About the Administrator and Moderators

[MustBeJewel]

The MLPTP is run by the site owner, @MustBeJewel, and a talented team of moderators:


PLEASE CONTACT A MODERATOR FOR HELP, NOT THE ADMIN.


Administrator:

MustBeJewel

Spoiler: What Does the Administrator Do?

As the site owner and admin, Jewel's responsibilities include:

Managing the ownership and finances of MLPTP, LLC
Keeping all forum software and widgets up to date
Implementing new features and managing forum architecture
Managing the VPN, hosting, and domain
Creating most of the event banners and graphics
Handling off-site forum advertising
Managing the MLPTP Tutorials & FAQ library
Sourcing outside talent to contribute to the forums
Running the yearly Forum Fundraiser
Organizing production and sales of all merchandise
Assisting with Mods' events if needed
Making sure the snack machine in the Mod Lounge is always full

MLPTP Moderators:

These are the people to contact for help.
NOTE: Please contact ONE moderator at a time. Contacting multiple mods will not elicit a faster response.


ChocolateStarfire

Gingerbread

Lackadaisy

Rebeldream

Sassarazzmadazzles

Spoiler: What Do the Moderators Do?

Moderator responsibilities include:

Helping MLPTP members however they can
Keeping a watchful eye over the community
Being skilled spam-bot exterminators
Helping resolve trade/sale/swap problems
Hosting their own games, swaps, and other events
Being stellar representatives of the community
Eating all the snacks in the Mod Lounge snack machine.

Keep scrolling to learn more about what makes our team unique.

...​

 

[MustBeJewel]

Hello! I am known as Jewel or @MustBeJewel throughout the pony collecting world. I'm from the state of Maryland in the USA, and I have been a part of the collecting community since 1999.

I have been collecting ponies for as long as I can remember, since the first Cotton Candy which was given to me before I could even talk. Since then, my collection has grown from my childhood herd of 45 to over 3,000 individual ponies and items from all over the world, some of them truly one-of-a-kind items. Click the link in my signature to take a look!

Since 2003, I have been the hostess of the annual Maryland Pony Meet, a steadily growing gathering of pony collectors mostly from the eastern shore of the US, though collectors have attended from around the world!

I became a moderator here at the Trading Post in 2005, and as of 2019 I have become the new owner of the site. I really love interacting with and getting to know the amazing community members we have here, and I greatly look forward to doing all I can for the community.

In my non-pony life, I earned my degree in Film, and I currently freelance in videography, editing, voiceover work, and photography. In 2011, I completed my first documentary, (unsurprisingly) called My Little Obsession.

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As of 2024, I began hosting weekly interactive online livestream game nights for my pony friends on YouTube. I now host with my co-hosts and friends of forever @roserebellion and @SkippetyDoo. All game nights are family-friendly, and some special game nights offer prizes to game winners! You're invited to join in any time: https://www.mlptp.net/index.php?threads/livestreaming-games-with-pony-friends-1-2-25.120830/

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In short, collecting ponies has opened up a crazy, quirky, wonderful world to me, both in my own personal experiences and the strong, lasting friendships I have made with fellow collectors. If there's ever anything I can help you with here at the MLPTP, or if you just want to say hi, feel free to drop me a PM anytime!

 

[Sassarazzmadazzles]

Howdy!
My Name Is

I hope to become great friends with you!

My story begins with horses, yes, just plain toy horses. I did not want ponies.
I didn't want these color little princess ponies.
Nope, just good ol plain horses for this girl.

Growing up, I wasn't really into ponies. I did like Sunny Daze though from G3.
So she was able to live amongst my herd of Grand Champion Horses.
(though she stayed in box, I never played with her lol)

You may be wondering where my love of ponies actually came in, don't ya?

Well, here comes g4 in 2010 and I boycotted it!
Why you ask? Because they did not have my beautiful Sunny Daze of course!

Here comes year 2012/2013ish and I was perusing Youtube mindlessly like a lot do.
I came across this fan made video of Pinkie Pie and all her friends having an "eventful" picnic.

Well, you know how the videos pop up on the side? I some how found myself watching g4 from episode 1.

And that is the birth of my pony craze!

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General Info About Me!

I am from the great state Texas!
Born, raised, and still living here.

90's baby!
1991

I do collect all generations g1-5
(all accept for G3.5)

I have not counted how many ponies I have because I have a whole room of ponies!
(and still currently trying to get that room put together haha!)

I also still have a lot of my childhood Grand Champion Horses, a few Breyers too.

A few of my favorite ponies:
Jenny, Munchy (army 1), Baby Frosting (army 2), Sunny Daze, Rarity, Coloratura
and of course Po-Nay, my own little pony.

I created Po-nay in 2013. I generally just sketched a pony, but I fell in love with her.
So I finished out the sketch with full digital color (my profile picture)
She has never changed in style since I made her.
I love her dearly and wanted her to be real,
so I have commissioned many artists to do just that for me!

My other current collections are: Maneki Nekos, Pusheen, Skeletor,
Budweiser Beer Steins (because I LOVE the Clydesdales), Meowchis from Tastey Peach Studios,
And Various other do dads I find that I absolutely need!

I do not have any children, but I do have one of the best men in the world!
His name is Shark.
He totally takes care of me and is a HUGE supporter in my Pony Collecting World!
He even buys me ponies (like Jenny!)

I have had many pets over the years and I love and cherish each moment I have had with them.
Those pets range from fish, cats, dogs, a racoon, chickens, and a goose!

I don't really do much, but when I do, these are the things I do:
Going to the movies, Thrifting, Generally Spending Money, Haha.,
Going to a new place to eat, go walk down by the lake,
go for an evening drive with my fiance.
I also like to take pictures of my ponies with his
BMWs so that I can combine both of our collections.

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If you would like to know more about me or have any general questions,
don't be afraid to send me a personal message!
I am here to help make the MLPTP a warm and welcoming place to be!​

 

[Gingerbread]

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Greetings Fellow Pony Pals!

Let's see, I guess pony facts first. I would call myself a life-long pony collector. I grew up in what I consider the greatest toy time that ever was, the 1980s! I always loved horses so of course My Little Pony eventually made its way into my toy box. They quickly became a favorite and were a top request for all birthdays and holidays. The first one I remember ever getting was Cherries Jubilee from my Dad. For no particular reason if I recall but at the time he worked at a grocery store that was in a strip mall right next to a toy store. Those were good years, as the occasional "no reason" pony seemed to surprise me frequently!

I would say as a child I had lots of ponies (maybe around 50 and a few playsets) and of course my share of merchandise. Through the years as I got older most of my toys were lost to yard sales or given away but I always hung on to my ponies. Even though I outgrew playing with them I was never really quite ready to let those pretty ponies go. Eventually they ended up boxed up and in the attic through most of my teen years.

When I got into my late teens and people were starting to actually have computers in their homes, this was probably around 98-99. I remember checking out this site called eBay and that's when my interest in ponies was reborn. I still remember sitting there looking for random stuff on eBay when the idea popped in my head to search for MLP and my jaw dropped! I saw so many I had never seen before! Shortly after I learned about the first collector's guide (Debra Birge's) and I ordered one of those. I sat in my room going though it in awe of all the ponies I'd never seen before and I wanted them all!

That's when the ponies came down from the attic. I still had pretty much all my childhood ones and I started buying them here and there off eBay and would look for them at thrift stores and such. I loved marking them off in my book as I collected them. I eventually stumbled upon the MLPTP in 2006. I remember thinking MLP was probably a collecting niche but this community showed me I wasn't alone! There are lots of other crazy pony people out there *yay* it's so nice to have people who enjoy "talking pony" and I've made so many friends and learned so much over the years. So, why Gingerbread? Cause she's my favorite of course. Well, one of many favorites but yes, Gingerbread was a childhood pony and I always loved her color scheme and I love to bake so it just seemed to fit and I've been Gingerbread ever since.

Fast forward 20+ years later, I have somewhere around 600 I think (haven't counted in a while) and I am proud to say I have a pony room! I collected G1 exclusively most of that time and really have a soft spot for G1 merchandise. However, since completing the G1 US collection I have started dipping my hoof in the G3 world. My first grail pony was the Argentina Feliz Navidad pony and I got her several Christmases ago (greatest Christmas EVER!), my second grail was Argentina Gingerbread which I also received (2nd greatest Christmas EVER!) and now I think I'm setting my sights on a Spanish Gingerbread. That's the thing with collecting MLP, you never want it to end!

I live in Virginia, have been here my whole life but I do love to travel. I'm married to my high school sweetheart, going on 20 years. No kids, but love dogs. I'm the office manager at a doctor's office. I love to cook/bake and I'm usually in the kitchen. I love holidays...all of 'em but especially Christmas. I go all out decorating for most everything and I love everything about it!

I'm generally a home body, I prefer reading a book or working in the yard, watching TV, attempting to do crafty things but I'm not very social honestly. It's not that I don't like people it's just that after interacting with 100 patients in a day I like being home in my PJs! Occasionally though I do enjoy fun times with my friends and family and I'm known for my parties, cause when I do them, I do them up right!

I also like to collect vintage Pyrex, certain books and vintage holiday decor. I like The Little Mermaid, Eeyore, Charming Tails figures, most 80's toys, Garfield and Peanuts/Snoopy.

So that's my story. If you see me around feel free to say hi. I'm always happy to help however I can, whether it's a forum question, pony question or a much needed recipe

 

[Rebeldream]

Hello friends!

My name is Kelli but I’ve gone by Rebeldream online since I was 15 (1995!). A friend who was deep into Star Wars novels at the time had told me about Councilor Leia Organa’s flagship Star Destroyer named the Rebel Dream and I was so enamored by the name that I adopted it on the spot.



Then in searching online for an image to go along with the name (important for chat rooms back in the day) I came across Sailor Saturn from the Sailor Moon anime. She had caught my eye such that I deep-dived into the lore of this new set of characters I’d never seen before and was swiftly and deeply enamored with Sailor Pluto. She became the face of Rebeldream for a while and was an obsession in herself - I ran a Geocities image gallery for several years that had thousands of pictures of Setsuna.



Where do ponies come in?



Well, I had a small childhood herd of 20 that were my absolute loves. They were extremely important to me and I treasured them beyond all else. They lived in a shoe box under my bed and even into my teen years I would pull them out to admire them and comb their hair because I found them so calming and grounding. G2 came on scene when I was 18 and I bought two trying to figure out what the heck had happened to my ponies but life was moving pretty fast at that point and I didn’t have much headspace to spare for the topic. I got married and moved across the country at 19 and my shoe box of ponies came with me and always lived under my side of the bed. It was comforting just knowing they were there even though they didn’t see the light of day very often. I moved back to the west coast two years later and had my first child, a daughter, in 2002 when I was 22.



In 2003 I was shopping in Walmart and *literally* ran into an endcap of G3 as I turned a corner, knocking several ponies off the shelf and into my cart. I was stunned when I realized that a version of my beloved ponies had returned and the two-pack of Sparkleworks and Starswirl came home with me. The next day I went back to get Minty and Butterscotch. I told myself they were for my 1-year-old daughter… they were HER ponies… right? Yeah, right, lol

I kicked off into full-blown obsession, diving into eBay and the pony forums, trading, buying, selling, swapping, thrifting. I found so much joy in all of it and playing ponies with my toddler was a ridiculous amount of fun for my inner child. (At that point she had her own small collection - mine stayed on the shelves, lol)



This was when Rebeldream got ponyfied. Sailor Pluto has a purple outfit in human form that I’ve always loved so my ponysona got a purple body and Pluto’s green hair and red eyes. Her symbol is the astrological glyph of the (former) planet Pluto and she has a *RD in place of a hoof heart. I realized after I’d created her that she very closely resembled my favorite childhood pony - Seashell. And in a whole different set of coincidences, my (now ex) husband’s birthstone is amethyst and my daughter’s is emerald, making for the foundation of the pony’s colors. The red eyes came into play when I found out I was having a second child who would be born in July… ruby. Felt very meant to be.

I acquired 500-600 ponies across the three generations before slowing down in 2007 when I had my son. Life started falling apart in many different ways and my focus shifted out of necessity so the ponies went into storage for over a decade and a half. I missed out on the end of G3 and was only vaguely aware of the G3.5 shift. G4 barely registered. I recall being happy that MLP still existed but these Mane Six were so foreign to the ponies I knew that I couldn’t reconcile them as ponies.

Fast forward to spring of 2023 when I was finally working through all the life stuff that had caught up to me and resulted in a deep depression. I realized I had lost a lot of my joy and while casting around for what brought me happiness I remembered my long neglected collection. Around that same time I stumbled upon the 40th Anniversary plushies of Firefly and Glory on Amazon and purchased them immediately, getting curious about what was going on in the pony world these days. I visited my stored collection and brought a few favorites out.



This escalated QUICKLY and I was actively collecting again by summer. I hopped back on the pony boards, joined Facebook groups, started scouring my local Marketplace listings, etc. I found my lists from back in the G3 days and started catching up on all of the beauties I’d missed out on which led into G4 and G5.

In November I had a vendor table at a local Toy Convention and the joy of that day was utterly indescribable. Watching people’s faces light up when they spotted a table of ponies among all the Funko Pops, Star Wars, and Pokémon was beyond anything I’ve ever experienced and I was hooked!

In my personal life I’m a single mom to my two grown kiddos and a couple dogs, I run a small home business with my own mom doing electronics assembly, and am the social media specialist for my local small-town historic movie theatre. My daughter collects Monster High so we love talking about our collection highs and lows and my son studies HEMA (Historical European Martial Arts - sword fighting).

My collection has gotten massively out of hand and I don’t have the means to display it all currently, but the joy they bring me and the friendship I’ve found again within the community have done wonders for my mental health. I’m very happy to be here and I hope I can help keep the Trading Post running smoothly as a welcoming space for all!

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[ChocolateStarfire]

Hi everyone! My name on the MLPTP (and the MLP Arena!) is ChocolateStarfire!



I fell in love with My Little Pony at the tender age of 5 years old (that's in the '90s for curious folks!). I received Baby Brightbow and my sister received Baby Sunribbon as gifts for a birthday or Christmas, not sure which. And my childhood herd grew to around 12-15 G1 MLPs, from that time until I was around 10 years old. I still have my 'base herd' as it were and I am very sentimental about it--my herd has moved with me twice and every original pony in that collection, no matter how beat up from play and time, is dear to me. After collecting MLPs, I started collecting Breyer horses. But my heart has always been with My Little Pony.



Fast forward to the early to mid 2000's. I was finishing up high school and while ponies were sidelined by video games (in particular Ecco the Dolphin and Sonic the Hedgehog games for the Genesis and Dreamcast!), I was impressed by a talented artist named Kelli and her collection. She taught me how to customize my first pony--a G3 MLP--and from then on I was hooked. I had to customize every G3 I could find, and I discovered the wonders of the early Internet through Webrings! I found Kim Shriner's Dream Valley database, and several customizers named Aikarin, Minty, Woosie and LoveLauraLand. I joined the MLP Arena with my username here, though I had heard of the MLPTP through connections there. In MLP I once again found safety, kindness and warmth--things I really needed during many difficult points of my adolescence/young adulthood. And over the years, my herd began to grow--customized and otherwise!

I still make customs to this day--I'm in the process of making the stars of Sonic Movie 3 into ponies! Stay tuned for their debut in 2025!



I joined the MLPTP in 2017, and started to become active a few years ago, in 2021. The TP has been extremely kind and supportive, yet again a wonderful safe space for me to come home to, literally and figuratively! I'm honored and thrilled to be a part of the mod squad here on the MLP Trading Post--I love guiding people toward the best solutions in my day job as an educator/artist/author, and providing service to those in need. Encouraging others to be enlightened and the act of passing the torch forward are what lie at the heart of my pony character, ChocolateStarfire--and I hope to provide similar feelings while in my role here at the Trading Post!

I've appended a Sonic SatAM theme bit to my ponysona--The Fastest Mod Alive! And I hope to live up to this as well! I do my best to be around every day, for at least a few hours at a time after work/while on break from work.



Even more about me:

My favorite ponies: G1-Baby Brightbow, Brightglow, Applejack, Dancing Butterflies, Minty (G3), Twilight Sparkle (G4); Fakie!-CPK Magic Meadow Ponies
My favorite video games: Sonic the Hedgehog 1, 2, 3, & Knuckles for the Sega Genesis, Sonic Adventure 2 for the Dreamcast, Shadow Generations for the PC, Ecco the Dolphin: Defender of the Future for the Dreamcast
My favorite musicians/bands: Crush40, Darren Hayes/Savage Garden, John Williams, Celine Dion, Josh Groban, Michael Jackson, various 90s/80s artists (I lean toward pop/rock!)
My favorite (safe) foods: McD's chicken nuggets and fries, sushi/sashimi/fish, Chinese food, most black/green/herbal teas, home cooked meals mostly
In my everyday life I'm an educator--I've been teaching at community colleges in Earth science in Southern California for 15 years. I've been making art and writing stories since I was a child.
I'm nonbinary! My pronouns are she/they currently, though this may change in future!
I also strongly suspect I am autistic with ADHD and CPTSD, but only the latter two have been confirmed by doctors. MLP and Sonic are my main interests.
I love traveling (despite my brain getting wibbly wobbly when I do! Hah!) and seeing your travel posts is awesome!
I miss horseback riding--I have had several hours of Western/trail riding in places like Yosemite National Park in California and I'd love to go riding again someday! Horses are awesome and each one has such a personality-like my cat, Mochi, with hooves and a craving for veggies instead!


Thanks for reading and I look forward to seeing you around the Trading Post!


Pet tax: Here's Mochi, my 4 year old Russian Blue/Korat? Domestic Shorthair Cat

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[Lackadaisy]

My first memory of MLP may be my oldest memory in life: an empty movie theater except for mom, dad, and myself. Little me, allowed to run rampant up and down all the aisles while we watched My Little Pony: The Movie. It was the One Dollar Movie Theater, where movies that were already gone from the major theaters went for a few more months of run-time, and it was early 1987. I was only one and a half years old. Walking was new, running was a big thrill, and I was just forming the part of my mind that would make me myself.

me in my favorite chicken sweater! 2024.​

Ponies have been with me for my whole life. As a kid, Surprise and Firefly came with me everywhere. When we lived at my Nana’s house when I was six, my favorite toy was my Petite Ponies carousel. TAF Buttons came with me to visit Santa when I was seven. When I was eleven, my mom gave all of my ponies to my aunt, who ran a daycare out of her house, and it was my first heartbreak. She thought I was getting too old for them. Silly mom!

Most of my current collection, not including petites. A small but mighty herd! 2024.​

At age fourteen my first taste of nostalgia, in the form of a conversation about MLP with my two best friends, became another formative moment in my life. We spent an entire sleepover talking about which ponies we had when we were younger, and we pulled out our old pony VHS tapes and watched them. It became a big theme in our friendship. Together we discovered websites like the MLPTP and Dream Valley, and went on pony hunts at thrift stores, yard sales, and flea markets. My first adventures in web design, photo editing, forums, and online buying/selling were all related to MLP. We bought the G2 ponies in the store as they were released, and my aunt returned my childhood ponies to me (she even included a Starglow that had once belonged to my cousin).


My twenties were a crazy time, and I lost my entire collection more than once. But some notable pony memories include putting G3 stickers on all of my checks when I was a waitress, and the pony-themed surprise party my friends threw for my 28th birthday during G4!

My surprise 28th birthday party, 2013. My friends even made me a Twilight Sparkle cake!​

In 2014, I went with my same two best friends on a cruise and there I met the man who would change everything. He and I stayed up all night talking to each other almost every night that week. It felt like we had always known each other, and even though he lived 500 miles from where I had lived my whole life, we kept talking every day until I decided that I couldn’t live without him any longer. At the end of 2016, I packed everything I could fit into my little Chevy and moved to Ohio so we could start our life together.

Me with Hazel, one of our newest rats, when she was 4 weeks old, 2024.​

In Ohio, my life has gained all the stability I needed to really shine. Together with my fella, we defeated all of our bad habits and started down a path to a better future. I took a real shining to his pet rats, and together in 2017 we started Gardens Clan Rattery. Every year or so when our rat population starts getting low, we breed a litter of babies and find great homes for all of the extras. The rats are sweet, intelligent, and affectionate. They brighten my life every day!

My original drawing of Lackadaisy, 2005.​

I created Lackadaisy back in 2005 when I was an angsty youth-- her name is a take on the word “lackadaisical”, which means uninspired or listless. In the summer of 2023, I was inspired to draw a new picture of my old persona pony. Just as my fella and our rats have brightened my outlook on life, my drawing shows a now-happy Lackadaisy being amused by two little rat friends.

The drawing that re-ignited a passion! 2023.​

A complete stranger from a social media group where I posted the drawing felt so inspired by it that he wanted to commission a custom pony for me. The amazingly talented woodworker and artist Katherine Wyvern saw the post and volunteered to create her. She used my favorite pose, the Posey pose, and hand-carved Lackadaisy’s horn from the wood of a rare service tree, a branch of which had fallen in the forest near her home. The original Lackadaisy was lost in the mail on her way to me, and Katherine made a second one as a replacement. In a twist of fate, BOTH Lackadaisies showed up at nearly the same time! It only seemed right to send the second one to the kind stranger who had paid for the original commission. Katherine even gave me a discounted rate because the original had been damaged in the mail on her long journey. The whole experience warmed my heart and made me very interested in becoming an active part of the online MLP community!

Custom Lackadaisy by Katherine Wyvern, 2023.​

I signed back in to the MLPTP and have been here ever since. As I say over and over, the TP is the coziest corner of the web. I love playing the games, I love seeing everyone’s collections and hearing what is going on in their lives. My favorite part by far is putting together the boxes for our swaps! It’s so much fun shopping for an online pony friend, equipped with a wish list of MLP and non-pony items. I love wrapping everything and putting together a box crammed full of fun surprises! And now as a moderator, I will get to have a hand in organizing and running MLPTP events moving forward, as well as giving back to this cozy community that has always brought such joy to my life.

Some other fun facts about me:​

• I love hunting for treasures at secondhand stores, flea markets, and yard sales. Some other things I collect are vintage kitchen decor featuring mushrooms, Pyrex/Corelle/Corning dishware, figurines of mice and rats, old Soviet items, kids stuff from the 80s and 90s (especially Pee Wee Herman, Goosebumps, and certain Nickelodeon), stickers, and sweaters.
• I take my treasure hunting outdoors, as well! I love foraging for mushrooms, herbs, and other natural treasures.
• I have an 18-year-old tuxedo cat named Doot. He is the greatest old man in the world.
• I've been working at Starbucks for over a decade! I love coffee and tea and enjoy my work.
• I am an avid reader! My favorite genres are historical fiction, fantasy, and horror. I also enjoy children's literature.

Thank you for welcoming me, pony friends! Feel free to send me a PM any time!​