Has anyone else had a restoration "whoopsie"?

[Chelsea7]

Hi all,
 So two days ago a lovely member on the arena sent me a so soft Gusty~
Other than some slight flocking loss from her back and symbols in a couple of places, she was in gorgeous condition. However, she did have a decent amount of dirt on her flocking...

I normally try to clean my so softs with soap and water, but because of the dirt I wanted to go extra heavy duty this time. I pulled out the OxyClean.
Oxyclean has been my ally ever since I became a collector, and I always make sure it's thoroughly rinsed from ponies when I'm done cleaning with it. I have yet to have any issues with using it on ponies, though I typically only use it on commons just in case issues arise in the future.  For super truly dirty pieces, I would use the Oxy with warm water on everyone but glitter/ so softs for fear of damage.

Well today I brainfarted. I used warm water with Oxy on the Gusty. She lost some flocking and I wanted to scream!! I couldn't believe how dumb I had been to forget to never use warm water on so softs (it melts the glue) and now I have a slightly less fuzzy Gusty than before :/

So, has anyone else had an "whoops" moment as a restorer? Sometimes I feel like I am the only one who isn't a pro on here

In addition I'm curious to know, maybe it can help prevent doing more silly things in the future when I fix ponies up

[Duenia]

I broke a neck plug recently, but I don't think I've done enough to have many mistakes yet.

[DreamLight]

I thought I'd gently (and pretty cheekily) lighten some weird dark streaks on seashells nds and ended up bleaching part of her body, time to bust out the rit dye I guess

[Blue Haired Ken Doll]

So it was fixed, but I was doing a pony spa with my friend/cousin, she doesn't collect ponies but we go thrifting allot so we often end up cleaning them together. She was scrubbing my new G1 Magic Hat that I had found at value village that day, and she placed her down on some newspaper to dry. AND THE INK STAINED HER. We tried eeevvvverything, we ended up getting it off, but I was so scared lol

[Shy Violet]

I don't know if this counts since I didn't do the damage myself but I put some ponies on the patio table to sun fade and a mag pie took a bite out of Moondancer!!!!!  I ran out and chased it away but it took a chunk out of her horn. At least she's common. 

[misskindle]

Pony's head wouldn't come off. Cue the x-acto knife. Cue putting slices into her body. Cue desperately trying to glue her head on, not realizing it's superglue, leaving white globs around her neck.
 
Yeah, Applejack is a mess.
Yeah, I cringe every time I see her.
Yeah, I might have three more by now.
But she's still my favorite.
 

[Snapdragon]

Accidentally cutting through the neck-plug of my CHILDHOOD (!!!) Daddy Bright Bouquet, probably? Or maybe slicing into the neck and ALSO the neck plug of my childhood Pony Bride! Geez, why did my childhood ponies have such STUBBORN neck glue?! So now those two have floppy necks, and I hate to glue them lest I make them an even bigger mess!!

[Sugar]

I'm there with the neck-plug-slicing.  Though she was a MGR pony (cue kicking self), she was going to my merry-go-round fan mum, who doesn't give much of a darn about pony collecting and quality and such; she was just delighted to have a new carousel horse!  So I cleaned her up, glued her head back on, and now everyone's happy (including me, who swore off x-acto knives except for at work!).

I'm sure I've had other goofs, but that's the one that leapt to mind.   Ah, well... Experience is the name we give to our mistakes. ~ Oscar Wilde

[gold.standard]

Its not so much a whoopsie, but I feel bad that I had to do it. . n.
I have a Merriweather that I got a good deal on, she was really nice over all but had MASSIVE tail rust
So I got to try and take her head off to clean her out. The glue was too strong. Tried the hot water so much I was starting to scald myself. Tried adhesive remover. Literally nothing was working.

So after a week of trying, I had to cut her head off.
And as bad as I feel, I'm kinda glad I did? She was filled with rust and this black mold and god forbid that spread to the rest of my ponies. She looks great now though! All glued up and rust free!

Also if anyone is looking for a good glue to use. Locktite makes a plastic glue that is designed to glue plastic to plastic. It takes 24 hours to cure. But its really easy to apply and clean up!

[Taxel]

My first Magic Message pony D:

Mirror Mirror arrived in a big box of freebies when I first started collecting and I thought her symbols were so cool. They weren't in great shape, a little torn and lumpy, but the images were intact. But the poor girl herself is in awful shape. Coated in pindot (that I thought was dirt) and super dry, icky hair. She went to the spa like the rest of the ponies, who'd all been fine.

Can you see where this is going? x.x Warm water, right over her rump! Her symbols were messed up a little but I saw as it happened so I was able to pull her out immediately. Obviously she didn't finish her spa trip! I finally actually washed her for the first time today. Unfortunately that pindot has to stay but at least her hair will look better when she dries.

[Dragonflitter]

I had the same issue with a so-soft... in fact, it was for a swap box present!  So Soft Truly was very pretty but she had a small glob of something clear (maybe dried glue?) on her rump a bit above her symbol. I tried rubbing it with soap and lukewarm water, and the glob rubbed off all right... along with the flocking!  So instead of a glob of something, she had a round hole in the flocking on her rump instead.. Sigh.

I sent her to the swap person with a note of apology and an extra pony.

[Sukey]

I have cut into neck plugs with knives before. I specifically remember a SS Shady.  I had to glue the plug back together before popping her head back.  Do people actually glue the head itself back on, once it has been removed?  The thought of that makes me cringe a little. I hope I never buy a pony that has its head newly glued on

I melted Beachball's color changing streak on her hair with a flat iron- still kick myself about that!

I'm sure there are plenty other of mishaps I've done.

Edit: How could I forget! I just got a Star Gleamer brush and grow over the weekend and I gently tugged on her head(not a lot of experience with these ponies obviously! Lol) and her head snapped right off.  I swear I hardly pulled on it. Anyway I think I am just going to sit her head back on and try to remember not to pick her up by her head

[Duenia]

I have cut into neck plugs with knives before. I specifically remember a SS Shady.  I had to glue the plug back together before popping her head back.  Do people actually glue the head itself back on, once it has been removed?  The thought of that makes me cringe a little. I hope I never buy a pony that has its head newly glued on

I melted Beachball's color changing streak on her hair with a flat iron- still kick myself about that!

I'm sure there are plenty other of mishaps I've done.

Huh it never even occurred to me to glue the plug back together instead of the head back on :O I might have to see if I can get the remainder of Tiddley-Wink's plug out of the mass of glue in her neck.

[gold.standard]

I have cut into neck plugs with knives before. I specifically remember a SS Shady.  I had to glue the plug back together before popping her head back.  Do people actually glue the head itself back on, once it has been removed?  The thought of that makes me cringe a little. I hope I never buy a pony that has its head newly glued on

I melted Beachball's color changing streak on her hair with a flat iron- still kick myself about that!

I'm sure there are plenty other of mishaps I've done.

I've only ever glued Merriweather's back on, but that's because I had to cut through the plug. >n>
All the others I open up I never glue back on because, I really don't want to have to open them up again to clean them just in case, and I know its a thing that some collectors like to know the condition of the neck seal.
I've heard a couple times of people regluing heads back on, but I don't think its a  very wide practice?

[nhal039]

hehe I shouldn't laugh but that is quite funny about the magpie, who would have ever thought really!

I once was washing brazil up up and away who had very perfect symbol with a toothbrush and soap, the toothbrush damaged many symbols by rubbing of paint, I was so so upset to do this I didn't know at the time that some paint on brazilian could just wipe off easy. I had to sell him cause I was just so upset by my mistake every time  I looked at him. I wont be doing that again