The Unexpected My Little Pony Toy That Could Be Worth A Ton Of Money

You can lose a fortune playing the ponies, but stand to gain one if you have a well-stocked stable of My Little Pony toys to sell. These colorful pony (or unicorn, pegasus, or sea pony) playthings once delighted yesteryear's children with their brush-able, crayon-colored manes and rumps stamped with intrigue and whimsy. My Little Pony toys with names like Firefly and Buttons once sold for under $10.

Of course, like with rare Furbies and extremely valuable Pokémon cards, the sands of time and nostalgic value have shifted. So, too, has the My Little Pony collectors' market. Where once kids were asking for allowance money or gifts in the form of a humble yet magical My Little Pony, now collectors include grown-up fans of their former childhood toys, fans drawn to the pony show by reboot animated series "My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic," and entire collector communities bolstered by online connection.

Newsletters, stunty social media posts, and new My Little Pony tie-in products featuring vintage designs also help stoke the Firefly-collecting flames. My Little Ponies may have all been priceless in the eyes and toy boxes of '80s and '90s kids. However, today's prices for certain highly collectible vintage My Little Pony toys might surprise you.

Toy company titan Hasbro officially launched the My Little Pony franchise in 1983, following the release of the earliest My Little Pony Toys in '81 and '82. However, like another valuable old toy from childhood glowing bright with nostalgia somewhere in your attic, My Little Pony toys are still made today. 

Collectors refer to each major era of manufactured ponies with different names across five generations. G1 ponies were sold from 1982 through 1992 in the U.S., and 1995 in the rest of the world. G2 ponies were made and sold from 1997 through 1999, G3 from 2003 to 2009, G3.5 from 2009 to 2010, G4 from 2010 to 2020, G5 from 2020 to present day.

While collectors clearly find value in ponies from every My Little Pony era, the G1 ponies are the most valuable, along with variants released internationally and special edition ponies '80s and '90s kids would have to purchase via mail order. (If you're a younger reader confused about what mail order is, just imagine if you had to make an Amazon order via snail mail instead of clicking a button.) New sellers should study up on "cutie marks," a modern term for the stamp on each pony's backside, to learn to identify valuable ponies. Condition and rarity is key for many collectors. The more mint a G1 Baby Minty is, the more such a rare creature can sell for.

The online marketplace for My Little Pony collecting thrives today on sites like eBay and message boards like My Little Pony Arena and The MLP Trading Post. Still, it could pay to keep your eyes open in attics, old toy chests, and otherwise forgotten playroom supplies for valuable ponies, replacement hair, and accessories.

In December 2024, a G1 mail order Rapunzel pony, complete with hair accessories, sold for $3,000 on eBay. A set of Baby G1 ponies, still wrapped in plastic, sold for $1,405.96. In October 2024, a Baby Blossom Nirvana pony made in Colombia sold for $1,250.28. Even a jumbled lot of 47 '80s-era My Little Pony toys sold for $1,102. While these are staggering numbers, even semi-rare ponies and accessories from G1 can sell for hundreds of dollars.

Part of the reason G1 My Little Pony toys are valuable today is the same reason that made them desirable back in the '80s: they're pastel, playful, and portable. Ponies provided generations with a way to let their imaginations gallop free, and are still compelling generations of collectors to do the same. The devotion to My Little Pony collecting is akin to the emotion behind collecting sports memorabilia. To ignore the profound personal connection many collectors have for these wild plastic horses would just be leaving money on the table, and ponies in the stable.