Yellowing: The worst thing about vintage collecting

[yojoebro82]

There is seemingly nothing that can be done to stop my white GI Joes from yellowing. Nothing worse than seeing an otherwise good Stormshadow, Snow Job, or Cobra Commander look like they just took a golden shower.

 

My question is, is yellowing completely random? I look at pictures of other yellowed Joes and certain body parts will be affected but not others. Half of a thigh will be yellow, the other half will be factory-white. A white head will be yellow but the torso will still stay white. An upper arm will yellow but the lower arm will look like brand new...and so on.

 

Why is this? Different plastics? Will they yellow eventually and they just haven't gotten there yet? I think it's weird that you can have the same v1 Stormshadow as a guy on ebay and you'll have completely different body parts yellow and not yellow.

 

I did some researching into the hydrogen paroxide treatment but some are saying that it's a temporary fix and that your figures WILL turn yellow again...so that doesn't seem to be worth the time.

 

It's frustrating!

[Eric]

I don't have much insight but I absolutely agree with you. Very frustrating. My (possibly expensive) suggestion would be to track down multiples of the same figure and piece together one that's not yellowed. Maybe they'll yellow anyway eventually, but if a 30 year-old figure has parts that haven't yellowed yet, it seems you have better odds of it not happening at all.

[FUGAYZIE]

while i'm not 100% for sure, but I think it is sunlight that yellows the figures. I know from experience that sunlight (even indirect) will fade artwork, turn the white paper of sun-exposed art yellow, and even yellow the clear blister bubbles of toys old and new. so yeah, i'm pretty sure the yellowing has something to do with sunlight. for art, they make a UV protective glass and that does a really good job of keeping the colors fresh and the white paper white while displaying original art throughout the house. i'm sure they make UV protective display cases too.

[hamsterboy]

You also have to feel bad for Star Wars collectors that have to deal with yellow Stormtroopers,Snowtroopers and Biker Scouts.

[Roadpigmaster]

I agree that it is the effect of solar light. It happened to me with some of the 90s figures that I never played with but put it in battle position in a diorama and the sun from my windows hit them every morning.

[hamsterboy]

Smoking is another reason. I've seen quite a few Snoopy Pez on Ebay that had this happen.

[yojoebro82]

OK then question: My 85 Frostbite is still as white as the day he came out of his box. I store/display him no differently than any of my other white Joes. How did he get so lucky?

[ShadoweyesStormsnake77]

I think there are multiple factors, uv light and smoke of course but heat and humidity could be a factor. My SS v2 was rarely 0utside and was bought at the end of my gi joe buying as a kid so he stayed white(so I thought) he was stored in a sealed box indoors until 04-06 or so my son played with my Joe's. But I recently bought a new torso to fix his grey rope scuffs and when I got the parts they made my seemingly white figure slightly yellow,  enough to notice the difference between the torso and crotch so I ordered more parts and made a whole new figure. I'm going to experiment with the bleaching on a skin tone SS v1 to see how long it lasts, may even try some clear coat or some sort of uv protective spray.  Some of my early figures faces seem to have gotten whiter which I find weird.

[ghostbogey]

Lots of things can cause "yellowing" of plastic (age, uv, smoke, environmental, storage, cheap plastic, etc)....

The one "almost certain" way to avoid this;  "vacuum seal" the toy ;^)

[MagnaPrime]

If I recall right at 3 am...   Its the bromine in ABS plastic.  As it's exposed to UV it breaks down and comes up as yellow.  My understanding is that this chemical acts primarily as a hardening agent.  There are some techniques for removing the yellowing, however other are generally temporary as the chemical reaction continues to occur.  I have some of my vintage TFs that are so yellow it makes me wanna cry.  This is also why some parts of action figures yellow differently from others, different plastics.  Okay back to trying to sleep.