75 replies to this topic

[GRANDTHEFT]

Here are some "Tip n Tricks" for Cleaning Muscles.
We'll start with the most Safest and Basic ways first.

Most people already know and use the toothbrush & Soap Method , that's ok for several figures and it does a great job, but for the new collector with there first big batch, or the season collector adding to their hordes the problem is the same , how to clean all of them?

For starters this is in regards to large lot's of 20+ M.U.S.C.L.E. Figures that are very dirty , grimy & filthy . Not kinnikumann at this stage , because they are different plastic's.
Best method for this is get yourself a plastic bucket , put the figures in & use some laundry powder and dish washing liquid ( dish washing liqiud is great for greasy stains ) cover them and add warm / hot water , after a hour or two it should have removed most of the scum they have accumulated over the past 25 years.
Then use something like a Dust Pan brush and give them a good going over while still in the bucket with all the soap, rinse several times while still brushing and they'll even have there original smell.

NEXT STEP IS MY PERSONAL WAY

Same problem , but the way I do it is to use bucket , laundry powder , dish washing liquid , some kind of toiletry cleaner that is a "gel type" , even bleach based if it's around , and just about anything else soapy I can get my hands on , put them in , cover with all the cleaners , and pour very hot , close to boiling water from the kettle over it all so it makes a thick soap just covering the figures and leave for several hours , trust me they get clean after that , then give them a scrub.

I've never damaged a Muscle using this method , and I stand by it , the proof is in my immaculate muscles and I'm happy to take very close up pix's if anyone requires them.

but if you try it this way please be careful , i'd hate for anyone to ruin there figures

Pen's , Ink's , Paint's
These are Not good , here is how I judge if it can be removed or not , if it's soaked into the plastic and it looks like an old Tattoo on a person that's basically because it is , the muscle has been Tattooed and nothing can remove it , but if it's on the surface and "not" inside the plastic there should be a way of removing it , I've done small parts with a scalpel and done a good job but it's really not recommend . A Kitchen scourer and cold water can remove old acrylic paint , even some oils , if it hasn't corroded into the plastic.

Here is a way how I removed permanent marker from around 25 figures i purchased at once.
The child who originally owned them placed his name and initials on all feet with a thick Black permanent marker that did not wash off , I noticed that the ink was very much still on the surface , I had some very very fine wet sandpaper and under a little running water scuffed all the marks from there feet , after they dried you could notice small scratchers , I removed these by rubbing the muscles vigorously along our hallway carpet as it's short and scouse , it buffed them up beautifully , I couldn't even separate them now from any of the others i have.

Kinnikuman.
These "you do" have to be careful with , but for your basic clean , still use the warm water in a plastic bucket with softer cleaners such as dish liquids , shampoo's , laundry powder/liquids , and a soft Dust Pan Brush!


Smells & Bad Odours
I haven't had to much experience with this problem , probably because the cleaning method does such a great job.
Although i have heard of collectors having a problem with cigarette smoke smell of newly purchased Muscles , for this i would recommend clean them as normal but as i've tried and it worked very well was to add a small amount of disinfectant concentrate into the mix , i used Lavender , and was surprised at how soon that smell went away and left a really great brand new Muscle Plastic Smell.

Just thought i'd add this, i was cleaning some lately , i used Hair conditioner after cleaning them , it seemed to polish them up and add a really great smell , they were noticeably shiner , try it for yourself , it cannot hurt them





i'll post more ideas as i think of them


Hope this helps



Mischa

Edited by GRANDTHEFT, 13 August 2009 - 07:58 PM.

[Jet-Mech]

Sounds good to me. Though a toothbrush and warm running water has worked well for me, other help /advice would always be welcomed.

[Jet-Mech]

I had a flash of inspiration today: I took a disused electric toothbrush to some of my dirtier figures. Though it didn't work as well as I'd hoped in the lower spots (some such stains on my figures might well be impossible to remove anyway), it did speed the process up some. Should work great if you're strapped for time and have no better use for AA (UM3) cells. Just two caveats here: use very little pressure, and don't hold it in one place for too long.

Edited by Jet-Mech, 30 December 2008 - 05:03 PM.

[Rankio]

She got bored.

[Jet-Mech]

Just two caveats here: use very little pressure, and don't hold it in one place for too long.

Why? What happened?

Use of minimal pressure will help extend the useful life of the bristles. (I've let others use a Dremel with a wire brush attachment, only to have the bristles come back bent into uselessness from too much pressure.) I'm not sure if the bristles are hard enough, or the toothbrush's little motor has enough power, to seriously damage a figure, but I didn't take the chance.

She got bored.

Not sure where you were going with that one...

[GRANDTHEFT]

Jet
Hard pressure shouldn't hurt the figure in anyway.
But it's always good to test things on a "test figure" or a double i always have a few of them handy

[Jet-Mech]

If you are willing to try using too much pressure for too long, then let me know. I'll throw a test figure in with your other figures (which will go out Saturday ).

I am--just wish I'd seen this before I sent you a PM earlier!

[Donkeythekidd]

*********WARNING NEXT STEP IS MY PERSONAL WAY NOT RECOMMENDED FOR BEGINNERS***********

now same problem , but the way I do it is to use bucket , laundry powder , dish washing liquid , any kind of toiletry cleaner that is a "gel type" , bleach if it's around , and hell just about anything else I can get my hands on , put them in ,cover with all the cleaners , and pour boiling water from the kettle over it all so it makes a thick soap just covering the figures and leave for several hours , trust me they get clean after that , then give them a scrub.

I would suggest only doing this in a well ventilated area such as outside. Mixing something with bleach and something with acid together will create a chlorine gas. Not good!

[dankingery]

bleach and ammonia really bad. on the bright side, you won't have to worry about the cleanliness of your muscles. you'll be dead.

[GRANDTHEFT]

small amounts , really won't do any harm especially if you add the water straight away.
it's not like I'm adding 1/2 tone of fertiliser & a timer

Edited by GRANDTHEFT, 06 January 2009 - 07:41 AM.

[Jet-Mech]

I'll throw a test figure in with your other figures (which will go out Saturday ).

D'oh! I forgot to do this. I'll send them out next week, I have some other figures to send out too.

No problem--you can just send it out with my next purchase.

I'm currently trying another cleaning method: baking soda/water solution. I mixed a teaspoon of baking soda and a cup of water and tossed one 28 in. He'll sit for an hour or so, and I'll see if/how the mixture affects him.

EDIT: After an hour or so of sitting in the baking soda solution, the 28 cleaned up pretty nicely. However, the baking soda didn't do anything that soap wouldn't do. I also tried leaving the electric toothbrush in one spot, with too much pressure, and it didn't work; 28 is skinny enough that the toothbrush kept slipping off him. Will have to try that with a more substantial figure.

Edited by Jet-Mech, 07 January 2009 - 01:18 PM.

[Jet-Mech]

While cleaning some more figures earlier tonight, I looked right at a tube of toothpaste--and figured, why not try it! I scrubbed up a flesh Iwao and a flesh John Stimboard with two different brands. Iwao came beautifully clean, but John Stimboard not so much. I now believe that particular figure will need more advanced cleaning methods. And after an hour or so, Iwao still smells like toothpaste. There are, however, worse things for MUSCLEs to smell like (such as some owned by a childhood friend that had a cat piss on them).

It should be noted that, unlike Mischa, I'm trying methods to clean single figures, or small amounts of figures.

[GRANDTHEFT]

While cleaning some more figures earlier tonight, I looked right at a tube of toothpaste--and figured, why not try it! I scrubbed up a flesh Iwao and a flesh John Stimboard with two different brands. Iwao came beautifully clean, but John Stimboard not so much. I now believe that particular figure will need more advanced cleaning methods. And after an hour or so, Iwao still smells like toothpaste. There are, however, worse things for MUSCLEs to smell like (such as some owned by a childhood friend that had a cat piss on them).

It should be noted that, unlike Mischa, I'm trying methods to clean single figures, or small amounts of figures.

It still has great merit in the approach your taking , if you were to only buy a hand full of figures or a single rare , knowing just what action that particular figure needed to come up really clean without damaging it is priceless.

[TheOrgg]

I had a BigBodyTeammate from Veers that smelled a little smoky and had a lot of brownish black stain smeared on it, and I took some regular peroxide and an old electric toothbrush.

After six minutes or so my fingers were white and stinging, but the figure looked much better-- not perfect, but not bad at all. He also smelled vaguely like peroxide. I'll sniff him again later to see if that dissappated.

[Ridureyu]

I picked up a few recently that smell vaguely of urine/small child. For now, I stuck them in a fresh clamshell for some McFarlane toys, sinde they have a strong, strong, strong plastic smell. I'll leave them there for a fww days, and see which one wins.

[OmegaTraf]

Amen to that.

Do we have a good way to remove smell from figures?

Smokey figures seem to do fine when they are just left out. But I know 409 leaves a strong smell, what could get rid of that?

alot of home remedies for smell I believe suggest overpowering the smell like ridureyu is trying. Most smells can be pleasingly corrected with a real lemon and its juice everything ends up smelling lemon-e!

[FANtomCore]

i had some vehicles of a toyline i was going through the other day and it smelled like cat piss, i was touching the vehicles with my bare hands and then my hands smelled like cat piss. i though how bad can it be? its from a small animal, no worries, but then when i got a whiff i was disgusted how nasty it was, i went to my sink flooded my sink and put dish washing liquid into the water and grabbed a green scrubbing pad and washed it like i would wash my dishes, the smell was gone you just have to be thorough, with muscles it even easier because you can dump the whole lot into the sink and get a lot done quicker.

Edited by FANtomCore, 10 February 2009 - 04:10 PM.

[GRANDTHEFT]

The method i use for cleaning will eliminate ALL SMELLS , cleaning them removes the smells not just masks it , if it's cleaned properly it will maintain it original look , feel , and odour.

Add Lavender sent Disinfectants when cleaning to help this process.






Mischa

[Ridureyu]

I picked up a few recently that smell vaguely of urine/small child. For now, I stuck them in a fresh clamshell for some McFarlane toys, sinde they have a strong, strong, strong plastic smell. I'll leave them there for a fww days, and see which one wins.

The smells cancelled each other out.

[dankingery]

i just hope you handled them with gloves while you disinfected and cleaned them. anything i get that smells like urine or small child may end up in the furnace. piss? no thanks.

[Ridureyu]

Cleaned quite thoroughly.