G1 "ethical" customs

Sweetstuff_Reeny

Sweetstuff_Reeny

Teeny Tiny Baby Pony
Joined
Aug 28, 2014
Messages
126
*this is not ment to offend anypony, just my personal opinions, which I am entitled to*

Today I saw a rather disturbing post on a facebook page, this "lady" was threatening to rehair ponies, spitefully, unless people bought them, immediately. They were not baits.
It was really disgusting. As she did it to purposefully troll the page and ruffle feathers. Not to mention ruin perfectly good ponies. Ponies I would die to have, and yet she treated them like they were nothing.
It makes me really sad actually. By the time we are old ladies, g1s will be quite rare, and alot will be butchered into customs or rehairs. Now, dont get me wrong, there are some AMAZING customs out there, and i do enjoy alot of peoples work. Alot is beautiful and unique, and creative master pieces. I would like to own a few really good customs. But then there are some, that arent so good. At all. It would of been better if the pony they used, had been restored instead. And it seems like a big trend right now, to customize ponies. I guess what im saying is, I wish people would only customize ponies when restoring isnt an option, as I feel its almost wrong to do. Especially when there are people like me out there, that would love to own baits, let alone perfectly good ponies, that are getting rehairs just for spite.
 
There's no sense in her being a brat, just to sell Ponies. It reminds me of the whole "Buy this magazine or we'll shoot this dog" except it obviously wasn't done to be funny.

I'm fine with customs, but I do think that rarer Ponies should be spared and kept as pristine as possible, just to keep MLPs around for as long as possible. I don't see it as an investment or anything, I see it as something I love and want to share with future generations. There's plenty of poor ol' baity Ponies that people should have ample canvases to work with, without spoiling Ponies in decent shape.

Then again, I buy beat up ol' Ponies just because I feel sorry for them and can tell once they were loved. I'm not one to ask...
 
I'd like to think that she was joking, Its certainly not the right way to go about trying to sell a pony, I'm sure a buyer would come along quite easily, not sure if it were her way to getting a "quick sale" by trying to scare collectors into buying them by threatening to make make customs out of them.

I find it a very strange scenario indeed.

Over the years there have been many opinions. I'll never forget once years ago someone wanted to rehair a Mimic and there was a complete uproar. Some said, Yes its ok, its your pony etc, and others were horrified. It's a contraversial topic for collectors for sure.
 
It was like the buy this magazine or ill shoot this dog thing, i think a few people actually bought some of her ponies, so thats good. But it was bratty indeed, i guess at the very least she gave the ponies one last chance to find new owners :/ i agree with you too, i do love customs used on real baits, but not salvagable ponies. Like you, i think they should be saved for future generations to enjoy, as we all enjoyed them.
Maybe i feel too passionate about it, but these little toys bring me happiness every day, i wish others would treat them nicely. Lol
 
Slinky, she very well might of been joking, I really hope so atleast. Its hard to tell tone or character through text on a computer so she might have been kiddng, or sarcastic or something. Haha
If i had seen someone talking about rehairing a mimic I would have died :0 but then again I guess it is their choice.
 
Sweetstuff_Reeny said:
Slinky, she very well might of been joking, I really hope so atleast. Its hard to tell tone or character through text on a computer so she might have been kiddng, or sarcastic or something. Haha
If i had seen someone talking about rehairing a mimic I would have died :0 but then again I guess it is their choice.
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Yes, it would have been over 10 years ago, it caused one of the biggest uproars I've ever seen.... We just just gone through all the G2 drama of way back, customizing was just becoming a big thing to do, and someone wanted alot of attention. Fortunately events like that are very few and far between.
 
Holy moly, Im sure it did cause a ruckus. I hope it really was for attention and not really messing up a pony! Especially mimic, shes a grail for so many people.
I really like it when good customizes make molds to use, no harm no foul and everyone wins.
 
I used to be very picky about my collecting and only interested in the ponies that are in exceptional condition. I still am to an extent (ponies that I'm really invested in, ones that are replacements for childhood ponies or that are grails, those I want to try and have in as immaculate a condition as possible). But after buying a lot from a local seller that has almost every possible flaw known to ponies (smooze, cancer, regrind, discolouration, symbol rub, rust, frizzy hair, etc), I discovered that I actually really like taking care of them, cleaning them up and restoring them. They still have a lot of personality and love to give. They just need someone to care enough to try and help them.

That said, I still don't want to buy ponies that have flaws I can't ever fix. I don't have the heart to customize them, even though in a lot of cases I know that I wouldn't be able to do any better for them. Other less sentimental and more experienced people can have those ponies to do with as they will. But at the same time, if I get ones like that as part of a package deal or in a lot with less baity ponies, then I will still take them in. They deserve to be loved as much as any other pony does, and they don't need to have their identity destroyed for that.

I have one poor girl with deep colour stains, pindot mold and age spots that I doubt I'll ever get looking perfect again. I put all of my last haul of ponies back in their box after I cleaned them up, to keep them clean and safe until I can get a display case organized (just like I do for all of my G4s) – except for poor old moldy, cancerous Trickles. Instead, I've kept her on my desk in the open where I can always see her. I have little to fear of messing her up more than she already is, so I am less fussy about her and more inclined to have her within reach. I can pick her up and fiddle with her without having to disinfect my hands beforehand (I have clinical OCD, don't judge me :confused:)... She's probably had more attention in the last week than she's seen in the last 30 years. I know that any other person would probably toss her in the bait pile and say that she's only worth being customized, but I feel too sorry for her to do so. I would rather take a chance and try to improve her condition than tear out her pretty mane and wipe off her sad looking eyes. If everything I do for her fails or messes her up even worse, then maybe... but not before I'm positive I've exhausted every possible option for restoration.

I have two other ponies from the same lot with faded manes and tails, the one tatty and the other incurably frizzy, but the ponies are otherwise in pristine condition. I will likely be rehairing them soon, but when I do so it will be using nylon from dollyhair in the exact colour they had been rooted with originally. I don't like it when people do rehairs willy-nilly for the sake of changing the pony's look... but TBH, I also don't believe they've "ruined" the pony by doing so. It just takes another rehair back to their old authentic nylon colours to make them as good as new again. I don't see a rehair as destroying a pony the way that a full custom does, because it's fully reversible, and quite often necessary with restoration anyway.
 
Wow. Not to sound mean but that lady sounds like she was a few tacos short of a combo in a not good way. All she had to do was sell them off as is, since there is such a huuuge market for MLPs. What a strange and irritating sales method. As for people wanting to customize/rehair/restore that is there choice and some people make/learn to make extraordinary works of art and that can be a new lease on life for a problem ridden pony that may not have it as good.
 
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ladyofthenight said:
I have two other ponies from the same lot with faded manes and tails, the one tatty and the other incurably frizzy, but the ponies are otherwise in pristine condition. I will likely be rehairing them soon, but when I do so it will be using nylon from dollyhair in the exact colour they had been rooted with originally. I don't like it when people do rehairs willy-nilly for the sake of changing the pony's look... but TBH, I also don't believe they've "ruined" the pony by doing so. It just takes another rehair back to their old authentic nylon colours to make them as good as new again. I don't see a rehair as destroying a pony the way that a full custom does, because it's fully reversible, and quite often necessary with restoration anyway.
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I agree with you, ladyofthenight :) I actually have a box of fully hairless G1's that over time have arrived to me that way, from one source or another. I'm very lucky to have found a friend who really enjoys rehairing as a way to unwind, so I've been sending her the heads and the replacement hair, and between us we've been giving those ponies some new life. Better replacement hair from Dollyhair/etc than scalping another additional pony for original hair, in my personal opinion :) I'll have to remember to post some photos soon.

I think this issue is always going to be very divided among collectors and customizers, and there really is no right or wrong view. Some will want to restore an original pony at all costs, some would have no problem easily making it into a custom, and many just fall along the spectrum. I think the key is that we respect each other's points of view, regardless of how they differ from our own. ;)

I'm really not sure what to say about the lady threatening to ruin her ponies, though... it seems every once in a blue moon the pony world gets some really strange goings-on like that. Whether it's someone alleging to customize a rare and sought after pony simply to illicit a reaction, or someone who for some reason cut off a rare pony's face... I guess it takes all kinds.
 
Dont get me wrong, I do like customs and re hairs within reason. .. but ponies with no flaws getting rehairs just for spite or as a scare tactic sales techniques? ! Definitely a few tacos short, lmao. I dont really want to pick sides between customizers and restoraters, because I dont think everything should be black and white like that. Heck, someone made a David Bowie custom a few years back I would die to have. But then there are people who have been customizing for years, and still dont make that great of art work. I know that sounds mean, but its true. And I feel like maybe their bait ponies should have been spared.
But like I said, their pony, their choice.
And I guess I am kind of biased as my favorite pony in my collection is a cancer ridden Sky dancer. Sure I have way better ponies, cleaner ponies, rarer ponies... but theres something about her that I love. Its kind of like lookng at a mangey rescue dog, and wanting to pet them more than a purebred show dog, lol :D
 
I don't agree with her sell tactics. I can understand if they were baity, but good condition ponies. SMH. I enjoy originals & customs. I personality wouldn't have bought off her. I feel if she can do it once, she'll do it again to make a quick buck. Just seems like a shady person, but I could be wrong. The more I get into collecting ponies I learn something new everyday. I see a pony mint or baity in a goodwill, yardsale, or etc. I save it. Hopefully she was just joking & won't do it.
 
Oh dear, I look at this and I think I already understand fully what went on.

I'm probably about 89% correct in guessing that they weren't actually trying to seriously get sales on that post, and that they never actually did anything to the alleged "good condition" ponies.

This sounds more like a act of frustration, a post to get a point across probably after a case where they may have been harassed over such a subject of customizing ponies they felt like customizing.

It is one of the strangest, most frustrating feelings to deal with to have creative freedom of doing what you want with stuff you own, but to have people upset at you because they can't control everything that flies off of store shelves~

It really is a pointless battle to deal with and I think respect from both sides could be practiced better~
 
I really hope it was frustration/sarcasm, a joke, and not a real sales technique. Its hard to tell what people are actually meaning through written text on the internet. If it was true that would be pretty messed up.
I'm sure it would be annoying getting attacked over doing what a person wants to their own posessions, which is totally understandable.
Im an artist and draw whatever I like, mostly animals, in ball point pen. Once I drew a this ladies horse, because it was beautiful and I wanted to. She got all pissy, even though I told her it would be anonymous (like that even mattered?) And she wanted the picture. Finally I changed it just enough so it didn't look like hers. She was so ticked off. I never understood why, or why it bothered her in the first place. Oh well
 
Sweetstuff_Reeny said:
I really hope it was frustration/sarcasm, a joke, and not a real sales technique. Its hard to tell what people are actually meaning through written text on the internet. If it was true that would be pretty messed up.
I'm sure it would be annoying getting attacked over doing what a person wants to their own posessions, which is totally understandable.
Im an artist and draw whatever I like, mostly animals, in ball point pen. Once I drew a this ladies horse, because it was beautiful and I wanted to. She got all pissy, even though I told her it would be anonymous (like that even mattered?) And she wanted the picture. Finally I changed it just enough so it didn't look like hers. She was so ticked off. I never understood why, or why it bothered her in the first place. Oh well
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Thats awful, she should have felt complimented and grateful that you took the time to draw her horse... Some people UGHH>
 
What a mean ol' bat. You think she'd be flattered. I LOVE people to love my animals! They need all the lovin' they can get.

Who knows why people act the way they do.
 
I saw someone post a listing that said, "Buy my ponies or I'll throw them all away!" Like, wow. At least donate them. Sadly, it worked. It made me want to buy them all and rescue them, lol.
 
Marble Dragon said:
I saw someone post a listing that said, "Buy my ponies or I'll throw them all away!" Like, wow. At least donate them. Sadly, it worked. It made me want to buy them all and rescue them, lol.
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I guess as a marketing ploy it works for short term sales, but it certainly paints them in a bad light with in the community for further sales.

Although sometimes it works juuuust right.
Natlamp73.jpg


The look on this dog's face still makes me laugh to this day.
 
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