Tail washers

[Safflower]

Hello! I have been wondering what people do with tail washers for quite some time. A lot of cleaning tutorials I have seen don't really say what to do with the tail washer when cleaning a pony, so I wondered what you all decide to do with them. I actually keep them I can't bear to throw away anything G1, anything G1 is too valuable! My collection is small too. (I rarely find G1s in my area.) About half of my ponies were found in one day at one Goodwill, so I cleaned them all at once. Everyone had their washer removed, and I found them interesting. I glued them down on a big notecard so I could keep track of which one belonged to each pony. And so, my washer card began!

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I know it looks weird, I promise I'm not crazy! I couldn't think of any other way to display or store them though. I noticed some similarities in the washers, though. There seems to be two different types: flat and spiky. Starflower, Nibbles, Forget-Me-Not, Moonstone, Dancing Butterflies, and Baby Lickety-Split all have two spikes coming out of the center of their washers while the others don't. There seem to be different sizes of each too. The flat ones have two: a thin, small one and a thick, large one. The spiky ones have three which are all thin: small, medium, and large.

Now that we have sizes out of the way, we can talk about who has what sizes My three collectors pose ponies and Sprinkles all have small, thin, flat washers. What's interesting is that Medley has a large, fat, flat washer but Sprinkles and Medley share the same pose and year. They should have the same washers, right? I would think so. I also noticed that Forget-Me-Not's washer is colorful, like an oil spill. I wonder if that was from the factory or if the previous child who had her did something.

Anyway, thanks for letting me ramble about what I have noticed about tail washers! If you keep yours, what have you noticed? Are there any sizes or kinds I missed? Thanks again!

[TheBeatlesPkmnFan42]

The only times I've ever removed washers was with ponies with tail rust, and I would prefer to not keep anything rusty around, so I discard them as I'm cleaning the rust, since there's really nothing you can do to fix a washer after it's rusted.

Clean washers remain inside the pony.

[Mlp Sunsparkle]

I only take out washers if I need to clean rust, and depending on how rusty it is, I either keep it or get rid of it. My last rusty ponies' washers had gotten so bad that I could snap them into pieces, and the other two had them crumbled into bits and stuck in their tails. I usually try to clean them, but if I cant get the rust off I'll chuck them. I keep ones with a tiny bit of rust, and leave clean ones inside the pony

[pinkkittywinks]

I have a washer collection too!

Nirvana washers are pretty fun too as they are unique to each country.

Love pkw xxx

[Baby Sugarberry]

Same as most of the above; I toss washers that are rusty, and leave non-rusty ones where they belong.  I know I'm not about to dunk any of my collection into water and our house never gets excessively humid, so they're pretty safe.

[lovesbabysquirmy]

Same as most of the above; I toss washers that are rusty, and leave non-rusty ones where they belong.  I know I'm not about to dunk any of my collection into water and our house never gets excessively humid, so they're pretty safe.

Yep, same here... 

[lockette]

oh I always throw them away, but I can absolutely appreciate the sentimentality of keeping them!  they're just as vintage as the toy is, lol.  I absolutely loove your card where you keep and label them, though.

I never thought about nirvanas having varied washers, that's just such a neat little detail to learn about.

[applejackbunny]

I always remove the washer and throw them away...however, after reading this thread and seeing your lovely washer chart, I might actually keep them now! 

[Leave a Whisper]

I only toss em if they're rusty.

[achab1984]

I remove them when they are rusting and the tail and whole inside of the pony are brown. I also take them out and replace with a zip tie when they are broken in half and moving around inside of the pony.

[RavenPaw]

I always like to keep the washer in if possible since it helps hold the tail in place.  If it's not too rusty but has some rust what I do is this:  Soak it in some CLR for a while to get rid of the rust, then paint the corroded parts with clear fingernail polish to make it smooth and try to stop any leftover rust from spreading.  If they are too rusted to save then they get replaced with zip ties to help the tail stay in place.  I like to keep my ponies as complete as possible.

[SkyCakes]

I get rid of them, If the pony is rusty I just clean them out and replace them with zip ties. Once I was crazy about replacing them now I only do that when I notice they are too rusty.

[tailrustedtealeaf]

Saving them like that is kinda cute! My first G1 (CF Cotton Candy) had her washer rattling around inside her, so I just got rid of it. It would feel too late to save them all at this point.
If it's loose or rusted, I just chuck it.

[Stormness_1]

I only remove rusty ones. If they're rusty, I toss them, I'd never want to put them back in, and I doubt any new owners would either - not to mention that it might be quite difficult for ponies with tinsel (tinsel breakage) or double tails. I can understand keeping them though, I'd probably use those little ziplock bags and label them with sharpie, like I do with my small accessories.

[bright rabbit 1]

I throw the washers away, I use cable ties to replace the washers.