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Re: Sit down take a deep breath PLASTIC ROT!!!!

Yes, Gary W Panter, it's very distinctive. Once you smell it you know it forever.
Mike Bunkermeister Creek

Re: Sit down take a deep breath PLASTIC ROT!!!!

I have written before on this. I don't like the term rot as it implies some neglect or infection like wood suffers. ALL plastic is going to decompose despite the eco police warnings of it being forever.
decompose--(with reference to a chemical compound) break down or cause to break down into component elements or simpler constituents.
When sets fragment or become brittle then the best thing to do is to throw them away and console yourself they didn't cost a lot and only diamonds are forever and they do cost a lot. It seems like some of us could have got the Koh i Noor for what we have spent on plastic figures. Those people have permission to bawl.
Some alsothink encasing figures in Carbonite or Kryptonite works. Well it works in the films so why not.
Any of us aware of Novichok or Sarin may have noticed the diagrams are similar to the ones for plastic so it is in the arcane world of organic chemistry that plastics live.
The term plastic means malleable so when it loses its malleability( ie becomes brittle) then it is decomposing and especially noticeable with polyethylene. Other plastics such as styrene have less flex and therefore harder to spot the decomposition of the "chains". Hydrocarbons are the essence of the whether the plastic has a strong or weak "backbone". The backbone is the bit that gives the strength and malleability in the compositional structure. Of all the plastics polyethylene (polymers of Ethylene hence name) doesn't wear well especially in bright sunlight. Some polyethylene will eat into polystyrene such as Dragon models flexible tank tracks do for example. My polyethylene washing up bowl has absorbed copper from my colander so you can see the looseness of the chains works in lots of different ways.
Smell is not always the best indicator. Some smell more than others(Caesars figures were so smelly I had to use a face mask). My figures always produce a rich smell which tells me the whole lot are decomposing (shedding ethylene) but to me it is like the actors/clowns smell of the greasepaint(also an oily smell). I love it (love both). My oldest Strelets of 17 yrs seem OK and I am pretty sure they have the edge on me for durability.

Re: Sit down take a deep breath PLASTIC ROT!!!!

Alright, O'B - Please enlighten us in the simplest of terms as to what it is that makes the old GIANT plastic still feel and flex like brand new plastic soldiers still after 60 years, reminder in simple terms - What did they do RIGHT that old Airfix and some others did that has disappointed us?

Re: Sit down take a deep breath PLASTIC ROT!!!!

Differences in plastic quality and manufacture can cause this problem, basically the plastic looses the chemical that makes it flexible over time, some plastics dont have these particular plasticisers so are unaffected, eventually though all such plastic (with platicisers) will go brittle, this could take hundreds of years or just a few...
generally it seems to be confined to a relatively small percentage of plastic that goes brittle in relatively short time ie say 5-30 years or so, and it will likely be a particular batch... with airfix it seems to be very early 70s or late blue box...
Theres is no way of halting it short of recycling the plastic...

:wink: