'People find it weird but my ponies give me pleasure': Woman who has spent more than £20,000 on My Little Pony collection - and even shares her bedroom with them

Elaine Morris, 40, from Aberdeenshire used to collect toys as a child

Love for brand reignited in 2005 after chance sighting on eBay



Now budgets £200 a month towards giant plastic pony collection



A woman has reignited her childhood obsession for My Little Pony and has spent more than £20,000 on her collection.

Elaine Morris, 40, from Aberdeenshire in Scotland, first started collecting the toys when she was a young girl, but as she grew older she became less interested in the plastic ponies.

But in 2005, Elaine stumbled across the My Little Pony toys on the online bidding site eBay and decided to re-start her collection.

Elaine Morris, from Aberdeenshire in Scotland, first started collecting the toys when she was a young girl

In the last nine years she has spent over £20,000 on the colourful model horses and they even take up half of her bedroom.

Elaine, who suffers from Asperger syndrome, said: 'I love my ponies. I have a budget of around £200 every month that I spend on them.

'Brushing their hair is the same as stroking a cat, it's therapeutic for me.

'My ponies don't care what I look like or what clothes I wear, they don't judge me.

'A lot of people find it weird that I still collect them, they think I should leave them for the kids, but if they give me pleasure why shouldn't I have them?'

As Elaine grew older she became less interested in the plastic ponies but in 2005 that all changed

Elaine's first ponies were called Butterscotch and Blossom and she got them for Christmas when she was just six years old.

While she was used to playing with Cindy dolls, Elaine loved the variety of different My Little Ponies and she quickly changed her allegiance.

Her collection grew to 100 ponies, but she lost them all in the late 1990s.

'People think it's a bit strange and some people say I should leave them for the kids, but I love my ponies and no-one can take that away from me'

She said: 'I went through a bad time around then and lost a lot of things, including the pony collection.

'Years later when I saw one I knew I wanted to start collecting again.

'I went a bit crazy on eBay with my credit card and actually got myself into £1,500 worth of debt.

'I've paid it all off now, but now I limit myself to £200 a month.'

Elaine, who lives on her own and is currently out of work, gets most of her ponies from the internet, either from eBay or special collector's pages.

She now has thousands of items, all stored in her bedroom, and even customises some of the plastic toys.

She stumbled across some My Little Pony toys on eBay and decided to re-start her collection

She said: 'I don't customise them to sell or make a profit from the ponies.

'It's just something I enjoy doing.

'I make pony versions of all the DJs from the nights I go to at the weekends and they all love them.

'A lot of them take pictures of them to go onto their Facebook pages.'

Elaine has made friends through her love of My Little Ponies and now feels part of a community.

She said: 'I get chatting to a lot of people online. It's great because we all already have something in common.

'When people come to my house they get to see the collection as part of the tour.

'They do think it's a bit strange and some people say I should leave them for the kids, but I love my ponies and no-one can take that away from me.'