As a child in the early 1980s, I was enamored with My Little Pony, the colorful plastic horse figurines with long manes. I also had the brand’s Show Stable, which was parked in our TV room and filled with my beloved ponies. But as I progressed through grade school, I eventually packed up my stable and forgot about the toys I once loved.
By late 2003, I hadn’t thought about my ponies for over 15 years. Then, VH1 ran a 1980s nostalgia show in which celebrities reminisced about bygone pop culture. An actress held up a My Little Pony figurine (a Twinkle-Eyed variety) and made note: “This is enough to hypnotize any child. I mean, diamond sparkly eyes?”
I had that mesmerizing toy, I suddenly realized. The memories flooded back, and I wondered where they had been all those years.