Mysterious pony malady (pic heavy)

[Haruna]

I purchased a group of ponies that have been giving me a lot of headaches. The seller shipped them wet in Ziploc baggies; I'm not sure how long they had been in that condition, whether she cleaned them some time after she listed them (they weren't wet in the pictures) or just before she shipped them off. At any rate, wet ponies in enclosed spaces in Florida humidity and heat is not a good thing. I got them out as soon as I received them, of course, and dried them off. But most have strange marks.

For whatever reason, many of the ponies in the lot have brown marks that aren't quite like anything I've seen before. I'd normally say that they're age marks, but they're often in lines instead of patches and I'm wondering if it's something worse.

What's going on with these ponies? I've seen a fair share of flaws in my time, but I'm not sure what this is. It's hard to see these marks sometimes even up close -- the brown marks are pretty faint and I didn't see them all at first -- so I've tried to point them out with arrows when it's unclear.

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[Hannah66665]

Yikes. I can't help with the marks... but if they were not listed that way and they were damaged because of how the seller shipped them I would be fighting for a refund at least for the most damaged.

[lovesbabysquirmy]

Looks like they were stored in funky conditions...    those look like surface stains from water dripping through a box onto them.

[Jinxxy]

I have seen those marks before! On seaponies!
 I had a Sea Mist that looks just like your MGRS head.
I'm almost 100% sure it's water damage.

What a disappointment it must have been opening them to find them like this.
A lot of people don't think about packing. I have gotten a few ponies with ink stains over the years that happened from being stuffed in with a note.

You deserve a refund anyways for sure.

Poor moldy ponies!

[Leave a Whisper]

Ick! On the white ponies, it looks like typical discoloration. She should have known better. I'd definitely have a word with her.

[Taffeta]

I assume you've already tried it, but is there any kind of disinfectant you could try them in to see if it helps? I remember when one of my baby sea ponies went mouldy when I was a child my mother put her in something she used to clean my sister's baby food stuff with and it got rid of the problem. That was a greenish mould but since it was caused by damp too, I wondered if that might help improve them? (Maybe try it on one first, though, incase...) And even if it didn't remove the marks, at least then they wouldn't be incubating something that might end up producing spores and irritating lungs.

I can't remember the name of the stuff mother used right now.

Poor little ponies. Ponies like that really need extra love.

[Baby Sugarberry]

Those look like contact stains, and water can often be a carrier for them.  Generally high heat + water + any kind of chemical or dye can mean stains seeping into the vinyl, sadly.  If they're fresh, cleaning off the surface ASAP is a good plan and then sunfading may be able to take care of the rest.  If the staining is /not/ recent, it's probably still from contacting something.  Plasticine in particular will leave marks like that, makeup, wet construction paper, markers, food... the possible sources are myriad. 

[Nemesis]

Those look like contact stains, and water can often be a carrier for them.  Generally high heat + water + any kind of chemical or dye can mean stains seeping into the vinyl, sadly.  If they're fresh, cleaning off the surface ASAP is a good plan and then sunfading may be able to take care of the rest.  If the staining is /not/ recent, it's probably still from contacting something.  Plasticine in particular will leave marks like that, makeup, wet construction paper, markers, food... the possible sources are myriad.

Is it possible that the stains were caused by brown cardboard? Those pictures are reminding me of what happened when, as a kid, I put my toys away in a cardboard box while they were still wet from the bath/pool/etc...

[Foxtale]

I will agree with the crowd. They appear to be water or cardboard damage. I would say most likely water damage, so a form of mold. My rubber ducky from when I was younger has this type of damage.

[bluerose9978]

Those stains look a lot like what you'll find in your tub if you have hard water.  I almost wonder if you try boiling your ponies in oxyclean and add in some sunfading that you'll be able to get rid of the marks. Just my suggestion. I think between the humidity and how they stored the ponies is what caused the problem.

[preciousstar]

Those stains look a lot like what you'll find in your tub if you have hard water.  I almost wonder if you try boiling your ponies in oxyclean and add in some sunfading that you'll be able to get rid of the marks.

they do look like hard water stains. we have problems with hard water in our household. i'd be interested to see if your method solves the problem

[Roogna]

I've seen them on the blue big brothers as well..usually quarterback and barnacle moreso than salty

[Haruna]

Thank you all so much for your replies! I actually didn't notice most of the brown marks until I gave the ponies a good cleaning, too long after the return window because I started a new job. When I opened the box initially I was more distracted by the fact that their poses were all warped. (As I said, this lot has given me lots of headaches. There were about 30 in the lot; not all of them have brown marks or warping, but many do.) I should have initially complained about the shipping method, though -- wet in baggies . . . At the time I was trying to avoid a stir because I thought the ponies were mostly okay and because I bought the lot at a relatively cheap price. Lesson learned the hard way . . . argh.

So I guess these are hard water stains :/. It sounds likely to me that the ponies were stored somewhere for a long time and got damaged by water; their warped poses seem to indicate that they were piled on top of each other or under something for too long, and if it was a wet place they'd probably get these marks.

I'm unfamiliar with this, so another question, just to get it accurate in my mind: the marks aren't mold per se but are permanent brown marks, like under the Wikipedia article "water spot," right? (although you guys mentioned some methods that I might have to try, like sunfading for those who can be sunfaded and oxyclean)

[Eternia]

I'm not sure what the cause could be- but I have had a bunch of ponies come to me with similar marks! I thought it so weird that so many ponies had the same strange brown discolorations.

[lostpony]

Not directly related to the diagnosis of the various spots, but I've noticed a number of eBay sellers are using pictures of their ponies from before they were stored....sometimes a lot of time has clearly passed between the time of the sales pictures and the item as it arrives.

So your spot-creation time could be a lot longer than the time since you ordered them.