wow, thats pretty interesting! bummer your tiger has the 'disease', maybe he was just in a battle with a spiny sea urchin or something.

ive seen those little holes on a toy before, but cant recall where or when at the moment, i didnt really think much of it at the time beyond 'oh, its pretty old.' i still dont quite understand how a mold could live on and break down plastic, though. if that were the case, wouldnt that be a potential solution for all the plastic based trash filling our landfills?

could this be something related to the vinyl off-gassing and breaking down instead? does anybody know for sure?

bring the science, experts!

Jeez, Josh...if we let the mold feast on ALL of humanity's plastic-based trash, the resultant SUPER mold would coalesce into a single entity...that would become the greatest threat to life on this planet since Hedorah, Bemon, and all those smoggy bastards put together.

It's science.

no worries, godzilla will save us!

That is not mold at all, those are air bubbles from the manufacturing process. Usually these are invisible, as they are the same color as the vinyl and super small. At some point, this toy was played with heavily in the dirt, and crud got into the tiny holes, now it can't get out, and water can't get in. I have never found a way to get this stuff out, I even heard of someone trying to boil a toy to make it flexible enough and get water and any sort of toothbrush or q-tip into those tiny holes, but it did not work. If anyone figures anything out - let me know.

Now, that is science!

Polident

^^^ Bubble cleaning power to clean bubble dirt, makes sense

Yeah, but doesn't that stuff also "whiten"... Also known as bleaching? I know some hard plastic toy collectors soak yellowed white parts in hydrogen peroxide overnight. Seems to work, but no long term reports on the damage doing something like that can do to the plastic over time.

Actually, Its efferdent.... Polident is the glue.

I would partially agree with you these are air bubbles from the top of the mold. but that is also "kabi" mold that has started . it loves to start in air holes and spread. seen it before. keep it dry and good luck.

I've seen examples of this- pretty impressive, but I wouldn't use this on anything but ultra-yellow junkers.

Sorry to hear about the spotting, Mr. Humphreys. I really don't know how you could spot something like that from an auction photo, unless the seller took the time to take very high-resolution photos. "Yogore" is sort of a non-descriptive term

Akumaizer,

Have you tried the efferdent? If it works, I might have to try it on a few, but it definitely makes me nervous. Looking for experience on this one....

To be honest i used it on some clear vinyl pieces....
no issues. I dont think the "bleaching" properties are caustic enough to damage vinyl color.
Try it on a clunker, we've all got a few of those lying around.

I must be psychic, because BoingBoing just linked to the Retr0Bright project which is very well documented.

This is very awesome. I now have a new crazy project.

Heck, if it works on amiga keyboards, I'm gonna take a bath in it and see if I get young again. Then I'll try it on toys, mebbeh.

Quick question...so basically how can you tell if it's kabi or not? I've seen a few auctions with no mention of mold or anything of that nature but sometimes the auction will have a closeup picture and it looks like the aforementioned brown spots. Is there a definite way to know? I mean I can't exactly get clarification on items I've bid on from yja.

KabiKira available here if anyone is brave enough to try it:

http://en.kenko.com/shop/en-us/list/br/K10030

And this one says for red mold, but:

http://www.jp41.com/living-in-japan/kill-japanese-mold.php

Tea Tree oil, Grapefruit seed extract, and vinegar are all natural killers of mold... Vinegar might be a tad to harsh though... My wife and I use these at home all the time to clean our showers, at our old apartment when we moved in we had a case of black mold, and the Tea tree oil worked the best, it was killed off completely... It is however pretty expensive, but for such a small application, it might be a pretty good bet... There's also something from Japan called Kabi Killer, but I would be way to scared to try it on expensive vintage gear...

Thanks everyone for all the great tips. I was wondering if anyone thus far tried any mild solvents such as Goo-gone or whatnot to try and remove the names or drawn-on accessories on some vintage figures. I am not a perfectionist collector, so I am happy with my 'junk' guys that I can actually afford, but hey, if I can lessen it a bit, why not? Obviously there are tonnes of magic markers and the ink is always going to be difference, so this would be hit and miss.

As an aside, yesterday I saw a kick-ass bootleg of a masked Devilman figure at Mandarake. I was sooo close to picking it up, but I notice it had some of the same bubbling issues in the plastic (from cheap manufacture I am guessing) that Humphreys' Tiger Mask showed; not as multitudinous, but probably larger holes. Anyways, it was an excellent figure I hadn't seen before, and I will probably regret it later....

I cleaned my Bullmark Jiras after getting him as a gift on one of my Japan trips. I just used mild dish soap and water with a soft brush to remove the play dirt. And he did clean up beautifully. He still has the name of the kid that owned it in marker on the foot. Part of the charm for me. As I cleaned him I wondered how many battles during play time he'd been in.

I hope he is enjoying retirement on my shelf.

Ive been using this stuff called Formula 911 for a year or so after hearing about it from Brian. Its made by a chemist in Maine specifically to clean vinyl toys. It works the best on contact rubs (paint transfer from rubbing against other toys) and any kind of sticky residue. Kind of pricey but it lasts a long time. Like guf was saying general dirt and grime will come off with mild soap/water though.
http://www.twinpines.com/Catalog.html?VT=fDi_VGlYwBUojIi_aQ2gcizh_gv_cbKrNPL7EGlYwBr8uTIe&Tmp_CategoryID=00003

most sprayed paint is oil/synthetic silica resin with a large amount of solvent and propellant, once the pigment is dry and the solvents and propellants are gone the pigment ages and change color or chip. Light cleaning is recommended on vinyl usually use hot water with mild soap. hot water will make the plastic flexi and a tootbrush or artists brush can work into the embedded dirt as you flex the toy. also be mindful of what caused the dirt is it actual dirt, organic, acid based or an oil? that would help determine what kind of cleaner to use.

This stuff works great! XVivaHateX has lent me a cap full in the past and it really works wonders.

That Formula 9-1-1 sounds like great stuff, I am eager to give it a try. Can anyone relate any unfortunate cleaning stories, as a cautionary tale to the rest of us? I guess in cleaning any of the vintage pieces, my main concern is also taking off some of the old paint. Any experience on how resistant (or not) the paint is, say on old Bullmarks for instance?

I use Simple Green and Brillianize for all of my toy cleaning jobs.