Plumsweet's crumbling hair

[otocolobus_manul]

Didn't Plumsweet have 2 variations? One with a lighter and darker pink stripe? Maybe only one is prone to this.

[sd_dreamcrystal]

Didn't Plumsweet have 2 variations? One with a lighter and darker pink stripe? Maybe only one is prone to this.

Yep, one came with the mini dvd and one without

[Luxrayx]

Didn't Plumsweet have 2 variations? One with a lighter and darker pink stripe? Maybe only one is prone to this.

Yep, one came with the mini dvd and one without

Well, my Plumsweet came without the dvd, if that is useful information. But if no one else has had this problem with her, I'm going to hope I just got a bad one

[LadyMoondancer]

I saw this post on the 21st and then had this happen to me yesterday! I was brushing baby Tea Lily's hair and the pink part of her mane fell right out! The Green part is fine and I tugged on her tail and the pink there didn't come out.

Poor balding baby:
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Oh wow.  Poor Tea Lily!

[Sunset]

I saw this post on the 21st and then had this happen to me yesterday! I was brushing baby Tea Lily's hair and the pink part of her mane fell right out! The Green part is fine and I tugged on her tail and the pink there didn't come out.

Poor balding baby:
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Yes, sadly I had the exact same thing happen right after deciding to open my mib set just a couple years ago.

[Deep Purple Crystal]

That photo is the stuff of nightmares...
What is it with G3s and G4s degrading so much? G1s and maybe G2s I can understand, but most G3s are only a decade old, and some G4s are already beginning to degrade after only four or five years...

[Crystal-Sushi]

Some of the other G3s had this hair problem besides just the Avon ponies.  If I recall correctly, some of the TRU exclusive sets also had terrible hair problems....

Princess Peppermint's hair comes to mind - it's white but it has the same problems as the light pinks that disintegrate.

My G3 Blossomforth (the version that came with Spring Fever), who was one of the first ponies in my childhoood collection, had this problem - her hair crumbled and fell out entirely!

[Sparkle Pony]

Mmm, this is concerning seeing this problem become more common...  I really hope it is largely restricted to a few ponies in all generations.

[Dragonflitter]

  This makes me afraid to open my box of G3's in storage. I would be so heartbroken to open it and find some bald ponies and a pile of hair strands in the bottom of the box!

[Keemax]

I've had this happen to G3 Petal Blossom as well    but in her hair had also been matted for quite a while (I think) and it was only when I attempted to de-tangle it that it started to fall off in chunks.

For some reason the tinsel had no problem staying in.

[LadyMoondancer]

I think the G3 Petal Blossom who came with the free baby pony had a different hair type than the one that didn't come with a free baby.  I tried to dye a free-baby Petal Blossom once and her hair didn't take the dye at ALL, which was a first.  Usually G3 hair soaks it right up. 

[Goanna]

Aw man, how horrible D: I remember seeing the post about the G3s a while ago. Sad to see that it has happened with G4s as well ;m;

[Baby Sugarberry]

That photo is the stuff of nightmares...
What is it with G3s and G4s degrading so much? G1s and maybe G2s I can understand, but most G3s are only a decade old, and some G4s are already beginning to degrade after only four or five years...

Cheaper materials, due to cost cutting.  The basic price for a MLP has remained about the same since the 80's, and inflation dictates that it should have gone up.  Since it hasn't, that cost has to be absorbed somewhere, and it comes out of materials, safety practices, labour, and the like.  Why do you think Hasbro went to one sided printing for G3 onwards?  It wasn't because it improved the product, but because they could get away with it and still have the toy look just as good in the package.

That's why we get smaller, flimsier ponies with no quality control that break down faster than ever.

[Taffeta]

I am wondering what other factors might play a part in this degeneration process. I know that with the glitter in the G3 ponies, there was thought to be some correlation between high temperature/humidity and the breakdown of the glitter/plastic. I've had my only remaining glitter G3 out of the storage box and on my desk for a year or so now, and she's still fine. She's still glittery and her normal colour and no sign of any issues. But it's not hot here. So I tend to think that's a reason why.

I also wonder, therefore, whether the hit and miss breakdown of ponies outside of those like Tea Lily etc whose problems are chronic...has anything to do with climate/storage temperature/anything like that? Something that maybe hastens the breakdown of hair in regular release G3 and something that could therefore be avoided with the G4 to preserve them as long as possible?

What made me think of it was the mention of G3 Blossomforth, above. I have my Blossomforth out, too. She is fine. She's got no problems. But she wasn't sold with Spring Fever in this country, they were sold separately, so I guess there's no reason why they'd be related in terms of batch or production quality.

It just seems odd to me that some ponies have diametrically opposite fates in terms of this hair rot thing. And there must be something we can track down as a trigger to make it happen faster or slower, since otherwise it would be more uniform in terms of colour, age and pony?

Also, is there a connection between distribution areas and this issue? Avon aside, with the regular ponies...is there any kind of pattern we can trace?

[LadyMoondancer]

Did you mean Petal Blossom?  This is the pony I was thinking of:

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As far as I can recall, there were two Petal Blossoms sold at the same time--one with baby, one without.  The one with baby had cheap feeling hair while the one without baby had good quality hair.  I assume the poor quality hair was a way of offsetting the production cost of the free baby.