Atarama

While they don't look too bad from a distance, up close they're all a bit grotty. And suffering a lot of mold peppering. Braided Beauty is the worst off.

I cleaned them all up as best I could - the red dust all over BB in the picture above mostly had to be removed with a cotton bud & nail polish remover. Scrubbing with detergent got some off, but the rest needed more encouragement to get rid of.

I couldn't do much for the manes & tails on the twins - so many haircuts, and they're very frizzy. At least they're a little cleaner now. It might not be an art gallery, but surely it's better than a box!

I am terribly proud of the tight curls in Caramel Crunch's tail (top shelf, the one with the nightmarishly pink mane & tail). Rainbow Cloud's curls were also restored, with very careful work to seperate her tail into four colours - as it was originally. She's the white one on the middle shelf.

But I suspect this is only the beginning of an obsession. Today's acquisitions:

Pinwheel, I think, will be my first attempt at customising. She is so thoroughly texta-marked that surely nothing I do can make her worse off - she's spotted all over with red and blue texta, as if someone left her in their art box with all the lids off. It doesn't show up in the picture as much as it does in real life - the flash seems to disguise the marks. Her symbols are rusty and badly rubbed, too.

Sadly, the local op-shop (which seems to be the only op-shop in Adelaide with a consistent supply of ponies!) has realised that people collect them. They do give you a discount if you buy groups of them, though! I did purchase some last week, as well. I think this is developing into a full-blown hobby.