I use this. It's made for electronics but great for action Figures. It has silicone tip and a brush on the other end. OXO Good Grips Electronics Cleaning Brush, Orange, One Size https://a.co/iOpaqqh
As long as the figures don't have stickers or metalic paint there should be no issues with putting them in the dishwasher. I have put tons of figures in mine without issue. If your dishwasher has the option, then turn off hot water / heated dry and you should be fine. I mean these figures are meant to be played with by kids, including in the mud and dirt and to be thrown around. Then cleaned off by mama or in a bath tub. Just don't be stupid about it. I put mine on the top shelf of the dishwasher and then turned off heated dry and had no issues. However I wouldn't put any of my Transmetals or G1 figures in there but any of the "Classics" or Generations era would be just fine. In general I don't use the dishwasher I normally use a soft toothbrush and dawn dishsoap with some warm water.
Once every few weeks i dust off my transformers with a reasonable sized brushed. A wet microfibre cloth with just tap water for frequently manhandled transformers does the trick for me. Now that i think about it i shld have used distilled water, not sure if chlorine affects transformers
If I'm feeling too lazy for dusting I just throw 'em across the room. Most of the dust falls off mid-flight and the impact takes care of the rest.
Soapy water can be good if there's actual grime on a toy. I discovered that a bunch of cough drops had gotten mixed into a storage bin and melted once and that was basically my only option. But you don't want to dunk them. Even if the toy has no stickers or metal, you don't really want to risk water getting stuck in the nooks and crannies and potentially getting moldy or something bad like that. A damp cloth or q-tip is the way to go if you need to wet-clean the toy. And you definitely don't want prolonged exposure to really hot water as it can deform the plastic (although people do this intentionally sometimes if something is already deformed). If it's just dust, makeup brushes have been the best in my experience. Pair that up with q-tips or compressed air for the hard to reach parts. There's sadly no real trick to it, ya just gotta do it. Or put everything behind glass. I like the accessibility of having toys out and ready to be picked up, but you can't argue that a sealed display keeps the dust out...
I built a dust box (vacuum attached) and use a very soft large paintbrush. No point in just moving the dust around in the air for it to fall right back down.
Well, if you want to use soap water, I suggest the following. Use body temperature water and an adequate amount of hand soaps to soak the figures in a large container. Then use a disinfecting/alcohol wipe to wipe off persistent stains. Try to do this as fast as you can. Then pour out the soap water and use tap water to rinse the figure several times. Do not leave soap there, as that makes joints much tighter in general, with way more fraction. Finally, get rid of all the water. Do not soak them forever as rust will form. I did this on all of my Transformers, third-party, Brave/Yuusha DX, and DX Sentai/Power rangers figures, and I can attest that this works amazingly well. If you do this quickly, then no obvious new rust will form around the metal. (A lot of Sentai figures in the 90s and 80s have many diecast parts, so I'm pretty sure about this.) The only downside is the stickers. Usually when the stickers are already peeling off before washing, then it just goes really bad. If the stickers are in nice condition, then just dry them carefully and make sure they are in the right location. Even if the stickers are moving around after washing, they usually stay quite fine after drying. Hope this helps.
Using hand soap instead of strong detergents is essential. Just choose a handsoap that works well for sensitive skins, and no harm will be done. Using dishwashing soaps and laundry detergents is way too strong.
Long make-up brush. More & gentler bristles than a paintbrush. Gets inside all the nooks & crannies nicely.
