Golden slizer head - discoloration

[vexorian]

I bought a bulk of used parts on Sunday . I had some lucky sightings. However, what impressed me the most was the golden slizer head as I am more of a slizers fan than a bionicle fan (which couldn't complete his collection) and I actually had no idea millenia's head was golden.

But what impressed me the most was that the gold color was much, much better (in my opinion than just about most of the bionicle gold attempts (not sure about brutaka gold, but it is definitely a lot more gold-looking than kanohi gold and takanuva's/iruini's).

But since I bought the pieces in bulk I had to wash them as usual. My routine is boiling water + small amount of detergent powder (generic one used for clothes). It usually works well and does not even remove prints or anything. Unfortunately, today I noticed why millenia gold was not used in the following sets. It gets discolored with just hot water :(. So posting this thread mostly as a heads up in case you find this piece, do not wash it with hot water. Then again I am not sure what the alternative would be in case it needed washing. Perhaps just some disinfectant or something low profile that would still work.

Some pics, just hope the discoloration issue is noticeable:

[Bundalings]

I believe Millennia's head is just painted, like many (all?) chrome pieces. So that's why the color changed. I guess the paint boiled off... =/

[vexorian]

Well, this piece is not really chromed hence why I didn't expect it to happen. But yes, it seems it is painted.

[KimT]

Perhaps it's one of those "tumble-painted" parts like the new metallic silver helmets in the Kingdoms theme?

They've done that for a while - the speckle-colours are also tumble-painted.

Wow, that foot part is just "Eeeeeeww!"

Looks like it's been living spending too much time with domesticated animals

It's all smudged and greasy to look at.

[Front]

Don't ever put Lego pieces in boiling water, you will destroy the plastic.

Use water at 40 degrees celcius as maximum, and you are safe.

I don't know the finish that the piece here has been applied, but chrome finish and paint (dont by LEGO) will only make the cleaning process much more complicated.

[brickzone]

Also just to note that 40C is really not that hot at all - your body temperature is just below that (~37C), so the water shouldn't feel much more than warm to the touch, otherwise it is a higher temperature.

[Omicron]

That particular part (along with his disc) were actually painted, or tumbled as KimT pointed out. They are really just tans parts under all that gold. I have the pieces.

Kinda screwed yourself over. :\

-Omi

[vexorian]

I think I will further remove the paint and then apply some golden paint as it seems it was painted initially anyway.

Don't ever put Lego pieces in boiling water, you will destroy the plastic.

Use water at 40 degrees celcius as maximum, and you are safe.

I don't know the finish that the piece here has been applied, but chrome finish and paint (dont by LEGO) will only make the cleaning process much more complicated.

Well, I don't know. I usually just use a normal water boiler. Wait till it whistles and then wait some time so it isn't too hot. I live in a place where water boils at 86 degrees. I have no idea what the actual temperature of the water is but so far this has been the worst/only issue. Normal LEGO plastic and also the awful quality bionicle plastic used in some pieces (you know the one that is far more prone to scratches but more flexible) seem to do fine. But I'll try to change my habits.

My problem with 40 celsius would be that unlike boiled water it may not be able to work as a placebo against my slight case of germophobia. Which leads me... to how about alcohol? Could it have bad long term effects? Also bleach, I normally use it to whiten yellowed pieces but I wonder if color tone would survive a hour of bleach (normallly need days before yellowed pieces begin to whiten slightly).

[brickzone]

My problem with 40 celsius would be that unlike boiled water it may not be able to work as a placebo against my slight case of germophobia. Which leads me... to how about alcohol? Could it have bad long term effects? Also bleach, I normally use it to whiten yellowed pieces but I wonder if color tone would survive a hour of bleach (normallly need days before yellowed pieces begin to whiten slightly).

Well, this may not be absolutely perfect, but I use a very light bleach to kill germs on secondhand Lego. It's a product called "Milton" used for baby bottles, etc. 15 minutes does the job and it is fine even for printed parts (just don't rub them, *especially* silver/gold printing). Perfectly safe to put your hands in (even with no gloves) and just lift out the Lego and put it into the warm water. I leave the bricks soak in the water for a bit (I add a drop of dishwashing liquid), then use a soft toothbrush on any parts with attached dirt. Finally I rinse them in non-soapy water and leave them on the drainer for a bit before roughly drying them on a tea-towel (and I leave them on that for them to dry out fully).