How to Restore Discolored LEGO Parts!
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 15 ต.ค. 2024
- Using readily available 3% hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) disinfecting solution with a little bit of sunlight to turn back the clock on yellowed old LEGO parts, restoring them to close to their original brilliance. Works particularly well on white, gray, and clear parts.
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I like how professional his videos are.
I agree.
Lots of great information and very detailed videos!
Me too and yet, he keeps it at a sort of normal level so that he seems like a regular hardcore lego owner.
That's quite nice to see.
Yes, all good points.
UK Viewers:
Although this is an old video, there may still be some new viewers who are considering taking the advice of using a U.V. lamp.
Although the following *may* be obvious to many, I just want to say the following (for safety):
*If* you are going to use an ultraviolet lamp in the absence of sunlight, *please* make sure to use the *correct type of U.V. bulb* . Choose a reptile-friendly lamp, suitable for Geckos or Corn Snakes and so forth. This produces a perfectly *safe* form of U.V. light, which you can expose yourself to without harm
Please, do *not* use a U.V. lamp which is used for sterilising or clarifying ponds or aquariums; these types of bulbs produce *harmful U.V. radiation* which can harm your eyes and your skin! So, if you have this type of bulb at home (for example, you own a marine aquarium), please do not use these type of lamps.
Thanks for reading! Play safe and have fun.
I had a room filled with lego once, and we had a small fire in our living room..my room wasnt really affected with other than smoke but apparently some ladies INSISTED that they cleaned EVERYTHING.
the chemical they used to clean my lego dissolved the plastic slightly, making so that it became extremly brittle..everyting i had smouldered in my hands as i touched it.
I wish i had this video then.
+McManybucks ! that is horrible just to lose all your lego
+cgbiller can i have it :P
Smoke vs. Plastic = damage. May have been indirectly, but it sure did happen. I'm sorry to hear that, man.
lol
Thanks for the how to Jang. Great points about using the lower, and more common, 3% solution. Always good to see the masters sharing their knowledge.
Agree.
Appreciate the very clear explanations and also pointing out warnings (e.g. about ensuring the pieces are fully covered in liquid).
Nice idea...but there's no sun in the UK!
Lol!
So true
=(
Hopefully I'm the summer of 2015 or if we are really lucky this month get some bright sun nut as usual the sun only comes when you don't want it :(
David Playz Gamez I know...it was a joke
Wow Jangbricks I Would really like to thank you! This week i Cleaned up all my old lego pirates sets using your method. It was yellowed really bad due to a smoking household when i was little.
This worked perfect and i even cleaned the most yellowed bricks! Thanks a million!
I agree. The brush really makes dirty pieces look like new!
You are a life-saver. I have five nastilly discolored baseplates. One of them already has turned back into a pleasant shade of grey. It took about two hours at a uv index of 2 to 4, 20-30 degrees celcius and 3% strength hydrogen peroxide.
what if you live in England and 3 hours of sunshine only happens in dreams?
Lol exactly... also Scotland is even worse... I think we had that one day in the beggining of summer when it was genuinely sunny but now it's just rain, hey I gotta a joke! What do you call 6 weeks of pouring rain in Scotland? *Summer*
I live in Ireland so we have to wait till summer
And Wales doesn't have ANY sun 😒😒
Well if it's the UV light that makes the bricks turn back to normal, perhaps put them under a UV lamp?
Then R.I.P your Legos.
“This needs the sun to work”.
Guess that rules out most of the UK then... :p
Just come to any part of texas or Arizona in July
Just tried this one a few pieces I don't really care about. It worked amazingly well! I feel I may need to give them a second treatment but the before and after is actually very surprising. Thanks!
Your method is really nice. A way I'd suggest to avoid the half submerged parts would be to use a grid of some type. Maybe a piece of wire shelf or sorter grids? They would sit on top and keep the parts totally submerged, in theory.
what about a sheet of glass?
I can't thank you enough for this tutorial. I brought out my old 80's lego for my sons now that they're old enough to play with it. Mostly classic space with lots of light grey, blue and white. It looks new!! after this process. The result was astounding on the first attempt. Five hours in a 3% solution on a sunny autumn day. Thanks!!!
Just tried it and it worked dandy ! thanks for this video ! I was a bit worried at first because the weather was a bit cloudy, but there was apparently enough sun. and the result was very good.
I have recently purchased one of those classic crater baseplate, it was the most yellowed part I have ever seen. It has now regained its original color. the underside (whitch was not exposed to the sun), is still yellowed and I am thus able to compare and evaluate the improvement. It's Excellent !
Just as an interesting side note, the reason why the hydrogen peroxide becomes less potent and is "environmentally safe" to dump down a drain is actually due to air and uv exposure. It's in the name, one hydrogen molecule per oxygen molecule. This is technically an unstable bond and it's no coincidence that it is and sounds fairly similar to hydrogen dioxide which is chemically pure water. The exposure to air and more specifically uv light causes some of the molecules to break apart and others to fuse into water molecules hence the bubbling and eventual inert nature. I would never, ever recommend you do it as there's always risk of there still being hydrogen peroxide molecules left in the solution, but technically speaking you could drink it once it's fully inert as it's chemically pure water. That's why the container is brown like many bottles you'll find with chemicals that react to uv light. It slows down the process of conversion back to water and release of oxygen and hydrogen gas by blocking out uv light.
Great video and you have the perfect "how was this made" voice. Awesome!
It's funny because the UV is what damaged the color in first place. I had my stuff on s shelf for years as a kid and the sun would come through the window and over time made the white bricks turn yellowish and where the shadows were it left clear lines. I do not leave them in sun now but I need to do this cleaning to them
Lol
The bromine uv stabilizer is what separates out and yellows tbe parts. You need to be chemically treating your parts. There is even a paste you can make up, instructions on line. Google it!
Just scored a heap of 70s-80s something spaceman minifigs off the Internet, the white ones looked like yellow ones, 3 hours into their H2O2 bath and they’re looking sweeeet! The blue ones were a little off too but they’ve come up great also
Lol
Is it okay to use it on printed bricks and parts?
phubans, printed parts yes, not classic space with gold printing though
Great video! I never knew this could be done for Lego. I am a vintage Star Wars collector and for some white figures, I had heard of people doing this. I will say this is awesome as I have a bunch of white, blue and gray pieces that need to be cleaned. Going to get at it soon. Thanks!
This is one of the best tutorials concerning this procedure.
Nice tips! You explained everything very clearly. The only thing you forgot is that you shouldn't do this with electronic parts.
Maybe he didn`t add that because he assumed people aren`t that dumb.
Ruben van Dijk
Why the double reply?
CactusFreak in dutch.but lol
Jang i do have a question - I have about 150kg of used lego that needs washing and running through H2O2. Any good advise on how to proceed - there is quite a lot if it.
Thank you very much, Jang. I've tried this some months ago and really worked at that time but the pieces have yellowed again, much worst than before.
Wow ! How precise and clear your video is ! I had tried this method in the past, but without direct sunlight, and the effect, although visible, wasn't very dramatic... Thanks to your helpful advice, I feel like trying again this summer.
this is so helpful, thank you for sharing! i just got my first ever crater plate, and i will be using this to even out the color a bit (i think i will leave some of the yellowing- it gives it a nice lunar feel)
Thanks Jang! I plan on organizing my 3 3ft x1 1/2 ft x 1 ft bins full of lego, and a lot of the parts are old, discolored, etc. This will defiantly help.
So pretty much impossible in Scotland.
Tanning booth?
hah
+DJ Nerdhamsters i guess it woild work
why?
Lego Xornawosk not much sun there
This was really helpful because I have a lot of my dad's old Legos and now they look clean and fresh
I'm going to try this tonight. I've been trying to restore my G1 Bionicles, and the white ones have been a challenge. I've gotten them very clean and free of dust by letting them soak in soapy water and baking soda water. They still are a bit discolored, cause white Lego doesn't age well, so I'm definitely going to try this. Hopefully my G1 Kopaka can look like the day I got it afterwards.
Dennis Cantrell are they good now?
What a great tutorial. From what i've seen in the comments of your other videos, a lot of Jang fans have been waiting for this.
I just did this to my '01 Kopaka and it looks so much better! I never realized how yellow it was until I held it up to the new Kopaka.
This is a great tip! Had no idea what we here call "oxygenated water" could be used for this. Definitely going to try it out next Summer.
WARNING:
Do not try this on classic space with gold printed pieces, cleans it so well it removes all the gold too..
Lunch thanks
Thanks bro
Took about 10 seconds in the Australian sun
+clockwise3559 So 5 seconds in Queensland sun.
15 seconds in brazilian sun
+clockwise3559 10 years in Canadian "sun"
+Pork Chopes Who knows how long for the Kentucky sun. The weather changes every other day
+clockwise3559 finland has no sun ;)
wow, amazingly simple! Thank you Jang, I was looking forward to this video.
I wish you could buy Peroxide in Australia for a dollar. Super expensive here. I just finished cleaning a used UCS imperial shuttle that I bought of eBay. Thankfully they were not stained but there were many parts that were dusty and covered in grime. Took me 3 says to hand clean all parts. Also used the salad spinner to dry as you did.
Thank you so much for making this video JANG! You explained the process and the technique straight excellently!
Thank you SO much!! i have had a bunch of badly yellowed bricks because i got them from my parents when they were children. but now they all look perfect and my houses look so much better!! :)
Itsyaboii24 |Twitch| Wonderful, I'm so glad it worked out!
Excellent video and can't wait to try it out. I have a couple of old street baseplates that although I have washed a lot, they look old compared to new ones I've bought. Great tip!!
You mentioned stickers, but is it safe to do this with textured parts? Or would the chemicals dissolve the paint? Also, I'd be worried about the sun damaging the parts, especially red parts.
Do you mean printed parts? I've treated a ton of printed items ranging from 5 to 30 years old and have not experienced degradation yet, with one exception! Once relatively recently I left a group of white parts in solution indoors after treatment for too long (probably 2+ weeks), and the prints on a few of them dissolved under my fingers when I took them out. I was able to repeat the error intentionally with different parts to confirm it was the length of the soak that caused the problem. Just be sure to rinse your parts as soon as treatment is complete, which, in turn, should be within a week.
lego halo 2 😊😲😢😈🏢⛵🔫💱💸🌝
Erimas Jackson
What?
I saw u on another video m8
Birdie McChicken it's called printed parts
that grey landscape this is pretty cool
After watching this, I took a chance and used this method on some yellowed astronauts from set 10029, and am happy to say they turned white with their prints still intact. The gold of the old classic spaceman prints disappeared on one of my other yellowed white minifigs, but they are a bit easier and cheaper to replace ;) Thanks a lot for this video!
to prevent lines, you put it in a zip lock air tight container and push the air out so nothing is floating, or use air tight bags, saves you any of the nonsense sanding
thank you! I honestly have so much old lego, probably a bucket of such old whites they would pass for tan pieces now haha exited to try this this weekend. definitely gunna be taking some before and after photos haha!!
This was all stuff I knew, have tried, and had little success with. Of course, up until you mentioned leaving it in the sun. I'm going to give this a shot next time there's a sunny day, thanks a ton, Jang! :)
Thank you so much jang! i didnt know how to do it and nobody seemed to know either so now i can fix all my legos! (i have mainly old legos from the 80's and 90's like this)
Why not put the small pieces in a glass jar and fill that to the top? that would stop them floating to the surcace!
This is a really interesting video and I didn't know you could Oh hi Larry. Love your stuff. Nice meeting you here on this random 3 year old video.
It's a good idea if you have a jar wide enough to accommodate all of the shapes of pieces you want to treat. There'd still be some that float out of solution, though, as the process liberates oxygen bubbles and the more parts are on top of each other, the higher their buoyancy will push the topmost pieces above the surface. The jar would have to be at least partly open to vent, and the solution slowly evaporates. Now if you could find a plastic strainer that would fit in that jar, and you put it upside down over the parts with a sealed weight on top that's not subject to corrosion...
if you say only sun works and you can put next to a window you should mention that open it other wise the only thing you need is heat rather than sun as glass blocks uv light which is the only thing different
Thank you. That was very useful information! I have a bucket full of discolored parts I will have to try this on.
"near a window" will not work. Ultraviolet is blocked by normal glass. so if UV is essential it has be to outside.
Yeah most new Windows (last 15 years) does block uv
What if use no light? Just Hydrogen peroxide works or not?
and I use 19% one
UV is not blocked by normal glass
Windows do not block all UV, especially UVA. More specifically for this process, you can very readily see the difference. Put the tub far indoors for a day and you'll see very little reaction. Put it near an unblocked window and bubbles form quite nicely and the reaction proceeds as desired and you'll need to stir & take care (especially if the temperature is warm). It's nowhere near as fast as being in direct sun outside, but it definitely works and works well.
did you have parental supervision?
nice meme
I always thought the old LEGO sets must have used a different shade of grey, I take it there are only 2 (dark and light) and it's just time to restore colour on them?
There are two types, the old original grey and the new bluish grey, which was introduced in 2004.
Your right actually, early grey pieces (Like Original Space for example) where a different shade of grey that newer gray pieces. Old gray is usually called gray while newer gray usually goes by the name of bluish-gray.
There are different shades of dark grey. One of them is the classic grey, the next got a greyish bluish shade to it and a third one got a more greyish green shade to it. It looks rather odd when all three colors are combined in a home made creation, but you can just shrug it off as if the creation is old and has experienced a lot of aging and weathering, making the metal change color.
Both actually. LEGO changed the color of plastic they use for grey, the old shades are known simply as "grey" and "light grey", while the new colors are known as "blue-ish grey" and "light blue-ish grey". All four are prone to fading though, espeically the old ones if they've been heavily used :D
Some shades of grey were actually changed or replaced over the years, but old parts do get yellowish with time, so it's good to clean them up once in a while.
Hi Jang,
thanks for your videos. I know that probably hundreds of people already asked you, but can you make a video (if you have not already done it) about stickers? How do you re-glue old stickers that start to detach, or how do you remove a sticker that was placed incorrectly and put it again on the brick?
Thanks
Wow! I am so excited to try this! I thought my yellowed whites and bleached out grays were permanent! Thanks for the tip!
your technique saved the day thanks so much jang!
Hi Jang! I'm wondering if this method is safe for printed bricks? How about the older translucent pieces such as the original "clear" bricks and windshields?
Thanks for the high quality and family friendly channel. You've been a real inspiration!
I just re-watched the video and noticed the printed parts mentioned in your batch. Thanks again for the great videos!
Dang those old grays are so much more warm and inviting than today's Bley
Very helpful tutorial. I thank you, master builder. Now I can fix my LEGO parts.
Thanks! I cant remember him mentioning if this works for printed pieces, i know it doesn't for stickered pieces but someond please let me know, i got a 2014 Phantom going yellow and i dunno about the cockpit piece...
It does work on prints
Hey Jang, you mentioned that this also works on printed bricks, so I just have one question, did you ever encounter prints gone bad after using this technique?
+BlackStarEOP I have not. I've even tossed in classic space figures with already severely fading logos and had them come out with no perceptible change.
+JANGBRiCKS awesome, I'll get some hydrogen peroxide solution then, and I'll try this in the summer :) Thanks a lot for this great vid!
+JANGBRiCKS what about restore bended capes from the older kind minifigs
Thanks, I am using this technique to reverse the discoloration on my 1990 castle pieces.
wow, have to try this next summer, as I have few old paradisa sets that i love but they are super discolored
hey Jang, I just put set 6456 through the 3% hyd peroxide and 4 bricks had stickers & I did them last & the stickers made it through, I had seen a chap in the UK do it so I gave it a go & yea they are all good,
You are so detailed! It is much appreciated!
Does this worked on discolored blue bricks, too? Or just the light gray and white?
phubans it just works better for light gray and white, but it’ll still work for blue bricks but not as well
This is amazing, I’ll be sure to try it! Thank you.
Nice information JANG I always had a problem with my bright colored pieces for years. F.Y.I. I have the exact same containers at home!
Thanks for posting. I have the same moon plates that are in terrible condition. Just washing didn't do a whole lot. I will try this.
Side effect seems like it actually be a creative way to add a design scheme to your creation. Im thinking something along the line of a camo or military design. Would this be safe/ plausible Jang?
Thanks for putting the new video up now I can use all my old baseplates 32X32 baseplates used in MY city 93810
This is a tip and recently tried it. I found that putting the pieces in a zip-lock bag keeps pieces from developing the line from floating at the surface.
Very helpful. I have bought like 5000 used pieces today in a box so i have to find out the new the old the bad and the good of them also restoring original legos and take away the mgblocks and lepin stuff
Hey Jang, you could probably mix it with a bit of soap so the pieces will sink more. I saw it once in a video!
My Republic Gunship has this problem. I hope it’s gonna work.
Thank you Jang,I buy a used penguin submarine from batcave 2006 that have discolored piece and you gave me the solution to get that disturbing discolored away
Wow your a true lego fan you care all you things
I like this way of restoring legos
Will this restore the color completely, as if they were new, or will you still be able to see the difference if you are building with old and new bricks together?
Also, how would this effect parts with metal, such as the axles in those old style wheel bricks.
You can use Halogen lights if you want to do this indoors. Basically the same lights used in indoor plant farms.
I swear by those Really Useful Boxes for everything! Great tip to restore parts!
Retr0bright! Used it to de-yellow a Dreamcast games console.
If you have trouble covering the bricks add some Xanthum gum to turn the solution into a sticky ooze. Using a detergent Oxy powder can speed up the reaction.
By doing this, you are actually making the plastic less brittle.
Yep both of those require significantly more skill and care though and can more easily lead to white surface erosion on parts if not mixed & applied very evenly and watched to ensure that none of it dries up. There are a lot of horror stories out there about using the more advanced and/or aggressive methods and ending up with ruined parts. Given that a lot of my viewers are quite young, I feel it's important to stick to the safest, lowest-risk recommendations.
Cool. It's really not that difficult because even I could do it! But I agree, I wouldn't let my kids go near Hydrogen Peroxide even if it was lower concentration. ;)
What do you do if you live in Scotland?? I haven't seen the sun since one week in 1994?!
1ManInHisVan travel to France :D
This a great tip 👍 thanks Jang
I usually clean the LEGO well then put it to dry in sunlight for a few hours and it works for me, maybe for more stained parts it won’t
I have a question sorry for bad English if I put my lego in the sun will it lose color
Pelikan vernichter yes, but only in the long run. don’t keep it in sun for more than a few days or it’ll start to yellow.
Ohhhh thank you SO MUCH!!! I have wondered if I could restore the color! I am THRILLED!!!
I've used this technique with generally positive results. It seems like some of the parts feel slightly more brittle after their bath, though...not enough to actually crack or chip, it just seems like they've lost a fraction of their elasticity. Have you noticed anything like that?
This also worked on my vintage star wars figures thx jang
thanks jang i've got lots of discoulered parts and now i know what to do
I live in Scotland so this will never work for me :'(
You just need UV light to react with the H2O2, so you could just buy a cheap UV lamp and use that?
Lol! Ditto! As soon as he said sunlight my heart sank!
I heard a UV light works too. If so what would someone recommend, anything that has UV? Or do I need something specific? I'm from the UK so sunlight is pretty much non-existent.
great instructional video Jangbricks!
Thanks. I have a ton of Legos that need to be cleaned. Since this method is reusable, I think will do this!
Who would dare to dislike!
DARTHBRIX LEGO noobs
Thanks so much for this video Jang! Also you can use UV lamps I think. Thanks for mentioning the burnishing bit :)
I think it works as long as it's uv light
If someone see my comment, please answer🙏🙏
1. I heard that it becomes discolored (faster than before) again after doing it, is it true?
2. Can i get UV light through window?
Yes and yes
Use a short wave UV disinfectant lamp if you don't have good sun time. Do trial runs on bricks you don't care about first.
i want to do this on some of my parts to but i have some plates which are half discolored and half not discolored, so my question is, does the not discolored part of the plates also change in color? could you please reply soon because there is a lot of sun in my country tomorrow ; )
Thank you so much
i should try this on some of my ancient pieces! but then again the mix matched color works well for post Apocalypse custom builds :S
The hydrogen peroxide is being decomposed by the extra energy acquired from the ultra violet light. The decomposition causes it to lose that extra atom and become water, while those oxygen atoms are free to bond together. This is why the bubbles form. As the process continues, you get more water and less peroxide, which is why it takes longer a second time.