General Questions about Ponies and Pony Conditions

[WaterDraw]

Hello everyone! I'm here today to lump a bunch of little small questions into one thread, if you can answer any of these that'd be super helpful! 

1. Does the waterfall playset give ponies tailrust/mold easily? Obviously since it's a water based playset it would have some risk (especially if you put Seashell or Bubbles into the mix, their tails being close to the ground and all), but how high is the risk? Is it not that much since they aren't being submerged or is it still easy since the water can easily drip down the pony's body?
2. What parts of the waterfall break easily? I'm guessing it's common to find it with mold or some items missing, but is there anything else to note about it's fragile-ness?
3. Is it normal for Seashell or Bubbles to have a ring type mark from their washer? If not, what might cause this? I was curious since I saw a Bubbles I might want to buy but it has a mark from the washer (or the washer is easily visible), and since I've never owned a Bubbles or Seashell, is this normal.
4. Why are the Big Brother Ponies so expensive second hand, even if they are not in good condition? I could understand if it was just the second set, or even the ponies who were only released the first year, but I have seen Tex's without any accessories and being in a pretty poor state selling for $25+. I never read anything about the Big Brother Ponies being rare or anything, so is it just because they're boy ponies? Just to clarify, I'm talking about Big Brother Ponies who have no accessories and are usually in okay to poor condition (Dirty, faded hair, dry hair, tail rust, pony cancer marks, stuff like that).
5. Another Big Brother Pony question, but why is Barnacle so prone to getting age spots/cancer spots? Is it just to do with the plastic they used for him or? Honestly it intimidates me when I want to buy one since they usually always have the marks on them.
6. Are the baby boy ponies actually rare or just popular? I'm mostly taking about the peek-a-boo baby brothers.
7. (the most important question I really want answered) Does Prince Fauna from G2 have any electronics in him? I was curious since in the set he's in when he touches Princess Flora her heart will light up and a voice cue will activate. So is he filled with electronics or is it just the princess?
8. Is Daddy Sweet Celebrations rare? I ask since he was on the do-not-customize-list on the bait page for the mylittlewiki page.
9. Should you clean out an adult seapony before giving it to a child? I ask because my friend's mom has her little sister play with her (the mom, not my friend's) original seapony from the 80's and it has not been cleaned out before. If it is any risk to her sister, I want to take the poor seapony and clean her up right now before it's too late.
10. Was Prince Firefly a France exclusive pony or was he all of Europe? Also is he rare/uncommon?
11. What are the rarer/uncommon G3 and G4 ponies to look out for?

Okay, that's about all my questions for right now. I hope you guys can help me answer my questions, any big of information helps! 

[Baby Sugarberry]

1. Any exposure to water (and repeated exposure is the worst offender) can cause tail rust and/or mould.  It's really not a good idea to use ponies as bath toys. Perfectly safe to display ponies in the Waterfall without the water, of course!

2. The cloud/rainbow breaks the most easily, from what I've seen.  Not uncommon for the water pump to be busted either.

3. No, it's not common - if it's dented into the plastic, it could be from being pulled excessively, or if it's an actual stain, possibly tail washer rust.

4. A few reasons - they're sought after, and even poor condition ones are desirable because people want to make customs.  The only way to get a 'boy' pose pony is by using a Big Brother, and they only did those two sets, making the moulds relatively rare.  That removes a lot of the 'cheap' supply for these particular ponies.

5. Blue/aqua ponies seem prone to age spots, sadly.  Probably has something to do with the ingredients in his vinyl recipe.

6. Uncommon, and very popular. Again, there were only a few ponies in this particular pose and boys in general are sought after.

8. Not rare, but uncommon and sought after.  Again, because boy ponies get baited more than any others.  The 'do not customize' list is actually 'really consider if you might be better off selling this pony unless it's in truly terrible shape' list.

9. You shouldn't give G1's to young children.  They weren't manufactured under the same safety standards as we have today, and some of them get pretty chemically gunky (plasticizer leech, in particular).  Sea ponies are prone to harbouring mould, rust, mildew and the like, same as most bath toys.

[WaterDraw]

Thank you for the information! This definitely helps! I wish they made more Big Brother ponies so they wouldn't be so sought after, but oh well. It seems that most boys in a typically girl only line usually cost more money...
Yeah, when I hear that someone is going to give their old ponies to their children I usually try to convince them otherwise since all the risks (especially when I know the children like to take baths with their toys). The same friend once gave me a box of her mother's old ponies that I was going to try and fix up, but at the time I was too inexperienced and the first sign of tail rust freaked me out too much so I ended up giving them back to her.

Also a follow up question to just the whole "being able to see the washer" thing, is it normal to be able to see the outline of the washer when you hold a pony up to light or when it is near light? I have an Applejack and she shows no signs of rust at all, but it's very easy for me to see her washer when she's sort of near a lamp, and there's no indent either so I don't think she was pulled on.

Anyway, thanks again for the information!! 

[Baby Sugarberry]

Yes, it's normal to be able to see the washer through the plastic if you hold most ponies up to a bright light.  It's actually a good way to check if there's rust/mould inside without popping off the head, since it shows up as dark flecks.   Don't let tail rust freak you out; it's really not that bad and can usually be taken care of quite easily with some cleaning.  More often than not it's only the washer that's rusted, and it can just be thrown out.  Clean up the rest of the rust flakes and scrub the tail and most ponies are good as new.

[Taffeta]

Given that Prince Firefly came out in the 2000 line, apparently...I would assume he wasn't French only.

http://lavenderlagoon.weebly.com/2000firefly.html

^^ Above link from Moonbreeze's excellent G2 site by the way.

I don't think I've ever seen him in person, and I never know which ones were sold over here till I find them here because most of my bought from store G2s from 1999 and 2000 came from France - but he wasn't one of them. However the other two princesses from his set that year did come out here as far as I am aware, so I would guess that he's Europe-wide.

I think he seems sought after :/

I think with the increase in G1HQC producing brother moulds, the customising needs for big brother pony bait may well change. But I don't expect the prices of brother ponies to change, really. When a price is established over several years it tends not to drop all that easily. Big Brothers still sell for less even with accessories than Mountain Boys do, but there are some Brother ponies who only featured in one set of the two releases, so they are sometimes a little harder to find...

Baby Brothers are probably on the same lines. I think Whirly Twirl seems more common than Ribbs but that's just in my experience given they weren't sold here. The two Peekaboo babies seem more common than some of the Playtime baby Brothers.  Leaper and Racer from the Playtime set are probably the most in demand, but I am not sure they are any more rare, just that mysterious attraction people have for green and yellow ponies driving the price up...

[PoserBeachball]

The boy ponies are always going to be more expensive than some of the others because they are popular, attractive, and there were only a few sets in production.

Hopefully with the HQG1C blank  boys the customising stream will be supplied more with them than with 'bait' G1. (I've haired/rehaired both a HQG1C blank and my Daddy Bouquet who came in very bad shape, and from an 'ease-of-use' point of view and time the blank was SO much easier to rehair).

Daddy Sweet Celebrations is a seriously beautiful pony, either with his delightful family or displayed on his own. My personal opinion is that a custom would have to be exceptionally good to improve on him.