I dont agree with not using acne creams. They work really well when used carefully. You can see my project pictures on this site, under creams. http://www.mlppreservationproject.com/body.html#SunFading Still as white as in the last picture, years later.

I think the problem with acne creams is that it keeps working years later. I've heard of it affecting other ponies that happen to touch the treated ones and stuff like that.

Yes, it is true some ponies can get burnt while sunfading. http://www.mlppreservationproject.com/body.html#SunFading has info about it, plus some links to topics here I agree with Doedeardarling, sunfading is probably your best option. Also, don't use acne creams! They work long after you use them. The multiple reasons why they are bad for ponies have been discussed in threads here, but I seriously can't find them

Exactly what I was looking for, thanks! That also solves the mystery of the perfectly brown/tan Gingerbread I found in a thrift shop lol.

There is actually a difference between acid-free and archival. Acid free papers tend to be treated to make the acidity neutral. This treatment can wear off over time and isn't as good as an archival paper for long-term use, or in this case, storage.
So it's a subtle difference, but there IS a difference. Archival is always better, but acid-free works just as well if you're only going to be storing for like, a couple of years. If you're talking about putting them into storage for a long long while, i would invest in the archival stuff like Foxtale linked to.
(Sorry. I work in a job that handles artwork and preservation techniques, so I tend to get a little nitpicky when it comes to terms like that.  )

Ei! I've been doing this lately too. Sometimes it's really hard to make a choice like this. I think it boils down to what YOU find more important in your collection. Me, personally? I'd keep the rehair. New hair doesn't bother me at all as long as it's a match to the original. But I know others think of original hair being more desirable since it IS original. Which I can understand. It's a hard choice. I'm anxious to see how others decide too.

Ok, so I've seen resources online about taking hopeless BBEs with terrible eye rust and giving them new life by turning them into non-BBEs, But not anything about restoring their eyes. I'm assuming that's because most people don't really like BBEs because they're kinda creepy lol. But I like them, so I decided to give it a try. I'm very pleased with the results, but it was quite a hassle. Lots of patience and lots of experimenting. I doubt anyone will want to go through the effort it takes to do this, but just in case anyone out there is interested, I decided to make a quick tutorial.

Here is our test subject: Baby Frosting. Her eye was gross and swollen from how much rust was built up. The eye didn't even blink anymore and the rust was trickling down her face.

So first thing, I pop off her head and using a pair of needle nose pliers, pushed from the back of her socket and popped the eye out. Heat helps here. I warmed her face with a blow dryer to make the plastic more flexible.
Ok. That's super gross. You can see all the rust that poofed out onto her face after I got the eye out. At this point, I took her other eye out too so I could see what it was supposed to look like AND so I could give her head a good cleaning with Dawn and get all the rust out of her.


Here's a quick diagram of how BBEs are put together. You have the eyeball, and a housing for it. The housing is two pieces. The back is plastic and the front is metal and they both clip together. Unfortunately, her casing was rusted together. So first I had to fix that. I plopped the whole thing into white vinegar and let it sit. Every few hours, I took an old toothbrush and scrubbed at it. I let that buddy soak for half a day before enough rust was removed for me to pop the casing apart.

Once I got the housing apart, the eyeball itself got to soak in vinegar and get scrubbed every couple of hours. The rust came off for the most part, but it took one of the little pegs on the side of the eye with it. The pegs are what hold the eye in place in the casing and allow them to turn.

So I made a replacement peg. It's just a straight pin trimmed to the correct length. It's on the left in case you can't tell. I know it's all pretty teeny.


Next up was putting the eye back in its housing and making sure the new pin was the correct size to allow it to move. It was probably the easiest part of all this lol.
Now all the hard stuff is done. Time to get out the blow dryer again and warm up her face! It's definitely harder getting the eyes back in than it was getting them out. Once they're in the socket, you have to kinda poke and prod them back into a normal alignment, but it wasn't too difficult.
Last up, because I manhandle things badly, I had rubbed off her eyeshadow. So I got out my paints and my teeny brush and fixed that.
And now she's all better~

Like I said, I'm p pleased at how she turned out. Especially since I'd never done anything like this before. And I'm not sure if I'd ever want to have to do it again lol.

Ok, this is my first de-flock. I've researched a lot on how it's done and everything, but I've not come across anything that mentions this.
I did the body just fine. So I started the head. It's all going good, but once I started removing the glue, I noticed these teeny holes covering her cheek, ear, and under her chin. They're everywhere on the head, but those spots are most noticeable.
I've heard of problems with ingrained dirt, but there's no dirt in these. They're just...pores?
I'm guessing this has to do with the flocking? I really have no clue. I was wondering if anyone else has come across this before.

I hate Moondancer's pose, I love BBEs, and I think 90% of nirvana ponies are ugly.

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.