Mad Mummy question about Eye Decay

[ABMAC]

If you keep them out of the light, they'll never have a chance to glow.

[MegoGeek]

I doubt that any 30 year old eyes that haven't melted yet would start doing so now.

[MegoNinja]

I'm kind of worried about the process starting with my Mad Monsters. Once the process has begun, there is no stopping it, but if nothing has happened yet, one should be ok. I'm guessing that the usual culprits, UV light, heat or humidity may get things going, so the usual wisdom of keeping toys in cool, dry places without too much light (especially UV) may help?

that's pretty much the method I was thinking of using. I have heard of weird method's of fixing toy problems, like using certain chemicals, but I guess I can just replace my Mummy's head with a new one, shouldnt cost much.
Like you said though cjefferys, if it hasnt happened yet it shouldnt just happen now. So I guess the rest of my Mad Monster collection is OK....for now.

[cjefferys]

I'm kind of worried about the process starting with my Mad Monsters. Once the process has begun, there is no stopping it, but if nothing has happened yet, one should be ok. I'm guessing that the usual culprits, UV light, heat or humidity may get things going, so the usual wisdom of keeping toys in cool, dry places without too much light (especially UV) may help?

[ABMAC]

Once the eyes have started melting, they'll keep going until they're completely softened, then they'll stop. No cure or antidote has been found.

[MegoNinja]

very good explanation Abmac, so what of my Mummy then? The eye melt doesnt look that bad at all, will his eye eventually pop out or will it not get any worse? Should I do any thing to slow it down or what?

[ABMAC]

OK, the vinyl heads were made with sockets for separate glow-in-the-dark eyeballs. Which is easier, popping plastic balls into the sockets or aligning the heads in another mold so that molten ABS plastic can be injected into the sockets under high pressure? Keep in mind that the molds have at least one channel for the plastic to enter the mold cavity and at least one vent for displaced air to exit. After molding, these inlet and outlet ports leave marks. Did someone trim and polish the tiny eyes after the plastic was injected?

This is how it how eye melt works:



The first picture shows the socket and the ball. The socket is slightly smaller than the ball.

The second picture shows the ball in the socket. The ball is held snugly and won't fall out or move around. I believe it was also glued in place.

The third picture shows the ball in the socket after elasticizer has leeched into the ball. The softened plastic is shown slightly darker. There is unaffected plastic in the center of the ball and at the front.

In the fourth picture, the stretched socket has returned to its original size and has pushed the softened eyeball plastic outward. The unaffected plastic makes a "knob" on the front of the eyeball.

In many cases the entire eyeball is softened and oozes out of the socket as an amorphous blob.

[ramsey37]

I'm thinking Matt Jaycox was the one who had the theory about the eye melt being a factory error. I'm almost sure he posted about it years ago at the Universal Monster Army.
George

[mego73]

Here's an example:

Original MEGO Mad Monster Mummy Action Figure In Box! - (eBay item 260169517868 end time Oct-16-07 17:45:39 PDT)

As for the factory error theory, I think I did hear it here(this was a long time ago). The Mummy head shown in that case had the glow plastic distorted but what was noted was that both plastic blobs came up in "peaks" similar to the look of soft serve ice cream from a dispenser.

A similar (but much more mild) example of that look is found on Professor Griffin's page for the Mad Monsters.

Christmas With Plastic Dead Men

The Mummy picture at the top shows one eye that apparently has less plastic than usual ending in a peak with a little knob at the end.

While this, in no way, was put out there purporting to explain all the eye distortions, it was suggested it may account for a slim minority of them.

[chalwa]

Eye'd love to see it...

Anybody have a pic of this?
I don't have a mummy and the creepy halloween guy in me is curious as to what this looks like.
bestest

[cjefferys]

Yep, this is just another example of two different materials that don't get along so well together after so many years. Once the chemical reaction is triggered, it will just get worse and unfortunately is irreversible.

[ABMAC]

I've heard here previously that "eye melt" on the mad monsters is actually a bad (messy) factory injection of the glow plastic into the eye holes and those particular figures were that way from the beginning. So, I'm not sure if they become that way or born that way

That's completely false. I don't think you heard it on this forum. The eyes are made of hard plastic and they leech elasticizer from the vinyl heads.

[mego73]

I've heard here previously that "eye melt" on the mad monsters is actually a bad (messy) factory injection of the glow plastic into the eye holes and those particular figures were that way from the beginning. So, I'm not sure if they become that way or born that way

[MegoNinja]

Just pretend it's an extra scary factor to the monsters

Im just going to pretend he is shooting embalming fluid out of his eyes!
Mego really added some realism didn't they! (even if the feature wouldnt be noticable until 30 years later).

[Meule]

Just pretend it's an extra scary factor to the monsters