Who knew gold chrome washes away?

I bought a Giga Powermaster figure on eBay. It was in good shape, just a little chrome wear which is to be expected. I decided to give the figure a once-over as I do all my purchases - a light cleaning with a household cleaner. In this case, I used Windex v/ Vinegar. I applied it and started cleaning. No issues really.

I looked at the q-tip I was using, and didn't notice any paint build up, primarily because I avoid the painted areas anyways. I went ahead and cleaned the chrome since I have done that in the past with no problems whatsoever.

Not this time though. I finished everything and noticed that his back chrome had change from gold chrome to silver chrome! All the chrome was there, but he was now silver.

I wasn't aware chrome could react in that fashion. Was the gold coloring painted on? I didn't notice any gold color on the finished q-tip. I'm not exactly sure how it happened, but perhaps this post can be a warning for people who attempt to clean gold chrome in the future.

Anyhow, the chrome had wear to start, so I don't really care that the color is off. I'll go out and find some gold chrome paint and paint it back on.

It was probably chromed silver with clear yellow painted over.

It could be that the "gold" chrome is a two part mixture, with a silver or chrome paint or plating to give a lustrous, metallic look, and then a yellow dye or solution to give it a more gold color. The dye could have broken down, or been more prevalent to solution, leaving only the silver/chrome part behind.

in that case you should be able to paint clear yellow right back over it hopefully

Definitely. All "colored" chrome is the same way. It comes of even easier when the color is just layered, as is the case of Giga. And when it is mixed, tends to crack everything off.

Yes. That should be to hard at all.