#pony royale

[horsefigureoftheday]

girl gang girl gang

[glooomyshroom]

You may be iconic but you’ll never be as iconic as Her

[pony-royale-restoration]

Today I decided to restore some manes. When I bought a batch of PR ponies off of eBay with the carousel, it came with three manes that did not have matching tails. So I decided these would be my little lab rats.

I watched a few videos on people restoring MLP hair to get an idea of what to do. I used Kristin Ess Signature shampoo and Costco brand moisture conditioner. I saw the recommended was to use mild products like baby products and unscented to prevent future miscoloring, however I have neither and my wallet is still suffering from Christmas shopping so if I used the recommended products, it will be at a later time. I washed the hair in warm water and let the conditioner set for a few minutes before brushing out.

I tried to wrap the hair in little donuts as I let the conditioner set. I’m unsure if it would make a difference. Because the manes are removable, I didn’t wrap them around the pony legs which was what most MLP restorers did that I watched. Some of the manes I couldn’t wrap up like this because of the varying lengths but I doubt it made a big difference.

I used a brush that came with one of my PR ponies from over a decade ago when I was a little girl and a spare toothbrush. I first used the plastic brush to untangle the hair after letting the conditioner set for a few minutes and rinsed it out. After untangling with the plastic brush, I used the toothbrush to get out the smaller knots the plastic one couldn’t get.

Washing helped a little with overall straightening but the hair still has frizzy ends. I saw some people putting their MLP pony’s hair in boiling water and decided I’d do this if washing and conditioning didn’t work.

I set aside the tinsel hair that still had conditioner and wrapped it up in some foil. I’m going to wait a day before I unwrap and rinse it out to see if it makes a difference to the frizziness.

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[pony-royale-restoration]

I went ahead and cut off the hair of the tail that got melted. So as you can see, there’s a little loop in there. It’s hard to get pictures of the whole structure because it’s deep into the tail base. Holding the loop in place is metal wire. The loop is deep in the base so that when held level, you won’t see the loop at all. I think this is to keep the tail from being pulled out of the base since the loop is what holds the hair in place.

So it seems to replace the tail you’d have to take your hair fibers and get them through the loop halfway, and whatever you use would have to be flexible, like a thin wire, as it has to go into the tail base. A needle wouldn’t work as it lacks flexibility and the curved needles I have are too big. I do however have some thin floral wire I may be able to use to work in some fibers if I were to replace this tail.

I threaded some yarn in using floral wire as a makeshift hook. I had to stretch the loop a little bit. It was tricky to pull the yarn all at one through the loop so I pulled it enough that the yarn former a loop and I cut it. Then I pulled through every strand of yarn individually til all the length was roughly the same. If you’re using yarn, once the tail is done be careful to not pull on an individual strand of yarn as it can come loose. It gets folded in half once, so it goes around your “hook”, and then folded in half again to go through the tail.

When making your tail, get half of the volume you want (since it will double when you pull through) and double the length you want!

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[pony-royale-restoration]

I recently had an interest in Pony Royale again which is like a core memory of my childhood. I went online to see if anyone was still selling them or if there was any fandom for them and I was surprised to find that hardly anyone ever knew about Pony Royale’s existence. I’m very sad this toy line went under the radar and disappeared and I want to give it some attention by restoring my own ponies and some that I bought off eBay.

Pony Royale was a toy line that started in 2012 and it likely stopped being produced by 2014 since it couldn’t compete with MLP in the pony toy market, nor did it have any show or cartoon to have a previous following. It was a brilliant idea that features changeable manes and tails and accessories and they even made a carousel to go with the ponies and all the accessories could be stored in the carousel as its furnishings. For example, the skirts would become the curtains, the manes and tails would go on the mannequin ponies, the saddle blankets would go on a rack, and the saddlettes (pieces that hold saddle blankets in place) decorate the base of the mirror, and the tiaras decorate the top of the carousel. It was a brilliant idea and unfortunately it was ahead of its time. I can see this concept being very popular today despite it being made over a decade ago.

Anyways, I will be using this blog to document my progress restoring Pony Royale ponies and the carousel I bought as it’s in need of some TLC as well and could use a paint job. I have never taken on toy restoration before but it’s something I’ve wanted to do, so I apologize for amateur mistakes ahead. Since I can’t find anyone who’s done Pony Royale restoration before, I hope I can pioneer some knowledge for future PR restorers to build off of so they don’t have to start from ground zero. All I could find was MLP pony restoration which helps a little bit but the way PR ponies are built is different because of the changeable parts which adds a challenge.

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[horsefigureoftheday]

Horse figure of the day: Pony Royale "Sky"

[horsefigureoftheday]

Horse figure of the day: Pony Royale "Rosie"

[horsefigureoftheday]

Horse figure of the day: Pony Royale "Diamond"