An idea that might make me very unpopular . . .

Far Dreamer

Far Dreamer

The "Mystery" Pony from Firefly's Adventure
Joined
Apr 22, 2006
Messages
358
I've been trying to decide what to do with my miserable My Little Pony website: www.geocities.com/Drea...index.html (It's quite sad, really)
I would like to do something original and am considering starting a "Stop the Customizing" campaign. I feel very strongly that G1's and G2's should not be customized as they are not longer in production. My concern is that in another ten or twenty years you won't be able to find that Peachy with no symbols.

This would not be intended to bash customizers. There are some very talented customizers out there, and if you own a pony it's your right to do whatever you want with it. If you want to take a MOC Mimic and shave her hair, erase her symbols, and turn her into FuFu the Flaming Clown Pony, you have every right. Most customizers do a much better job than this however.

Customize G3's to your little hearts content. They're still in production!

I'm thinking this might turn into more of an educational campaign. I'd like to get an idea how many people really treasure their custom bait ponies and wouldn't change them for the world. I think I might like to turn my site into kind of a swap where collectors having trouble selling their poor condition or common ponies can be hooked up with collectors who are looking for common ponies and aren't that concerned with their condition. I would also like to start something where those customizers who are so good that you can't tell Hasbro didn't make the pony when they're finished, fix up old ponies to look like new so that other collectors can have nice versions of them. Maybe it could be like a baity pony rescue and adoption center.

My goal is that every collector, experienced, newbie, serious, or just want a few ponies for the memories, can have every pony possible. I would like to preserve these ponies for the future, even if it is a Cotton Candy or a Peachy.

I would like some ideas on what others think of this. Agree? Agree with reservation? Disagree? Want to chase me out of Ponyland with spears and flaming torches? Just a dumb idea?

Again, this is NOT intended to be a bashing campaign. I'm not trying to insult anyone, customizers or those who agree with me. I won't put any insults up on my website!!!!!!!!

So, please let me know what you think. I'll decide how to get started based on your responses. Please, also let me know if I have your permission to post your responses on my site.

Thanks!

- Far Dreamer
 
i'm sorry but if a g1 is bait, it's bait and it will be customised.
 
Re:

I understand how you feel. I have those feelings when it comes too MOC ponies that people rip open *shrugs* Since - yes - there is a very limitid number of those. And lets face it. We're not gonna live forever. Ponies however will probably be a collectorsitem for decades to come from the looks of it since they are growing very popular.

About the customizing... well I'm torn. To see people use rare ponies as customs kind of goes against my liking. But for the super regular ones (wich every costumizer probably has dozens of anyway) I don't see as that big of a problem. Cuz' lets say every customizer has 10 Peacys and one in mint condition in their collection as well then there will at least be one good Peachy out ther per collector. When we start to see that even Peachy is HTF then people should reconzider doing customs on her. But untill then I don't see it as that big of a problem. Maybe hypocritical - I don't know.

But there might be a lot of people on the hunt for ponies in not that exellent condition and for all those your page will probably be a great idea :)
 
i agree

I see what you are saying, but if i pony is drawn on and has no hair, then I see the point to customize her. I do agree that fair-mint ponies of the g1-2 line should be left un touched as to there are methods to restoration on them and they are no longer produced.

clipper
 
i completely understand not wanting people to customize ponies in decent condition - but when they're missing limbs, have no hair, or are marked all over (and the marks can't be removed), i seriously doubt anyone would want that pony for their collection. ponies like that are better off customized.

also remember that while G3s in general are still in production, each particular pony is only in production for a limited time - if i customize a glitterbelle today, sure she's plentiful now, but sometime down the road someone may have a hard time finding her, and might wish i had never customized that glitterbelle. it's kind of a double-edged sword.
 
Very interesting. While not a bad idea, it's a little far-fetched (haha, just saw your SN).

I agree with Diet- I think she's got it well-said. A baity G1 with cancer, smooze, bad bad hair (or no hair at all), rubbed symbols, rust so bad it'll take forever to clean, and/or marks that won't come off, is better off customized.

I've found SOO many ponies that I consider bait. Even a baity Mimic! Nobody is going to CUSTOMIZE a baity Mimic. No no no. They'll sell her, because SO many people want to get her, they'll buy a chewed up one. Because it's HER.

But a Peachy (which I have actually NEVER found) or Baby Stockings...? If they look THAT bad, they should just be customized.

While I think it's perfectly fine to reroot a pony with a haircut's hair, touch up some symbols, and give it a loving home, I think it's a little too much work to redo symbols, hair, and the bodies of a pony/ponies just so it's like its old self. It still won't be worth a dime later, as it's not "original".

People give their customs great loving homes, so it's not like they're not gorgeous, wonderful, or amazing.

There are some G1/G2s that should NEVER be customized, of course. Unless they're missing a limb. And that's like Mimic, Rapunzel, Munchy, Nightlight, the HTF baby MO pony (and mommy), etc. Nobody'll customize THOSE. Now that Peachy over in the corner missing half her eye and her symbol, with rusty, manky hair, however... :D
 
I understand how you feel. when I had just started collecting again and read about people customizing MLPs I was horrified! how could people do that there are only so many of these ponies left out there! However I only had about maybe 25 ponies at that time :roll: after finding my 6th Glory with chopped up hair no symbols and marker that wouldn't come out, I started to reconsider my opinion. I still don't believe in customizing for the sake of customizing. I mean customizing a good condition pony just because she's the right color/pose for your idea just doesn't sit right with me.

If at all possible I try to restore a pony even common ones especially if its just a hair problem. Marks that wont come out don't really bother me unless there really bad.

As for customizing G3 ponies I keep thinking of the antiques road show "oh gee if some person a hundred years ago hadn't painted that it would be worth 60 million dollars today" :p
 
I think you have a brave soul to post something like this when you feel so strongly! I wouldn't support your website, because I think customizing is a great thing for all types of Ponies, G1-G3, but I applaud you for your spirit and firm beliefs. :)

And I think Diet has a very good point, that if you're going to be against G1 customizing, you should be against G3 as well.
 
Customs

I'll agree to the point that it helps to educate yourself about the potential value/rarity of a pony before customizing it and that you probably shouldn't customize Mountain Boys, etc. but if it's your pony to begin with then it's your choice as to what you're going to do with it. I do more G3 customs now then G1's since their bodies are generally in much better condition, but if I want to do a very specific custom that requires a G1 body type of bait then I go ahead and do it. It probably sounds pretty heartless but from a purely financial point of view if you can get $25 and up (sometimes a lot more depending on quality and the market) for a custom and only maybe $5 for a mangy old bait that you maybe already have in better condition and which nobody wants to buy off of you anyway then what would you do? But then I'm really not much of a collector, but I love making customs so I'm a bit biased towards the customizing side of things. :D
 
my opinion...

Er, I can't view your site because the url doesn't work for me, but I will base my reaction on your post here. If anyone has the hyperlink to her page, please PM me.

I tend to think years ahead of now just like you are doing, and the ideas you are voicing in your post are similar to my own.

I honestly think a lot of ponies are customized too early, in a stage that would not yet qualify as custom bait. I see many ponies being sold as CB that are fair conditioned at worse and I see a lot of them customized. People tend to think "Oh well, Glory isn't exactly rare. What the heck, I'll customize her. There're plenty of her left, anyway."

There will be a day when customizing a one-symboled Glory with a slightly chipped horn and a fairly large cancerous dot in her left leg, will be a huge no. Today we don't mind when that happens, but if you are sceptical, you'll have to agree her condition is fair or poor, not CB, especially if she has no other marks, is still very white and has excellent hair.

If I myself would start a campaign, I would probably change the title from 'stop customizing' into 'stop customizing, start restoring' or 'restore ponies for the future'- or something along those lines. :) Restore before you customize. If you can restore a good pony, save her. She deserves it. I love beautiful ponies with rerooted, variant hair colors and although they don't sell for much, they are saved and preserved for the future.

Restoring begins with your personal collection, not the collection of others. I could easily put my fairs and poors in a lot and make some profit on them, while knowing where they'd end up. They'll be extremely lucky to end up in a child's bedroom or some less-picky collector's shelves, but I am willing to bet they will most likely end up being customized or 'slaughtered' for usable parts.

I myself own a huge lot of 'custom bait' ponies. They were sold to me as CB, but many of them are in fact in restoreable conditions. I plan to restore as many of them as possible. Most of them are boring ponies like Peachy and non-So Soft Lickety Split (very common in Europe), but still I'll preserve them if I can. There must be 100 of them altogether.

I already started restoring some of my fair and poor conditioned extra's, and it's amazing to see what a good cleaning and new hairdo can do for a pony. I know these ponies would have ended up as bait with a lot of people, because they are too common and in a state just below the least desirable condition a collector wants.

And so I now have a box of 20 restored G1s and they are my pride and joy. The procedure doesn't have to be expensive. Because I have no money for professional dollhair (and because I am reroot-******** :p), I used wool on my bald Italian Minty and Bubbles. I *LOVE* the way they look now! They look just like those Brazil So Softs of the eighties and nineties. :) Another one, Milky Way, had an extremely short hairtrim. I gave her a cool mohawk and a white woolen replacement tail. She looks fabulous now! There are many more examples. Unfortunately I have boxed and stored all my ponies in my cellar, otherwise I'd shown a picture of them. I have no idea were I put the box, but I'll check downstairs tomorrow to see if I can find them without having to plunder the place. Call me an idiot, but I actually feel great that I can say I've 'saved' those ponies. It gives me a warm fuzzy feeling I wouldn't have if I would have customized them into something new. I consider them 'retired veterans' rather then damaged and unfit. Personally, I wouldn't trade that feeling for money.

I got carried away. I'd like to see your website.
 
I posted this at the arena and I'll post it here too:

I am a customizer and I must say I feel very strongly for not for keeping bait that's cancer ridden, nasty haired, has scratched paint, or just totally not even close to the color it should be, if I think I can turn it into something more beautiful. And as far as G3's go, almost all of them are gone and off the shelf within 6-8 months, then they're impossible to find unless you go to ebay, so I really don't see how they're any different than customizing G1's. Sure they're a little easier to find, but if you think about it, you're not ruining something that's old and nasty, you're ruining something that's fresh and brand new:/ Yes I have customized ponies that even I thought were too nice, but it's my pony, and when I can get 2-4 times what I paid for it by making a high quality custom....a girl's gotta pay her rent. I'd never customize anything that's rare, but sure, I've chopped up princess ponies for their symbols and I have a nice G3 princess collection now that I just adore. They're mine, and if I hadn't just told you, no one would have known. But I pay a lot of money for a lot that ends up having 3-5 baits in it, and when I average over all what I paid and it comes out to more than $6 a pony, who's seriously going to pay that for a poor condition peachy? Even if I customize one and only make $10, at least after new hair, I've broken even rather than lost.

I respect everyone's opinions and that is just mine...an opinion. I do what I have to to get by, and with ponies bringing in enough to keep me going each month, I can't afford to just give away my bait. If I have no use for it, I'll try and put it in my store, but let me tell ya, they don't sell well:/

*Edit to add* Twilightstarshine, you make some good points. I'm also a part of the model horse community and to any model horse show judge, an old horse who had a paint rub touched up, eyes fixed etc... is considered a custom because it was altered from it's original factory finish. So to me, "restoring," is no different than a custom that just looks like the original because you've altered it's state to look like it once did.
 
diet otaku said:
also remember that while G3s in general are still in production, each particular pony is only in production for a limited time - if i customize a glitterbelle today, sure she's plentiful now, but sometime down the road someone may have a hard time finding her, and might wish i had never customized that glitterbelle. it's kind of a double-edged sword.
Click to expand...

Well as far as I know if people buy a lot Hasbro will produce a lot. It's not like they decides to make only 1000 of Fluttershy and that's it. If people buy A LOT of Fluttershys' then they will make a lot of her during the time she is supposed to be sold. Wich means there will be tons of her out there, not only customized but uncustomized as well :) It's that whole access & request thingy... God I can't remember what it's called right now :p I did learn about it in school like 2 years ago though ;) As long as people demends it the coorporations will do anything for people to get access too it, cuz' they obviously makes money out of it. So I don't think that's a major issue actually.
I do see your point though :)
 
Manna said:
Nobody is going to CUSTOMIZE a baity Mimic. No no no. They'll sell her, because SO many people want to get her, they'll buy a chewed up one. Because it's HER.
Click to expand...

Hmmm.. I must beg to differ.

-picture edited out upon request-
[Note: I did not customize a Mimic.]
 
I am not a customizer myself...I lack the talent, but I think everyone has said something that I agree with. I guess I'm on the fence about it. :oops:
 
Re:

Yuixe said:
Manna said:
Nobody is going to CUSTOMIZE a baity Mimic. No no no. They'll sell her, because SO many people want to get her, they'll buy a chewed up one. Because it's HER.
Click to expand...

Hmmm.. I must beg to differ.

custom1.jpg
Click to expand...

LOL :p

She looks great Yuixe :)
 
LOL it's totally not my custom.
I'd go insane before I'd customize a Mimic..
 
Re:

Hehe, well you made your point clear ;) :D

That pony looks really cool with that color of the hair and all =)
 
Yuixe, are you sure it's a Mimic? I have several ponies in the same pose. :wink:

I rather agree with Wysteria.

Hey, TwilightStarshine- got any CB wingers? I would not customize them at all unless they looked like discolored things without hair and symbols. Even as baits they're soo cute. <3
 
Manna said:
Yuixe, are you sure it's a Mimic? I have several ponies in the same pose. :wink:
Click to expand...

Definately. It's got Mimic's original Twinkle Eyes, and the artist even stated this.
 
it's hard to tell from the picture, but... did they give her a transparent orange horn? o_O;;
 
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