Big box of trouble on ebay: custom fails, bait... **Now with Pics!

[NigheanRuadh]

What's wrong with Merriweather?  Does she just need new hair, or is there something else?

[lostpony]

Motion-Paradox:  Seems like Chrysalis is pretty complete as to sculpting.  i think she needs her details smoothed out and to be glued together and painted up...I had a closer look, it seems like everything is already made just not finished or particularly attached.  Does anypony think she would be worth anything fixed up?  She'll be fragile:  display only for sure.

Midnight Dream:  Wow it's a small world!  How long ago did you paint Rarity because she is worn right through in some places particularly her nose and has lots of scrapes but the hair is still really great, tangled but not frizzed and super long and thick.  Under her paint, is she ok?  I'm not wild about green! and will probably remove the paint then dress her up.  What was the deal with the cloud face mark?  etc, thanks!  I wonder where she's been, how many hands (hooves) she passed through since you saw her last.

Mrbrightsky:  Like I said I will probably return Rarity to more original condition and dress her up...I seem to like to dress up styling ponies....will end up with too many outfits and maybe the special hair will suggest an outfit...the bronze and back rainbow dash, I have no idea...not really worth stripping back to original colors, I have no ideas for her, got any suggestions?

NigheanRuadh:  Merriweather is full of rust and has a little rust staining around the tail hole, some yellowish discoloration at the back of her mane where the hair holes are empty, the symbols are worn and rough but mostly intact and like the orange sparkle pony her head is brutally chopped off:  cut all the way around with a blade and seems like nothing is missing, could be glued back on.  She smells of plasticizer and seems to be the main source of the smell, after things had a chance to dry out I see the rest of the painted ones are not as leaky as I thought because for the most part only Merriweather still sells of it...but not nearly as bad as the merriweather I got last week that had been stored in plastic bag for 20 years.  She could be worth restoring except for having to permanently reattach the head and she's not valuable enough to be worth all the work...


Totsy might be worth scrubbing up and keeping black like she is.  Her tail is missing, and made up of hair plugs...is there any reason not to punch a regular tail hole and put in one of these extra shortened regular tails?  Please advise!

I don't need access to the inside of the head to rehair right?  No reason not to scrub up merriweather, put in a tail and glue the head back on and just have her bald for now and maybe rehair later is there?  Unless somepony wants her as is that is...

Thanks all!


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I just noticed, black-painted totsy has been rehaired to white and gold hair....but none of the gold hair is in the lot...I have a completely faded pink tail that kinda matches,
how about using that?  It's short, maybe 2.5 inches long, or I think there is a longer faded tail too and a yellow one that clashes a little bit...  Any suggestions on Totsy?  Thanks!

[NigheanRuadh]

Yes, you do need access to the inside of the head to rehair.  At least, the methods that I know of require it.   

Merriweather caught my eye because she's a pony that I would love to have someday.  If she's just going to be tossed, I'd be happy to rescue her.

[lostpony]

Hi everypony I think I made some sort of mistake in my wording.  I am not tossing anything.  I guess I meant to say if anyone wants anything to make me some sort of also valueless offer....anything pony...a sticker...button...hand-drawn doodle...other project....tool....material...helping me with another project...secret treasure map, cure for cancer, nuclear submarine, anything at all.  I love lame stuff!  You have something valueless that I would want.  I want to share but mutually please...even though trading wasn't really my focus either.  I don't now what I was thinking exactly, I just wanted it to be fun.  Is this making any sense?

I have exhausted my pony fun budget for a little while so I will work my way through all these projects...rehairing....completing crazy customs...recovering messed up projects....instead of trawling ebay for things to scrub and reglue I will be learning to rehair, remove paint, painting...melting...gluing two things together, cutting something into 5 parts, accidentally ruining...etc...who knows what...but learning and having fun.  I will make this fodder work for me.

I know whatever misunderstanding was my mistake not yours so I hope this clears it up.  Thanks so much everyony!

[Leave a Whisper]

Oh no way can I restore broken stuff! That's way outta my comfort zone. 

Looking good so far.


As for those annoying hairplugs on the today's tail, I see no reason why not to punch a hole and give her a proper tail. She really does look good in black.

[Em_L._Pea_Customs]

lol, I was a bidder on that lot, but my max was 10, I was surprised the lot went for so much but even counting only mlp, that went for only about a $1 or $1.50 a pony. 

My suggestion for the mermaid pony is contact Nightlight if she's still around, or another customizer who does merponies, and see what they will charge you to repair her? I noticed the tape in the picture and figured the leg was broken on the fantasy Pegasus, even though it wasn't specified in the description.

 

I actually bid on this lot as well, just for the Nachtlicht custom.  I just hated seeing it in such poor condition and wanted to restore it.  Nachtlicht hasn't been around for quite some time though.

[rybett]

I need details on this super glue and baking soda combo! 

[lostpony]

I know what I want in trade for something in this lot:  about twice as much apoxy, both parts, as I'll need to repair the merpony. 

There is no way I need a pound of that stuff (its order quantity), just a few ounces, enough to practice with once then do the merpony.  That small a quantity is worth close to nothing therefore is a fair trade for something here and would help me a lot.

Thanks!

[scarletjul]

scarletjul:  How did she do as to price?  The ballerinas seem to be just fine, the hair is superlong, wasn't frizzed at all and there is a ton of melt or glue or whatever inside the head and they seem very stable.  The one is obviously rainbow and the other one is pink with gold...very gold.  When they are dry I will put up some pics.

Hmm.  I think she sold for about $5.  I don't know if one is more rare than another though.

Looks like you've got a lot of fun projects there. 

[lostpony]

Baking soda and superglue:  As we all know from using it as kids superglue works on some things and not others.  The reason for this is it needs a catalyst and many things like ceramic or your finger (best one after baking soda!) provide that catalyst.  Things that don't provide a catalyst, like hard plastic horse legs, won't cause the glue to set and when I was a kid, I would first glue my finger to the piece...well you can guess the rest and it wasn't as precise or strong, haha.

The baking soda and superglue reaction is instant and there is literally Zero working time so the pieces have to be in place and you use the thinnest superglue to wick into the baking soda and it forms a cement so hard you can't sand it.  It can be used in larger areas instead of epoxy and where there is a significant volume you can feel that it is exothermic:  heat comes off it.  It's very strong.  Don't let any of the baking soda get up into the snout of the glue or you will have a hard time clearing it.

In the case of these hard plastic horse legs, on which nothing works including epoxy unless you do drill-and-pin because even the fastest epoxy has set time you cannot secure things well enough to meet and that fast epoxy has inadequate strength over such a small area.  With drill-and-pin you can use 24 hour marine epoxy which has adequate strength but the tooling time and the chance to screw it up...your holes are not perfectly aligned (very hard to make them perfectly aligned), the chance of breaking, etc...eeks!  Further drill-and-pin weakens a tight area like this so unless you know the precise plastic type and happen to have a vulcanizer, your options are fusing with heat (we've all done it right? ) and superglue catalyzed with baking soda.

First, I cleaned the legs of the scotch tape adhesive and made sure there was nothing on the mating surfaces and test fit them.  They were very flat and it was hard to make it match up easily so when the moment comes, you have to have practiced pressing the pieces together a few times and use the exact same motion for the real time.  Then, I put a little pile of baking soda on a few layers of paper so it's easily available and there is somewhere to go with excess glue...then used a pin to declog that troublesome superglue tube, and laid the pin on a clean part of the paper.  I dampened one side of the break (the loose leg side), wiped it off leaving the slightest trace of moisture, then pushed that end into the pile of soda leaving about a single particle depth of baking soda on it.  I set this aside then picked up the horse and put a good drop of glue on the horse side...make it sparing, just in the middle, because if it runs out you will have a messy result that doesn't wipe off.  I then picked up the leg and used the same procedure I had rehearsed to bring the pieces together all at once, in the exact alignment and held them tight for a 20 count.  Then I let go, and used a finger to put extra baking soda into the seam and wiped it off, leaving the slightest trace of white powder in the micro-gap.  Then I dripped a single drop of glue onto that crack and used the tip of the pin to herd the glue into the crack and used a finger to quickly wipe any glue or powder that wasn't in the crack away and onto the paper....I managed to escape getting any glue residue on me this time because I got the quantities perfect.  If not, then the extra ends up on you not the piece and you will heal.  I then inspected the seam and made sure there was no air space or white color anywhere, and where there was added powder and/or glue until the seam looked perfect all the way around.  Within about a full minute of first joining the pieces, I was holding it sideways supporting the weight of the horse for the sideways picture so I knew I didn't have a failure. 

The Pegasus has barely 1/4 thickness of horse leg at the break.  Impossible repair!  Yet, there it is.  The fashion filly had a bit more.  You can see, the repair is not invisible but it is pretty darned close considering the impossibility of the repair area.

Good luck with that!!  It's a gift from my high school physics teacher when we were building remote controlled gliders together.  I'm always happy to share this technique because it works where absolutely nothing else will and it's pretty strong.  In this case, I am not sure these horses would survive falling on a hard floor, but then that is probably what happened to break them in the first place.

 

[LadyMoondancer]

Funny thing, I think I re-haired that Green styling Rarity and painted her for someone here as a trade.

Also, I'm pretty sure she is based on one of the G3 background unicorns who was in the show, but never got a toy.  So cool!

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[lostpony]

Oh reeeelly that IS cool thanks Moondancer!

Anypony know the green unicorn's name?  Maybe I should try to restore the green instead of going back to Rarity.

There is no tail....I have some slightly mismatched purple and yellow that is close to make her a short tail or, could give her a haircut to get matching hair...the mane is like 18 inches long...

The green is pretty dinged up too, would be a challenge to color match and has to have some kind of tough sealant ot top coat because it is very fragile now.

[Tak]

I'm impressed by your skills in repair. You're still a fairly new collector? I guess my art just runs in a different direction. Music, song, dance, cooking, and baking. I'm just amazed at the ability to restore.

[rybett]

Interesting!!  I have a head and body that need joining.  This may be the way to do it.

[lostpony]

If it is a hard plastic, then yes the superglue/baking soda method will be great. 

But NOT if it's flexible material like a regular G1 pony.  Only on rigid materials.

If it's a soft G1 pony head and body, use whatever is recommended here.  I never glue those because they will need to be opened again later.

In cases like my Merriweather in this batch which is a flexible G1 pony where the head is cut clean off, I plan to use a Loctite brand product called "vinyl, fabric & plastic flexible adhesive" which requires roughing up both surfaces, application to both surfaces, then holding firmly with tape etc. with a set time of two hours.  Contains MEK and other harsh solvents.  It's pretty darn strong, very flexible and durable, and lasts well.  Probably do NOT want to use this on regular G1 pony heads.