Horse of a different color - why are my two Nappers such different shades?

[Purpleglasses]

I recently got a mail order Napper who looked very dark, and I expected I’d have to pop her head off and start scrubbing rust out of her insides. Open opening her up, however, I found that her interior is extremely rust free and very clean. So why is she a completely different color from my store Napper, and honestly most other MO Nappers I've seen pictures of?
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Is the plastic yellowed, and would sun fading help, or does this particular pony just tend to have a wide variety of tones depending on where and when it was produced? Of course I know these are two different versions, but I didn't know there was this amount of color variation between them. I know I’ve seen Star Hoppers that range from minty to emerald. Is it the same thing?

[Leave a Whisper]

Not gonna lie, that looks cool. Probably discoloration, maybe from the sun.

[goddessofpeep]

This is a known issue with all the Sparkle Ponies. There seems to be two different  batches of plastic for these.  One discolors badly, the other one doesn’t. The discoloration can be severe. There are even ponies that have both types of plastic on the same pony.  It’s not uncommon to see a Sparkle pony where the head is discolored while the body is not, or vice versa. This issue is found in every pony from the set.  They all come in an undiscolored and a discolored “version”.  The same is true of the Mail Order versions. 

[Purpleglasses]

Thank you goddessofpeep! Kind of wonder how I never heard of this before, as I have almost a full set of these guys! Does treating them with developer cream/UV or sunfading help? Has anyone tried it?

Also, thank you Leave A Whisper, for saying they look cool together. If I can’t change Napper’s color, I can at least appreciate it as a fun variation! She’s not browned, she’s golden. Like California grass in the summer. 😂

[goddessofpeep]

As far as I know, the discolored plastic is permanent.  It goes all the way through the plastic, so I think it’s some kind of reaction in the plastic that causes it.  I’ve never heard of any treatment to fix it, but I am not big into keeping up with the latest treatments. 

If you scrounge around ebay, it’s not uncommon to find one with the discolored/nondiscolored  head/body combination.  It would be very interesting to experiment with one of those to see if anything can be done to get those to match again! 


Post Merge: February 07, 2022, 02:37:10 AM

There’s a Napper up on ebay with the discolored head/yellow body right now if you want to see the two plastics in the same pony in action.  It’s got a $60 BIN.(woof!).  I doubt anyone wants to buy it, but I can’t post the link.  It is clearly labeled if you want to search.  The colorization on it looks like you could have assembled it yourself out of the two pictured ponies. 

[Purpleglasses]

I saw the pony you mean. Would posting a screenshot be ok? I agree that’s a steep price for a restoration experiment. Not in my budget but maybe someone else’s, for science? I’ve seen developer cream fix some pretty intense yellowing and I’m almost surprised to learn it hasn’t been tried on a sparkle pony, unless we know it’s exposure to sun that causes these plastic batches to discolor in the first place.

The other funny thing is the custom blind bag versions of Sparkle ponies currently on Etsy that the artist intentionally gave the same mismatch.

[Ponyfan]

I have store Twinkler.  She is a childhood pony and my only Sparkle Pony.  I wish I had a picture of her when she was new but none of my ponies ever ended up in the pictures of me when I was little.  I remember her being a brilliant purple when I got her but the last few times I've checked on her she looks more brown than purple.   She was in a box in a garage for years so I don't know if that made her discolor faster or if it's due to the plastic.

I found a picture that I took after I found her in the garage.  I used the flash so she looks a brighter purple than she is but you can see some of the discoloration around her neck and symbol.

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Ponyfan

[Clipper]

i saw someone on instagram that had a discolored MO star hopper and they used the cream and UV and it went back to her original color. Maybe try a small spot on her foot to see if it works?

[Ponybookworm]

I think my green-haired Napper (I call her 40 Winks & Napper's twin) has the same issue

[Purpleglasses]

i saw someone on instagram that had a discolored MO star hopper and they used the cream and UV and it went back to her original color. Maybe try a small spot on her foot to see if it works?

I really like that idea! I still need to order lights and set up a sun fading box but when I do I’ll post an update. Any chance you remember who on Instagram posted that? I’d love to see how it went for them.

Thank you all for the info! Ponyfan, I think my Twinkler is that darker color and I just thought that was the color she was supposed to be. Which kind of makes me consider IF I want to sun fade golden Napper. Is it more fun to have examples of their color variety in my collection? Still kind of leaning towards fading her since I bought her thinking she was full of rust, but it’s something to consider.

Ponybookworm, I LOVE your different names for your two Nappers. So cute!

[The_Loner]

What is that cream you are talking about? My Twinkler who used to be a beautiful dark purple has turned brown . I would love it if I could get her back to her original color!

[Ponyrama_95]

What is that cream you are talking about? My Twinkler who used to be a beautiful dark purple has turned brown . I would love it if I could get her back to her original color!

I think they are talking about hydrogen peroxide. The cream that hairdressers use to make blonde hair. I use the 40 volume one and on my ponies I have had good results.

[BlackCurtains]

I like her She looks like an Argie Brillitos

[Purpleglasses]

What is that cream you are talking about? My Twinkler who used to be a beautiful dark purple has turned brown . I would love it if I could get her back to her original color!

I think they are talking about hydrogen peroxide. The cream that hairdressers use to make blonde hair. I use the 40 volume one and on my ponies I have had good results.

Yup, that’s the stuff! Fading yellowed or stained plastic under sun or UV light is called sun fading in the pony community and retrobrighting pretty much everywhere else. People use this process to de-yellow everything from toys, to vintage computer and game system parts, or even collectible Nike shoes. You can find lots of helpful tutorials on building a UV light box on YouTube, and there’s even a Wikipedia page for retrobrighting. If you want to see some lovely results of this process, check out @makingponiespretty on Instagram. Plenty of other folks use it too! I’d be really interested to see if it helps your Twinkler.

@Blackcurtains, all these compliments are activating my inner archivist!

[The_Loner]

What is that cream you are talking about? My Twinkler who used to be a beautiful dark purple has turned brown . I would love it if I could get her back to her original color!

I think they are talking about hydrogen peroxide. The cream that hairdressers use to make blonde hair. I use the 40 volume one and on my ponies I have had good results.

What is that cream you are talking about? My Twinkler who used to be a beautiful dark purple has turned brown . I would love it if I could get her back to her original color!

I think they are talking about hydrogen peroxide. The cream that hairdressers use to make blonde hair. I use the 40 volume one and on my ponies I have had good results.

Yup, that’s the stuff! Fading yellowed or stained plastic under sun or UV light is called sun fading in the pony community and retrobrighting pretty much everywhere else. People use this process to de-yellow everything from toys, to vintage computer and game system parts, or even collectible Nike shoes. You can find lots of helpful tutorials on building a UV light box on YouTube, and there’s even a Wikipedia page for retrobrighting. If you want to see some lovely results of this process, check out @makingponiespretty on Instagram. Plenty of other folks use it too! I’d be really interested to see if it helps your Twinkler.

@Blackcurtains, all these compliments are activating my inner archivist!

Thank you very much both of you for replying! I know about sunfading by just putting the pony in a sunny window but I didn't really know about retrobrighting. I did a Google search on it but I'm not sure if I feel comfortable experimenting with it. It does sound like a harsh product and I found an article by some conservators by profession who had experimented with the RetrOBright cream on different plastics and they found that it changes/damages the surface on some plastic types, they mentioned specifically PMMA and PVC. I don't really know what kind of plastic MLPs are made of but I want to educate myself more on this topic when I get the time before trying it out. I don't want to risk making long term damage. Who knew that caring for your toys would involve this much science  lol I have yet to try sunfading Twinkler with just plain sun.