Poor Obi Wan he was our only hope

Awesome stuff as always Mr. Polloi! Love seeing what you do to these toys, gives me inspirations and ideas for my own.

Twenty years ago my friends Rancor Keeper was already like this, we called him Freckles.

Disco Kenobi! With his Star spangled Trooos!

It's the PVC breaking down - it's called 'plasticizer migration'. I've never managed to cure it. The PVC will go sticky, and an acrid, vinegar smell will be present, in the worst cases. It can spread to other PVC items, too. My original Palitoy Star Wars figures succumbed to it, fusing together in a horrid mass. They went in the bin. Modern PVC formulation is completely different, so this is a rare occurrence, these days. I did have to bin the rubber capes of my 'Battle Of The Planets' figures, though, as they were attacking the hard plastic of the bodies.

Fantastic tip. I actually have two R2s with this exact problem. I’m going to give this repair suggestion a go. Thanks for your help. I’ll let you know how mine turn out.

I don't think the OBI One is a failure...i think you just created the force ghost of Ben...you should do the whole figure...love the vids

I agree with the post about using heat to reflow the plastic. I've used that technique several times on Transformers when they would get a stress crease. But use caution as it will melt the plastic. Great video Dave!

Great Vid Dave keep em coming

Hi Dave. You really ought to buy the part B of the B Blonde peroxide. The way you're using it is like only having one part of Milliput or Araldite - it needs both A+B components mixed to work properly. On the front of the bottle it says to use with BBlonde high lift powder bleach. You wouldn't need the sun - the powder bleach would create the necessary chemical reaction. On a collecting note - sold all my vintage figures in the 90's, started buying the jumbo's from GGLTD in 2010 - then sold all those in 2016 to go back and start collecting vintage all over again this year, 2018. You can't beat the originals! Kenner really knew what they were doing with the sculpts and paints. Really nice to see them again. Only got 34 right now, but will try to get everything over time. Your videos are very helpful. Thanks for all the tips and tricks for restoring.

Hi, your videos are awesome. I am in Canada and thought it was strange that the two figures you are restoring came from a Canadian source. I also have a few vintage Star Wars figures with these spots. Strange that they all seem to come from Canada.

BTW, loved the A-Team intro :)

I love the new intro,. Too funny I think you should try the 30% peroxide on the other R2 leg and see its results. Off the cuff, I feel the negative results on the Konobi figure is due not to the plastic itself but the color IN the plastic. Very interesting

Love the videos keep up the great work. On the peroxide bit at the end for the hair stuff, Its 30 volume not 30%, The actual peroxide content is 9%. it says it right on the front of the bottle too.

We come back to the plasicide transpiring from the plastic, many vintage and new figures/toys suffer from this. But I think you are the only one has come up closer to solving this problem, I’ve asked lots of collectors and none have an answer 😕 I wish I could know, currently I have four action figures still in package that are suffering from this and I don’t know what to do 😢 I like them in the box wouldn’t want to open them but if I must to safe the figure, I won’t have a choice 😓 Anyway, great video, as always 👍🏽✌🏽

I love the A-Team intro! Your video's are amazing! I've learned SOOOO much from you. I live in the US and I've ordered the products that you use from Amazon. All great stuff! I was wondering which paint jar(s) would you use to paint the legs of General Lando?

Had the spotting issue on my Artoo as well as the Snow trooper and Lobot. Very interesting to see that it appears to be from dodgy plastic.

Love the ateam spoof . It's great .

I have a Hong Kong COO storm trooper that was brought in California around 1980 his arms went pink and became covered with brown spots and his torso and head went a dark yellow colour so I think it's to do with the COO on the figures because from what I've seen figures made in Hong Kong seem to get it the worst. Anyway great video toy-polloi.

Love the intro.

Hasbro WWF figures mold in spots too. I used clearasil acne cream on some spots and it worked quite well.

I love you videos and this was an interesting experiment. I wish there was a solution to this issue. Just got MOTU Ram Man with the same problem.

I think you misread the label. It looks like to me as "30ml volume" for the whole bottle. And at the bottom of the label it reads "30 volume at 9% Peroxide". Just a thought.

I have had some success by placing figures on a sheet of aluminium foil, covering them with baking soda, and pouring almost boiling water over them. The aluminum reacts mildly with the baking soda and it will bubble and fizz. This process works very well on toys with metal parts. The other thing that works extremely well on plastic is a Magic Sponge.

Great video! why didn't you try the 30% on R2?

I agree about the plastic degradation rather than mold. I have seen multiple Kenobis with that exact same mottling (always the arms and legs). These were almost always stored with other figures under the same conditions with no ill effects presenting on the others. I wonder if there are carded Kenobis out there with the same issue.

like ur new opening

I think it's certainly a problem with the plastic beginning to deteriorate. I don't think that there's anything that can be done here, other than doing a repaint. I don't believe that it is actually mold on these figures, but in the event that it could be, I think the first thing that is necessary is to make sure that the mold is dead before you proceed further. The best way to kill mold is to dry it out. One trick that I do to kill mold and must growing in old comic books or magazines is to do the following: 1) Get a large tupperware type container (with a lid) that's much bigger than your comic book. 2) fill the box 2/3rds of the way full with unscented cat litter 3) get a small box that will fit within your container and place that inside the cat litter box, and place the cat litter around the box so that you have a little box island in the middle of your tupperware box. This box "island" is basically a table for you to lay your comic book on. 3) Place an old molding comic, book or magazine on the little island space. 4) Put the tupperware lid on the large tupperware box. If you did this right, you should end up with a comic book, book or magazine resting on a surface above the cat litter so that your book isn't damaged by making contact with the litter crystals. 5) Once you've sealed the box lid, leave the book in there for about a week. 6) After a week, open the lid and remove your book. The cat litter should cause all the mold inside the old paper of your book to dry up and thus die. After a week, with the mold dead, your book should actually smell a lot better! No more moldy musty smell (or at least much less or a smell)! Again, I am doubtful that those spots on those figures are any kind of mold, but if that's the case, you'd think that being doused in hydrogen peroxide for several days in sunlight would have killed it. That said, I've offered you one more step to try in your processes, and if nothing else, illustrated a way in which you and/or your viewers can get rid of mold growing in books. The mold doesn't disappear if it's on the paper, but it does dry out and die, and all the bad smell from the mold is eradicated. It isn't likely to help much with the appearance of mold on paper, or probably on action figures either, but it could prevent further mold spread and growth, and it will get rid of any nasty mold smells. Just throwing this out for what it's worth.

I had the same spotty "mold" on my old Hasbro Big Trak and GI Joe yellow helicopter. I took them apart and washed them up in the kitchen sink with a strong dose of dishwashing soap and an old toothbrush. All the "mold" washed off and they look great! No staining or marks left after. Maybe a different plastic?

Hi there! I restore girls toys for many similar issues. I am of the same opinion that it is more likely to be a problem with the plastic mixing and "regrind" or recycled scrap material not coagulating well enough. I have discovered that creme developer is extremely risky on any plastics with color. It's designed to strip the natural pigment from hair afterall. :) I have yet to find a solution to this problem either. Sometimes improved, but not corrected. Thank you for giving me info to compare notes with. :)

Interesting test results you got there. Have you ever tried "re-flowing" the plastic? It probably wouldn't work on these pieces, but seeing as they're knackered anyway, it couldn't hurt to try it. It's simply a matter of taking a heat gun and waving it over the piece until the plastic starts to warm up... this works especially well with sun damaged plastic items that have been left outside, you do this and the colour is restored before your eyes. Just be careful not to actually melt it in the process.

Did you ever revisit this and or work anything out? I have a Falcon from 79 thats has a bunch of spots.

I did a video of a hoth Han that had lost pigment from bleaching. I restored it by polishing with flitz polish. Another thought on restoring Ben's color would be to try the same method as you use on grey mego heads. Unfortunately I have no thoughts on removing the spots themselves but agree it is not mold. If it is mold, chlorine bleach would help.

Star Wars Superbeaters on Facebook would love that Obi Wan. I've always wondered what soaking in propylene glycol would do. If it's a surface issue restore "sheen" to the finish and in this case turn the legs more brown again...

Hi, Could you not try the stronger peroxide cream on the untreated R2 leg? The spots on Obi Wan went quite white which is perfect for R2.

Interesting experiment, I did something similar with two Skeletor who had the yellow torzo, the one from Taiwan turned blue again, but as the obi wan the blue became clearer, and with the Argentine from top toys the blue did not become clearer, imagine that the types of plastics makes the result change, greetings and very good video (sorry my bad English)

I need a 1/6 scale gorilla mask for a Magnum P.I. figure I'm working on, any ideas/suggestions?

Just throwing out an idea but with how you restore "ghost mego heads" with that plastic dip is there any chance that might work for the spotting? I have a ThunderCats Bengali with the spotting on the legs and arms thats just started.

I recently acquired a Lando figure and just noticed last night it had spots on his leg.

Hey, man. I love watching your restoration videos of the vintage Kenner Star Wars toys. I own an original Jabba The Hutt but his right arm has snapped off and the arm peg has broken off clean inside the body of Jabba. I would really like to fix him and I was wondering if you could offer any advice on how i could go about it or perhaps do a video on how I could fix him. Thanks.

i have an Obi Wan that has dots all over him too. i stuck it in hydrogen peroxide and it turned the dots grey just like this..they go back to black over a bit of time but a tad lighter.. at least i saw someone else try! :)

nice A-Team intro

If the Ben figure is a lost cause would you cut the plastic for a cross section of the dots to see how deep they go? I can’t tell if they’re just on the surface or if they go all the way through the limbs.

Have you tried the stuff you can buy for treating black mould spots on the bathroom grout? We get black spots in the sealer where the bath meets the tiles. It’s like a foam and you just leave it for a while.

I am pretty sure hydrogen peroxide degrades quickly in sunlight and heat. If you add in the used to the in-used it will weaken the concentration over time. Might not make a difference but thought I would pass it along. By the way, this is why it’s stored in a brown bottle.

Hey Dave , do you think this method would work on WWF ljns? they seem to get mold on the plastic and I have no clue if it could be removed.

So I have an old Weebles Tree House that has had these strange dark brown spots on it for years. Could they be mold?

One thing that might be telling would be to cut one of these arms or legs in half, and examine the cross-section. How deep do the spots go? Are there spots inside unexposed areas? Is there a uniform distribution pattern? Is it limited only to the surface? I'm also curious what effect sand paper would have? Could they be sanded off?

That obi wan is great for a head swap

Do I need sun light for this 2 work?

Dave , do you know how to remove mold smell from action figures ? I recently acquired figures that were Moc but had water damage, I had to open them and remove the figures , but I noticed some smelled like mildew , I washed them in soap and water but the smell still remains , is there a way to get rid of it ?

I have a problem with a new figure. Two figures i kept standing together for a few weeks, one arm touched the other figure and now i have red dots on a few points that seem to be really deep in the plastic. its material is of this heavy slightly soft sort lot of newer action figures use. The affected figures parts are white so I wonder of any of those things work, since it looks as if it just soaked really far into it. How does this even happen? had many figures and this was never a problem before. I am seriously upset ,cause theyre my newest in collection and werent cheap either 😣 As a first try i went with baking soda but so far that doesnt help, didnt really expect it to anyway

Just to add to the research, I have an old Silverhawks Monstar action figure that has black spots all over his lower legs and arms (the rubbery parts of the figure, none on the hard plastic). I thought it was some sort of mold when I bought it, but it did not come off in soap and water. So I tried using a fiberglass brush, which is good for surface cleaning, but can alter the very top layer of a figures finish if you aren't careful (certainly removes paint from the figure). The brush didn't do anything. Then I tried a doll cleaning product called Remove-Zit, but that didn't remove any of the spots either. I have also tried ultrasonic cleaning, thinking if it was some mold that somehow got down into the structure of the plastic, that the soundwaves and cleaning solution might break it apart as the microscopic bubbles explode. But that didn't do anything either. So I am starting to think they are just some irreparable defect in the plastic.

Ive seen so many figures with this problem over the last 10 years, although i read in the comments here they have sealed toys that have had this problem. I personally have always found that the figures ive come across with this problem have not been very well cared for in 1 form or another, either stuck in a loft or shed or maybe just left out in the garden or a sand pit! The 3 main figures ive found it on is Star Wars, He-Man & Thunder cats and just recently the 2003 released Geyper Men, what was interesting about the Geyper Men was 3 of the had been through the wars through play and were covered in it but 1 was in excellent shape with all his clothes in excellent condition too, this figure had no sign of it! P.S Dave, i don't know if you noticed but at least 1 of those Panthro figures i sent you has this problem!

I guess the peroxide just makes the spots go lighter, so if the plastic is white anyway (like with R2D2) it makes them less noticeable. With dark plastic it makes them more noticeable. It looks to me like they go quite deep, if so I doubt you can remove them.

I use cream peroxide for all my de-yellowing. Instead of sunlight I have a box laced with tinfoil and a blue light lamp. Works much better than anything else I tried and also much faster. Never had any issues and it even removes extreme yellowing in about 2 days to a point where it's almost like new.

this method works on white plastic but the spots will still be noticeable as they were alot darker to begin with seems this isnt just normal mold but reaction from within. try carving out the spots see how deep the spots went.

I have finally found a way to get rid of these spots!! It worked on my Real Ghostbusters Egon figure.

I'll have to see if I can find my K.I.T.T. 2000 and Mike K. to restore.

Try the 30 % on the R2 D2 leg Dave , maybe it reacts different on white plastic .

Wonder if boiling water would remove the spots/whitening.

I think boiling the parts with a bit of the hydrogen peroxide is supposed to "bleach" them white again?

We see that problem on transformers to. Often on "rubber" parts like the head of Finback a pretenders head

Hi do you know if there is any way to remove degraded rubber bands in carded figures whereby the packaging and both the figure are mint except for the elastic bands which have degraded and fallen into pieces inside the bubble.?

An abrasive cream cleaner might help or a fine automotive rubbing compound, depending on how deep the Plastic has degraded? Never actually tried but just a thought.

If a figure has mildew and clean with baby wipes willl it still spread to other figures?

Obi wan and his funky disco pants 😁

Does anyone know how I could get some worn/broken Star Wars figures for cheap? I’ve been looking, but they are a little hard to find

It must have to do with where there made. Ive never had spots just yellowing, & the peroxide work's well for me. I live in the U.S. but l think they were make in China, then again what isint, ☺ great video 👍👍

Is 6% hydrogen peroxide on found in the UK? Here in America, I've only seen 3% hydrogen peroxide.

I like the video, just for the opening, the rest of it's not to bad either

2 days is a Bit long for the cream it's quite intense... I'd only put in on for a few hours max

I've still never messed with the cream peroxide

Given how uniform the dot sizes are, they could be a poorly blended plastic. Most plastic for injection molding comes in beads, and those look a lot like bead-sized dots. Maybe they didn't get things hot enough and they were just semi-blended in that factory. In any case, I don't think you can remove the dots here, if that's what they are. I bet if you sliced through the leg, you'd find the dots are actually spheres.

you might be able to restore the Obi-Wan if you sand and polish the plastic. I had similar results trying to use a 40% cream on a transformer. similar over bleaching. but sanding away the surface revealed newer, fresher plastic

I have several Ghostbusters that have these spots

i think this is the 1st time hydro peroxide didnt solve this kind of prob, hope u find a better solution

I look everywhere... garage sales, flea markets, junk stores... and no one ever has Star Wars figures that are beat up enough to be extremely cheap. My childhood collection was stolen (while I was till a child lol) and I'm determined to get it back. I feel like restoring unwanted ones would make them feel as special as my original ones did. After 15 years of regular hunting I'm beginning to think that every SW toy in the state is either lost or already in the hands of collectors. I have to either give up or win the lottery, I guess.

One thing to note....The 30 volume you are using is specifically designed to remove color from hair. If the spots are truly a degradation in the plastic, that would be the chemicals way 'in' to the plastic, which is why that was lighter in color than the rest of the legs on Obi. Also, it did what it was supposed to, in that it took the dye out of the plastic, which is why it impacted Obi's legs the way it did. (I should point out I'm a barber/stylist here in the US so I use this stuff all the time. It's whole purpose is to lighten and remove color and dyes. The dyes used in plastic, believe it or not, are not all that different from hair dye. Having said that, R2, because his legs are already white, shouldn't be impacted in this way. I think if you would try taking the control leg and rubbing it down with the 30 volume you'd actually get the result you are looking for.

So you don’t think it’s mold? I have similar brown dots on a micro machines super Star destroyer but it was one released only a few years ago

It's a bit hopeless getting mold out of plastics because the live mycelium lives in the plastic. I'm trying to save some dolls by washing with something like peroxide, then spraying with Concrobium mold killer to inhibit future mold growth. I'm concerned though that the mold will ultimately spread to other belongings so these dolls may be headed for the bin.

Try soaking them in fresh clean motor oil or synthetic oil......like 5W-30 or 10W-40.....since the old plastic is a petroleum product the oil will refresh the plastic after some time soaking.....you don’t need sunlight for this one.....afterwards wipe the figure down with WD/40 or some similar spray can oil.

Perhaps, as you have nothing to lose, try Dremeling out the surface deep enough to remove those stubborn spots that remain.

Just for the record, 30 Vol is not 30% Hydrogen Peroxide. And using 40 Vol. in the bleaching cream gives optimal results as far as de-yellowing stormtroopers, wampas and vehicles etc.

It helps if you boil the figure

Oxy 10: removes zits fast.

It's American mold (it's SPECIAL!)* although with the rainy weather in the UK I hear about I wonder HOW the UK toys don't have mold. A requirement of mold is moisture. * = Yes, I'm being sarcastic although I am curious as to why HERE and NOT over THERE. Planet Earth is a freaky place still full of freaky mysteries, isn't it?

Try some black magic car restore spray it’s made for plastic

Looks like a problem in the manufacturing process. Original UK figures were made in Hong Kong if I remember correctly, where were the North American ones made? Or maybe its a climate/storage issue? A polymer chemist's analysis about the nature of what these spots are would be interesting to hear.

The oxy cream and sunlight removes ball point pen, though. Hmm...

Drop that Obiwan into some Wesley's Bleach White car tire cleaner... should remover the spots and recondition the brown

I agree with the degradation theory. If that’s the case I recommend petroleum free plastic restorers. The peroxide only effects pigment.

i have some real ghostbusters that have this problem on their faces

watching this while eating......sorry

FYI: You should wear rubber gloves while using peroxide hair bleach cream. It can cause chemical burns.

or maby the figures have reached puberty and started to get spots

It's heat, not sun that makes it work

It's not 30% but "30 Volume" which means 9%

radiation exposure' fluoride water mix to kill the radiation. than peroxide to clean up.

I’d be willing to send u some masters of the universe to do a demo with free of charge