Which ponies are prone to plastic degradation?

cutekitten

cutekitten

Dollar Store Baby Fakie
Joined
Dec 2, 2008
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I was recently researching plastic degradation in ponies. If you collect ponies, you might have come across it from time to time: It's like a sticky/gooey feeling that some ponies get. This occurs because the plasticizer is breaking down in the ponies. Once this happens there are a few things that you can do to lessen this greasy feeling but you can't really fix it. It's pretty sad because this happens to specific types of ponies, and sometimes storing it in an optimal environment doesn't help either... it really sucks for collectors :(

In my own personal collection (and from when I have purchased of other people's collections) I have noticed specifically the old flat foot collectors ponies with this problem and I have some G3 mcdonalds toys that are starting to degrade.

My question is does anyone know which ponies are prone to this plastic degradation? From what I have seen and read, the collector pose ponies are susceptible, but I have even heard of G3 ponies that have started to degrade :( If you have seen this occur in ponies, which ones were affected?
 
Actually any pony has the chance of having this problem as the plasticizer will eventually leech out of them all. So, sadly its not a matter of what but just when. Some may stand the test of time. I have always felt that MLP would be figurine status when it reaches 100 years old. Either that or a lump of melted goo. Its just the nature of plastics. I can't think of any one special other than the G3 divine shines/ actually I have a few G3's with it but can't remember their names at the moment. None of my year 1 or 2's have it. I am trying to remember if anyone else has this problem in my pony closet. Hmmmmm Okay two: The Tropical babies all of mine have lost all their plasticizer and are like bricks.
 
All of them probably. Nothing lasts forever after all. Not even Twinkies.
 
tulagirl said:
The Tropical babies all of mine have lost all their plasticizer and are like bricks.
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really? hmm that is so sad :( I thought of another one that is sticky in my collection: baby tic tac toe :( so sad when they start to go!

Peppermint Truly said:
I've seen this a lot in foreign ponies, like some Mexicans. Colombians and Brazilians tend to do that too.
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Oh really?! I had no idea! I don't have any of those types, so I never really did any research on them... that's quite interesting, but again kinda sad :(
 
Well, with cheaper materials probably being used in an effort to cut costs there will be entire decades of toys that will probably never see antique status because of how they are made. Sigh To be perfectly honest though all toys have issues with age. I collect a lot of things from the 1950s and the plastic from the 1950s smells like cheese vomit as it ages. There is nothing that can be done about it. You can't even have the item in the room because, it stinks up the whole room. 1930s baby bottles for dolls melt down to a hard blob of red on top of a glass bottle. Magic skin dolls from the late 40s and 50's turn black and crack and rot. 1950s and 60's Barbie heads get huge green and white out spots in the vinyl. Antique dolls from the 30's made of composition craze and chip. Metal toys chip and flake. Nothing really will last and the rare ones that do will be treasure and of high value. Its especially going to be rough with everything past 1990. Things were just made so cheaply. I am not sure it will work out.
 
tulagirl said:
Well, with cheaper materials probably being used in an effort to cut costs there will be entire decades of toys that will probably never see antique status because of how they are made. Sigh
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True. How sad.
 
Nothing is safe and nothing lasts forever. Not even things that are new and it makes me so sad. I even more sorry for old toys now. :( excuse me while I go cry in a corner with my old toys.:sadpony:
 
tulagirl said:
Well, with cheaper materials probably being used in an effort to cut costs there will be entire decades of toys that will probably never see antique status because of how they are made. Sigh To be perfectly honest though all toys have issues with age. I collect a lot of things from the 1950s and the plastic from the 1950s smells like cheese vomit as it ages. There is nothing that can be done about it. You can't even have the item in the room because, it stinks up the whole room. 1930s baby bottles for dolls melt down to a hard blob of red on top of a glass bottle. Magic skin dolls from the late 40s and 50's turn black and crack and rot. 1950s and 60's Barbie heads get huge green and white out spots in the vinyl. Antique dolls from the 30's made of composition craze and chip. Metal toys chip and flake. Nothing really will last and the rare ones that do will be treasure and of high value. Its especially going to be rough with everything past 1990. Things were just made so cheaply. I am not sure it will work out.
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Despite the fact that you were talking about toy degradation, I really loved hearing about your collection :smile: It sounds like you have a lot of interesting toys. Actually this might sound weird, but when I think of ponies degrading I feel sad, but hearing about older toys that are smelly and chipped etc makes me feel better. Like, those things are still fun to collect so it isn't that bad that ponies are oozing lol. thanks for sharing!
 
Yea its just like any other collection. Ponies are toys just like all the other wonderful stuff out there. All the things I have collected have some sort of issue. I have just spent time over the years searching for the ones that were still looking pretty nice and not stinking. Oh and BJD dolls age fast too. The resin turns yellow. My doll was bright white when I got her two years ago. She is already turning in color. This is the biggest reason I will not be investing hundreds in BJD dolls. I really do not like this problem. When I got to the doll shows and all of the Mint BJDs are yellow when its clear that was not their original color. Nope that is just not going to work for me. I love them, but I don't like yellowing to that degree. I saw one that was really a sick yellow color. IT was awful. She could not sell that doll. She kept lowering the price and no one wanted it. Gorgeous doll a few years ago. Sad My husband collects toys also and he has all sorts of issues with his stuff. Like transformers sometimes the parts do not stay in the toy anymore..like fists and things. The white is yellow...or 1970s playsets with stickers..the stickers are all gummy and oily looking. Its always something. I have actually had pretty good luck with my ponies, but I have bought mint ponies only for them to break out with regrind in my closet with no extreme storage conditions. Sad sad day. Oh and I bought my childhood Barbie off of ebay. She sat inside a china cabinet for years. I never touched her. One day I walk by the cabinet and there her arm is on the glass. It literally just age rotten right off the joint. She was Mint too. Come to find out the Barbies from the 70's are known to not hold up with the plastic arm and hip joints.
 
I have a baby Tic Tac Toe that has that weird sticky plastic feel.
 
Cerulean said:
I have a baby Tic Tac Toe that has that weird sticky plastic feel.
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yes! this sounds exactly like mine :( I guess this one is more prone to degradation, too bad it's an adorable pony!
tulagirl said:
I have actually had pretty good luck with my ponies, but I have bought mint ponies only for them to break out with regrind in my closet with no extreme storage conditions. Sad sad day. Oh and I bought my childhood Barbie off of ebay. She sat inside a china cabinet for years. I never touched her. One day I walk by the cabinet and there her arm is on the glass. It literally just age rotten right off the joint. She was Mint too. Come to find out the Barbies from the 70's are known to not hold up with the plastic arm and hip joints.
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:shock: That's awful! I am so sad to hear this. It must have felt awful when you first discovered they were rotted :( It makes me think twice about buying more stuff, especially if it ends up in a box somewhere... and then when I go to take it out it's falling apart or looks awful... I love collecting old toys, but the deterioration certainly puts a damper on things! It's one thing if the toy is abused and treated badly, but when you take care of it and carefully store it and then it goes bad anyways... well that's absolutely heartbreaking!
 
If we did not collect toys there would be no representation of cultural history of play/children. Someone has to consider the importance of this. Dolls and toys represent what was important during certain decades. They are actually art forms that tell a story about the children, fashions, family, values, the use of colors and important objects of the time period they are made. I feel its important to preserve these aspects of our world for future generations. We will face issues with the things we collect, but that should not really affect our desire to collect. Just buy few and buy better. This I have not done. When children ask my why I collect dolls and toys this is my answer. They are actually pieces of art. I show a child a doll from 1900 and a doll from 1980 and have them describe the differences they see, I find they are amazed at what they learn about society from those two time periods just by looking at a doll. I have done presentations on this and even adults are shocked and what you can learn about society from a toy.
 
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Marble Dragon said:
Whaaaat???!!! Twinkles don't last forever!!!! Great, now I have to rethink my apocalypse survival plan...
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Humans cannot live on Twinkies alone...especially decades old ones. XD
 
Dude, kudos to everyone for a VERY interesting conversation. Here's hoping I don't kill it! :lolpony::unsure:

I think I'm pretty lucky when it comes to these things, the only ponies with clear signs of degradation I have are a Galaxy with a few regrind and cancer spots (still displays wonderfully, though), a Queen Sunsparkle with sticky legs and a Kimono that alternates from "kinda sticky" to "can't tell if still sticky". My Baby Tic Tac Toe is a bit shinier and feels a teensy bit different than my other ponies, but nothing I'd qualify as degrading... At least for now.:surprisepony:

I do find it funny that the pony I have that I'd say is in best condition out of all my G1s is none other than Firefly, i.e. a pony from 19-freakin'-83. Especially after having been knocked down by the cat multiple times. That girl can take anything!
Also, has anyone ever seen a Fizzy with plastic issues? Because I sure haven't, and every other Twinkle Eye out there seems to fall victim to cancer or regrind with astounding ease, like they actually enjoy it or something. TEs are weird.
 
PrincessLio said:
Dude, kudos to everyone for a VERY interesting conversation. Here's hoping I don't kill it! :lolpony::unsure:
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lol everyone has some really interesting things to say about plastic degradation, I am really learning a lot! It also makes me feel better about my sad plight of having several of my ponies, that were once perfect, become gross... :sadpony:
PrincessLio said:
My Baby Tic Tac Toe is a bit shinier and feels a teensy bit different than my other ponies, but nothing I'd qualify as degrading... At least for now.:surprisepony:
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Oh no, it sounds like your baby tic tac toe is starting to go... I wonder why that one is so prone to degradation? I don't think it's the yellow color specifically because I have a few different ones with the same yellow and they are fine, but that baby... sticky whicky lol
PrincessLio said:
Also, has anyone ever seen a Fizzy with plastic issues? Because I sure haven't, and every other Twinkle Eye out there seems to fall victim to cancer or regrind with astounding ease, like they actually enjoy it or something. TEs are weird.
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I have 3 Fizzys and not a single one has any skin issues... just really unruly hair lol!

tulagirl said:
If we did not collect toys there would be no representation of cultural history of play/children. Someone has to consider the importance of this. Dolls and toys represent what was important during certain decades. They are actually art forms that tell a story about the children, fashions, family, values, the use of colors and important objects of the time period they are made. I feel its important to preserve these aspects of our world for future generations. We will face issues with the things we collect, but that should not really affect our desire to collect. Just buy few and buy better. This I have not done. When children ask my why I collect dolls and toys this is my answer. They are actually pieces of art. I show a child a doll from 1900 and a doll from 1980 and have them describe the differences they see, I find they are amazed at what they learn about society from those two time periods just by looking at a doll. I have done presentations on this and even adults are shocked and what you can learn about society from a toy.
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Definitely agree with this! Toys are part of culture. They are a link to our childhood and they are a link to the past... and you are right when you say it's art. It totally is! and it's something that anyone can collect too. Your presentations sound amazing, I would love to attend one! You really have a lot to say on the subject and I really appreciate everything you have shared :)
 
tulagirl said:
...Oh and BJD dolls age fast too. The resin turns yellow. My doll was bright white when I got her two years ago. She is already turning in color. This is the biggest reason I will not be investing hundreds in BJD dolls. I really do not like this problem. When I got to the doll shows and all of the Mint BJDs are yellow when its clear that was not their original color. Nope that is just not going to work for me. I love them, but I don't like yellowing to that degree. I saw one that was really a sick yellow color. IT was awful. She could not sell that doll. She kept lowering the price and no one wanted it. Gorgeous doll a few years ago. ... Come to find out the Barbies from the 70's are known to not hold up with the plastic arm and hip joints.
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^^^
THIS. Is the reason I never commited to BJDs.
I got into Pullip dolls right after I came out of MLP collecting in 2008 or there abouts. I only purchased 2 dolls over the course of a few years because of the terrible frailness of the materials they were made of. As far as I'm concerned it's worse than BJDs - the vinyl is so cheap that if a bare part of one doll touches another, it melts. This is the same for foreign plastics - if you change the body of the doll, which most do because the original just doesn't cut it, you have to go through so much to prevent the new body melting the neck and head of the doll! Add the yellowing, chipping, etc. keeping in mind these dolls cost $80-$200 a pop. If I ever buy another BJD again, it'll be a porcelain one by Marina Bychkova.
The ponies I always see the most deteriorated seem to be the TE's like Gingerbread and Sweetstuff - and most others in that pose?? The worst regrind? And cancer! It's a bit of a conundrum.
 
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