That yellow dust covers EVERYTHING here in the spring.

 

Personally, before trying out the dishwasher method I would have taken an old no-longer used toothbrush and some Sunlight soap and would have given them a good scrub down, it would have helped to get into the nooks and crannies and you could have saved the stickers better because they wouldn't be getting soaked.

However it is a novel approach, though I don't know if I'd reccomend it to anyone in the future. A dishwasher is meant for dishes after all, sure you can put the odd other item in there, but a toy isn't going to just stay put if it isn't properly placed within the machine and parts could break or snap off if it gets knocked around too much.

Also, what about the robot modes? Sure you could stick'em in as vehicles, but the robot parts hidden and tucked away won't get washed.

 

I agree with this. The dishwasher uses really hot water which may be a bit extreme.

Dish soap, warm water, tooth brush and for harder stains I use a Magic Eraser. Just be careful as the magic eraser will remove paint from stickers and plastic. I half transform them to have access to all surfaces, and let them soak for 30 minutes.

Good luck and enjoy your haul!

 

WOW! you know, I'm a pretty ok collector and I can't say NONE of my toys could ever conceivably get that dirty...but all these figures are 1-2 years old....there should be no way they've gotten THAT dirty.

 

You can also put circuit boards and keyboards in the dishwasher, provided you do not add any soap.
Arcade Restoration Workshop

I hadn't thought about this. I have a couple of hundred TFs that are really dirty (due to flood) and the number of them is so great that I can't find the time to sit and clean each one manually. Maybe I will try putting some TFs in the dishwasher just to see how they turn out. For me, anyways, it would be an excuse to finally buy some repro labels.

 

Pretty much everything not inside my house looks like that in the spring, which reminds me I still need to scrub down the patio table.