Once you’ve finished all the major work on a custom pony, all you have left are the finishing touches. This includes everything from minor adjustments to added accessories or details.

Reattaching the Head

Once you’ve finished your custom, you will probably want to glue her head back on. Many types of glue will not stick to the plastic used for My Little Ponies, which presents a problem to the customizer. My glue of choice is Krazy Glue Craft gel formula with Skin Guard. It doesn’t run everywhere and won’t glue your fingers together on contact.

Trimming the Hair

A lot of customizers get anxious about cutting a pony’s hair. After all that rerooting, who could blame them? Hasbro gave ponies a wide variety of hair lengths, from the traditional length of early ponies to the trailing locks of later ponies. If you’re having a hard time deciding, here’s a simple guide to achieving the traditional adult hair lengths. Please note that traditional lengths for babies are slightly longer.

A traditional mane is just long enough to curl around the neck. You can get the right length by pulling the hair down flat, down under the chin, and over to the opposite cheek. Holding it close to the opposite cheek, cut it even with that ear.

A traditional tail is easy to create. If pulled between the back legs and up through the front legs, a traditional tail will end just above the seam of the neck (you can test this theory on any of your older ponies. Flat foots are the only exception). This makes an easy guide for creating tails of the traditional length. Simply pull the tail forward between the legs, pulling it up to the chin, and cut it just above the neck seam.

A Finished Custom!

After all of that cutting, dyeing, and painting, you finally have a finished custom! Your work of art is now ready to show off:

Special Touches

Many customizers like to add special touches to their customs, especially if they are sold or given as gifts to other collectors. These can include a signature on the bottom of a custom’s foot, a “birth certificate” or sheet explaining how the custom was made, or special accessories for the custom. There is a lot of room for creativity here!

An important note is that there is currently a move to prevent fraud in the customizing community. There have been several incidents of “rare” ponies being sold on the Internet that were actually custom ponies. If you have been commissioned to create a replica of a rare pony (such as a Baby Dancing Butterflies made from a Baby Bouncy), it is advised that you carve a “C” for “custom” on the bottom of one of the feet. You wouldn’t want someone passing off one of your customs later on as the real thing.

Customizing 101 Intro :: Anatomy of a Pony :: Dismantling the Pony

Changing Body Color :: Painting your Pony :: New Hair :: Special Effects

Finishing Up :: Problem Solving :: Custom Pony Links

Dava’s Customs :: Back to Main Page