List of Things to do When New Pony Arrives?

[toralei]

Hello all!


My first G1 came in the mail today!  While I'm very excited that she's here, she does have quite a few marks on her. Some are obviously pen or something, while others look a bit more suspicious. Is there a list/standard procedure of pony spa type things to do when a new pony arrives?


Thank you!

[Griffin]

Yay, congrats on your first G1 pony!

If the pony looks okay, I usually just comb the hair and put it on the shelf. If there's any suspicion of the pony being rusty on the inside (e.g. visible tail rust), I pop the head off and take a look. You should always take off the head if you're planning to bathe the pony, i.e. submerge it, otherwise it won't dry properly, and moisture on the inside may cause rust and possible mould to appear. I remove the tail, wash the pony thoroughly (with dish soap or just common hand soap), condition the hair and let the head, body and tail dry separately for a few days before putting it back together.

Pen marks can be sunfaded if acetone won't help (there should be lots of threads about sunfading) and if there are some suspicious spots, like mould or something, boiling is a good way to treat those and prevent them from spreading.

Hope this helps. ^^ There is more info about restoring around if you need it, but as for standard procedures, washing should be enough, or simply wiping the pony with a wet cloth and combing the hair.       

[tulagirl]

I think a lot of this depends on what kind of pony you bought, what color is she? Who is she? Some methods for cleaning are not safe for colored ponies.  Other methods can cause damage to symbols...so maybe you could post a photo of the pony you have..some marks will not be easy to remove no matter what you do.  Hair is easy to fix. Mr. Clean Magic Eraser is safe to use on all ponies to try to remove some marks that have not already bled into the plastic.  It can't be used over painted surfaces such as symbols eyes and other characteristics of that sort, because it will literally remove the painted symbols or features. So be careful to keep it away from anything painted on the pony.  Also remember if you ever want to sell this pony in the future removing the head might be an issue in getting a good price. There are a lot of people that will not buy ponies who no longer have factory glued heads.  If you have no plans to sell it and its going to remain a part of your collection then you have nothing to lose by removing the head.  Some ponies already have loose heads when I buy them and it doesn't bother me, but I have friends that will not ever buy ponies without factory glued heads..just something to consider.  Whenever we fix anything vintage toy or doll the least amount of intervention the better to make the toy nicer but not change its value is my motto.

[butterflybuttons]

Congrats on your first G1, which pony was it?

The first thing I do is give new ponies a scrub with jif (a creme cleaner) then condition and comb the hair.

If there are still marks, I go over them with a magic eraser. If that doesn't get them off I try acetone (being careful of the symbols and eyes). If that still hasn't got the marks off, I cover the hair and paintwork and sunfade.

Then once the marks are all gone, I will work on styling the hair if it's needed.

[toralei]

Thank you for your help so far! She's Dancing Butterflies, so I know I must be careful when cleaning her.


Most of her marks just look like dirt or marker... The one thing that scares me are her ears (excuse the toothpaste):
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There is a mark on her mane where it meets this spot on her ears,  so I hope that is a sign that this may be a surface sort of thing


EDIT: Great news! I used a toothbrush and some handsoap to do a basic wash, and the majority of the black stuff is gone! (Pardon my hair in her hair)
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There is a similar remnant I found on the NDS wing, but, it didn't even pick up on the camera.

[butterflybuttons]

That's pindot mold. She is looking so much better now!

[toralei]

Uh oh!! Well, what are some procedures to keep that from spreading (runs off to google)?

[kittybethy]

I would scrub the pindot mold with hot water, antibacterial soap, and a pot scrubber!

 That stuff is just aweful!

[Pythia]

It actually looks more like ink smudges from newspaper or something, to me, rather than pindot mould.

[Taxel]

Pindot in very tiny, so I'm quite confused. o.O That doesn't look like pindot at all, it just looks like she got ink or something on her.

[tehrin]

That spot just could have been dirt or some other kind of grime, especially if it came right off with soap and water! I got a restore lot, which I thought the ponies were covered in shaprie. It was actually black dirt that had sit on the pony for ages. D; It came right out.

My usual proceedure:

Does she look okay? If she looks good, especially if bought directly from someone here or a collector and it was in their collection, I just pop them on the shelf. Oh and photograph too! Sometimes they need their hair fixed. So I'll do that. (condition, comb, set in place overnight) If it was curly, I'll curl their hair with foam rollers and a cup of nuked water poured over the head.

Sometimes ponies gotten from 2nd hand need more work. They'll sometimes have marks all over, dirt, and what not. Most of the time some dishsoap and water gets the dirt off. Other times, rubbing with a bit of rubbing alcohol (a few swipes of 70% works over painted areas and also removes pen marks on symbols without damaging it). If that doesn't do the trick, I go up to 90%. 

If that doesn't work, then Acetone, so long as it's not a painted area.  Sometimes the Acetone will reveal if your pony is covered with inground dirt. For example, a white pony looking very offwhite? It might be dirt! You'll see bright white underneath! If it's inground dirt, the head pops off, tail gets removed and it's time for an oxyclean bath! Boiling water + 2 scoops of oxyclean and let the pony soak for awhile. Usually 30 minutes or so. Then I take the pony out and scrubbadubdub with a toothbrush.

Then I wash with dishsoap and sit on a towel with the tail hole down to drip for about 1 day, then flip her onto her feet for 2 days to entirely air dry. Baby ponies tend to dry quicker though. Best way to tell is stick a qtip in the legs and feel for moisture.

Most of the time, I throw the metal washer out. Unless it's more pricey pony, then I'll keep it. I heat up the tail hole, put in the tail, pull out a good ways, attach a zip tie, then pull. Put the head back on. If there's no additional work to do with the pony (rehairing/repainting), I'll glue her head on with tacky glue.

[toralei]

Thanks for all the info    I bought her from somebody who was not a collector, so I'm taking caution. I think it could very well be pindot, as little dots are still in the areas that were black before. Is acetone something that will help kill mold/bacteria or keep it from spreading? I have a huge thing of it (and already used some to clean up pen marks) in the house.

[Ginger]

This is what I do if the pony comes to me second hand with dirt,

-Gently scrub surface with dish soap+toothbrush. I do not submerge the pony in water and am careful about not getting water on the base of the tail/neck seam. I rinse with a damp rag many times around those areas.
-Spot-clean tougher marks with Mr. Clean Magic eraser (not on any paint).
-Wipe/rinse it all again
-Wash/condition hair, rinse super duper well
-Set in curls/the position I want the hair dried in
-Dry with the tail base facing downwards, just in case any water DID get in there it can drain out. I'm paranoid.
-Wait until dry+as long as I can stand it
-PICTURES!


Right now I'm working with pindot mold/smooze/ingrained dirt.. it is not nessasarily mold though but just really smooshed in dirt. I scrubbed my pony with baking soda REALLY hard once to see if that'll help scratch it out (it did!) BUT DON'T DO IT because I recreated ingrained dirt with the grainy baking soda. Instead of little dark spots, there are little white spots now. LOL. >_>'