It's definitely plasticizer! I had a friend suggest that washing with Cascade dish soap will help with a toy that's experiencing plasticizer leakage. I haven't tried it, and my friend isn't a pony collector, though I believe she said she got that advice from another friend who does collect vinyl toys. Does anyone else on here have any experience with that product or a different one that helps to clean up plasticizer issues?

I know that in some good cases, all the plasticizer finishes leaching out and you are just left with a pony that feels hard instead of squishy. It's a long process and I imagine that even washing them with a soap that removes the stickiness may only keep them not sticky for a little while until the plasticizer is all gone, so you might have to repeat the process till then.

You can scroll down to the section on plasticizer leakage on the mlp preservation project, it's very helpful! Apparently there's a product called Formula 911 that's specifically designed to treat plasticizer issues, but you have to be careful using it on painted areas as it will remove them.  It says hydrogen peroxide might help too, and I believe that's less damaging to pony paint? http://www.mlppreservationproject.com/body


Because science is FUN (and informative!) and we're all on here revearse engineering chemical reactions so we can get back in touch with our childhood love of rainbows and unicorns, here is an article about what is happening on a chemical level when plasticizer leaches: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41529-019-0080-7 The good news is that since we only care about our ponies looking cute, we don't have to worry about their degraded tensile strength when they leach! Phew! 

Thanks for the list! Where can we look at what you have to trade?

With all due respect, I don’t think adding extra resin to a pony is a good idea. There could be issues where the chemical composition of the pony plastic inhibits the curing of the resin, causing it to never harden properly and leaving you with  a goopy mess, or at best you’ve added a rock hard layer of extra plastic to the pony, and it would alter the shape of the eye. It could drip before it cures as well, and in any case Twinkle Eyes seem to be going up in price lately - you wouldn’t want to alter one in a way that can’t be reversed.

I believe the Twinkle Eye coating is painted on. My best suggestion for a comparable modern material would be to mix interference Pearl Ex powdered pigments into a clear medium (paint) and paint, or better! Airbrush it onto the twinkle eye after masking off the area around the plastic gem with painter’s tape. The interference pigments have colors that show up best on colored surfaces and are somewhat translucent, so, like the original ponies, the color of the plastic underneath plays a role in how the final product looks. They come in multiple colors. I’d suggest a mix to get the right multi colored sheen.

If you can get this pony I say go for it! Even if you don’t want to keep it, it’s likely you can pass it on to another interested person on here. Best of luck!

I’ve seen Camilla D'Errico at cons before! She walks the line between fine art (I believe she gets written up in Hi Fructose from time to time) and fan art. Despite having reached that level of success as an artist she still sells her prints at cone where she got her start, which is pretty cool! The thing is that pop culture references are often a feature of a certain style called low brow art. Because the art often has a statement to make, I think it’s rarely seen as copyright violation. At least that’s my understanding! Some people make entire careers painting cartoon characters in compromising situations.

With the unicorn calendar, those color schemes are very clearly inspired by FIM! But I doubt they could prosecute the artist if she didn’t use their images they use on packaging and claim them as her original work.

That said, I’m not an expert on copyright law by any means!

Posting an update since I see a lot of views on here! I know pony hair is nylon and I found a chart online about how nylon reacts to exposure to various chemicals, including vinegar and, hilariously enough, chocolate syrup. Since it’s an excellent match for both on that chart, I’m about to detail a very rusty Cotton Candy, give her tail a soak in vinegar, and see what happens! I will keep you guys posted on the results. Especially with all the talk recently about how restoring very common ponies may not be financially worth the time it takes, and frankly because I’m sure many collectors have a poor condition bin they’re looking for the time to tend to, I’m getting really curious about ways to batch process the restoration of a lot of ponies! I’ll keep you guys posted about my results.

Here is a link to the chart!
https://www.calpaclab.com/nylon-chemical-compatibility-chart/

Hope I’m not derailing too much but @babysquirmy, aside from the ponies on the do not sun fade list, I’m very curious to hear more about why UV is bad for g1 ponies! I thought sun fading was a pretty accepted restoration technique these days? I haven’t heard that before and typing UV into the MLParena search bar doesn’t return any results on that particular issue. Is it more about known issues with UV exposure or uncertainty about the long term effects of sun on vinyl? Overall I’m fascinated by the subject of original vs restored ponies and their value to collectors. Thanks for the insight!

I must also back everyone up on the effectiveness of the baking soda litter de-stinking technique! The stuff I used had a scent already so the ponies came out smelling artificially flowery, but that scent fades very quickly (a matter of days/hours) and the original nasty smell never returns. I’ve even used it on an art toy that had a plastic smell I couldn’t be in the room with - one it came with from the factory, not a smell from exposure to anything - and it even tamed THAT, so it’s very effective. I believe you can get the same baking soda litter without the scent, too. Best of luck!

Really interesting to read about electroplated plastic! I didn’t know about that process.

I just saw a video where someone tested out a product called Liquid Mirror. It’s a highly reflective paint made by the same folks who make a product similar to Vantablack but without the restrictions on who can use it. It’s pricey but it might look really good in this application! Here’s where you can buy some: https://www.culturehustleusa.com/products/mirror?gclid=Cj0KCQjwqKuKBhCxARIsACf4XuFe7p3zdh4mRG2gL69rcCtQ5WuMzq-pKfkTUZvLNKI695NywGBHbr4aAm6-EALw_wcB

And here’s a link to a video of someone testing it out: https://youtu.be/jyXTr32ZHJk

Hope that’s useful!