Do you feel guilty about baiting a pony?

[CupidStrikes]

So...I bought some cheap G4s off Ebay (CE tinsel AJ and Rainbow Dash, so two super common and not sought after ponies/variants) with the idea of baiting them to begin practising my customising skills on them. I have a spare non-tinsel Dash and Pinkie Pie, too, that I plan to use at some point.

Thing is...they're in great condition, so I feel a lil bad for planning to rip out their hair and clean off their decals (also anyone that's seen The Lego Movie, it reminds me of

Spoiler

the scene where Good Cop's face is erased

).

Anyone else get this?

[Summer-blade]

I sorta feel bad but most of the ponies I end up baiting I get second hand so it's obvious they're kinda 'unwanted orphans'

I don't feel so bad about baiting g4 ponies since there's tons and tons floating around. But G1 and G2 ponies I'm starting to hesitate on and even G3 ponies I pause a bit before I commit them to the bait box.

Hey it's a new life as a custom or no life at all in the trash for most baits.

[CupidStrikes]

Hey it's a new life as a custom or no life at all in the trash for most baits.

Oh yes, if it was an actually baity pony, rather than a super common duplicate, I think I'd feel less bad! AJ might end up making her way into my herd as I gave my first one a hair cut (alas I was a fool!) if she survives having her tinsel ripped out...

[Saja]

I don't feel guilty with G4s, and most g3s. specially the mane 6. I do feel guilty if I have a G1 boy riddled with cancer, and looks just horrible, I feel bad, but if he is really bad, and I make him into a new pony, I feel better once he is done.

[Summer-blade]

Hey it's a new life as a custom or no life at all in the trash for most baits.

Oh yes, if it was an actually baity pony, rather than a super common duplicate, I think I'd feel less bad! AJ might end up making her way into my herd as I gave my first one a hair cut (alas I was a fool!) if she survives having her tinsel ripped out...

ah de-tinseling is a pain !

[mlp4me]

Haven't felt guilty yet. I use common enough G1's or I get yelled at by HavAcrumpet452, lol. She keeps me from doing bad things to good ponies.  :o)

[Leave a Whisper]

A common g3 pony I don't feel bad about, I wouldn't do it to a G1 unless absolutely necessary.  and hey if nothing else, the nicer bait ponies are nice because you can get em for cheap.

[kaoskat]

Not really no. I tend to limit myself to actual baits or ponies still available currently in stores.

[MoondancerMilkyWay]

I discovered recently many ponies (got very much second hand) I have that I was cleaning have cancer! now, a few marks here or there is one thing ridiculous pin dot mold everywhere that will take some work on my G1 Nov birthflower pony...i may work for that. but i'm finding a lot of cancer. and it makes me sad. i'm against customizing G1 ponies but at the same time if it gives them a whole new lease on life and they are "beyond" repair..well...maybe I will.
I have a rosedust who is in some pretty not so great shape hair wise, and her wing mech is coming out. i was thinking of making my first flutter custom. her body is good, her head comes off, she has no mold...she needs new hair and to fill in the back of her. maybe I could do it?
but can I let myself do it?!
I don't know!!

[Starshinescustoms]

To varying degrees, absolutely  I feel bad about baiting even the most common G3's or G4's if they're in very good condition and often end up leaving them alone. I feel even worse about baiting G1's. As a rule I do everything I can to save a G1 and restore it, but sometimes they're just too far gone
I could never bait a HTF G1 though, no matter what condition it was in.

[Snapdragon]

Ha ha, yeah, and just when I get myself over it, my family helps push me back into pony madness. I'll usually show my mom my projects, and say 'yeah, this one's gonna become an owl pony, blah blah, I'm excited to give her these big owl eyes-' and she'll cut in with, 'but she already has eyes! why do you have to take off her old eyes? Poor pony!'

Well, there went THAT custom.

[MiRaja]

Hmmm . . .

There are so many variables.  I am almost always a rehairer and that is the most customizing I ever do.  I am more of a restorer.  However, I believe I would have a few people pretty annoyed with me that I would consider two different Honeycombs bait.  Both of them had some really bad hair cuts, and the other one is missing chunks out of her face and one of her feet.  They are rare.  But they are both baits.  Especially the one for her missing chunks and the other for her major smooze. 

However, the one with the most damage, the one missing pieces out of her, is going to be turned into an alt Surprise, aka, a Surprise who won't get nasty and cancerous after her sunfade.  However, with that chartreuse hair?  I had to cut it off.  In order to get a good peroxide sunfade with them, their hair has to go.  That stuff bleeds awfully. Both of them had a pretty bad butch job besides.  So, would I be looked down upon by removing part of the pony that is going to further damage them in the long run?  I don't know, it's hard to say.  Both of them have yellow bleeding on their bodies, I can hopefully get it out.  I have been able to sunfade it out of another baity Honeycomb.  ( My GF in the UK buys them up for me for notta and sends them to me.  They're fun to mess with, because they have a different plastic than Surprise, and while they get dingy, they can be sunfaded.  )

I also just finished perfume puffing a Blueberry Baskets.  She was a mess.  But because by the logic she is rare, I guess I shouldn't have rehaired her?  Her hair was only fried to bits and she was missing ten or more plugs, besides having major yellowing, scuffs and scratches all over, and stains all over.  I would've maybe gotten $5 for her, but apparently I was supposed to sell her?  Rather than making her into something beautiful again?  Something that will soon be enjoyed by someone else completely and utterly versus just being another ho-hum, not-good-condition-but-not-quite-bait-condition-pony? 

I am going to say this as a person who RESTORES and collects dolls that are 100's of years old:  Do what you want with your ponies.  As it stands now, there are still THOUSANDS upon THOUSANDS of G1 ponies on Ebay every day, every week and every month of the year to be had by collectors.  They are not at all some endangered species right now because they're not made anymore.  I suppose we can start worrying when Peachy is only sighted on ebay once a year ( which won't be in our lifetimes.  But there are some dolls in my collection alone that don't pop up on ebay for YEARS, they're that rare ) but until then, enough with the fear mongering.  :/

At the end of the day, they were meant as children's toys.  Their longevity is only an unintended plus.  I don't like shoddy, terrible looking customs as much as the next person ( personally, almost all FBR's look terrible to me, because most people who do them either are not using an airbrush or don't know what they're doing with said airbrush ) but that's not my problem.  Not my pony, not my problem.  They're toys.  Do what makes you happy.  I like my ponies pretty, and if that means cutting off bad hair and giving her new, but pretty hair, I will.   

[aintnobuffalo]

When I first started trying out customizing, I felt pretty bad. I was like, "nooo! Twilight! I'm sorry!" as soon as I removed the head of my first attempt. After about half a dozen baiting of mint conditions G4, I started feeling less bad about it. Now that newer G4 have wider heads, I started feeling bad again about baiting older mint conditions. Once the custom is done, I usually feel a lot better though.

[coinoperatedgirl]

I generally don't feel bad about anyone else the g1 ponies, and I rarely use them unless they're really, truly baity.  My last project that used a g1 was originally a Princess pony that I got in a Goodwill purchase along with several other Princesses, and was covered with all sorts disgusting, blackish sticky grime.  I tried to clean one of them with acetone and the stuff wouldn't come off, so I tossed them all in the bait box and didn't think anything of it.  I pulled one out that was what I needed, chopped her hair and popped off her head, and then decided to try and remove the stickiness.  Surprise!  Flawless, unsticky, pony, and much sadness.

[LunaDehligt]

i would feel a little guilty