So Soft Restoring - Mystery Stains

[poniesthatsparkle]

Yesterday I was fortunate enough to find one of the ponies I was desperately looking for, but sadly she's not in the best shape. Most of her flocking, especially on her head, is very soft and plush, but on her side's she has some odd stains.

Spoiler

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Where the stains are, the flocking is very hard, as if it's been glued down. My guess is that something spilled on her. I was able to get some of it off, but the rest won't budge. A tiny speck of flocking came off when I was scrubbing her, not enough to be noticed easily, and the plastic underneath is nice and white, so the stain is only on the flocking.

Is there any way to get rid of these stains without having to deflock her? I'd hate to deflock this pony who otherwise has nice flocking where there aren't any stains, especially since I had been searching for her for so long.

[Safflower]

Yeah, that looks like they spilled something on her. I would use cold water (don't use hot as it will loosen the glue of the flocking) with Dawn dish soap and a toothbrush. Just scrub very gently

[Pokeyonekenobie]

I second the use of a toothbrush.  I use a baby toothbrush because the bristles are softer so they're a little less likely to scrape the flocking off as you scrub.

[lovesbabysquirmy]

Whatever spilled on her could also have affected the glue under the flocking, which tends to go really yellow/brown anyway... 
Annnnnnnnnd they could be age marks too. 

[Mami Tomoe]

you might need to deflock

[Shy Violet]

I had good luck using oxyclean with COLD water on my so softs and dish soap. I used my fingers to gently rub. Be careful though, my Paradise (who I deflocked on purpose) the flocking came off super easily. Whatever doesn't come off with cleaning, try sunfading. It takes me months to sun fade here in Canada but I was able to fade my deflocked Paradise and a So Soft Gusty very nicely.

[Taxel]

After you clean her, try storing her somewhere dark. One of my SS Sundances had horrible discoloration on her face that looks similar. After a few years of sitting at the back of a very dark shelf (no direct light and little indirect light) the stains are almost completely gone. It was so drastic I could only be sure she was the Sundance with yellowed glue because of her hair style.

[poniesthatsparkle]

Thanks for the tips, everyone! You rock!

Sadly I tried most of these tips, and none of them helped. As I was trying to get her as clean as possible, her flocking began falling off in large chunks, so I decided it was best to go ahead and deflock her.

[NightGliderSA]

So sorry that her flocking was so self destructive! Please post pictures of her once you are done deflocking - she is a beautiful pony flocked or deflocked 

[Safflower]

Aww, that's too bad. But you will have a beautiful pony after she is deflocked! Pictures would be cool as well 

[poniesthatsparkle]

I seem to have run into another complication. She's almost completely deadlocked now, but she was a tad bit yellow underneath all of that glue. I left her out to sunfade a while, and when I came back, she had turned an ugly brownish color. It's blotchy on her face and side. I thought it was the glue resides, but there's no glue left on her.

[ZeldaTheSwordsman]

Sounds like she sunburned.
To my knowledge, sunfading is for ink marks and stuff. I'm pretty sure it does nothing to help with yellowing of white plastic since that's caused by sun exposure in the first place.

[Safflower]

Sounds like she sunburned.
To my knowledge, sunfading is for ink marks and stuff. I'm pretty sure it does nothing to help with yellowing of white plastic since that's caused by sun exposure in the first place.

Actually, sunfading is used to help with whitening a lot. It helps a ton, except with ponies who sunburn, which Paradise did.

[ZeldaTheSwordsman]

Sounds like she sunburned.
To my knowledge, sunfading is for ink marks and stuff. I'm pretty sure it does nothing to help with yellowing of white plastic since that's caused by sun exposure in the first place.

Actually, sunfading is used to help with whitening a lot. It helps a ton, except with ponies who sunburn, which Paradise did.

Weird that just sunfading helps with whitening when it's sun exposure that causes yellowing. I mean, I know the hydrogen peroxide and sunlight whitening trick works, but just sunlight? Huh. Or am I forgetting things about sunfading?

[Safflower]

Sounds like she sunburned.
To my knowledge, sunfading is for ink marks and stuff. I'm pretty sure it does nothing to help with yellowing of white plastic since that's caused by sun exposure in the first place.

Actually, sunfading is used to help with whitening a lot. It helps a ton, except with ponies who sunburn, which Paradise did.

Weird that just sunfading helps with whitening when it's sun exposure that causes yellowing. I mean, I know the hydrogen peroxide and sunlight whitening trick works, but just sunlight? Huh. Or am I forgetting things about sunfading?

Sun doesn't cause yellowing for ponies who don't burn. It's just the deterioration of the vinyl