No pony left behind: Retro toy collector with almost 500 My Little Pony dolls urges parents not to bin children’s toys

A retro toy collector with almost 500 My Little Pony dolls has urged parents not to throw out their children’s toys as she aims to leave “no pony behind”.

Gem Smith, 43, from Nottingham, loved having My Little Pony toys, Jem and The Holograms dolls and Care Bears growing up, but they were gradually given away or donated over time.

When she gave birth to her now 13-year-old daughter, she started reminiscing about her childhood toys and realised she wanted to “reclaim all (her) favourites”.

Her searches started on eBay but soon progressed to antique shops and toy fairs – and now, she has nearly 500 My Little Pony toys, including one from Macau and a collection of Dutch Ponies.

Gem’s hundreds of toys, which she also restores by using products such as antibacterial hand soap, hair conditioner and her ghd straighteners on a low heat, are kept in a dedicated room which “hits you” with the scent of rubber when you open the door.

Always wishing her childhood toys had been “saved”, Gem has kept a selection of her daughter’s favourites and wants to encourage other parents to do the same.

Gem told PA Real Life: “Other than my favourite childhood Winnie-the-Pooh teddy bear, I didn’t have anything, so I went on a mission to reclaim all my favourites.

“People have said to me, ‘What will you do with them? Are you going to keep them forever or will you sell them?’, and I just can’t bring myself to think about selling any of it because I love it all.

“There’s a popular motto in the My Little Pony community, which is, ‘No pony left behind’, so if you’re in a charity shop and you see a pony, you just grab it – they all get rescued and restored.”

Gem’s childhood favourites included Jem and The Holograms, Keypers, My Little Pony, Rainbow Brite dolls, Care Bear plushies and figures and Wuzzles.

She said she was “lucky” to have a variety of toys growing up but her parents did not “save anything”.

It was only after giving birth to her now 13-year-old daughter, who she does not wish to name, that she started reminiscing and “looking at children’s toys again”.

“I remember saying to my husband at the time, ‘Kids’ toys these days, they’re not a patch on what we used to have – the quality is rubbish’,” Gem said.

“We started reminiscing about, ‘Can you remember this game? And can you remember that?’, and then I started to wish that I still had my childhood toys.

“I remember thinking, it would be lovely to be able to pull out all my childhood toys and clean them up and say to my daughter: ‘Here you go. These were mine when I was little and you can have them’.”

The first items she bought included three Jem and The Holograms dolls, three Polly Pockets, the Keypers Tango the Ladybird toy and two Generation One My Little Pony figures called Peachy and Cotton Candy.

After doing further research online, she came across the thousands of My Little Pony toys from different generations and countries, and she said she “needed” to have as many as possible.

“That’s where I thought, ‘OK, I’m going to need the whole set for those and I’m going to need the whole set for those as well’,” she said.

“I wasn’t planning on going mad, I was just planning on buying back what I remembered having myself, but then it just escalated.”

After her first few purchases, Gem said it “all went mad” and she started broadening her searches to toy fairs and antique shops, and she discovered a batch of six My Little Ponies for around £2 each.

One of them was a UK exclusive pony called Cascade which came with a waterfall playset, and she later saw this toy being sold for £50.

Gem said prices for retro toys can vary depending on their release date and whether they are in mint condition.

She bought two Jem and The Holograms dolls in their original packaging for around £75, but she said these toys can be sold for £200 or more.

“That feeling of, ‘This is a brand new toy, it’s in perfect condition but nobody’s ever opened it before’, it’s just insane,” she said.

Gem said she looks on eBay and other sites every single day, and she recently bought a £20 Care Bear on Vinted, which is a UK exclusive toy and worth around £300.

Although Gem has not counted all her toys, she knows she has nearly 500 My Little Ponies as she keeps a spreadsheet with details of their names, how much she bought them for and the year they were produced.

With her collection including 25 Care Bear plushies, 23 Care Bear posable figures and 20 Keypers too, she believes the total toy figure will surpass the 600 mark – and she keeps everything in a designated room.

“When you get a new old toy like that, there’s the nostalgia, you feel like you’re a kid again, but then there’s the satisfaction of restoring them,” she said.

“Generally, they’ve been in somebody’s loft or garage for 40 years, so they’re all grubby, the hair’s matted and they look a bit of a state, and I like cleaning them up and making them look like new again.”

Gem said she has a wishlist of toys she wants to buy and it is her dream to meet Bonnie Zacherle one day, as she developed the first My Little Pony toys.

Gem, who now has 12,000 followers on her Instagram page @gem.emerald.toys, said she will continue collecting for as long as she can, and she hopes to one day leave the toys to her daughter as her inheritance.

“I get loads of messages from people saying, ‘I saw your picture and it unlocked a core memory’, and that’s so lovely,” Gem said.

“My dad commented on one of my photos on Facebook, and it was something like, ‘Never grow up, Gem, keep being your colourful self’, and I just thought: ‘Yes, dad, I will’.”