Some toys deteriorate in tropical climate - I’ve had vintage My Little Pony and She-Ra toys from the 80’s whose plastic surfaces became oily or sticky with age and exposure to our hot and humid climate.  Most of the times they can be salvaged by using disposable wet wipes to rub onto the affected surfaces to remove the oily and sticky layers. 

If you are comfortable with washing your toys, you can also consider running them under tap water, then rub them thoroughly with soap before rinsing them.  Sometimes a few rounds of washing are required to remove all the oil and dirt.  

Toys with rooted hair can have added steps of having their hair shampooed, conditioned and then rinsed.  Leave them to dry off naturally or under a fan, instead of using a hair drying on them. 

Sometimes in the most unfortunate circumstances, the rooted hair becomes too brittle with age and exposure that they break off easily, especially when you wet the hair during washing.  At this stage, the toy is ruined.  By then, you either have to discard it, or send it to a customizer to re-root it with replacement hair.  That would mean extra costs!

How to remove light dust from your toys - You can use make up brushes with soft bristles (non-branded ones will do) to brush off light dust from your toys.  The make up brushes come in many shapes and sizes to suit your toys.  Paint brushes on the other hand tend have bristles that are too hard. 

But this method works provided that the dust is non-sticky and has not formed a stubborn layer on your toys.  If it is that bad already, then light brushing won’t work.  You can use wet wipes to rub off those stubborn sticky dust layers.  How much of the dust layer you can clean off will depend on how ‘durable to rubs’ your toy is.  In short, don’t display your loose toys in the open for too long.  

Before parents give in to their kids’ demands to get them the current ’piping hot’ Transformers movie Revenge of the Fallen (ROTF) toys, here’s a very quick summary of whether these toys are really suited for kids to play with.

Popular ROTF toys - Deluxe (SGD 27.90), Voyager (SGD 51.90), Leader (SGD 109.90):

- involves more complex transformation process than the Transformers Animated toyline

- needs patience & analysis, instead of forcing through if the parts get in the way during the transformation

- some problem solving skills needed, hence more suited for older kids aged 10 and above, even though the package states for kids aged 5 and above

- requires gentle hands, a waste of money if broken

Alternative types of ROTF toys for younger kids:

[ ] Fast Action Battlers (FAB, SGD 27.90) - action figures with chunkier parts and much faster and simpler transformation

[ ] Legends (SGD 11.90) - small matchbox-sized action figures that can transform

[ ] Power Bots (SGD 51.90) - Leader class sized and non-transforming action figures, but less likely to break if handled roughly

[ ] Robot Replicas (SGD 26.90) - Deluxe class sized and non-transforming action figures, but less likely to break if handled roughly

[ ] Robot Heroes (SGD 12.90) - Legends class size and non-poseable figurines, less likely to break if handled roughly

Suggestions:

- Don’t rush into the ROTF hype.  It’s basically a fad that is hyped up by marketing campaigns, current movie screenings, toy collectors’ rush to complete their collections, plus peer pressure in school.

- Don’t just buy any other character to make up for a wanted character that sold out.  There are other versions of popular characters available in the ROTF toyline. 

- If there is no more stock, just wait.  The same piece will likely be available again, especially after the lessons learnt by Hasbro from the first Transformers movie toys shortages 2 years ago.

- Above all, know your kids well.  If they had always been Transformers fans, then they are more trusted to take good care of their Transformers toys.  But if it’s just sudden interest due to the current ROTF hype and peer pressure from their friends and classmates to have the ‘it’ toy like them, then it’s better to get them a ROTF toy that’s still within budget and can last longer.

- And last but not least, ROTF toys are not on discount at the moment and unlikely will be in the coming months to ‘milk’ the ROTF movie and toys craze.  Fortunately if you have the store membership cards of certain departmental stores, most of them are giving a 10% discount for the ROFT toys during this period.  Happy ROTF toy shopping!

I came across these YouTube videos some time back and found them interesting.  If you face the same or similar problems in your action figures and toys that have ball joints, you may consider these suggested solutions.  However, do note that I bear no responsibilities if you follow the steps and do not get the desired results!

 Using clear nail polish or clear nail strengthener.

Using super glue, but more skill and effort required. 

Well, at least now we know there are some alternative solutions to getting replacement toys, which may sometimes be very hard to find.  Especially when it had been years since you got those ‘loose joints’ toys!  Besides, some toys are just not ‘replaceable’ for sentimental reasons!

This is a My Little Pony collecting tip that I picked up from the My Little Pony Arena forum:

“Random friendly reminder - Don’t store your ponies wearing anything. (This goes for having them on display for long stretches of time, too; think a half year or longer.)  Some G1 pony shoes, saddles, etc. are known to stain ponies permanently.

I don’t know if any of the G1 cloth outfits ever stained a pony, but I would prefer not to risk it.

Also, I am certain that the newish G3 pony dress-up line of vinyl clothing will likely also leave stain marks - at least, those pieces of clothing that are pink or especially hot pink.

When storing G3 dress-up vinyl clothing, store pink pieces away from pieces of every other color, just to be safe.

Also, remember that ink bleeds onto vinyl.  Keep all vinyl clothing pieces separate and away from things like brochures, stickers, or any printed item like the birthday that that came as an accessory.“

I think the above tips may apply to other toy lines as well.  I don’t own action figures that wear real clothes so I can’t confirm if time will cause the deteriorating clothes to stain the figures.  It’s better to be safe than sorry and check on your clothes-wearing toy collections regularly to take appropriate preventive measures in time. 

Happy toy collecting!

While re-organising my toy cupboard, I came across my G3 My Little Pony Pinkie Pie (1st edition) and found that she had developed a layer of ’sticky and oily’ substance on the surface of her whole head and body.  

This had previously happened to the plastic rubbery wings of my She-Ra horses too.  For those detachable wings, I cleaned them up by rubbing handwash lotion on them and then rinsing off with water.  It worked very well.  See my earlier post on this.

For My Little Pony toys with this same condition, I use wet tissue to clean up the entire ’sticky and oily’ surface to avoid getting the hair wet and so that they dry off faster.  Read more about this topic here. 

For Pinkie Pie, she was ‘cured’ after just 2 rounds of cleaning with the same piece of wet tissue.  She dried off quickly and was returned to her usual spot soon after.  Thank goodness, she was the only affected pony in the lot of ponies that I inspected today!

My Little Pony toys, especially those G1 ponies from the 80’s and early 90’s were sold together with either a brush or a comb, for their owners to groom their manes and tails with.  Over the years, I had accumulated many different toy brushes and combs while collecting My Little Pony toys.  I observed that ponies with straight hair tend to be packaged with brushes, while ponies with curly hair were usually paired with combs. 

I have used both brushes and combs to groom every single pony (of the thousands that have passed through my hands) in my collection, and I find that I prefer to use a brush than a comb, even if it was on straight-haired ponies.  Although I have had access to dozens of different My Little Pony brushes and combs, I only use 1 pair of non-My Little Pony toy brushes for grooming all my ponies, and even my She-Ra dolls and horses.  I have no idea which toy line these 2 brushes belong to but I find them very versatile and easy to use on all my toys with brushable hair.

I am not a hairdressing expert but I do find that since brushes have many more ‘teeth’, they are able to ‘catch’ more hair to de-tangle the hair more easily without needing too much force on my part.  That is kinder on the hair, which is usually more than a decade old already, and can sometimes be a bit ‘brittle’.   I find that combs are not as effective in de-tangling hair and in styling curls.  Most toy combs do not have a long handle for a better grip with my adult hands too. 

Nevertheless, the brush or comb is only 1 of the ‘tools’ needed for grooming My Little Pony toys.  I shall make another post on this topic at a later date.  Till then!

I export some ponies from my personal My Little Pony collection to overseas collectors and the Ziploc bag has become a must-have packing material.  Although it adds to my costs but it gives the recipient a better impression.  I am sure every toy collector, regardless of what toy they collect, is very familiar with the use of the Ziploc bag in their hobby that it almost becomes ‘invisible’ to them.  

Since the beginning of my toy collecting hobby many years ago, I had observed the widespread use of Ziploc bags to pack in loose collectible toys like action figures, My Little Pony etc.  I do not know which genius came up with this great idea, whether it was thought up by a local or an overseas collector.  Nevertheless, I believe that the existence of the Ziploc bag sort of ‘revolutionalized’ the toy collecting hobby.

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I brought out some of my She-Ra horses today and found that some of their plastic wings had turned ’sticky’.  Apparently, a layer of ’sticky and oily’ substance had formed on the surface of the wings.  I rubbed some handwash lotion on the plastic wings and then rinsed it off under running water.  After drying, the wings improved a lot and are no longer as ’sticky and oily’ as before.  With a few more rounds of similar washing, the wings should feel as good as new!  I have also applied this cleaning method on some of my action figure toys that had developed this same condition on their surface.  So far, all of them turned out much better after the washing! 

Over the years, some of my ponies developed patches of ‘mould’ on their rubbery plastic bodies.  Although I kept my ponies in closed cupboards, the local hot and humid climate still caused ‘mould growth’ on some ponies. 

A tip for quick and easy cleaning of My Little Pony toys is to use wet tissue (or wet wipes) to wipe off the ‘mould’ and other superficial dirt from their bodies.  In this way, I need not use water and end up getting their hair wet, and then having to take a longer time to dry off the pony and its hair. 

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