I noticed that some of my clear figures, when first opened are very soft, and after time they become more hard. Has anyone else noticed this?

This is probably due to the volatile solvents in the vinyl slowly evaporating out of the figure over time... but I'm just guessing.

but have you notice this happen to your clear figures as well? I am curious if this is maybe specific to my weather climate

Personally, I've never noticed a difference, but an alternative theory would be that as the weather gets colder, the vinyl will also harden up.

Temp effects them 100%.

Yes, has happened to mine as well.

Mine also tend to start looking foggy.

I think that might have to do with exposure to sunlight...

By contrast I noticed that on warmer days earlier this year, the smell of vinyl in my home was VERY noticeable. So much that I was almost worried about potential toxicity from the outgassing (or whatever it is.)

What were you eating?

The only problem with that is they aren't even remotly near any kind of bright sunlight. Frank had said something about the outgassing of the vinyl is most likely why it may do it. Who knows? Only two of them have really done it anyway, so maybe it is the outgassing.

I've read that flourescent lights can affect plastic and vinyl the way the sun can. I know there are special Pez display cases that keep out harmful rays, but I don't kow of any made for vinyl figures. To be safe, I have window tinting that can be bought at a hardware store and cut to fit the windows. It filters out the bad rays. I would not be surprised if gas was a factor too, but it seems good ventilation should take care of that.

Offgassing sux; the potential toxicity of our hobby really bums me out, when I allow my intentional blind spot around the subject to drop long enough to consider it. Every time I open the Gara-case...the intensity of the smell is a bit frightening (and I'm one o' those that enjoys the "new toy smell").

This is off topic in regards to clear vinyl, but has anyone ever notice oily leakage on their figs? Seriously, I got some figs that seem to keep leaking oil or some kinda fluid every once i a awhile and its bit disconcerning

I don't have any that leak, but I have had several that are greasy when I first opened them.

Dang I hope that thing about florecent lights isn't true. My whole basement is lighted like that Maybe I should tint all my detolfs

yeah, that what I got too, but once i whipped the grease off, the grease came back later when i checked on the fig!

I always just let them air dry and after a day or so it would all be gone and never come back.

I just wipe mine down and so far, I've never had any kind of condensation.

It wasn't me. I was feeding beanie babies to Godzilla. Bloody mess, let me tell you, but anything I can do to help protect Tokyo...

Ah, yes... Beanie babies, they're good for your heart, the more you eat, the more you... offgas.

A couple answers for all of you.

Regarding "greasy" figures. This is common. As the vinyl ages, it essentially dries to a stable point. Along the way, the material will slowly "weep". This can be exaggerated with how the materials are mixed, and the environment they are kept in. Smoke tends to make them weep a hair bit more.

Weeping is often used in commercial plastic. Polypropelene was developed with a 5 year weep as an anti-graffiti material for outside signage. The weep allowed solvents liek paint to adhere less easily to them. On the opposite side, vinyl toys have paint that is made to bond with the material, which is why they loose a bit of their luster if you remove the paint, because you are also removing the top layer of the bonded vinyl a well.

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Fogging is generally unstable vinyl, or damage from sun or smoke. You should not have new toys that "fog" unless they are designed as less than opaque vinyl. Vinyl technically can come in clear, slighty opaque, and opaque. Sometimes these vinyls are even mixed to creat various opacities (but I would not recommend it). Many vinyl companies use a vinyl that has about 10-15% fog in it, which may be what you are referring to.

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Sunlight will mess up your clear/translucent colored vinyls- the UV will turn your some of the base translucent material from clear to a more brassy-yellow discoloring them. I have never heard this about flourescents, but there is a lot that I do not know.

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Smoke- nicotene stains the vinyl. Unlike teeth, no one has figured out how to remove the yellow patina in vinyl. I suspect that the porous nature of the material allows it to actually damage the material forever altering the color, but you never know, someone may be able to prove me wrong.

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Heat is the ultimate determinate of your vinyl hardness/softness. The change does not even need to be dramatic. In the winter, like now, your figures will be harder, but if you put one near you heater, even with a ten degree shift, it will be noticably softer. If you get it up over 100degrees, they will get super soft, but will not deform. the vinyl will come back to it's "vulcanization" point where it formed. It takes a long while to actually deform it for good. Deformation usually comes from the weight of the toy, not heat. On the flip side, if they get really cold, you can actually shatter or crack a vinyl. It needs to get to 40 degrees or under though.

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What did I forget?

Vinyl Properties 101 with Prof. Flynn
Rm: S7

Great info thanks Brian.

Thanks Brian,

This is very helpful. I mentoned flourescents because they put out a good deal of UV rays, though I have read you can buy filters to go over them.

someone posted this link a while ago
http://www.zincpanic.com/article/25252.html