Funko Pop Custom: MLP

 

I bought these two Funko's Retro Toys line Pops online and therefore it was out of my hands to check the quality of the items I received. Minty's box had a rip in it at the back. Lucky, that I don't really care about the condition of the box. Out of the five ponies available, I picked the two who's color scheme I liked the most, which happened to be the ponies Blossom and Minty.

Minty has a speckle of pink on her bow and some glue residue in a crevice. The flowers on Blossom's cutie mark have a few incomplete/worn out petals.

The mane side eye on both of the ponies is printed a little bit too low.

Blossom has these visible marks on her mane, while Minty's was fine.

Both of them can stand just fine on their own, but Minty wobbles slightly more, possibly due to that her tail does not touch the ground like Blossom's does.

I hate the soulless black eyes of Funko Pops, but the sculpt itself was really cute on these ponies. So I wanted to try my hands on a simple repaint: fix the eyes.

Since Blossom was the more "damaged" one of the two I started with that.

I removed Blossom's original eyes with a cotton pad dipped in acetone and they came off easily.

I had an idea for how I wanted the new eyes to look, but I did not quite achieve what I wanted. They don't look that much better that original black dots. At least I realized I wanted more white in the eyes. Discouraged by my failure, I abandoned the ponies for a few months before trying again with Minty.

Minty's original eyes were more stubborn to get off and that unfortunately led to the  left side of her face slightly melting due to the acetone. The damage is not that visible from afar, but I know it's there, which annoys me. The pony's mane is just enough in the way to make the removing of the left eye a bitch of a task.

Thanks to my failing with the repaint on Blossom, I had a better idea of what I wanted to achieve with Minty. I'm really happy with the end result with Minty's eyes, even though how much I struggled to get there.

I tried to hide the melted parts with a layer of paint. I got the color to match better than I expected, but it ain't perfect. As long as I don't look at it up close like this, it's acceptable.

Looking at them again, I don't absolutely hate Blossom's eyes anymore, but I 100% prefer Minty's eyes even with all the mistakes made.

MLP Restoration pt. 1

I bought a pony lot of G1 My Little Ponies from a seller on Facebook. All of the ponies are in need of some restoration, but I figured these two unicorns would be the easiest to start with.

The two figures are exactly the same, the unicorn variation, and on the inside of their legs they are stamped with BULLY, W. GERMANY ©1987 HASBRO.

The wiki page in unfortunately short and there is not much info about these ponies available. My two ponies have these loops on their backs, but the wiki page doesn't mention keyrings at all, so I'm led to believe that some previous owner must have added the loops themselves.

The restoration was very straightforward. I used Green Stuff (previously seen here) to make their new horns. I sculpted the horns on top of the base of the original horn. In hindsight, I should have instead drilled a hole in the base and put a metal wire in the middle and then add the green stuff and have it blend in with the original horn base. Well, I didn't do that, so now my unicorns have some thicc horns. 

The green stuff cures way too fast for my liking, so I'm not super satisfied about the sculpt on the horns either. But this was the best I could do at the time.

The ponies were dirty and the metal loops on their back had started to rust. I removed the loops and gave the ponies a good wash with soap.

The color on the mane and tail was a bit worn out so I gave them a fresh coat of new paint. I mixed two shades of blue together and painted two layers to get this result.

Painting the horns was more tricky. I really should go buy a new basic white color, because the one I currently have is not nearly opaque enough. I lost count on how many white layers I had to paint to make that awful green color disappear.

Trying to mix the color for the horns to match the bodies was also a real pain. I'm still debating myself if I should give it a third try to get the color right, but then again, this is as good as I'm probably going to get it.

 After I was finished with the horns, I retouched the eyes a little bit too and that's it. I was done! I'm still considering if I should spray them with varnish or not. They are going to be sitting on a shelf and not played with, so maybe I don't need to take that extra step.

Flea market findings 7

Bought during a longer time period and not in one go and from separate places.

Poor G1 My Little Pony named Sand Digger cost me only 0,50€. I don't think this one is salvageable, I've heard those pen marks are very hard to remove and this one has them all over.

Spirited Away No-Face/Kaonashi phone charm with one of the "Heads".  I think I'm remembering I paid 2€ for this. Aside from the movies, this is the first Studio Ghibli merchandise that I own.

These Mega Pokémon figures are still sold in stores, so someone got tired of it really quickly. I was lucky to find this Mega Absol for only 2€, while if I bought it new from a store it would cost about 12€.

Score! It is so rare to find any Dragon Ball Z figures for sale, so that's why I have to feel extra happy whenever I find such rarity. Vegeta, Trunks, Goku and Gohan all came in the same plastic bag with a 10€ price tag slapped on it. It bothers me a little how Gohan isn't quite the right scale compared to the rest of them. He should only reach up to Goku's shoulders and not stand as tall as him.

These ceramic dogs cost 0,80€ each and if I ever find the time again, I'll use them for my Ginga custom project.

This 1997 Kenner AT-AT pilot has been through tough times and cost me only 0,50€.

The small plastic bag Eevee, Buneary, Piplup and a Nendoroid I do not recognize all came in, cost only 0,50€! Fifty cents! This has to be the cheapest Nendoroid ever! Maybe it's one of them good bootlegs, I dunno. Probably missing a lot of additional parts as well. Who are you, pink nurse?

The odd bunch containing Grievous, super deformed Kenobi and a Lil' Chewbacca. I bought them separately and can't remember what I paid for each one.

Operetta, Gigi and Clawdeen cost together 3€, that's one euro for each doll! That's crazy cheap considering they have most of their clothes and no missing limbs. Although Gigi's hair looks and feels very dirty... I'm not complaining!

These mini horses are super tiny and cute! And I can't remember what they cost me. I'm thinking of repainting the two on the right.

 Yet another Chap Mei Dilophosaurus for the collection <3

 Can't say the paint job is that accurate on the foxes, but the pup and parent are cute nonetheless.

Bootleg Pokémons. Aside from Absol and Darkrai, I don't think the sculpting is that bad, mostly is just the paint job. Fennekin, Braixen and Sandshrew look pretty good! Poor Eevee has a slightly deformed head, otherwise it looks pretty okay too. Something went terribly wrong with Darkrai, I can't stop laughing! XD

Flea market findings 5

Phew, it's been a while! Enjoying the summer are we? Well, I'm trying at least, unfortunately I had to break my tradition of going to Animecon this year, because I had too much other things going on..... maybe next year then! I'm also feeling  a little bit "left out"  because of Pokémon Go!  I can't jump on that bandwagon because I don't own a phone capable of running it. Dammit! It sure looks fun though! I'll just have to settle with playing Pokémon Shuffle on my tablet then. Or go searching for new toys to buy instead of saving  the money for a new phone!!! :D

Transforming Digimon! While in Taomon form, you can see the toy is missing a piece, but if I keep it in Kyubimon form it's hardly noticeable, which is good! I find Kyubimon to be more pleasing to the eye anyway.

Kurhn doll and some random dolly keyring I thought were too cute and very cheap to let pass by. I think I only paid 0,70€ for both of them in total.

The Groke and Tony Tony Chopper plush with their big grins. Chopper was only 0,50€!!

Alien versus Predator old PC game and Neca's very chibi Predator climber.

Schleich's Velociraptor and Dilophosaurus and Safari Ltd. tiny T. Rex. Also, a Wolf and fox with their respective offsprings by.... I have no clue. They do have a copyright marking on their bellies, too bad they didn't bother to put their company name there next to it!

I can't get over with how awesome this Chap Mei Dilophosaurus looks!! *_* ....until I take a look at it dislocated lower jaw. It was so close to perfection!

Ever so pretty skull keyrings and DragonBall GT phone charms and Mario's magic mushroom.

Chap Mei Ninja warrior, beaten up Piccolo and a lonely Clone Trooper.

Slowpoke, silver Giratina and big Pikachu bottle.

Lion King stuff (I have no idea what that Scar thing is supposed to be) and a random pack of Sonic, Garfield,  the Aristocat's Toulouse Smarties topper, some adorable Mother Goose.

1998s Godzilla or just Zilla nowadays, Zorro's steed Tornado, and a cute lil' Grim Reaper.

I found these last four at a yard sale. MLP G1 Fifi & baby pony Shaggy, a very charming Pentik Murr Murr Fox ceramic wall tile and lastly, a very derped out Batman just for the shits and giggles.