What brand of clay?

I want to say Sculpey, but I don't 100% remember. How long does it usually take for uncured clay to start breaking down?

Maybe this can be a yearly thing? Going forward I had planned to do three custom swaps a year, but I can replace one with this instead. Maybe have it over the summer instead of the beginning of the year? So it would be custom swap - style challenge - Halloween swap.

Yes, please!

 Admittedly, I don't know much about Mercari or Zip, but from what I gather here, I would just send the seller a message letting them know that Pay Later went wonky when you made the purchase and that you will be using Zip this time, then go ahead with the purchase. Even if they don't respond to your messages, they probably do read them.

I appreciate it, BC. And thanks, Griffin. I was actually using a box cutter on the pony when I sliced my hand. Looks like I'll just have to pick up an x-acto knife once I can work on customs again.

The one I was prepping was one of the G4 retro-styled ponies. I've never had much trouble with customizing G1 and G3, but the later G4 toys have consistently been a pain to work with. I recently had a similar issue with a Celestia I was customizing, and with her, I gave up on digging her neck peg out and just opted to glue her tail in.

Panda, he looks amazing! The magnets were such a neat idea. I'm always blown away by your work.

 HoM, Blueberry Soup and Choco look amazing! I love that hair!

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 Alrighty, here's my girl, Moonmelon, and her bunny friend, Melune. I am terrible at taking photos, so please bear with me.
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 Back in 2012, there was this Internet hoax that I remember popping up on Tumblr often about a type of watermelon called a moonmelon. The rind is green like any run-of-the-meal watermelon, but cutting it open would reveal its gorgeous royal blue flesh (this bit sounds so weird out of context lol). I wanted my pony's food theme to go well with the colors. At first, I was going to base her off some sorta cocktail, but then I just happened to remember the old moonmelon hoax and went along with that instead.

Moonmelon uses Majesty as a base. Her pose was perfect; It has that regal look I was going for. I decided to dye her rather than painting on a base coat. I'm still getting used to dying ponies, so it is pretty uneven, especially around the face. I used dark blue for the points, which, on her legs and ears were painted to resemble the stripes on watermelon rinds (the ears are actually meant to look like "moonmelon" slices). Her green eyes are also supposed to resemble the rind. I didn't get too creative with incorporating the orange. Using chalk pastels, I just put it where I felt like it would fit. Alongside the sparkles painted on her body, I put glitter on the fleshy melon parts. Her hair uses a blend of Glory 2.0 (purple), Pink Satin ("red"), and Angel (white) from Shimmerlocks. I know it's really hard to see, but I swear there's pink in there. I also incorporated the beads into her hairstyle.

In keeping with the moon theme, I decided to make the animal companion a bunny. I sculpted her with clay then flocked her with small bits of yarn. I used beads for her eyes and gave her another bead to hold, just because it looked moonmelony enough. She also has some glitter on the crescent moon on her forehead.

 Thank you so much for hosting this challenge, BC! As I mentioned in the other thread, this project really helped to reinvigorate my love for making customs. I hope we can do this again someday.