I have eaten roughly a dozen happy meals over the last couple weeks. Worth it, Mane6 complete.

Also, the collectible pony set appears to be a collection of the blindbag figurines. All the molds look the same as the wave 1 blindbags, including the rage inducing Fluttershy thats just a Dash recolor. Apparently Rarity gets her own mold with flowing locks, but Fluttershy gets a crew cut instead...

As far as how I started watching the show... Boredom and curiosity I guess. I was in Afghanistan for the first year or so, when the show was gaining steam. Limited internet access kinda kept me from following what was going on in net culture. Case in point, it was only about 4 months ago that my wife showed me the "double rainbow" video. She was flabbergasted that I had no idea what it was. Anyway, I came back home and ponies, ponies everywhere. Eventually I had a long weekend and nothing going on and figured I'd see what all the fuss was about, so I found a torrent for season 1.