835 Strawman.

Over the years of storing toys I’ve seen a lot of strange things. Most toys are not meant to last more than a few years, so you never know what might happen over time. I’ve spoken before about my Mad Scientist alien dissection set that has started to break down into a slimy ooze. I also have some Madball action figures that have started to do the same sort of thing. A sticky slime is seeping out of the vinyl. Paint is peeling, and it’s generally gross. Those of you who own a first gen SNES have probably seen the yellowing that occurs with their casing. Vaccum chrome on many Beast Machine toys cracks and flakes off after about a year. I’ve also observed similar things on Power Of The Force R2-D2 figures. The ones Kenner released before Hasbro bought them. The rubber tires on my Fire Convoy have split apart more than once. The long ant the short of it is that no matter what you do nothing lasts.

The other day, while I was sorting my stuff for disspersion, I found something I’d never seen before. An old Pokey figure had welded itself to the plastic display stand for a Prince Of Egypt doll. Now the Pokey toy is a really old one. I got it from a box of junk that belonged to an exgirlfriend’s grandmother. It’s potentially from before the the 70s. You can tell it’s older because the rubber it’s made of is weird. Not like any of the modern stuff I’ve seen. New Gumby figured are usually made of a glossy vinyl, but this was a dull, almost porous substance. Whatever it is, however, reacted with the plastic stand. I assume that the resulting substance is toxic and have treated it as such.

I still haven’t found all of my Gundams, or Star Wars guys. I have no idea how they got split into so many containers. I guess when I moved I just dumped stuff into tubs and that was it. I wasn’t in a good state of mind at that point, I suppose. I found tons of pokemon stuff, but not all of it. Haven’t come across the Simpsons stuff yet, except for some of the playsets and Professor Frink… I seriously have no idea why I would buy Frink. I must have been hurting for something new.

7 Comments

the flakng of the metalic parts of vacuformed transformers is called gold metal plastic syndrome it’s a side effect of the kind of plastic they were made from reacting badly to the pigmentation agent (the gold glitter stuff that I always thought resempled the efect you get if you put shampoo in your hand with a little bit of water)

oh hey, I did that once as well… only I didn’t nail MYSELF to the wall, I just nailed my glove… actually, I didn’t NAIL myself to anything per se, I stapled my glove to a wall.

I was bworking a summerjob in construction putting up drywall on thin metal girders. I got a good grip on the metal and drywall holding them in place and proceeded with a beltfed screwdrivingtool…
After having done the upper half of the wall I try to remove my hand, but it’s stuck in place. I look inside the girder to see what is wrong, the next words I spoke I will never forget: (translated) hey guys, do you have a screwmachine around that goes reverse? (blank looks for a reply) I screwed one in the tip of my finger…
Youd probably think that that would hurt but just like with nails (yes that happened too but never in a funny/memorable way) the shock of getting wounded numbs the body and the pain came 10 hours later when I went to bed.
lesson here never hold your hand Behind where your nailing/screwing if there is even a snowballs chance in hell that the nail screw could get through it (to me safe is object-nail/screw=10-50mm depening on toolpower(with “normal” tools))

One time, my two friends were messing around with a drill, and it ended up getting in one of them’s shirt. He didn’t get get hurt though, and we still laugh about it to this day.

I’ve a scar on my right middle finger from when I was a kid trying to make something out of wood and ended up driving a nail through my finger. With a hammer. Don’t remember the details. Just blood. Lots of blood.
I used to try “making” a lot of things as a kid. None of them ever amounted to much.

The sticky slime is chemicals , probably plasticizers , that were added to the resin to make it flexible and , ironically, last longer. These chemicals are unstable, and with age humidity, light, and heat all work to break it down.

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