which to use for customs: cheap baits or expensive retro ponies?

[kingluke]

Hello,

Now I am planning to make some mlp g1 customs in the future.

I originally was looking for cheap baits, because they are cheap and often hard to/beyond repair.
I can't help but think I'm offending/hurting the community for doing so. I wanted to buy the retro reproduction of them but I can't find them for a reasonable price.
Where I live we have no 10 dollar repro walmart/target ponies , for all I know, they have never been sold here at all.
On ebay these ponies (in the pose im looking for) go for at least 20 bucks each without (the often aslo 20 bucks) shipping.
Cheap, slightly baity ponies come up for cheap here tho. Like a white haired posey with big pink pen marks but nothing wrong otherwise, whixh isn't baity enough and I fear for the rage...

edit: I've looked into the hqg1c website but again struggles with poses/shipping/prices

Any advice here? I just want to make my own versions of the celestial swirl ponies and maybe a conjoined twin but I don't know which ponies to get.

Cheers,

Luke

[bright rabbit 1]

Cheap baits would do.

[Moonbreeze]

I don't see anything wrong with using common originals that are baity.
I've had a wingless, nearly bald windy wing that I customized, no regrets

The retro's are just too expensive right now. You can get them from the UK, but (idk they're still brexiting, so it should be fine) it's still at least 10 GBP at it's lowest, plust shipping.

You could check the HQG1C blanks as well.

[Minty_Magic]

I have mixed feelings about customizing G1 ponies, but honestly if its a cheap, common pony who is well beyond repair I'd go for it. I understand that as more ponies age and become customized they may not be common anymore, but they are the cheapest option by far. Frankly, if a pony needs to be repainted and rehaired anyway to be restored, I'm considering it a custom at that point anyway, so why not have some fun with it?
I also feel weird baiting ponies that are pristine or in overall good shape, like the new retros. I just can't bring myself to "destroy" them even if I will be turning it into something else! The HQG1C blanks are the best alternative so far, since you don't have to feel bad about working on them! They can be a little pricey, but I don't think they're too bad if you're looking to customize guilt free! Now that I'm out of ponies that I feel are in really bad shape for myself to customize I will probably move on to those next!

[gemini_pony]

I can't even find the reproduction one's here so my bag of sad G1's is what I use.

[Taffeta]

I think this whole issue has got increasingly complicated the more time has passed. When ponies were really plentiful at markets and stuff lots got customised without much thought so long as they were considered more common. Now there's more awareness as supply is less and prices go up that this is actually a finite resource and always has been.

For me personally, any restoration that involves repainting or rehairing is already customisation. But a lot of people don't see it that way. And to be honest, it's a fairly unoffensive form of customising even if like me you see it that way, so long as it's obvious if you ever sell that pony that it's been restored.

However the above kind of distinctions decide whether one person sees a pony as bait and another sees that pony as a restoration project. For me a bald pony is bait because any action to rehair her would be a custom. But to others that's a restore project and so anything other than rehairing with the right colour to make her look original is destroying a G1.

Then there's also a problem of regional availability. It is US-centric in what is and isn't outrageous to collectors in customisation. People are less bothered, for example, if someone customises Firefly, Medley, Surprise than if they customise Honeycomb, Baby Bow Tie, etc...because the latter weren't available in the US. That then puts more cost pressure on people where Firefly etc were not sold(like the UK) to have to import baits so as not to make the community outraged. Honeycomb isn't common here - I just traded a tlc condition one overseas and she's hopefully getting the works to make her beautiful again - but she's more common than Surprise. Yet UK people get censured for wanting to customise a baity Honeycomb because Surprise is considered more common. That makes the whole thing way. more. messy.

My personal view of customising has changed over the years from not really bothered to a bit more aware of limited resources.

For me a pony in wrecked condition - ink marks, missing parts (not just a tail, but like, ears, etc), and no hair - is bait. Now, if that pony is Nightlight, someone is more likely to try and restore her than if she's Cherries Jubilee, and I think that's ok too. But a tailless Tootsie isn't bait, and expecting people to import bait versions of ponies not sold there when there's a hairless, symbolless, scribbled Honeycomb or Baby Bow Tie right there in their back yard...is unreasonable.

I don't agree with customisation of good condition or fair condition ponies. Fair condition for me is some small marks that a skilled person might remove, some symbol scuffs, pindot, a forelock snip...a loss of curl, some tangle or frizz. Those aren't bait flaws. But if the pony is utterly wrecked, then it's fair game to me.

And completely bald ponies can be rehaired with alternate colours to look very striking.

As for the retros, it would be a nice ideal if everyone could just buy them for the equivalent of $10 but that's another US centric perspective. Ditto HQG1C. I don't think there's a wider understanding from some parts of the community that even where the CP retros are widely available (like the UK), they're still a bit more expensive than the US $10 price. And in other countries where they're not available it's worse, because +shipping has to come into the equation as well. HQG1C involves customs charges or again the cost is higher overseas because someone is paying a customs charge somewhere even if you have a European or local distributer. So making that a moral expectation outside of the US is questionable to me.

I would prefer people to be customising retros if they're inclined to rip apart decent originals rather than wait for the right baity pony to come up. But regional concerns also have to be taken into consideration here.

So for me - baity ponies - genuinely wrecked ponies - are customisable, even if they are Italian ponies or non-US ponies. But fair condition G1s should be preserved, and good condition ones not touched as someone will want to own them.

And if you can get retros to customise, awesome - but not everyone can, so it's not a final solution.

Similar rules apply for customising G2 and G3, albeit no retro option. Customising should only happen to really bad ponies in my view.

G4 I really don't care so much about as, right now, they're still plentiful and there's a glut of M6 ponies that taking some of them out of circulation is probably not going to make a dent

[kingluke]

Thank you for all your answers. It really helpen me. I think I will go and find the ponies in worst of the worst condition.

[gemini_pony]

Honestly people have tried to talk me out of customizing my sitting Bubbles and do the repro. But I can't find one and the person i messaged to trade a bait hasn't replied. My opinion is it's my property I will do what I want with it and if i offend someone too bad so sad. The G1 ponies won't last forever anyway. Hell I have no kids my whole collection might end up in a landfill when I die. No store here gets the retro's and I am not spending more that retail to order one for a custom.

[Taffeta]

@Moonbreeze - just saw your comment - as far as I know the UK are intending to do EU elections which means unless parliament agree something - which I imagine you'd hear about - Brexit day is currently Hallowe'en. Plenty of time still to buy ponies without import duty

I did notice the unicorn pegasus set on preorder on amazon are preorder for mainland only but hopefully that will change once they're actually in stock...I think Smyths are also meant to get those and they are the cheapest place I've seen retros - I think they're an Irish company? Dont know if they ship internationally but they were stocking the CP ponies at £8.99.

I still can't believe how expensive the retros are in some European countries :/ compared to $10 in the US, €20ish (what's that, around $23? $25?) is obscene.

I think it's great to see that so many people engage with the bigger impact of customising now than did in the past. But the retros do help in that regard.

[gemini_pony]

@Moonbreeze - just saw your comment - as far as I know the UK are intending to do EU elections which means unless parliament agree something - which I imagine you'd hear about - Brexit day is currently Hallowe'en. Plenty of time still to buy ponies without import duty

I did notice the unicorn pegasus set on preorder on amazon are preorder for mainland only but hopefully that will change once they're actually in stock...I think Smyths are also meant to get those and they are the cheapest place I've seen retros - I think they're an Irish company? Dont know if they ship internationally but they were stocking the CP ponies at £8.99.

I still can't believe how expensive the retros are in some European countries :/ compared to $10 in the US, €20ish (what's that, around $23? $25?) is obscene.

I think it's great to see that so many people engage with the bigger impact of customising now than did in the past. But the retros do help in that regard.

I don't see how the retro ones help people like me that have no transportation to stores that sell them. Even if I did they probably won't have them.

[banditpony]

¥

Honestly people have tried to talk me out of customizing my sitting Bubbles and do the repro. But I can't find one and the person i messaged to trade a bait hasn't replied. My opinion is it's my property I will do what I want with it and if i offend someone too bad so sad. The G1 ponies won't last forever anyway. Hell I have no kids my whole collection might end up in a landfill when I die.

Don't make a thread asking "Should I.." and then say people were "trying to talk you out of it".

Again, I'm in the mentality that to each their own.. HOWEVER, I think all avenues need to be figured out first before doing it especially if a pony is still in good condition.

[gemini_pony]

¥

Honestly people have tried to talk me out of customizing my sitting Bubbles and do the repro. But I can't find one and the person i messaged to trade a bait hasn't replied. My opinion is it's my property I will do what I want with it and if i offend someone too bad so sad. The G1 ponies won't last forever anyway. Hell I have no kids my whole collection might end up in a landfill when I die.

Don't make a thread asking "Should I.." and then say people were "trying to talk you out of it".

Again, I'm in the mentality that to each their own.. HOWEVER, I think all avenues need to be figured out first before doing it especially if a pony is still in good condition.

Well no one's givin me a viable option.  The only option I've had given to me are the retro ponies which I don't have access to.

[banditpony]

¥

Honestly people have tried to talk me out of customizing my sitting Bubbles and do the repro. But I can't find one and the person i messaged to trade a bait hasn't replied. My opinion is it's my property I will do what I want with it and if i offend someone too bad so sad. The G1 ponies won't last forever anyway. Hell I have no kids my whole collection might end up in a landfill when I die.

Don't make a thread asking "Should I.." and then say people were "trying to talk you out of it".

Again, I'm in the mentality that to each their own.. HOWEVER, I think all avenues need to be figured out first before doing it especially if a pony is still in good condition.

Well no one's givin me a viable option.  The only option I've had given to me are the retro ponies which I don't have access to.

Option: Buy a bait on ebay (Sea shell <$9 inc shipping). Sell your Bubbles to make up cost, or buy dollyhair to give her a tail.

And join facebook groups to scour to see what they have for sale there.

[gemini_pony]

Well considering I have zero amount of money....I offered to trade this for a bait. Because I can't afford anything on Ebay. But no one seems interested.

[banditpony]

Well considering I have zero amount of money....I offered to trade this for a bait. Because I can't afford anything on Ebay. But no one seems interested.

Then sell your Bubbles first. Then buy a bait. Or just put it off until you can get money. $9 isn't a lot of money... so you might wanna evaluate buying things if you can't afford that.  Trading was going to cost $4 or so in shipping anyway.