HELPPP! New ponies reek of smoke! How do I get the smell out?

[xTic_Tac_Toex]

I recently bought a massive lot of ponies, which you can view here:

http://mlparena.com/index.php/topic,339343.0.html

They would be perfect if it weren't for the fact that they REEK of smoke. I bought them from someone who was clearing out his mother's attic, they've been up there for some 20 years and going by the smell I'd say she was an extremely heavy smoker.

I need to get them odour free asap, because I want to sell a lot of the ones I don't need for my collection within the next couple of weeks, in order to make some of the money I spent back.

Has anyone ever received ponies in this sort of condition, and found a good cure? I usually scrub my ponies in bicarbonate of soda anyway, as I find it cleans them well, but not sure that it'll be enough.

Help help help, my entire bedroom smell awful! D:

[BowtieG1]

I let bicarb mixed with vinegar sit inside the pony for a while, wash it out.
then spray inside and out with a heavy layer of febreeze, then keep in a well ventilated space.

I got a few from a friend and her house and ponies stunk of smoke, worked fine.

[xTic_Tac_Toex]

Thanks, that's really helpful! Bicarb and vinegar were the first two things that came to mind. Fingers crossed the smell goes pretty quickly.

[Doedeardarling]

I've heard burying the pony in cat litter helps, the other method is putting the pony in a box or a bag with baking soda. Both ways take some days/weeks, but should absorb most of the smell.

[xTic_Tac_Toex]

Thank you, I think I'll have to try out those methods too. I've just popped some of the baits from the lot in the washing machine (tied in a pillowcase) to see how that works on the smell - they'll obviously need to be drained out for a while afterwards, but it's worked on other smokey items before for me...fingers crossed! If it's effective and doesn't wreck their symbols then I'll do the same for the others too

[Dewprincess]

I have not tried this with ponies but it works wonders with stuffed animals: stick them in a bag with dryer sheets...they lose the smell of the smoke and take on the smell of the sheet

[Jemstar666]

I had a large lot of ponies that smelt bad of cigarettes before xmas,  gave em all a shampoo and condition, gave em a good dry in my sunny windowsill with windows open, when dry I had a plastic storage box with a lid and lined the bottom with bicarb and fresh cat litter and sealed the ponies inside a few days, after that i pretty much had them in fresh air, and now I cant actually find which ponies they were in my collection as they smell lovely like my other ponies, pretty much having them out in a new fresh environment seems to actually do the most good in getting rid of the last of the smell, The few that lingered smells longer had be bagged up individually or in twos in sandwich bags with some more bicarb and cat litter and spent a few days covered, it takes a while but the longer I had them out the more the smell dissappereared, if you get my rambling lol
 

[hathorcat]

Be careful with dryer sheets - just make sure you dont press them against the pony they can cause discolouring. But they are great sometimes popped inside a pony where stains are less important.

I pop a pony in a tupperware along with [but not touching] baking soda for a week, then into the fresh air for a week, back in the baking soda and repeat several times as needed.

You can also try spritzing with diluted fabric softner or febreeze - you do need to be aware than in the long run they could potential cause problems but I personally have used the tobacco fighting febreeze on a couple of ponies which I was not too fussed about and a couple of years later and they are still perfect and fresh as daisies.

[xTic_Tac_Toex]

Thank you all, I really appreciate the advice! I think I'm just gonna have to be patient with these girls if I want to bring back that lovely vinyl smell. It's actually pretty incredible how stubborn tobacco is...and rather disappointing! I'll update you all in a couple of months when I'm back from uni, that should be a worthy amount of time for the kitty litter to soak up the smell

[applejackbunny]

As others have said....*lots* of fabric conditioner! : )