The Yellow Plague - VC 140 Rogue One Stormtrooper

[Darth_Anton]

I was horrified to see the that my Rouge One Stormtrooper, VC 140 is yellowing already!!!

What gives? I thought that Hasbro would have figured out the chemistry already. Seriously. I've just spent 2 months Hydrogen Peroxiding my 300 stormtroopers that have yellowed and I have 4 cases of VC140 on order. This is quite disheartening as I intend to display my army ultimately.

Here are a few observations:

Note that all figure are stored in a specially made cardboard boxes. They rarely get exposed to sunlight.

Bikerscouts;

- all VOTC figures yellowed. After hydrogen peroxiding, some whiten well, others get close, but all start yellowing within two weeks without exposure to sunlight.
- Movie heroes/3.75 inch black series, none have yellowed that I have noticed.

Stormtroopers;

- all VOTC stormtroopers (I have 72) have yellowed to some degree. Hydrogen peroxiding seems to be holding.
- most VOTC based variants have begun to yellow to some degree. Again, hydrogen peroxiding seems to be holding.
- Tantive IV/Evo sculpts have slightly yellowed, not nearly to the degree of most VOTC based figures. Hydrogen Peroxiding works well, have yet to observe yellowing coming back.
- all 3.75 inch black series with ball jointed hips/VC41 types, I have yet to notice any yellowing.

Given that the latter releases of Bikerscouts and the Black series/Vintage 1.0 stormtroopers don't seem to have the yellow plague, I expected that the plastic used in VC140 would have been chemically engineered to eliminate the yellow plague problem. Evidently this is not the case.

This must be fixed.

[Darth_Anton]

Frustratingly, all my efforts to reverse yellowing have ultimately failed. At least on the newer figures. I haven't dug out the vintage figures I whitened yet.

I used 3% HP because that was all that was available locally. After 2-3 weeks, every figure (vintage excluded) has reverted to their original yellow state. And I'm talking well over 100 figures I tried to de-yellow. 

[Rob]

When you soaked them, did you leave them out in the sun?  The retrobrite tutorials all say light is the key.

[Darth_Anton]

I do, but not all day. It's just not practical for me for security reasons.

I have observed that indirect sunlight does positively have an effect, but as noted, everything (at least modern-wise) reverts.

[Rob]

I hear that, but I did read that the best way to have it work is to leave them in bright, full sun, on a hot day, for as long as possible - like even for two full, long summer days.  I haven't tried it though, so I can't really say.

[Diddly]

Pretty much all of my Clones and Stormtroopers from the 00s have yellowed. I think I have a Legacy Snowspeeder Pilot Luke that yellowed as well. Not much I can really do, but I'm slowly selling off my 4 inch collection anyway.

[CorranHorn]

This is worrisome, I have a solid case due in soon. I fear what I will find.

So far the few I do have seem to be ok. Noticeable difference between the hard plastic of the torso and the softer plastic of the limbs. But nothing too drastic, yet...

[StBrianOfMinneapolis]

Woof,
I guess I am only catching onto this a a year late. I just saw someone on a facebook group post a picture of three of these all with yellow shorts. Is it only the crotch piece that yellows?

[Darth_Anton]

Knocking on wood...

I've been photographing the same 140 stormtrooper every day for my Guess the Movie game on twitter for months. 146 days so far to be exact. The shooting table is next to a window getting bright reflected sunlight. So far, no noticeable yellowing.

[Matt_Fury]

I wonder if the same whitening tricks 501st guys use on their armor would help those troopers.