Transformerland.com

I'm sure I could look this up on google or something, but no harm in starting a conversation here!

What causes older white toys to turn yellow? Is it sunlight or just being out in the air? And if a toy is 20+ years old and it hasn't yellowed at all yet, does that mean it won't ever or that it just hasn't been in the proper environment to change colors?

Lots of sunlight definitely causes yellowing and I have heard that if the air is very polluted it causes it to yellow as well.

keep them away from heat as well.

Swindle wrote:Lots of sunlight definitely causes yellowing and I have heard that if the air is very polluted it causes it to yellow as well.

Polluted in my case means my mother smoking in the house my entire life and when I get some of my older toys back, white = yellow. Though others still bright and clean. I think the type of plastic might play a role in it as well.

We actually had a discussion about this a while back, food grade or 35% peroxide can get rid of the yellowing. You would have to submerge the figure in a tub of it with sunlight hitting it if I remember it right. Regular peroxide will work too, but just takes longer. I have several figures including non-TF items that are horribly yellowed.

oooh yeah. I see that thread now. Might have to give that a try. Cool trick, I had never heard of that. I had just always figured once it was yellow it was always yellow.

Here is the thread on yellowing if anyone else needs it. Works for just about any toyline, not just TF's: http://www.transformerland.com/forum/vi ... php?t=2125

I just look at the yellowing as a bad repaint.

Burning justice! Super mode!

Joking aside, i don't know that i've experienced this problem firsthand, but http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Photodegradation has a number of explanations, theories, and potential solutions you may wish to consider.

Just as an FYI, a few months ago I submerged some yellowing pieces of an Ultra Magnus cab into a glass jar of regular hydrogen peroxide (the kind you buy at the store for $1.00). It was a really sunny day, around 80 degrees and left them out in the sun for an afternoon. When I checked on the container, there was a lot of condensation on the glass and bubbles around the plastic pieces. When I opened the lid, there was a little popping sound, followed by a hiss. I took out the pieces and they were all bone white. The stickers were really faded by the hydrogen peroxide, but the results were great. Now all my yellowing transformers are white. Just make sure that the day is really sunny and that you don't leave them out for a week (tried that when it was overcast...the paint on some of my pieces got discolored).

What % peroxide did you use? Also, aside from the stickers fading were the colored parts of the toy affected?

Also CFL light bulbs can cause some yellowing. I use them in my house but I am now switching to LEDS to prevent this.