Ponies smells like chemicals and mold

[SwirlyWhirly]

I recently bought a lot of ponies of which many turned out to have a weird smell. Some smells like mold and some have a more chemical smell mixed with the mold. I really can't place the chemical smell but it smells almost sweet. Do mold at some point start to smell chemical and sweet? Are these ponies one step further down the road of decomposing than the ones which just smells like mold or is this smell something else entirely? Maybe a reaction in the plastic?

Most importantly, how do I fix this? And can my other ponies be infected by this if they come in contact with these funky smelling ones? Are they a hazard to my health?

Many questions here but I've just never come across anything like this so I'm a bit perplexed as to what to do. I searched the forum and read something about baking soda and washing to remove mildew smell but I don't even know if mold alone is the problem here.

[lovesbabysquirmy]

Well I hope it's not Original Pony Smell you are hoping to get rid of!  That is special and yes it does smell a bit sweet and powdery.  But there's nothing harmful about it...

[SwirlyWhirly]

Well I hope it's not Original Pony Smell you are hoping to get rid of!  That is special and yes it does smell a bit sweet and powdery.  But there's nothing harmful about it...

No, it's not the original smell. My childhood ponies have the original pony smell and these new ponies definitely doesn't smell like them.

[lovesbabysquirmy]

If you have a spot outside where you can air them out, that's a great start.  Try burying them in baking soda.  Or put them in a container of cat litter.  Repeat as needed. 

Have you already popped heads off and inspected inside bodies for grossness? 

[FantasticFirefly]

Poor storage breakdown (high heat) triggers weeping (were any slimy?), and the more worrying issue- sickly sweet acidic stench. NOT that soft delightful mint pony smell, this is pungent and gross acid weird sweet. That's off-gassing VOC's which can damage other items. Does this sound applicable to your lot batch?



Also typical for poor storage breakdown/degridation (from some/one all heat, humidity, UV)  is patches of dark brown areas, or those tiny fungus spots. or just the bodies discoloring in general.

[SwirlyWhirly]

If you have a spot outside where you can air them out, that's a great start.  Try burying them in baking soda.  Or put them in a container of cat litter.  Repeat as needed. 

Have you already popped heads off and inspected inside bodies for grossness?

I don't think the problem is grossness inside but rather poor storage since every single pony has the smell and most of them look ok. I'll pop the heads out anyway when it's time to clean them just to be sure. I think they've been stored in a basement or similar rather than having been wet at some point. Most of them smell like a damp cellar.

I have both baking soda and cat litter. Which works best? Can I air them out even though the temperature is in the - Celcius right now?

Poor storage breakdown (high heat) triggers weeping (were any slimy?), and the more worrying issue- sickly sweet acidic stench. NOT that soft delightful mint pony smell, this is pungent and gross acid weird sweet. That's off-gassing VOC's which can damage other items. Does this sound applicable to your lot batch?

Also typical for poor storage breakdown/degridation (from some/one all heat, humidity, UV)  is patches of dark brown areas, or those tiny fungus spots. or just the bodies discoloring in general.

None were slimy but the smell on some of them could be described as sweet acidic. Most just smells like mold though. Some have brown spots and discoloration. The one which smells the worst just have one tiny brown spot though.

Can the ponies with spots and discoloration and the ones which smells acidic be saved or do I need to just throw them away? Can they even be stored in the same room as my other ponies at the moment or do I need to quarantine them? I won't have time to do anything with them for at least a week so right now they're just sitting on a table since I thought that airing them out a little indoors might be a good start. Although since you mentioned off-gassing it doesn't sound like a good idea anymore.

[Leave a Whisper]

If you have a spot outside where you can air them out, that's a great start.  Try burying them in baking soda.  Or put them in a container of cat litter.  Repeat as needed. 

Have you already popped heads off and inspected inside bodies for grossness?

I don't think the problem is grossness inside but rather poor storage since every single pony has the smell and most of them look ok. I'll pop the heads out anyway when it's time to clean them just to be sure. I think they've been stored in a basement or similar rather than having been wet at some point. Most of them smell like a damp cellar.

I have both baking soda and cat litter. Which works best? Can I air them out even though the temperature is in the - Celcius right now?

Poor storage breakdown (high heat) triggers weeping (were any slimy?), and the more worrying issue- sickly sweet acidic stench. NOT that soft delightful mint pony smell, this is pungent and gross acid weird sweet. That's off-gassing VOC's which can damage other items. Does this sound applicable to your lot batch?

Also typical for poor storage breakdown/degridation (from some/one all heat, humidity, UV)  is patches of dark brown areas, or those tiny fungus spots. or just the bodies discoloring in general.

None were slimy but the smell on some of them could be described as sweet acidic. Most just smells like mold though. Some have brown spots and discoloration. The one which smells the worst just have one tiny brown spot though.

Can the ponies with spots and discoloration and the ones which smells acidic be saved or do I need to just throw them away? Can they even be stored in the same room as my other ponies at the moment or do I need to quarantine them? I won't have time to do anything with them for at least a week so right now they're just sitting on a table since I thought that airing them out a little indoors might be a good start. Although since you mentioned off-gassing it doesn't sound like a good idea anymore.

Cleaning and airing them out for starters.Moldy ponies can be saved.

http://www.mlppreservationproject.com/body.html#Mold

[FantasticFirefly]

To check for internal gunk, hold each near a light and look for dark shadowing. A clean inside pony is distinct (test on a couple to see what you will be looking for to give a pass on this test). I don't open clean inside ponies, only ones with grime inside (mold or rust).

Clean the ones who smell acidic last, and wash up cleaning supplies well with something like dawn before they are to be used again. (launder any drying mats or towels well). Wash hands well, and wear gloves.

Anything not with that breakdown acidic smell after cleaning and air drying, place in a tote beside a dish of kitty litter. That's a gentle way of removing smells like musty basement, mildew, smoke etc. seal tote and leave in a cool dark place for a while. Items being deodorized must be fully dry, inside and out before hand. To be safe, I dry as well as possible and leave them out for an extended period before any kind of sealed storage.

The breakdown smell ones, don't keep near your collection. I haven't found/read about a sure-fire way of fixing these guys, so for now anything I do find like that makes it's way into a sealed bin with some moisture absorbers in cold storage in my basement- where I detect zero smell outside the bin. A couple in there I do plan at some point to cut up and use for a couple experiments.

Here's a paper about safe handling of plastics. Page 4 discusses off-gassing. I hope this is of some help.
https://repository.si.edu/bitstream/handle/10088/11186/mci_WAAC2010-Tsang.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y