Terrible Sun Disease Appears: Is Whizzer Doomed? (W/pic)

[hathorcat]

It looks like plastic break down to me as well - essentially intense age marks. The heat and humidity and perhaps anything which has been on her in the past have simply combined. At this point I dont think there is much that can be done. I would keep her away from the sunlight; treat her with rubbing alcohol and see if you can at least put a stop to the break down.

[mlp4me]

Poor pony...

[ReneesUnicorn]

I've never seen anything like that before. But it looks a lot like mould to me :\

[moonsugar]

How bizarre! Sorry to hear about the demise of your pony.

[MiRaja]

I've never seen anything like that before. But it looks a lot like mould to me :\

Mould/Mold requires organic particulates to grow.  Plastic is inorganic.  Mold cannot grow on plastic in broad daylight in high heat situations.  We're talking in excess of 200F, well beyond a temperature to sustain even the most virulent of bacterias and molds, never mind the UV radiation.  If anything that pony is completely and totally sanitized.  Mold requires moisture, darkness and something to feed off.  It can't feed on plastic.  It's the same reason why moths can't eat rayon.  It's a synthetic.  Nothing can eat plastic, that's why it doesn't rot or decompose in land fills.  The only thing that decomposes and destroys plastic is the break down of its own chemical components into more stable bits and particulates, and even then, it takes ages.  Sure, this pony is in awful condition, but short of sticking it in a fire, if you were to bury it in your back yard for 100-500years, you could dig it up and it would still be very recognizable as a kid's toy horse.  Because bacteria, mold and fungi cannot break down plastic.  At all. 

[WingsOfMasquerade]

This is a very interesting read!
Thank you all for weighing in with so much science & information! At least if Whizzer can't become an alt-hair, at least hopefully she can be used to educate others on what this is, why it happened & etc with the helpful answers in this thread. To add to it on my end, the things that do not affect this dots at all are:

scouring powder on a tooth brush scrubbing
Mr Clean's magic erasers
bleach in a tissue wrap left on there to dry
hydrogen peroxide soaks
simple-green undiluted spray
Lysol
Sand paper
Oxyclean white powder stuff scrubbed w/toothbrush in hot water

I would post more photos of post-treatment.....but because it does nothing she looks the same.

[Artemesia's Garden]

I know a lot of people boil ponies to dye them or clean them (they think it removes 'mould' and 'bacteria' that aren't really there) but I have strong suspicions that as well as letting them get hot on car dashboards, this widely practiced method could be another thing causing these sudden blooms of plastic breakdown that people complain about in shipping or storage.  I do worry a lot that what some people do as collectors damages ponies more than it helps them.  The only way to reduce this is to share our results, so well done for sharing this!

As an addition to what I said earlier I think sun-fading may be safer if you (safely) remove the head because it's less likely that moisture inside will turn to vapour that then condense inside the head at night forming that gruesome little microclimate. Also as Hathorcat has said before heads and bodies are also slightly different batches of plastic so that could also be a variable.

[hathorcat]

I've never seen anything like that before. But it looks a lot like mould to me :\

Mould/Mold requires organic particulates to grow.  Plastic is inorganic.  Mold cannot grow on plastic in broad daylight in high heat situations.  We're talking in excess of 200F, well beyond a temperature to sustain even the most virulent of bacterias and molds, never mind the UV radiation.  If anything that pony is completely and totally sanitized.  Mold requires moisture, darkness and something to feed off.  It can't feed on plastic.  It's the same reason why moths can't eat rayon.  It's a synthetic.  Nothing can eat plastic, that's why it doesn't rot or decompose in land fills.  The only thing that decomposes and destroys plastic is the break down of its own chemical components into more stable bits and particulates, and even then, it takes ages.  Sure, this pony is in awful condition, but short of sticking it in a fire, if you were to bury it in your back yard for 100-500years, you could dig it up and it would still be very recognizable as a kid's toy horse.  Because bacteria, mold and fungi cannot break down plastic.  At all. 

Unfortunately thats not the case - there are bacterias, moulds and fungi which can and do eat all kinds of plastics. Sure plastic break down is more likely due to simple internal chemical issues but there are natural organisms which can cause damage to man made, seemingly indestructible materials like plastics.

[Artemesia's Garden]

It would be great to see what references there are for some of these things, I will have a look see.

[MiRaja]

I've never seen anything like that before. But it looks a lot like mould to me :\

Mould/Mold requires organic particulates to grow.  Plastic is inorganic.  Mold cannot grow on plastic in broad daylight in high heat situations.  We're talking in excess of 200F, well beyond a temperature to sustain even the most virulent of bacterias and molds, never mind the UV radiation.  If anything that pony is completely and totally sanitized.  Mold requires moisture, darkness and something to feed off.  It can't feed on plastic.  It's the same reason why moths can't eat rayon.  It's a synthetic.  Nothing can eat plastic, that's why it doesn't rot or decompose in land fills.  The only thing that decomposes and destroys plastic is the break down of its own chemical components into more stable bits and particulates, and even then, it takes ages.  Sure, this pony is in awful condition, but short of sticking it in a fire, if you were to bury it in your back yard for 100-500years, you could dig it up and it would still be very recognizable as a kid's toy horse.  Because bacteria, mold and fungi cannot break down plastic.  At all. 

Unfortunately thats not the case - there are bacterias, moulds and fungi which can and do eat all kinds of plastics. Sure plastic break down is more likely due to simple internal chemical issues but there are natural organisms which can cause damage to man made, seemingly indestructible materials like plastics.

I think we both know that bacterias and molds, and fungi that can destroy plastic are very, very rare, and in fact, almost entirely lab grown.  I would estimate almost all, if not all, cases of damage to ponies attributed to mold, 'cancer,' fungi and whatever else are simply plastic degradation.  Naturally occurring bacteria and other organic lifeforms do not feed on plastic, simply put.  That's why there is such worry with our landfills and our oceans regarding plastic decomposition or rather the lack of plastic decomposition happening and why scientist are looking to replace plastics with cellulose(wood) alternatives AND creating bacteria and molds that WILL eat and process and decompose plastics.  While, yes, mold and such can grow inside of a pony with water and other organic particulates inside of her, the fact is, given the conditions for Masquerade's pony, on top of being plastic, there is simply no possible way the degradation in the pony is attributable to mold.  ( Really, it's simple conditions of life, too high of heat, too much UV radiation, etc, etc, bacteria and mold would not survive much less propagate.  Unless ya'll want to start saying Ponies can contract viruses, but have fun with that! ) 

I have never ever seen a case of where 'real' mold or mildew or bacteria was ever the case of plastic degradation in any sort of plastic toy(20s-40s rubber toys, yes, I've seen mold and mildew, but that's because rubber toys of then still had organic products in their make ups ), whether modern plastics or vintage plastics.  I do far more than ponies, and have seen dolls and figurines made of similar materials to ponies while being decades older, and again, never mold or mildew unless the item was exposed to water and and had setting water in it.  Basically, mold, mildew, fungi, bacteria are not so much growing in the plastic ( vinyl.  Really.  The particular plastic ponies are made from is called vinyl ), but rather the water and whatever else is floating around in the vinyl.  Generally speaking, for those items to propagate, they need moisture, a dark place and something other than plastic to feed on.  Besides that, when the rare cases of mold and etc have cropped up ( in the instances of items being left to persist in wet, damp and dark conditions ) they have generally been easy, if but nasty to clean up, either leaving no staining or only some light staining.  Mold and bacteria are highly reactive to bleach, so if a pony has mold or mildew, simply spritzing or wiping her down with bleach would remove the mold or mildew, or fungi. 

[flyawayraven]

This is a very interesting read!
Thank you all for weighing in with so much science & information! At least if Whizzer can't become an alt-hair, at least hopefully she can be used to educate others on what this is, why it happened & etc with the helpful answers in this thread. To add to it on my end, the things that do not affect this dots at all are:

scouring powder on a tooth brush scrubbing
Mr Clean's magic erasers
bleach in a tissue wrap left on there to dry
hydrogen peroxide soaks
simple-green undiluted spray
Lysol
Sand paper
Oxyclean white powder stuff scrubbed w/toothbrush in hot water

I would post more photos of post-treatment.....but because it does nothing she looks the same.

If none of those methods worked to cure it, then that definitely confirms it as plastic breakdown to me. Sorry that this is happening to your pony. I have heard of people having moderate success in giving ponies a light talc powder dusting to slow the breakdown. Unfortunately, once it starts degenerating nothing can really be done to stop it entirely.

[hathorcat]

I've never seen anything like that before. But it looks a lot like mould to me :\

Mould/Mold requires organic particulates to grow.  Plastic is inorganic.  Mold cannot grow on plastic in broad daylight in high heat situations.  We're talking in excess of 200F, well beyond a temperature to sustain even the most virulent of bacterias and molds, never mind the UV radiation.  If anything that pony is completely and totally sanitized.  Mold requires moisture, darkness and something to feed off.  It can't feed on plastic.  It's the same reason why moths can't eat rayon.  It's a synthetic.  Nothing can eat plastic, that's why it doesn't rot or decompose in land fills.  The only thing that decomposes and destroys plastic is the break down of its own chemical components into more stable bits and particulates, and even then, it takes ages.  Sure, this pony is in awful condition, but short of sticking it in a fire, if you were to bury it in your back yard for 100-500years, you could dig it up and it would still be very recognizable as a kid's toy horse.  Because bacteria, mold and fungi cannot break down plastic.  At all. 

Unfortunately thats not the case - there are bacterias, moulds and fungi which can and do eat all kinds of plastics. Sure plastic break down is more likely due to simple internal chemical issues but there are natural organisms which can cause damage to man made, seemingly indestructible materials like plastics.

I think we both know that bacterias and molds, and fungi that can destroy plastic are very, very rare, and in fact, almost entirely lab grown.  I would estimate almost all, if not all, cases of damage to ponies attributed to mold, 'cancer,' fungi and whatever else are simply plastic degradation.  Naturally occurring bacteria and other organic lifeforms do not feed on plastic, simply put.  That's why there is such worry with our landfills and our oceans regarding plastic decomposition or rather the lack of plastic decomposition happening and why scientist are looking to replace plastics with cellulose(wood) alternatives AND creating bacteria and molds that WILL eat and process and decompose plastics.  While, yes, mold and such can grow inside of a pony with water and other organic particulates inside of her, the fact is, given the conditions for Masquerade's pony, on top of being plastic, there is simply no possible way the degradation in the pony is attributable to mold.  ( Really, it's simple conditions of life, too high of heat, too much UV radiation, etc, etc, bacteria and mold would not survive much less propagate.  Unless ya'll want to start saying Ponies can contract viruses, but have fun with that! ) 

I have never ever seen a case of where 'real' mold or mildew or bacteria was ever the case of plastic degradation in any sort of plastic toy(20s-40s rubber toys, yes, I've seen mold and mildew, but that's because rubber toys of then still had organic products in their make ups ), whether modern plastics or vintage plastics.  I do far more than ponies, and have seen dolls and figurines made of similar materials to ponies while being decades older, and again, never mold or mildew unless the item was exposed to water and and had setting water in it.  Basically, mold, mildew, fungi, bacteria are not so much growing in the plastic ( vinyl.  Really.  The particular plastic ponies are made from is called vinyl ), but rather the water and whatever else is floating around in the vinyl.  Generally speaking, for those items to propagate, they need moisture, a dark place and something other than plastic to feed on.  Besides that, when the rare cases of mold and etc have cropped up ( in the instances of items being left to persist in wet, damp and dark conditions ) they have generally been easy, if but nasty to clean up, either leaving no staining or only some light staining.  Mold and bacteria are highly reactive to bleach, so if a pony has mold or mildew, simply spritzing or wiping her down with bleach would remove the mold or mildew, or fungi. 

I think we both know its a pony forum and perhaps not the best place to go back and forward and crash the thread

So we shall agree to disagree on some things. Best option for both no doubt

[Artemesia's Garden]

I have not read this website yet but I am bookmarking it for later. As some people know I work in a museum in Cambridge, UK and I have a lot of interest in this subject

http://popart-highlights.mnhn.fr/