Prepping the Bait

You will need ~

1. An old plastic tub/container for hot water. I am using an old yoghurt container. 2. Pony victim - she is brand new, straight out of the box. 3. Craft knife 4. A pair of scissors 5. A pair of pliers. Mine are curved at the tip, but you can also use long needle-nose pliers if you prefer. These are just the pliers I swiped off my dad :P 6. A re-sealable plastic bag. Save the plastic bags from bulk-buy stores, and then reuse them. Waste not, want not!

Keep the plastic packaging strip on the Pony's mane, as this makes storing the hair much easier later on.

First, we have to behead our poor pony! Hasbro now has ponies whose heads are not glued on. Look for the sticker on the packaging that says "Pony's head can now turn!" This is great for us customisers, as all you have to do is grab firmly, twist and pull with all your strength ^^

Now its time to give Pony a haircut. Try to cut the hair off as closely to the scalp as possible.

Nearly there! Cutting the hair between the ears is quite tricky. Just go slowly and carefully ^^

Pony is ready for the Military.

Now its time to remove the tail. If you look into the pony's body, you will just be able to see the metal tail clasp and washer. We need to insert our pliers into the neck hole and reach for the metal clasp.

Grab the clasp and PULL!

I store all harvested pony hair in plastic baggies like this. The tails can be used to rehair G3 adults, and the manes can be used to rehair G1 adults and babies too ^^

Next, I cut the plastic ring on the pony's neck off with my trusty craft knife. I find that this makes rehairing a lot easier later, and when the custom is complete I super-glue the head back on. Some customisers leave the neck ring alone :)

BE CAREFUL!! There is no need to rush! Go slowly and surely, as craft knives can be VERY SHARP. You want to do a slicing, back-and-forth motion, like carving a turkey. Slowly!

You can discard the neck ring if you want ^^ But I tend to keep them...because I am a TOTAL HOARDER ugh!

Now its time to get some hot water. Put the kettle on, and once it has finished boiling and the switch goes off, pour some into that old plastic container. You need just enough to submerge the pony's entire head. I have probably used a little too much water over here! You want pony's head to fill up with water and sink to the bottom. Leave it in the water for about 2 minutes. The point of this is to loosen the glue which is holding the hair plugs in place, inside pony's head. Hasbro uses a LOT of glue on their G3 line, and it can be a pain (especially on your hands) to remove if not softened up beforehand. Once the head has been in the hot water for 2 minutes, take it out and tip the remaining water out from the inside of her head.

If we peer into Pony's head, we can see a mish mash of glue and hair. What we need to do is stick our pliers inside the head and pull all of this out.

And pull! The fact that the hair is wet means that it slides out easily and cleanly. Now keep going ~

By the time you reach the hair in between her ears, the head might have cooled down. Just dunk it back into your container of hot water for a another minute or so. The area between her ears through to the top of the head has the most glue, so it will be the hardest to remove. This is compounded by the fact that this area is the furtherest away from the neck hole. You need a little more elbow grease for this area. Once you grab hold of a glob of glue, twist and spiral it around and pull hard! Pony's head might appear to implode a bit, but is surprisingly elastic.

All done! The trickiest part is over ^^

Now you have one easy to work with pony :)