My Little Pony G1 1987 Toppy restoration + ramble

My very first proper restoration (so with head removal) was November 18th 2024 with one of my childhood ponies Toppy! She was released as a newborn twin alongside her sister Big Top in 1987 (year 6 of Generation 1) and she used to belong to my aunt before I got her like many of my childhood ponies. I mayybee have the accessories that came with her, but I still have to sort through that bag. its A LOT. (haha get it LOT haha like like a collection like selling a collection haha haha ok anyways)

Toppy had a case of tail rust. The G1 toys (up to G3 from what ive seen but maybe G4 too) were made with metal washers in their tails to keep the hair in place. Unfortunately these washers tend to rust and stain the tail. Sometimes the rust spreads to the inside and creates visible staining on the mane or body. Its best to just decapitate the pony and clean it out before it gets too bad.

Heres some before pictures:

You can kinda see a stain in her neck, and obviously the tail has pretty bad rust. 

The roots of her hair also had some nasty stuff

Here she is decapitated and her tail removed! It was a bit of a struggle to get the head off. Probably because I was inexperienced. You can see shes a little dirty inside but ive seen much much worse. It was pretty easy to take care of. Remove the rusty bits, scrub with toothpaste to get the rust out, and I put it under a uvb light to get some leftover staining out but I dont think it did much. I also cleaned the body and head of course. Just gave it a good soak in some cleaning stuff and scrubbed it with soap and a soft toothbrush. I don't think I gave her a boil.

And there she is! all clean. Im still incredibly happy with this restoration even if it wasnt that bad in the first place. 

Thank you for reading I love restoring these guys :3 I have some more restorations ill post another day!