The Great Pony Project

Locket

Locket

Dollar Store Baby Fakie
Joined
Feb 17, 2011
Messages
551
So a friend of mine collected G1 ponies hardcore when she was younger. She claims to have around 200 some ponies all stored in boxes in their extra room and garage. These ponies have been on display for years and years without dusting, then packed in boxes, some not very tightly, and left to gather more dust for many more years.

After much cajoling, I finally managed to get her to allow me to take these ponies home and clean them up one by one. For fun, I'm also going to document which ponies she has and I'm going to grade each one on their quality, returning them all back to her in proper, sealed containers for better storage.

Currently, I have the first three boxes we could find at my place and it's not a pretty sight. Dust and filth everywhere. I keep the boxes closed when I'm not using them just because there are nests and nests of dust bunnies in there. It's quite horrifying.

ponyproject.jpg

dusty.jpg

dirtyponies.jpg


I was just going to put my findings in my little blog the forum provides. Is this interesting to anyone here? Does anyone want me to keep updating this thread with my findings?
 
Last edited:
Yes, definitely I would love to see how you restore these ponies and get them some well deserved TLC!
 
Id certainly be interested. thats a lot of ponies to clean. I bet ur friend was torn to let u take them lol I know if my friend asked to clean mine up for me id be like I know how many and who i have lmao. Ur a fab friend for doing that for her and id like to see who u find. U might find a gem and have to drool over her whilst u clean her xx
 
What I nice thing to do for your friend! I'd love to watch thisroject unfold!
 
What a wonderful thing for you to do for her. I can't wait to see the before and after on these.
 
Wow. That is super nice. When I finally unpacked my collection after years of sitting in boxes it took me over a month to clean and organize them.
And that's not even the more in need ones I've still got in the to restore bag.
You go!

I'll be reading. (I hope you don't find something real bad in there.)
 
todlless said:
Id certainly be interested. thats a lot of ponies to clean. I bet ur friend was torn to let u take them lol I know if my friend asked to clean mine up for me id be like I know how many and who i have lmao. Ur a fab friend for doing that for her and id like to see who u find. U might find a gem and have to drool over her whilst u clean her xx
Click to expand...

Oh, believe me, it did take quite a bit of convincing. But I caught her when she was sick and I asked her if I could clean them. I thought she would say no, but she said "If you want to" which is totally a yes in my book!

It still took another week or two to get to her house and say "Let me take some boxes home when I go". She's a total pack rat. She doesn't get rid of anything. But she also doesn't clean anything so I knew if I didn't clean them, they would never get cleaned and they were NASTY. I think she realized that, too, which is finally why I managed to get a hold of them.
 
I am very amateur at judging the quality of a pony, but I'm going to do my best. I will be judging each pony on a grading system I put together for this project. The grades are defined as follows:


A: No visible marks, mold, scratches, missing paint or damaged hair. Pretty much looking fresh out of the box. It's difficult for a 20+ year used pony to get this grade, but it does happen.


B: Minor scuffs and scratches, or missing paint, not immediately visible. No missing hair, no signs of mold or very minute signs.


C: Signs of mold, major rubbed paint, visible damage, chopped or missing hair.


D: Major missing hair, major body damage, large spots of mold. Time to consider baiting.

F: Bait Pony


I'm going to be cleaning around 5 ponies at a time. That's about all my back can take before it gets sore from stooping over the sink.


The first group, I thought I would start out with some good stuff.


group1.jpg




Sweet Celebrations Family (all with tail ribbons):


Daddy: (A) I have looked all over this pony for flaws, but he is pretty much flawless. He looks fresh out of the package. On a personal note, I think any girl who owns one of him is very lucky. He is an absolutely amazing pony. I am quite in love.


Mommy: (A-) Slight discoloration on her back, but otherwise perfect.


Baby: (A-) When the factory glued her head, they went crazy. She has glue all over the seam with stray hairs poking out and glue up the side of her face. But otherwise perfect


Steamer: (B) Tiny pin points of mold, not visible at first glance, and an itty bitty scratch to one eye. Has his bandana. His hat might be in the accessory box, I'm not sure.


Quarterback: (B-) Large spots of discoloration on his body and face. I have seen his helmet in the box. Still displays well.
 
Last edited:
What an amazing project you're taking on. I'm looking forward to seeing your progress.

I have a huge childhood collection that needs to be restored. I have to admit it's a project that I've had for years, with very little progress. You're inspiring me to get started again.
 
neato .. you might need a vaccum with the tiny brush for those dust bunnies . have fun
 
Here is group 2. I wanted to do So Softs for this group, but I only found two in the boxes. So I found three more of the worst ponies I could to complete my group of 5. (You can see pictures of Scrumptious and Cotton Candy before their clean up on my first post)


The So Softs, I had no hope of cleaning out the dust with water. It just sticks more when wet. So I cleaned out the flocking using painters tape. It's a very gentle tape that won't pull out or damage the flocking. The non so softs all had costumes on them. I HIGHLY recommend not leaving ponies in pony wear for extended periods of time. Especially if those costumes have any plastic on them. Costumes don't necessarily protect ponies. Sometimes they do more harm than good.


Group 2:
group2.jpg




SS Shady: (A-) She was wearing the cute MLP cheerleader costume which protected her flocking from dust. But she was also wearing those horrible shoes that do a number on a pony. You can see the indention they made around her legs. Her hair is dry around the tips but she doesn't have a speck of missing flocking anywhere.


SS Scrumptious: (A-) I tried to clean her flocking the best I could, but she still looks a little off white. Soft hair, no missing flocking.


FF Cotton Candy: (D) She was wearing a jazzercise type outfit and it left an indention all the way around her middle. There were also, THE SHOES which were disgustingly sticky from decay, I'm assuming. She has bite marks on her rump and a big, fat mold pimple on her face.


Peachy: (D+) Missing tail, very large green mold mark on her side.


Confetti: (D-) Tragically, this girls hair is perfect and absolutely beautiful. Her body is horrendous. It is discolored with darker brown spots all over her body. You can see the the lines where her shoes were. The shoes discolored her feet on the bottom. If I owned these ponies, I think this would be the first one I would look to baiting. She narrowly escapes the F grade because of her hair.
 
Wow, this is quite an undertaking! I look forward to watching your progress.:)
 
Locket said:
Here is group 2. I wanted to do So Softs for this group, but I only found two in the boxes. So I found three more of the worst ponies I could to complete my group of 5. (You can see pictures of Scrumptious and Cotton Candy before their clean up on my first post)


The So Softs, I had no hope of cleaning out the dust with water. It just sticks more when wet. So I cleaned out the flocking using painters tape. It's a very gentle tape that won't pull out or damage the flocking. The non so softs all had costumes on them. I HIGHLY recommend not leaving ponies in pony wear for extended periods of time. Especially if those costumes have any plastic on them. Costumes don't necessarily protect ponies. Sometimes they do more harm than good.


Group 2:
group2.jpg




SS Shady: (A-) She was wearing the cute MLP cheerleader costume which protected her flocking from dust. But she was also wearing those horrible shoes that do a number on a pony. You can see the indention they made around her legs. Her hair is dry around the tips but she doesn't have a speck of missing flocking anywhere.


SS Scrumptious: (A-) I tried to clean her flocking the best I could, but she still looks a little off white. Soft hair, no missing flocking.


FF Cotton Candy: (D) She was wearing a jazzercise type outfit and it left an indention all the way around her middle. There were also, THE SHOES which were disgustingly sticky from decay, I'm assuming. She has bite marks on her rump and a big, fat mold pimple on her face.


Peachy: (D+) Missing tail, very large green mold mark on her side.


Confetti: (D-) Tragically, this girls hair is perfect and absolutely beautiful. Her body is horrendous. It is discolored with darker brown spots all over her body. You can see the the lines where her shoes were. The shoes discolored her feet on the bottom. If I owned these ponies, I think this would be the first one I would look to baiting. She narrowly escapes the F grade because of her hair.
Click to expand...




I don't know I think you could fix confetti in spite of her issues....it would be worth a try.
 
tulagirl said:
I don't know I think you could fix confetti in spite of her issues....it would be worth a try.
Click to expand...

I would be curious to hear if anyone has any ideas on how to whiten her body again and remove all the brown spots-- without damaging the paint-- I'm willing to listen.
 
This thread is getting neglected by me. I am still cleaning ponies on a regular basis, but I just had several things keep dropping in my lap faster than I can take care of them. So I may not be able to go through and take pictures of every pony and grade them all.

But I still think it's fun to see how many ponies I'm able to clean and just how many there are in all those boxes so my posts will be just a bit more brief.

I recently tackled all of the flutter ponies I could find. They were insanely dusty. Way more than the others. Dust loves flutter pony hair like you wouldn't believe. There was so much, I tried to comb most of it out before attempting to wash it. Water does not help dust bunnies rinse out well at all.

Look how disgusting.
dirtysink.jpg


I totally dropped one of the ponies in the sink while I was doing that. Not pretty. D:

Even after dry brush, washing the hair and coming again with a fine tooth comb, I still couldn't get it all out. It was frustrating because you could still see it, you just couldn't get it out. But they still look amazingly better. I hope you can see in this fuzzy picture the difference between the pony in the middle with her hair all cleaned and finished and the other two still fuzzy and dusty.
flutterhair.jpg


By the way, Hollywood and Cloud Puff still have their wings. The others, unfortunately, weren't so lucky.

Flutter ponies I cleaned:
Cloud Puff
Hollywood
Lily
Forget-Me-Not
Peach Blossom
Tropical Breeze
Rosedust
Morning Glory
Honey Suckle.

Next, I moved onto a group of baby ponies.

Of those I cleaned: Baby Cuddles, Lucky the Stallion, Blue Ember, Newborn Jangles and Tangles, Newborn Noodles.

Total ponies cleaned: 25
 
I think Confetti can be fixed with some sun fading and patience, I would not bait her I think she looks great and has potential.

Keep up the good work!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top