Interesting topic guys and I can give you some informations because since months I 'm working for this problem.
I was first introduced by the "VDS" (Vinyl deterioration spots) 2 years ago by collectors of vintage "my little pony".
So, I still have some ponies at home from my childhood and I experimented something for this big problem.

I'm gonna explain what I do...

Boiling water and add "bleach" (Javex...) .
The figure should be totally under the water. the bleach will sterilize the vinyl.
Better than bleach... is the (LYSOL for clean the toilet) so I put a cocktail of hard cleaners in the water.

Last month I receive a HUGE vintage squeak Pongo dalmatian ... and he had the problem and half of his body was not white anymore but more a kind of yellow XD.
I removed all his piece (head, 4 paws and body...and he took a bath.
A long bath during a full week and he is realy better, now his body has the same color, the damaged spots are more pale .
So now for complete the experience is... I'm gonna paint him.
Paint stops the VDS because the vds is unnable to have contact with the air because of the paint.
I did an experience with a Sailor Chibimoon excellent vinyl figure and the vds is always on the place where there is no painting.
It is also why the "my little ponies" with the vds are use for creature custom ponies.

So I recommand to sterilize the figure and repaint it for give a second life.

Yeeeah... I don't think any of us are going to do that.

terrible. i always knew those ponies were a busy bunch.

I imagine... but I recommand to do something if one has vds the other will be infected, so it is better to do something with one. Anyway I will take photos .
I know many great collector can't imagine to use something who can damage the vinyl, but I can say the bleach did'nt change the color.
The ... toilet cleaner is able to change the color so for this reason I don't recommand if you take care of the color, but bleach is ok.

Am I the only one who can't stop fucking laughing!?

This whole page 4....

Great cleaning project on a vintage Tiger Mask villain.
http://toyboxdx.com/brog/?p=11876

oh thats interesting ....i wonder why someone would paint him a slightly lighter shade of his original colour ?

I'm gonna share some photos here.
First is the photo made by the seller :


I can see spots and in fact when I received the figure she has more spots than I believed.
For this reason I removed the head for check inside the figure and it was so durty, by age and humidity.
It was full black inside and it took me an hours for clean is with a tooth brosh and soap.

After the cleaning... many small spot was there unnable to remove and of course nothing can remove it...so
Some spots were result of molt XD




Some of you will be surprise by what I used...so
You can be sure I've tried it many times, I would never use it if it was not safe for priced figures like this one.
....
In fact it is water, with a little shot of those products. I put toilet cleaner inside the figure for the vds.
Bleach is unnable to remove vds...only the toilet cleaner is able to do something...


after a bath of 48 hrs...
So happy with the result :


and... she is beautiful now.


I will have to correct the painting when I'll time for this.

If anyone is interested, I use this stuff to clean my vinyl
I bought a ton of it, and have extra it's 2.50 for an 8 OZ bottle of either cleaner or conditioner.
It was originally for vinyl furniture, but it works great for toys. BTW this was how much I paid for the cleaner, I'm not trying to make money, just pass on a good thing.

Looks very clean! But does it smell of cleaner now?

I may have to get some really dirty figures just to test this out.

from the doll universe, there are some products here: http://www.twinpines.com/Catalog.html?V ... .4FmXIKQJr

anybody tried these out or have any luck?
the remove-zit is supposed to clear up vds discoloration.

lighter fluid (we use ronson's in the yellow bottle, get it at walgreens) works great for lifting surface dirt, especially with vintage stuff that is carded, for cleaning up that plastic.

@ Geekabilly

Excellent work on the Tiger Mask figure restoration. He is definitely looking brand spanking new One question though, I am not quite clear if you stripped him completely and did a re-paint, or was the original paint actually that nice under the 'touch up' job? I would guess from what you've shown the white part at least is all new.

That was not my cleaning project, just wanted to share the link.
Sorry.

Steve, crazy as it sounds, all that gorgeous paint is the *original* paint underneath all the junk the original owner slapped on there. Stephan (the guy who stripped it) did an AMAZING job of removing just the crap, but leaving the original factory paint untarnished. He's adamantly against repainting, so he definitely didn't fuck with the original stuff...but he's not averse to going to wild lengths to restore that "factory shine".

I forget the details now, but one time, he bought a rare-but-beat-up chogokin and actually put it in one of those gentle ball-bearing jewelry polishers! Thing came out looking gorgeous!

made it through the whole page still laughing about this

Hey guys, I have a quick question about kabi. Is it possible for a toy made in the past 2-3 years to have it if the toy is still sealed in the bag? I ask because I just got a Boy Karma figure the other day (after reading this thread) and he has a few black spots (which might be under the paint) and some small holes that could quite possibly be from the manufacturing. I'm fairly certain the toy is fine but my OCD is driving me crazy.

I have used the Formula 9-1-1 for over a decade. I have not used remove-zit yet though....

yes it can be. All sealed figures can have this problem. Maybe it was stored in a place with much humidity.

So I'm getting some vintage toys in today, which given my OCD's I'm sure will need a little cleaning. I'm too cheap to spend the 15 + shipping on that Twin Pines stuff for this small job but was wondering if I should use just mild dish soap or mr clean magic erasers, both of which I have on hand. Are the Mr Clean magic erasers going to strip the paint? I'm definitely leaning on not using them because I know they are powerful cleaners.

Warm water and dish soap will work for most dirt and wont harm the paint. Ive used a magic erasers on parts with no paint, vinyl capes, etc, and didn't have any problems but id be very careful around paint as I think it would strip it.

..

i just found out that regular toothpaste takes sharpie off of vinyl without disastrous results. its very mild, and if you put it on the marks, wait five minutes, scrub, repeat until gone it looks great. i was always scared to clean toys but i figured if i use it on my teeth, it shouldnt be too bad for vinyl.

ill post pictures when i finish but i just had 3 black sharpie lines on a leg of a toy i just got, and 2 of the 3 are already gone! if it were a name on the back id keep it, but my sometimes OCD gets the best of me.

Toothpaste is fairly abrasive, hence it's ability to clean teeth (which by the way are extremely hard in comparison to most common objects). Glad it worked for you, but I would definitely recommend keeping it confined to non-painted areas, and limit the scrubbing to a minimum. You can also remove a lot of the sheen from the vinyl - just sayin'

I figure at some point I'll break down and shell out for that vinyl cleaner, and then just go hogwild on a lot of my collection.

yeah- agree totally. i used it on a nice flat surface with no paint, and in small increments. the marker is mostly gone and the sheen still shines