I'm sorry I didn't explain the process I used better in this video, I did however link with a card in the video the full process I used on these exact bricks. It was a 3% hydrogen peroxide bath in direct sunlight, please watch that video th-cam.com/video/bETzd4s-3XQ/w-d-xo.html A number of comments are describing what I did wrong and what I needed to do without knowing what process I used, which in most cases is what the commentators are describing.
DownUnder Bricks yep! Could see w difference even after 60 mins, it was a bright cloudless day in the uk in winter. So the air temp was very cool, but the actual uv from the sun would have been high. Literally 90 mins is all it took. I do have Some before/after photos. Set still bright n white 12 months on. I’m guessing it’s something to do with local air temp , humidity, and water type
I have legos from 1970s to now. some of my 70s & 80s pieces looked like your speeder (love the speeder tho) I used the 3% with a dab of water & oxyclean for 2 to 3 hours in direct sunlight over a year ago and parts are still white (not brittle or anything). I have hardish well water, however I am in USA at elevation of 3200ft. A friend in Texas however used exact same mix but he has soft water and his took longer, a few real bad pieces started to yellow slightly again after a year but others stayed white. We are thinking it's water differences. I think UV rays strength as well, not sure about elevation tho?!.
@@jrumber9162 very interesting, i’m thinking of also giving some pieces a hydrogen peroxide bath.. Should i just not add water to the 3% solution and throw them in there for a while in the sun?
Yellowing of white plastic is common across the board whether its Lego or action figures, model kits or slot cars etc. The only way to combat it is to hide it from the sun.
@@karstenshields1694 I like my office to be as dark as a vampire's den and I have a number of white SW UCS sets on display. I'll report back in 100, nay, 10 years 😎
Yeah man, discolouration sucks! I got the original arkham asylum as a kid and was stupid enough to leave it on my windowsill for about 3 years. Can't bear to look at it now sadly
Okay class lesson time. Why plastic toys and consumer electronic turn yellow and develop that nicotine like color. It's not exactly caused by sunlight, although Sunlight and UV light will accelerate the process. It's going to happen no matter what. Even if left new sealed in the box for 40 years. Here's what's going on. Starting in the early to mid 60's products designated for childrens use, and consumer electronic plastic that had a potential ignition source (a power supply and connection to house current) had to be treated with something to make them flame retardant. Back in the day plastics burned easily. So plastic for toys had to have a Bromine based or BFR flame retardant added to the molten plastic. The BFR is what yellows. It's an organic compound that will decay to a sickly nicotine color over time. It's going to happen. Some things will increase the speed at which the bromine breaks down and yellows. Heat and UV rays being the big ones. But it's gonna happen. Now to add to the fun you might notice that often the yellowing or decay does not occur in a uniform manner from part to part. Some parts darken more than others. This is because the BFR was dumped in as the plastic was melted, and how much got added was not a precise thing. Just dump a bucket in. The amount added may vary from batch to batch. The BFR formula's also changed and improved over the years. Modern ones hardly yellow at all. The ones from the late 70's and early 80's really seem to get very dark. Now some people tout using Peroxide mixes in sunlight to cure or fix this problem. That's kind of an illusion at best. Your are bleaching the outermost layers of the plastic, and in many cases making the bricks or toy parts brittle in the process. Because look, anything external that is causing a color change in the plastic, is having a negative effect on the plastic itself. Color = chemistry. chemistry = plastic strength. At the end of the day the yellowing is just the nature of the beast. It isn't a Lego QC issue. It is caused by the neutral BFR additive required by law.
This really is a great bit of information right here. Was looking into the whole whitening idea for my UCS R2 D2 (the back of it yellowed a lot but the front is ok). I reckon though I will just leave it. Cheers!
why cant they find an additive that doesnt yellow? or have they decided to keep it the way it is so people have to replace their old lego with new lego therefore creating more sales?
@digitalrandomart3049 Newer additive do not discolor anywhere near as much. But the additives and which formulations are allowed are embedded in consumer safety law so need to be approved. None of that happens swiftly.
Mate your Snowspeeder bricks could pass for the tan that’s on the old UCS Yoda! That’s crazy. I have UV covers on my windows and keep my Lego in a dark room
I treated several of my vintage Lego sets four years ago and I have had no regression in their colours. I treated mostly white, old light gray, and transparent pieces. Since I treated the sets, I keep them out of direct sunlight, and out of indirect sunlight as much as possible. Also, I do not use white lighting. White lights cover a wider spectrum of light, which can seep into the UV. I use only warm (yellow) lighting in my Lego room. Lastly, it is now believed that heat amplifies the UV effects on plastic yellowing. I keep my Lego in a room that stays cool year round.
Never realised you had done any restoration videos, I’ll have to check them out. Knowing how thorough you are with videos I’m sure you had a disclaimer. I however did not, so that’s why I’ll be taking my video down. Yes I only soaked them for hours, at most 10 hours but that’s all it took to whiten them with the high UV levels in Australia. I’ll have to watch your videos to see if anything was done differently but from what I’ve seen from other videos I followed the exact process. You can clearly see that these bricks are now worse then ever. From the many comments it seems this process has varied results. Curious, do you sell used treated bricks in your bricklink store?
Now I realize I'm not a true Lego Groupie - I mean who cares if the bricks get a little yellow? Of course, I wouldn't want clean white and yellow together but your sets always look good... yellow or not. Think yellow as seasoning, curing... like fine wine. We ought to respect that. Once white now yellow... the set's been through a lot and its still here. Huzzah!
@@DownUnderBricks Also man remember. The statue of liberty here in America, where I live... Its considered a great work of art for the whole nation... Its copper... Its not meant to be green... but it is now
Right there with you. Yellowing is a thing that happens if you leave them out. Whether it's a thing you built or an official set. It just means your Lego is getting actual use. (Though it does lead to an interesting dilemma when sorting: I have some white bricks from when I was a kid that I can't tell apart from tan if the light isn't really good.)
You have to set your white pieces in direct sunlight while they're in the hydrogen peroxide for at least 3 hours to get them white again. The longer the better. Peroxide on its own won't work. UV light is absolutely necessary in conjunction with the Peroxide. The UV light activates it. Otherwise you're just staining the bricks. Artificial UV light won't work either. It has to be natural sunlight on a warm, bright day. Don't do it on a cloudy day. And use clean soft water. Get bottled water if you have to. Iron or other heavy elements in the water will ruin the process.
DownUnder Bricks - Hmmm. I've done it with much success. Not sure what to tell you. I love you're Silent Mary MOC btw. I'm really curious about how you did some of the construction. How did you widen the width of it? It seems like you used wider hull base pieces.
@@bovineone2420 It seems from the comments that this technique has varying results which leaves me to believe (as others here have suggested) that there must be many other factors involved. I don't think I'm game to try it again lol. Oh shoot sorry mate I've been meaning to respond to you about that. I didn't widen the hull but I built onto the side wall with the protruding ribs and canon ports which allowed me to have a wider deck. I did a part one video which shows the hull off pretty good if you want to take a look th-cam.com/video/lpKU33QAsfQ/w-d-xo.html
DownUnder Bricks - The only other thing I can think of is maybe the Hydrogen Peroxide solution is different in Australia. I don't know. I'm in California and I just use 3% Hydrogen Peroxide off the shelf. (No water added). I don't blame you for not wanting to try it again after the results you got though. And your Snowspeeder is awesome the way it is. It's unique. I love it. Thanks for responding about the Silent Mary. I really appreciate it and will check out the video. I love your videos man! You do an excellent job. Keep em coming!
1) 3% is too low, should use 12%. Use liquid and not cream. 2) Heat is actually the catalyst, in both to whiten and causing it to yellow. This is why ABS will yellow even in dark places. And no it's not cause of Bromine. 3) After you do retrobright, use a protectant, like 303 Products UV Protectant Spray
I got legos that are like that. I replaced them in their original predesigned sets, and then put the now yellowed pieces into a "theme" of sets that I call 'forest.' Just pretend the yellowed pieces are shaded by the trees and they still work out. If I had enough of them, I'd build an old rotting house hiding out in the forest. It would have ivy growing all over one side of it and half the roof missing.
I've heard about hydrogen peroxide method for years...I keep meaning to do it to some of my sets but , you know, I always put off doing it. Now I'm reluctant but some of the other commenters seem to not have that issue. I wonder what variables make a difference? I know it works for some people. Would you be interested in doing a science experiment with a few parts? It could make an interesting video. Maybe it was the type/strength of the peroxide? Amount of UV light? (I wonder if a UV light bulb would work?). Or the water quality?...those seem like the 3 main variables.
Yeah, I would love to see a bit of an experiment too. It looks like it can work but we just don't know all the information yet to comfortably do it. Logically though if they keep yellowing anyways, if we just wait for the right information to be found, then we can just treat our bricks at that point instead of risking it now. That's what I'll do anyways
So I listened to all words being said, and I scrolled through all the comments (but not all the answers). What I would like to know is if the models were displayed in direct sunligt AGAIN after the (failed) treatment?
Watched your original video and have a couple questions, comments and suggestions. I’ve been using this process for a few years and had great results with only an occasional piece turning yellow again. So my first question is, did you throughly rinse the pieces in water after soaking them or did you just lay them out to dry without rinsing them? Did you use distilled water to dilute the H2O2 or tap water? Do you or anyone in your house smoke? Now for some comments/suggestions, I recommend using more solution in deeper bowls and putting fewer parts in them and placing a lid over them or something to keep them completely submerged. I use a glass bowl with a dome shaped lid that I put on upside down which gets all the air bubbles out, I stir about once an hour to get all the tiny bubbles out and refill if any solution has evaporated away. Lastly, when finished I fill my sink up with water and put a vegetable strainer down in the water and pour the parts into that and rinse rinse rinse to get any residual chemical solution off the bricks. I’d try again but be more patient and try it on your white Bricks first.
Exactly the same thing happened to me... I did notice that only the badly sun damaged parts re-yellowed very badly. I put all the white parts from a vintage set into the solution regardless of how bad they were. After six months the sun damaged parts had re-yellowed very badly again however the other parts had not.
So...i should actually NOT put it in sunlight but instead in pitch black darkness? I got a bionicle set (set matoro inika), which essentially is lego technic, that has some insane yellowing.
@@iamthewell If you want to de-yellow your bricks you need to put them in the Hydrogen peroxide and leave it in sunlight for the process to work. It is only a temporary fix and the yellowing will return no matter where it is stored afterwards. From what I understand is that over time UV light transfers energy to the flame retardant in the brick which is Bromine. Bromine is naturally yellowish brown and as the bonds with the brick are broken the bromine reforms bonding with itself (becoming Br2) causing the yellow appearance. Hydrogen peroxide and UV breaks the bond but the unstable bromine will re-bond again. I'm no chemist so I may be a little off in my explanation!
I will not expose my plastic, specifically LEGO pieces or Hasbro/Kenner parts, to H2O2. Now, vintage SW figs are a combination of materials. More flex compound in arms, heads, and legs; they used the same construction process as Fisher Price Adventure People. I have heard horror stories about people using an H2O2 bath for their Skystriker, only to have it be white again yet extremely brittle in parts. LEGO bricks use construction tolerances to maintain assembled integrity, so any change to the chemical composition of the plastic may affect the overall integrity of the model. ABS plastic has an incomplete valence shell. Hence, the plastic is affected by free radicals. Looking at it from a chemist's perspective, I found an article awhile ago about how UV light works better, and how the H2O2 is actually bleaching the plastic, removing the extra electron from the valence shell, but it is still a chemical reaction. It takes energy to split an electron from a full valence shell. That is why elements with full valence shells are stable, for the most part. I need to do some research into this. Just because it works for some, is it actually good for LEGO. My UCS X-Wing, almost 20 years old, has never been in direct sunlight, but has been exposed to oxygen. If I remember correctly, it is the oxygen which is most harmful. Remember, O2 is an oxidizer.
this might be hard in Australia, but you could try a higher potency of hydrogen peroxide and a black light and test them on your bricks. im more curios to see if that would solve the problem.
The 8-bit guy made a video on different techniques for retro-brighting. He found that using ozone and UV light work very well too. What he also discovered, was that h2o2 also restores the color when used with heat. Setting it to a temperature of about 70C and submerging the parts in h2o2 seems to work even better than the UV method. I've never had something like this happen to me... But then again I don't have any parts that are yellowed nearly as much as yours.
Tim Gamble - I use an air cannister for dust. Just blow it off every few days. Sometimes I'll actually run the set under the faucet and set it out to dry. (Not in the sun of course).
Haha cheers mate. I pretty much keep my LEGO room in lock down to reduce the dust. Mopping the floor, wiping the shelves and dusting sets with a makeup brush are my tips.
Some Bricklink store owners have mentioned this problem too. Stock that has been sitting in the dark for years will change colour, sometimes mixed with pieces that have not changed at all.
Luckily for me, my room is set where the sun is never directly shining in, so my LEGO and other collectibles should last a lot longer without yellowing too bad. Plus, most of my stuff isn’t completely white/gray anyways, so it shouldn’t be as noticeable. But on things like my Hogwarts castle, it’ll just look even better.
@@ryanhong2581 Technically yes. It's the UV rays that damage plastics so direct or indirect the UV will still be hitting your bricks, just not as concentrated. Should help delay how bad they get though
I’ve used hydrogen proroxicde on my bricks for many years. Not had any problems at all. Used a low % dilution, left in sun for a max 90mins, on whites n greys only. You maybe getting different results due to humidity, the led lighting, and also the type of water. North Uk water is very soft, where as hard Australian water might have trace limescałe
That's very interesting that it works for you in such a short period of time in the sun, after an hour and half my bricks didn't look any different. I soaked them for many hours which is what I've seen in many of the how to videos. That's a good point you make, I did used soft filtered rain water in a 3% bath but maybe the varying weather conditions were a factor. Thanks DDC
Honestly great point DDC. Australia does get a significant amount of UV radiation compared to the rest of the world. I’m in the upper northern hemisphere as well and I struggled getting enough UV exposure for my whitening attempts, and my bricks only lightened up a little, and haven’t reverted back yet. But again, I get so much less UV than Australia does.
I use hydrogen peroxide on my Lego all the time , I live in the uk as well so maybe that has something to do with it . Although for really yellowed pieces it can take a week for it to work fully .
The rare pieces you should just contact Lego I'm sure they could give you replacements you'd be surprised... Probably sent it to you free of charge they've done it for me.. It was only one white part that I needed then I got rid of the set sold it... But yeah I don't display any of my sets if I do it's only for a week or so then I take it apart and put it back in the box disassembled.. I'll pick one or two random sets and build them and display for a week and then put it away ..it's fun that way.. Plus less chance of getting damaged from whatever reason and it just collects dust .. I have so many of those AtAt sets Parted out.. Parts for those are easy to find
Interesting Vid! I've done a few whites solely sitting in hydrogen peroxide (no water mix) and sunlight for 5-6 hours. After a year they look brand new. I'm not sure if it's a fluke but I'll take it lol.
To your point sometimes they don’t look too bad with the coloration. All pieces makes it look old Part pieces make it look like the mini digs have repaired their ship as/when necessary. On a Minifig house however different coloration would look horrible.
I've used sun + hydrogen peroxide successfully on many many many white bricks and they never never ever yellowed anything at all but stayed white for years and years so I can't understand why this is happening to you. Maybe you're not using pure hydrogen peroxide & water solution?!
I don’t really know if the case for sunlight causing it is true because I’ve got the UCS Shuttle and its sat in the dark in my basement since I built it. I just went down to check on it and of course, it’s turning a cream color instead of white. Same with my X-wing and my Falcon. Not sure what’s really causing it, perhaps oxidation?
Seems a lot of comments saying hydrogen peroxide works, but not much info on where they live. The UV from sunlight varies from place to place. Australia is particularly harsh (our daily recommended limit of direct sunlight measures in the minutes...). I’ve also watched some of these restoration vids and seems lots of talk about just buying a bottle of 3% solution. Never seen anything like that on a shelf here. DownUnderBricks, did you buy straight hydrogen peroxide to make a solution, or managed to find somewhere to buy it?
I have had the same issue and thought I had done something wrong so gave up and just replaced the parts in the end. I use the discoloured parts now for connecting plates etc that you can't see. I have a number of yellowed white bricks that I thought would look good when doing a building for a pirate scene as i think it might actually look good.
Good advice, I'll have to see how they look in future MOCs. Whether we did something wrong or varying conditions, it seems it works for some and not others.
I've done this process many times. And those sets/pieces I did still look good years later. But I don't put them back in the sun!!! You have to protect them. And don't smoke either. I used a 3% solution combined with water. So it was very diluted, probably only .5-1%. Let sit for 1-2 days.
Yep I've contacted Legos they replaced my pieces that brittle blue they call.. Hundreds and hundreds of pieces Lego replaced them all free... I just took photos emailed it to them and then I emailed them the list , I literally have 60 of those ATTE 's Not one of them has yellowed or discolored
I'm sure this has been said before here. You should be exposing the item you're attempting to whiten to the correct UV wavelength using bulbs. Do more research and expose your stuff to UV light under controlled conditions and not direct sunlight. The sun is every bit as good at yellowing something and causing damage to polymers at certain wavelengths.
OK make a character from talking points and Alico a 4K but the only issue I see No results but apparently the more at home superintend it and then just keep it inp
This is weird I've honestly never seen this before/ didn't know it was a problem. I have clone troopers i got like 11ish years ago that sit out pretty close to a window; they're all still white and the other sets that are also out haven't yellowed either. I do have parts that I think have yellowed but they aren't ones I've kept out, and are older like stuff that was handed down to me from my older cousin.
Well I think you've found a cheap way to make a home-built Fiat with that colouring technique! But if I had to take a guess at what happened to your pieces, I would say that the concentration of H2O2 has been so high that it has interacted with (and destroyed) the chemical composition that makes up the colouring - your pieces seem translucent in a way like they weren't before.
i did this hydrogen peroxide method on some old minifigures that i bought and they went back to the original color but the white and grey paint on the figures rubbed off the second i tried to dry the figures. what a shame...
I’m not sure that air humidity is a factor. I live in south Florida (extremely humid relative to most other places) and did this process using 3% hydrogen peroxide. Put my whites out in the sun for a couple of days and they are still totally fine. It’s been about a year. What I learned about the greys is that they shouldn’t be left in direct sunlight because the color will leach out of them. Colored pieces should be put in the solution but kept out of direct sunlight. That’s my two cents worth. I really don’t have a good explanation as to why yours turned yellow again so quickly. Seems strange to me.
My old USC Xwing from around 2000 was starting to get a bit yellow before I sold it. Luckily I displayed only in mostly dark areas so it didnt look so bad for about 18 years old!
I heard in other videos that using a higher percentage of Hydrogen Peroxide and not the one that was actually mentioned which is the 3% could destroy the Lego parts, but what do i know, i never did this type of cleaning before on my Lego parts and i'm willing to still try it on a small amount of parts.
I haven't tested that myself, but I have a large box with sorted-out yellowed parts. I was planning on treating them with H2O2 in the upcoming (north) summer. I will probably do a series of tests now and try to figure out the problem. Some of the comments here indicate that the problem maybe more complex than just "It works." or "It does not work.". Therefore, maybe you should not delete the other video, but instead point out in the descriptions of both videos what issues there might be and what you know by now and what is still unclear?
Really interesting! What strength HP did you use? I did this technique on my parts a few times over last year or so, no major issues as of yet 😬 And yes, I thought it was a UCS Snow speeder haha
LEts be honest. the age process is natural for everything i think the X wing fighter looks AWESOME: u dont see a car or a space ship that is clean wight after a battle or usage.. I dont mind the vintage looks. Did try to whitening process once it worked. Co-lours didn't reverse back but i will not do it again because like i said vintage looks should look vintage.. Also i think the sun in Australia is super strong compare to EUrope with much higher UV that might also be the case
I’ve been spending this past week dusting and cleaning all my displays.... I wish it wouldn’t have taken a worldwide pandemic for me to do it, because some of it has become very dusty and yellowed. I don’t really mind the yellowing so much myself either, as the collection is just for myself, but I HATE the dust!!! Just bought myself a new cordless shop-vac and some attachments with very small dusting brushes and it works absolutely great. I also have a small air compressor that works very well too, but it’s just kicking all the dust up in the air to fall back down on everything again. I love collecting and displaying but I HATE dusting lol.
Honestly unless you have rate expensive bricks (and in the case of your video, probably not). I found it cheaper just to buy new white bricks than use hydrogen peroxide. Two or three sets of bricks just ended up absorbing the peroxide.
Yup, tried it too. It looked good for a couple of weeks. And then it started to look worse than before. I was lucky enough to find the rare (vintage pieces) at a fair price and in good shape to replace them. Do not use that stuff even the lowest percentages are highly destructive!
I'd like an opinion pls 😊 I have the chiron, and the light blue parts took a serious sun burn, they're all turquoise Is it OK tu spary paint the parts or is it gonna ruine the pieces even more? I'm thinking I could totally change the color and have a very unique Bugatti Chiron
Your x-wing is very cool to be honest. Luke Skywalker’s x-wing has spent some time at the bottom of a swamp in Dagobah. Then again in the rise of skywalker Rey uses Luke’s X-wing which is very dirty and old at this point. The Clone Trooper isn’t too bad either. He is wearing armor and since his legs are the most yellow maybe he was fighting on a very dirty battlefield?
WAIT....are you saying that after peroxide whitening treatment, that it returns WORSE than before?! I've heard some say they just return the same, but if they are WORSE, then this has not been previously reported I don't think~!??
@DownUnder Bricks If I were you I'd get three different brands of 3% hydrogen peroxide and grab some of your junk pieces that haven't been treated before and try the process again. Make sure you label the three different types and the bricks (or take pictures), also take the pieces that you already treated and put them in 3 separate containers with the 3 different brands. Wait a few months and post your results. I'm about to try this with some legos and might make a video depending on results.
I'm sorry I didn't explain the process I used better in this video, I did however link with a card in the video the full process I used on these exact bricks. It was a 3% hydrogen peroxide bath in direct sunlight, please watch that video th-cam.com/video/bETzd4s-3XQ/w-d-xo.html A number of comments are describing what I did wrong and what I needed to do without knowing what process I used, which in most cases is what the commentators are describing.
DownUnder Bricks yep! Could see w difference even after 60 mins, it was a bright cloudless day in the uk in winter. So the air temp was very cool, but the actual uv from the sun would have been high. Literally 90 mins is all it took. I do have Some before/after photos. Set still bright n white 12 months on.
I’m guessing it’s something to do with local air temp , humidity, and water type
Can you sun bleach the white pieces?
DownUnder Bricks you completely destroyed the tantive iv.
I have legos from 1970s to now. some of my 70s & 80s pieces looked like your speeder (love the speeder tho) I used the 3% with a dab of water & oxyclean for 2 to 3 hours in direct sunlight over a year ago and parts are still white (not brittle or anything). I have hardish well water, however I am in USA at elevation of 3200ft. A friend in Texas however used exact same mix but he has soft water and his took longer, a few real bad pieces started to yellow slightly again after a year but others stayed white. We are thinking it's water differences. I think UV rays strength as well, not sure about elevation tho?!.
@@jrumber9162 very interesting, i’m thinking of also giving some pieces a hydrogen peroxide bath..
Should i just not add water to the 3% solution and throw them in there for a while in the sun?
I mean at least you got the UCS Sandspeeder that no one has. :D
Honestly, that's a great way of *making* a sand edition of any particular set :D
😂😂😂😂😂
The Sandspeeder that no one has but everyone can have
I must say, the -speeder looks genuine tan/sand coloured, as opposed to sun-stained. Looks too consistent to be sun-stained. Pretty either way ✌️
Yellowing of white plastic is common across the board whether its Lego or action figures, model kits or slot cars etc. The only way to combat it is to hide it from the sun.
i'll need to put away my UICS shuttle, i couldn't bear it to yellow
Got it treat my LEGO sets like vampires
Jordans yellow over tie too
Anthony Aguirre Same I have it at an angle where it shouldn’t be disclosed
@@karstenshields1694 I like my office to be as dark as a vampire's den and I have a number of white SW UCS sets on display. I'll report back in 100, nay, 10 years 😎
Yeah man, discolouration sucks! I got the original arkham asylum as a kid and was stupid enough to leave it on my windowsill for about 3 years. Can't bear to look at it now sadly
@@tasherxx_ it looks like the arkham asylum just yellowed
Okay class lesson time. Why plastic toys and consumer electronic turn yellow and develop that nicotine like color. It's not exactly caused by sunlight, although Sunlight and UV light will accelerate the process. It's going to happen no matter what. Even if left new sealed in the box for 40 years. Here's what's going on. Starting in the early to mid 60's products designated for childrens use, and consumer electronic plastic that had a potential ignition source (a power supply and connection to house current) had to be treated with something to make them flame retardant. Back in the day plastics burned easily. So plastic for toys had to have a Bromine based or BFR flame retardant added to the molten plastic. The BFR is what yellows. It's an organic compound that will decay to a sickly nicotine color over time. It's going to happen. Some things will increase the speed at which the bromine breaks down and yellows. Heat and UV rays being the big ones. But it's gonna happen.
Now to add to the fun you might notice that often the yellowing or decay does not occur in a uniform manner from part to part. Some parts darken more than others. This is because the BFR was dumped in as the plastic was melted, and how much got added was not a precise thing. Just dump a bucket in. The amount added may vary from batch to batch. The BFR formula's also changed and improved over the years. Modern ones hardly yellow at all. The ones from the late 70's and early 80's really seem to get very dark.
Now some people tout using Peroxide mixes in sunlight to cure or fix this problem. That's kind of an illusion at best. Your are bleaching the outermost layers of the plastic, and in many cases making the bricks or toy parts brittle in the process. Because look, anything external that is causing a color change in the plastic, is having a negative effect on the plastic itself. Color = chemistry. chemistry = plastic strength.
At the end of the day the yellowing is just the nature of the beast. It isn't a Lego QC issue. It is caused by the neutral BFR additive required by law.
Thanks Andrew for taking the time to write this comment. That’s very interesting and good to know. Cheers
This really is a great bit of information right here. Was looking into the whole whitening idea for my UCS R2 D2 (the back of it yellowed a lot but the front is ok). I reckon though I will just leave it. Cheers!
That's a brilliant explanation told in Layman's language.
Thankyou so much for that. Well done.
why cant they find an additive that doesnt yellow? or have they decided to keep it the way it is so people have to replace their old lego with new lego therefore creating more sales?
@digitalrandomart3049 Newer additive do not discolor anywhere near as much. But the additives and which formulations are allowed are embedded in consumer safety law so need to be approved. None of that happens swiftly.
you have a new Lego color! HydroP Yellow!
One of a kind lol
Mate your Snowspeeder bricks could pass for the tan that’s on the old UCS Yoda! That’s crazy. I have UV covers on my windows and keep my Lego in a dark room
Where can you get UV covers? I’ve seen a lot of the reflective ones but is there one that just filters the light?
I treated several of my vintage Lego sets four years ago and I have had no regression in their colours. I treated mostly white, old light gray, and transparent pieces. Since I treated the sets, I keep them out of direct sunlight, and out of indirect sunlight as much as possible. Also, I do not use white lighting. White lights cover a wider spectrum of light, which can seep into the UV. I use only warm (yellow) lighting in my Lego room. Lastly, it is now believed that heat amplifies the UV effects on plastic yellowing. I keep my Lego in a room that stays cool year round.
Living in the tropics heat is a possible factor.
Frederic Dubois great comment F.D.
You only left them in it for hours. I’ve not had this type of problem and I’ve done it many times and I’ve got no reason to take my videos down.
Never realised you had done any restoration videos, I’ll have to check them out. Knowing how thorough you are with videos I’m sure you had a disclaimer. I however did not, so that’s why I’ll be taking my video down. Yes I only soaked them for hours, at most 10 hours but that’s all it took to whiten them with the high UV levels in Australia. I’ll have to watch your videos to see if anything was done differently but from what I’ve seen from other videos I followed the exact process. You can clearly see that these bricks are now worse then ever. From the many comments it seems this process has varied results. Curious, do you sell used treated bricks in your bricklink store?
Hey all! I love both of your vids!
Now I realize I'm not a true Lego Groupie - I mean who cares if the bricks get a little yellow? Of course, I wouldn't want clean white and yellow together but your sets always look good... yellow or not. Think yellow as seasoning, curing... like fine wine. We ought to respect that. Once white now yellow... the set's been through a lot and its still here. Huzzah!
If I didn't just pin my own response comment I would be pinning this one. I applaud you sir!
@@DownUnderBricks Also man remember. The statue of liberty here in America, where I live... Its considered a great work of art for the whole nation... Its copper... Its not meant to be green... but it is now
@@omalleycaboose5937 for star wars vehicles it can make it looks real good or was used in fights a lot so it can look great
Right there with you. Yellowing is a thing that happens if you leave them out. Whether it's a thing you built or an official set. It just means your Lego is getting actual use.
(Though it does lead to an interesting dilemma when sorting: I have some white bricks from when I was a kid that I can't tell apart from tan if the light isn't really good.)
the ship is white, if it turns yellow then it's discolored and represents the thing less
i really don't see how this is a good thing
You have to set your white pieces in direct sunlight while they're in the hydrogen peroxide for at least 3 hours to get them white again. The longer the better. Peroxide on its own won't work. UV light is absolutely necessary in conjunction with the Peroxide. The UV light activates it. Otherwise you're just staining the bricks. Artificial UV light won't work either. It has to be natural sunlight on a warm, bright day. Don't do it on a cloudy day. And use clean soft water. Get bottled water if you have to. Iron or other heavy elements in the water will ruin the process.
Described the process I used to a T
DownUnder Bricks - Hmmm. I've done it with much success. Not sure what to tell you.
I love you're Silent Mary MOC btw. I'm really curious about how you did some of the construction. How did you widen the width of it? It seems like you used wider hull base pieces.
@@bovineone2420 It seems from the comments that this technique has varying results which leaves me to believe (as others here have suggested) that there must be many other factors involved. I don't think I'm game to try it again lol. Oh shoot sorry mate I've been meaning to respond to you about that. I didn't widen the hull but I built onto the side wall with the protruding ribs and canon ports which allowed me to have a wider deck. I did a part one video which shows the hull off pretty good if you want to take a look th-cam.com/video/lpKU33QAsfQ/w-d-xo.html
DownUnder Bricks - The only other thing I can think of is maybe the Hydrogen Peroxide solution is different in Australia. I don't know. I'm in California and I just use 3% Hydrogen Peroxide off the shelf. (No water added). I don't blame you for not wanting to try it again after the results you got though. And your Snowspeeder is awesome the way it is. It's unique. I love it.
Thanks for responding about the Silent Mary. I really appreciate it and will check out the video. I love your videos man! You do an excellent job. Keep em coming!
Artificial UV may work, but you have to surround the container/light strips with foil and keep the lights on for 48 hours.
1) 3% is too low, should use 12%. Use liquid and not cream.
2) Heat is actually the catalyst, in both to whiten and causing it to yellow. This is why ABS will yellow even in dark places. And no it's not cause of Bromine.
3) After you do retrobright, use a protectant, like 303 Products UV Protectant Spray
I got legos that are like that. I replaced them in their original predesigned sets, and then put the now yellowed pieces into a "theme" of sets that I call 'forest.'
Just pretend the yellowed pieces are shaded by the trees and they still work out. If I had enough of them, I'd build an old rotting house hiding out in the forest. It would have ivy growing all over one side of it and half the roof missing.
I've heard about hydrogen peroxide method for years...I keep meaning to do it to some of my sets but , you know, I always put off doing it. Now I'm reluctant but some of the other commenters seem to not have that issue. I wonder what variables make a difference? I know it works for some people.
Would you be interested in doing a science experiment with a few parts? It could make an interesting video.
Maybe it was the type/strength of the peroxide? Amount of UV light? (I wonder if a UV light bulb would work?). Or the water quality?...those seem like the 3 main variables.
Yeah, I would love to see a bit of an experiment too. It looks like it can work but we just don't know all the information yet to comfortably do it. Logically though if they keep yellowing anyways, if we just wait for the right information to be found, then we can just treat our bricks at that point instead of risking it now. That's what I'll do anyways
So I listened to all words being said, and I scrolled through all the comments (but not all the answers).
What I would like to know is if the models were displayed in direct sunligt AGAIN after the (failed) treatment?
No those parts never saw an ounce of sunlight light after they were treated
Watched your original video and have a couple questions, comments and suggestions. I’ve been using this process for a few years and had great results with only an occasional piece turning yellow again. So my first question is, did you throughly rinse the pieces in water after soaking them or did you just lay them out to dry without rinsing them? Did you use distilled water to dilute the H2O2 or tap water? Do you or anyone in your house smoke? Now for some comments/suggestions, I recommend using more solution in deeper bowls and putting fewer parts in them and placing a lid over them or something to keep them completely submerged. I use a glass bowl with a dome shaped lid that I put on upside down which gets all the air bubbles out, I stir about once an hour to get all the tiny bubbles out and refill if any solution has evaporated away. Lastly, when finished I fill my sink up with water and put a vegetable strainer down in the water and pour the parts into that and rinse rinse rinse to get any residual chemical solution off the bricks. I’d try again but be more patient and try it on your white Bricks first.
Exactly the same thing happened to me... I did notice that only the badly sun damaged parts re-yellowed very badly. I put all the white parts from a vintage set into the solution regardless of how bad they were. After six months the sun damaged parts had re-yellowed very badly again however the other parts had not.
Wow that's interesting!
So...i should actually NOT put it in sunlight but instead in pitch black darkness?
I got a bionicle set (set matoro inika), which essentially is lego technic, that has some insane yellowing.
@@iamthewell If you want to de-yellow your bricks you need to put them in the Hydrogen peroxide and leave it in sunlight for the process to work. It is only a temporary fix and the yellowing will return no matter where it is stored afterwards. From what I understand is that over time UV light transfers energy to the flame retardant in the brick which is Bromine. Bromine is naturally yellowish brown and as the bonds with the brick are broken the bromine reforms bonding with itself (becoming Br2) causing the yellow appearance. Hydrogen peroxide and UV breaks the bond but the unstable bromine will re-bond again. I'm no chemist so I may be a little off in my explanation!
I just wish people would not display them in direct sunlight
I love yellowed white bricks. I Made a Huge train station with my discoloured bricks.
Ruud Van den Broek glad to see someone else who uses them creatively too !
I will not expose my plastic, specifically LEGO pieces or Hasbro/Kenner parts, to H2O2. Now, vintage SW figs are a combination of materials. More flex compound in arms, heads, and legs; they used the same construction process as Fisher Price Adventure People. I have heard horror stories about people using an H2O2 bath for their Skystriker, only to have it be white again yet extremely brittle in parts. LEGO bricks use construction tolerances to maintain assembled integrity, so any change to the chemical composition of the plastic may affect the overall integrity of the model.
ABS plastic has an incomplete valence shell. Hence, the plastic is affected by free radicals. Looking at it from a chemist's perspective, I found an article awhile ago about how UV light works better, and how the H2O2 is actually bleaching the plastic, removing the extra electron from the valence shell, but it is still a chemical reaction. It takes energy to split an electron from a full valence shell. That is why elements with full valence shells are stable, for the most part.
I need to do some research into this. Just because it works for some, is it actually good for LEGO. My UCS X-Wing, almost 20 years old, has never been in direct sunlight, but has been exposed to oxygen. If I remember correctly, it is the oxygen which is most harmful. Remember, O2 is an oxidizer.
this might be hard in Australia, but you could try a higher potency of hydrogen peroxide and a black light and test them on your bricks. im more curios to see if that would solve the problem.
The 8-bit guy made a video on different techniques for retro-brighting. He found that using ozone and UV light work very well too. What he also discovered, was that h2o2 also restores the color when used with heat. Setting it to a temperature of about 70C and submerging the parts in h2o2 seems to work even better than the UV method. I've never had something like this happen to me... But then again I don't have any parts that are yellowed nearly as much as yours.
he didnt discover it (clarification)
Wow thats so said Dub. Snow Speeder does looks kewl in that tanned colour haha
Whats your best soloution for dust and things ??
Tim Gamble - I use an air cannister for dust. Just blow it off every few days. Sometimes I'll actually run the set under the faucet and set it out to dry. (Not in the sun of course).
Haha cheers mate. I pretty much keep my LEGO room in lock down to reduce the dust. Mopping the floor, wiping the shelves and dusting sets with a makeup brush are my tips.
Noooooooooo..... that’s shocking. I thought that was the miracle cure for bad Bricks.
I 'm getting yellowing on white bricks on sets that have been in my basement since taken out the box with no sunlight! No UV exposure at all.
d pin - I've found that out too. I think they just yellow over time on their own. Though sunlight definitely speeds up the yellowing process.
I've had that too, actually in old sets still sealed!
Some Bricklink store owners have mentioned this problem too. Stock that has been sitting in the dark for years will change colour, sometimes mixed with pieces that have not changed at all.
Other things like humidity, heat, or things like cigarette smoke can also do this to the plastic.
Wow, that’s crazy, no UV and still fading... I hope LEGO’s new plant based bricks will solve this problem but I suspect they’ll yellow even worse
Luckily for me, my room is set where the sun is never directly shining in, so my LEGO and other collectibles should last a lot longer without yellowing too bad. Plus, most of my stuff isn’t completely white/gray anyways, so it shouldn’t be as noticeable. But on things like my Hogwarts castle, it’ll just look even better.
So that means, although we let indirect light in with blinds on. Will that still damage the Lego?
@@ryanhong2581 Technically yes. It's the UV rays that damage plastics so direct or indirect the UV will still be hitting your bricks, just not as concentrated. Should help delay how bad they get though
I love that snow speeder in tan color
Now I want an UCS Sandspeeder
How can I protect them? I keep them in my shelves in my room, I keep the blinds shut and bought some nice white lights
I’ve used hydrogen proroxicde on my bricks for many years. Not had any problems at all. Used a low % dilution, left in sun for a max 90mins, on whites n greys only.
You maybe getting different results due to humidity, the led lighting, and also the type of water. North Uk water is very soft, where as hard Australian water might have trace limescałe
That's very interesting that it works for you in such a short period of time in the sun, after an hour and half my bricks didn't look any different. I soaked them for many hours which is what I've seen in many of the how to videos. That's a good point you make, I did used soft filtered rain water in a 3% bath but maybe the varying weather conditions were a factor. Thanks DDC
Honestly great point DDC. Australia does get a significant amount of UV radiation compared to the rest of the world. I’m in the upper northern hemisphere as well and I struggled getting enough UV exposure for my whitening attempts, and my bricks only lightened up a little, and haven’t reverted back yet. But again, I get so much less UV than Australia does.
I use hydrogen peroxide on my Lego all the time , I live in the uk as well so maybe that has something to do with it . Although for really yellowed pieces it can take a week for it to work fully .
The rare pieces you should just contact Lego I'm sure they could give you replacements you'd be surprised... Probably sent it to you free of charge they've done it for me.. It was only one white part that I needed then I got rid of the set sold it... But yeah I don't display any of my sets if I do it's only for a week or so then I take it apart and put it back in the box disassembled.. I'll pick one or two random sets and build them and display for a week and then put it away ..it's fun that way.. Plus less chance of getting damaged from whatever reason and it just collects dust .. I have so many of those AtAt sets Parted out.. Parts for those are easy to find
Interesting Vid! I've done a few whites solely sitting in hydrogen peroxide (no water mix) and sunlight for 5-6 hours. After a year they look brand new. I'm not sure if it's a fluke but I'll take it lol.
Sets get yellowed from the sun
How much sun light do your sets go through my god??!?!
Well in austalia the sun is very strong
Jon Targaryen really? Like hotter or just stronger?
Jon Targaryen you should close the blinds more lol
To your point sometimes they don’t look too bad with the coloration.
All pieces makes it look old
Part pieces make it look like the mini digs have repaired their ship as/when necessary.
On a Minifig house however different coloration would look horrible.
I've used sun + hydrogen peroxide successfully on many many many white bricks and they never never ever yellowed anything at all but stayed white for years and years so I can't understand why this is happening to you. Maybe you're not using pure hydrogen peroxide & water solution?!
From the comments here seems like there maybe other variables in the process that determine the outcome.
Thanks for the warning!! I have a bunch of pieces I was going to do that to. I won't be now. Lol
I have been doing it for a 3 years now and 1 mistake was putting a printed slope faded a little but other than no issues.
I am running out of tan bricks while i have a few white ones left... sounds like a cheap solution to me.
I don’t really know if the case for sunlight causing it is true because I’ve got the UCS Shuttle and its sat in the dark in my basement since I built it. I just went down to check on it and of course, it’s turning a cream color instead of white. Same with my X-wing and my Falcon. Not sure what’s really causing it, perhaps oxidation?
X-Wing looks like a Dagobah version now. It needs only leaves and vines to make it unique
Seems a lot of comments saying hydrogen peroxide works, but not much info on where they live. The UV from sunlight varies from place to place. Australia is particularly harsh (our daily recommended limit of direct sunlight measures in the minutes...). I’ve also watched some of these restoration vids and seems lots of talk about just buying a bottle of 3% solution. Never seen anything like that on a shelf here. DownUnderBricks, did you buy straight hydrogen peroxide to make a solution, or managed to find somewhere to buy it?
The yellowing actually makes it look like the original model for the movies
For star wars yes, but other sets...
Yeah grey and white changed for new bricks on my 1983 and 1985 12 V trains. Clear windows 🪟 is another thing that scratch and smoke out in colour.
If the pieces of the set of theseus are yellowed and they get replaced is it still the set of theseus?
I know I'm a bit late but I used 3% hydrogen peroxide to restore some classic space sets, it worked fine.
I have had the same issue and thought I had done something wrong so gave up and just replaced the parts in the end. I use the discoloured parts now for connecting plates etc that you can't see. I have a number of yellowed white bricks that I thought would look good when doing a building for a pirate scene as i think it might actually look good.
Bricks on the Coast - I love the old Pirates line. By far my all time favorite sets.
Good advice, I'll have to see how they look in future MOCs. Whether we did something wrong or varying conditions, it seems it works for some and not others.
Don't use hydrogen peroxide, got it
Look at it this way... sand coloured pieces are really expensive on eBay so use it for desert Mocs instead of snow :)
I've done this process many times. And those sets/pieces I did still look good years later. But I don't put them back in the sun!!! You have to protect them. And don't smoke either.
I used a 3% solution combined with water. So it was very diluted, probably only .5-1%. Let sit for 1-2 days.
That's interesting as I've only seen people just use the 3% solution only.
Yep I've contacted Legos they replaced my pieces that brittle blue they call.. Hundreds and hundreds of pieces Lego replaced them all free... I just took photos emailed it to them and then I emailed them the list , I literally have 60 of those ATTE 's Not one of them has yellowed or discolored
A yellow snow snow speeder? Don't lick it!
I'm sure this has been said before here. You should be exposing the item you're attempting to whiten to the correct UV wavelength using bulbs. Do more research and expose your stuff to UV light under controlled conditions and not direct sunlight. The sun is every bit as good at yellowing something and causing damage to polymers at certain wavelengths.
OK make a character from talking points and Alico a 4K but the only issue I see
No results but apparently the more at home superintend it and then just keep it inp
This is weird I've honestly never seen this before/ didn't know it was a problem. I have clone troopers i got like 11ish years ago that sit out pretty close to a window; they're all still white and the other sets that are also out haven't yellowed either. I do have parts that I think have yellowed but they aren't ones I've kept out, and are older like stuff that was handed down to me from my older cousin.
Well I think you've found a cheap way to make a home-built Fiat with that colouring technique!
But if I had to take a guess at what happened to your pieces, I would say that the concentration of H2O2 has been so high that it has interacted with (and destroyed) the chemical composition that makes up the colouring - your pieces seem translucent in a way like they weren't before.
Haha I'll have to try that lol.
It was only a 3% solution.
i did this hydrogen peroxide method on some old minifigures that i bought and they went back to the original color but the white and grey paint on the figures rubbed off the second i tried to dry the figures. what a shame...
This is one of my greatest fears... In ten yaers time my 2,5 meter long space shuttle will turn from white to tan...! :(
Is that republic venorator behind you a custom build?
My trick is to keep my sets on a black shelf facing away from the window.
Just buy new ones from bricklink or bricks and pieces when it comes back online
slim jim87 is bricks n pieces down at the moment?
I’m not sure that air humidity is a factor. I live in south Florida (extremely humid relative to most other places) and did this process using 3% hydrogen peroxide. Put my whites out in the sun for a couple of days and they are still totally fine. It’s been about a year. What I learned about the greys is that they shouldn’t be left in direct sunlight because the color will leach out of them. Colored pieces should be put in the solution but kept out of direct sunlight. That’s my two cents worth. I really don’t have a good explanation as to why yours turned yellow again so quickly. Seems strange to me.
That’s not a snow speeder that’s a piss speeder
(Yellow snow reference)
There’s way to restore that fad color back to white , you need a heat gun slowly go over the parts
I’m nearly ready to swear off using white pieces and buying white sets in the future.
It could be worse, you could have tried to use acetone. Can melt legos.
So is there another way to de yellow brick with the use of hydrogen peroxide
damn thats shocking, could almost pass it up for tan not white
My old USC Xwing from around 2000 was starting to get a bit yellow before I sold it. Luckily I displayed only in mostly dark areas so it didnt look so bad for about 18 years old!
Just make the video unlisted
I heard in other videos that using a higher percentage of Hydrogen Peroxide and not the one that was actually mentioned which is the 3% could destroy the Lego parts, but what do i know, i never did this type of cleaning before on my Lego parts and i'm willing to still try it on a small amount of parts.
I agree the yellow does make it look like an old x-wing the rebels would be using or a dagobah type varien. Really unique!
Its a peed-Snowspeeder ( =
I've seen so many say Hydrogen Peroxide is the way to go to get yellowed Lego white again, so thanks for showing us how it can end up.
Holy crap I didn’t think that snowspeeder was that yellow!
i don't even try cleaning them I just replace sometimes black sometimes never ruins it seems
How does it yellow i thought that only happened in sunlight
Has anybody tried Mr Hobby UV Cut on Lego?
the steve irwin of lego
It's like the same thing when you put shoe whitener on white shoes. They're just going to get dirtier
You see ruined. I see a new method to make sand pieces!
I haven't tested that myself, but I have a large box with sorted-out yellowed parts. I was planning on treating them with H2O2 in the upcoming (north) summer. I will probably do a series of tests now and try to figure out the problem.
Some of the comments here indicate that the problem maybe more complex than just "It works." or "It does not work.". Therefore, maybe you should not delete the other video, but instead point out in the descriptions of both videos what issues there might be and what you know by now and what is still unclear?
Really interesting! What strength HP did you use?
I did this technique on my parts a few times over last year or so, no major issues as of yet 😬
And yes, I thought it was a UCS Snow speeder haha
It was 3%. Haha I like it as a Sand speeder now lol
@@DownUnderBricks did you dilute that in water? It doesn't take much. When I do it, I pour about 80-90% water then add 3% HP
@@spaulagain they did not returned yellow ?
Imma brush my bricks with a toothbrush now
Thanks mate 😮
LEts be honest. the age process is natural for everything i think the X wing fighter looks AWESOME: u dont see a car or a space ship that is clean wight after a battle or usage.. I dont mind the vintage looks. Did try to whitening process once it worked. Co-lours didn't reverse back but i will not do it again because like i said vintage looks should look vintage.. Also i think the sun in Australia is super strong compare to EUrope with much higher UV that might also be the case
Holy Dooley. That’s bad. Are they brittle
Nope they seem fine other then the colour. Yeah mate I won't be doing it again. From the different comments thou it seems it works for some people.
thanks for telling me
I’ve been spending this past week dusting and cleaning all my displays.... I wish it wouldn’t have taken a worldwide pandemic for me to do it, because some of it has become very dusty and yellowed. I don’t really mind the yellowing so much myself either, as the collection is just for myself, but I HATE the dust!!! Just bought myself a new cordless shop-vac and some attachments with very small dusting brushes and it works absolutely great. I also have a small air compressor that works very well too, but it’s just kicking all the dust up in the air to fall back down on everything again. I love collecting and displaying but I HATE dusting lol.
you should take them apart, bucket water, drop of dish washing liquid, like new no dust and you have the enjoyment putting back together
Put them behind glass
what is that accent jesus christ
Honestly unless you have rate expensive bricks (and in the case of your video, probably not). I found it cheaper just to buy new white bricks than use hydrogen peroxide. Two or three sets of bricks just ended up absorbing the peroxide.
what about black legos
Maybe wood stain.
Does lego yellow under lights in a display cabinet anyone know ??
It yellows if under fluorescent lights.
I think I depends of the light.
Yup, tried it too. It looked good for a couple of weeks. And then it started to look worse than before. I was lucky enough to find the rare (vintage pieces) at a fair price and in good shape to replace them.
Do not use that stuff even the lowest percentages are highly destructive!
What about uv protection spray after being done whitening them? usually you can get uv protection.sprays on the car dashboard maintenance section
I'd like an opinion pls 😊
I have the chiron, and the light blue parts took a serious sun burn, they're all turquoise
Is it OK tu spary paint the parts or is it gonna ruine the pieces even more?
I'm thinking I could totally change the color and have a very unique Bugatti Chiron
Is this just a joke
Your x-wing is very cool to be honest. Luke Skywalker’s x-wing has spent some time at the bottom of a swamp in Dagobah. Then again in the rise of skywalker Rey uses Luke’s X-wing which is very dirty and old at this point. The Clone Trooper isn’t too bad either. He is wearing armor and since his legs are the most yellow maybe he was fighting on a very dirty battlefield?
WAIT....are you saying that after peroxide whitening treatment, that it returns WORSE than before?! I've heard some say they just return the same, but if they are WORSE, then this has not been previously reported I don't think~!??
@DownUnder Bricks If I were you I'd get three different brands of 3% hydrogen peroxide and grab some of your junk pieces that haven't been treated before and try the process again. Make sure you label the three different types and the bricks (or take pictures), also take the pieces that you already treated and put them in 3 separate containers with the 3 different brands. Wait a few months and post your results. I'm about to try this with some legos and might make a video depending on results.