Refurbishing Figures

[edwardinsane]

After getting out my puppy collection, I decided to repaint the black on all their noses because most of them were quite worn. I also touched up worn spots on their bodies to freshen everyone up. I might repaint some of the manufacturing errors in the future (like sloppy paint jobs). After that I steamed and pressed all my cards. They are pretty banged up still, but at least they are all flat now!

I never plan on parting with my collection, since they are so meaningful to me, so I'm pretty ok with altering them to make them look like new. But it made me wonder if anyone else refurbishes their figures, beyond just cleaning them. Is it common to fix them up or do you like to leave them in their "loved" condition? I read in another post that someone used to customize their duplicates when they were younger, which I thought was kind of fun. Genuinely curious what folks' thoughts are on this!

[clover]

Oh, I wouldn't trust myself (or whatever I was trying to use anyway) to mess with 'em, heheh--unless maybe it were somebody else's and they asked me to, or it was a duplicate or had significant damage or something, but...my play was always gentle, even when I let my little brother in on it. I think my original childhood ones (and their cards) are still like-new, and exactly as they're meant to be. ^^
I'm sure your results have come out great so far, though.

[Jenna]

My #44 has a very worn nose. I've gone back and forth on whether or not I want to touch it up. Since I wouldn't be able to undo it, I've left it as-is for now! I don't know why I think I need to keep them in their "original" state but I do!

I'm curious how you steamed and pressed the cards. That might come in handy for me!

[edwardinsane]

It's interesting that both of you articulated a sort of worry about messing them up or that your actions are undo-able. I guess I felt like, they are already messed up anyway, so anything I do to them can't be worse. Haha. Although my play at the time wasn't to rough (compared to a lot of other kids), over the years with moving and improper storage, they got kind of scuffed up. I took a pretty conservative approach and only painted where paint was lost. In the end, they look way better now that I fixed their little noses. Now I'm not distracted by their damage and can just enjoy their cuteness.

I also am no stranger to customizing things (namely dolls), so I'm not too worried about my skills, so maybe that helps. I do understand the desire to keep them in their original condition though!


As far as steaming the cards goes, I used a couple methods, depending on the needs of the cards. They are listed from least invasive, to most invasive.

Method 1: I dampened a thin white cloth (like handkerchief or bandana weight), laid it on top of the cards and used a regular clothes iron on the lowest setting (synthetic setting on my machine), and ironed them front and back until the cloth and cards are completely dry. The level of dampness depends on how messed up the cards are (and how brave you're feeling, haha). This was effective for flattening most of my cards.

Method 2: (only used for severely warped cards) I submerged the entire card in a shallow saucer of clean water. Carefully removed it from the water, laid my thin cloth on it and pressed with the low heat iron until mostly dry. Because the card gets very wet (obviously, haha), it's hard to get it completely dry just with the iron without them wanting to warp (because of the squishy fabric of the ironing board). So I pressed them under some heavy books using plant pressing methods. For that you lay the cards between cardboard and paper towels as follows: corrugated cardboard->paper towel->cards->paper towel->corrugated cardboard->very heavy books. I left them to dry all day with a fan blowing on them so the air was blowing through the corrugation in the cardboard. Leave them until they are completely dry (time can vary depending on the humidity of your house). This was very effective in flattening even my most warped cards, and even lightened a water based stain in my Drac card (not effective for oil based stains though).

Some things to keep in mind:

1. TRY AT YOUR OWN RISK. My cards are in very rough shape: loss of glossy finish, center creases, divots, scratches, lost color, frayed edges, bent corners, and grime. So I was also of the state of mind that "Hey, I can't make them much worse," haha. So keep that in mind. If your cards are just a little warped, steaming may not be needed and you could just iron them under a dry cloth and press them under some books. Honestly, I don't know how any of these processes might effect the finish on mostly pristine cards.
2. If you don't iron them until completely dry, they will start to curl as they cool. To avoid this, you can leave them pressed under some books as described in Method 2.
3. You could use the steam setting on your clothes iron. Mine is broken, so that wasn't an option for me. My only concern is that you might not be able to control the level of steam you want, depending on your iron.

Sorry for the novel, haha. If you're more of a visual person, I am I happy to make a video documenting my process, as I found a few other cards that could use a steaming. ^_^

[Jenna]

Thanks! I might try that sometime. The cards from my own collection are fine, but sometimes I get some pretty ugly ones that I don't need, but don't want to throw away.

There's something a bit charming about the figures showing wear-- I'm not sure if I want to undo that sign of love or not!

[edwardinsane]

I agree that a well loved toy has a lot of charm and character! ^_^

[clover]

That's understandable! xD And I figured you were "craftier" than I. ^~

[edwardinsane]

I thought I'd give a little update here, for anyone in the future who might be looking for info about fixing up their figures.

I discovered that wet melamine sponges (magic eraser) is quite effective in removing yellow discoloration on the white figures! Actually, I was surprised it worked at all, as I hadn't read anything about using melamine sponges for removing yellowing from plastics. But I gave it a try, as other techniques I read about, like using OxyClean, was not effective in the slightest.

It's kind of a messy process, as all the ridges on the puppies tear the sponge to pieces. And the effectiveness of the sponge depends on how well you are able to actually scrub the area. Places with tight crevices can be pretty tricky or impossible to fit the sponge in there and then also be able to scrub it around. But for the most of my puppies, I was able to remove the majority of the yellowing. I'm very pleased, as the yellowing bothered me more than any paint loss!

Some tips:
Melamine sponges can remove paint, though I didn't find that it removed any of the original factory paint. It only removed the touch up paint I had put on their noses. I tested it a little on some of the Dalmatian puppies, and none of the spots came off, although I didn't test too hard. I have a feeling that whether the paint comes off or not depends on the color of the paint. It seems like some colors are more likely to chip off than others (oranges especially). So I would be careful using the sponge on puppies that have extensive paint chipping, as it could make it worse. TRY AT YOUR OWN RISK.

A rapid back and forth motion in small areas was the most effective in removing the yellowing. This can be difficult, like a said, since the puppies are small and have a lot of ridges and crevices. Sometimes I'd gather up some of the crumbs from the sponge and used a toothpick to sort of scrub them around in there. This had various levels of success, none of them as good as just squishing the sponge in as best as I could and scrubbing it around really fast.

I don't know how long this de-yellowing will last in the long term. I read that yellowing plastic is due to a chemical reaction, and it will always return once that process has started. So it's definitely possible that it will come back someday. If it returns, I'll give an update here in the future. This might just be a thing I have to do regularly as maintenance.

I hope this is helpful to someone!

[pokemonrocks]

With the magic eraser how would you go cleaning a dalmatian I have a liver spotted dalmatian and pups that's on its way but very green would the sponge take up the spots along with it? Or am I just being stupid

[edwardinsane]

When I cleaned up my black spotted puppy, the spots didn't seem to come off. At least I didn't notice any being removed. But when I was scrubbing some of my orange colored puppies, the orange started to come off. I think the color of paint makes a difference. Orange seems like the least stable. Black seems more stable. I have no idea how stable the browns might be. The year of manufacture could also make a difference, as the quality of paints could change.

JUST DEFINITELY BE CAREFUL! I don't want to go recommending something that could ruin your figure. Magic erasers basically act like sand paper. So keep that in mind if you're trying this technique.

You might try scrubbing an area with no spots, like the underside. Or try to gently scrub around the spots if you can. If you have any duplicates, you might test the spots first before you go scrubbing your favorite puppy. If you decide to try it, let me know what you find!

[pokemonrocks]

For sure and yeah it's annoying thankfully I've got a few to try out the magic sponges on I'll leave the liver spotted till last thankfully being over in the UK means tho the liver spotted is kinda rear it's not that hard to come by so I'm not to worried if I destroy the mum now the babies who are also green are a bit more of an issue but I'll for sure give it a try also any idea on magic sponge brand or would any work? Also thx for the reminder ment I could add them to my shopping list

[edwardinsane]

I just have cheapo brand magic erasers. They are all made of the same thing, so any should work! Be sure to share your results here, good or bad!

[pokemonrocks]

So just tired the flash (ahhh) magic erasers and it works but it's not perfect like around the ears and eyes their is still mild yellowing but they do work as mentioned on this thread orange is a no go it will come off thankfully the yellow on my orange corgi from series one is mostly underneath so cannot be seen from normal looking distance and for the bits were you can see it came off so the corgi is mostly white I still need to tackle the tops of the feet when my new set of dogs turn up I'll try to get before and after pictures so you can see the difference today was more about me just seeing how well it works or if at all!
For now I'm giving them a five out of ten it like did half a job just needed them to finish

[edwardinsane]

Yeah that's about what I found as well. Getting in the tiny crevices around the eyes and mouths or between the legs was a bit impossible. But for the flatter areas, it worked pretty well. I found that on puppies with more flat space, like #2 Old English Sheep Dog, #3 Scottish Terrier, and #22 Dalmatian were where I got the best results. Puppies that had a lot of texture, like #24 poodle and interestingly #12 Jack Russell, had very limited success. Thankfully, my worst puppies were much improved, at least on the visible areas when they are set on a shelf. I think that the mommy dogs will probably have better results, since they are larger and it will be easier to get the sponge in there. The teeny tiny puppies might be a challenge though, haha.

Well I'm glad someone else had similar results to me, and I wasn't just crazy. Haha. Hopefully this technique can be helpful for some folks in the future.

Once we get a sunny day around here, I'm going to try the hydrogen peroxide again. Maybe It just needs a lot of time? Also, I'm going to try 10% benzoyl peroxide (zit cream) to remove some pink discolorations. That technique is used on vinyl American Girl Dolls to remove all manor of deep stains. I'll be interested to see if it has any effect on the yellowing, or the paint.

[pokemonrocks]

Good luck with the hydrogen peroxide I'm to scared to even use bleach also were would you get that from and yeah alot of my series ones are yellowed I have three different shades of white from the old English sheep dogs! 😂😂😂😂