Dyeing a mego gray head

[MegoMark71]

Not grey but i have seen many a nasty glowing spidey head. Where it almost looks like it is wet.

[megozilla13]

Just because human beings don't call petroleum distillates 'food' doesn't mean the same holds true for bacteria.

as for water, there's water all around in our atmosphere. It stands to reason that something as small as a bacterium wouldn't require as much as something as complex as a multicellular animal.

I know there are bacteria that eat petroleum in its natural state but I don't believe a vinyl head counts. Petroleum is used to make vinyl, but then its stops being petroleum. Either way, if it was something living in the heads that was making them grey, like someone else said, boiling it or soaking it in chlorine would kill it and stop the greying forever, but it doesn't.

[Blue Meanie]

I've had success' with de-graying. Most of the heads, about 80%, stayed the same and didn't go back to being gray. Has anyone tried de-graying from the inside out...meaning using the same process but filling the head instead of coating the outside of the head? Or for that fact...doing both: filling and then coating or vice versa. Might limit the gray from coming back.

[B-Lister]

I know there are bacteria that eat petroleum in its natural state but I don't believe a vinyl head counts. Petroleum is used to make vinyl, but then its stops being petroleum. Either way, if it was something living in the heads that was making them grey, like someone else said, boiling it or soaking it in chlorine would kill it and stop the greying forever, but it doesn't.

because you're not thinking three dimensionally.

it would kill bacteria on the surface, but if the bacteria is IN the plastic, and not ON the plastic, it would do little to arrest the spread.

and while chlorine is strong enough to kill bacteria, you can NEVER be sure you've gotten it ALL.

that said, I don't have all of the facts regarding the hows and whys of a graying head, so please don't assume that I'm INSISTING I'm right, and that everybody else is wrong. It could be a chemical reaction, it could be bacteria, it could be something completely different.

in any case, it's likely irreversible, at least irreversible without complex machinery and re-integration of some key chemical. Or to put it a different way, "More trouble than its worth".

I doubt there's a simple and cheap solution, nor do I think there ever will be. Simple fact of the matter is that these were never meant to last forever, and Mego wasn't thinking longevity. For quite some time, toys were produced with the mindset that once you grew out of them, you forgot about them. They didn't anticipate the nostalgia of the 70s and 80s generation being so strong.

but then, never before those generations had popular culture been so ingrained into us. Never before did we have such a wealth of creativity and stimulation in our lives. Not to mention the fact that kids in those days had a lot of disposable income. Hell I remember my allowance financing not only toys, but comics, and trips to the local arcade, as well as all that sweet 80s music I loved so much.

so yeah, Enjoy 'em while you can.

[captact]

What is the Sharpie Trick?

also, any process that could kill the bacteria, could potentially destroy the plastic, as both are organic substances.....so don't do anything potentially hazardous to a head you plan to keep, until you know what it's going to do! (I'm sure that goes without saying)

I have a huge Mego collection, some had suffered the dreaded zombie syndrome,..but ever since i decided to experiment with the sharpie-toothbrush-alcohol (this last mention helps to penetrate the ink in the rubber material) technique,..it has worked wonders for my collection for years now,..and no signs of fading what so ever till this day!!!!! Advice; try it first with old unneeded heads as practice...even works great on Chips, Thing and H Torch heads too!

[captact]

things that make you go mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

These Spidey heads were made in large quantities back in those days as were the most popular among kids, same goes for Batman heads all others were less quantities,..when in 78-79 more were needed for production,..the later ones suffered this syndrome by mixing the the rubber goo with already painted heads,..causing this so called rubber bacteria by reusing old rubber with new one.

[kryptosmaster]

I don't recall ever seeing any of the other WGSH figures with the problem, have I missed any? Plus there's CHiPs, plus 12" Black Hole, Star Trek:TMP, Moonraker, some Reeves Supermans and some Buck Rogers (Buck only), Mighty Mightor, and the Candi fashion dolls. Any others?

Don't forget them Duke boys!

Rich

[ctc]

>Just because human beings don't call petroleum distillates 'food'

Read the ingredients on "Cool Whip."

I've heard the bacteria theory before, and it IS possible (they'd reproduce very slow 'cos the processed vinyl would take a lot longer to break down) but the dominant theory is that the plasticizer is leaching out. Problem is, the process that creates the head is a catalytic one; the end product is different from the originals. And when it starts separating it turns into yet ANOTHER product, rendering it impossible to reverse the process entirely.

Don C.

[cjefferys]

I have a huge Mego collection, some had suffered the dreaded zombie syndrome,..but ever since i decided to experiment with the sharpie-toothbrush-alcohol (this last mention helps to penetrate the ink in the rubber material) technique,..it has worked wonders for my collection for years now,..and no signs of fading what so ever till this day!!!!! Advice; try it first with old unneeded heads as practice...even works great on Chips, Thing and H Torch heads too!

Could you please describe in a little more detail how exactly you do this, and with what? I have a couple extra heads I want to try this out on.

[AAAAA]

they consume certain chemicals in the pigment which in the presents of a light source
turn the pigment gray.the COLOR STABLIZER compounds is the most susceptable
certain pigments used 30 years ago were organic in nature

[boynightwing]

I've only had one gray head in my collection. It was the 12" Robin. I ended up painting it with acrylic paints used for glass or ceramics. I didn't cure the gray but rather I covered it up. Will the gray eventually bleed through?

[AAAAA]

I've only had one gray head in my collection. It was the 12" Robin. I ended up painting it with acrylic paints used for glass or ceramics. I didn't cure the gray but rather I covered it up. Will the gray eventually bleed through?

no it should not. different chemcially