The Energon Pub

I've moved for the fifth time in 5 years, and only now have had the lack of fear in moving again to crack open my toy bins.

What I find is that some are pretty discolored, either by time, inferior materials, or by (I guess?) vapors released from other surrounding toys.

First up, Action Master Shockwave losing his purple... and turning into what strangely looks like the Radio Shack version of his G1 original:






Up until 2 months ago, he was fine. But, after being packed away in a bin with other toys for one last move... this is his fate.
Notice too how it's primarily just from his front, the back apparently below the vapor level in the case.
Pretty frustrating stuff, ain't it?

How about you guys? Do you have pics of it happening to yours?

I have no pictures but my Monster pretenders and my Monstructor's connecters have gone the same grey/brown colour.

Riotflea wrote:I've moved for the fifth time in 5 years, and only now have had the lack of fear in moving again to crack open my toy bins.

What I find is that some are pretty discolored, either by time, inferior materials, or by (I guess?) vapors released from other surrounding toys.

First up, Action Master Shockwave losing his purple... and turning into what strangely looks like the Radio Shack version of his G1 original:






Up until 2 months ago, he was fine. But, after being packed away in a bin with other toys for one last move... this is his fate.
Notice too how it's primarily just from his front, the back apparently below the vapor level in the case.
Pretty frustrating stuff, ain't it?

How about you guys? Do you have pics of it happening to yours?

Damn!

I fear for the future.

Maybe if I freeze my toys...

I'm going to need 35 refrigerators, STAT!

That happened in two months? That has made me very cautious! Was it just toys in the box with him?

Counterpunch, do things freeze in your refrigerators? Surely you'd benefit from thirty-five freezers instead?

Leonardo wrote:That happened in two months? That has made me very cautious! Was it just toys in the box with him?

Counterpunch, do things freeze in your refrigerators? Surely you'd benefit from thirty-five freezers instead?

In Communist America, refrigerators have freezers built in to them!

Counterpunch wrote:

Leonardo wrote:That happened in two months? That has made me very cautious! Was it just toys in the box with him?

Counterpunch, do things freeze in your refrigerators? Surely you'd benefit from thirty-five freezers instead?

In Communist America, refrigerators have freezers built in to them!

I've always longed to live in cool Communist America, where ideals are preserved for life.

Counterpunch wrote:

Leonardo wrote:That happened in two months? That has made me very cautious! Was it just toys in the box with him?

Counterpunch, do things freeze in your refrigerators? Surely you'd benefit from thirty-five freezers instead?

In Communist America, refrigerators have freezers built in to them!

Plus, not only can you use the freezer portion for Transformers, you've got 35 refrigerators that you can fill with beer.

...MMMMmmmmm....Beer......

I don't have many that are too bad. But in my sig, you can see Sonicbomber, off center right. He is supposed to be black and white, not yellowish. Also, Roadfire, sitting middle, has a yellowing on his chest, but since Sonicbomber is yellowed, they match! Go figure.

I got rid of all my old transformers, so mine are all brand new. Damn, I do wonder what could have happened to make AM shocky turn brown? and can he be recovered with some paint?

Leonardo wrote:That happened in two months? That has made me very cautious! Was it just toys in the box with him?

Yeah, but toys from all types of companies from all types of years, bootlegs and otherwise.
Some mushy, bendy vinyl, some inferior in quality. It'd be IMPOSSIBLE to tell which one(s) released the vapors.

If I get around to it later today, you'll see I have ALOT of toys that went through this.

And after watching a large majority of my toys after the last 30 years turn to discolored garbage, well... it's probably the reason I buy almost only Lego these days... they give a damn enough to use materials that don't age over time, be it white or crystal clear. What other toy company does that? I can't even think of one.

It's because transformers don't like being squashed together in a little box of plastic or paper. They like to feel the wood of your shelves beneath their boots, the carpet under their wheels!!! Set those robots free so that they can live a happy and properous life!!!

Seriously though, maybe they got a little warm and damp, and the paint started to soften??

Nah, no moisture and no heat. Literally, I put it in the case (whose lid isn't even covering it all the way, as it went to a different, smaller case) and brought it straight to the livingroom of my new home.

2 months later, I pop the top... and that's what was there.

Oddly enough, I had a spare arm from an identical Shockwave figure that was sitting at the BOTTOM of the bin... still all nice and vibrant purple.

oh snap son!


I'm a scared, almost all my TFs are in totes.
Now I have to go check'm all.

Really does anybody have a clue why that would happen??

it's got to be a heat/UV thing

Tammuz wrote:it's got to be a heat/UV thing

Yea, there's a part to the story or some key point of info that is missing.

I wish I had taken pictues of what was left of my G1 Metroplex, but I recently rebuilt it with the parts from a junker off of E-Bay. All I need is new kneecaps and some new decals and he'll be perfect.

Counterpunch wrote:

Tammuz wrote:it's got to be a heat/UV thing

Yea, there's a part to the story or some key point of info that is missing.

perhaps the box, was in a car for a couple of hours, or something. maybe it hace some nail polish remover spilt in it or something?

Tammuz wrote:it's got to be a heat/UV thing

It does look a little like Shockwave went sunbathing.

Egads, no.
No nail polish remover, no heat, no UV rays, no... nothing!

Strictly just a bunch of old toys all dropped into plastic sterilite bins and brought over (on foot, no hot backseat of a car).

I do have an idea which figures might be doing it.
It's probably those lame-o Spawn figures I have so many of from the 90's. Those SMELL like PVC vapor if anything does.

I'm not put off that some of you think there's "more" to this story.
It's odd even to me, for I've had figures in other bins, in RAGING hot rooms, mixed in with every other action figure imaginable... and they're perfectly fine.

Oh, it's a mystery all right.
One that'll put me off from buying action figures until I figure out a way to stop it.

On a side note, that Shockwave, up until I tossed him into that bin, had been in his own tiny little ziploc baggie for a few years, looking fine the whole time.

I used to have a G1 Soundwave that was completly loose. Door was cracked and hung open, head wouldn't stay up, arms just flopped, legs collapsed, feet wouldn't stay closed. He was well played with.

I wonder where he is now?



Edit: w00t, Pretender status. Working hard wasting my time here up to 1000 posts and beyond!

my monster pretender for monstructor
guys became REAL sticky!!!! So I had to throw them away.

wmpyr wrote:my monster pretender for monstructor
guys became REAL sticky!!!! So I had to throw them away.

Oh god, yeah. That's the other fun thing with old action figures... teh stickiness syndrome.

I had a Batman Animated Mr.Freeze figure I liked.

So, soon after purchase, I zipped him away in his own little baggie for display at a better time.

Well, the air bladder that snaps onto his back was of course made of squishy plastic, so you could, uh, squish it and have the water shoot.

Guess what? The vapors from THAT turned his limbs into the sickest, nastiest, stickiest crap you could ever feel.

I've seen toys straight from the package that suffered from that.
Like those rereleases of the Autobot cars from the G2 line... my cousin opened up Sideswipe, I opened up Jazz... and no sooner had our thumbs left their windshield than we'd left a fingerprint embedded on the mushy, clear plastic!

Toy making is a science, it is... unless you're like Lego and just use superior materials to begin with.

Riotflea wrote:

wmpyr wrote:my monster pretender for monstructor
guys became REAL sticky!!!! So I had to throw them away.

Oh god, yeah. That's the other fun thing with old action figures... teh stickiness syndrome.

I had a Batman Animated Mr.Freeze figure I liked.

So, soon after purchase, I zipped him away in his own little baggie for display at a better time.

Well, the air bladder that snaps onto his back was of course made of squishy plastic, so you could, uh, squish it and have the water shoot.

Guess what? The vapors from THAT turned his limbs into the sickest, nastiest, stickiest crap you could ever feel.

I've seen toys straight from the package that suffered from that.
Like those rereleases of the Autobot cars from the G2 line... my cousin opened up Sideswipe, I opened up Jazz... and no sooner had our thumbs left their windshield than we'd left a fingerprint embedded on the mushy, clear plastic!

Toy making is a science, it is... unless you're like Lego and just use superior materials to begin with.

Man. That sucks so much @$$.

Oh well. Just be grateful, at least it was not an ORIGINAL Shockwave. That would suck even more.

I would have a funeral for him if he bit the dust.

Well, if I had an original Shockwave, that is.

Heh... here's another victim, Rock Roller... one of the last of the Gobots made. (Used to be bright white and blue).

So you're thinking PVC vapors, eh?

Intresting
*Note to self never store Marvel Legends or LoTR stuff with TF's ever again