So I decided to dye a G4 Rarity.. here is what happened! (New photos on pg2)

[sd_dreamcrystal]

Ok so many of us know that in the G4 line most of the ponies don't dye well.. At least from the first waves... Rarity was one of these ponies.. It had something to do with her body plastic (I had dyed a G4 Pinkie from an older wave and while the dye took the head and body really didn't match well).

So since I found out about RIT Dye's line Dyemore for synthetics, I thought I would give it a shot and see if a G4 pony would take to this dye..

First of all the bait, she was a "quick lets find a white pony to dye!" type deal and I almost didn't find her on the shelf at Walmart, lol.
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The dye I chose was Dyemore Kentucky Sky... which is a blue color. I had previously tested to see if it would work on Polyester ribbon, which it does for the most part.

Instructions on the dye say it works best at a temperature of 180° - 212° and that you need to stir your fabric in the dye bath for about 30mins (or till the color you want to achieved). So I got the water boiling (I don't have a temp thing to see what temp it was), added the dye and stirred (dye is in a liquid form already), added pony after giving her a quite bath. After the first minute or two I decided to add more dye because goofy me was worried that she wasn't going to dye with the amount I had in there

It took somewhere between 10 to 15 minutes before you could see that she was changing colors, I took her out of the bath after 23 minutes and here are the results:

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She took the dye pretty well and looks like she took it evenly.. which leaves me to question: Did they change the plastic for the G4s or is Dyemore just a better choice for those ponies?

I don't have an extra first wave Rarity for bait, so I can't test that thought out.. However I did learn something...

The dye still doesn't like glue residue, and yes I didn't know there was something funky there till after I saw the color coming through in the dye bath
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AND her tail is NOT NYLON!!!!
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That's right, her tail didn't take the dye at all! Which leads me to think her tail is polypropylene which according to one of my doll hair sellers... will not take dye at all. Dyemore will even work on cheap holloween wigs... I did try it on a test piece and it surprised me, but this makes me wonder if all G4 tails are poly or if some are actually nylon.. or if this is just the case for the baggie ponies...

To be honest I will need to run a few more test on G4s.. mainly on the two questions that I need answered... If all G4 tails are poly and if the pony plastic has changed in 5-ish years?

Also now i have to figure out what to do with this girl

[Diamond]

You could turn her into a color swirl pony!  Interesting notes in regards to the die and how it took.  Did you try degreasing before dieing?

[sd_dreamcrystal]

You could turn her into a color swirl pony!  Interesting notes in regards to the die and how it took.  Did you try degreasing before dieing?

I gave her a bath before dying but I didn't think about running acetone or anything else over her before dyeing

As far as degreesing the hair, she was washed with dish soap so I knew the hair was cleaned, I'm pretty sure the tail is not nylon

[kaoskat]

Turned out pretty well except for the glue bit. And the hair thing is just weird. Why would..... You know never mind. This is Hasbro....

[pinkkittywinks]

Nice job!

I'm not surprised to hear about her tail not being nylon, I've noticed manes and tails feeling different, but this is proof

I think Diamond's suggestion of a Colour Swirl is a great idea

Love pkw xxx

[sd_dreamcrystal]

I'm thinking about a Mash-up between Color Swirl ponies and another pony that was suggested.. I'm just trying to picture the color swirl part because the white is not in the best place to really even start a color swirl

Plus I have to see if painting her is going to be fine or if I have to wait.

[pinkkittywinks]

You might want to seal her before you put paint on

Love pkw xxx

[CoonhoundBetty]

That is wicked cool! Great experiment--the tails have always felt and styled different when I clean up my daughter's ponies, so that's pretty neat to have it confirmed that the manes and tails of the bagged ponies are different. I'll have to keep lurking on the Customs board to see what you do with her--the glue spots made some really interesting markings!

[sd_dreamcrystal]

You might want to seal her before you put paint on

Love pkw xxx

Lol I thought about that then I wondered "will that still cause the dye to seep through though?" since i use a spray sealer instead of a brush on and last G4 I did with normal RIT and painted over her then sealed her, the dye quickly seeped.. though that could have been due to my panic in the first place with some dyeing issues of that pony

 I'm doing a little test blotch under her foot to see how the bleed will go. The biggest issue I have with bleed is the eyes sadly. I may try the seal first then paint to see what that will do.. but again I use spray so I don't know if that will make a difference =/

Post Merge: December 19, 2015, 06:10:52 AM

That is wicked cool! Great experiment--the tails have always felt and styled different when I clean up my daughter's ponies, so that's pretty neat to have it confirmed that the manes and tails of the bagged ponies are different. I'll have to keep lurking on the Customs board to see what you do with her--the glue spots made some really interesting markings!

I may go the route of a color swirl pony which will cover most of those markings, but it does give me and idea for another pony if I dye one again

[Leave a Whisper]

This is interesting.

[sd_dreamcrystal]

So a day or so ago, I placed a spot of paint on the bottom of her foot and the next day placed the sealer I use for eyes. It kind of looked like there was a little bit of bleed but I really couldn't tell and it was more along the edges of the paint.. however I regret removing the paint since i damaged the plastic a little... oh well that is why I did it on the bottom

I went ahead and placed a spot of mod podge on the bottom of one of the other feet and I will put a spot of paint on that then a spot of another sealer to see if there is any bleed. I don't plan on covering the whole pony in Mod Podge but I will outline my paint areas with it if there is no bleed through... again though I don't know how this will work with the spray sealer so when it comes time to spray we'll see.

[Saja]

ooh this is cool thanks for sharing

[Artemesia's Garden]

Great to know all this, I like the white I think it looks plausible for a pony if you see what I mean. I would just work with it.

[sd_dreamcrystal]

Now to update you guys, I haven't done anything with her but I can tell you she has faded since this post (approx. 3 months, actually more like 2 since I noticed in February). I can't post photos yet due to my phone camera cannot pick up the right color of the blue but I will post soon.

[SpaceButtPonies]

This is really neat, seems this meathod much better than painting it seems.
Thank you so much for sharing.