Some vintage Star Wars figures questions

Hey guys, here's something I've been pondering. Recently I bought a vintage Tauntaun toy. I'm not that a serious collector, in general I don't really mind some damaged paint etc. But in this case, the reigns of the Tauntaun are not in the best condition and I'm thinking about how to preserve them a bit better. It appears to be a common problem with this type of plastic becoming brittle overtime and it can be repaired with some superglue. I'm just afraid that if I do so, they will only break in another spot. So, I'm wondering, can the plastic be revitalized in some way? I'm guessing the process is similar to Super Sculpey(Polymer Clay) loosing it's softener overtime, but that can be reversed as well. Any ideas? If not, has anyone ever tried to make a cast of these particular parts in some kind of flexible, colored urethane?

Also, together with the Tauntaun came a couple of other figures. Some of them feel a bit tacky or sticky. I washed them with some lukewarm water, but the tackiness stayed. What could this be? Coul it be the plastic leaking oil?

Last thing, does anybody know what the general concensus among collectors is about repairing damaged pant on toys? Like I said, I don't really mind paint being damaged, but sometimes things like horns could use a little touch-up. Is that generally not done?

I've had a couple of these figures go sticky like that. A quick bath in soap and water should do the trick. Hopefully someone else can chime in on your other questions.

The stickiness and brittleness are plastic degradation. It can't be stopped. You can get rid of stickiness as mentioned above. Storing things in dry, cool, low light conditions will help slow the process, but it is inventible.

As for paint touch up, that is generally frowned upon. Cleaning an item is ok. Touching up paint and replacing stickers goes beyond general restoration. That is why higher condition items demand a premium price. If these are items that won't be sold as "original" condition, then go ahead touch them up and use them in your personal collection. If you do decide to sell them later, make sure the buyer is aware of the work you did. Same thing with repro parts/weapons.

Hope that helps

Thanks for the quick responses! Is the stickiness dangerous to my other figures? I mean, can toys placed next to it also get "it"? I sometimes had figures with a large amount of softener (like bendables) stick to and damage other figures.

And how about repro TaunTaun reigns, does anybody have any experience making them?

I would think other toys are ok - I haven't heard of a stickiness in a plastic being harmful to others

As for the paint touch up there's two sides to that coin. I've done it for my own collection. Like a Biker Scout for example, their hands always scratch, so I just added a little touch up black paint. Not a big deal, IMO... Still, some hard core collectors view this as restoration, which can and will hurt the prices they can fetch for non-restored figures... Restoration is borderline blasphemy in their eyes. Anyway, do what you feel is right, of course.

Like said before with repainting if you know your not going to sell it go to town repainting but repainted/modded figures usually are worth less than original condition.

For the sticky figures if you clean them properly they should not affect other figures. But the soft plastics of some figures/accessories can begin to stick to the other figures but that would take a bit.