Hi Stevie! Well I did read up on the oxidation treatment of vinyl and paint, and if you apply just a small amount as a very mild abrasive, to a Dawn liquid soap base (there is something about Dawn that seems to clean things better!) using a soft soft soft cotton rag, then it's actually much gentler than scrubbing with a toothbrush. There were doll forums where people were using an oxidizer soap, to remove the organic-based dirt (oils, and general crud). I gave each toy a careful but quick scrub, gently easing the rag into bumps and crevices, then immediately rinsed, and re-soaped with liquid soap (be sure to follow the oxi soft scrub cleaning, with plain liquid dish soap, to stop the oxidation process), then rinsed again thoroughly. The oxidation process really brightened the colors, and the super dirty flesh areas, brightened to their original flesh colors. A faster way to clean than soap and brush method! Ok, Stevie, if the shelves get too crowded, I'll send them your way for a 99 year sleep-over, but I do believe Chris has dibs on one of the Tigers p.s. Here are some close-ups showing the cleaned surfaces. These were formerly coated with lots of dirt and a brownish film. The flesh colored feet were darkish brown, instead of the now pink toesies! There was a "baked in" layer of greenish brown dirt on Mr. Bumpie thighs, but now he looks brand new. Blue tail also had a brown film of crud on the surface...
Thanks for the tips Grace. I do have some 'Oxi' laundry stain remover, so maybe I will attempt combining a bit of it into the wash cycle. I am a bit tentative, as it can be strong though; just getting it on your skin has pretty immediate effects. I have some fairly yellowed (even 'browned') toys that I might try doing a spot test on under the foot or something. I always try to be very gentle, only a light touch with a very soft brush when cleaning, but I have experienced some dulling of the vinyl when using the formaldehyde-type sponges that I was referring to. It does help to clean and remove a lot of staining/abrasions, but I don;t like at all the look it leaves the toys with, so I'd almost rather leave the toys in the state they are in in most cases.
Hmmm.... I think the Oxi laundry stain remover might be too strong! I just uploaded some close-ups of the results I had with the soft scrub. We are talking about a small, quarter-coin size blop onto a soft cloth, mixed with lots of Dawn dish washing soap, a QUICK scrub, then a thorough rinse, then resoap to remove the Oxidizer, and then dry. Be sure to test on toys you don't care about! Good luck! p.s. Stevie, I agree with you when it comes to using those Mr. Clean micro-abrasion sponges. I think they are too abrasive, and you run the risk of scrubbing off that shiny vinyl surface, not to mention paint, if you are scrubbing too hard!
Wow Gracie, those really did come out looking like new. Thanks for taking to the time to do extra pics and upload them for us. Much better results than I have seen, and as I do have a batch of vintage toys needing a good bath, this is incredibly useful. I will take a look for something the next time I am in the shop.
Jeez, you jreally have to wonder about people who come to this forum to discuss toys, rather than the minutiae of micellar capacities for various anionic oxidising surfactants. Phssshht.
@deafmetal and @Alebrije , ding! ding! ding! You are both correct! Gold star for taxonomic obscura identification! Anyone care to take a guess at the other cocoons? A couple more are fairly easy, I think!
@Mr. Humphreys - I am tempted to try your soft scrub trick on some of my vintage figures, especially one where the flesh vinyl is now a dark tan. I will need to do some careful testing first though. As for your riddle... the Bullmark Rodan is an obvious one, and it looks like a couple different Earthtrons as well (flesh w/blue, ivory w/green)... also, is that a Mogera on the far right?
REALLY well done on the Moguera! And yes, Rodan is hard to miss. No Earthtrons this time around! *Unless otherwise labeled (i.e. the Nakajima Demora), they are all Standard size Bullmarks, so far...
No moss growing on you two! Scott, excellent eye for the Snowgon (he's really beautiful!) and great guesses! Yes Anthony, that is Sadora/Saddler. He is in really good shape, and I love that texture. He makes me smile, and I feel a bit sorry for him, because he's easily vanquished.... Ok! That leaves one more!
!!!DING!!! !!! Wonderful Daniel !!! Gold stars everybody! That was quick, and you sure know your monsters! I'll take a nice group pic soon (as soon as I can get out in the daylight! ) In the mean time.... waltzing with Matilda? sorry, it is a crappy photo! By the way, I forgot these two! Pardon the little Booska, he's not vintage, but he did come along for the ride, and he's really cute!
Help please... Here is the shiny "new" Rodan (sorry for that double shadow--can't seem to turn off the flash feature on my cell camera) Does anyone know if this is the "standard" colorway, or the "dark blue spray" version? I was trying to figure this out, by looking up the variants on the Club Tokyo website: http://www.clubtokyo.org/listings/itemListingRpt.php?catID=1&subCatID=12&contentID=693 Thank you for any help you can give!
@Mr. Humphreys It's hard to tell.. your photography does highlite some of the problems with classifying these guys (no offence intended ).. and club tokyo is a great resource for sure but I think it is missing variants ..I have a Rodan with no silver, different to all CT variants. But the dark blue version is supposed to have the whole rear wing blue which yours does not
@scobot no offense taken! Yep, that was what was puzzling me, about the dark blue version. The paint goes fairly low on the back (the standard version shows more "flesh" than my bird shows), but not quite all the way. Seems to be missing the vertical silver bars on the front side of the wings, but I suppose that is due to fading? I suppose it's a "regular version" then. Thank you!
Grace - Wow, that Rodan does look shiny after your spiffy cleaning trick. Great work. You picked up a really fun pile of Bullmarks. I am especially fond of the Hawaiian Kameba. It has such excellent colors, and has been on my want list for quite a while now. Congrats on adopting all these monsters.
Thanks Mark! And thanks to everyone for guessing and your compliments, it was fun! Ok, I will try for a better picture with all the goodies revealed and lined up! Please remember, this is my first time using Soft Scrub, the OXI version (NOT the bleach, lemon, or regular version -- you really want to avoid the regular bleach version, because it's really very strong and might strip colors!). I can't comfortably recommend using Soft Scrub w/OXI, because this batch is my first test, so please consider this if you think you are going to try it! And of course, test, test, test! OXI based cleaners are also a bleaching agent, but it is an "Oxygen Bleach" (peroxide is the bleaching factor), vs your household laundry bleach is considered a cholorine bleach. Here's some simple articles comparing these two cleaners (there are much more detailed references out there)--they are describing cleaning your laundry, but you can get some basic info. Also, check out doll forums as well: http://www.1stclasscleaningnyc.com/...ch-vs-oxygen-bleach-whats-the-difference.html http://sciencing.com/oxygen-bleach-vs-chlorine-bleach-6571838.html https://www.quora.com/How-does-OxiClean-work https://household-tips.thefuntimesguide.com/oxygen_bleach/ Basic info: http://www.laundry-alternative.com/oxygen-bleach/ http://cleaning.lovetoknow.com/Chemistry_of_Oxy_Clean http://www.oxiclean.ca/Articles/the-science-of-oxiclean/ One thing to consider is that OXI cleaner, since it is a form of bleach, is drying, and on very thin vinyl, may cause cracking to occur! The method I used to clean, was, I used a cotton cloth and put a quarter coin-sized amount on the cloth, and added 3 parts Dawn liquid dish-washing detergent (the blue version). Rub in the mixture under warm water, until the cloth is foamy and the cleaning agents are blended in. Make sure you use protective gloves! Hydrogen peroxide generated by OXI, will burn anything organic (yes, that means your skin!) -- that's why it's such an effective cleaner on food, blood, oil stains etc.. Rub the doll gently to clean, but do it quickly! I tried to avoid prolonged exposure of the toy with peroxide. Then rinse thoroughly. Then, using another clean cloth with 100% Dawn dish-washing liquid, soap up the toy, and continue cleaning and also to remove any residue of the OXI detergent and micro-scrub grains. Rinse thoroughly again, and dry lightly with another soft cotton cloth. Then let it sit and air dry.
WOW!!!! What a haul! I have been absent from the boards for a while (damn life slamming me), but I come back to this. So much jealousy. Especially the Kameba and Magura. Congrats.
Why can't I seem to find solid info on the bullmark Magular on club Tokyo or anywhere else for that matter?
Here you go.... http://www.ultrakaijyu.com/ultraman/magular.html Translated version! https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=ja&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http://www.ultrakaijyu.com/ultraman/magular.html&edit-text=&act=url *So the red and silver is 1969! Care of our wonder fellow @ultrakaiju p.s. some nice images of Rodan variations, along with Kameba and Moguera http://www.scifijapan.com/articles/2006/08/10/the-bandai-toys-of-yesterday/ I believe @deafmetal has all of those gojis too!
