Restoration Techniques
You've been waiting three excruciating days for that last M.U.S.C.L.E. you need for your collection to come in the mail. It finally arrives, you rip open the package, and...
IT'S DIRTY!!
What do you do in a situation like this? Well, here are my recommendations for squeaky clean M.U.S.C.L.E.s!
1) The Toothbrush Technique: First, get a normal everyday toothbrush (preferably one that has not already been used... I'm sure your M.U.S.C.L.E.s don't want to be scrubbed with little pieces of chewed-up food). Then put some soap on the toothbrush and scrub away! Don't worry, the toothbrush won't hurt your M.U.S.C.L.E., and the bristles will get into some hard-to-reach cracks and crevices... even where the sun don't shine!
Some collectors use somewhat more harsh cleaning agents such as Comet. I worry about it damaging the MUSCLEs, so I don't use it myself. We really don't know how well MUSCLE plastic (or any other toy's plastic, for that matter) will hold up in the future. These toys really weren't intended to be around this long, and noone really knows if they will decay eventually. So, I'm hesitant to use harsh chemicals because they may adversely affect the MUSCLE plastic in some way in the future. I'm sure we don't want our MUSCLEs to look like they "chose poorly", ala the bad guy at the end of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade...
2) The Exacto Knife Scrape: After scrubbing with the toothbrush, you look closely and notice some little black flecks on your M.U.S.C.L.E. I'm not exactly sure what these little black flecks are, but they generally don't come off with toothbrush scrubbing. This is where Exacto Knives come in! Take your Exacto Knife and put the blade on the dot, while holding the blade perpendicular to your M.U.S.C.L.E.'s surface. Then carefully scrape, don't cut, in a side to side motion until the dot is gone. What I mean by scraping instead of cutting is this: If you're holding your knife so that the blade is away from you, you would scrape from left to right while keeping the blade perpendicular to the M.U.S.C.L.E. If you scrape away from you or if you don't hold the blade perpendicular to the M.U.S.C.L.E., you'll end up taking a chunk out of your poor little wrestler. Keep in mind that even if done correctly, there will probably be a slight mark on the M.U.S.C.L.E., but that mark will most likely be relatively insignificant compared to those ugly black dots. Also, be careful with the Exacto Knife. They're very sharp and, after all, you don't want to get any blood on your M.U.S.C.L.E.!
IT'S DIRTY!!
What do you do in a situation like this? Well, here are my recommendations for squeaky clean M.U.S.C.L.E.s!
1) The Toothbrush Technique: First, get a normal everyday toothbrush (preferably one that has not already been used... I'm sure your M.U.S.C.L.E.s don't want to be scrubbed with little pieces of chewed-up food). Then put some soap on the toothbrush and scrub away! Don't worry, the toothbrush won't hurt your M.U.S.C.L.E., and the bristles will get into some hard-to-reach cracks and crevices... even where the sun don't shine!
Some collectors use somewhat more harsh cleaning agents such as Comet. I worry about it damaging the MUSCLEs, so I don't use it myself. We really don't know how well MUSCLE plastic (or any other toy's plastic, for that matter) will hold up in the future. These toys really weren't intended to be around this long, and noone really knows if they will decay eventually. So, I'm hesitant to use harsh chemicals because they may adversely affect the MUSCLE plastic in some way in the future. I'm sure we don't want our MUSCLEs to look like they "chose poorly", ala the bad guy at the end of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade...
2) The Exacto Knife Scrape: After scrubbing with the toothbrush, you look closely and notice some little black flecks on your M.U.S.C.L.E. I'm not exactly sure what these little black flecks are, but they generally don't come off with toothbrush scrubbing. This is where Exacto Knives come in! Take your Exacto Knife and put the blade on the dot, while holding the blade perpendicular to your M.U.S.C.L.E.'s surface. Then carefully scrape, don't cut, in a side to side motion until the dot is gone. What I mean by scraping instead of cutting is this: If you're holding your knife so that the blade is away from you, you would scrape from left to right while keeping the blade perpendicular to the M.U.S.C.L.E. If you scrape away from you or if you don't hold the blade perpendicular to the M.U.S.C.L.E., you'll end up taking a chunk out of your poor little wrestler. Keep in mind that even if done correctly, there will probably be a slight mark on the M.U.S.C.L.E., but that mark will most likely be relatively insignificant compared to those ugly black dots. Also, be careful with the Exacto Knife. They're very sharp and, after all, you don't want to get any blood on your M.U.S.C.L.E.!
