Friday 28 March 2014

Timey-Wimey

If I'm going to keep making TARDIS-themed customs, I need to come up with some more creative names than TARDIS, TARDIS 2, etc.  ;)
Timey-Wimey was a commission for a TARDIS-themed pony with a pink body.  After some further discussion, we agreed that she would have a TARDIS symbol, with blue hair.  I also decided to do her eyes entirely in shades of blue, as well.
She started out as a Pinkie Pie (obviously).  Her hair is nylon Forget Me Not blue.  Her eyes and symbol have been hand painted in acrylic and sealed.
I have it on good authority that her new owner was very happy to receive her.

Elf

Saturday 22 March 2014

The Great Geek Cave Weekend - Recap

Yes, both Roomy and I survived both the Ikea trip and the building/shifting of furniture last weeked.  Let me tell you how it went.

We are old pros at Ikea now, so that was relatively uneventful.  Saturday morning we began work in earnest, with Roomy building and me shifting things around in the Cave.  That was when the first injury occured, as I forgot that my Build a Bear Ponies were on top of a certain shelving unit.  It wouldn't have been so bad when they all fell on me, except Pinkie Pie was wearing BAB roller skates.  Ow!
Roomy builds the things, in a collection appropriate shirt
While Roomy was out in the hall building, I shifted things.  Then I shifted some other things.  Then things began to be crowded and messy.
This over here...this over here...Pinkie on rollerskates on the floor...
Collection Tetris
The end result of this weekend was that we now have all the bones in place for this room.  All the essential pieces of furniture are in there, which will allow us both to display our collections in the best way possible in that room.  I'm loving the nice, clean, white look of everything.
Vintage POP
Current MOTUC
Roomy has a much smaller collection than I (she's been collecting for a shorter time) so before the weekend was over her area was all set up.  I...have more work ahead of me...
So many ponies, so little organization

Elf

Friday 14 March 2014

The Great Geek Cave Weekend

The creation of a collection room is a never ending project, but there are times when you can see major progress being made.  This is one of those weekends.  This is the weekend the Geek Cave becomes fully furnished.

To the Giant Ikea!
Old picture, currently there is significantly more snow around the Ikea.  Just in case you were wondering.
This weekend Roomy and I will be buying and setting up the remaining shelves and display spaces required to complete the Geek Cave.  After this, we will both have all the display space we will ever have in this room for our collections.  In theory, there should be nothing stopping us from organizing our collections at this point.

I can't tell you how happy I will be to have all this nice, matching furniture for the Geek Cave.  It's so much nicer than the "found" furniture I've used in the past.  It gives a nice, clean look to the room, and lets us show off our collections to the best effect.

Full description and pictures to come!
In the meantime, enjoy Roomy's MOTU solution for my wingless flutter ponies.
Elf

Friday 7 March 2014

Random pony thoughts

Sometimes, there are things that I think about for the blog, but they don't amount to a full blog post by themselves.

Last summer one of the malls in town had a kiosk that sold signs with popular cartoon characters on them.  You could get them personalized - Happy Birthday Elfpony, or something to that respect.  They were quite obviously bootleg images, however, and they sort of missed the mark with the Pony sign.  Are the G4s visiting the G3s?  Did the two Ponyvilles collide?
Rarity is not impressed (but this is the best image ever).  I rather regret not getting one of these posters.
In the autumn, I received a lovely gift from a friend.  She is one of the most giving people I know, and she made these two Sunbeam pendants for my birthday.  I've worn them several times since then, and look forward to showing them off at this year's MLP Fair in July.  I've been remiss in not posting these sooner.
I felt old during a recent trip to the DVD store...is something that's only 10 years old really a classic?  (Can you believe G3 is 10 years old!?!?)  Also, why can't we have a nice G1 DVD set, with uncut versions of Rescue at Midnight Castle and Escape from Catrina?
There you go.  Some random pony-related thoughts from the head of Elfpony.

Elf

Saturday 1 March 2014

Deflocked Buttons

Deflocking a G1 so-soft pony is not a task that should be undertaken lightly.  There's not many of these ponies with excellent flocking around, few enough that look good on display in spite of a few rubs.  I don't believe in deflocking unless the flocking is really in bad shape, mostly missing, or otherwise badly damaged.
A selection of So-Softs
Although I'm not a big fan of deflocking so-soft ponies, they look pretty awful when they're missing half their fluff.  This is the condition poor Buttons was in when she came to me:
I suppose restoration might be possible, but matching the texture and consistency of the original flocking, not to mention matching up the line of the original with the new, would be pretty difficult.  In my opinion, she'd look better deflocked at this point.

I used rubbing alcohol and acetone (NOT at the same time!) to remove the glue holding the flocking on.  Naturally, the acetone would have also removed her paint, so I steered clear of the symbols, eyes, and blush with the acetone.  Instead, I used rubbing alcohol and a blunt knife (not a knife that would cut, more of a spreader) to scrape away the glue in those sections.  The rubbing alcohol won't damage the paint (at least, not in small quantities and short intervals) and it does wonders for getting rid of the glue.
I also added an extra step with Buttons.  Since she wasn't in her original state anyway, I decided to alter her symbol so she looks more like the UK Buttons (and the cartoon version as well).  She's wearing her blue stars now, which she was missing in the so-soft version.  Finally, I marked the bottom of her feet to show she'd been deflocked and altered.  I'm a firm believer in doing this for any pony that's been altered (rehaired, touched up, etc.) so that, if ever they leave my hands, there's no question that a customizer worked on them.

Elf