Restoration Advice - 1980 Yoda Hand Puppet

[Leemcl]

Hope all are doing well this week.

I've had this guy since 1980 and he's been on display but as you can see he's looking a little dirty. Also his base has been sticking to my metal display shelves. My plan today was to give him a clean with some wet wipes and see if this improved him. It did not. No amount of rubbing did anything noticeable regarding removing the marks, they seem ingrained.

Anyone got any advice as to what might help ?

Also, what's the "18" engraved in the base mean - see left hand side under the foot

Thanks

Lee

 

[TheJabbaWookie]

I have one too but he's even rougher around the edges than your one. There's a guy on FB called Sam who has a massive collection. I'll try and see if he has any tips.

 

[Leemcl]

Thanks mate. Appreciate that

 

[TheJabbaWookie]

No miracle cure I'm afraid but he should know he showed me a pic with about 50 puppet yodas :shock:

They dirty up fast... would not try anything harsh cleaning wise. Soap and water... anything more might break down the rubber. The numbers and letters engraved on the bottom are the batch numbers from production.

 

[Leemcl]

Many thanks mate.

I'm obviously a little sad that the deterioration of Yoda might be terminal. I suspected the worst with it as I tried to clean with gentle soap and water and then a wet wipe...

In the end I guess all vintage will perish, I've noticed that overall seems less and less clear bubbles year on year, and lots of the AFA / UKG items also perishing a bit more than the scores would indicate. And to top it all off. My grey hair seems much more than before too

 

[TheJabbaWookie]

Grey hair. It's just a variant. Look at it as the sophisticated variant. :lol:

 

[poncho]

Boglin puppet clean I saw earlier