first of all, long time no post!

i left for japan at the end of january and came back at the end of may.

i've just been handling a quite alot of my toys for the first time in months (obviously) and alot of them seem to all have a sudden became REALLY sticky. what could be the reasons behind this? at the moment its winter and i know no one has touched them/been in my place so i can't even imagine what it is. one gargamel sculpt in particular actually sticks to my hand.

i have a box of them in storage at my grandparents place (i was originally going to be overseas for alot longer, hence the storage) but i haven't had time to go check them out yet.

none of them are 'sweating' or oozing like i have read about on here before.

any ideas? i'm really stumped and a little worried.

ps this is all newish sofubi stuff, not vintage.

I can understand you getting excited to be reunited by your toys, but perhaps you should exercise a little bit of self control. Everything in moderation.

Mild soap and water should take care of it.

Eew...

hahaha, i tried to resist!

but seriously, what could cause this? like i said, i haven't checked my collection in storagee but all the pieces i left at my place (about 20 pieces) are all really sticky to the touch. no one has been in my place...

Cigarette smoke will certainly do that to vinyl and sometimes lots of dust and sunlight combined. Dust sticky will wash off but cigarette smoke sticky is a little harder.

What would have been the temperature extremes where you had it stored?

How were they stored? In their (open) plastic bags? Were they in sealed bins?

Try washing them with dishwashing soap.

I know what you're talking about. I have a Takara Henshin Mazinger Z...the body was fine but the suit...some parts were oily from weeping but almost all of them were sticky...and this was MIB. I think this is far more common for squishy type vinyl but that doesn't mean it won't occur with harder vinyl toys. Some kind of plastic cleaner should work but it might rub off the paint. WD40 might also work but you toys will smell like WD40 .
I think the stickiness is a more viscous version of the more common form of weeping...which can be wiped clean with mild soap and warm water (or just wiping the toy).

There are better explanations that I've seen on the board, but basicly vinyl sweats, and I think it's actually the chemicals leaching out.

That is if I understood what I've read before.

i don't smoke, so there is no way it could be that.

the toys i left out of storage in my house, i just left in my display case as they always are. there was no heating or fans on in the room.

like i said, i haven't yet checked my toys in storage. they were individually wrapped in bubble wrap and then put in a big semi-sealed plastic box.

It's kind of strange that ALL of the toys left out became tacky. Usually it varies by manufacturer or vinyl type (clears seem particularly prone to this behavior). This suggests to me that something in that case or in your apartment is causing the problem. Since they were all in a closed/sealed (?) case for months without air circulation, maybe one of them was releasing fumes at a particularly high rate, causing the others to be coated with the residue.

The reason for my theory is that I once had one of the clear Murder Blobs in a jar. I never opened the jar and kept it in storage for months. When I finally pulled it out, the inside of the jar was coated in a thin, oily film. The Blob itself was not greasy at all.

Is there any build-up on the inside of your case? Otherwise, I would just wash the sticky ones as suggested. This probably won't be a problem once you start opening the case regularly and moving the toys around.

How are these displayed?

the pieces i didn't put in storage just stayed as they normally were in my display case, ie a wooden case with glass doors from ikea. for whatever reason, it seems all the gargamel pieces are stickiest by far. none of them feel like they have any residue or anything on them, its just like they are really sticky. best example i can think of is if you were eating cotton candy. they don't appear wet either.

the pieces i did put in storage (90% of my collection) that i haven't checked yet to see if they are sticky too, were wrapped individually in bubble wrap and then put in a sealed plastic box and kept at my grandparents.

i am really stumped. i tried 'washing' one with cold water and its still sticky.

my gargamel smoking corps guys get a little tacky from time to time, though I've always been able to get them clean again just by using a tiny bit of dish soap and warm water. try warmer water, the cold water may be actually making your job harder.

thanks, i'll give it a go. funny you mention it, one of the corps is actually the stickiest of them all.

I don't understand why you tried cold water when I previously stated warm water with mild soap...

YEAH! Don't make Bert take off his belt!!

^^^^

Ahahahahaha.

Personally I blame the parents . . . or the education system in general . . .

I like this one, I cant stop laughing now............ still laughing........

i'm sorry, i must have missed it.

washing them seemed to have helped, but the smoking corps are still REALLY sticky.

paulievinyl, what did you use (do you know what caused them to become tacky)? i just used warm water and liquid hand soap and it didn't do anything really.

dunno why they became tacky, just normal for some vinyl to bleed out chemicals over a period of time like others have said. must have something to do with the type of vinyl as those are the only toys I have that tend to become tacky, even though they're displayed on an open shelf in a ventilated room w/no sunlight. a warm water bath w/some soap always worked, but they would eventually become tacky again after some time. wish I could help more... maybe warmer water and a little extra scrubbing w/your hands & soap could help, or maybe even a very soft sponge. careful of the paint, of course.

a lesser grade acetone will work. you just need to make sure you buy the lesser grade and not the one used for stripping paint.
i'm wondering...how many people actually handle their toys? If you keep them behind glass and don't really touch them, you'd never know how long they've been weeping. In this case, they might have been that way for a while now and you would have never known. i think the tackiness is really the oil, just at a much higher viscosity. it won't bead and you don't even know it's there until you touch the vinyl.
i keep all my toys on open shelves. yes they get really dusty but i like to pick them up once in a while and so far, none of them have become oily or tacky.

I move my toys around every few months and have not noticed any weeping, oily residue or tackiness, aside from the toys that arrived in this condition.

Speaking of Gargamel, I did buy a few pieces that were sticky when received. They were 3 Gacha-mechas, which I believe had been left in direct sunlight because of noticeable yellowing of the vinyl and fading on one of the chrome innards. I ended up removing the plastic innards and washing all of the pieces thoroughly with warm water and dish soap. However, like conqueror's stuff, this did not completely remedy the problem. To this day, they are a little gummy to the touch.

I would think normal washing would remove weeping or residue on the surface.