Flocking: Yay or Nay?

[VanillaBean]

Do you prefer your So Soft ponies fuzzy or naked?
For me it very much depends on the individual designs. I recently discovered a stash of deflocked ponies that I'd completely forgotten about. One of them is Twist, & I love how vividly her colours pop. That bold purple is so striking! On the other hand, I find deflocked Shady obnoxiously bright & garish. She certainly screams eighties!
I think certain ponies like Magic Star & Angel look particularly lovely deflocked. That goes for all the white-bodied gals too.
Then there are some that I prefer fuzzy, such as Twilight, North Star, Ribbon, Hippity Hop, Skippity Doo & Crumpet. Flocking seems to make ponies in shy poses look extra endearing.
I like some ponies equally in both forms. Lofty looks beautiful with her body colour either muted lemon or golden buttercup yellow. Wind Whistler & Buttons work nicely both ways too.
Of course, one downside of flocking is that it can look particularly unattractive if it gets grubby. Nothing ruins a pony's appeal like dirty balding fuzz. How bad does a So Soft's coat have to be before you'll remove it? Or are you a purist who only collects SS ponies in minty condition? Do you think deflocking makes a pony more or less desirable &/or valuable?   

[BlackCurtains]

I agree that it depends on the pony. I love deflocked Twist too and have always wanted one

Mostly, I prefer flocked if it's good condition. I have a lofty with lovey thick flocking and it's so nice.

I think it has to be pretty bad to deflock. Big bald spots, thinning spots, dirt that won't come off, yellowed glue. Value depends on the pony too. Again with deflocked Twist I think she is worth more than an "okay" flocked Twist.

[Carrehz]

Definitely no flocking for me It's weird since usually I like flocked toys (lifelong Sylvanian collector!) but somehow flocked ponies just don't look quite right to me.

That said, I'd never deflock a pony unless her fur was in bad shape. If the flocking's nice and minty and like-new, or just needs a little work, then it'd be a shame to deflock... I'd just pass her onto someone who'd appreciate her more. But if the flocking's bad, half-rubbed off already, no saving it... then might as well go ahead and deflock.

I think deflocks are worth just as much as minty So Softs (and way more desirable to me personally! ), of course assuming it's a good deflock job

Oh, I will say, I don't quite understand going out of your way (general "you") to deflock a pony that already has an easy-to-find NSS counterpart. Like, Magic Star I get, since she was released in different poses... Wind Whistler I kinda get since her SS release's colours are so much brighter... But unless she's SO manky that deflocking's practically a must, I don't really understand going to all the trouble of deflocking, say, Cherries Jubilee or Buttons. I mean if you do that I'm not going to judge, it's your pony after all, just seems like needless work to me

[Beth3346]

i like flocking as long as it's in decent shape and clean. i wouldn't add flocking to a NSS pony though.

[cola]

  Both!

I prefer my SS with their flocking, but I'm not opposed in anyway to deflocking. There's some historical value to having one with their original flocking, in good or bad condition. There's also some appeal to a smooth, unflocked SS pony. Both are desirable to me.

I think it's a eye of the beholder situation. For me, I could go either way.

[Carrehz]

i wouldn't add flocking to a NSS pony though.

Oh, same here. I dunno why, but flocked customs never quite look right to me.

(off-topic but Cola, I love your avatar!)

[lovesbabysquirmy]

both!  Factory perfect SS are so pretty but I have deflocked a few ponies and they looked way better after I was done!

[TheClassCalico]

I prefer flocked, but if the damage is severe enough, I may as well have a deflocked pony. I'll only buy So Softs in good condition, with minimal or no missing fuzz or dirt.

I'd like to learn how to reflock ponies that have missing patches. It's not exactly the same, but it'd be better than the bald patches.

[Shaiyeh]

I love the flocking! I've never owned a so soft-pony, but I have a couple of the EU release unflocked ones (Shady, for instance - I love her). And honestly, I kind of prefer the flocking? They look so dreamy I had one at home for a couple of weeks, for a swap, before sending it off, and it made me decide to collect them at some point. I didnt start yet, they're hard to find here.

I, like BC, would think it needs to be pretty bad to warrant a deflock. Also what Carrehz said x) But I'm also very much a person who likes her ponies to be as much of the original pony as possible

[Ringlets]

Yay! really I like both I prefer to keep them as they are and if there are both fuzzy and nekkid versions (Shady for example.. oops bad name choice for an example )  then I get one of each
..but if the flocking is reeeally dodgy (as in totally unfixable with some good cleaning and already rubbed off really badly) then I've de-flocked a few as well. I'll usually leave flocking on where possible.

[Taffeta]

My position on flocking is that if the pony is in good enough condition to keep it, then she should keep it.

Growing up in the UK, though - we never had SS ponies. The first one I found at a carboot sale, I thought someone did a weird experiment until it dawned on me what she must be (thank you internet, LOL).

...I had Shady as a kid. I won't hear a word against her colour scheme! She was a big favourite of mine when I was 5. I believed she had glow in the dark hair (she didn't, but I had an imagination!).

I am still heartbroken we didn't get a proper, regular Paradise, despite all the promotion.

So overall I probably prefer without flocking where available. I prefer Movie Star Magic Star tenfold to the SS one despite the fact as a kid I disliked her pose. I prefer North Star and Wind Whistler that way because they speak back to the school playground and my childhood with friends who owned them.

...I have a few deflocks. All of them had severely damaged flocking before I submitted them to that, and they were done properly by someone with more skill than me. I have Ribbon, Fifi, Twilight, Hippety Hop.

I don't have a Twist, but I do have Brazilian Twist so that covers that colour contrast

I don't have a Paradise. I have Brazilian Paradise instead, because she's real. I'd still like a proper Lofty at some point - she's the only other one from my childhood stories that didn't get a 'regular' version.

But I do love so softs as so softs as well.

And I am fundamentally opposed to the deflocking of ponies that can be mistaken for regular releases when flocking is removed. Especially Truly and Cupcake, given the $ value of the regular versions - but also Buttons, North Star, Shady (albeit I think it's a slightly different pink) and Gusty. I should add Posey, Lickety Split etc to that list but I am not sure why anyone would bother xD.

Magic Star and Wind Whistler are different between releases so deflocks can't be confused for Movie Stars.

I also wish people would stop calling them NSS ponies. Aside the fact they're not just non-versions of a US release, the ponies in question come from 2 different years, potentially three different sets and were released in different places. Putting them all together perpetuates confusion, especially around Truly and Cupcake, who weren't sold in the same places as Shady, Magic Star etc.

[brightberry]

I love the flocking.  It doesn't have to be pristine, as long as it isn't flaking off, I think it's great.  I don't have any deflocked ponies, but I think they look nice too.

[Mrs. Prospector]

I LOVE flocked ponies. I think they might actually be my favorite gimmick. Their little fuzzy faces are just so cute. When I got my first SS, Cupcake, I was surprised at how nice and thick the flocking was. I thought it was going to be like those flocked LPS, where the flocking is short and thin and rubs off easily. I'm surprised they didn't make any flocked ponies in any of the later gens.

That being said, I like the purpose-made So Soft Ponies better than the rereleased ones from Y3. The deflocked Shady, Magic Star, Wind Whistler, ect. are a little too oversaturated in color without their flocking,  and lose a lot of their appeal to me. On the other hand, a lot of the old characters lose a lot of their detail with their SS versions, like the wings on Heart Throb's symbol.

 I'm pretty selective with the ponies I buy since I have limited space and money, so I try to find ones with their flocking in decent collection, but some wear on their ears, hooves, or wings is fine by me.

[SkyCakes]

I like both and they have great possibilities. I once came across a SS Taffy. So her flocking was just falling off. So I deflocked her. I still have her. She's a nice pony, and it didn't effect her either way.

[Ponybookworm]

If the flocking is good, keep it. If the Pony has a version without flocking, better to get that version than deflock, because some people like the flocking.
Having said that, sometimes flocking gets so bad you have to deflock, & with common SS Ponies this is ok, especially Ribbon, Best Wishes, or others who only came as SS (they look beautiful when properly done).
As Taffeta said, we never had flocked Ponies in the UK, so SS Ponies are new to us. We did have versions of some without flocking, like our Movie Stars & the Posey & CJ with Honeycomb's set, but we never had a single flocked Pony here, until the internet. But I like a good condition SS Pony like Scrumptious or Crumpet or Ribbon or Best Wishes or...