Yellowing on tamagotchis?

My first tamagotchi is a Japanese P1 with a white shell, pink numbers, and pink buttons. I got it in 1996.

I live in a tropical climate so it is difficult to keep things nice over a long period of time.

All white plastic will eventually turn yellow here. My tamagotchi had this happen.

Is there any way I can reverse the damage?

How can I prevent yellowing on my new tamagotchis?

Also, I noticed on eBay and through various pictures that the straps on entamas and uratamas tend to turn yellow. Here is an example (this is not mine):



How can I keep the strap on my new uratama looking new?

Any advice would be appreciated.

Hrm... I have a white version four. The back was yellowed, so I used the blade of scissors to scrape away the outer yellowed plastic, revealing white plastic underneath. It made it nice and white again, but there were some scratch marks. I do not know of any other way to get rid of yellow... Maybe you need some sort of bleach or something. I know... TOOTH WHITENER! No, I'm not sure if that will work. <_<

Good luck.

Ooh, that sounds harsh. I don't want whatever I use to also take off the numbers design. Thank you for your advice, though. ^_^

I've not tried it, but I've heard that lemon juice can whiten yellowed plastic.

Also, here's a 2-part youtube video about why plastic yellows (it's a chemical reaction) and how to reverse the yellowing (by another chemical reaction).

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part 2

Thanks to -Ra- for the youtube links.

Since both methods involve liquids, if you're going to try either, the Tamagotchi should be disassembled, so the circuit board and screen doesn't get wet.

Interesting... I live in a tropic environment too(California) My dads computer has this yellowing you are talking about(The computer is almost as old as me). I did not know Tamagotchis were made out of that type of plastic. Anyways My suggestion would be to use some Hydrogeon peroxide. My dad used some on his comp a while back and it helped a little. Other than that keep it out of the sun Like in a box I think that should help if your using it though I don't know how to help you there, Maybe a case.

I would look into the videos. If you wanted to annoy yourself, you could try a rubber eraser... just keep rubbing the yellow. I did that to a figurine I had and it took the yellow off, eventually. Just watch for the eraser bits where they come off.

As for keeping them from yellowing... I would keep them in a card board box. That or a thermal lunch box might help too. I'm sure the thermal would help since those are fairly common. (Like a fabric lunch box or fabric water bottle container)