Whitening yellowed toys with Hydrogen Peroxide

[1AZRAEL1]

I'm not sure if this has been discussed...but what about giving a yellowed G1 Slugslinger a H202 bath? There are so many loose, sun damaged ones floating on ebay. Is H202 only recommended for whitening figures that are originally white to begin with?

I had a really badly yellowed junker we wanted to test on. I got Kup to give it a go to see how it went.

Here is a before.

I have 1Azrael1's yellowed '87 Targetmaster toys which I will attempt to clear up with H2O2.

Slugslinger will be the first and as you can see, he is very yellowed. I will try the twin cockpit first and the rest of the body can serve as a control so that we can check the level of improvement.



This test will likely take a few weeks or more as I use a very low concentration of H2O2 but I will post every couple of weeks to check on improvement.

And at the end of treatment.

The Slugslinger dual cockpit has finally finished restoring much of it's color. Unfortunately it is far from perfect.

The color isn't exactly like the original as it has a bleached sort of look. On top of that much of the surface has been damaged with odd powdery looking spots - This seems to be a common plastic surface reaction to the H2O2 with 1987 toys. Oddly enough, the unyellowed surface area under the plastic is unspoiled.

On the bright side, this will certainly display much better than a yellowed figure as you can see by the picture but it will still have a worn and damaged look on the surface of the plastic. Due to this, I would not classify the result as a fix.

Unfortunately the surface defects don't come out in photos but are very visible in person. I have also linked a high-res picture which shows a bit of the surface defects at the tip of the nosecones but it still not representative of the actual damage.



High-Res photo:

http://kupscigar.com/fixes/1azyellow4.JPG

Sadly, I wouldn't suggest you buy one in the hope of fixing it with H2O2.

[canofwhoopass_87]

Wow very interesting indeed. Thanks so much guys for the followup to my question. I actually remember now, reading something about the 87 series not being too H202 friendly in this thread awhile back. I probably should've dug into it before asking.

Find it very odd that Slugslinger is so prone to yellowing. It might even be a case of heat sensitivity, not just the sun. Just a wild guess though - since about 80% of loose ones on ebay that I've come across are sun damaged. I believe his friend Triggerhappy also suffers the same premise.

[heroic_decepticon]

Find it very odd that Slugslinger is so prone to yellowing. It might even be a case of heat sensitivity, not just the sun. Just a wild guess though - since about 80% of loose ones on ebay that I've come across are sun damaged. I believe his friend Triggerhappy also suffers the same premise.

I think you are onto something there. It could be something in the air, or just the temperature. My MIB Slugslinger and Triggerhappy which I bought from a dude in the US, are now slowly showing signs of yellowing. No idea why.

[Hursticon]

I think you are onto something there. It could be something in the air, or just the temperature. My MIB Slugslinger and Triggerhappy which I bought from a dude in the US, are now slowly showing signs of yellowing. No idea why.

That sucks man, I'm sorry to hear that - It sucks that those 2 years in TF production saw the use of evidently inferior grade plastics, it would seem that these figures aren't safe anywhere.

[kup]

That sucks man, I'm sorry to hear that - It sucks that those 2 years in TF production saw the use of evidently inferior grade plastics, it would seem that these figures aren't safe anywhere.

It's got to a point that if those figures do indeed yellow, the best way to fix them would be to find an original color matching spray paint. It's not great but it would be more aesthetically pleasing than a mustard yellow toy and if done right, it would be unnoticeable.

[Atlmyk]

I know from experience that H202 totally strips chrome. Don't do it!

I did not do it on my star saber. I went back to try removing the pins and they slid out with ease. I think the first time I tried was right after I gave it a hot water scrubbing. I think the heat swelled the pins too much. As an experiment I did soak a faded Overlord Mega powermaster and the chrome was stripped of very nicely so I can doubly confirm you do not want to put chrome in unless you need it stripped.

Not sure if this has been mentioned here before but I know glass blocks most UV light. Here is the best explanation I can find and link on the webbernets...
http://www.physicsforums.com/archive.../t-382015.html
The point being that using a glass jar is like putting spf 100 sunscreen on the pieces before putting them out to get as much UV light as possible. Knowing this I tried a different method and got full white in about 1 hour. And putting a jar behind a window is about as good as sticking it in a dark closet.

I used a glass roasting pan like this
I only used regular store bought 3% peroxide amped up with 1tbs of oxygen cleaner per 50ml. I arranged the pieces and placed outside in a nice sunny section of my deck. I mixed the peroxide and powder in a pitcher and only poured on after I had the roaster where I wanted it. Thin liquids and somewhat shallow pans are a big splash risk and I would hate to get this on my carpet. I covered in plastic wrap and since I had one to use I propped up a mirror next to the pan to drop even more uv rays on the brew. I did this in hopes of avoiding multiple days of soaking, Victory Leo had extensive yellowing. After a little over one hour I went out to make sure the brew was still out of the sun and adjust the mirror. After adjusting I got curious and pulled back the plastic wrap and fished out a piece from under the foam and I was shocked, it was one of the pieces that was almost beyond yellowing and at the point of browning but now after only a few minutes it was white as mountain snow. I brought it in, washed and compared and it was fully whitened.

Long story short (tldr) Get as much uv light as possible and don't worry about strong peroxide. I did this on April 9th in a north Atlanta suburb in 2pm sun.

[bruticus]

thanks Atlmyk for sharing with us your experience and for the link ~explaining about UV being blocked by glass.
Do you have any before and after pics you can show us?

my results are here:

i cant speak for the others who have tried this, but i chose to keep the parts in a sealed glass jar because:
a) i didnt want to accidentally spill any on the floor or myself.
b) i didnt want it to evaporate (especially for large open surface area)

however, it does raise an interesting idea and i wouldnt mind testing the speed out myself next time with the open dish approach.

[Supergodginrai]

Hi all, I managed to whiten one of my slight yellowing Grand Max in Jan 2011. Recently, when I opened and see it, the yellowing is back again.

FYI, I am using a 6% Hydrogen Peroxide and following all the instruction given. The room I put Grand Max is ZERO contact with sunlight or UV as it was locked and totally dark.

I am seriously thinking to repaint it with a white paint instead of the peroxide methods.

[griffin]

I've noticed some of mine yellowing on the sides facing away from any lightsources, in a room without sunlight... which I thought was weird, and am thinking there is some other environmental factor yellowing toys as well as UV.

[kup]

I've noticed some of mine yellowing on the sides facing away from any lightsources, in a room without sunlight... which I thought was weird, and am thinking there is some other environmental factor yellowing toys as well as UV.

I suspect moisture and some types of lightbulb may also cause it.