Maintaining Your Action Figures

Moisturizing

Use Armor All to remoisturize and revitalize an old Joe. It can replace quite a bit of the lost plastisizers from the vinyl. Don't soak the Joe. Just apply several applications. -- Wolfman 

Check it about every 3 months or so. -- Scott

Armor All deteriorates rubber faster than air alone can. Use Meguiars protectant on rubber. -- Brant Rusch

When I displayed my first 30th Anniversary diver, I sprinkled the body and suit with diver talcum powder. It made it a little white but who cares. That didn't do the trick, so my next plan was Scubaro regulator silicon. It works well but the dust is a bitch. Now it is tough stopping this guy from becoming a Gillie suit diver! -- Barry W Middleton

The best way to preserve the vintage scuba suits is to dust them with a little bit of talcum powder - inside and out. If you are going to put it on Joe, powder him lightly as well. If you handle him, repowder where your fingers touched the suit. Your body's natural oils can break down the rubber. Also, if he is displayed in a case by himself you can put a small dish of water in the case with him to keep the air humid. Don't do this if fabric uniforms are in the same case. -- GITrooper

Avoid using any lubricant on your models that is petroleum based! It will eventually react with the plastic and degrade it. Use lithium or graphite based lubes instead. -- Richard A. Lewis

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Stress Cracks

To repair stress cracks you need something that will bond to the plastic. Most of these types of plastics are hard to actually bond something to. Unfortunately, this usually means a solvent-based cement that may or may-not fully bond. I have had success bonding to similar plastics using a urethane adhesive. It cures relatively hard, but not brittle like many epoxies. These should be available at most hardware stores - 3M Co's 3549 is a good version. -- Trent

Shoe Goo is great for repair of vinyl if you work from the inside It has a good bond but will show. For hard plastic dolls super glue works well and acetone works and is our glue of choice as if sort of melts the hard plastic and fuses it back together. -- D Maltz

If the stress cracks are in a Masterpiece Edition Joe, contact Chronicle Books and let them know about it. You can email them at frontdesk@chronbooks.com. Let them know if you too are having this problem so they can figure out a solution for these and possible future editions. -- Rick Murray

Try our Speed Glue line. The medium is a gap filler and you can sand it down before you repaint if needed.

~ Valerie, Chinook & Hobby West

GI Joe® is a trademark of Hasbro, Inc.

These are opinions of what has worked for others. Chinook & Hobby West is not responsible for any damage to your items.