Will my Yamato 1/48 Valk yellow?

[Easy506]

Hi everyone,

Sorry, I don't know how many times this has already been asked...but here goes...

I was just wondering, will a Yamato valk turn yellow over time, when I leave it 'unprotected', out of direct sunlight but in daylight, on a bookshelf? I recall my toys doing just that, when I was a kid... and I'd hate to see it happen to one of my Valks...

Thanks in advance,

Julian

[EXO]

Yes. And the rate depends on the humidity and other conditions. I had Takatokus that were in the closet for years away from daylight and they yellowed in some part but not in others.

[Sebastian]

Im sure you can find the answers if you browse a bit this forums.

And wellcome to MW.

[NERV]

heres what you do, get one of thise vaccum packaging things, vaccum pack the valk, preferably in the box, in at least 3 layers of packaging, then get a trunk, line it with cedar and fill it pine shavings or shredded cardboard, lock it, leave it in a closet, in 30 years you will have the mintiest 1/48 in the world, worth $3000

[Mylene01]

Yes!!, all plastic toys expecially white color do turn yellowish over time. This is caused by dust added with weather change. Sunlight really does not have too much to do with that as sunlight will bleach colors, like those rental game boxes at the rental store sitting in the window or clothes. All of mine are on display with a humidifier in the winter and dehumidifier in the summer. Also keep in mine that if you have any smokers in the house, this will increase the time it takes for your Valkyries to yellow.

[do not disturb]

i've been storing my stuff with little bags of silica(sp?) the stuff that sucks up all the moisture you find inside beef jerky, the stuff that says "do not eat" on it. i hope it works....or atleast helps.

so far there is no definite answer on how to prevent yellowing. i've been storing/packing stuff differently to test what works. i got 2 bandais and 2 1/60 yamatos packed away. this is a year long process so check back in about 7-8 months or so, then i'll have some answers for ya.

[Renato]

Also keep in mine that if you have any smokers in the house, this will increase the time it takes for your Valkyries to yellow.

Really? Surely you mean "reduce"..?

Anyway, I've already seen it happen to several Yamatos, in particular the first Hikaru VF-1A 1/60... It looked pretty bad. It would be a real shame for the 1/48s to go down the same path but I guess it's inevitable...

Edited June 3, 2004 by Renato

[Easy506]

wow, ok, thanks everyone!

So there it is. If I keep displaying my valks, they will turn yellow. If I store them, they might turn yellow.

What to do!?

Well I guess i'll keep them displayed. when they yellow, i'll have to whip out the old airbrush....

Many thanks everyone!

---JD

[Mylene01]

Just make sure you either dust them off with a duster or air can, (Air Can is the best) and if you are displaying them in a cabinet, try to keep the doors on it closed. There really is no way to keep anything from discoloring unless you want to shrink wrap, vaccum seal or what not to your toys. Then if your doing all that you might as well not even display them. Just try to keep them clean as much as possible and DO NOT handle them for long periods of time as your hands carry oil that will stay with the Valks.

[Mylene01]

Also keep in mine that if you have any smokers in the house, this will increase the time it takes for your Valkyries to yellow.

Really? Surely you mean "reduce"..?

Anyway, I've already seen it happen to several Yamatos, in particular the first Hikaru VF-1A 1/60... It looked pretty bad. It would be a real shame for the 1/48s to go down the same path but I guess it's inevitable...

DOH!! Yes thank you for the correction!!

[memphis]

And also avoid it from the cigrate smoke...!!! or otherwise you will see the faster chemical reaction in the world...

[Valkfan]

Hello everyone. You are right Easy506, this question has been asked WAY too many times. I really think that we should pin the answer to this question in the forums for ALL to see. Maybe on the homepage.

Anyway, I can honestly say that dust is a non-factor in regards to the yellowing of plastic. Plastic yellows when UV light hits it directly. It is a chemical change within the plastic itself. For example, I have a vintage Bandai Hikaru VF-1A that is extremely yellow. As a matter of fact, it was yellow when I traded my friend for it back in 1986. Keep this in mind. His room had one window that faced west and he never had his shades closed. A few years ago, I removed the stickers from this valkyrie and noticed that the areas covered by the stickers were white. From this I thought that maybe it was in fact, contact with oils from my hands or maybe even dust. However, if dust caused this, then you could easily sand off the top layer of yellow plastic to expose the white plastic underneath. This plastic would be white because dust cannot be absorbed into plastic. I decided to sand the plastic to try out this theory and discovered that I had to sand the plastic extrememly deep to find any white surface. This proved that dust in no way affected the color of the plastic.

Furthermore, I have had my Bandai Strike, Ostrich, and Elintseeker Valkyries on display at my parents house for about 20 years and they became extremely dusty over time. As if that wasn't bad enough, my father smoked two packs of Pall Malls a day inside the house for all of these years. He smoked so much that my old room even smelled like a pack of cigarettes. I have since taken my valkyries with me and cleaned them up. However, with 20 years of exposure to cigarette smoke and dust, they are as white as the day I bought them.

These valkyries were not only displayed, they were played with constantly by myself. The only factors that seem to have protected my valkyries for all of these years is that my room only had one window that faced north (no direct sunlight) and I never took them outside (no direct sunlight). There was no other magic to their longevity. However, I can say with certainty that Yamato does use an inferior plastic compared to Bandai, maybe oils from the skin as well as humidity might affect this plastic. I guess that we will have to let the test of time take its course on our Yamatos as it has with our old 1/55's to see how well this plastic fares. So far, I have heard of Yamato 1/60th's yellowing on thier mid arms. I have yet to hear of any Bandai reissues yellowing. This doesn't include the reissue Super VF-1S valkyrie because this valkyrie seems to show many different shades of white to begin with. Considering how white the reissue Bandai Hikaru VF-1A is, I'd be willing to bet that this will be the first casualty.

RJ

[Valkfan]

I had Takatokus that were in the closet for years away from daylight and they yellowed in some part but not in others.

Hey Exo, I believe that the yellowing was due to some mild form of partial exposure to light while your valkyries were outside their package. If you feel brave, try this experiment. Take one of your valks apart. Expose one of the inner surfaces to sunlight for about 5 minutes. Put your pieces back together and put it away. In about a year open the pieces up and you should see yellowing on the inner surface that you exposed to sunlight. A valkyrie doesn't need to sunbath at the beach to begin yellowing. Even as little as one minute of direct exposure to a UV source (even energy efficient lightbulbs) will cause enough of a chemical change in the plastic to begin altering its color. While your valk will no longer be exposed, the plastic will continue to change while it is put away. The longer the exposure is, the darker the yellow will be.

[Valkfan]

Sunlight really does not have too much to do with that as sunlight will bleach colors, like those rental game boxes at the rental store sitting in the window or clothes.

Hey Mylene, you are right about sunlight bleaching out colors, especially red colors like stop signs or Coke cans. Sunlight will also turn the cardboard on rental game boxes white over time. However, sunlight will not bleach out plastic. If this was the case, you could leave your yellowed valks in the sun over the summer to make them white again. Unfortunately, this will never happen.

RJ

[BoBe-Patt]

now if you had a low viz, elintseeker, super O, and vf-1d, you shouldn't worry about those yellowing. Those shouldn't yellow unless you put them under direct sunlight!

[fifbeat]

I thought ABS plastic didn't yellow?

[wilson]

very interesting topic. i remember having a bandai super O and jetfire a while ago. Both had yellowing on it but the funny things is that they did not turn yellow when i had it out on display in my room. it only turn yellow when i packaged it and stored it away. i got these two back in the mid 80s and play and displayed it till 1999 and no yellowing. i took them out again in 2002 and u know what there were patches of yellowing on both of them. Why patches and not like half or the whole toy were yellow? and why not during the time it was on displayed where light, sunlights and element direct contact on it? i had it out for almost 15years but no yellowing. i live in northren CA so the weather is pretty much 65 to 80 year around and i do not smook in my room at all.

wow. The 1/60 only came out like 2 years ago and its starting to yellow!

[Valkfan]

I thought ABS plastic didn't yellow?

Well, some plastic doesn't yellow. For example, the auto industry adds an element to the plastic so that plastic parts (light colored trim) from your vehicle don't yellow. Unfortunately, this is only cost efficient when you're talking about the price of a new car. If this was done to our valks, we would be paying MAJOR cash for them.

RJ

[Mylene01]

Well I see this yellowing could go on forever The one thing we all need to remember here is to take great care of your things, expecially those that are costly!! My jetfire that I bought WAYYYYY back in the mid 80's is still like new. This is due to me not handling it all the time and keeping it clean, I think I only transformed this once. Come to think of it all my things are like that. Oh well, seems we all agree on that

[geecie30]

Since colouring agents like PbCO3 and CdCO3 are used in

>combination (PbCO3 has been used in miniblinds, and CdCO3 has been used

>in teething rings, plastic pigments, etc), I suspect that analogous

>reactions (i.e. formation of PbS and CdS) are to blame.

The yellowing of the plastic is more likely the result of insufficient

anti-oxidant present in the plastic. If it is important enough then

storage in the dark under an inert gas is the best solution.

oxidants break down the composition of plastic,IE, uv,heat,some bad chemicals in the air ,time,etc.

Many convertible tops use polyvinyl windows. Exposure to UV rays can cause the plasticizers that make this plastic pliable to be released, which causes haze. Many plastic polishes are formulated to remove this haze and yellowing as well as mild scratches

I took numerous plastics technology training courses when I worked as an engineer, and one thing that struck me was the incredible number of special additives and modifiers used today to control problems such as yellowing.

I have not seen a recent (i.e. 20 year-old or less) tub surround turn yellow.

Yellowing/Discoloration

Yellowing occurs with a combination of extended nighttime driving, acid rain, and possibly condensation. It mostly occurs on the inside of the lens but can also be found on the outside. The hard plastic used for the lens is susceptible to high heat, and yellowing is a side effect of that.

Since they introduced the plastic lens in 1984 on the Lincoln Mark VII, Ford has used polycarbonate--a high heat resistant, high impact strength plastic that also has low resistance to UV light and moisture. Since headlamp lens light sources generate a lot of heat and require impact resistance, polycarbonate has been the material of choice for all but a couple of GM programs (like the Berreta/Corsica program, which was an overlay lens--polycarbonate inner/acrylic outer).

I remember my uncle telling me that the new batteries since 1988 and later were made from poly urathane and dont yellow or decompose from uv and heat

2. What *CAN'T* I fix or restore on my figures?

A. Yellowing

Several factors can cause certain figures to become discolored and parts that

were once bright white to turn yellow. This is a reaction in the plastic itself

and cannot be cleaned.

Some factors known to cause the discoloration include exposure to direct

sunlight for an extended period of time, humidity, contact with chemicals (such

as glue or tape), and bright artificial light.

Certain figures are prone to yellowing more easily than other figures. The most

important on this list are white action figures, like Snow Job (1983) and Storm

Shadow (v1, 1984). Something in the white plastic used on him make them very

susceptible to sunlight damage. Another figure who tends to become sun-damaged

easily is Spirit (v1, 1984), whose blue shirt will fade into a pale blue -

almost white.

The choice of the plastic makeslittle difference to initial appearance.But this is only true while the prod-uct is new. Depending on exposureto light and heat, significant differ-ences begin to be seen after about1 or 2 years. Inappropriate plasticsshow marked signs of aging suchas yellowing, graying and embrittle-ment. Luran S is now used in very manysectors where long-service-lifeproducts are made from plastics:in electrical appliances, forwashing machines, dryers, freez-ers, and many other products in the garden, for furniture andequipment such as lawnmowersin external parts on buildings,such as antennas, movementdetectors, and other securitydevicesin the leisure sector for outdoorsport requisitesin the household, for electricaldevices such as microwaveovens, vacuum cleaners, oralirrigators, etc.Luran S, the ASA from BASFwith excellentlong-term propertiesWhite stays brilliant, colorsstay bright, and surfaces show none of the agingeffects which can be causedby weathering

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mylar is crystal-clear, very strong, and performs far better than other types of plastic as a barrier against dust, pollution, water vapor and oily fingers. The Library of Congress will use only polyester products (such as Mylar) that "must not contain any plasticizer, surface coatings, UV inhibitors, or absorbents, and be guaranteed to be non-yellowing with natural aging.

"vinyl" (V) or polyvinyl chloride (PVC)

good transparency (clarity)

chemical and weather resistant

scratch-proof

"all PVC polymers are degraded by light and heat, hydrogen chloride is eliminated and oxidation occurs"

retains water (8%)

"chemicals used to make this type of plastic can react with water vapor to form hydrochloric acid and quickly damage a paper collection."

uses: "leatherette" fabric, gloves, flying discs, carpet & flooring, pipes, exterior siding, 3-ring binders, bubble wrap.

not recommended for use with silver

used for short-term business document storage

not suitable for archival storage purposes

>Many of our artifacts are curated in a climate-controlled room in

>very tight cabinets. Within the cab's many of the individual

>artifacts are enclosed in zip-top 4 mil thick polyethylene bags.

>Over the years we have noticed that some of the bags and the paper

>tags inside them have turned a yellow/green, especially, but not

>limited to, where the artifacts are touching them. This process can

>take as little as 4 months.

I remember when the issue of yellowing of polyethylene bags (and

perhaps also the cloth items stored in them) first came up. It was

soon after permanent press textiles were introduced to the market. I

have forgotten who finally solved the mystery, but it turned out to

be a reaction between the treated clothing items and the bags they

were shipped or stored in. This was a big surprise to the chemists

who had introduced the treatment to the market. As I recall, the

solution was not to bag the items.

Unfortunately the plastic can't usually be whitened again. The UV rays perminently alter the pigment. Many times just the air alone will do it even if the toy is out of the sun. Many a Star Wars Storm Trooper has turned yellow over the years.

[Valkfan]

Another vintage figure that shows the classic yellowing is the first Luke Skywalker figure from Kenner. Now that is an eyesore.