Yellowing figures

It’s not a Marvel figure, but my DCUC Lightray has had some pretty bad yellowing on his torso and upper legs. 

A few days ago, I got brave and tried the old peroxide trick. He’s currently in a clear container with 3% hydrogen peroxide sitting outside. He’s been out there for a few days now. I’ve already started to notice that he seems to be getting a little whiter. 

My plan was to let him outside for a full week or two, but we’re going away on vacation next week and I will likely bring him in until we get back. But so far, it appears that there’s some progress. 

Let us know your results Thor-El.  That's encouraging. 

This summer I plan to build a small retrobriting setup.  Going with the liquid peroxide, hairdresser strength.  Some people have reported streaking when using the thicker stuff on things like old keyboards due to inconsistant coverage.  Going to soak the figure in a Tupperware container with tin foil around the outside and a UV light (the small, cheap kind you can get on Amazon to get your nail polish to dry faster) fixed to the lid for constant UV exposure.  It's a smaller version of the setup used by a Youtube restoration channel I follow.

@zombief-body Jesus.... is that Emil Muzz in your avatar?!

Also the peroxide is encouraging. Almost daily, I look at my black series Stormtroopers and feel like they're just ticking timebombs...

@ru1977 Damn right it's Emil Muzz!

I just pulled out some of the first release BS Stormtroopers and have no yellowing yet.  I agree though, only a matter of time.

Awesome! Muzz, Emil. Emil Muzz! ....I've been sick.

"Don't forget your goat leggings!"

I read a while ago magic eraser from Mr clean can help. Oxyclean was touted a bit as a possible solution. And they have these bottles of spray I see advertised sometimes that all you do is like, spray the plastic, let it sit for a bit, and then whipe it off. I personally used the magic eraser method to varying degrees of success, depending on the plastic.

I haven't had any issues with Alpha Flight but I have sealed like 90% of my figures that have white plastic. I was doing research on the subject a few years ago, and no one had a concrete explanation as to why it happens. Some people said Sun exposure, some people said too much touching and playing, skin oil and such, and there were a few that thought it could be plastic degradation, but I don't think that theory gained traction. Oxidation was also mentioned as a possibility. Since I had a bunch of my old Clone and Stormtroopers fade from way back when the PT was new, I decided to try and be retroactive and attempt to not let it happen to any new things. Personal experience, it seemed to only really be the harder plastic of the torsos that were yellowing. The arms and legs were fine if they were softer, but harder plastic seemed to be the common thread. So now, anything white plastic, I use sealer or varnish on, to put a barrier between my skin and the plastic. Also may prevent the Oxidation if that's the issue. And the display room has a blackout curtain and a sheet over the window, so no sunlight gets in. So far it's been effective. Whether the sealer barrier works or not, I don't honestly know. But again, so far so good with anything white from the last... 5 years or so. Maybe a little longer. My Bandai Legacy Tigerzord is still fine and that was a long while ago. I am not sure how many BS Clones or Stormies I have done it too yet, but they have still been fine so far as well. And I'm talking like, the first ones they made of both types. Cody, Wolfe, old school Stormtroopers from their first release. One of the reasons I decided sealer/varnish may be a good answer was because paint over white plastic has not yellowed underneath, that I've seen anyway. And so I figured, maybe just a barrier between the plastic and the elements could work.

And if you're asking how I know, paint rub was real on some of my old figures that had a wash. The wash started to rub off over time, but the white plastic stayed white, even after the wash somehow got *washed* away. Lol.

Umm and one final thought. If any of the techniques to get the plastic back to white don't work, one could also sand the surface and just repaint the white. As long as theres no detailing, a trained monkey could probably paint white over white. Unfortunately, this would probably not work on the pearly plastic.

I really wish we had an actual scientist kicking around here that could explain the process and how best we could avoid it, or reverse it. I'm sure it wouldn't be hard for someone much smarter then I to figure it out.

@zombief-body the interrogation scene is still hilarious, start to finish.

I've heard lots of theories too Trunks.  Seems a special plastic additive is needed.  I know for plastic car parts a UV agent needs to be added to prevent the white from yellowing.  It's one of those weird things that Hasbro has acknowledge over the ages but never gave a concrete answer on.  I guess if a figure goes bad, eventually they'll redo the character and you can go for the better version.  Alpha Flight could be redone on the SA Spidey body or Vulcan body for the males and the new double-elbow body for the women.  I think that's the ultimate nature of this hobby.  We consider it a collector hobby, companies charge us like they're collectables but at the end of the day, they're just making toys.

RU1977: "Say, Joe, wouldn't a couple of Danishes go great with this coffee right now?"  I saw it in theaters when it first came out, love that movie!  Still quote it to people to this day.  

It's got a lot of great lines. It also made me realize Ackroyd seems to never want to be a leading man, always pairing up with someone he feels is a strong comedic talent. Dragnet, Trading Places, Great Outdoors, Blues Brothers, Ghostbusters. But he is always great in these movies, and yeah the dialogue throughout is incredible. "Balls as big as church bells" is probably what I quote the most, but next would be any line said by Kathleen Freeman's character. "Goddam puss-faced pimp stick."

An underrated Ackroyd performance -  Grosse Point Blank      Love that film

I just watched Trading Places for the first time in forever last weekend.  He is a great supporting actor.  Also, I agree too, Grosse Pointe Blank is a great flick.

Grosse Pointe Blank thirded. Great movie, great soundtrack. On my tenth anniversary with my wife, I sent her this gif:

The only figure I have yellowing is DCUC Lightray. His chest like others mentioned. I don't see how it could be finger oils as I rarely if ever touch him after he's displayed and the yellowing is pretty uniform. I fear I may have to paint him at some point.