Comments on: How to clean yellowed LEGO bricks to make Classic Space sets look new [News]

By: David4

David4 — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 03:55:35 +0000

Yeah I wouldn’t use this stuff if the kids are going to play with the pieces. The active ingredient in Oxiclean (or Oxy Power) is a pool chemical.

By: Kermit

Kermit — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 18:46:53 +0000

Reading the Retr0bright page I understand that the yellowing of the plastics is caused by the bromine added to the plastics. The function of this being a flame retardant which is needed for electrical equipment to stop it from catching fire.

I’m wondering however, why should this be necessary for Lego bricks ??

Does Lego still use this material in their product?

This because it is believed that this material can have some health issues. and according to Wikipedia some of these material are banned by some European countries.

Maybe the yellowing effect is therefore caused by something different in Lego.

Maybe I should write an email to the Lego group with these questions.

By: darinS

darinS — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 16:46:54 +0000

for questions on printed bricks. “The original “Oxy” mixture does not affect paint or stickers, unless the stickers are held on with a water based glue or are paper stickers.”

That’s from the source article. Not they don’t test on LEGO bricks, but I would assume it should be fine. Still test a brick that you don’t care for first.

This is the article I found:
http://www.vintage-computer.com/vcforum/showthread.php?t=12566

By: Fred

Fred — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 16:29:31 +0000

Another fun cleaning tip:
If your bricks have a good nasty layer of dust on them, a dry paint brush (I like a 1.5 inch brush) works wonders.

By: SFlash

SFlash — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 12:24:25 +0000

I also use a sonic water cleaner. I’ve had some decent results with yellowed legos going white, but use it to mainly sanitize my legos without a single chemical. I have had incredible cleaning success with old nasty bricks. Every old lego that comes in my house gets this treatment.

By: DarthPineapple

DarthPineapple — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 09:50:14 +0000

Does anyone know if the print will fade or even damage/ disappear?

By: Dano

Dano — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 09:22:11 +0000

Score one for Billy Mays. :D

By: Artahn

Artahn — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 00:57:43 +0000

I use that stuff in my ears. It gets rid of dirt and oils and such. Everything else stays perfectly in tact.

By: gigahound

gigahound — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 00:57:37 +0000

I would like to caution that if the parts are left in the solution too long they can become a lesser shade of the color they are supposed to be.

You really should read the entire site before trying this.

By: DocRod

DocRod — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 23:27:00 +0000

what a coincidence, I’ve just been trying this myself in the last week.

I’ve had good success with the arrowroot variant recipe, I added glycerol as an experiment. I could post some before and after pictures that show much more yellowing than those in this article, but guess I can’t in the comments section.

The white and greys worked really well, the blue faded a bit, but this was on a second run. Logos seem to be unaffected.

I also only needed about 6 hours in the sunlight.

DocRod

By: Kevoh

Kevoh — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 23:20:12 +0000

BILLY MAYS HERE

By: JimmytheJ

JimmytheJ — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 22:29:14 +0000

Whoo! Gleaming whites, here I come! A whole tub of yellowed parts will once again have meaning! Yee-hah!

Plus, I could buy yellowed parts cheaper and make them better! Gah-hoo!

Any problems to printed parts? I don’t wanna ruin the old goodness, anyone experimented with easily replaceable bley parts?

What measurements should I use?

Should I wear plastic gloves?

Is there any hydorgeney peroxidey residue?