Clean Up Yellowed LEGO

This is something that I am quite excited about. When I got back into LEGO I started putting my old sets back together. As a kid I kept all my sets out on display, so as I put them back together, I noticed that the pieces had started to turn yellow. Most severe cases were white, blue, and light grey colors. I felt stupid for leaving my LEGO out and exposed to the sun. I looked around the internet to see if there was anything you could do to clean them. Everything I found said that it was permanent and there was nothing you can do. Some people said they used bleach on white parts, this kind of worked but left the pieces brittle and they lost their shine.

Seeing defeat, I bagged up all the discolored pieces and ordered replacements from bricklink. I couldn't bring myself to throw them away, hoping that one day some miracle would come and I could fix them. Well, that miracle has come.

Yesterday TBB blogged about a group of vintage computer hobbyists / chemists that have found a way to COMPLETELY reverse the yellowing of older plastic!!! A solution of hydrogen peroxide, "Oxy" laundry detergent and UV light was perfected and given them name retr0bright. Check out their webpage.

This revolution has me SO excited. The geniuses over at retr0bright have become heroes to me.. in a way. The technique has found its way to the LEGO community and of course shows great results.

Tim Goddard shows his results here:


Smitty has set up a website using this formula specifically for LEGO:
LEGO Restoration

This process can take anywhere from 3-29 hours to fully reverse the yellowing. It also deals with using strong hydrogen peroxide which, if mishandled, can lead to serious health problems. Please fully read the posts on the retr0bright site and on smitty's site to fully understand what you are getting into.

I really want to try this out. As I said I have a one gallon ziplock bag full of yellowed LEGO. I will take some photos and detail my process as I go. I'll be sure to post the results.

UPDATE:
Follow my guide here