The MLP Arena
Pony Talk => Pony Corral => Topic started by: Nemesis on May 17, 2017, 09:54:46 PM
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I've been trying to remove some nasty mold spots from a few of my G1 ponies... It's that icky brown spotting that I think is referred to as "pony cancer".
Anyway, I'm trying to avoid RemoveZit, since these ponies are blue, pink, etc., and I don't want bleaching to occur. I heard that mold spots can be sanded off, but I'm not having any luck. How much sanding does it take to get past the mold!? :blink: Is there a better technique for this? Please help! :shrug:
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Watching this thread!
I have never heard of sanding cancer off before! It'd be cool if it works. :D
I know some people have gotten gorgeous results sanding the tails off of Mc.Ponies to turn them brushable, so I guess it's possible :)
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Sanding isn't going to work - the type of marks you're referring to go right through the plastic, and you're correct that acne cream will only make the situation worse, not better. There is no safe, lasting treatment for age spots. They can be lightened with sun-fading (sometimes) but come back.
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I think the best way to remove them is to paint over with a matching color for the pony. But it will not remove the problem, just hide it.
Plus I've got a pony that came to me with transparent nail on a cancer spot, I don't know if it helps, but that's something that is done too. Maybe found a nail the same color than your pony?
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I think the best way to remove them is to paint over with a matching color for the pony. But it will not remove the problem, just hide it.
Plus I've got a pony that came to me with transparent nail on a cancer spot, I don't know if it helps, but that's something that is done too. Maybe found a nail the same color than your pony?
I take it you mean nail polish/varnish? In that case I would steer clear of using that on pony plastic, especially on old g1 plastic. Nail polish could possibly harm the plastic further.
I would try sun fading the spot (cover the rest of the pony), but sadly there's not much to do about age spots :/
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Yes nail polish.
But to be honest, it's not me who put this on the pony and it doesn't seams to affect it.
In any case, I've read such a lot of different things, but myself I do nothing on cancer spot. And none of them never have spread or affected another pony...
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Hmm... :/ Well, that stinks. I did find this article: http://www.mlptp.net/index.php?threads/possible-restore-or-removal-of-pony-cancer.96574/
They managed to sand deep enough to remove the mold, but afterward had to fill in large dimples in the plastic... Not a perfect solution, but I guess in a desperate situation...
So... I soaked the mold spots in white vinegar. Should the fungus be dead now? Can I just paint over it and be sure it won't spread?
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So... I soaked the mold spots in white vinegar. Should the fungus be dead now? Can I just paint over it and be sure it won't spread?
This is an EXCELLENT information on mold spots here: http://www.mlppreservationproject.com/body.html#Cancer
I met the girl who gathered this information recently and the whole site is fantastic. But one thing to note is the last paragraph about the spreading of mold spots. It's not contagious, like going from one pony to another. It's more about what kind of environment these are kept in. Heat and humidity are big triggers. So painting a dead mold spot probably won't help if the pony is still kept in a bad environment.
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So... I soaked the mold spots in white vinegar. Should the fungus be dead now? Can I just paint over it and be sure it won't spread?
This is an EXCELLENT information on mold spots here: http://www.mlppreservationproject.com/body.html#Cancer
I met the girl who gathered this information recently and the whole site is fantastic. But one thing to note is the last paragraph about the spreading of mold spots. It's not contagious, like going from one pony to another. It's more about what kind of environment these are kept in. Heat and humidity are big triggers. So painting a dead mold spot probably won't help if the pony is still kept in a bad environment.
Thanks for the info! I had read that page before--I've restored a lot of dolls with mold, but those were human dolls with pale skin colors. The colorful ponies had me stumped. :/
None of my ponies have developed mold while in MY possession. They all came to me that way. I'm excessively careful about the environment I keep my toys in, for this very reason. So I guess that's good news, right? ^^; I can just paint over the spots and that will be the end of it?
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No, that won't be the end of it.
Bad storage conditions will speed up the process, but no matter where you keep your collection, plastic deteriorates. High heat and humidity just makes it worse. Adding more chemicals (including paint) can also make it worse.
Honestly the best thing you can do is just leave them be - there's a common theme in the museum conservation field - do as little as possible, entropy always wins in the end. G1's are 30+ years old in many cases and they're going to look it, considering they were made as children's toys and not expected to last forever.
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No, that won't be the end of it.
Bad storage conditions will speed up the process, but no matter where you keep your collection, plastic deteriorates. High heat and humidity just makes it worse. Adding more chemicals (including paint) can also make it worse.
Honestly the best thing you can do is just leave them be - there's a common theme in the museum conservation field - do as little as possible, entropy always wins in the end. G1's are 30+ years old in many cases and they're going to look it, considering they were made as children's toys and not expected to last forever.
But if these are in fact mold colonies (rather than just aging vinyl), shouldn't the deterioration stop if I've disinfected/sterilized/killed the mold with vinegar or another antibacterial? I thought once the mold was dead, it was just a matter of removing or hiding the stain?
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My first attempt to remove was dissection, and I discovered that they do in fact go all the way through the plastic....I was left, in one case, with a paper-thin amount of pony material remaining.
My next attempt was boiling for over an hour which has a drastic effect on the pony overall depending on which pony. I was able to completely whiten the spots on Fire Chief and Bright Eyes, on Bright Eyes the spot began to darken again slightly a year later.
The extended boiling process hurts the pony's color, and Fire Chief was yellowed but whitens right up in peroxide sunfade. Some ponies have their color ruined pretty quick by boiling. Your mileage may vary.
No matter what anyone tells you, it is not established 100% whether cancer is biological or chemical breakdown or a combination (where for example leaking plasticizer/UV treatment/degradation products/contamination etc might feed a particular organism). While its perfect circular shape does LOOK biological, no hard data exists establishing whether it can be killed or what chemically is happening.
I was very optimistic about the boiling methods but when the spot on my Bright Eyes began to creep back in a year after it disappeared, I haven't further pursued my studies of it...so far.
The only things that have been established to a point of consensus are 1) that nothing has been proven to stop it entirely, and 2) that no confirmed evidence exists of it spreading from one pony to another.
Good luck!!
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My first attempt to remove was dissection, and I discovered that they do in fact go all the way through the plastic....I was left, in one case, with a paper-thin amount of pony material remaining.
My next attempt was boiling for over an hour which has a drastic effect on the pony overall depending on which pony. I was able to completely whiten the spots on Fire Chief and Bright Eyes, on Bright Eyes the spot began to darken again slightly a year later.
The extended boiling process hurts the pony's color, and Fire Chief was yellowed but whitens right up in peroxide sunfade. Some ponies have their color ruined pretty quick by boiling. Your mileage may vary.
No matter what anyone tells you, it is not established 100% whether cancer is biological or chemical breakdown or a combination (where for example leaking plasticizer/UV treatment/degradation products/contamination etc might feed a particular organism). While its perfect circular shape does LOOK biological, no hard data exists establishing whether it can be killed or what chemically is happening.
I was very optimistic about the boiling methods but when the spot on my Bright Eyes began to creep back in a year after it disappeared, I haven't further pursued my studies of it...so far.
The only things that have been established to a point of consensus are 1) that nothing has been proven to stop it entirely, and 2) that no confirmed evidence exists of it spreading from one pony to another.
Good luck!!
Interesting... What about peroxide treatments? I've removed the stains entirely with peroxide on quite a few dolls... Will it still come back? :(
One interesting thing about the ponies I'm dealing with now is that the spots only occur on the cutie marks. Both are glittery cutie marks, and the mold/spots appear to have "eaten" "holes" in the paint. It looks like really gross swiss cheese. o_0; Perfect circles, and the glitter/paint is perfectly intact around the spots. That makes me think that it IS a biological thing of some kind, and the organism was feeding on something in the paint or sealer. I covered up the holes in the cutie mark on one pony after disinfecting the area, so I guess we'll see what happens... :/
I wish I had a microbiology lab handy--I'd love to solve this mystery. :/
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IIRC peroxide will bleach out some pony hair colors, so be careful.
Are the glitter symboled ponies ones with gold symbols, like Sunbeam, Starshine, or Pinwheel? They are prone to "symbol rust." They get brownish stuff (probably mold or something) that appears around their symbols. Usually in round spots, which makes me think that they're a kind of mold colony or something. I'm not sure if it's the same stuff as traditional age spots.
As far as "body" age spots, I had a Sunbeam who had one age spot when I got them. Despite my attempts to sterilize the spots, they still spread like crazy. (I was not able to boil them because of the glitter symbol though.)
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IIRC peroxide will bleach out some pony hair colors, so be careful.
Are the glitter symboled ponies ones with gold symbols, like Sunbeam, Starshine, or Pinwheel? They are prone to "symbol rust." They get brownish stuff (probably mold or something) that appears around their symbols. Usually in round spots, which makes me think that they're a kind of mold colony or something. I'm not sure if it's the same stuff as traditional age spots.
As far as "body" age spots, I had a Sunbeam who had one age spot when I got them. Despite my attempts to sterilize the spots, they still spread like crazy. (I was not able to boil them because of the glitter symbol though.)
The ponies in question are Moonstone and Majesty (silver and blue glitter). The spots aren't around the cutie mark... they're right IN the cutie mark. o_0; The glitter is completely "eaten" away where the spots are.
If it doesn't spread further, it's not a huge deal... I can just paint over it with a bit of PearlEx glitter and some sealer (I already did that with Moonstone, and she looks fine... for now). It just creeps me out to think that the mold(?) might actually still be alive under there, plotting its revenge. =P ...Hence why I like to obliterate it entirely, if possible. It's a comfort to know it won't spread to other ponies, though.
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Glitter symbols do also rust, you know. So sometimes it's that.
The problem with stain removal is, usually by the time that the stain appears on the plastic, internal chemistry has already taken its toll. The actual dye in the plastic has been consumed by the bacteria/mold spores. After you kill them (if they are still active, less likely with dry storage conditions) and you remove the dark stain (which is the waste product of the organism), sorry, that doesn't restore the colour of the pony.
Acne cream and all variants of, are VERY VERY VERY bad for ponies - do NOT use!!!! Some dolls react well to it, others not so much. But decades of collectors have learned, DO NOT USE ON PONIES!
Sunfading is your best bet for removing stains with little damage. You just have to check on the pony often. Sometimes more than once in a day. That website has tutorials on the best way to set up a sunfade.
And also, most importantly, these MLP are continually aging hunks of plastic. NOTHING will stop the process of breakdown. If you keep them in close-to-museum conditions, the breakdown will slow. But it won't STOP. Try not to do more long-term damage to the plastic with lots of chemicals and sanding and painting and such. Enjoy your ponies for what they are! And celebrate their birthdays and all their freckles! ;)
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And also, most importantly, these MLP are continually aging hunks of plastic. NOTHING will stop the process of breakdown. If you keep them in close-to-museum conditions, the breakdown will slow. But it won't STOP. Try not to do more long-term damage to the plastic with lots of chemicals and sanding and painting and such. Enjoy your ponies for what they are! And celebrate their birthdays and all their freckles! ;)
This. As someone trained in the museum / preservation field, non-professional restoration tends to do FAR more harm than good. Plastics are a top contender for 'material that does not age gracefully' and there's not nearly as much research into conservation of plastics as there is for say, wood, metal, paper or minerals. Part of the problem is 'plastic' is not a single uniform thing but thousands of slightly varying amalgamations, each with their own unique challenges.
Your ponies, your choice - but go forward with the knowledge that trying to 'fix' them may well cause you worse problems down the road.
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Aww... Well, I guess I'll just cut my losses then. :/ I wouldn't want to worsen the situation, and pony vinyl seems like sensitive stuff compared to other dolls I've worked with.
I didn't do much sanding--you can't really see or feel the spot I tested it out on. I'll stick to vinegar for disinfecting, then just fill the little gaps in the cutie mark with Pearlex. As chemicals and paints go, that's probably about the mildest stuff, right? (I did use a dab of ModPodge to hold the glitter--is that relatively pony-friendly? I figured it would be safer than the Liquitex sealers I use for doll customs.)
It's a shame there isn't a sure "cure", but I guess 30+ years IS a pretty long time for soft vinyl to stay minty. Thanks for the advice, everyone!
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ModPodge is a well-accepted material to use on ponies.
Some time ago I mentioned that there is a cure for all problems with ponies: dynamite. Makes all the problems go away instantly and permanently. Um, don't try at home or on favorite ponies.
Speaking of museum preservation, I have a friend who invested a few thousand $ in a freeze-drying machine. I wonder if I could sneak a pony into one of his batches and see what happens...haha he'd never let me do that but it's something I don't think we've tried yet? I think just about everything has been tried by someone, sometime.
The misperception that plastic is a permanent, ever-unchanging material is a curious leftover probably from its introduction marketing as a miracle material....but it's wholly untrue. Plastic is about as ever-changing as any material can get, made from some of the oldest organic matter on this planet held together in fragile balance and easily degraded (formed not from the dinosaur age at all, but billions of years ago). Its study is something educated professionals have barely scratched the surface of and need to progress greatly, and those of us bumbling around trying to fix ponies have the equivalent of a single-LED flashlight with low batteries in a boundless eternal night. Trying to deal with these material condition problems as a collector is, to me, most humbling.
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ModPodge is a well-accepted material to use on ponies.
Some time ago I mentioned that there is a cure for all problems with ponies: dynamite. Makes all the problems go away instantly and permanently. Um, don't try at home or on favorite ponies.
Speaking of museum preservation, I have a friend who invested a few thousand $ in a freeze-drying machine. I wonder if I could sneak a pony into one of his batches and see what happens...haha he'd never let me do that but it's something I don't think we've tried yet? I think just about everything has been tried by someone, sometime.
The misperception that plastic is a permanent, ever-unchanging material is a curious leftover probably from its introduction marketing as a miracle material....but it's wholly untrue. Plastic is about as ever-changing as any material can get, made from some of the oldest organic matter on this planet held together in fragile balance and easily degraded (formed not from the dinosaur age at all, but billions of years ago). Its study is something educated professionals have barely scratched the surface of and need to progress greatly, and those of us bumbling around trying to fix ponies have the equivalent of a single-LED flashlight with low batteries in a boundless eternal night. Trying to deal with these material condition problems as a collector is, to me, most humbling.
Thanks for the reassurance on the ModPodge--I wasn't sure about it afterwards. ^^;
Lol, freeze drying a MLP! XD Yeah, I don't think anyone's tried that yet, haha. X3
I guess it's hard not to think of plastic as being the most permanent thing on Earth... Everything from shoes to medicine bottles to computer casings are made of plastic, and they all just seem so... stable and solid. But that's just not the reality on a molecular scale... Such a shame. :/
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I don't believe removezit would do anything but fade your pony and may leave the spot intact. Sanding only works if the spot is on the surface and not at all deep. I don't know how the folks who have good results with this could tell how deep their spots went. Trial and error maybe? Do you have any photos?
Post Merge: May 23, 2017, 07:23:57 PM
IIRC peroxide will bleach out some pony hair colors, so be careful.
Are the glitter symboled ponies ones with gold symbols, like Sunbeam, Starshine, or Pinwheel? They are prone to "symbol rust." They get brownish stuff (probably mold or something) that appears around their symbols. Usually in round spots, which makes me think that they're a kind of mold colony or something. I'm not sure if it's the same stuff as traditional age spots.
As far as "body" age spots, I had a Sunbeam who had one age spot when I got them. Despite my attempts to sterilize the spots, they still spread like crazy. (I was not able to boil them because of the glitter symbol though.)
The ponies in question are Moonstone and Majesty (silver and blue glitter). The spots aren't around the cutie mark... they're right IN the cutie mark. o_0; The glitter is completely "eaten" away where the spots are.
If it doesn't spread further, it's not a huge deal... I can just paint over it with a bit of PearlEx glitter and some sealer (I already did that with Moonstone, and she looks fine... for now). It just creeps me out to think that the mold(?) might actually still be alive under there, plotting its revenge. =P ...Hence why I like to obliterate it entirely, if possible. It's a comfort to know it won't spread to other ponies, though.
Just saw this, sorry. So glitter symbols can rust and stain the vinyl, which isn't mold at all. That doesn't mean you don't have brown spots form multiple causes. Also, pvc reacts with certain chemicals and compounds also causing discoloration and I don't know what the glitter is made up of. If you're worried about mold, keep the humidity where the ponies live below 70%. Fungi is everywhere so it doesn't matter if you disinfect the pony or not. I've had mixed results fading spots caused by glitter rust using a peroxide/sun soak. If you try that, make sure to read the materials section of my site so you're aware of all possible side effects.
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I don't believe removezit would do anything but fade your pony and may leave the spot intact. Sanding only works if the spot is on the surface and not at all deep. I don't know how the folks who have good results with this could tell how deep their spots went. Trial and error maybe? Do you have any photos?
Post Merge: May 23, 2017, 07:23:57 PM
IIRC peroxide will bleach out some pony hair colors, so be careful.
Are the glitter symboled ponies ones with gold symbols, like Sunbeam, Starshine, or Pinwheel? They are prone to "symbol rust." They get brownish stuff (probably mold or something) that appears around their symbols. Usually in round spots, which makes me think that they're a kind of mold colony or something. I'm not sure if it's the same stuff as traditional age spots.
As far as "body" age spots, I had a Sunbeam who had one age spot when I got them. Despite my attempts to sterilize the spots, they still spread like crazy. (I was not able to boil them because of the glitter symbol though.)
The ponies in question are Moonstone and Majesty (silver and blue glitter). The spots aren't around the cutie mark... they're right IN the cutie mark. o_0; The glitter is completely "eaten" away where the spots are.
If it doesn't spread further, it's not a huge deal... I can just paint over it with a bit of PearlEx glitter and some sealer (I already did that with Moonstone, and she looks fine... for now). It just creeps me out to think that the mold(?) might actually still be alive under there, plotting its revenge. =P ...Hence why I like to obliterate it entirely, if possible. It's a comfort to know it won't spread to other ponies, though.
Just saw this, sorry. So glitter symbols can rust and stain the vinyl, which isn't mold at all. That doesn't mean you don't have brown spots form multiple causes. Also, pvc reacts with certain chemicals and compounds also causing discoloration and I don't know what the glitter is made up of. If you're worried about mold, keep the humidity where the ponies live below 70%. Fungi is everywhere so it doesn't matter if you disinfect the pony or not. I've had mixed results fading spots caused by glitter rust using a peroxide/sun soak. If you try that, make sure to read the materials section of my site so you're aware of all possible side effects.
Thanks so much for the info! I love your site! I've been using it for years. <3 I had no idea there was so much variance in how deep the mold had invaded the plastic... That explains why I've never had any luck sanding (I did manage to significantly lighten one spot, but that was my only "success"). I figured it just spread to a certain extent, then stopped due to lack of plasticizer, or something. ^_^;
I hadn't thought of the fungi in the air itself... I guess that does make it kind of futile to obsess over disinfecting. :/ I had thought once it took root in the vinyl, it was more likely to spread if untreated? But I don't know how much sense that makes... I'm kind of a germaphobe, so I just feel the compulsion to decontaminate things, lol. ^_^;
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Thanks so much for the info! I love your site! I've been using it for years. <3 I had no idea there was so much variance in how deep the mold had invaded the plastic... That explains why I've never had any luck sanding (I did manage to significantly lighten one spot, but that was my only "success"). I figured it just spread to a certain extent, then stopped due to lack of plasticizer, or something. ^_^;
I hadn't thought of the fungi in the air itself... I guess that does make it kind of futile to obsess over disinfecting. :/ I had thought once it took root in the vinyl, it was more likely to spread if untreated? But I don't know how much sense that makes... I'm kind of a germaphobe, so I just feel the compulsion to decontaminate things, lol. ^_^;
Disinfecting the spots certainly won't hurt and it makes sense to. That way you don't already have a fungus on that specific pony that can spread if the humidity gets to high. But if the humidity is consistently too high, then the spots will show up regardless.
As for the sanding, maybe when folks reported that worked it was staining from another cause? Or maybe the fungus stained only so far down before the humidity dropped low enough for it to go dormant? We are all still learning, so who knows.
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I forgot to throw in one of my common diatribes I like to add around here when discussing humidity of storage conditions.
Closed spaces concentrate humidity when temperature changes (so i personally don't agree with using plastic bags and tubs especially ones that close tightly). This includes closed rooms, closets, sheds etc especially when not insulated to stabilize temperature changes somewhat. If your storage space doesn't have good ventilation, humidity can be reduced with an incandescent light bulb left on all the time, of course mounted in a safe fixture that can't fall over or otherwise end up in contact with combustibles and create a fire hazard....the modest wattage of a single light bulb will drive away condensation and prevent high humidity. If you don't have a permanent light fixture in your closed storage space, use a metal-caged droplight and hang securely from a hook in the ceiling.