Advice: Removing Smoke Smell From Toys

[hedrap]

Just got a used MOTUC item off Ebay and the guy must live on a ranch in flavor country.

What are your methods/recommendations on removing cigarette smoke-smell?

[Confessional]

You can just deodorize (baking soda or vinegar) but smoke glazes objects. If you want to remove the smell in addition to the discoloration use mild (natural hand or dish detergents work well) soap with a deodorizer and warm (hot if the item can take it) water, followed by a plastic cleaner/polish.

That all said, some plastics absorb smoke much more than others. I heard some folks have had luck soaking with Fabreze or similar liquid products. Probably good to test first with chemicals that are more abrasive.

[Earth 2 Chris]

Shove her in a bag with scented fabric softeners and leave her for a week or so. It took the smoky stink right out of my chain-smokin' Mego Mr. Fantastic.

Chris

[Mikey]

Shove her in a bag with scented fabric softeners and leave her for a week or so. It took the smoky stink right out of my chain-smokin' Mego Mr. Fantastic.

Chris

True, but clean it first ... If not all that tar grime is still there and just masked temporarily.

[palitoy]

Fabric Sheets do the trick for me, most toys from Japan smell like they've been in the basement of another basement. Sometimes it takes weeks but I've gotten good results.

[hedrap]

OK. Good advice all. I'll do a wash first than fabric softeners. I have a 18" Bumble from Ebay that three years later still smells like he owned a bar. It's all the long faux fur.

Pali - re: Japan. That is no joke. I opened a box once, and I could swear a cloud came out and no kidding, I felt ill for a day or two after.

[emeraldknight47]

Another good way to neutralize not just smoke but most other smells, is coffee. My father was a three pack a day smoker, so everything in my collection from when I was a little kid reeked of smoke, not something I was happy with. I was talking to a neighbor about the problem a few years after my father passed on and he recommended putting whatever it was that smelled like cigarettes in a dry coffee "bath." I went out and bought a cheap can of no name coffee, stuck the figure in it and left it there for probably about a week. When I pulled it out, the smoke smell was pretty much gone. Afterwards, I soaked it in a bath of white vinegar, baking soda, hydrogen peroxide and club soda for another two to three days and it came out pretty much smell free. Just as an aside, I accidentally left a half-gallon of milk under the passenger seat of my Toyota Celica during the dead of summer one year. A few days later, hellacious smell. Took the seat completely out, soaked the carpet in hot water and used a wet-dry vac to get most of the water out, then covered it in about three inches of dry, unbrewed coffee grounds. About a week later, my car smelled fine...

[MIB41]

I typically put mine in baking soda for a week and sit outside in the fresh air (if possible) for much of that duration. Like Brian, I have also gotten a number of figures from China that smelled like they were stored UNDER the basement. Revolting smell too. What I found ultimately fixes all of these though is nothing but time. My experience has taught me that anything that can absorb an odor tends to absorb your environment as well. So however you clean something initially typically only takes the edge off, where as time takes care of the rest. After a month, most things that have sat out will adapt to the new environment and that smell from it's previous owner will vanish.

[hedrap]

I had a chance to do a quick washing with Landry soap, and that made a difference. It's now in a bag with fabric sheets in the garage. I'll do a few more of these tricks post-Christmas unwrap.

It's actually a MOTUC Panthor, which MIB is not cheap for something going into the toy bin, so i bought used for that reason.

[Gorn Captain]

As said above, a gentle clean with mild soapy water first.
Put it in a plastic bag with some of those scented sheets for a week.
My Mego Frankenstein smelled as if he had lived in an ashtray all his life. Now he's completely odor-free. He does still his daily nicotine patch, of course...