The brony is so way cool he likes My Little Pony, a toy that has attracted a large internet tribe of devotees who until now kept their fandom a secret.

But up to 1000 Australian bronies are expected to attend the first convention for My Little Pony lovers, PonyCon AU, which starts on Saturday at the University of NSW.

Julian Blair, the convention president and a commerce student at the university, said bronies represented a paradigm shift that allowed for a unisex audience to enjoy things that had once been forbidden.

''You could say we're being postmodern ironists,'' he said. ''And we're not just men. There are women bronies, too.''

Brony is a constriction of the somewhat masculine slang word ''bro'' and ''pony''.

My Little Pony started life as little plastic toys for small girls in 1983. They came in many colours, had long, comb-able manes and symbols on their flanks. They were made by Hasbro Inc. As the years passed, their popularity waxed and waned and Hasbro continually retooled the toys, all the time supporting the new products with animated television series, specials and a film.

The phenomenon broke out on the internet and became a man thing circa 2010 when Hasbro animator Lauren Faust developed a new show for television, My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. It moved the mania out of a daughter's bedroom into the MacBook Air crowd.

Alex Ketley, an IT student at the University of Newcastle, says Ms Faust shifted the story lines from prosaic tales of simple morals to multilayered vehicles of entertainment. ''The last three seasons of it could be watched by little girls and their parents,'' Mr Ketley said. ''There are references to the Big Lebowski, Star Wars, the 1960s Batman series.''

Mr Ketley said he became a brony after surfing the net. He thought the animated series provided a sort of guide to life. He even had an American toymaker create his own ''plushie'', a soft blue toy ''that reflects the sort of My Little Pony that I would like to be. I call him Silicon Chip''.

Brony clubs have proliferated around Australia in the past year. The NSW chapter has 630 members. Fans like to hang out on the internet watching My Little Pony animated films and chatting.

There are many forums and a lot of fan fiction, some of which teeters towards pornography. Daniel Fackrell, 16, a student at Brisbane Water Secondary College, said parents should not worry: ''Just stick to the official websites and stay away from the forums.'' A US survey of 24,000 bronies last year found 86 per cent were male, and 84 per cent of them said they were heterosexual.