Horse Rescue, Wagner Edition

Flocked toys sure take a beating. Knowing this, my mom wouldn't let me play outside with the Wagner animals she gave me when I was a child. They were indoor toys only. Which was OK with me as I had plenty of plastic animals to bury in the sandbox and float in the wading pool.

But still, just playing with these fragile toys caused plenty of damage on its own over time. Flocking rubbed off. White flocking quickly grew terribly dirty. Manes and tails were lost. Flexible legs were bent until the flocking fell off, leaving cracks. Ears disappeared randomly.

And for a kid, removing the horses' tack was an irresistible temptation. After all, the horses had to sleep without tack on, right? And wouldn't the tack go back on as easily as a Barbie doll's clothing? Um, no. No, it did not.

These two little fellows are the foals that came with the FAO Schwarz stable set I received one Christmas. Pointing out that they are playworn is an understatement.

The white foal's mom boasted a particularly lush mane and tail and played the role of Beauty Queen in our stories. But one day, inspired by television commercials about creme rinses, I decided to borrow some pink-tinted product from my mom's cabinet and make my white horse's tail even more glorious. Instead, her tail fell off, and her rump was permanently stained pink on one side. And as years passed, she grew as grubby as her foal.

Poor Beauty Queen! She's a mess, but I did
give her a new, bouffant tail a few years ago.

After I discovered eBay and other online sites, I would occasionally rescue a poor, neglected Wagner horse because even though I know perfectly well they are not alive, I apparently do not know perfectly well that they are not alive. I felt very sorry for them. 

So I am brushing up on my crafting skills to revive these timeworn horses. I have to figure out how to do a better job at flocking. So far my only attempts (using the paint-and-sprinkle-flocking method) have resulted in coverings that feel rough and gritty. I think electrostatic flocking will do the trick as it causes the flocking fibers to stand straight and create a velvety feel, rather than the crushed-glass feeling of fibers lying every which way.

Here are a few of the other sad-sack cases I hope to rehab:

This one at right has lost its tail and most of its mane. 

Replacing manes with new fur can be tricky because the tanned skin it's attached to doesn't always get hidden by the fur. You can even see this on original horses from Wagner, since each one is an individual creation and not factory produced.

There's a lot of such backing plastered on this horse's neck and forehead, all that remains of the original fuzzy mane.

 

This beautiful M.C. Original horse boasts all of its original tack as well as its mane and tail. But it's grubby as all get out. And its ears are missing.

I don't like to remove the tack because it's fragile and never goes back on properly. But I think reflocking is the only way to help this horse regain its looks. (Its off side is even worse.)

This horse is also missing its ears but misplaced its mane and tail as well. And some swine has stolen its saddle!

At first glance, it doesn't look too grubby, so a little cleanup might do the trick, and replacing the mane and tail shouldn't be too hard.

But this horse would only qualify as a pasture pet if you were buying it from a stable because if you take a look at the off side...

....oh no!

Poor pony's had a chunk taken out of its upper leg. (The gray plastic is an innovation that came along later in the production of these animals.) And there's lots of foxing. I recall reading that over time, exposure to sunlight sometimes causes a reaction with the glue, and of course it's most visible on the white animals. *Sigh* a lot of reflocking is in this one's future.

And last but not least is this former Noble White Steed. A total mess flocking-wise, and he lost his mane. I'm thinking he's a good candidate for becoming a dapple gray, once I improve my ability to flock these animals.

This horse is actually my favorite kind of Wagner horse--paper-wrapped wire legs, no tack. 

I think that's probably because I felt such joy when I got a brown horse of this type as a kid--my older brother bought it for me at the Museum of Natural History when he was on a field trip with his third-grade class (he was, and is, a kind and generous big brother!). 

And yes, I still have that horse. He's bandy-legged and a little scraggly, but I'm not going to change a single thing about him.