I didn't really see any information to this effect in other forum discussions, and the recent post about Japanese vs. Chinese sourced vinyl figures got me thinking, does anyone have any ideas or had any success with restoring the 'softness' of any vinyl? This isn't exclusively linked to vintage figures, but I have a fair bit that are quite stiff (I was even the victim of unfortunate breakage in the post of our Canadian winters....but I digress).

Not to get too technical, but this can occur when the plasticizer (the source of much current debate on health effects for children's toys) eventually leaches out of the polymer (the same thing creates 'new car smell'). It may be possible to re-saturate the plastic with some organic compounds, but if anyone has any home remedies to restore that great sofubi feel, feel free to share.

It takes the lotion from the basket.... Oh wait, that's for something else, sorry.

or else it gets the hose again...

I recently had a elbow ball joint from a chinese vinyl figure break on me. Using gorillia glue which is ironic b/c it was a giant tim tsui ape fig that broke on me, worked pretty well, but i tried using other crazy glue and it didnt work.

That actually got me to think more about the quality of vinyl. B/c I wasn't actually surprised this happened, but I'd be surprised if a gargamel or secret base fig broke in terms of "snapping". Then I went through my vinyl collection to see which one seem more durable that others, and from what i can tell I'm 99.9% sure that all my JPN vinyl will not have issues of snapping off, unless it was really thin vinyl, but even still. The chinese vinyl though, oh man, I did not feel very confident in moving the arms of many of the figures I have not played with in a year of two.

But anyways, while trying to repair the broken joint, i remembered that the easiest way to soften vinyl s to us a hair dryer. so i guess, if you need to loosen a stiff vinyl fig, just warm it up with a hair dryer, but not for too long. This may apply to reshaping warpped vinyl or vince versa :/. I learned this method here on the boards

What, you mean I am the only one that lubes up my vinyls?

well, maybe the only one willing to admitt it

i never herd of "lubing up" vinyls..

funny though, at my old job, the artist had this weird inside joke where they passed around this plastic baby doll thats covered in lotion, i never seen it but i herd one day one of the artist found it in the free pile and the others stole it and covered it in lotion and somehow they started to prank each other with it by leaving it on ur desk, kinda like a f'ed tag, ur it.... anyways, i guess thats what u do for fun when ur cooped up in an office all day working on video games...

Anyone have any suggestions for removing 'tackiness' from vinyl figures. Sometimes gentle soap and water works, but other times (when it is a result of the material) the cause seems to be a degradation of the plastic (particularly soft, spongy vinyls)

As far as i know there is no way to stop the "ick" when it starts because it is the plastic itself.

I'm pretty sure you're correct here. Although I've had pretty good durations of luck on the vinyl costume parts of the repro Henshin Cyborgs (some of them are suffering a lot from this problem) using Simple Green and then using the plastic cleaner/polish called Brillianize. The Brillianize seems to coat the vinyl a bit and keep it from the air. I don't think it stops it, but may put it off for awhile.

Ugh....the fucking chemicals leeching from HC repro suits is fucking god awful. Seriously...that those atrocities came from as venerable a manufacturer as Takara is reprehensible.

I almost wonder what would happen if you used alcohol or thinner to get them real clean, and then immediately hit them with a 'rugged' sealer like Monster Kolor Clear... that prevents reactions like between paint and soft plastics from occurring, so maybe it would put a barrier between you and the sad plastic there.

that is a good way to attempt to stop it I am sure. I am basing my assumption on a good 15 to 20 years of battling "ick" on Star Wars figures, and no one has a real solution after all that time. The Clear coat could work perhaps, but would still be seen as "restoration" since it is an additive to the original piece.

Exactly.

Monster Kolor topcoat would let you drag the thing behind a truck without any harm coming to the toy, but I doubt too many people are gonna want automotive-grade sealer on their vintage toy!

In fact, I have used MK gloss coat on a couple older (but modern-era) vinyls with slightly tacky paint jobs. Worked perfectly. But the real bad leechers are usually vintage pieces...

I broke an antennae off of a newer vinyl figure whilst I was bending the legs back after a quick blow dry (wait that sound awfully bad- but you get my drift) to cure a lean. What sort of glue can I use to put it back on that won't harm the vinyl? Crazy Glue?

super or krazy glue will likely fog you up regardless of how carefull you are, I think 3m still makes some non-solvent rubber cement, it used to come in a red metal tube a little bigger than travel size toothpaste, the bond wont be as strong but I dought your planning on playing with said toy once fixed

Just used krazy glue (didn't see your reply beforehand). Seems to have done the trick. I applied a miniscule amount so there was no running or anything. Looks fine.

you must have a steady hand of a surgeon please let us know in a couple of days if there's any fogging or hardening/crystalizing around the area of repair.

All those years of building model airplanes and boats as a kid! Will do on fogging or crystalizing (I hope not!)

Ungawa222 had some solid advice on vinyl repair for me that I thought I'd share here:

What I would advise for reattachment of the (vinyl bit to vinyl bulk) would be some “Medium” CA glue from a hobby shop (they will have thin, medium and thick).
Try a test application, even on a piece of cardboard, so you get the hang of how fast it flows (if it’s too fast right out of the bottle, you can squeeze some out onto, say, a yogurt container lid, and then use a junk paintbrush to brush onto the joining edge of the piece. Either way, concentrate your application toward the inner edge of the hole; try not to get any on an area that will be exposed to view, because it may slightly frost the vinyl. With medium CA, it will only take about 30 seconds of holding together to make sure the join is set. Prometheum wasn’t wrong to advise using an epoxy, but they can be trickier to work with, and it would really be more power than you need for this (I assume you won’t be playing “monster war” with him in a dirtpile behind your house).

Yeah, cyanoacrylate ("CA"..."super" or krazy glue) is the way to go for fixing broken/cracked vinyl. To prevent the whitish haze, just keep a fan on the thing while it cures. The fast moving air will whisk away the fumes and prevent that crap.

Sanjeev aren't you a nuclear physicist when you're not out collecting rare pieces of monster vinyl from Japan? I'm sure you breezed through chemistry so I'll take your word as gold. So far so good, strong hold, no caking or anything.

Or, contain the fumes and search for latent prints.

Well, I was. And technically nuclear engineer, not "physicist". But now, I'm just a rocket scientist. Who makes robot toys in his spare time.

Good on ya for fixing this toy, though. I'm always happy to see people take charge and restore their broken toys rather than looking to replace them for fear of "devaluing" their collection or whatever...