Why wont these ponies dye?!

[The-Never-Ending-Why]

Hey I have a bit of an issue changing the colour of one of my ponies. I've used dye before on a sparkle baby Firefly who was in a bad way with good results. So thought I would give it a go on my sparkle adult Skydancer who is in a horrid way. Only the same brand dye used with Firefly just wont go with Skydancer. I gave her the best clean and removed all her symbols and hair and left her boiling in dye for ages yet it has not even left a tint. I wish I had some before pics to show you but pretty much Skydancer had dried up horrible hair, faded rubbed symbols and her pink body was a gross yellow tint that even after using several cleaning methods(including an oxy bath) would not come good. So I decided to use her as custom bait. My first step was of course to prep her, then I planned on dying her a navy blue colour. Which is where my problem started. I grabbed one of my sparkle fakie ponies(from a Dollar Store) and dunked her in to see if it was an issue with the dye. She hasn't been in long but already is showing a tint. Could it be that whatever made my Skydancer yellow is preventing me from dyeing her? Does anyone know what I can try to fix this or if I should just paint her (which I really don't want to do). I've included pictures of The Firefly I dyed next to a standard Firefly. Skydancer in her dye bath and the sparkle fakie after a minute or two in the same bath. The fakie was a dark pink colour originally. Also I'd just like to ad that I got Skydancer and Firefly online together, they were sold as bait but I didn't actually start changing them until I recently got copies of the two from Mareofthesea, the ones she sold me are in much nicer condition which is why I don't feel as bad now changing my original two.

 

[hanamadoi]

Oh wow. That seems really weird (and I think your dyed Baby Firefly looks great, I love that shade of pink!)... I wonder if someone covered Skydancer in a zit cream at some point? Could that have caused it? I know it can yellow some white ponies, so maybe it reacted weirdly on a pink sparkle body and yellowed that too. Those zit creams fade new paint too I think, so it might be why she's not taking? That or her plastic is just a strange sort that won't take the dye. I'm not good enough at chemistry to have a proper explanation, just thoughts based on what Oxy-10 has done for a couple of my ponies!

 

[The-Never-Ending-Why]

Thanks! I was really happy with how Firefly came out too Those are some good theories on Skydancer too, I'm going to leave her in the dye over night anyway but I wish I knew what was stopping the dye from setting. Then maybe I'd have a better chance at fixing it.

 

[The-Never-Ending-Why]

Well I left her soaking overnight and not even a tint. I'm worried her body is ruined too much to be dyed so I'll have to resort to painting. I hate painting translucent ponies, they look so much more lovely without painting.

 

[ichigo_pinkchan]

I've always been curious what it would look like if you poured the paint inside the body...

 

[dragonkiss207]

Oh that would be interesting to see what paint poured inside the body would look like. That might help the color and you wouldn't have to be worried about making it smooth.

 

[Night Fury]

I've always been curious what it would look like if you poured the paint inside the body...

Ooooh, good idea! I like that, and it would still show all that awewsome glitter not sure if it would help with her yellowing plastic issue though
I'm thinking, and don't bargain on it cause I'm no expert on any of this, but it makes sense that she might have been covered in something oil based? Oily substances even when sunken into something like plastic thats has pores, would be a fine attraction for other substances that causes yellowing. Like tobacco for instance, the smoke in a room will over a long time cause yellowing of say a painted wall, but bring an oily coating into the equation? So in my oppinion, oil or grease attracts yellow, and will defnately stop dye from taking on something. Now being a bait as it is, you could mabe try boiling or soaking her in hot water with a cleaner that shifts grease, like Clean Green(not sure if that stuff is available in your part of the world or if its an SA product) that stuff is amazing for getting rid of grease of any kind, its mostly used to clean car engines and carpets ect, but it doesn't harm paint or plastic. Hope that helps?

 

[Star_Flare]

Have you tried wiping her down with 100% pure acetone? That's my go-to product when I see yellowing or stains of any kind. It may not work, but it's worth a shot.

 

[The-Never-Ending-Why]

To answer everyone, I have wiped her down with acetone while I was removing her symbols and glue residue from around her neck. She also had a long hot soak in an oxy bath and I scrubbed her with a toothbrush and dish soap as well. Nothing seemed to shift the stains. To make maters worse after all the cleaning I've done to her plus her long soak in dye I may have ruined her completely! She's been drying overnight but her body still looks milky white. You know how clear plastic goes milky when boiling? Normally it returns to clear after drying but she still looks milky. Still, the paint inside the body might work, Ill have to do some experiments with her and find out what goes and what doesn't.

 

[Raemarie]

Can't say I've encountered this problem dyeing my ponies before.:scratch:

Normally I would ask what type of dye your were trying since most will stain the plastic vs. actually bond at a molecular level. Still, you've used the dye before and got the result you wanted anyway. So if this pony is not taking any colour at all I would think more along the lines of something being on/in the pony that is repelling the dye. Thing is a good cleaning and acetone would usually remove oils, grease, or break down the shiny coating that can sometimes be on plastic from the molding process. So...

At this point it sounds like the poor pony has been through the ringer a bit. I don't know if trying a solvent dye that is used on PVC would be a good thing. I've never tried them myself because it's a nasty chemical cocktail.
Only other suggestion might be some of the aerosol vinyl dyes (not the coatings those are just like paint). But, again the pony has to be clean and porous enough for the dye to penetrate and bond.

But, please let us know if you find a solution.