I saw this article about removing pen ink from vintage baby doll toys with Clearasil... think this would work for old Japanese Vinyl or will it turn my Vintage Inuzaman into a smoking puddle of PCB's? (Note: I don't really have any vintage Inuzaman toys)
http://babytoolkit.blogspot.com/2007/12/clear-unsightly-blemishes-case-of.html

EDIT: LOOKS LIKE THIS IS NOT A GOOD METHOD TO CLEAN YOUR VINYL, ALL OF YOU WHO HAVE ADD OR DONT WANT TO READ THE THREAD.

Hmm. . . to expect a peroxide to selectively react to the ink polymer and NOT the vinyl polymer might be a mistake. If it can break the bonds of the ink polymer, I would be afraid that it could attack the vinyl polymer as well. If it's been used with success, this sounds cool, but with vintage vinyl I would be hesistant. I would imagine it could make the area you applied it "melty."

There may be something contributed by newer PVC formulations that help Clearasil to work; our vintage vinyl formulation would likely be a little less "developed" and possibly vulnerable to solvent attack. I would bet newer toys (the baby dolls) have a better chance of surviving this treatment with newer materials having better encapsulation technologies. Older formulations, in my experience, would likely be less resistant to solvent attack. This is demonstrated by the wonderful bouquet our old vinyls have; the solvents used to polymerize the PVC are still offgassing, meaning it is a less stable material than one that has less of that "Eau de Bullmark."

My feeling (chemistry-based) is that solvents should really be avoided with your vintage vinyl. A better reactive species for this job is a surfactant, or a soap. It will be a lot gentler and may have a shot at solubilizing the pen ink without attacking the PVC polymer.

fission chips/0005
ex-polymer chemistry enthusiast

You should be able to remove ball point pen on vintage vinyl with the normal orange TPOM cleaner with ease. The only reason I could see ball point being a problem is if the vinyl (in their example of the baby doll) was more porous and had "soaked in" to a degree. The vinyl on the vintage kaiju I have has always been fine and easy to clean up thing slike ball point. (Permanent marker is another story.)

Thanks for the info, so whats the deal with permanent marker? Impossible?

I knew there was a reason those those little bastards existed. (not tried and tested...google search probably bollocks.)


RE: Ink and Marker off of Vinyl
Post By jk (Guest Post) (06/26/2007)
We got Sharpie off paint and wood veneer with mosquito spray. It came off immediately. Maybe it works on vinyl.

In 17 years, nothing has worked for permanent marker, not even from japanese dealers. Granted, I have not tried mosquito spray. The problem is how deep the sharpie soaks in, making it easy to remove the superficial layers, but not the deep layers. Additionally, the solvents usually allow it start moving again (why some of it comes off) this allows even more to move around deep as well, and you get a big nasty gray circle instead of a kids name. crappy.

many many vintage doll collectors use various "pimple creams" for stain removal. some combination of zit cream and sunlight has removed stains from many a doll leg and face.

I don't know about vinyl though. I think it works on the principle that most dolls are (white) "flesh" I don't think its recommended for African american dolls (and therefore also colored vinyl). Most recommend that you keep it away from paint at ALL COST. (ie: makeup/freckles etc that are painted on a doll's face) I would say this is not a good way to go with Soft vinyl unless you are talking about stains on an unpainted flesh piece.

Its basically a way of "bleaching" a section very very slowly. often people can remove pen/clothing stains from dolls without a trace of the stain.

my secret weapon is still magic eraser. I've gotten some really crappy looking toys looking brand new with that thing, but always test first!

in my experience, marker erases marker http://www.wikihow.com/Remove-Permanent ... th-Surface

but maybe not 17 year old marker...

Sorry for noob-like question, but what is "normal orange TPOM cleaner"? You mean like go-jo or such? Is there an abnormal orange TPOM cleaner?

Seems like some money could be made if a technique could be developed to reverse this damage. Then again it's a pretty small specialized sub-group of people that would benefit from such a thing so maybe not. Once those deeper layers get ‘loosened up’ with a solvent as you say there may be a non obtrusive way to apply topical suction and bring it to the surface. Let the sexual puns begin...

Ironicially I am using the clearasil technique as we speak since I foolishly put a $2 red barbie skirt on a $130 blythe doll, which stained her legs before I even had it fastened. its crazy how soft vinyl will leech the color right out of a fabric.

I have seen pretty decent results so far, but have also been highly recommended this product by doll people. I would be curious to see how it does w/ marker on toys: Twin Pines Remove-Zit

http://www.twinpines.com/Catalog.html?V ... ryID=00002

Nothing is instant. This product takes up to a month to work. I know the clearasil requires multiple applications and expsure to direct sunlight for several days in a row to work. Another thing that doll peopel do is put on cotton clothes (which will pull the color out. You could try to set the toy on a cotton rag for the same effect if the marker is on the foot.

This guy had good luck w/ it on a Mego's Vinyl Clothes too:
http://www.megomuseum.com/custom/stainr ... inyl.shtml

And this one still blows my mind!
http://gamesandbeyond.com/review/remove/remove.html