Collection Killers and Tales of Weird Woe
In Toy collecting nothing is worse than taking extra special care to protect your collectables and have something weird, strange, or crazy happen to ruin it. Please advise, read, and discuss issues!
Issue: Paint melting off Aoshima chogokins
Description: I have had three cases of Aoshima Getter's paint melt off spots where a piece of the black rubber Vinyl cape, character figure, scarf rest on figure. has happened to three figures of mine. Figures were out of sunlight, in dry climate cabinet.
Solution: check where the cape meets the body and put tissue paper between object, avoid any of the figures to rest (if they fall over on toy).
Issue: Flexistands version one
Description: the black toppers degrade over time and leave hard to remove black rubber residue on collectible.
Solution: wrap toppers in clear plastic wrap.
Aoshima Getter vs. Styrofoam
Heh--glad I read this thread, because I just got an Aoshima Getter 1 from HLJ's sale, and the PVC parts (hands, head) had styrofoam melted all over them! Fortunately it scraped off with a thumbnail, but I wouldn't have known what was going on otherwise.
also
issue: gloves
description: used cotton gardening gloves with rubber dots to handled collectibles. they actually made circular impression in the plastic canopies of two 1:18 die-cast batmobiles.
Solution: buy white dye and rubber free cotton gloves made for handling jewelry and museum pieces, they are disposable and packs of 12 can be had on ebay.
Toxic O-RIngs
Insult was added to injury when it was discovered that the fan exclusive series 1.5 Palisades Micronauts were built with toxic O-Rings and gaskets holding the legs, torsos and waists together (like GI Joes). They melted the plastic and just ruined the otherwise terrific figures. Somewhere I have a box of disassembled Micronaut parts, some of which I caught before serious degradation. IIRC series 2 came with additional, correct rings, but it was too late for most. If you ever see MISB 1.5 Micronauts, plan on them remaining in their packages forever. They will turn to dust if ever removed. Sometimes you'll see these with huge buy it now prices and I wonder if anyone bites, only to discover the fail within.
And that was just one of many problems with that line...CDX members Acroray and Microbry are the authorities on that tragic endeavor.
The Fail Within
"The Fail Within"! LMAO! Nice!
My Bandai Spiral Zone PVC boots did the same, it was like a PVC Glacier through the foam. I always suggest that you should take the SZ boots out of the foam and put them in one of the plastic baggies.
Rubber is the worst choice for toy manufactures to use in a product!
LF
good to know
that is something I am glad you wrote...was actually looking at one on ebay...
Palisades Micronauts
I'm actually a sincere apologist for the Pal. Micros. Palisades was really going out of their way to make the toys as great as possible for fans, but they were hoodwinked by their manufacturers. Series one was pretty good, if cheap feeling and sloppy. The magnemos were really brittle and the magnets were weak (typical of all modern magnemos, with the exception of the excellent Korean Cubix). I own something like ten Baron Karza sets, and most have ruined horse ankles and legs.
Series 1.5 was supposed to correct the sloppiness of the first series, and did so very well, with the exception of the rubber.
Series 2 was excellent. The small figures were awesome re-issues with fun recolors. All of the Red Falcons are worth owning, though they still suffer from weak magnets.
Good Topic!
I guess this is common knowledge for a lot of people, but I left one of the old Kenner Star Wars figure bandoliers in storage, in a box with a good chunk of my semi-vintage, mostly imported video game collection (I don't even know why it was nearby, I guess I was cleaning or something). When I opened up the box, I found that most of the contents of the box were streaked with a sticky, foul smelling black substance remarkably similar to tar. Yes, the foam on the bandolier rots. Thankfully, most of the stuff in the box was plastic, and all it took was a lot of elbow grease, with nothing of real value lost. Definitely a nasty clean up job though.
One of the funnier things I've witnessed involves the Takara Magnetype Dougram, or at least the rubber figures that it's packed with (I'm sure it happens with other similarly packed toys). Over time, the PVC keshigomu eat their way through the styrofoam tray. I don't know if all PVC reacts the same, or if it's just more dangerous because it's from the 80's, but it absolutely destroys the tray, each figure wedging itself deeper and deeper, traveling inches through solid styrofoam. Eventually, the figures become entirely cocooned in a clear rubber shell (melted styro? there are mysterious chemical reactions at work here), and the process either ends or slows to the point where I haven't noticed it. Peel of the rubber shell (feels a lot like dried rubber cement), and the pvc goes right back to work. Obviously, this is funny because of how obviously toxic it is.
Styro vs. rubber
Yeah I've seen this way too many times. It's not just Takara styro but Popy & Bandai as well. Also some older Takara pieces that didn't have styro but foam inserts, they melt into toys too. The Analyzer gokin from Harlock was the one that was trashed for me. Not always; usually the tan foam lasts longer/won't stain as much as the dark stuff, so be careful out there with taped MISB pieces that have foam or styro and ask...
If you're buying MIB gokins it's really worth your time and $$ to ask the seller to individually pack out the accessories into baggies. I've even had stuff disintegrate on the way from Japan or Europe to me here in the US... from heat? Altitude? who knows but tears flow when you open the box to find a ruined figure...
Don't use plastic wrap, it does nothing; the best baggies I've found are those sold for fishing tackle at sporting goods stores, they are made of non-reactive plastic (as most fishing lures are made of rubber or the same type of plastic as 80s-2000s toys) and cost the same as a box of Ziplocs from the grocery store. I can also vouch for Earth Toy Mall storage products. They cost a bit but are great quality plastic that lasts a really, really long time. I've had a bunch of stands and displays for over 10 years and no fading yellowing, cracking, crazing, etc... well worth it to protect your "investment"...