Somewhere along the line, my wife became a big fan of Zecora, so much so that she did a simple cosplay of her at TrotCon 2018. Guess who drew spirals on a pair of pants the night before?
Anyway, ages ago I got her the glow-in-the-dark figure for her birthday, probably back in 2013 or 14. She’s got one of the little blind bags too, which besides the rather ghastly EQG doll, pretty much covers all the Zecora merchandise you’re going to commonly find. Then Build-A-Bear merch started showing up at second-hand shops around these parts and...
Within a short span of time we ended up five BAB ponies around here, three of them Twilights! The herd got culled, but now my wife knew a BAB Zecora existed and wanted one for Christmas. NFW would I be lucky enough to find one for those at a thrift shop, so it was off to eBay, which was easy enough. And that is where today’s story begins.
A snag or somebody exploring? Sure looks like the latter to me, but I’m willing to blame it on UPS’s traditional level of care than malice.
In the past week they did catch some porch pirates around here, but the box was dropped at our side door with other packages, and I scurried over there right away when the doorbell rang. I even saw the guy walking to his truck, so whatever is going on here, it happen en route.
Great big, nasty abrasion damage on the bottom, which isn’t inexplicable, but how did her tail end up on the outside?
At this point, my worry was WTH I was going to do if the figure was in really bad shape. Being the procrastinator I am, combined with our travel plans, I’d have had only four days to get a replacement.
I opened the box from the bottom, and you can see the seller/shipper obviously tossed her in the box and jammed paper on top. She may not be glass or something, but
Besides reasonable, evenly distributed packing, she should have been bagged. At least it wasn’t newsprint with all that lovely ink to rub off on her fabric.
I did not doctor the state of affairs here: somebody pulled her tail out through that hole. I mean...
The only reasonable explanation I can come up with, besides “Gosh! Is this worth stealing?”, is the seller was reusing boxes, hence the damage, packed this BAB up while doing some others and couldn’t remember who was in which. I dunno. A stretch, to say the least.
With her shipping adventure over, it was time for Zecora to hit the spa, also known as the code violation nightmare that is my basement. After a quick mane and tail brush out, she received a lavender scented (antibacterial) rub down, and then had a perm consisting of a wet comb with fabric softener followed by ironing at the lowest level to set it. Oh, and I starched her ears, too.
The reason she’s upside down was her mohawk: I’d hoped it would maintain its shape longer if it dried this way, but gravity seems to be winning in the long run. Anyway, her spa visit was the Friday before Xmas, so Zecora ending up spending a bit over a week, suspended thusly, in the back of my closet, awaiting her debut.
Here she is camping out under the tree on Xmas eve.
Overnight, Mr. Cat did not attempt to have his way with her, nor did he decide she required disemboweling, so Zecora remained in fine form until morning.
She was well received.
The End.
Semi-random Bonus Pictures
white unicorn. I’m proud of this Five Below find for two reasons. First, I had her in the collection before she showed up on EQD and MLP Merch. And secondly, since she’s part of yet another blind set, I’m pleased to report I got her on the first try! I was about to grab the box in front, but decided on taking the one behind it. I guess she called to me.
That luck won’t save me any time/money, though, because I want the Celestia figure now.
I took this shot to explain the size of the previous figure to a friend by putting it in context with others. I selected just a fraction of the new Raritys that arrived in 2018.
Send help... or more Raritys.
Taken at Marc’s, a local sort-of not-quite thrift store, when it comes to non-food items that is, where a lot of pony merch shows up. Earlier this year they had items from the Rainbow Power line but now have moved on to a limited set of Explore Equestria items.
They also had this gem. If you’re an ICP fan and had this on your Xmas list, I’m sorry: I didn’t pick it up.
That’s the saying, right? So, have a cat.
This is Slim, my in-laws new/old cat. He’s a midlife adoptee, six years old, but acts rather kittenish and is totally pampered. They have a pet stroller they use to wheel him about: I figured any self-respecting cat would engage in a death struggle rather than submit to such an indignity. Instead he hops in, demanding a ride.
*sigh* Cat’s these days.
I hope to have something ready for preview rather soon, but various medical PITAs, only a few of them mine, seem to wear me out nightly, and although they do, the story ideas don’t go away.
Glad zecora turned out okay.
I'm glad Zecora was alright! The condition of her shipping box had me worried. Nice to hear she was well received!
I do love me some Rarity, though I'm a little biased.