[jabalong]

This is an old thread, but still seems to be the most recent one on the topic (other than one about packaging), so adding my suggestion here...

I received a box of Marvel Universe figures that all smelled heavily of smoke. As per someone else's recommendation, I picked up Simple Green® All-Purpose Cleaner.



They sell it at hardware stores (bought mine at Lowe's). The gallon jug is like $10. Got the original version, as I figured the lemon scented one would just add an extra artificial smell.

What you're going to do is soak the figures. In a large plastic bin, I poured the full contents of the bottle, then an equal quantity of water (just refill the jug with water and dump in).

I soaked the figures for three days, rinsed them and let air dry on a towel for another day or two (repositioning and shaking periodically to get out any water inside).

It worked very well in that the cigarette smell (which had been very strong) was completely gone. But the smell of the Simple Green does linger - it's not overly scented or unpleasant, but kind of a mild institutional cleaner smell.

What I ended up doing was resoaking the figures in water for a few days then air drying again. That then got rid of most of the cleaner smell. But since I have an enclosed display case for my collection, I still didn't want to put the figures in yet. So I let them get some air on a shelf (and outside at times) over a few weeks. Finally I put them in my display case and there's no cleaner smell from them.

That's what I did with no experience. So having done it once, I'd tweak the process. Firstly, the person who recommended it to me said a couple of days, so maybe 2 days would have sufficed instead of 3. Frankly, the smell seemed gone even after a day, so could soak for not so long in the solution.

Am also wondering if maybe I could have gone for a weaker mix than 50/50 Simple Green/water. Don't really know, if had time, could test on a figure with different solution mix.

There were a couple of figures that experienced a bit of dullness in part of their paint app, so maybe a weaker mix might have prevented this. But I did like 40 figures and it's only one or two that were affected, so maybe something in their paint application. And even then the effect was very mild - paint just got a little duller.

So maybe either or both of the above could result in a less strong cleaner smell on the figures (and maybe prevented the paint dulling in those odd cases).

But my main misstep was not soaking the figures in water straight after soaking in the 50/50 mix. I just rinsed them and that probably wasn't enough. So however long you soak them in whatever mix, I'd follow by rinsing them (while wiping gently with a soft sponge) and then soak in clean water for another couple of days.

Maybe if I had done that right away, that would have more or less got rid of the cleaner smell. Regardless, think it's still a good idea to let them sit out in an open space (even outside on nice days if can), before putting them in an enclosed display case.

All in all though, was very happy with the result.