The Energon Pub

Apologies if this has been done to death way back in the mists of time. i did a search and all that but nothing much came up.

Now with that out of the way, come with me on a journey through time and space... *wavy fade out* A random 80's toy you'd lusted after since childhood turns up on ebay at a reasonable price, the auction described it as "Very good playworn condition" which naturally means it's had the living **** kicked out of it for the last 25 years and the only thing holding it together is the layer of dirt and hand-cheese encrusting it. Your toy arrives having been given the special (needs) Royal Mail treatment, it is intact but missing it's accessories and looking every bit it's age.

This happens to me every time i buy a G1 TF off ebay, i'm not a hardcore collector and i accept wear and tear as pretty much par for the course, but part of me would like my toys to look a little less like i found them in a ditch.

I figured it'd be a case of clean 'em up, accessories off ebay & repro labels but i don't really know where to begin. How do you guys deal with your Playworn purchases?

Depends on the toy, the condition, and how well they were kept.

Since most G1 toys with ware will show up pretty easily, the only thing you can do is buy paints. If the lables are worn, then reprelables are your friend.

With the newer items like the latter G2, Beast Wars, R.I.D, and the A/E/C, it's matter of cleaning. With my neo G1 Classics collection, I'm getting the thin veil of dust. I used to use cold water, and a squirt of Resolve carpet cleaner. I give them a bath so to speak, and dry them off in a towel. I don't immerse them in water, I do it so the dust can come off. Sometimes you get smokers' buyer remorse where it gets the yellowing. Not too much you can do, but again a decent cleaning may work.

My worst case scenario was when I bought an Armada Unicron (yellow) from a friend when I worked at Walmart in '08. Of all the things he had a roach prblem in his house and failed to tell me that. Since the price was low and he had all the parts, I had to shake loose all the bugs outside before I got home. This time I used resolve and a half cap top of bleach, and it was cleaned. I had to immerse it in water to get the roaches out, and used a toothbrush to clean it thoroughly. When I got through I let it dry for about a day in the bathroom. After that it looked brand new and the electronics still worked. I later sold it for $65 so I could get a black unicron.

So u have to experiment with solutions, just try not to use harsh chemicals when cleaning any TF's.

aah cheers, i'm slightly concerned about exactly how vigorous a clean they'll withstand. I'd figured any harsh chemicals or abrasive scouring are out of the question, but you reckon cold water and a squirt of some fairly mild cleaning product followed by some elbow grease with a softish brush is the way to go?

the cockroach (sharkicon?) story is both hideous and.. no, wait... it's just hideous. i would have been seriously tempted to abandon unicron altogether

actually whilst i think of it - loose limbs, worth trying to do anything about or am i better off leaving any screws well alone.

I usually find G1 that's in good+ condition and complete, unless its a fig that's really old school. I usually wipe the dusts clean with a clean cloth and use small brush for hard-to-reach areas' dusts.

That cockroach thing is just disgusting. When it comes to old toys, I always do one thing, and that is to get a paintbrush and completely brush all the dust off. Makes the toy look brand new.

Blurrz wrote:That cockroach thing is just disgusting. When it comes to old toys, I always do one thing, and that is to get a paintbrush and completely brush all the dust off. Makes the toy look brand new.

I forgot to comment on the cockroach thing How exactly does cockroaches live in Unicron? He's not even that hollow... Btw what do you guys do with the stickers that has fallen off but left the white residue or it's missing half of it? I get the urge to just rip it off and apply reprelables.

It was disgusting. I was one pissed off dude. I expect nothing but the best from another fellow collector, and what I got was very revolting. I just wanted him, so some bleach was added to the mix, and hot hot water with the Resolve cleaner.

When I told him about it he just held his head down in shame because he knew what the deal was before he gave it to me.

My G1 eBay finds all got the same basic treatment: first enamel paint thinner and some q-tips to clean off old decals. Let the thinner sit on the decals so they'll soften up, then rub them off. (If the part is plastic and the decal stubborn I used a razor blade)

(You can skip this step if you want to, just tighten up the loose screws as best as you can)
Limbs are tricky; if you're really up for it, take the figure apart (I do it one limb at a time. Make sure to keep track of what goes where!) Take a look a the joints, sometimes they just need a quick cleaning (I use thinner) to get the dust out, others may need a bit of super glue (Let it dry completely before you reassemble!) to build up the plastic that's been worn away. Now put it back together (Make sure you don't leave anything out!).

Once that's done, clean 'em with some dish soap, warm water, and an old toothbrush. It's now ready for paint and/or new decals.

If you don't mind newer versions of figures, you could look into buying reissues. They sometimes cost less, are newer and a bit easier to find, and often times are still in their packaging and not as play worn.
For me, I try not to get figures that are too play worn and try to find ones that have been in other TF collector hands.

Skyfire77 wrote:My G1 eBay finds all got the same basic treatment: first enamel paint thinner and some q-tips to clean off old decals. Let the thinner sit on the decals so they'll soften up, then rub them off. (If the part is plastic and the decal stubborn I used a razor blade)

(You can skip this step if you want to, just tighten up the loose screws as best as you can)
Limbs are tricky; if you're really up for it, take the figure apart (I do it one limb at a time. Make sure to keep track of what goes where!) Take a look a the joints, sometimes they just need a quick cleaning (I use thinner) to get the dust out, others may need a bit of super glue (Let it dry completely before you reassemble!) to build up the plastic that's been worn away. Now put it back together (Make sure you don't leave anything out!).

Once that's done, clean 'em with some dish soap, warm water, and an old toothbrush. It's now ready for paint and/or new decals.

That's a good strategy for the decals. Sometimes the figures are hard to take apart.

SnapTrap wrote:If you don't mind newer versions of figures, you could look into buying reissues. They sometimes cost less, are newer and a bit easier to find, and often times are still in their packaging and not as play worn.
For me, I try not to get figures that are too play worn and try to find ones that have been in other TF collector hands.

the vintage-ness of them is part of the appeal for me, if i'm going to buy new i'll tend to buy the more recent models.

I've recently picked up takara jetfire, animated soundwave, universe acidstorm (and silverstreak, but only cos he was cheap, he's a bit boring) because i liked the models and - truth be told - they're probably better toys than most of the old TFs, which turned into some damned squiffy looking robots/cars/whatevs to facilitate their better mode.

But for the same reason i like the stiff-armed actionforce and starwars figs more than the modern figs is that they're the ones i had as a kid! metroplex's upper torso, fistless optimus, good times

cheers for the pro-tips here guys. no doubt i'll be desperately asking for an exploded diagram of how to reassemble half a dozen G1 TFs this weekend

(does such a thing exist? it probably should.)

Well, I've never bought from them, so I can't vouch for 'em, but this place has 180 G1 patents on CD.

ryan.j wrote:the vintage-ness of them is part of the appeal for me, if i'm going to buy new i'll tend to buy the more recent models.

I've recently picked up takara jetfire, animated soundwave, universe acidstorm (and silverstreak, but only cos he was cheap, he's a bit boring) because i liked the models and - truth be told - they're probably better toys than most of the old TFs, which turned into some damned squiffy looking robots/cars/whatevs to facilitate their better mode.

But for the same reason i like the stiff-armed actionforce and starwars figs more than the modern figs is that they're the ones i had as a kid! metroplex's upper torso, fistless optimus, good times

Yeah, there's a unique charm to older figures. They possess character and the designs are classic.

Skyfire77 wrote:Well, I've never bought from them, so I can't vouch for 'em, but this place has 180 G1 patents on CD.

Hmm, very interesting.

ryan.j wrote:

SnapTrap wrote:If you don't mind newer versions of figures, you could look into buying reissues. They sometimes cost less, are newer and a bit easier to find, and often times are still in their packaging and not as play worn.
For me, I try not to get figures that are too play worn and try to find ones that have been in other TF collector hands.

the vintage-ness of them is part of the appeal for me, if i'm going to buy new i'll tend to buy the more recent models.

I've recently picked up takara jetfire, animated soundwave, universe acidstorm (and silverstreak, but only cos he was cheap, he's a bit boring) because i liked the models and - truth be told - they're probably better toys than most of the old TFs, which turned into some damned squiffy looking robots/cars/whatevs to facilitate their better mode.

But for the same reason i like the stiff-armed actionforce and starwars figs more than the modern figs is that they're the ones i had as a kid! metroplex's upper torso, fistless optimus, good times

I for one actually favors the old G1 styled Transformers, even though it was blocky and not so poseble, but at least it stayed together.