"Airfix - same plastic?" Topic

If picking up an Airfix box of infantry today, is the plastic any different from the poly used in say the 70's? (also, are they the same sculpts?)

Some boxes originally done in the 1960s have been remodelled – check out link

I don't know about the plastic – I suspect that it is the same.

Ah, Date Released … thanks John.

Generally, the plastic is not the same. Plastic, actually polypropylene, was usually virgin in the '70's and that's why so many Airfix figures have survived to this day.

With cheaper, recycled plastic finding it's way into almost all polypropylene (soft plastic) toys, toy soldiers take a huge hit. They are stiffer and more prone to breakage now.

PVC or vinyl based plastic figures, like TSSD, Conte and several others, are not as bothered by this.

Imex is one of the worst offenders using stiff, regrind plastic that results in broken figures per box.

Airifix in the 80s used a horrible formula that with age became brittle and crumbled to dust!

The 1/32 are definitely different.

Airifix in the 80s used a horrible formula that with age became brittle and crumbled to dust!

Actually, this is something of a myth. The reason soft plastic, and probably any plastic, cumbles the way it does is because the figures were exposed to extreme temperatures. For example, they may have been stored in an attic which can get to well over 100 degrees F in the summer and well below freezing in the winter.

A friend had the astronauts box set one year. They were kept at there summer home which was not winterized. The following year, he said when they went back, he thought a bug had eaten them because they all were in pieces and fell apart further. This was in the mid 70s.

My Airfix Romans and Britons were only ever exposed to normal New England weather shifts (which does include a few 100+F days everywhere in the house, and thermostat at 55F on winter nights), never in an attic nor frozen. Died of dusted ankles every one.

My 70's airfix figures are held together by the paint and the dullcote. My painted ones have broken. Painted ones are on thick bases so not handled.

The dreaded "plastic Rot"!!!!
here an article on it..
link

and it Looks like metal figs arenŽt safe either…
miniatures.de/tin-pest.html

I've got some Robin Hood and Sheriff of Nottingham figures from the mid 70s. They are doing well. I have never had a problem with "plastic rot."

What I still have are from the mid 60s through the mid 70s, no plastic rot.

Some do, some don't. I have lost very few. Cheap enough though. I have lost some Zvezda and Italeri parts just because they use a very hard plastic (not quite rigid "kit" plastic), so plumes etc are prone to snapping.

And the current 1/32 figures are made in a modern, paintable plastic – if that helps. I don't recall seeing anything that suggested the 1/72 range had been remade with the new plastic.

Back in the '70's chalk was used as a filler by some makers. Airfix was one. Depending on the amount of filler, generally determines the amount of breakage.
Airfix Astronauts and Medieval figures are notorious for breakage due to the high chalk content.

Extreme temps appear to speed up the process of the chalk turning to dust.

Chalk! Wonder how they came up with that as an additive and no wonder some crumble.
None of my Airfix have suffered from "rot"..some timpo stuff did though. Slightest bit of pressure and legs would break off..one wagon just cracked and shattered like thin toffee. IŽd open the box they were kept in and thereŽd be a smell of something indescribable. Luckily I managed to swop the lot for some hard plastic kits.