just thought i would post how i cleanup figures i purchase on ebay or elsewhere..
first and foremost, i only collect G1 figures that are in near mint/unplayed with condition. i usually try to buy figures with just the factory stickers intact, but sometimes figures come along from adult collectors who just displayed their figures with all stickers on the toys. hopefully, this will help a few of you out there.
obviously, the first thing to do is to peel the stickers off, and try to get as much residue off of the figure with your fingers. getting as much off helps with the next step.
okay, for chrome, i found the best way to get off the tough residue is to use a washcloth with warm water and dish soap. simple enough, but it takes a long time to be thorough, and this method will not dull/wear the chrome. just recently, i removed label-sheet stickers off of all dinobots, and megatron, and the chrome looks as it did when it came out of the box!
for car windows that the autobot symbol may be on, do the same as above.
for all other plastic and painted metal parts, by far the easiest and fastest way is to use rubbing alcohol. this gets the residue off very fast, and it WILL NOT damage/dull paint or plastic. rubbing alcohol, will however, ruin and dull chrome, so NEVER use it on chrome.
i hope this helps others out there who collect their figures like they were right out of the box, or those who use repro-labels.
and i also do collect/buy unapplied label sheets to complete the figures, i just prefer to keep them unapplied.

Jim

 

yeah, radicons has quite alot of different guides and resources on this and other toy maintenance. You should check out the radicons sub forum.

 

When I stumbled upon a hidden away thrift store some months ago, I hit a small motherload (just to name one, Ratbat, complete, $1! Yeah a buck.)
about ten figures in all and they all came clean as a whistle with baby wipes.
The wipes are powerful enough to break through old glue etc, yet safe enough not to harm the figure.

Hope it helps!



BM