Welcome to Ponylope.com!

On these pages, you will find the culmination (and continuation) of a truly lifelong passion for plastic horses and every toy that could conceivably accompany them.
 

   Who or what is Ponylope?

   This prancing alter ego of a mild-mannered collector emerged from wordplay
   on her name and was first used as an Internet ID and eBay handle. What else
   can you do when nobody seems to know how to pronounce your name? Flip it,
   turn it, slice it and make lemonade. Click on the About button on the left side
   of the page for the Ponylope story.
                                                                     Schleich Falabella pony painted by J. R. Lane

What kinds of horses are we talking about?

Ponylope specializes in vintage 1950s and 1960s plastic horses approximately two to four inches tall. Give or take. Hard or soft plastic, or somewhere in between. Modeled on the mounts cowboys and Indians would ride in the Western movies (and playsets) of that era. Or the types of horses still at work on American farms when Ponylope was a girl. Click on the names of various manufacturers at the left to see examples. These pages are also intended as resources to identify and learn a bit more about plastic toys. Ponylope also loves Model Horses, Breyers, Hartlands, Britains, carnival horses, and metal and ceramic horses, but happily defers to estab­lished collector groups and published guides for authoritative information on them. This site is all about handheld plastic toys, an innovation of midcentury, meant to be handled and really played with, not just admired on a display shelf.

Bergen Toy & Novelty Company (Beton) was one of the most prolific and is a Ponylope favorite for its myriad plastic colors and handpainted detail. Much space is devoted to Beton toys on Ponylope.com. Stuart horses are much less varied, but Ponylope thinks these are some of the best-sculpted in any toy scale. Tim-Mee horses cannot be beat for sturdiness and simplicity, yet their poses are the essence of equine action. Marx horses are here too, in all their variety, and miscellaneous others. Horses were only one part of the landscape for most toy companies, who made complete farms and forts, ranches and circuses for imaginative kids. So you will also find here many companions, settings, and accessories for small plastic horses.

How can you acquire some of these toys?

Each of the brand pages lists items for sale. See How to Order for details.

What else is there to do here?

A number of Feature pages (marked with an asterisk in the list at the left) offer insights into toy history, collec­tions, and ways of playing with your horses. Articles by Bergen Toy & Novelty Co. collector Ron Steiner can be found on three pages, and two other collectors show off their photography and storytelling skills.

Or, you can e-mail pony@ponylope.com to chat about vintage horses! Ponylope welcomes contributions to the feature pages and letters.

A Word About Price

Ponylope sells only the best stuff she can find, and sometimes that means buying five or ten pieces that don’t make it to these pages for every one that does. She figures a savvy buyer would rather pay a little more up front and get a nice toy, rather than buy a bunch of cheaper ones and hope to get lucky. Eventually. (That doesn’t work very well in today’s old toy market, unless you enjoy The Hunt more than the toy itself. Sadly, there just isn’t as much nice stuff out there anymore.) Ponylope can help take some of the time, money, and effort out of the collecting process for you by weeding out the junk and promoting the good stuff. She enjoys the role of Finder. But the bottom line is, Ponylope has to set prices based on her costs and the relative quality of the toys. Perhaps it is a truism that You Get What You Pay For. The Good News: You DO get what you pay for with Ponylope!

News

Ponylope has just acquired a nice big collection of Stuart horses, tack, figures, and accessories. Eventually the items will make it onto these pages. Meanwhile, interested buyers may contact pony@ponylope.com to obtain the Stuart Midsummer Price List.

At this writing, it’s the first day of summer 2010, and the flea marketing and vintage toy show season is in full swing -- have fun out there!

In case this is not your first visit, please take a minute to browse through the entire site. Every sales page shows items for sale in at least one good-size photograph, and details about condition are also given in writing.

Vintage Toy Horses and Plastic Playset Miscellany from the 1950s On . . .