Oxy boiling ponies - Please give me some insight.

[FantasticFirefly]

Hi all,
For those of you who have oxy boiled ponies, I'd love to know what you have used this technique to correct or treat.

I plan on doing some tests this summer on some baits using riskier cleaning techniques, results will be shared in my collecting blog for the pony community. Oxy boiling seems to be a popular method among collectors, I've never tried it.

If you've experienced a failure with this method, I would greatly appreciate a picture donation that I could share. I could credit you for the photo, or not if you are embarrassed about the result. (before & after pictures of ponies that got worse would be fab)

Thanks in advance!

[partypony566]

I do know some people don't like boiling ponies because sometimes the plastic warps it happened to one of my ponies once so I never did it again.

I think most people use oxyclean for either removing pindot or to clean smokey ponies.

[FantasticFirefly]

I also prefer gentler methods myself. I'll be testing with baits, without finishes that will damage (sheen, metallic) or hair colours that bleed. I'll be describing what happens to them in detail & take plenty of before and after shots in the same lighting. Thanks for the info about using it to correct smoke, I'll add that to the list of why others use it!

[Whippycorn]

It can also fade the colour of darker ponies, especially if you leave them in too long. I learned this when trying to treat a smoozed Bowtie. 

[hathorcat]

I have seen it used to remove smoke, in ground dirt, mould [or what people think is mould], rust and even flocking. Personally I am with Party and I am not a fan of using it on ponies at all and tend to avoid it at all costs if I can.

[Ginger]

In my experience, it FADES red paint to orange!!!

Otherwise I got rid of some pretty epic pin-dot with it.

[Lady Starflower]

I've tried it to deflock a SS and I found it was just as good using plain hot water. The oxyclean didn't do anything to help and it faded hair.

[PandoraFox]

You actually do not necessarily have to boil the ponies in oxy-clean for it to work.
Simply pouring hot water into a bucket or bowl, adding oxy-clean to that and leaving the ponies to soak in that for a while can also already give great results, without much risk of burning or warping.

I've personally decided on oxy-cleaning my childhood herd, (or all the ponies that I can relatively safely do so with anyways.), because I discovered them in the attic being really,really, grimy and with mice obviously having gotten into the show stable they were kept in.  Needless to say they need a very, very good cleaning. Taking their heads off carefully and then using Oxy-clean assures me they're clean and safe again inside and out with fairly little doubt. I've also seen it remove the mild pindot my Lemon drop was suffering from.

Luckily I've not had any fading issues at all yet. Even the fading pink hair of a baby cotton candy, came out as pink as it was when it went in.

[FantasticFirefly]

Thank you everyone. Yes, I am NOT a fan of actually boiling it, hence I never tried. I've managed to clean in-ground dirt and internal grime with other methods that are much more gentle and less likely to damage anything. I do remember reading that some people have used it to prevent things they think will spread onto other ponies. But some spots/discolourations show up and spread through herds that have been subject to poor storage (shed, garage, non climate control storage units, etc). I will add all your warnings to the list, the baits I plan to use would be lost causes anyway, so any further damage or improvements will be shown for demonstration purposes. Glad to see this is something that has largely fallen out of favour within the collecting community.

[MissSleepless]

I don't boil with it, but I will use it with hot water to remove severe mould. Your pony's hair will need some serious conditioning after. It will remove flocking, glitter and the silvery coating on princess symbols. Like I said, only for use in severe cases :p

[FantasticFirefly]

Looks like I'll need a couple moldy ponies. Mold stains bled into the vinyl or just surface/internal mold?

[cobalte]

I've never done an oxy boil, but have done soaks. I don't have any pictures but I put some TE ponies in there and some g1s with glittery symbols.
The glitter became very delicate right after taking the pony out and would just rub off very easily on the towel I was trying to dry them with, even when lightly dabbing. Avoiiiiid!
The iridescent paint on the crystals of the TEs also rubbed off (nooo my Fizzy ><)

I think it would be ok to use oxy clean on the innards of these ponies though instead of just soaking them whole

[Shenanigans]

Uuuugh, Oxyclean I got it to deflock some SS ponies and it was a hassle and didn't work! I used the liquid Oxyclean, maybe I should have used the powder?

Well, first of all, it boiled over, perhaps I used too much? The second time I did it, it STILL boiled over, suds everywhere And I haaaate the smell of it. It's very strong and gives me a headache. I took out Shady's tail and soaked her body, but I just put her hair in a ponytail. I noticed it got wet though and the color faded onto the ponytail. I tried it again with SS Fifi and all it did was dry out her hair. Non of the flocking came off either pony so it was a complete waste of time and money for me I'm sure I must have been doing something wrong, but that's just been my experience. And I'm paying someone to deflock my ponies from now on

[sd_dreamcrystal]

I've not had any real problems with it... then again I don't -boil- I just use really hot tap water for the most part... I use it to get off the grime that normal cleaning for me will not get... I can say I had more problems with other products (like magic eraser erasing my pony's symbols don't see how people swear by that product....)

The only problem I have had was with two ponies that I was removing grime from... their plastic got a bit rough after removing the grime... but it wasn't too bad (and by rough I mean it feels like the plastic got tiny raised areas or something.. hard to explain but I've seen it in ponies I never cleaned too so it was an aging thing)

[PandoraFox]

I've never done an oxy boil, but have done soaks. I don't have any pictures but I put some TE ponies in there and some g1s with glittery symbols.
The glitter became very delicate right after taking the pony out and would just rub off very easily on the towel I was trying to dry them with, even when lightly dabbing. Avoiiiiid!
The iridescent paint on the crystals of the TEs also rubbed off (nooo my Fizzy ><)

I think it would be ok to use oxy clean on the innards of these ponies though instead of just soaking them whole

I'm sorry that happened to your ponies.
I'm still very happy some kind members here, gave me a list of things never to put in oxy-clean before I started. I suppose it would be useful to list it here again.

It includes:
-Any sort of Tinsel. Metallic will have it's color wash off from what I've been told, clear shimmery tinsel will just react badly to any form of heat. (curling, melting, you name it.)
-Princess ponies and anything with metallic paint. The metallic paint will wash off their symbols.
-Twinkle eyes, the paint will wash off their eye crystals.
-Ponies with Glitter symbols, the glitter will come off.
-So Softs. Unless you're planning to deflock. The amount of flocking you loose depends mostly on the state of the glue that is holding it down, but some of it will come off usually.

I don't recall if heat changing symbols were included in the list but I wouldn't risk those either. Next to that, people seem to have had mixed results with using oxy-clean on the heads of G2s. Some people have had no issues. Others have had eye-crystals falling out.
I suppose it's another of those cases where it just depends on whether the glue is still strong, or came from a good batch.