Crazy things about G4s

[Shabi]

Hello again. All the time I was away I've been researching G4 really carefully since most things about previous gens are already known or impossible to find out about, but G4 is here to explore which I'm happy to do. This post will be about restoration, accessories and other things. I want to have my own topic to update it once in a while. To me this is a pretty important info.

First thing I found out the hard way is that you don't sunfade G4s unless they're white. Sunfading absolutely doesn't work on G4s and ruins them. Sun literally kills their color no matter what color it is. I can attach photos now so you just have to believe me or share your experience. I tried to sunfade G4 Cupcake (Sugarcup) in peroxide. I detached her head and tail so they won't be damaged, her neck had really bad orange marks from some accessory. The mark is still there but half of my Cupcake is almost white. My second try was a small spot on Skywishes' leg. Now she's got a small spot and a big white spot. Ugh.

Second thing I found out is that crazy bleach + vinegar thing works really nice. It doesn't leave stains, it doesn't burn color unless you hold it too much and it doesn't ruin your pony years after. My friend did it five years ago and her pony is still great. Yeah, the acid you get mixing vinegar and bleach is super toxic, but I use a gas mask and electrical gloves. The bad thing is that mix releases toxic gas which can damage the pony too, so everything except the spot must be covered in layers of plastic package and attached to the pony with duct tape.

Third thing is toothpaste. It works really nice against yellowing, but ruins some prints. Sure, my Rarity has pretty pink eyes now, but that's not what I wanted. Toothpaste works for a really short period of time so just wash the pony after an hour and apply it again. Leaving the toothpaste on pony may damage the vinyl and turn it really solid. Use nice expensive whitening toothpaste, better get it at the pharmacy store.

Most and really interesting thing I found out is the fourth thing. I'm making a list of all G4 accessories that ever existed sorted by year and playset. Please tell me if something like this already exists and I will just help the person making it. All of you probably know the same accessory in the same playset may vary in color. Let's take Applejack Fashion Style 2010 for example. She has an apple barrette, a flower barrette and a medal barrette. All the accessories Hasbro put in their boxes must be different color, like this: green apple, red medal, purple flower. Every one of those accessories exists in those colors other accessories are. It means three colors multiplied by three different barrettes means there are nine defferent barrettes from Applejack Fashion Style set in existence.

Some not-so-important things. Many G4.5 loose their hair worse than a fakie. Cover the inside of their head with tons of glue before brushing. Can you detach pearly mermaid heads? I tried but I'm afraid to ruin it. All of them have that terrible nylon. It's easily fixed with hair straightener. 100-110C + hair gel and it gets really silky.

If you have read all that you're great! Have a nice day!
What I ask of you if you're a huge G4 collector with many accessories and ponies (MIP or loose) please PM me. I need clear pictures and help with some things. Like, does anyone has pictures of 2010 Applejack, Rainbow Dash and Twilight Sparkle singles without forelock? I need nice pictures of newer accessories since MyLittleWiki doesn't have them. I'm not even talking about G4.5. I mean there is a generation of ponies here to explore and I don't see this kind of information anywhere. It really upsets me that things just disappear and no one knows anything about them. It was harder to explore G1 because there was no Internet but come on, we have to know everything about generations that haven't passed yet.

[Leave a Whisper]

Good to know. Of course g4 will come with its own set of problems as its a hard plastic.

[tailrustedtealeaf]

It's wonderful to hear people are experimenting with restoration techniques while there are still many of these in circulation. What about sunfading without peroxide, or did you already try that? Your blurb sounded like you had tried only peroxide on ponies.
It's strange to hear that toothpaste would effect the plastic so badly. How does it react on ponies that aren't white?

[LadyMoondancer]

Thanks for sharing your findings!  They're sure to help other people in the future.  I would never have guessed that toothpaste could strip out color!  Yikes!

[Shabi]

I sunfaded G4 Skywishes without peroxide. Maybe it's just ponies that have pink in them. I'm gonna try to sunfade Rainbow Dash. It did not have any effect on Fluttershy (spots are still there after half a year of sunfading!) and Twilight Sparkle which are both 2010. I'm scared to sunfade Cutie Mark Magic Twi since Cupcake was purple and she was damaged during sunfading 

Also, best temperatures to defrizz earlier plastic head ponies and any pony that has silky nylon is 80-90C. The rough later years nylon takes up to 115C and is fixed better with some gel instead of just water. Same goes for all McDonald's ponies with nylon tails, even for earlier ones.

And another thing. 2010 ponies have some sort of membrane (is this the right word? ugh, language barriers) on top of their vinyl. So scratching would result in damaging that membrane. Maybe not all of them has it, but Twilight did.

[lovesbabysquirmy]

Good to know. Of course g4 will come with its own set of problems as its a hard plastic.

Exactly!  G4 is very different from G3.  Which is different than G2.  Which is different than G1. 

Thank you for experimenting and learning more safely!    I admit I'm a little freaked at the idea of creating chlorine gas but if you are doing it safely...

[RoseNoire]

I'm not into G4s but that restoration information is so interesting, I love that. Now I want more. I sure will follow closely this topic !

[Mewtwofan1]

 Wow. Seems you’ve done quite a bit of testing and preparing. Chlorine gas is never a laughing matter, and I wouldn’t do it myself because it kinda freaks me out a bit. I love science, but not the kind that makes toxic gasses that can kill a human being. But I’m glad you’re taking safety precautions. Just make sure nobody else is breathing in the stuff either. It’s all fun and games until your lab partner fall to the ground because they breathed in fumes they weren’t supposed to.

[Shabi]

Don't worry, I do it on my balcony in the middle of the night and I live on the 4th floor which is pretty far away from the ground. The only thing that can happen is probably some chlorine rain on the next day, lmao! Besides, I look really cool in a gas mask I also use my Pinkamena cosplay apron which has bloody prints drawn on it so if I did this in the middle of the day I would probably scare the heck out of my family members Imagine someone with gloves, gas mask and bloody clothes on looking through your window!

And thanks for the praise everyone! I try to do my best to help the MLP collecting community. Even if my location and health issues make it hard to research previous gens I'll direct my power to do things that haven't been done for G4.