2013 tomy posable mewtwo plush: a refurb story
soooooooooo
one of the most pricey mewtwo plush on the market right now (at least the american and european market) is the tomy 2013 posable mewtwo. i'm not sure exactly why? but i've seen it listed for upwards of 300$ usd. and wow owch. so when i saw one from a US seller that was going for a fraction of that amount, i nabbed it.
the photo they lead with in the listing
the listing displayed that it had been mended once (around the tail) and the little neck hose was coming loose. but other than that it seemed like a great deal!
soon the mewtwo was stuffed in my mailbox, and i was hype hype hype.. until i opened the package
that's when the smell hit me.
not cats, not dogs, not mice or smoke. nah. somehow, this was worse. this mewtwo smelled unquestionably like an unwashed human child. specifically, the smell of a filthy bed. like i mean it -STANK- the minute i ripped that plastic open. of sweat, drool, microbes and just general filth. and that's also when i saw that its arms (not disclosed in the auction) and several other spots were -covered- in filth.
this grody ass seller had sent me a FILTHY plush, not even bothering to febreeze it or wash it first, IN THE MIDDLE OF A PANDEMIC. wow am i glad my immune system is functioning again.
so ... i got my cleaning toothbrush, i got my washcloth, i got my detergent water and i got to work.
please enjoy the visual difference of where i scrubbed the arm (left) vs the grime (right)
so i scrubbed and i scrubbed, i rinsed. i scrubbed some more. there was a dried booger on the tail. i scrubbed it out. there was hay or seeds stuck in places. i picked them off. i scrubbed til the detergent irritated my skin, and i rinsed. still faintly smelly. i threw it in one of those dry cleaning bags you toss in the dryer and gave him a spin. -much- better. and just for good measure... a round thru the wash in a pillowcase with hot water on delicates.
y'know
just to kill any extra bacteria
and finally, he looked clean. i smoothed out the minky with a suede brush. now to mend.
more like a bulb than a bean
this obviously well loved plush had a few issues the seller didn't notice besides the loose head hose. one was that the stitch popped holding the bean curled over on his paw. easy peasy
very small blep
the other was some facial fray. one too many teaparties i guess? a few snips of the stray felt and...
now there's my purple walking existential crisis!
voila!!! finally clean and fixed up enough to join his brothers!!
i think i need a bigger shelf...uh...soon
whew what a journey. now he can hold his bell plush brother for all of time.
i really can only hope that he wasn't literally swiped out from under a filthy child's snotty nose without consent, but given how nasty he was when he got here i cannot imagine the parent who sent him is any less nasty. sorry, kiddo, wherever you're at. but i'll take real good care of him now, for whatever comfort that brings.
...s'all i got. later collectors!
also ps: during chemotherapy someone (maybe from here?) sent me a box with a lot of wonderful mewtwo things in it, including the movie mewtwo and the pokedoll mewtwo. i absolutely forget who it was, though, because a -lot- was going on at that time and i was being fried to the eyeballs with poison and meds to mitigate the effects of poison. but if it was someone here, i just want to let you know THANK YOU. it meant so much to me. <3 i hope someday i can return the favor.