G1 Original G1 factory mold (and how ponies were made!)

MustBeJewel

MustBeJewel

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Hi everybody! :)

I was very fortunate to have added this into my collection this week, and I wanted to share it with all of you!

ponymold2.jpg



This is an original factory mold used for the very first of the My Little Ponies ever made. The head is made of copper, which you can see in a few places as well as the green bettina it has obtained over the past 30+ years.

The way these were used, is that molten plastic was injected into the mold, and the mold was spun to create a layer of plastic around the inside of the mold. They were then pulled from the molds before completely solidified, and that's how pony parts were made. :)

This is what the body portion looks like (as shown by Hasbro sculptor Kirk Hindman at the 2008 My Little Pony Fair in Providence, Rhode Island) :


Kirk showed us the copper/bronze mold of a Collector's Pose pony. Shared with us a few facts and properties of plastics. He was saying that if you soak a pony in a bucket of acetone, it can grow a few times bigger than the original size. He described pony plastics as plastics with "no memory". You can soak it in boiling water, take it out remold it and it adheres to your manipulation when it cools. Another tidbit was that, the plastics are extremely porous, so if you get a marker smear on it and try to rub it with a solvent like acetone, the colour goes deeper into the plastic and stays permernant there. To get rid of marks, it is better to "scrap" it off.

Another trivia from Kirk was that about 80-90% of the original pony molds have been MELTED AND RECYCLED to make molds for other stuff. Most of what was left from the 80s were actually saved by packrat employees like him. ^^​
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There was also recently a unicorn version of the same kind of mold up for sale: unimold.JPG
 
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Cool! I have always wondered how they did make ponies bodies shallow but you explained it well. That is a great add to any collection! Congrats!
 
That is so neat! I love the My Little Legal Pad! I've never seen any of those before. Thank you for sharing!
 
Oh that is awsome. I have never seen the tablet either, but I agree it was probably an employee thing.
 
Aha, I saw that pony mold for sale and I wondered who was going to snatch it up. So cool! Are you going to make your own pony factory now?

Thanks for the share that was really interesting.
 
That unicorn horn though *snort*

You are so lucky, Jewel! And for the Legal Pad thingy, I think it was an exclusive to somewhere or employees only :)
 
that is so cool that you got a genuine piece of pony making history. :)
 
So cool, I always wondered how they were made. Thanks for sharing and congratulations !
 
You said the 'legal pad' was mini, right? If it's about 2" tall, it came from a school supplies pack back in the 80's. I stole the one my sister got as a kid;) There was also a ruler, protractor, pencil sharpener, eraser, and spiral notebook featuring Sprinkles. I actually found the spiral notebook last week and took a picture!
 

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piinkypiie said:
Wow! I didnt know that was how they were made. Wonder how they make them Now..
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I didn't know how they were made either. Maybe the same way but with smaller molds?
 
whippetluv said:
I would imagine that was staff only since what child needed a legal pad. Very very cool finds!
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Actually, I've seen quite a few children carrying legal pads. I used to carry them around myself to draw in.

Very neat addition, Jewel!
 
now all you need is a recipe to make the plastic, and then Bam! Your own ponies!
 
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