Cleaning Mold off vintage G1 Transformers ?!? - Toy Polloi
Вставка
- Опубліковано 28 сер 2024
- Not a video I ever planned to do. But recently while checking out my Vintage Transformers display I noticed a small amount of figures had a furry mold growing on them. This was not the plastic degrading, but actual mold. And it didn't grow on every figure, or even every part of a figure, just specific areas.
Watch to see what I mean, and see how I dealt with it.
Become a Toy Polloi UA-cam Channel Member and get early access to videos here: / @toypolloi
Or help support the videos Toy Polloi makes and get early access on Patreon: / toypolloi
You can also just buy me a coffee: www.ko-fi.com/...
Visit www.toypolloi.com for decal and sticker PDF's.
Get the tools I use here: www.toypolloi....
You can also follow Toy Polloi on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Follow the links in the Toy Polloi UA-cam channel banner.
There's something strangely calming about watching someone clean their collection.
I find it interesting that the G1 collection you can see very easily that they are all individual robots and characters, whereas the newer transformers look indistinguishable to my eye. The modern aesthetic is too 'busy'. The Siege / Earthrise line however is fantastic, been buying a fair few of them :)
Definitely a moisture problem. Throw some "DampRid" behind the toys and you'll be good to go. If it's on the toys, it's growing other places in your home and might be bad to breathe. You might also need a dehumidifier.
Mold exists where there's moisture. In books, it's mold that gives old books that "musty" smell. Even after cleaning mold with alcohol, etc, mold often returns unless you actually manage to kill it on a microscopic level. One way to kill mold is to dry it out. Try filling a draw sized tupperware or box with kitty litter (the kind used in cat litter boxes). Then, put a smaller box down in the center of the cat litter, putting your Transformer in the smaller box. Then, put a lid on the bigger box to seal it in for about a week's time. Then remove your figure. The kitty litter dries out all the moisture, thus killing all the mold for good, without harming your figure. A week is sufficient to dry out and kill the moisture that the mold is spawning on, but it's not enough time to dry out the plastic in your toy or anything like that. Even a few days inside such a box might be enough to kill the kind of mold that you're getting, Dave, because none of your toys really seem to have an extreme case at any rate. If you find that the mold comes back, give this method a try. It really works. I've used it before, and I've never seen any changes in the quality of the plastic in terms of feel, flexibility or brittleness. I would not leave it in for more than a week to be safe, but 3 days should be all you really need I think anyway.
Here's how you know you are popular: 4,000 views for a video of a guy cleaning mold off plastic. Love it Dave. Great as always.
By a gauge to measure humidity, it fluctuates a lot during the year, so you can find the worst times and use a dehumidifier. I had a similar problem on everything, but my toys, and it solved my problem and was very useful to know the humidity levels.
How bizarre Dave!! Maybe you could get your Real Ghostbuster Egon to have a look, after all, he collects mould's, spores and fungus!! Great and definitely interesting video my friend.
Mold grows on the rubber parts because rubber is porous. It's not uncommon to find new toys in the bubble that have that same white mold growing. He-Man figures with the rubber heads are also prone to having this type of growth.
You should add white vinegar to your cleaning solution until it is about 5% of volume. The vinegar will kill the mold spores. Just cleaning with soap and water may remove most, but what is left is still alive and will return again some day! This solution is just for porous parts.
The non-porous plastic piece can just be cleaned with soap and water.
It is also possible it wasn't mold. If you live near the ocean, it could be Effloresence; just a salt build up over time from high humidity days.
Don't know if you're aware, but you've got your Menasor's legs on backwards
as well limps on both combiners being in the wrong place.
That's the best thing about Scramble City style combiners... You can assemble them in whatever combination for limbs that you prefer.
I work in a company that deals with mould issues. Typically mould needs 3 things to grow, food, water and darkness. You did mention your home has some circulation issues, the observed mould is most likely growing on the dust and dander typically found in all our homes. It looks like you have it well in hand.
Thanks for the info. I'll be keeping an eye on it in future.
I want to ask how do I clean a moldy model kit. I'm afraid that if I clean it, the mold will grow again

That's really fascinating. I've never seen that before, though most of my vintage Transformers are packed up. I have a mind to check on them to see if mine are developing this mold.
I've heard it said that mold is all around us, all the time but certain conditions will cause it to flower and become the mold we see on things.
I had a similar problem with some of my MOTU when I got them. While there was no mold, some were quite sticky. Not just because they were dirty, but because the plastic seemed to have changed chemically in some way over time. Since then, I have always brushed my MOTU with a toothbrush and soapy water. That has always helped so far. In my opinion, good ventilation of the figures is very important so that they don't become sticky again.
Vintage, Origins or Masterverse?
Man, this is NOT the year to mess with mysterious mold! It's 2020! Just leave it and get out! GET OUT AS FAST AS YOU CAN!!
Excellent video as always Dave. I had a problem with a very similar looking mold that seemed to grow on black leather surfaces. It grew on the leather-bound covers of books, and on an old pair of motorcycle boots I had. I wiped down the surfaces of the affected items with apple cider vinegar, and bought a dehumidifier to help dry out the air in the house, and that seemed to do the trick. It's been three years now and the mold hasn't returned.
Interesting. I'm sure it's not unique to toys.
I can remember working for a payphone company back in 2000 and 2001 that's where I saw the same looking mold, like for instance on one of my routes for collecting the money from the payphone and making sure that they worked we would have payphones in parks and when winter would come the payphones would be covered up and then in the early spring when some parks would start opening up the hand sets would have that same stuff where people would grab it and some of the buttons even had the same stuff growing, it looked out of a horror movie, nasty bacteria 🤢
Great vid, my G1 prime wheels get this on occasion, sucks but easy enough to clean off. Awesome figures Dave!
Hi Dave, I had the same problem a few years ago and found that a dehumidifier in the room helped.
Good to hear it's not just me I guess. I did try a dehumidifier with little affect. As I said my house is very old with thick walls, so I think it's just par for the course. I have since tried some alcohol based disinfectant spray. This seems to get rid of it as well. So for the moment I am doing some tests with that to see if it damages the toys at all. So far it seems fine as it evaporates very quickly.
@@toypolloi be careful using alcohol based products on rubber. After months of using hand sanitizer, the steering wheel on my van has gone all sticky and is starting to crumble.
I guess repeated application is not good. You can counteract the drying affect by rubbing Vaseline onto the rubber. Works great on Transformers tyres. Cheers
I never use water, soap, or glass cleaners. Water will oxidize metal of course and if it gets into the pins, you have a real problem. The glass cleaners do work for surface dirt and molds but Ammonia type instantly strip the designs and leave the silvery label behind. These things can rob vital moisture from plastics when cleaning Transformers in this way. Soft tooth brush is really good along with Black Magic and or a thin liquid spray type quick auto wax. Transformers plastics need the poly (ethel glycol) and butyl acetate among other additives to reinvigorate the bromides and bromines within plastic. Its like moisturizing for harder plastics in a way that people use lotion for skin care. If you've ever used Black Magic on a bleached car bumper you know its the real deal. Same concept applies here. I have never had discoloring or adverse affects from this method.
Also for more tricky transformers with Gold Plastic Syndrome from the the end line. Before you ever transform them, apply Chapstick to the gold parts. Do not leave on rubber wheels for more than a day. It still has a petrol similar to vaseline that can melt soft rubber if left on too long. Use the Black Magic and get it into the pivoting parts so that you can move them with low resistance if you need to. Apply generously and then put it into a Ziploc Bag for a day, then wipe out, apply again, then re-bag. Get as much of the air out as you can. Oxygen is an enemy. If you have a GPS transformer that was broken, it possible it can be fixed but it really depends on the break. Some are shattered and simply cannot be saved. Apply the same process to the broken parts and bag them as well. There are types of glues like Krazy and Locktite than can bond plastics back. These are not the traditional model glues with the wretched odor. You may have to use a 2000 grit sand paper to smooth out the overflow. You may never be able to really transform again after you reapply an invigorator in controlled conditions. It may be relegated to a display piece but it will be at least presentable. The best thing I have ever used is Paraloid B27 glue. This stuff is absolutely amazing for straight breaks. There is a plastic weld but I have never used it and absolutely want too give it a go. Cheers!
It looks very similar to mould that you find in a car that has been left sitting up. Normally always on the seat belts steering wheel and gear knob, which have been handled the most by human hands...Lack of heat and especially air circulation funnily enough.
Could be the same thing as it's certainly not just toys that get it.
Are you sure it is mould? It might be dust that has got damp. I have a diecast 'Stingray' and 'Fireball XL-5'. They used to be on display on a bookcase in the hallway not far from the kitchen. When we redecorated, I moved them, and they were coated in damp fluff, which I had to remove using unscented baby wipes (great for initial cleaning of vinyl records, too). It was what I first thought was mould, but that needs, generally, to have something organic to live off. But dust it was, and I guess condensation from the kitchen caused it to stick to the painted metal. None of the books in the bookcase were affected. It didn't smell like mould, either, but was just damply sticky. I have moved the models, and it has not returned.
Glad to see your Action Men, Pinhead and his mates, are wearing masks!
Yes, it's mold.
It’s tough cleaning items like this w decals may come off or damage
If your toys are in a case, get some silica packets to place around them. If they're in the open, you might need to get a dehumidifier running in that room. This isn't mold, it's mildew.
Great tips Dave
Glad you caught it early
Take care
Keep an eye on them - mould tends to grow back unless you chemically kill and/or prevent it but you'd need to be careful using chemicals on old rubber tyres and weird rubbery plastic.
It’s interesting that you have this problem with your Transformers because I have had the same issue in the past. I don’t have enough room on my shelves to display all of my Transformers. I rotate my collection every so often and the ones that aren’t on display I keep inside an armoire. For whatever reason the Transformers that are stored there end up getting a little bit of mold but what’s interesting to note is that I also store action figures in there as well and they never seem to have the same problem. So now I’m wondering if it’s down to the type of plastics used in the manufacturing of certain Transformer toys. As always this has been a great video and thanks for sharing! Cheers!
uh now i gotta go upstairs and check out my figures.... thanks man hahahaha
Two hours to do all of this? It would take two weeks to me 😂
Always love these transformers videos :)
Not sure if this applies to 80s toys, but early 50s toys can develop a white film on them. It's due to the mold release that was used in manufacturing to get the parts out of the metal molds. It's only certain plastics. In that case, you can clean it off, but a blast from a hair dryer for a few seconds will remove it more permanently. Totally different generation of toys and plastics, but maybe it's creeping up here too. And the problem started surfacing when those toys were about 30 years old.
You get that on some star wars figures and it can be treated with gentle heat. I have a video on it, called frosting. This is different to that as it is organic.
Wow. This is a duty or task for long winter evenings. Set up some podcasts and keep on cleaning. Wow. The Lego toy collectros have the same issues. Cleaning toys and areas where models and figures their home. Keep up the good work. Stay safe. Stay healthy.
I'm sure it affects many different toys. Just thought it was interesting that for my collection it was only in the TFs.
When used to own the Cyborg and Muton action figures in 8". They had the same thing on their hands at our old house. The hands were rubber and I used to think it was just dust and wipe it away with kitchen paper towels. But they were still pretty new back then!
Not mold dust. I agree. Notice it’s usually on the rubber.
@@yotaiji012 I admit it's not easy to shift normally though. Something about that rubber made it difficult. Probably oil leakage over time. But when I was 9 or 10 I didn't know that. lol
Cellulose is often a component of thermoplastics - maybe the mold is growing on this?
Interesting thought.
Vinegar gets rid of mold.
I wouldn’t use vinegar on the plastic, it will weaken the plastic and make it very brittle.
@@elguido1000 I've used it for years and haven't seen any plastic degradation. Interesting. I'll have to look again.
My Friend collect vintage Coca-Cola items in stores in on shells very similar to yours he uses commercial grade Saran Wrap that is 4 feet wide to cover the front of the book shelf to out the dust. When it’s pulled taught you can’t even tell it’s on there. Just a thought. Great video by the way.
Nice idea. But I like to access my toys l the time for videos an projects. So to restrictive for me 🖖
Toy Polloi doing Primus's work killing deadly Cybertronian mold
It's not the plastic, it's the life of a toy. Been outside, rolled over the ground, held in many dirty hands, and likely never been cleaned. Better off looking up types of mold, it's a persistent resilient organism that needs very little food to grow. ;)
Michael Bay’s new film: Transformers; A Fungus Among Us
You might want to consider using Rodalon. It could prevent wet mould from growing on figures. And looks like Red Alert needs a Hydrogen Peroxide, seems like his white has seen better days.
they are developing in softer plastics .... maybe a UV light exposure, easy to buy these days
I mostly have that issue but with my video game controllers especially with my PS4 controllers and Nintendo 64 controllers
Interesting. I'm sure it's not unique to TFs.
Very nice video man! Do you think its alright to UV light sanitize our Siege/ER toys? Will it not damage the toy?
The mold spores tend to settle and grow on the "softer" materials, such as the soft vinyl and rubber-like parts. Given time, it could spread to harder parts. That's simply the colonies spreading outwards. A single spore can start the growth. A weak solution of bleach and water will kill the colonies and clean the surface quite well, also. 😋
Very interesting!
The Moldy Transformers is the name of my new band 😝 we’ll be opening for the Broke O Rings! 🤘🏽😝🤘🏽...sorry 😂
Quick question man, do you think products like Armor All could help prevent this? I’ve used it on vintage Masters Of The Universe figures and it helped with brittleness also kept them shiny and color seem to improve in some of my figures, I also noticed I had to dust them off less 🤔
By the way that mold looks you need a dehumidifier
How would you tackle nail polish? I have a g1 soundwave that have some nail polish. Would lighter fluid do the trick?
Worth a try, but you may need to use break fluid. I have videos on that. Cheers
Alot of your Transformers look like they need a good whitening. I saw a good bit of yellowing.
They are all ageing nicely :D Part of the Wabi Sabi feel they have.
What type of glue do you use for repairing action mans hair
You'll see me fix the flock in this video. Cheers
ua-cam.com/video/4pyolWsjlQ4/v-deo.html
I hope your family members don't try to brush their teeth later with that brush.
Isn't this just 'frosting'? The separation and crystallization of certain materials in the plastics...?
A quick test would be to put the item under a warm lamp for 15 mins. If it goes away, then, yeah, its just frosting.
No, this is different to frosting.
The mold won’t leave any lasting damage?
It doesn't appear to. It's just on the surface and washes of leaving no marks.
@@toypolloi did you need a cleaning solution to remove it? I think I had a spot of mold on one of my Transformers I just tried wiping it off with a tissue and it wiped off with a dry tissue
All I did was what I showed in the video. Hot soapy water. It's seems very easy to shift.
I would really love if you could improve the video quality to fully appreciate the toys and the work you carry on.
Are you offering? I use what equipment I have, and what internet speed I can get. I’m not a professional film maker, just one guy fixing, filming, editing, responding to posts, emails. And also working a day job. So for now, you get what you get. Cheers
@@toypolloi Wow. Do you really find my message that offensive to give such harsh response? I think that it was nothing other than a sign of interest in your content politely formulated. Your content is really great, but the videos are blurry at 720p with heavy compression on top of it, sometimes is really difficult to appreciate the details of the toys and your work. Don't take it as negative criticism, but constructive, as was my intention in the first place.
i have the impression the mold spreads, maybe? coming from the worst of your figures and traveling from there.. seems to me taht some of the plastics give the mold a nourishment base (even if very sparingly) could it be old PLAs or other plastics made with organic materials do that? maybe they have a filler that is consumable by the mold..
the wheels are surely made from a different plastic and have more softeners in them..
great news, actually.. it's not long ago science found bacteria that could eat plastics.. ;-)
That looks like mildo not mold your room could just be to worm
mold is common in warm, dark, damp places. i imagine your climate contributes to it and cant be prevented.
He could install a dehumidifier.