The Energon Pub

If you're not up to working with H2O2, you can try taking Apeface apart and painting the yellowed pieces white. The reassembly process should also take care of that loose arm.

H2O2 is the best way to get rid of that yellowing or other discolorations. It's brought my Sixshot and Scourge back to life. It does work on colored plastic aswell as the white plastic. It really is the most effective and thorough method.
WORD OF WARNING though......make sure you don't put any metal in the peroxide. It ruins screws and metal pins. They oxidize and turn white.

I hope someone does a step-by-step guide on how to disassemble, whiten and reassemble a Jetfire. Being mostly white it's extremely noticable when it yellows, a guide to restoring it would be invaluable. Maybe it would make a good site article.

Kanrabat- wrote:Well, the "white" parts of my Apeface are actually a light gray. So, the peroxide will keep the original color intact, yes?

Also, I cannot make him stand in robot mode because the "jet backpack" cannot stay up and fall down.

Also, the ape arm that is loose is a joint that "click".

One of my worry is to screw everything up when I disassemble the toy.

The other alternative is to clean the yellowed part without disassembling the toy. Any techniques that doesn't require freaky things like sanding and such?

Don't worry. The original colours will remain intact.

As for disassembling the figure. It's not a combustion engine or anything!! you'll figure it out as you take it apart. GO for it! Just be aware of what came from where.
WHen i take apart a figure. Sometimes i lay each part and screw out on the table in chronological
order in which it was removed so it goes back together the same way it was removed, but really......it's pretty low on the challenge meter. You'll have have fun with it for sure.

Plus it's saved me lots of money down the line buying sub standard figures that look like crap and having the confidence and know how to bring them back to their former glory.

Grad that bull by the horns bud!

monstergrotusque wrote:As for disassembling the figure. It's not a combustion engine or anything!! you'll figure it out as you take it apart. GO for it! Just be aware of what came from where.
WHen i take apart a figure. Sometimes i lay each part and screw out on the table in chronological
order in which it was removed so it goes back together the same way it was removed, but really......it's pretty low on the challenge meter.

Grab a roll of double-sided tap, it's really useful for keeping little pieces where you left them. I always keep empty pill bottles handy for screws, springs and pins, usually one for each limb/subassembly.

All the tips above are excellent, including bringing colors back to their original state with a H2O2 solution.
As far as taking Apeface apart: the parts in G1 Transformers were hardly ever glued or heat-sealed together, which will make taking him apart and putting back together reasonably easy. If you are unsure of the order you are taking him apart, it might pay off to take some photo's along the way of the parts that seem overly intricate. But considering G1 Apeface, I can't imagine it's that much of a puzzle.

I've been reading about how to fix yellowed Transformers for quite some time now. I guess the correct term is "photodegradation", according to tfwiki.net.

I first read about a solution to this problem about 2 years ago but I was worried about trying it. Here's where I first read about it, thanks to Diablien pointing me in the right direction:

http://www.thetf.net/forum_posts-TID-13204-PN-1.htm

I was working on G1 Pretender Thunderwing's gallery a couple of months ago to coincide with his Generations release. I decided now would be a great time to do Crossblades and Vroom. I had bought a MISB Crossblades off eBay back in 2007 which was horribly sun faded unfortunately - despite the seller showing pictures to the contrary (in hindsight I should've filed a complaint with eBay but decided not to because at the time Crossblades was tough to find on eBay). Upon finally opening it a month ago, I discovered that the clear plastic window did little to protect the figure inside -- much to my horror, my once MISB Crossblades who had been sealed for 22 years was terribly sun damaged. I decided to give the ol' Hydrogen Peroxide bath a try to see how it worked.

FYI -- it seems that the yellowing is supposedly caused by the flame retardant put in these plastics and how it reacts with the sun.

Here are some before and after pictures ...







As you can see, it worked amazingly well. Not just kind of OK, but perfectly OK!

All I did was buy some large bottles of 3% Hydrogen Peroxide at Target, stick Crossblades in a clear plastic container, fill up the container with the Hydrogen Peroxide, and placed the container in front of a window in my house that gets the most sun. He sat for a week in the container. I checked on him daily to see its progress. It required minimal work on my behalf.

Has anyone made "Retr0Bright" before? I'm tempted to do this so that I don't have to take apart other figures or damage stickers on figures that are otherwise perfect aside from yellowing.

http://retr0bright.wikispaces.com/Retr0Bright+Gel

Got some success stories? Please share!

Unfortunately the flesh colored paint was not "unpinked" from exposure to the sun. I bought an extra Crossblades shell off eBay last week that had a perfect head but imperfect paint apps on its body (for a whole $12) so I'm going to knock the pin out of his neck and swap heads. Problem solved!

I've used this method many times with great success. Never tried the Retr0brite mixture, but I don't see why it wouldn't work.

I've wanted to try this for a while now, but I've always been fearful.

I might just have to try the 3% Hydrogen Peroxide method. If all you have do is immerse the figure in Peroxide and expose it to sunlight, doesn't seem that complicated and I'm less likely to cock it up.

Do you have to dismantle the TF's first and then only treat the effected white areas, or can you simply treat the the whole TF without the process effecting other coloured plastics and the paint apps?

MightyMagnus78 wrote:I've wanted to try this for a while now, but I've always been fearful.

I might just have to try the 3% Hydrogen Peroxide method. If all you have do is immerse the figure in Peroxide and expose it to sunlight, doesn't seem that complicated and I'm less likely to cock it up.

Do you have to dismantle the TF's first and then only treat the effected white areas, or can you simply treat the the whole TF without the process effecting other coloured plastics and the paint apps?

I think different fans will tell you different things to do, depending on what's important to you. I put the entire Crossblades pretender shell and robot in the hydrogen peroxide. It did rust the metal screws a little bit, but I'm sure it's something that could be fixed with a little rust remover.

I think the ultimate solution is to make the Retr0bright, which I linked above. That way you can apply the Retr0brite solution/gel only to the parts that need it without having to submerse the whole toy.

The paint apps on my Crossblades figure were NOT affected by a week long hydrogen peroxide bath. But who knows what could happen to other figures.

Seibertron wrote:

MightyMagnus78 wrote:I've wanted to try this for a while now, but I've always been fearful.

I might just have to try the 3% Hydrogen Peroxide method. If all you have do is immerse the figure in Peroxide and expose it to sunlight, doesn't seem that complicated and I'm less likely to cock it up.

Do you have to dismantle the TF's first and then only treat the effected white areas, or can you simply treat the the whole TF without the process effecting other coloured plastics and the paint apps?

I think different fans will tell you different things to do, depending on what's important to you. I put the entire Crossblades pretender shell and robot in the hydrogen peroxide. It did rust the metal screws a little bit, but I'm sure it's something that could be fixed with a little rust remover.

I think the ultimate solution is to make the Retr0bright, which I linked above. That way you can apply the Retr0brite solution/gel only to the parts that need it without having to submerse the whole toy.

The paint apps on my Crossblades figure were NOT affected by a week long hydrogen peroxide bath. But who knows what could happen to other figures.

Thanks for the advice, I really appreciate it. I'm starting to feel a little braver about it now. I think I'll probably try it on a couple of junkers first just to see how it turns out.

Just be careful when handling Hydrogen Peroxide! Causes burns to the skin on contact. Sure as hell felt it first hand in the labs..

Blurrz wrote:Just be careful when handling Hydrogen Peroxide! Causes burns to the skin on contact. Sure as hell felt it first hand in the labs..

The 3% doesn't, you can submerse your whole hand in the 3%.

Seibertron wrote:

Blurrz wrote:Just be careful when handling Hydrogen Peroxide! Causes burns to the skin on contact. Sure as hell felt it first hand in the labs..

The 3% doesn't, you can submerse your whole hand in the 3%.

But can you drink it?

Anybody want to try it out for me?

Dead Metal wrote:

Seibertron wrote:

Blurrz wrote:Just be careful when handling Hydrogen Peroxide! Causes burns to the skin on contact. Sure as hell felt it first hand in the labs..

The 3% doesn't, you can submerse your whole hand in the 3%.

But can you drink it?

Anybody want to try it out for me?

You can use 3% Hydrogen Peroxide as a mouthwash but I don't think you should ingest it.

I know there is a way to do this, but forget how. Any advice would be much appreciated.

I've heard about a product called Retro Brite that gets rid of yellowing, but I don't know where to buy it.

The thing that works really well is letting the yellowed parts sit in a sealed glass container of 30% hydrogen peroxide. It is not easy to get this stuff either. You pretty much have to know someone who is a chemist to get the stuff.

Other than that, there really is no true way to get rid of yellowing as far as I know. Even after treating the parts, your figure could be proned to spontaneously turning yellow even when properly cared for.

RetrOBright is not a commercial product, here's their homepage with instructions on how to make it:

http://retr0bright.wikispaces.com/

Here is more information and discussion in an earlier thread.

I bought a restored G1 Jetfire that had yellowing removed. I didn't do the removal so I can't speak to the process, but I can speak to the results. I think it looks great and so far no negative side effects. And it's been at least a year since it was whitened.

No I don't know how to remove yellowing. It's natural and happens to a toy over 27 years. It ain't to big of a deal.