i hate g4 neck plugs.

[moonrabbit17]

hello everyone !

i purchased a damaged Cadance brushable to turn into a custom Luna, but i kid you not, for WEEKS i have been struggling to pull out her darn neck plug.
I used boiling water, every kind of thin and/or hooked blade i have, and brute force, but nothing works. the pliers i used to try and pull it out even ended up breaking it, but i can just super glue it back on so im not too worried about it.

does anyone know of any, and i mean ANY other possible method i can use to remove this stupid thing ?

also, i know the g4 neck plugs are tough to remove in general, but the Cadance one seems extra impossible. can anyone confirm or deny that ? or am i just going crazy ?
I hope you all are having a lovely day

 

[StormMaeker]

Oh no, not this mould again. This one gave me such a hard time. I ended up trying to go through the wings in the end because I just had no luck. I did a thread too. Here she is open. Some methods I wouldn’t recommend.
I wasn’t satisfied. I gave her an alternate rehair instead eventually. In that thread too, Skybreeze showed her Shining Armour with suggestions.
With normal G4’s, I just partially open the neck (here)

Good luck!

 

[moonrabbit17]

Oh no, not this mould again. This one gave me such a hard time. I ended up trying to go through the wings in the end because I just had no luck. I did a thread too. Here she is open. Some methods I wouldn’t recommend.
I wasn’t satisfied. I gave her an alternate rehair instead eventually. In that thread too, Skybreeze showed her Shining Armour with suggestions.
With normal G4’s, I just partially open the neck (here)

Good luck!

I really appreciate the advice, thank you ! I just got the plug out by unfortunately cutting into the neck, and I can't believe this: you can't even get the tail out from the neck !!! ugh. I'm going to try to cut the wings out as you did, as it's my last resort. hopefully when I paint over it the damage won't be too noticeable, especially since I'm doing Luna so the colors will be darker.

 

[StormMaeker]

I really appreciate the advice, thank you ! I just got the plug out by unfortunately cutting into the neck, and I can't believe this: you can't even get the tail out from the neck !!! ugh. I'm going to try to cut the wings out as you did, as it's my last resort. hopefully when I paint over it the damage won't be too noticeable, especially since I'm doing Luna so the colors will be darker.

Gosh, so it looks like some of my tools breaking on the plug was for nothing then? Well, I guess now we know the true way in to the tail

 

[moonrabbit17]

Gosh, so it looks like some of my tools breaking on the plug was for nothing then? Well, I guess now we know the true way in to the tail

yeah....it's hard to see in the picture, but the plastic in the neck goes all the way down, instead, there's just that crevice under the wings where the tail sits. I broke some tools too so I'm also irritated. again thank you for sharing your previous post though, I appreciate it alot. and your Cadence ended up looking really nice in the end !

 

[Twinkle-eye]

I hate them too such a pain!

 

[StormMaeker]

yeah....it's hard to see in the picture, but the plastic in the neck goes all the way down, instead, there's just that crevice under the wings where the tail sits. I broke some tools too so I'm also irritated. again thank you for sharing your previous post though, I appreciate it alot. and your Cadence ended up looking really nice in the end !

Looks like you’re doing the wings neater than I did

Cadance was nice but I just couldn’t get used to her, especially when I found out I actually used saran hair instead of nylon so it wouldn’t style.
When I made her an alt rehair (she’s much better now) I decided I won’t glue the wings back in. I can just remove whenever but they still stand up thanks to the shape

 

[ponyville]

I can't believe this: you can't even get the tail out from the neck !!!

I have some G4 ponies I am hoping to work on soon. They are the 'normal' mold. Were you only unable to reach the tail because the wings were in the way? If the neck is not the way to the tail I am going to have to brainstorm a bit. I sometimes wonder why I don't see as many G4 and G5 customs but then I consider their necks and everything makes sense LOL. It makes it a bit harder for me to find info on restoration and customizing with G4, though!

 

[moonrabbit17]

Looks like you’re doing the wings neater than I did

Cadance was nice but I just couldn’t get used to her, especially when I found out I actually used saran hair instead of nylon so it wouldn’t style.
When I made her an alt rehair (she’s much better now) I decided I won’t glue the wings back in. I can just remove whenever but they still stand up thanks to the shape

awww that's terrible that you accidentally used saran . but the rehair looks amazing, i love the colors you used !! the wings can be removed pretty cleanly if you use an exacto knife and carve along the lines it was glued in to.

 

[moonrabbit17]

I have some G4 ponies I am hoping to work on soon. They are the 'normal' mold. Were you only unable to reach the tail because the wings were in the way? If the neck is not the way to the tail I am going to have to brainstorm a bit. I sometimes wonder why I don't see as many G4 and G5 customs but then I consider their necks and everything makes sense LOL. It makes it a bit harder for me to find info on restoration and customizing with G4, though!

weirdly, yeah, there isn't that much information on actually getting the neck plugs out of different models of g4/g5 ponies. g4 is really unexpected to me cause of how popular it is though. I mean, there was 0 information on the rehair process for the Cadence and Celestia moulds !

but the only way I could reach the tail was by, yes, taking the wings out. i made a diagram to show you easier. the neck peg sits in a groove inside the neck walled off from where the tail sits. the wings and tail sit in this small divet, with the wings above and the tail sitting below (held together by a small piece of metal wrapped around the end).

 

[moonrabbit17]

Gosh, so it looks like some of my tools breaking on the plug was for nothing then? Well, I guess now we know the true way in to the tail

I also made a diagram so you can see what the inside looks like, but you probably already know since you customized a Cadence lol

 

[ponyville]

weirdly, yeah, there isn't that much information on actually getting the neck plugs out of different models of g4/g5 ponies. g4 is really unexpected to me cause of how popular it is though. I mean, there was 0 information on the rehair process for the Cadence and Celestia moulds !

but the only way I could reach the tail was by, yes, taking the wings out. i made a diagram to show you easier. the neck peg sits in a groove inside the neck walled off from where the tail sits. the wings and tail sit in this small divet, with the wings above and the tail sitting below (held together by a small piece of metal wrapped around the end).

Ohhh, I see! Thank you so much for the little diagram. So strange that they made her that way.. makes me so curious about what it was like to produce her, what kinds of machines were involved, etc!