Yamatos don't age well

[Mechapilot77]

hmm, i cannot speak to any V1's BUT I can speak to the following products which are off white or white to start with. (Also for the below, these were all in smoke free environments and also far far away from the kitchen or any other sources of heat/smoke etc. Light in rooms is dark when i'm not present and bright when i am. Artificial light in room sin incandeescent or LED. I did briefly (less than a month have a desk light that was CF but I never used it much on the displays)) All rooms are temperature controlled (even away on vacation I set the temp higher but not excessive...maybe 82 max while i'm on vacation etc).

1:48 DYRL vf-1s focker: Still looks as it did when I first got it around 2006 or so. It actually was displayed out in the open on top of my entertainment center (yeah remember those?) in my living room for almost a year. Since then its been in and out of "storage". I store it in a plastic ziplock back as this was before I started saving boxes etc. (the early days of my collecting). When its out of storage it gets displayed in detolf.

1/60 VF-0s: spent one month in an open display, but after that its been behind detolf glass ever since. Looks th esame as new.

1/60 V2 VF-1 (well over a dozen, closer to two dozen...over half are white or off white): Always in a detolf with the exception of the first 3, a hikarua vf-1j, and a dyrl hikaru ws and a dyrl roy 1s. these saw a few months of an open display. if memory serves perhaps my tv max 1a did as well. Everything else behind detolf glass since. All TV valks are still BRIGHT white. I can't tell if its the same exactly as new but they are still bright white with no yellowing...even the hik 1J and tv max 1a which saw open display time. DYRL valks are still off white. no yellowing.

bandai v1 and v1 1/60 dx chogokins: all these have been behind detolf glass since the beginning. some are in storage now (V1 stuff). There ins't any notiecable yellowing at all BUT i don't know if its my imagination or not....but i thin kthe V1 was not as "bright" as i remember it being....its still bright white though.

2002 reissue chunky monkey vf-1s super: saw open display back in 2006 for a month. has been either behind glass or in storage since (plastic ziplock). Its still super white

Vintage Jetfire chunky monkey: i've had this since i was a little kid. It used to live inside a bookshelf when new with all my other TF's...the shelf door would swing open and that was the "base" of all my TF's. lol. It was never behind glass. its been out in the open in my childhood bedroom for several years (mid 2000s?). before that it was probably in some box somewher ein the house. amazingly enough after nearly 10 years ouf n the open...there is sill no visible yellowing though perhaps it isn't as bright white as it once was? nothing approaching yellow though.

overall...i've been very lucky. honesly....i only worry about the tv valks and the bandai dx chogokins. for me, yamatos seemt do just fine, as do bandais. YMMV.

[Duymon]

All my 1/48's are the same as the day i bought them. Some i have had nearly 7-8 years

Edited June 11, 2013 by Duymon

[valkfighter]

To be honest, I've found Bandai white plastic to yellow much faster than Yamato white plastic.

I just pulled a v.1 Alto VF-25F out of a storage box in my closet where it's been stored away from sunlight. It was bright white when I packed it away several years ago, but now it's extremelly yellowed (I'll post pics later). By contrast my Yamato 1/48 VF-1A and VF-1S, stored in the same closet for even longer have only some very mild yellowing.

I've had similar issues with other white Bandai toys I stored for several years, especially some of the older Victory Gundam toys from the mid-90's.

Graham

keep the toys away from a closet, i mean wooden closets, i had bad experience with vintage star wars toys, as Graham mentioned extreme yellowing can occur. i keep my valks in their boxes on a shelf and in the dark

[Sandman]

What does a wooden closet do?

[CoreyD]

Adhesives used when constructing wood storage units will frequently exhibit acidic off-gassing, which would interact negatively with the plastics and anything else you have in there.

[jenius]

Sorry folks, 1/48s are fairly prone to yellowing. I've seen lots of examples, typically the chest plate is where it starts. Not nearly as bad as the 1/60 V1 though... that thing was REALLY bad.

[SaitouSad]

Adhesives used when constructing wood storage units will frequently exhibit acidic off-gassing, which would interact negatively with the plastics and anything else you have in there.

Oh man.. won't most glass display cabinets have this problem too? Seeing as they tend to use wooden frames to hold the glass panels

[Mechapilot77]

Adhesives used when constructing wood storage units will frequently exhibit acidic off-gassing, which would interact negatively with the plastics and anything else you have in there.

i wonder if cheap ikea particle board cabinets are better or worse lol. don't have any yamato valks in those but have a some TFs (none of them white though) in one of those....

[Scyla]

Excellent pictures!

I have to say that the intakes get worse and worse with every release. Paint them already Bandai!

[CoreyD]

i wonder if cheap ikea particle board cabinets are better or worse lol. don't have any yamato valks in those but have a some TFs (none of them white though) in one of those....

Raw cheap particle board is bad, but I think that sealed stuff is *better*. I mean, plastic has what's caused an "inherent vice" anyway, so it's not going to last forever no matter what you do. How long it lasts and how it degrades depends on the types of plastics used, but yeah, you shouldn't expect it to look new in box perfect in 80 years.

[Mechapilot77]

Raw cheap particle board is bad, but I think that sealed stuff is *better*. I mean, plastic has what's caused an "inherent vice" anyway, so it's not going to last forever no matter what you do. How long it lasts and how it degrades depends on the types of plastics used, but yeah, you shouldn't expect it to look new in box perfect in 80 years.

funny thing is that some of my old 25+ year old toys do almost look like new. No special care was given to those since I was a little kid back then.

[NSJ23]

Stored indoors. Hasn't seen the light of day since late 2005 IIRC. I put it away when I started collecting 1/48s.

Mine did the same less that 2 years having it. one of the few v.1s that yellowed badly just like the VF-1A hikaru.

[Uxi]

My v1 Max 1A is stll in decent shape, as is my non-TRU CF. It's permanently in Gerwalk or fighter, since I don't know where the heat shield went. :\

[JetJockey]

I really wish companies would use higher quality plastic to prevent this yellowing thing. It's random too. Some toys get it quick. Some don't. I've seen it on old SNES systems too.

[Hiriyu]

I've found that my very early-release 1/60 V.1 valks have selectively yellowed far more than my later-release V.1s have, despite having the same climate-controlled storage facility (my closet). The CFs, TRU-1As, Hikaru & Max 1As, and non-FP VF-1Ss show more pronounced yellowing on the nose cone, gear doors, hands and screw caps. Later releases, like the various Supers and VE/VT-1, haven't showed as much yellowing.

[SaitouSad]

I've found that my very early-release 1/60 V.1 valks have selectively yellowed far more than my later-release V.1s have, despite having the same climate-controlled storage facility (my closet). The CFs, TRU-1As, Hikaru & Max 1As, and non-FP VF-1Ss show more pronounced yellowing on the nose cone, gear doors, hands and screw caps. Later releases, like the various Supers and VE/VT-1, haven't showed as much yellowing.

Were they in their boxes or displayed? I assume it's the boxes since they're in your closet.

I hear the plastic trays also give out fumes. Not sure if they contribute to the yellowing

[Matt Random]

The Hikaru VF-1A (very first Yamato VF-1) yellowed quickly on the shelf. This was away from sunlight. The TRU CF that I had displayed well and looked pristine when I put it in the box and stored it away in a closet. The landing gear doors and missiles had yellowed by the time I pulled it out years later.

I don't recall any yellowing on the 1/48s while I had them. I had them displayed in a detolf that resided in a nook of an interior hallway. Good since the only sunlight that made it there came from wall reflections, bad since there was never much light to enjoy the collection.