Fading! Head/Body Mismatch! Princess Sparkle Needs Your Help!

[LittleSpiffy]

It's a rare day when I pull out my bin of childhood G1's out from under the bed.  It's ever rarer that I look at them in natural light.

I noticed that my ponies have a significant amount of surface dirt from my handling them.  I saw that Princess Sparkle was the grubbiest of them all.

I took her into the bathroom and gave her a quick shampoo wash.  I used a Magic Eraser to get off a black scuff mark that she acquired circa 1991...as well as remnants of blue eye shadow from a pony makeup kit (why did they come out with pony makeup? lol)

She was looking so super!  Until...I noticed that she has two spots on her body that are fading to white o_O

Worse, I noticed that her head is still a lovely purple color...but her body is yellowing?  It's purple...but with a yellow hue to it.

I attempted to take pictures, but they don't show the discoloration.

My questions are:

1) Is there anything I can do to prevent further damage?

2) What causes this?!

Thanks for your help!

[mlp4me]

Purple pigment is very unstable. It's not uncommon for purple ponies to have lighter head/body mismatch, could also explain white spots.

Not much more you can do besides trying some sunfading on the body to see if they yellow will lighten up.
You've got a great cleaning routine. :o)

[hathorcat]

It could be that something over the years has got on to her body and caused the bleaching or as mlp4me says it could be the classic purple pigment issue. Whether it be Windy or Bluebelle or Seashell they all seem to be a little prone to extreme mismatch or colour blotching.

Unfortunately on both of your questions there is no way to stop it getting worse - it is the plastic doing what it will naturally do and breaking down - and no way to restore it. At least for the white blotches. If the yellowing is simply surface yellowing due to dirt/oil build up over time, it could perhaps be possible to fade it a little [although as its probably made the body lighter in colour than the head you may simply end up with a pale body]. Perhaps that is worth a shot.

[LittleSpiffy]

Thanks!  I'll try the sunfading