YIKES!! My Oscar Goldman's Pants Are Decaying!!! (The Six Million Dollar Man)

[RonnyG]

Wow! I didn't see this coming. I picked up my Oscar Goldman figure today to admire it, and was shocked to see his pants had a lot of holes in them, and the fabric was shredding with the slightest touch. I then picked up my Maskatron figure nearby to inspect him, and noticed his pants were shredding a little, too, though not as much. I should point out that these figures had spent about 20 years at one point in my parent's attic which was hot and humid in the summer time and cold in the winter. I'm thinking that might have something to do with it. However, that was 5 years ago when I retrieved from the attic, and the pants were intact and did NOT have holes in them. So what gives??? I've had them on display ever since with my other vintage toys in my toy room (which is temperature controlled) for the past 5 years. I would pull them off the shelf occasionally to admire them, but never noticed the pant situation until today! The jackets and shirts are fine, no holes, just the pants, so what's going on???
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[Mikey]

Moths ?

[alex]

Certainly not moths, it just looks like the material has crumbled and turned into paper.

[palitoy]

I had this happen to me once, i opened a sealed box Big Jim and the jacket disintegrated right in my hands.

[Werewolf]

Sadly, even "mint" toys stored under the best conditions get old. Toy makers, at the time, had no concept that adults would still be collecting these toys decades later. They were just not designed to last this long. They were meant to be "cheap and cheerful" played with and then discarded. The fabric on many of those toys is tissue paper thin and can crumble with age. That fake leather "pleather" stuff ages especially poorly. I've had it peel and crumble right off of mint Barbies.

[RonnyG]

Certainly not moths, it just looks like the material has crumbled and turned into paper.

The fabric on many of those toys is tissue paper thin and can crumble with age. That fake leather "pleather" stuff ages especially poorly. I've had it peel and crumble right off of mint Barbies.

Yes, the material is now thin like tissue paper. I remember it used to be more sturdy, but I guess being in the attic sped up the decay process.

And yes, you made a good point, Werewolf, that the toy makers used the cheapest material to begin with, so I feel a little better.

Unfortunately, I left some of Steve Austin's clothes and accessories (including his blue denim outfit) behind in my parent's attic, so when I go to retrieve them this summer, they will probably be disintegrated, too. :(

[Earth 2 Chris]

Just imagine what all the rubber-like Hot Toys suits are going to be like in a decade...and those were made to be collector's items!

Chris

[SeattleEd]

I bought my daughter a sealed fun world Abe Lincoln and when she opened it up on Xmas and tried playing with it the clothes started ripping apart like tissue paper so we had to hold off handling it. She eventually grew tired of not being able to play with it and lost interest. Was hoping somebody would reissue a Mego Lincoln but never happened. Good memories of playing with the Fun World version as long as it held up. She still has it all shredded up.

[SeattleEd]

Imagine the Mezco ones. Yikes. So very fragile. Buy now and climate control them.

Just imagine what all the rubber-like Hot Toys suits are going to be like in a decade...and those were made to be collector's items!

Chris

[Werewolf]

Just imagine what all the rubber-like Hot Toys suits are going to be like in a decade...

A pile of decomposing parts.

[PNGwynne]

I bought a MIB Ideal Knight of that had this exact problem on the black cotton of his costume. Sometimes I wonder if it is an ageing reaction to dyes that causes it, perhaps combined with heat. Some kind of acidic reaction...

I'm amazed and pleased to see how durable vintage Mego clothing can be.

[Werewolf]

I'm amazed and pleased to see how durable vintage Mego clothing can be.

Didn't Mego get its start as a textile company? They would have had access to clothing level fabrics instead of stuff made specifically for toys.

[comicmike]

It's too bad when this happens. If the figure is not an investment for future reselling, consider taking the pants to a fabric shop or second hand store, and line up the material with something similar, and have the pants reproduced. I prefer second hand shops because I can often find vintage clothes with similar material that has that 70s flavour (like I did for my pantsless Dr Zaius). Turn the Oscar pants inside out because it's easy to trace a pattern that way; moreover, the inner colour is usually the best tone of the original material (sometimes if the figure has been played with a lot, or overwashed, the outfit pieces can be more faded out than the more vibrant original colour tone on the inside, especially at the seams).

Move forward: Enjoy looking at and cherishing your Oscar. I'm sorry to learn that this happened. Nothing lasts forever, but they can be replaced, one way or another.
Otherwise, if he needs to join the Party Angela figure selection, so be it. It wasn't quite my Dr Zaius' scene.

[RonnyG]

Thanks, comicmike! Those are some great tips! I've been thinking about duplicating them if I can't find a similar replacement. Fortunately, my Oscar has blue briefs painted on so I could always put him on the swim team, but his plaid jacket is so '70s cool!

[rykerw1701]

Just imagine what all the rubber-like Hot Toys suits are going to be like in a decade...and those were made to be collector's items!

Chris

I was getting way too deep into Hot Toys at one point when I started thinking about just this scenario. Rubber skin, pleather clothes all a pile of dust inside a $250 box. I haven't bought one since and started slowly paring down what I had.

In a related area, a while back I made the mistake of trying to roll up the skin on my Steve Austin arm to show the circuit. The rubber skin basically disintegrated all around the bottom part of his arm.