Paradise Estates question and possible source of regrind/highlighter?

[CapnChan]

Hey ponies, I've a bit of a conundrum that has been bothering me with curiosity lately and wanted to see if I could get some confirmation. Long post below, sorry!

First off, are there two releases of Paradise Estate? I figure there must have been but I can't seem to find anything conclusive. Pictured below is a set I recently purchased, however, the nursery piece does not fit. I have the original instruction booklet and the set up is accurate but there are three male ports and only one female. Nursery piece won't fit any which way you try and clearly didn't originally belong to this PE. Also I really love most of this set, as it's so vibrantly pink, and the seller was super wonderful, but I am wondering if I should ask for a refund or would I be better off just sending the nursery back and looking for a replacement?   
visitors can't see pics , please register or login


Second order of business! I have always wondered what the exact cause of those mysterious "highlighter" marks you see on so many ponies and what's their source? I have come to the conclusion that is due to exposure of extreme heat. It is possible the plasticizers has a chemical breakdown if exposed to prolonged heat. I read a thread once where different plastics were comprised into the vinyl to make up many popular ponies, the regrind on Party Time for example. We know that much of these plastics were recycled into vast quantities of a more purified plastic. This may explain why those marks are "streaky" in appearance and only appear on small parts of the body instead of turning the whole pony pink.

Case study 1: Pony Bride
This once-a-upon-a-time beauty originally came to me very minty in condition. I found her a few months back wedged in between the lining in the back of my trunk. Her sale tag was still attached and she must have fallen out of her bin on the way home from last years fair. We get extremely hot weather here during summer and a general high temp climate depending if there are no clouds, year long. She was wedged in a manner there was no way at any angle the sun could have directly penetrated her. yet, here she is with those darn pink streaks.
visitors can't see pics , please register or login
 

Case Study 2: CC Cotton Candy
This poor girl was accidentally left in my attic one blazing summer. I have no insulation or ventilation in my attic and it can be like a furnace up there. When I first picked her up, she was completely soft but has hardened again. She also now has those pink markings on her body. 
visitors can't see pics , please register or login


I tried to sell both of these online prior to the fair and have pictures of them of how they looked before, absolutely NO pink marks.  The only similar things that happened to them during this time was heat. So uhm, yea, that's it. Sorry for the long post and thanks for reading :>

[Sugar]

Hmmm... no help for your Paradise Estate, alas, but is it possible that those pesky pink marks are some weird sort of regrindy thing brought on by heat?  Cotton Candy's especially look like bridle/saddle marks - maybe if ponies have had these items on them before, some bits of the other coloured plastic embeds itself in the pony vinyl (like smooze/embedded dirt) and doesn't show so dramatically until the pony is exposed to heat?

I could be just looking for reasons, though...  I'm eager to hear what the experts have to say!

[CapnChan]

Hmmm... no help for your Paradise Estate, alas, but is it possible that those pesky pink marks are some weird sort of regrindy thing brought on by heat?  Cotton Candy's especially look like bridle/saddle marks - maybe if ponies have had these items on them before, some bits of the other coloured plastic embeds itself in the pony vinyl (like smooze/embedded dirt) and doesn't show so dramatically until the pony is exposed to heat?

I could be just looking for reasons, though...  I'm eager to hear what the experts have to say!

That's a good point. I didn't think the marks on Cotton Candy could have resulted from an old bridle. Maybe the old accessories carry the bad plastic as well. Hmm  I am interested to hear more as well :>

[invaderhorizongreen]

as for the nursery room you need to look at the tile pattern on the floor  , I had a user whom I bought some parts from and there are two different tile patterns.  One looks like circles, the others are square tiles, that is what makes some of the rooms not fit with each other.  you need to find out what ones you have and go from there, and I can take a look at mine as well.

[Wysteria]

Hmmm... no help for your Paradise Estate, alas, but is it possible that those pesky pink marks are some weird sort of regrindy thing brought on by heat?  Cotton Candy's especially look like bridle/saddle marks - maybe if ponies have had these items on them before, some bits of the other coloured plastic embeds itself in the pony vinyl (like smooze/embedded dirt) and doesn't show so dramatically until the pony is exposed to heat?

I could be just looking for reasons, though...  I'm eager to hear what the experts have to say!

That's a good point. I didn't think the marks on Cotton Candy could have resulted from an old bridle. Maybe the old accessories carry the bad plastic as well. Hmm  I am interested to hear more as well :>

This happens all the time unfortunetly. I cringe every time I see a pony with those saddles on but I'm sure it's probably accellerated by heat. That's probably why I hate to keep outfits on my new ponies, I'd hate for them to get ruined:/

As for PE, I'm not sure if there were multiple releases but it is highly possible since the nursery doesnt fit someone just bought the wrong replacement building. The stickers didn't come attacted, and since you could place them whereever you wanted, someone selling it as the nursery building could've put the stickers on a different room than the one someone else needed.

[FantasticFirefly]

Oh, congrats, you got that one! I wanted to buy that PE so bad!

Um, the issue is you got an extra either tile (pepples) floor room, or wood floor room. I can't remember which has the male connector, but it was one of the two and you could tell in the post that the faded room didn't interlock. You should only have two of each type of room. so that had an extra room added in that didn't fit. I had the missing room with a partial set of mine which is why I had wanted it so badly (I actually have most of the missing parts in my parents basement at the other side of the country, the patio, gates etc)  As was mentioned the instructions were to place the stickers where you wish, so between two sets little girls often didn't pick the same room as a livingroom or bedroom etc. Matching up a new room in the proper shade will be tricky, I've been waiting a while to find a set that matched the parts I had stashed "pinkness levels" some of this is due to fading, it's also due to batch variations as well.


*also adding*
Excessive (uncontrolled heat) is so bad, so, so, bad. another thing that stains ponies is resting them against other ponies they also pick up highlighter mark that way if there is any sweating from humidity or plastizer leeching. Another (beyond saddles) is carry cases, the liners in those also make those highlighter marks.

[Diamond]

I have also thought that the pink marks had to be something other then highlight.  Because really how many kids where coloring there ponies with highlight pens.  While in existence then (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highlighter) it just does not make sense.

The idea of something in the plastic reacting either with the plastic in the saddles/bridles or just it's make up when exposed to extreme temperatures make sense.

[CapnChan]

Oh, congrats, you got that one! I wanted to buy that PE so bad!

Um, the issue is you got an extra either tile (pepples) floor room, or wood floor room. I can't remember which, but it was one of the two and you could tell in the post that the faded room didn't interlock. You should only have two of each type of room. so that had an extra room added in that didn't fit. I had the missing room with a partial set of mine which is why I had wanted it so badly (I actually have most of the missing parts in my parents basement at the other side of the country, the patio, gates etc) and why I know what the issue is.

*also adding*
Excessive (uncontrolled heat) is so bad, so, so, bad. another thing that stains ponies is resting them against other ponies they also pick up highlighter mark that way if there is any sweating from humidity or plastizer leeching. Another (beyond saddles) is carry cases, the liners in those also make those highlighter marks.

egads really? I didn't notice the extra port at all in the photos, this is my first PE but my fault for not researching better. I actually have the missing patio piece and one of the gates, and 2 awnings so I figured this set would have been great as well.

I just checked though and it has the wooden pattern, same for two others and the 4th piece is the pebbles. The stickers in the nursery are all placed accurately but yea it's possible the original owner put them in the wrong room. Oh dear. Anyone know the likelihood of getting JUSt that piece as a replacement?

[FantasticFirefly]

*points up* I edited my post answering that before seeing your response. I realized I missed your question. I will say it's much easier buying a complete set that all shade matches then trying to piece together an incomplete one. If the parts not matching colour wise doesn't bother you finding a nursery room with a female connector shouldn't be too difficult....  I'm still on a quest to finish my parts to a set (got it a few years back now) because I am so picky about the parts matching up colour wise.

[Rosencrantz]

Oh yeah, plastic decay makes more sense than kids randomly highlighting their ponies. I've got it on some of my ponies and I know that I never did that.

...I did cover one entirely in lipstick to make them into a red pony once, though.

[hathorcat]

I have never believed the accepted concept of highlighter marks being exactly that "highlighter" pen. For several reasons:

1) How many kids in the 80s were wondering around with highlighter pens for decoration? I would never have been allowed one as a child, in fact its not something that would even have been in my house [maybe a yellow highlighter but not the more current multi coloured ones] - a felt tip pen would be the only pen I can imagine most children using as decoration.

2) Why is highlighter seldom in the most obvious location - lips and eye lids? Instead it appears all over the body in the most illogical locations if it is being used by a child to "enhance" their pony in some way.

It is common for plastics which have been exposed to certain conditions - heat or continually moist conditions - to break down in a different way. Just check out some plug holes in showers and sinks, in some conditions depending on how cheap or poorly treated the plastic is, can discolour to yellows and pinks over time. I believe the "highlighter" marks we see on ponies [those not a result of saddle burns] are simply due to a break down in the plastic itself. So I completely agree heat could be a contributory factor.

[CapnChan]

Yea, I'd have to agree with all those reasons as to why it can't actually be highlighter marker. I use to think that myself when I first started buying ponies in bulk and think 'man, what careless kiddies'

And FantasticFirefly, I am the same way, I just figured I could get a replacement roof easily enough but alas I was wrong, eep. If you are still interested in this PE though, please just let me know. I am hopeful I'll be lucky at the fair and maybe find something there