Thread 11615459

Am I doing something wrong, or is the quality of plastic from figures these days becoming much more temperamental and less stable than the plastic from things that are like 20+ years old.

I have figures that are from the early 2000's that don't have any, or barely any signs of tacky/stickiness from plasticizers or deterioration. Maybe it's the paint/finish that's causing it too, I don't know. But most figures that I've gotten within the 2010's+ seem to develop this issue within 5 or so years. Every single one of my Bandai figures, Street Fighter, Dragon Ball, any of their accessory packs all have it and it's definitely worse on anything that uses soft plastic. I have the OG Vashe the Stampede from Revoltech that doesn't have any whatsoever, but my OG AY spider-man has it. Even my AY Venom/Carnage have the sticky/tacky feeling to them. I also notice that this doesn't seem to happen as much with any of the PVC statues I have either. I have an old DBZ Banpresto from 2009 that has no stickiness to it either.

I have a central A/C unit in my house, so it's not like it gets to sweltering temperatures in here in the 2 months of summer. Is there something I'm doing wrong, or is this just the new nature of the beast for new-age action figures? What can I do to extend the life of my figures?

>>11615459 (OP)
>Every single one of my Bandai figures, Street Fighter, Dragon Ball, any of their accessory packs all have it and it's definitely worse on anything that uses soft plastic.
I wonder if moisture has anything to do with it?
I have Figuarts going back to 09 and none are sticky. Only figures that have slight plasticizer leak are Neca Kane and Dallas and they're not too bad, just certain parts. From what I see the sticky feel eventually stops.

>>11615459 (OP)
Could be specific to a certain factory and/or plastic supplier. Apparently when Palisades ran their Micronauts reboot the factory did things on the cheap and the plastics came back brittle.

It's mostly random.

A company changes the formula for their plastic one day or the Chinese company decides to cheap out to save 50¢ and an entire year or three can go by without knowing that the plastic they 're now using will start leaking plasticizers decades early.

Revoltechs leaking plasticizers has been known issue for the past decade. Whether they fixed it or not, only time will tell. Why it affects one figure and not others, it might have to do with the pigments or even the finish.

They also had an issue leaky plasticizers in the late 00s too, but they fixed that.

>>11616606
Humidity doesn't affect plastic, but too much moisture can lead to mold.
Heat and lie are the big factors in aging plastics. Oxygen also plays a role too, but it's not as big of an issue as light and heat.

>>11616606
OP here. I think Bandai used to have much better quality plastic way back. I can definitely feel the difference between the plastic they use in their old figuarts vs the stuff they use today.

It's funny you mention Neca, because I have a Chun Li figure from them that has no stickiness whatsoever and that is at least twice as old as all the other figures. I even have some old school Mcfarlane figs that are perfectly fine (though some were sticky messes).

>>11616620
It certainly seems to be random. I'm just so tired of having to rotate my collection every ~5 years or so because of it. I've had to let go of figures I still really like because of it. I shouldn't have to be worrying about that stuff so frequently with something that is supposed to be a collectible. Doing the soap and water rinses don't get rid of the tackiness most of the time. I've tried using baking soda and even windex because I read the ammonia can help get rid of it, but it doesn't really do anything. Maybe if it's bad enough that it starts changing color.

>>11615459 (OP)
Plastic has been rising in price drastically in recent years. It's probably both rawbmaterial producers and manufacturers "diluting" it to make up for the increased costs without pricing out customers. Something something shrinkflation.

This shit is my ultimate fear, I am so paranoid about this. It almost makes me want to stop collecting.

Humidity is the major factor. Moreso than temperature in my experience. I live in a desert so it's really dry here all year round. We maybe get a handful of rainy days a year, so it never gets really humid here. I've kept childhood toys from the 90s in a non climate controlled storage unit for well over a decade and the toys from there are fine. I have several old Digimon Digivolving toys that I kept and they feel almost exactly the same as the did the last time I played with them in 2003. Humidity ruins your shit. Makes me glad I live in a desert.

>>11616836
Plastic can dry-rot in the heat, and that's especially true for rubber parts. Keeping them out of the sun does help to preserve plastic longer because whether it be humid or dry climates, everything decomposes faster in the sunlight.

>>11615459 (OP)
ok but when did you start hotgluing them?

>>11616832
This is basically what I've been assuming in my head about collectibles of the modern era. Because of increased prices for everything, we are just getting worse quality versions of everything we used to get. If they cheap out on all the other manufacturing areas, why wouldn't they cheap out on the quality of the plastic. It's damn frustrating. Buying anything made from PVC has become like buying a perishable good.

>>11616846
Well duh. I'm talking about while storing stuff indoors in a climate controlled environment. Even if the temperature if good, high humidity can fuck with your shit.

>>11616836
>Humidity is the major factor.
It's not, because plastic doesn't react to water like that. You may stain it from the mineral deposits or dust that sticks on harder thanks to the moisture, but the plastic isn't reacting with the water.

HEAT degrades plastic. It quickens decomposition and breaks down bonds, which allows plasticizers to leak out faster.
Same with UV light and oxygen. Oxygen is also corrossive, so it's slowly pitting the plastic all by itself and changes the chemical composition of paints.

Humid climates are usually hot though, so that's why people think humidity makes plastic degrade.

>>11616822
you have to scrub the plastic with a rag or brush to thoroughly clean off the plasticizers. This can damage your toy though. And it has to be dish soap, like Dawn.

>>11617044
>you have to scrub the plastic with a rag or brush to thoroughly clean off the plasticizers.
That's what I did! Soft bristled toothbrush + Dawn in a warm water bath for an hour or so. It takes some of the stickiness off, but it's still very much there. Maybe I'm not being aggressive enough with it, I don't know.

>>11615459 (OP)>>11615459 (OP)
>Am I doing something wrong,
Either that or you've got some really bad luck, because I've got hundreds of figures going from as recent as months ago to back to the late 90's/early 2000's and none of them are sticky. How do you display most of your stuff? Open shelves or behind glass? Not sure how much of a difference it makes, if at all, but the bulk of my collection's behind glass. Also, do you rotate, leading to stuff being in storage for long periods?

Are we just giving OP the benefit of doubt that he didn't start hotgluing them the moment his balls dropped?

>>11617136
Why do you do this freak?

>>11617123
I display most of my more expensive stuff behind glass in an Ikea Detolf. The rest are typically just on shelves. There is a big window in my room, but everything is out of direct sunlight. I only collect what I have room to display.

In my Detolf, I have figuarts DBZ figs (all 2.0 or later), a couple figuarts Street Fighter figs (Ryu and Guile) along with a couple of Spawn figures. The Spawn figures do not have any stickiness at all, while my SROE Goku is already becoming sticky and same with my DBSH Piccolo but to a lesser extent. The GI on my Figuarts Ryu is sticky as well.

I also have a couple model kits - which are fine and a couple PVC statues (Koto Master Chief, Koto Batman and Dark Souls 3 knight) all of which are not sticky.

>>11617141
Oh yeah, I also have two bandai effects sets that I got around the same time as my Goku that are also sticky.

>>11617137
I don't but I'm juz sayin'. OP did say that his toys 20+years from the time before his balls dropped yellow slower.

>>11617079
For stubborn stuck on shit, you need to soak it in warm soapy water (an hour or two) and try again.

People soak shit in Simple Green as well.

>>11617123
Yeah, i literally have thousands of figures and maybe a dozen that have developed plasticizer issues. Most of the problems i have is with dry rot and plastics becoming brittle (this is actually a plasticizer issue, but it evaporated isntead of weeping).
Toy Biz (mostly LotR) and McFarlane from the late 90s/early00s, and 80s/90s Joes.
With Toy Biz and MCFarlane, it's very random, but it's mostly affected by those that stayed inside their package (i like to buy old sealed toys and open them myself).

I have early Acid Rain figures which most people have had problems with the plastic crumbling apart (plasticizers evaporating) but mine are still like new. No doubt, they'll eventually break, because that's just the plastics that Ori used back then.

There's also discoloration on various other toys, but it's so minor it's hard to notice without actually looking at pictures to remember what it originally looked like and even then, the photo's color might off due to the lighting/calibration

>>11617157
Do you have your stuff behind glass like the other anon? This shit scares me so much.