The MLP Arena
Pony Talk => Pony Corral => Topic started by: PrincessMegzie on July 17, 2017, 07:42:53 PM
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WELP. I'm new to cleaning/restoring G1s and I made my first big mistake tonight. I left a Magic Message pony (Magic Mirror) in an OxyClean bath for three hours because I fell asleep. When I finally took her out after waking up, her cutie mark was completely soaked off!! Poor girl is naked now. I cried a little about it because I felt so dumb! She wasn't in fantastic shape to begin with but now she's definitely bait!
So it got me thinking, what are some of your worst restoring mistakes that went completely wrong and ruined the pony you were working on? I'm curious! I can't be the only one to have turned a pony into bait because of a silly mistake, right?
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Magic Message pony symbols are notorious for not being stable, I swear some of them could disintegrate by just looking at them wrong :P so don't beat yourself up too much over it. I've not done anything too horrible that I can think of since I reached adulthood, but in my youth I did horrible things to my ponies, including coming up with the brilliant false memory that Snuzzle was originally white and using every cleaning method (and some other "methods") I knew of to get her back to white again. Luckily though I didn't realize it at the time, nothing I tried worked and Snuzzle stubbornly remained gray.
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G1 restoration is a passion of mine, so I personally never consider any of them "bait." Any issue can be fixed if you have the time and resources to put into it. That said, though, I was cleaning a particularly disgusting and moldy Teeny Tiny today and the toothbrush went RIGHT THROUGH her body. I'm 99% sure that the mold had completely eaten away at the plastic, since other bits around the hole I made started flaking off in the grossest way right afterwards, but...ugh. I felt terrible. This was my first "total loss" G1 and it broke my heart.
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One Time I dyed a blank Sundance blue and then put yellow hair in, only to go to the sink to style the hair with hot water and..... Run all of the blue dye right into the blonde hair. :cry:
Not the worst mistake possible, but did have to buy a whole new hank of hair to pay for it!
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I was re-pinking a SS Windwhistler's very faded hair a couple years ago. Instead of being super careful when doing the mane, I decided it'd be ok to just dunk her whole head in to make sure the mane came out even. Well, I'm sure you can guess what happened. The flocking on her head is now a soft pink as well. Oops. >.<
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Used my old straightener because I couldn't find my new one with temp settings, so I was switching it on and off to keep the temp low... until I forgot to switch it off and fried some hair. At least I could re-hair her though!!
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Similar to Stormness'...I made the mistake of thinking you could straighten a Totsy's hair just like a real MLP's. Now a chunk of my Totsy's hair is disintegrated and she'll have to be rehaired.
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I put too much pressure on Applejack's head while re rooting her to make Rapunzel. He head broke in half, luckily I had another Applejack that I was trying to sell so I borrowed her head.
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I had a very nice Quarterback with a lot of rust inside I think it was. So he went into an oxyclean bath for just a couple minutes to get it out. His symbol lost all it's color, now it's just white! And it happened so fast!
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I had a very nice Quarterback with a lot of rust inside I think it was. So he went into an oxyclean bath for just a couple minutes to get it out. His symbol lost all it's color, now it's just white! And it happened so fast!
Oh my gosh! That is so scary - it could have happened to anyone :shocked:
I guess I have just been lucky so far then
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Used acetone to remove nail polish from g4 cutie mark. Ouch.
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Oh those Magic Message symbols. Back when I was new to ponies and didn't know there was such a thing as Magic Message ponies, I found a really grubby Magic Message Windy and hurried off to put her in warm soapy water and give her a good scrub....then it was 'Argh, her symbol's falling off! How? Why? Noooo!'
Beheading ponies (that sounds unnecessarily violent) for rehairing is alarming too. I have accidentally sliced necks or broken neck plugs before. It makes me feel so guilty! 'Don't worry, little pony, I'll repair you....oh, first I'll just add some more damage....'
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Oh those Magic Message symbols. Back when I was new to ponies and didn't know there was such a thing as Magic Message ponies, I found a really grubby Magic Message Windy and hurried off to put her in warm soapy water and give her a good scrub....then it was 'Argh, her symbol's falling off! How? Why? Noooo!'
Beheading ponies (that sounds unnecessarily violent) for rehairing is alarming too. I have accidentally sliced necks or broken neck plugs before. It makes me feel so guilty! 'Don't worry, little pony, I'll repair you....oh, first I'll just add some more damage....'
I haven't done the magic message thing because the first one I bought already had a damaged symbol and I figured it out. But I have ripped a neck plug before. It doesn't show from the outside, she looks great so I'll just keep her forever and then no-one will be disappointed to find the damage.
I started restoring on really baity ponies so I've not had too many serious disasters :)
I've had two or three goes at improving some of the ponies as my skills have improved. Particularly with hair.
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When I used acne cream on my childhood Baby Cuddles! It was back then when I didnt know how it would affect green/blue ponies. I've never had any other accidents when restoring ponies, but that Cuddles still makes me sad since it was my childhood pony! But luckily someone from the arena (Im sorry I cant remember your name right now :() fixed her for me! I am so grateful for that. Now she looks like new.
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I made most of the mistakes described here so far: ripping a neck plug but not all the way and then Artemesia Floc told me to use a butterknife for that so I haven't repeated that mistake. I soaked off a Magic message symbol before I knew there was such a thing but it was pretty messed up anyway. I melted my share of hair with my old flatiron with no temp control but usually fakies and other toys not MLP's. Ehem, just a little trim...
I've also bleached the heck out of a bunch of ponies before being informed that I'm not supposed to use bleach and for the most part I got really lucky and had great results with it, though I think I did yellow a yellowing SS Sundance worse than it already was and it remains to be seen what the long-term impacts will be on those ponies.
I think the most common thing I did wrong was frizzing hair by combing too roughly while trying to tame it, and I need to go back through my first ponies and defrizz them. Fixable though, lucky lucky.
Oh yes here's one not mentioned yet: I used fabric softener too strong and soaked too long and found it can transfer some hair colors to the body.
I actually ruined most of my dress shirts a few weeks ago soaking too long in Oxiclean too strong....that stuff isn't so safe if not used as directed, haha. I gotta question my obsession with stronger, longer use of things than the instructions describe...
Not to worry, we all have our share of mistakes! Just try to learn and not repeat them and ask questions first and tell after so fewer of us make fewer of the same mistakes.
Magic Motion symbols are too fragile anyway, so just repaint them and it's fine. I have a Magic Hat that arrived with almost no symbol at all so I just redrew the symbols with colored ballpoint pens and it looks great. I think rubbed symbols might be a good place to use those increasingly rare G1 stickers too, no? Or some glitterpodge Yaaay.
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When I finally took her out after waking up, her cutie mark was completely soaked off!! Poor girl is naked now. I cried a little about it
Oh, gosh - yep... this was sort of me waaaaay back in the day :( Was new to collecting and restoring ponies and at the time had no idea the fragility of magic message symbols!! I was washing a not too bad Mirror Mirror, and was using warm water (1st mistake). Combine that with my fingers inadvertently rubbing on the symbol as I was holding her (mistake #2) well... I joined the 'I ruined a MM pony' club :P
p.s. I cried, too!
I think my worst blunder which still infuriates me to this day to think about it.... was I acquired a literally perfect Powder Puff charm. Perfect but for one tiny, minuscule, almost inconsequential blue dot right in the middle of her three heart symbol. I almost nonchalantly got out the nail polish remover... dipped the end of a cotton bud - thought for a millisecond 'maybe I should use a tooth pick?' Nah... I'll be very careful and I'll be fine....
Should have used the effing toothpick.
The blue spot came off... and I also smudged the edges of two of the hearts :yikes: I was so angry with myself. Seriously the blackest of moods for at least 24hrs :sneaky: Her hearts are still 98% intact but... I will forever live knowing it was me who ruined their perfection (and seriously - how often do you see Powder Puff with intact hearts!?) all because of one stupid, stupid error of judgement :unsure:
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Oh man, I just got my collection out of storage recently and have started going through them and cleaning and restoring the ones who need it. I've not had any incidents yet, but this thread is kinda spooky and I'm a little nervous to keep going now lol.
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I have also taken off a Magic Message pony's symbol in hot water. Man, those ponies are fragile fillies.
I've cut off a neck plug. Once. Off of a Baby Crumpet. :blush: I still have her, too.
I've also rubbed off flocking a lot of times and occasionally yanked out pony hair when trying to take out tangles.
*sigh* My poor ponies.
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I used some acne cream on a nbbe Baby Gusty - part of her leaves is white now :(
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Oh yes here's one not mentioned yet: I used fabric softener too strong and soaked too long and found it can transfer some hair colors to the body.
That's a good one to know :)
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I joined a swap once and bought a mint condition so soft pony for my partner. However, it arrived in mint condition but smelling like cat pee really bad. So, I knew I had to get another pony for my partner. I decided to clean it. That didn't work. So I sprayed some of that enzyme cleaner for cat pee on the so soft pony. Left it on the pony the amount of time required. Came back in the room and the flocking on the pony was falling off. Basically she had perfect flocking and was nude by the time I got done. So, I have kept her as she is like my mascot now. I named her Cat Pee Pony. I was so angry about the whole thing at first and felt stupid for how I ruined this perfect pony. I guess it was just more fun to turn her into a character I could use to blame everything one that happens that I don't like. So, now this pony is a fun part of our world. She still smells a bit but not like she did. >_<
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Could this be a wonder product for removing stubborn flocking :shocked:
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Wow ruined the flocking and STILL has that smell.
Bummer.
I find ammonia is best on such smells, is that safe on flocking? Anyone know?
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I think the only thing I've done that I would consider a serious mistake: NOT even trying to clean up my childhood Baby Sea Pony! I just tossed her in the trash.
Yes it has been more than 20 years and YES I am still regretting it!
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Could this be a wonder product for removing stubborn flocking :shocked:
Yea I would say so except you still have that sticky glue stuff to get off and it is much harder to remove...this was by far the most heartbreaking thing I ever put myself through. LOL
I think the only thing I've done that I would consider a serious mistake: NOT even trying to clean up my childhood Baby Sea Pony! I just tossed her in the trash.
Yes it has been more than 20 years and YES I am still regretting it!
I can see myself doing this. I still remember all my toys in bags in the kitchen when mom moved. She wanted me to take everything. I was like 22 at the time and thought I didn't need that stuff. Man I could just kick myself you know where now. :pout: I let go of a lot of stuff.
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I had a very nice Quarterback with a lot of rust inside I think it was. So he went into an oxyclean bath for just a couple minutes to get it out. His symbol lost all it's color, now it's just white! And it happened so fast!
This just happened to me couple days ago! :yikes: I was going to just quickly soak him in there, but my grandma called so I forgot him. And his symbols were really good before this. I hate myself right now. :shakefist:
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My first G1 pony was Milky Way and let's just say I was veeeeery nervous about cleaning her up and absolutely convinced I'd do something and ruin her forever and ever. I remember making some positively frantic posts about her on here :lol: Thankfully, with many more pony spa days under my belt, I've realized that most ponies are made of sterner stuff than I originally feared.
Anyway, I cleaned her up and then I felt pretty good about myself. But then I completely freaked out when I gave her a squeeze and realized she was full of water! I was sure she'd be completely full of mold in now time flat. So then I decided her head needed to come off. I couldn't pull it off, so I enlisted my brother's help to loosen the head up with his pocket knife (I think you all see where this is going).
For some reason, I kind of just assumed he would know that there was a neck plug and didn't tell him about it. Why I assumed someone who wasn't a pony person would just KNOW that is absolutely beyond me. I kind of thought he'd just run the knife around the outside of her neck to break the seal with the glue. But instead he just started to cut right through!! To be fair, all I told him was "please help me remove my pony's head with your pocket knife" so I really shouldn't have been surprised. I saw what he was doing and stopped him but poor Milky Way was already partially decapitated.
Not going to lie, some tears were shed :P She looks absolutely fine though from the outside, and I have no intentions of ever selling her, so everything worked out fine in the end.
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I kinda forgot an entire jar full of adorable baby ponies (being prepped for customs) in a jar of 100% acetone.
They kinda melted...
On the upside an artist friend of mine made some really cool art with what was left!
Post Merge: July 26, 2017, 10:53:52 AM
My first G1 pony was Milky Way and let's just say I was veeeeery nervous about cleaning her up and absolutely convinced I'd do something and ruin her forever and ever. I remember making some positively frantic posts about her on here :lol: Thankfully, with many more pony spa days under my belt, I've realized that most ponies are made of sterner stuff than I originally feared.
Anyway, I cleaned her up and then I felt pretty good about myself. But then I completely freaked out when I gave her a squeeze and realized she was full of water! I was sure she'd be completely full of mold in now time flat. So then I decided her head needed to come off. I couldn't pull it off, so I enlisted my brother's help to loosen the head up with his pocket knife (I think you all see where this is going).
For some reason, I kind of just assumed he would know that there was a neck plug and didn't tell him about it. Why I assumed someone who wasn't a pony person would just KNOW that is absolutely beyond me. I kind of thought he'd just run the knife around the outside of her neck to break the seal with the glue. But instead he just started to cut right through!! To be fair, all I told him was "please help me remove my pony's head with your pocket knife" so I really shouldn't have been surprised. I saw what he was doing and stopped him but poor Milky Way was already partially decapitated.
Not going to lie, some tears were shed :P She looks absolutely fine though from the outside, and I have no intentions of ever selling her, so everything worked out fine in the end.
Oh... that's so sad!
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Mine was in trying to clean a chunk of crusty red junk from the back of a SS Wind Whistler that was otherwise near-perfect looking. I didn't know warm water would loosen the glue. :cry:
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I kinda forgot an entire jar full of adorable baby ponies (being prepped for customs) in a jar of 100% acetone.
They kinda melted...
On the upside an artist friend of mine made some really cool art with what was left!
Do you have photos? That sounds (morbidly) cool!
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I've damaged a MM symbol, but not as hard as the kid who had this pony before me did. It had a huge hole inside before I got this girl. Eh, I'll just redraw it, not a big fan of those magic symbols. I also happen to have a second one who's symbol looks nice.
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oof, last year i decided to check inside my night glider for schmutz, since even though shes pretty much perfect, she had a bit of a musty smell to her. i'd already left her in a plastic box with baking soda for a couple months, so this was my last resort
the glue on her neck seal was super strong, i tried everything to loosen it! hot water, blowdryer, etc.
so i'd been at it for like 45 minutes and decide to use a craft knife to try to break the seal; needless to say, i cut right through the plug :yikes:
worst of all, she was totally clean inside, no mold or rust or anything!
i was really sore at myself about it for quite a while! i still have her neck plug in case i figure out a way to reattach it
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I too can join the MM Symbol Scrub Off club >_<
The worst I've done is tried to sunfade my childhood Confetti, when I found out the hard way that she doesn't fade, but sunburn.
Gave up restoration after that, now I just try to collect ponies that don't need it, and if they do, I learn to live with it!
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I'm yet another member of the "I destroyed a MM symbol club." Luckily my MM Windy doesn't look too bad, and I plan on restoring her symbol down the road.
My Party Time is a whole different story, though. I bought her in pretty bad shape, but when I was through with her, she became much, much worse. She originally had a chunk missing from her neck that was very visible, and after opening her, I found that her neck plug, while it was still in there, was completely detached. Naturally, I decided to glue it back on... With super glue. It dripped down onto her face and now she's got a patch of crusty glue on her head, and her neck doesn't look any better. She's for sure bait, and I plan on finding a replacement as soon as I have the money.
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I received one of the minty-est Quarterbacks. Beautiful blue boy, really shockingly blue, soft hair, pretty boy with just some tail rust. I used Oxyclean, put him in hot water with the oxy clean to loosen the rust from inside the bottom of his hooves and let him soak for 10-15 mins. Came back and he had lost all the color from his symbol.