Regrind spots & Highlighters... clarification? UPDATED w/ PICS! :)

[Sunshine]

Okay... so I know many different ponies get regrind... some of the ones I can think of as being very common to get it are like Flutter Wind Song, TE Locket, Big Brother WigWam...

And usually these appear as what looks like "highlighter" on their body, for pink ponies, hot pink highlighter, and on Wigwam, like a hot orange color.

However, I got an entire lot of ponies in the mail today of all different colors... and every single one of them has little pink highlighter dots on them. Now on some of them, they look like just that... highlighter marker. But some, like Masquerade? She's got what looks like REGRIND pink dots on her. Perhaps this is just the actual marker bleeding into the plastic making it look like it's coming from the plastic but... they are all different colors (the ponies themselves)... so, it's probably highlighter, right?

What I'm asking is, do non pink ponies get highlighter pink regrind? I don't think so... right?

Also... does anyone in this world have an explanation for how a whole group of ponies gets what looks to be completely random, unintentional highlighter dots all over them? Clearly they were not put there by a human, but... it looks like a highlighter exploded and drops got all over them, that's how random they are. I can try to take some photos but, just looking for some humorous explanations for this...

Also... is there ANY sunfading of pink marks? I've heard they are the devils work... and don't fade... meh! 

OKAY! Edit: Time for pictures of my gals...
So here's a group shot... Of all of these, every single one of them has at LEAST one "pink highlighter" spot (dot, not streak, DOTS) EXCEPT for Firefly...
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Here's a couple shots of the dots on Masquerade. Now Masqie here is one of those... "slick" almost "sticky" feeling ponies. I haven't done anything to her yet...
Some on her chest:
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And on her back/hip:
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Baby Tappy has one on her cheek (hardest to see, this is the only dot on her whole body) - could be regrind on her?
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Teeny Tiny has a dot across her neck seam...
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And SS Lofty has dots ALL OVER her back legs and hips... they're hard to see. Even some on the feet and stuff. (I may test a spot on the bottom of her foot to see if these marks go through the flocking to the plastic itself or not...)
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So... any guesses as to what this is all from? It's weird to me.... maybe it isn't "highlighter" per say, but ink of some kind, yes? Or is this all regrind? It's just so odd...

[hathorcat]

Lol - a lot to cover here Prepare for wall-o-text.

Ok - "highligher" seems to have over the years made people think of literal "pink pen" marks. Instead of what the description actually pertains to which is - what the marks look like - i.e. they look like a pink highlighter pen not that they are a pink highligher pen.

I think the key things with "highlighter" to remember are:
1) How many kids in the 80s were running around with highlighter pens [and the more uncommon pink ones at that] rather than crayons, pencils or felt tip pens. If you were to say the highligher marks on every pony were from that - then that seems an awful lot of kids with access to a type of stationary you would not expect. Would you give your child a pink highlighter pen to decorate their toys? [I was banned from all types of unsupervised colouring equipment after using crayons to colour rainbows on the hallway artex when I was 3 - never mind access to highligher pens ]
2) Why are highligher marks never in the most obvious places. If I was a child with a highligher I would use it for lipstick, eyeshadow and perhaps to decorate hooves. I would not be randomly daubing a pony all over and in places which are not visible.
3) Also highlighter pen does not normally look as intense or bright a pink - if you have a bait pony and a highligher pen - try it out you dont get the same intensity of colour especially on darker shades of pony.

Yes, any pony can get "highligher" - any colour. I believe it is unfortunately a break down in the plastic itself. You can actually see sometimes with certain plastics [which have regularly gotten damp - such as plug holes etc] that over time white plastic can develop a pinkish tinge. I think its a similar idea. And it could also perhaps explain a situation like this. Perhaps the ponies were stored in a damp environment or got wet or something similar. I think unlike some other issues with ponies, highlighter can be caused by environment.

As to the difference between the two. 

Regrind normally appears like an age mark - normally with a darker central point and fading out. Its not always easy to see the central point however but normally you can see a slight unevenness to the colour.

Highlighter looks like what it was named after - as though someone has drawn on the pony with a pink pen. It seems to be more on the surface than regrind and is normally an evenly coloured mark.

[Sunshine]

Haha... I know I had highlighters and all kinds of marker, but I'm guessing if they were ink they probably started as something else... but that's what I want to know too - why aren't I seeing eyeshadow, lipstick, wings outlined (have seen it before, but not on this)... but one of the ones I'm referring to is a SS pony... like... can I see that through it? I'll post some pics. But, let me go back and just say - how about "anything but regrind - ink, marker, highlighter" or "regrind"? Haha

[lunar_scythe]

Was there a pink western style saddle set in the lot?  'Saddle sores' can be bright pink marks left by the softer saddle/bridle sets left against ponies for a long time, I think some of the shoes do this too.  In some really bad cases I've seen, the spots were actually raised, as if the softer saddle had stuck to the pony!

Another possibility is the hair or clothing colors bleeding onto the ponies, surprises neon yellow does that, I'm sure hers isn't the only color that does that.

i always thought regrind marks were the bright marks that spread over time, cloud puff starts out purple but can turn completely hot pink, for example.

Brown or tan spots with darker centers I thought were what people ment by cancer?

[Sunshine]

Real bad regrind you can that little brown center... I've seen it on the Wind Song that I've had before, but I also usually say that the brown marks are something like age spots, cancer, smooze (depending on what it actually looks like...)

Once I take a photo you guys can see it probably isn't hair, I just had an issue with that yellow chartreuse hair bleeding on a Flutterbye, so I definitely know what you mean by the yellow "highlighter" marks, lol (like, the SS lofty - yellow on yellow, but random pink marks between her back legs), etc... it's so strange.

[katrine2309]

I had highlighters as a kid! And I have some marks on my childhoods unfortunately from it...

I used to try and mark the hooves of my ponies (my mom insisted that we did this for some reason - I believe it was because me and my sister always got into quarrels over toys...), and then I missed and gave them dots other places as well.

But that doesn't sound like is what happened to your ponies though. Could be regrind, but it almost sounds like something in that lot has rubbed off on these ponies. I had that happen to my Posey. Her display side has some red color bleed into her plastic. Does not look pretty, never found out what it was and never been able to remove it.... Oh, well - I think of these things like their battle scars from childhood. Means that they were played with and loved once, right?

And yeah, regrind can have that little brown center dot. My baby North Star has that kind of regrind. I'm more sad for her than for the ponies with highlighter marks though... It's more depressing that the plastic is actually falling apart than the battle scars...

[DancingPhoenix]

This is something I've pondered as well. For me though regrind is usually spots, where highlighter marks are anything BUT spots. Usually I find ponies that have random scribbles, and definitely don't think regrind works in that kind of a "pattern".

[rybett]

I always though highlighter was just that.  Marker marks.  Probably because I don't think any of ours have it, so I've only seen pics.  I wanna see pics of this pony pile.  Because pony pile pics are cool. 

[Sunshine]

Okay I updated the first post with pics of my sad gals... I wish I could help them... I don't think I can.

What really irks me is that SS Lofty is in amazing shape flock-wise too... I hate that she has those dots. I don't even really want to deflock her because of that...

[katrine2309]

Strange, it is hard to say though, but on those not pink ponies I don't think it is regrind. But actually some marks of a kind. Tappy though could be regrind. Seems like the dot kinda bleeds out a little? That is at least what it looks like on my pink girls. And also, the ponies I have with regrind almost always have the dots in a brighter shade than the plastic. I don't think the others have regrind.

[FarDreamer]

Lol - a lot to cover here Prepare for wall-o-text.

Ok - "highligher" seems to have over the years made people think of literal "pink pen" marks. Instead of what the description actually pertains to which is - what the marks look like - i.e. they look like a pink highlighter pen not that they are a pink highligher pen.

I think the key things with "highlighter" to remember are:
1) How many kids in the 80s were running around with highlighter pens [and the more uncommon pink ones at that] rather than crayons, pencils or felt tip pens. If you were to say the highligher marks on every pony were from that - then that seems an awful lot of kids with access to a type of stationary you would not expect. Would you give your child a pink highlighter pen to decorate their toys? [I was banned from all types of unsupervised colouring equipment after using crayons to colour rainbows on the hallway artex when I was 3 - never mind access to highligher pens ]
2) Why are highligher marks never in the most obvious places. If I was a child with a highligher I would use it for lipstick, eyeshadow and perhaps to decorate hooves. I would not be randomly daubing a pony all over and in places which are not visible.
3) Also highlighter pen does not normally look as intense or bright a pink - if you have a bait pony and a highligher pen - try it out you dont get the same intensity of colour especially on darker shades of pony.

Yes, any pony can get "highligher" - any colour. I believe it is unfortunately a break down in the plastic itself. You can actually see sometimes with certain plastics [which have regularly gotten damp - such as plug holes etc] that over time white plastic can develop a pinkish tinge. I think its a similar idea. And it could also perhaps explain a situation like this. Perhaps the ponies were stored in a damp environment or got wet or something similar. I think unlike some other issues with ponies, highlighter can be caused by environment.

As to the difference between the two. 

Regrind normally appears like an age mark - normally with a darker central point and fading out. Its not always easy to see the central point however but normally you can see a slight unevenness to the colour.

Highlighter looks like what it was named after - as though someone has drawn on the pony with a pink pen. It seems to be more on the surface than regrind and is normally an evenly coloured mark.

Can I quote this on my website?  I need to get up some info about "highlighter" marks.

Heck, can I just quote you every time you post about re-stores?  You always have great stuff to add! 

[ValeofSpring]

Thanks for posting the pics!  I think it's odd that all the ponies in your lot except one have the same type of marks.  Normally I'd say based on what I see that it's some type of imperfection in the plastic (regrind, etc.), but why do they ALL have it (minus Firefly)?  With Lofty though it does *appear* that the marks are coming up from within, as the flocking doesn't seem to be affected--is this true? 

While I definitely *was* a child of the 80s who loved using hot pink highlighter (it was the 80s after all!), I have definitely been suspicious of why so many marks on ponies seem to be pink highlighter.  Like lunar_scythe mentioned, I've realized part of the explanation for the preponderance of pink marks is rubs from pink saddles and shoes.  These normally occur in the obvious places but I have a Gusty w/ what I'm pretty sure are pink accessory marks on her face b/c I know for a fact she was stored for years in a box with the saddle from the Show Stable.  The purple Pretty Parlor accessories do not seem to stain, at least in my experience, so no purple marks.

However, yours clearly are NOT accessory stains.  It's as if the ponies in your lot have all caught the measles

[Eldarwen]

I believe its possible they're just highlighter stains. I've come across tons of ponies with same kind of marks, and most of them i've been able to sunfade away. I doubt you could do that to regrind.  At least I LOVED those pens as a kid, and all my childhood ponies had some kind of marks on them.

[Sugar]

I've been pondering this too.  I wonder if what we're calling highlighter isn't due to pony vinyl absorbing the pink tinge from other pink plastic toys stored in with them?  Not just saddles & bridles, but I'm recollecting an awful darned lot of flaming hot pink plastic toys of the Barbie and other fashion doll variety, and especially in the cheaper dollar-store toys... perhaps over time all this pinkety-pink stuff, rubbing up on ponies in the toybox, causes the infamous pink highlighter marks?

I may test this out... but I have a feeling it'd be the sort of thing that'd take a while to replicate...

[Sunshine]

Sugar and others, lol - totally know what you mean about the pink plastic toys bleeding into other toys causing highlighter...

So, Tappy I know has regrind. If you really look at that photo, that dot has a dark center.

HOWEVER, the Lofty, Teeny and Masquerade dots are not like that.

I guess I just want someone to humor me with some crazy way that these DOTS get everywhere? I could understand like... the neon yellow streaks you sometimes see on ponies from their hair or... like... if it's a dot and there is other writing on them or something but isn't it odd... these ink spots we see on them? Like, someone threw all their ponies and open markers in a box and shook them around, lol... but, yes could be siting against other toys... Lofty is still the one that bugs me the most... I mean... WHY. She's so darn pretty otherwise... LMAO I can't get over her.

So is there any sunfading of these pink marks (minus Tappy)? Can they ever go away?