Cleaning playmobil with hydrogen peroxide [H2O2]

[Luftgaengerin]

Hi everyone!

I had very good results cleaning some playmobil with the chemical solution "hydrogen peroxide". I guess many of you have already done this, but nevertheless here it goes.

Old playmobil e.g. from the flea market, or after some time exposed to sunlight, gets darker - especially white parts. I found a table from the Victorian set 5323 second-hand and already had one of those in a very good condition. Compare them here:



And this was the result after cleaning:

[Luftgaengerin]

I was extremely happy with a very old 3771, which got shiny-white, as it should be:



Detail:



So here is how to do it:

[Luftgaengerin]

Shopping list:

1) A bag that has no holes (water-proof!) and can be easily and completely closed, as big as you need.

2) SUNLIGHT! (a rare thing in Germany, I could never do this between September and May...  )

3) Solution H2O2, or:
English:     hydrogen peroxide
German:     Wasserstoffperoxid
Portuguese (@Tahra) água oxigenada

3% solution will do and it's less dangerous, but you'll achieve better results with a 12% solution.

Here's an example from the pharmacy in Germany (3%, 125 ml for 2,50 Euro) :



...and another one, sold as "pool cleaning material" (12%, 1 liter for 8,50 Euro) :

[Luftgaengerin]

Here's a dolphin who was in need of a bath:



the dolphin inside the bag with a bit of the solution:



There is no need to fill the bag completely with the solution, because the atmosphere created with the sunlight will do the job. Just shake the bag so that everything gets moisturized.

And let the sun shine on it How long? Well, it depends on the measure of the discoloration... We usually left it two hours or more, but the sun here is not so strong, so maybe in the south of Europe 5 minutes will do 

[Luftgaengerin]

WARNING!! ACHTUNG!! ATENÇÃO!!

As you could see displayed on the bottles, this solution is aggressive. Don't let children or animals get close to the liquid, even if they are very dirty too.    Try not to touch the solution yourself, or you will get your skin discolored too, like me 

[Luftgaengerin]

You can use plastic gloves, for example.

After cleaning, you can reuse the solution and the bag!  Get the playmobil out of the bag (with GLOVES! or very very fast!) and put it directly in a basin/bowl previously filled with clean water. Just wash the stuff away. This chemical doesn't have any unpleasant smell, and your playmobil parts will be like new.

Here's the bottom of a Marine Schoner I found at a flea market recently (@Tahra: now I have a original one too, though incomplete, I might get the parts missing from the replica), before the cleaning:





And after:





That's all! Have a wonderful week, everyone! 

[playmofire]

Those are excellent results and a  very clear explanation of how to use the product.  Many thanks.

[Ismene]

Interesting. We have a lot of sunlight here, so I might need to give this a go one day.

[tahra]

Thank you for the very detailed post - for dummies! My favorite how-tos

AMAZING results!!

If I manage that, it will be a LONNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNG line.

And there are no bad effects from that? I can live with some part being damaged, but I was thinking of Midnight, for example (our first white elephant) - bad side effects on creatures we can lot live with.

There is no need to fill the bag completely with the solution, because the atmosphere created with the sunlight will do the job. Just shake the bag so that everything gets moisturized.

The dolphin doesn't even need to be submerged?

As you could see displayed on the bottles, this solution is aggressive. Don't let children or animals get close to the liquid, even if they are very dirty too.   

[Luftgaengerin]

Thank you for your nice replies!

And there are no bad effects from that?

I hope not... But I can't be sure how this works with other types of plastic, if that applies to the old elephants? (we don't have any white elephants, unfortunately). It's important not to leave it too much time exposed to strong sunlight, and the parts should be clean (not dusty, etc), or the solution can provoke some stains, I guess.
We had very good results with Steck walls from the castle (3666) too, and those parts are grey and not white. They look much better. Be careful, though, with the great Portuguese sunlight

The dolphin doesn't even need to be submerged?

It doesn't, that's the good news, there isn't much waste. The parts should be wet, and the sun must shine on it.