YOU'RE YELLOW! VF-25F turning all sorts of colors

[big F]

One of the reasons I no longer actively collect figures is because of yellowing, the other is space, I already have too many, 

[Macross-Plus]

AFAIK it's ABS that yellows over time. You can use the peroxide treatment, but it can become streaky if you do it wrong. it's also finicky because of paint, since paint and peroxide don't like to mix. I think I've seen treatments with using JUST UV light, but I can't remember if they poured peroxide into the bin first. If you want to use cream, though, use hair bleach and mask off all of the painted parts, and move the cream around so that it won't streak. Leave it in the sun or in UV light so that the reaction will work. The yellowing may come back over time, but hey, it's nice to have a decent looking model for a while, right? (A good place to research this is in the retro PC/Console community) 

[Repiv_Onex]

Hi lovely people~ I am considering of buying misb YF-29B (the greyish navy blue version).

Anyone knows how it stands through the 'yellowing' after so many years of release? Also, is the discoloration 'even'? Because they often use different plastic for different parts of the plane and sometimes the different degree of discoloration really bothers me. 😬

[Special Sauce]

1 hour ago, Repiv_Onex said:

Hi lovely people~ I am considering of buying misb YF-29B (the greyish navy blue version).

Anyone knows how it stands through the 'yellowing' after so many years of release? Also, is the discoloration 'even'? Because they often use different plastic for different parts of the plane and sometimes the different degree of discoloration really bothers me. 😬

Far as I've read or seen it's only the white parts you'd have to worry about.  Assuming you're not leaving it in direct sunlight all the time.

[Bolt]

2 hours ago, Repiv_Onex said:

Hi lovely people~ I am considering of buying misb YF-29B (the greyish navy blue version).

Anyone knows how it stands through the 'yellowing' after so many years of release? Also, is the discoloration 'even'? Because they often use different plastic for different parts of the plane and sometimes the different degree of discoloration really bothers me. 😬

Make sure you see plenty of pics of it , if you can. It should be ok. But no guarantees. I would assume the seller would be honest about it , if it had any yellowing. 

[Scyla]

Might not be the best thread to post this but today I took out my Arcadia VF-1S Hikaru out of storage and noticed that it had turned brown where the pieces were cut from the runners and where two pieces join (i.e. the two leg halves) but not on other surfaces of the toy.

I‘m curious what that is (is it actually yellowing?) and now I’m anxious to pull my Renewals out of storage. 

[Bolt]

Pictures?

[CHAVAKAISER]

On 24/3/2022 at 9:03, Special Sauce said:

Por lo que he leído o visto, son solo las partes blancas de las que tendrías que preocuparte. Suponiendo que no lo dejes expuesto a la luz solar directa todo el tiempo.

That's not true at all😔

[chriswoo]

i am using the hair cream + UV light to restore the yellowish the 2nd handed old purchase tornado pack back to near original white.

 

before 

 

after

 

next project is to restore this fighter to it former glory

 

Edited May 21, 2022 by chriswoo

[Rein+]

On 5/21/2022 at 6:24 PM, chriswoo said:

i am using the hair cream + UV light to restore the yellowish the 2nd handed old purchase tornado pack back to near original white.

😱 😱 😱 😱.

Did the previous owner display it on direct sunlight or something?
 

[chriswoo]

From what I been told he just left it on the box storage and taken out to clean and it turn to yellow. If the plastic expose to direct sun light might already discoloring the orange part as well it will already break the plastic to piece . However on this case orange plastic still quite pristine on the plane.

[Raikkonen]

Ok... all plastic eventually yellows due to the laws of science. There's no fighting it. Best option is to buy dark grey or black valks to limit the visibility.

I however have some toys and diecast figures over 20 years of age, and have zero yellowing... while, my 1 year old Lego sets with white blocks just for display, yellowed, and are not in direct sun and in a smoke free place.

I also have a Spawn 10th Anniversary from 2001 sealed in the closet, and the blister packaging is beyond yellowing... it's now a dark tinted coffee brown. While the blisters of other brands are still crystal clear pristine...

So conclusively, it also comes down to how cheap the material is...

 

 

[chriswoo]

Hi guys I just want it share my another restoration project for my Frontier series YF 25.

Manage to restore it to almost pristine.

 

[apptt4]

Unreal! Well done

[close313]

What UV light do you use? I have a Usb LED black light but im not sure if thats good enough. I usually use sunlight, but my apartment doesnt get direct sunlight

 

A little warning tho dont leave the hair cream too long on Yamato tampo, i found out the hard way it melted/destroyed them.

[chriswoo]

3 hours ago, close313 said:

What UV light do you use? I have a Usb LED black light but im not sure if thats good enough. I usually use sunlight, but my apartment doesnt get direct sunlight

 

A little warning tho dont leave the hair cream too long on Yamato tampo, i found out the hard way it melted/destroyed them.

so far I mostly use the sun light. I find UV light kinda slow and take longer time to restore the white. So far my hair cream has no issue on bandai VF decal. in fact it restore the decal from yellowish to white back.

 

Edited June 19, 2022 by chriswoo

[Bolt]

Very interesting..🤔

[close313]

1 hour ago, chriswoo said:

so far I mostly use the sun light. I find UV light kinda slow and take longer time to restore the white. So far my hair cream has no issue on bandai VF decal. in fact it restore the decal from yellowish to white back.

 

Thanks for the info! yeah my case was that i left it on for over a week, i guess thats why mine reacted like that.

[magicsp00n]

Has anybody had a good experience where the plastic doesn't re-yellow after whitening? I've only tried on my Beagle Mospeadas and they looked fantastic when I whitened them but then after being in a closet for a year they were more yellow than before.

I'm wondering if there's a difference if you do it without the UV light involved. I understand just hydrogen peroxide with heat will work to whiten as well but haven't tried.
I have a few valks that I'm heartbroken about yellowing and would really love to get them back to beautiful.

In my case the toys were originally yellowed from sunlight, so my hope would be that if kept out of the sunlight they would remain white.

Edited June 20, 2022 by magicsp00n

[chriswoo]

8 hours ago, magicsp00n said:

Has anybody had a good experience where the plastic doesn't re-yellow after whitening? I've only tried on my Beagle Mospeadas and they looked fantastic when I whitened them but then after being in a closet for a year they were more yellow than before.

I'm wondering if there's a difference if you do it without the UV light involved. I understand just hydrogen peroxide with heat will work to whiten as well but haven't tried.
I have a few valks that I'm heartbroken about yellowing and would really love to get them back to beautiful.

In my case the toys were originally yellowed from sunlight, so my hope would be that if kept out of the sunlight they would remain white.

So far I haven't yet encounter any restoration VF of mine turn yellow yet however white plastic will eventually turn yellow again after awhile no matter how much you treat it. The only way you prevent that is by paint it which last forever.

[Rein+]

@chriswoo i vaguely remember that you're using this haircream on another post. Which one is it? did we just need to smear it over the yellowing parts?

[dapro]

I am interested to know what hair cream and how to apply it too. 

[chriswoo]

55 minutes ago, Rein+ said:

@chriswoo i vaguely remember that you're using this haircream on another post. Which one is it? did we just need to smear it over the yellowing parts?

I am using 6% only which is safe for decal and painted surface.  however more resilient yellowing can use 9% or 12% however do it at ur own risk as it migh destroy the decal or corrode any metal contact it faster

[Rein+]

Hehehe thank you, i asked because i got some cheap yellowing YF-29 dirt for 11.000 yen.

.

They said the item itself is not damaged but let see if its true.

This is gonna my first restoration project.

[MikeRoz]

Has anyone done this on a VF-19 Advance? Didn't even occur to me that this might have yellowed until I took off the shoulder armor and it was lighter underneath. I'd be concerned about the peroxide taking it too far and making it look like an Arcadia VF-1. Valid fear?

[nightmareB4macross]

10 minutes ago, MikeRoz said:

Has anyone done this on a VF-19 Advance? Didn't even occur to me that this might have yellowed until I took off the shoulder armor and it was lighter underneath. I'd be concerned about the peroxide taking it too far and making it look like an Arcadia VF-1. Valid fear?

It is.

you will have to keep an eye on the parts if you leave it in direct sunlight.

On the other hand, UV light seems to be easier to deal with with little or no adverse affects such as bleaching, to colored parts.

This is what I am seeing happen a lot the Jetfire FB threads.

[David Hingtgen]

Well, with the announcement of the reissue of Alto's -25, I just tossed my Alto into a vat of warm oxi-clean.  (it worked very well on Legos, but have never tried it on a valk).  Disassembled as much as I could, but impossible to remove all the metal bits, since some pins are insanely tight and some bits are super-glued together.  Will see how it works---I do the "warm water with some oxi-clean in it, for a long time" method, vs a "zapping with UV/sunlight or using high-concentration creams" method.   My Lego parts suffered no damage at all, so I'm hoping the same thing will be effective on my valk, and also not harm the paint or metal bits.   

My Alto's yellowing is very mild compared to what's usually posted here, but I can see it, and it'll only get worse over time---better to "bite the bullet now"----it'll either be restored nicely, or be ruined-----but I want to know before the pre-order window closes...

[MacrossJunkie]

Wow. There are some truly horrific examples of yellowing in this thread. Even for stuff that wasn't made all that long ago.

None of my valks have yellowed thus far, but it's made me curious if that is because I clear coat my stuff after weathering or if it's just my environmental conditions are not conducive to yellowing.  Has anyone else clear coated a valk only to still have it yellow? If not, how about stuff that wasn't clear coated that were displayed next to things that were?

[DewPoint]

3 hours ago, David Hingtgen said:

Well, with the announcement of the reissue of Alto's -25, I just tossed my Alto into a vat of warm oxi-clean.  (it worked very well on Legos, but have never tried it on a valk).  Disassembled as much as I could, but impossible to remove all the metal bits, since some pins are insanely tight and some bits are super-glued together.  Will see how it works---I do the "warm water with some oxi-clean in it, for a long time" method, vs a "zapping with UV/sunlight or using high-concentration creams" method.   My Lego parts suffered no damage at all, so I'm hoping the same thing will be effective on my valk, and also not harm the paint or metal bits.   

My Alto's yellowing is very mild compared to what's usually posted here, but I can see it, and it'll only get worse over time---better to "bite the bullet now"----it'll either be restored nicely, or be ruined-----but I want to know before the pre-order window closes...

Best of luck to you.  I hope things go well.

[David Hingtgen]

Not so well----leaving it in until midnight did nothing, so I let it sit overnight----still nothing this morning.  Added a bit more oxi-clean and checked it around lunch-----no change to yellowing, but all the metallic grey paint around the underside of the backplate had dissolved away, leaving pure black paint.  (apparently it's painted in two layers).  So now I have a white+black Alto, instead of white+gunmetal.   Going to sell it for parts I guess----it's still good for many parts, and some parts are still perfectly pristine white.    All the black and red striping etc is still perfect, but the gunmetal grey they use for the "internal bits" mostly exposed in GERWALK mode is apparently far "weaker" paint than the rest.