The Cleaning Job
A while back, I was at the house of a friend of mine and was inspecting his modest figure collection. His figures are all quite old releases and with the exception of his Mon-sieur Bome catgirl were all gashapon or trading figures.
I made pretty extensive repairs to an old Cardcaptor Sakura trading figure per his request (her head had to be reattached and her wings and legs required cleanup and rejoining to the torso.)
However, the largest job I took from him was the task of cleaning his entire collection.
His figures were completely FILTHY. How filthy you ask? I would've guessed he stored his collection above the stove and gave it nightly dustbaths.
I don't think he had EVER cleaned his figures, the poor things were so coated with oily film and clods of debris.
To clean all of these, I used warm and cool water, generous dollops of ordinary dish soap, and a small paintbrush. It's my hope that this display of results shows the effectiveness of this method.
Here's Mon-sieur Bome #6 Kirasaki Sai Green ver. before I cleaned her:
It makes you cringe to see it, doesn't it? Those clumps of dust were loose and powdery but under them was a layer of dark grey gunk that only came off after persistent scrubbing.
I had to rinse and scrub her twice to get it out of all the crevices, but the paintbrush worked very well for this process. The base was for some reason especially annoying to clean, but I eventually got all of the greasy lines off it.
Good as new!
Another one with especially extensive filth is [b]Hitotsubashi Yurie Completed figure[/b] from "Kamichu!".
As you can see she comes apart into many pieces which did make the cleaning a bit easier.
Her gunk came off with some hand scrubbing but her hair and skirt pieces required the paintbrush treatment.
By far the most filthy figure was Chobits Chii Maid ver. from Konami. She was so spectacularly caked with filth that just barely touching her left a nasty residue on my hand. Just...just LOOK at it, it's awful! And this is AFTER a small initial rinse.
I took some pictures as I gradually scrubbed off the layers of grime. I don't even remember how many times I had to do this to get her clean. You can see how red my hands are from immersion in the warm water for so long.
Finally, FINALLY I managed to restore her. I'm not sure some of the staining on her white parts will ever go away and she's certainly not "like new", but I did my best.
Here's the spread of other figures all laid out to dry after their cleaning.
(I don't know what most of these are. Any of you eagle-eye scouts want to help out?)
I honestly can't imagine letting any of my figures get to such a state, even my little trading figures. Their owner said he was just too lazy and/or kept forgetting. I hope he takes better care in the future!
I made pretty extensive repairs to an old Cardcaptor Sakura trading figure per his request (her head had to be reattached and her wings and legs required cleanup and rejoining to the torso.)
However, the largest job I took from him was the task of cleaning his entire collection.
His figures were completely FILTHY. How filthy you ask? I would've guessed he stored his collection above the stove and gave it nightly dustbaths.
I don't think he had EVER cleaned his figures, the poor things were so coated with oily film and clods of debris.
To clean all of these, I used warm and cool water, generous dollops of ordinary dish soap, and a small paintbrush. It's my hope that this display of results shows the effectiveness of this method.
Here's Mon-sieur Bome #6 Kirasaki Sai Green ver. before I cleaned her:
It makes you cringe to see it, doesn't it? Those clumps of dust were loose and powdery but under them was a layer of dark grey gunk that only came off after persistent scrubbing.
I had to rinse and scrub her twice to get it out of all the crevices, but the paintbrush worked very well for this process. The base was for some reason especially annoying to clean, but I eventually got all of the greasy lines off it.
Good as new!
Another one with especially extensive filth is [b]Hitotsubashi Yurie Completed figure[/b] from "Kamichu!".
As you can see she comes apart into many pieces which did make the cleaning a bit easier.
Her gunk came off with some hand scrubbing but her hair and skirt pieces required the paintbrush treatment.
By far the most filthy figure was Chobits Chii Maid ver. from Konami. She was so spectacularly caked with filth that just barely touching her left a nasty residue on my hand. Just...just LOOK at it, it's awful! And this is AFTER a small initial rinse.
I took some pictures as I gradually scrubbed off the layers of grime. I don't even remember how many times I had to do this to get her clean. You can see how red my hands are from immersion in the warm water for so long.
Finally, FINALLY I managed to restore her. I'm not sure some of the staining on her white parts will ever go away and she's certainly not "like new", but I did my best.
Here's the spread of other figures all laid out to dry after their cleaning.
(I don't know what most of these are. Any of you eagle-eye scouts want to help out?)
I honestly can't imagine letting any of my figures get to such a state, even my little trading figures. Their owner said he was just too lazy and/or kept forgetting. I hope he takes better care in the future!