Nasty surprise (and warning about Star Wars 12" Zam Wessel)

[WhiteDove01s]

Ok, so I've been a little more productive thanks to a thingy called a kanban board, but still scatterbrained due to Aunt Flo visit. Somewhere in the combination of those two and while plugging doll measurements into a spreadsheet I decided I was finally going to get Zam Wessel's clothes off...

That sounds worse than it is. XD

Ok, I have a 12" Zam Wessel from Star Wars Ep 1 that I snagged on sale on Amazon ages ago, partly with thought of mugging her for her clothes. Turns out her clothes were sewn on, and the arms are actually sculpted and painted to look dressed. I expected about half of that. Somehow I never got around to seeing just how hard it would be to get the clothes off, tho, partly because she felt kind of scrawny and I wasn't sure what to dress her in over on the Star Wars shelf if I managed to ruin what she was wearing at the time.

Anyhow, the top was sewn on, but I managed to get the padded pants, boots, and most accessory stuff off with minimal trouble. The nasty surprise and warning is this: Her legs are already oozing plasticiser, a situation that's basically a 'terminal vinyl breakdown'. (I have an experiment planned for this summer for a knockoff barbie head with the same condition)(Oh, and the top has been cut off now while I plan how to modify it for easy putting back on. I'm pondering some slightly non-canon side straps with velcro)

It's made the inside of her pants and boots all sticky, and given that the boots are also plastic...

Anyhow, I have plans to handwash all items thoroughly today in the hopes of getting the greasy-sticky mess off. Does anyone know if contact will cause this to spread to or damage other plastics and if I should be especially careful of the boots and/or subject them to extra examination due to having direct contact with the leaking legs?

I pulled her head off to salvage it, damaging the neck peg of the original body in the process (not a big loss under the circumstances), and currently have her on a Bellybutton barbie body (she didn't lose much in terms of poseability), but it's not a great match for her odd skin tone. Her head did actually fit on a barbie neck with a lot of warming, though, in case anyone needs to do an emergency swap... but even a Fashionista Raquelle is too pink in tone and Twilight Barbies are too pale. She'll be a hard color to match. Thankfully the character's tendency to cover up pretty much head to toe will cover issues enough for me and for now (since she's not one of my more higher 'ranking' character dolls)

I just wanted to let everyone know, because if you have this doll, you may want to pull off a boot and check the leg vinyl to see if there's leaking. Playline dolls aren't made in batches of one, so I know mine's not going to be the only one with this problem.

[maywong]

Do you have pictures of this doll?

[WhiteDove01s]

I was daft and didn't grab my camera before I got started, because it was supposed to be just a 'mugging with slight complications' until I noticed the sticky. Then I kind of got all flaily about it (I'm blaming Aunt Flo for my failure to properly document)

However, this is the doll in question in her original state on Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Star-Wars-Episode ... zam+wessel

And this is the doll as she is now, all items removed, the original body headless, and the head stuck on a Barbie body where it really doesn't look right but at least I won't misplace her among all the other floating heads.

Not included in that pic are her helmet, weapons, and the mask that's supposed to be her real face. (I forget the name of her species at the moment.) I picked her up for about $5 I think, a good couple years ago. She was mostly bought for her accessories, hence why it took so long to even really bother with the clothes once I noticed how padded they were.

[Arkinlae]

Uwow thats sad news she might have been nice to add to the collection. Could it be her age? I mean if she was made when Episode 2 came out then she'd be at least 10 years old, though I guess there are vintage dolls older that haven't done this.

(she's a Clawdite )

[WhiteDove01s]

Uwow thats sad news she might have been nice to add to the collection.

Odds are I'd have eventually tried giving her a better body anyway. A bounty hunter should have more poseability than a knockoff Barbie. I just wasn't planning on doing it anytime soon. The Barbie body is a stopgap measure until a good bit later.

I don't have much in the way of Star Wars figs, mostly a handful of 1/6th ones that are 'stage extras' if I ever do any Star Wars crossover photostories. (The rest of the Star Wars shelf has an Ep 1 Anakin, Qui-Gon, Kenobi, and Watto, as well as a doll that was sold as 'Ultimate Hair Amidala' but I thought that was a bit misleading as she's wearing an outfit that only the decoy Sabe actually wears in the film. Also a Grand Moff Tarkin, and a Clonetrooper who is sadly a nearly unposeable brick with unremoveable armor (I actually pretend that one's a prop and really IS just someone's suit of armor on a stand. XD)

I also have two Pit Droids (who have made their way to my main shelves and stories... and also into clothes. XD); and a green R2 (I forget the box serial number/name) who will eventually be painted yellow to be R2-J7 from some tabletop games...

Could it be her age? I mean if she was made when Episode 2 came out then she'd be at least 10 years old, though I guess there are vintage dolls older that haven't done this.

Age can be a factor in a breakdown starting, but it's not the only one. Her body's dated 1999. But even then, I have dolls from when I was a kid (back in the 80's) who aren't starting to break down. I tend to think that some vinyl batches are more likely to develop this than others, kind of like how almost all the Cabbage Patch Kids who might develop Cabbage Pox tend to come from the same one or two factories.

(she's a Clawdite )

Thanks! For some reason I was just blanking on the word. XD I'm actually thinking, since I'll eventually have to replace her body anyway, of trying to find something slender and vaguely more lizard-y than the temp Barbie body. Her original body (which is a tiny smidge paler than the head anyway) is a pretty close match to a regular-skin Obitsu, so that might work. It's not high priority for now, though (if I stitch her up a replacement for her usual bundle of clothing, it's pretty concealing XD), just on the eventual 'to do' list.

What's worrying me is whether or not contact with the leached plasticisers could trigger a breakdown in other vinyl, aka, can this condition spread? I'm hoping not... but before I really noticed the problem I'd already pulled her pants off and tried them on a Barbie body. And while I washed it as soon as I noticed (while taking the pants back off the Barbie, I noticed the inside of them felt oily/sticky and then checked the legs) I keep thinking the Barbie legs feel a little sticky now. I could just be being paranoid, but I'm about to wash them for a third time just to be safe. XD

If it IS contageous, then I don't know if I'll really be able to salvage any of her clothes (at least, not the pants or boots that came into direct contact). Unless someone here knows how to make sure every bit of the plasticiser residue is washed out.