cleaning discolored Steck castle walls

[flatcat]

Personally, and I know everyone has their own preferences, but I actually like some discolored pieces mixed in on a castle, because I think it makes the castle look more authentic, aged. Is that odd?

Depends on how discoloured they are! - I've got a flat two way connector that is almost yellow, and it just looks too silly to use!

Damo

[Indianna]

I purchased two Steck castle walls from DS, and they were both slightly discolored.  They are a little bit brownish, rather than grey.  It's really only noticable when they are intermixed with some mint condition Steck pieces I have. . .

As others have said, this may be from sitting around for a long time at DS, but, in that case, I would have thought they would be pristine.  That made me wonder whether the plastic or the color is a different formula than before.  I think the Playmobil factory has switched completely over to new machines so these walls may have been made on different machines than the original Steck pieces were.  Does the plastic seem the same in all respects other than color?

Also, I would encourage anyone who uses chlorine bleach, especially for long soaks, to read this:  Re: Whitening Whites with Bleach 

This is the part that tells about possible damage to the plastic from using chlorine bleach:
Here's a quote from the Retrobright website about the problem of using chlorine bleach, in scientific terms:

Chlorine Bleaches and Removing Yellowing
Some people have commented that they have managed to remove yellowing with domestic hypochlorite based bleaches containing stabilised Sodium Hypochlorite. Now, although this method works, this is a really bad idea for the plastic as I will explain. Bromine has an Atomic Number of 35 and a molecular weight of just under 80. Chlorine has an Atomic Number of 17 and a molecular weight of 35.5. This means that in simple English that a Chlorine atom is just under half the size of a Bromine atom.  What this actually means is that although Chlorine is higher up in the Group VII (Halogen) elements than Bromine and can displace Bromine; the downside is that you are essentially peppering the surface with tiny holes, as the Bromine is bigger than the Chlorine that has replaced it. This translates into the plastic becoming brittle as the lattice is no longer completely filled. You also haven’t really gained anything, since Chlorine can also pull Oxygen from the air and hold onto it, making the plastic change colour, although not as pronounced as before.