How do you do it?

[Tiggums6]

Haha I have been getting my house unpacked after nearly threeyears away and I have about 6 or 700  to  deal with, the few I've looked at have grimed up in their boxes so when the time comes...

Baby Yoyo, wow to the washing machine!

[Water_Fire]

I'm another wierdo, I LOVE cleaning my ponies! I give them a scrub when they come to me, then once/twice a year I'll pull my whole collection out and do a spring cleaning. As my collection only numbers about 120 at the moment, it's not too difficult. If I had the enormous collection that some of you guys have, it may be a different story...

[foalpatrol]

I love cleaning ponies!  Nothing is better than getting a huge lot of 30 or so and cleaning them all at once!  My pony heaven:

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[rybett]

Very intrigued by the dishwasher idea.  I have a ton of baity G1s, some are FILTHY.  I think I will toss a couple in and see what happens.  Short cycle, no sanitize I assume?  Or, if you can boil the suckers, maybe sanitize is OK?

[Nienna]

I like doing it, but only a few at the time as others have said I think it was scarletjul and hathorcat who said to set a goal and then stop after that... that way, you feel a sense of accomplishment once you're done and you won't go crazy!

Btw, I love the baby wipes tip, I'm going to try that!!

[Aflame]

i love doing it ! and have a weekend and i do a storage box at a time then have a cup of tea or something ! i have put them in sealable bags to so they dont get as dusty i have about 300 odd but i put a film on or music while im doing it usualy its just hair wash and a wipe over but with new ponies i like to get all the muck off if needed  xaflame

[Desert Rose]

Thanks for the tips everyone! I don't own a dishwasher but we do have a normal washing machine. However it sounds kinda risky to me
I'm gonna go check in an asian store I know of next time I'm up in the city and see if they have Magic Eraser. Otherwise I might just have to ask one of you guys in the US to help me buy it

And to answere the question if ponies in bags get dirty. Yes they do =/ As I put them all in ziplock bags, wrapped the bag around the pony without actually sealing it and then stored them in big plastic boxes underneath my bed for a decade both air and dust have made its way in inside the bags. For a short while I don't think this would be a problem. But take 10 years of this and yeh, the ponies do come out with abit of surfacedirt. 

I have this ocd thing so I just can't put a dirty pony into my new clean bookcases. That would drive me insane in the longrun, knowing they're in there all dirty.
So I want to get them cleaned before they go in there. But yeh, my collection of G1's numbers around 600 or so, so it's quite a task >.<
But I'll take a few sets a day as suggested. Get them clean and up on display. This way I should be done in a few weeks anyway

[Eldarwen]

We have magic erasers in Finland, so i'd be suprised if you dont have them in Sweden.  They're not available in every store, but they're here!

[CrazyCatPony]

when i needed to clean all my G1's and dust all my G3's i did it over a few weeks doing 5 at a time.... that way it wasnt sooo bad

[rybett]

OK, I put 2 G1 baits in the dishwasher, short cycle, heat dry off, cooler temp.  Definitely cleaner, some marker is lighter.  More stuff came off with a baby wipe.  Plan for tomorrow is trying this with a regular cycle and some oxyclean.  Since I have to do some laundry, I may as well toss someone in there as well. 

[hathorcat]

OK, I put 2 G1 baits in the dishwasher, short cycle, heat dry off, cooler temp.  Definitely cleaner, some marker is lighter.  More stuff came off with a baby wipe.  Plan for tomorrow is trying this with a regular cycle and some oxyclean.  Since I have to do some laundry, I may as well toss someone in there as well. 

rybett - how do you explain to the warranty people if a pony breaks your dishwasher?

[rybett]

Cat, the thing is 10 yrs old so I don't think there is one.  I did discover Oxy powder does not like the dishwasher.  I was checking on them every few 'cause I did not want melting.  All things being equal, the washing machine did as good a job at cleaning.  Would only clean baits this way.  Fun experiment. 

[hathorcat]

Cat, the thing is 10 yrs old so I don't think there is one.  I did discover Oxy powder does not like the dishwasher.  I was checking on them every few 'cause I did not want melting.  All things being equal, the washing machine did as good a job at cleaning.  Would only clean baits this way.  Fun experiment. 

Lol - I think I just have visions of my own luck which would involve a pony head getting sucked into the waste pipe and then me having to explain to the £50 an hour plumber exactly what I was doing with my dishwater lol!

[rybett]

Ahh.  See, that's where the little spokes come in.  Heads fit perfectly.  But that would be funny to see someone explain.

[FantasticFirefly]

O.O Oh my gosh.... They got dirty in bags, stored? I haven't had that problem with mine... but I am really bad about cleaning my house - I obsessively over-clean, vacuum all the time. I loathe dust and grime... I wipe down storage boxes and bins every few months too... My "winning the lottery" fantasy is having a professional cleaner come in every day more then being able to buy my dream ponies. 

I have some boxes at my parents wrapped much like yours, inside the boxes each pony is loosely bagged, and I have them wrapped in tissue to prevent rubbing of paint and scuffing bodies and to protect them during transit when I send for them... Lets just say my parents don't share my grime-phobic affliction. lol. They've been down there for years now... most likely it looks like I will indeed have my own group to re-clean too... I have never thought about that before.

As for light dust, do you have dollar stores? I've had excellent luck with lightly dampened microfiber cloths, I buy at my local dollar store. They pull up dust and light surface dirt like crazy, you also don't risk tailrust with this method (vs. repeat wet cleaning).