponies were in attendance that day?

Only ones I can remember are the ones I can pick out of the pictures. It’s pretty much most of the gem g3′s. I think I was missing a birthstone or two and Silver Lining at the time. Here’s a list.

Valenshy
Wondermint
July Jubilee
Crystal Lace
January Joy
Sunshimmer
Hidden Treasure
Gem Blossom
June Blossom
March Mischief
Juniper Jade
Star Dasher
Twilight Twinkle
Winterberry
Windy Wisp
November Nights

I think that’s most of them. It’s been a while.

(Click the pictures to see them full size.) Thank you, Amber!

Isn’t the internet wonderful, you guys?

This is one of those things that causes some confusion amongst pony fans. Sparkle Ponies, Baby Sparkle Ponies, Glow ‘n Show Ponies and Divine Shine Ponies are sometimes referred to as being one of a kind (that’s OOAK for the cool kids). While obviously these were factory made like all My Little Pony items, what collectors really mean by this is that no two are exactly alike.

See, all four of the types of ponies listed above are filled with something (glow in the dark chips in the case of Glow ‘n Show, sparkles in the other three cases). Literally, this means the ponies were lined with a sticky substance and the “filling” was tossed inside.

But gravity added the element of surprise and randomness and no two ponies could possible be filled in the exact same pattern as it all depended on how the filling fell. Meaning, the one you have in your hands, while technically the same as the one I have in mine, will have a totally unique pattern of sparkles (or glow in the dark chips).

To illustrate this further, you sometimes find ponies like this:

This is Baby North Star of the Baby Sparkle Ponies. She’s cute and she knows it. But what isn’t immediately clear from this picture is that her sparkles are really uneven.

See? There are hardly any sparkles on her from this angle. But when we go back to the top of her head…

There is a massive clump of sparkles in her one ear and a disproportionate number of sparkles on her face in general. (Her forelock is also trimmed but that’s besides the point.)

Does this make her more or less collectible? Well, that depends on how unusual the spread is. A pony like this still looks mostly like herself. However, if, say, she had almost no sparkles on her body and they were all clumped into one foot, I could see that decreasing her value. Even though that’s how the factory made her, just the fact that a pony looks off can decrease its value.

However, that said, there are always those collectors that specialize in the unusual and a one of a kind pony like that may be just what they are after! There is, very literally, no other pony just like this.

Have you ever gotten a particularly unusual spread of sparkles or glow chips in a pony? We’d love to see the photo!

How do you feel about uneven fillings? Would it be enough to make you not want the pony?

What color is her body, you ask? Well, let’s talk about this.

See, there are two different versions of Skywishes. They are in the same exact pose, have the same hair color, same symbol, same eyes, same cutie mark and both are insufferably smug about something.

It’s like they think they’re so much better than us

But their bodies, while both in the pink color family, are clearly not the same color.

One is a bright neon pink while the other is a shiny pale purple. This isn’t fading or damage, there really were two different versions of this pony.

The neon pink version (on the left) is from the 2nd set of Seaside Celebration Ponies set. She was on a tropical vacation. Maybe its supposed to be a tan?

The purple-y version (on the right) came with the first Perfectly Pony set, Sweet Reflection Dress Shop, and the Musical Wishes Jewelry Box.

So, as a collector, all you want to know is which is worth more, right? Well, here’s the thing. Logically, the neon version should be rarer since she only came with one set and the purple one came with several. But since not every collector got playsets and the Seaside Celebration was a popular set (everyone is a sucker for little plastic friends and hula skirts), it may end up being more even than you think. The one factor to keep in mind is that, since she came with more accessories, Neon Skywishes will be worth more mint in box than Perfectly Pony Skywishes who only came with a brush and possibly a charm.

“Psst! I think they’re talking about us.”

But sellers don’t often realize there is a difference so you’ll have to look closely when buying online to check which version of her you’re getting. You’ll often see either version of this pony listed as the other so by careful when you buy and be sure to ask questions to avoid disappointment.

Anyone want to add anything to this discussion of Skywishes? Please chime in below.

• NRFB – Never Removed From Box
• MIB – Mint in Box
• MOC – Mint on Card
• NWT – New with Tags (mostly used for clothing or dolls that did not come in packaging)
• NIP – New in Package (this term is newer than the rest and is only recently coming into popularity)

There are also a wide variety of mash-ups of the terms above where the user tries to jam two of the acronyms above together so you get things like NRFC (Never Removed From Card), MIC (Mint in Card) or NWOT (New WithOut Tags). You will also sometimes see things like NMIB which means that the item is Near or Not Mint in Box.

As a buyer, you don’t want to actually put these terms into your search because there is a such a wide variety of ways people use these but it is helpful to know what they stand form when you encounter them. As always, make sure that you read the seller’s description fully before buying as their title may not agree with their description.

As a seller, when deciding which one to use in your description, go for the most commonly used term for your sort of item.

Think you know the answer? Post your guess below.

Please feel free to post your response even if someone has already posted an answer. Answering trivia questions is sometimes just for fun and sometimes for prizes so be sure to put your answer in if you know the answer or at least have a good guess so you don’t miss out when we are offering something. If we are currently giving prizes for trivia answers, we will post the details on the homepage. Trivia questions post at a slightly different time each week to make it fair for all time zones to participate. We post a new trivia question every Tuesday and post answers every Thursday. If you want to be sure not to miss a question or answer, you can subscribe via email, RSS, or Twitter here.

That special symbol designates that the pony that bears it is in the Dress-Up pose. Introduced in 2008, this symbol indicates a pony that can fit into special molded clothing and accessory pieces. The presence of this symbol means that this pony can freely trade these molded clothing pieces with any other similarly marked pony.

Most of the ponies released in 2008 were in a Dress-Up pose.

Dress-Up ponies, as well as their clothing pieces, are covered in greater detail in The My Little Pony 2007-2008 Collector’s Inventory.

Think you know the answer? Post your guess below.

Please feel free to post your response even if someone has already posted an answer. Answering trivia questions is sometimes just for fun and sometimes for prizes so be sure to put your answer in if you know the answer or at least have a good guess so you don’t miss out when we are offering something. If we are currently giving prizes for trivia answers, we will post the details on the homepage. Trivia questions post at a slightly different time each week to make it fair for all time zones to participate. We post a new trivia question every Tuesday and post answers every Thursday. If you want to be sure not to miss a question or answer, you can subscribe via email, RSS, or Twitter here.

An alumni of many popular 80′s and 90′s cartoons including Snorks, Alivin and the Chipmunks, Shirt Tales, Pound Puppies, Bonkers, Goof Troop, Animaniacs, Rugrats, Pinkie and the Brain and more, Nancy Cartwright chats with other great figures from the world of animation in her column on Animation World Magazine.

Think you know the answer? Post your guess below.

Please feel free to post your response even if someone has already posted an answer. Answering trivia questions is sometimes just for fun and sometimes for prizes so be sure to put your answer in if you know the answer or at least have a good guess so you don’t miss out when we are offering something. If we are currently giving prizes for trivia answers, we will post the details on the homepage. Trivia questions post at a slightly different time each week to make it fair for all time zones to participate. We post a new trivia question every Tuesday and post answers every Thursday. If you want to be sure not to miss a question or answer, you can subscribe via email, RSS, or Twitter here.

For more information about this pony, please consult The My Little Pony G1 Collector’s Inventory by Summer Hayes.

Interesting fact: My Pretty Pony is also the name of a short story by Stephen King.

Think you know the answer? Post your guess below.

Please feel free to post your response even if someone has already posted an answer. Answering trivia questions is sometimes just for fun and sometimes for prizes so be sure to put your answer in if you know the answer or at least have a good guess so you don’t miss out when we are offering something. If we are currently giving prizes for trivia answers, we will post the details on the homepage. Trivia questions post at a slightly different time each week to make it fair for all time zones to participate. We post a new trivia question every Tuesday and post answers every Thursday. If you want to be sure not to miss a question or answer, you can subscribe via email, RSS, or Twitter here.

Starting tomorrow, MyLittlePonyCollecting.com will be hosting a weekly trivia contest. Trivia questions will post every Tuesday and then answers will post every Thursday. Can you be the first person to post the correct answer?

For the first few weeks of trivia, the only prize will be the satisfaction of being the first right answer while we get the bugs out of the system. But these first few weeks are really just training and practice for the future when the fastest finger will be awarded a fabulous prize each month.

What do you need to do to prepare?

• Study up on your MLP knowledge by reading through Summer Hayes’ My Little Pony guides.
• Make sure that you are subscribed to My Little Pony Collecting.com either by RSS or email so that you see the questions as soon as we post them.
• Follow us on Twitter @MLPcollecting. Whenever possible, we’ll tweet out hints to give our Twitter followers an extra edge. 
• For fastest commenting, you may want to sign up for Google Friend Connect. Not only is it free, it also let’s you post using your avatar and login from any other site of your choosing. To sign up, use the pink Google Friend Connect box in the right hand navbar on this site. 

We’ll be taking submissions for questions soon but, for now, best of luck and we will see you for trivia tomorrow!