Help - sticky / damaged collections!

[Pheasant]

Hopefully I'm just over-reacting, but... right now I feel like I should just throw in the collecting towel, so to speak.

TL;DR - I improperly stored some important collectibles and found out some are badly damaged.

All of my belongings are kept in a 9 ft x 12 ft room in our old farmhouse. It's drafty and, due to being over the basement, occasionally damp at times. But overall it isn't too bad. I've done what I can to keep everything free of dust, UV light and moisture. 'Fancy' collectibles, such as the American Girl dolls, my mother's childhood doll collection, and a handful of custom ponies are kept in an enclosed cabinet above my closet.

I decided to do a deep-clean today in a (vain) attempt to rid my room of daddy long-legs. For the record, I clean my room twice a week, but it is a guarantee that there is always one or two in a corner somewhere. It's what happens when you live in a farmhouse, I guess. Better to have them than 'regular' spiders.

Due to various reasons I'm not going to disclose, I've been too stressed out with life to pay any attention to my collections. I thought 'Oh, they aren't out in the open, they'll be fine'... so I shut them up in that cabinet and didn't bother checking for months. Opened it up today and was horrified to discover that they weren't fine.

The customs are all sticky. At first I thought it was because they were painted, but... I have a painted ceramic cat doll up there and she isn't sticky at all.
Something similar is happening with the dolls. Mom has about 50 or 60 dolls from her childhood, ranging from 1960s' Barbies to beautifully made foreign dolls. The Barbies' legs are all sticky, and the same thing is happening to an 18" Gotz doll - plasticizer leakage, maybe? The Gotz doll isn't stored anywhere near the Barbies; they're on separate shelves. Interestingly enough, I keep a G1 Caramel Crunch up there right next to the offending customs, and she's also fine.

But the worst surprise was seeing the Vietnamese (?) dolls' faces cracked and flaking apart. Not sure what they're made of. These dolls were from her uncle, so they hold some significance beyond being collectors' items.

I have no idea what happened. While indoor temperatures tend to fluctuate, we mostly stay around 60-75 degrees throughout the year - nothing was exposed to extreme temperatures. Humidity isn't too bad either - I live in Idaho, even our winters tend to be on the dry side.

Is there anything I can do to save these? I don't even know where to start; I've taken rubbing alcohol to the Barbie's legs with no significant success. 

[tailrustedtealeaf]

There is something that has been used on ponies to clean plasticizer leakage, but I'm not too sure on the barbies. Was there any sort of ventilation where you kept them? My first thought might be the plastics offgassing onto each other and making each other sticky (some people have reported G3 ponies becoming sticky after being stored in plastic tubs for a bit), and then moisture not drying fully and letting stuff happen.
Do you remember what the customs were sealed with? I know mod podge tends to sticky over time...

[Pheasant]

There is something that has been used on ponies to clean plasticizer leakage, but I'm not too sure on the barbies. Was there any sort of ventilation where you kept them? My first thought might be the plastics offgassing onto each other and making each other sticky (some people have reported G3 ponies becoming sticky after being stored in plastic tubs for a bit), and then moisture not drying fully and letting stuff happen.
Do you remember what the customs were sealed with? I know mod podge tends to sticky over time...

Was it a Twin Pines product? I recall them having a line that people recommended for pony cleaning...

As for ventilation, well... not really. The cabinet isn't airtight by any means, but despite having two windows in my room there isn't a lot of circulation unless I run a fan. Your theory might be correct.

I'm not sure what any of them were sealed with; almost all are from swaps and their creators are no longer active in the community.

[Loona]

Ah, I'm sad to hear what happened I'd second the lack of ventillation might cause the issue, as I did experience plastic toys (luckily not valuable collectibles, or items with major personal attachment) getting sticky after being stored away, but I've never seen this phenomenon happening to any of my collectibles that are out on open shelves. I sadly did not succeed in finding a solution to reverse the stickiness. I hope you can manage to find out the name of the product that might help.

[Nemesis]

I believe the product you’re thinking of is Formula 9-1-1. I have personally used it for plasticizer leakage in various vinyl toys, with great success.

I’m very sorry to hear about your dolls. Sadly, vintage Barbies are getting harder and harder to preserve as they age... I have Barbies from the 80s that are experiencing similar issues, and they came from many different people, places, and storage situations (including MIB). This is part of why I’m glad Mattel has stepped away from using vinyl for legs...

Customs in general tend to be very sensitive, in my experience. It’s possible that the different products used on them (since they came from different artists) interacted poorly in storage...

You will probably have some luck cleaning up the stickiness/leakage if you use Formula 9-1-1. Unfortunately, I don’t know what can be done for the cracked/flaking dolls. If the vinyl has hardened and become brittle, that might mean that the plasticizer is mostly gone. I don’t know if anything can be done at that point...

[Pheasant]

Woohoo, time for an update!

I didn't intend to abandon thread like this, but I've been working long hours and haven't particularly cared about anything but meals and bed.

Anyways, here is what transpired since my original posting:

Mom took a peek at the dolls - turns out the ones with the cracked faces were made of porcelain, and (unbeknownst to me) some have been that way for years. I've just never noticed as she typically stored them in her closet instead of mine. She sent one in years ago for repair with no success. I'll guess I'll start researching porcelain doll restoration and see what I can find.

I took all sort of cleaning products to the Barbies' legs - baking soda, Goo-Gone, acetone - with no results. So, I wiped them down, let them air-dry, and sealed them with 1-2 coats of watered down Golden UVL matte polymer varnish. Due to their sentimental value, it's highly unlikely that these dolls will ever leave my personal collection, so I can keep an eye on them long-term. The varnish completely sealed over all stickiness and left no discoloration and / or odd textures.

A little over a month later, and they're still fine. I did the same to the customs - only ill effect is that I'm currently out of gloss varnish, so some of them have rather dull-looking eyes at the moment.

The only one I haven't really touched is the Gotz doll -  I wiped her down, and she seemed okay? I'm going to keep an eye on her.

At this point, I'm not a hundred percent sure it was plasticizer leakage - I'm under the impression that plasticizer leakage makes them shiny, and none of them ever looked that way. I do make a point to keep that cabinet door cracked for ventilation, though.

I believe the product you’re thinking of is Formula 9-1-1. I have personally used it for plasticizer leakage in various vinyl toys, with great success.

Yep, that was it! Thank you for sharing your experience with it; I should probably consider picking that up sometime. That's heartbreaking to hear about the vintage Barbies, though - they're so nicely made in comparison to most modern dolls.
I hope you guys can find solutions to the sticky problems, Nemesis and Loona!

Thank you all for your comments and advice; I really appreciate it.

[Thimble]

Any idea how that cleaner would affect paint ? Some of my rement miniatures　and anime figures are having the same stickyness issue, but im scared to use a cleaner that might take off all the teeny details....

[littledreamer]

Any idea how that cleaner would affect paint ? Some of my rement miniatures　and anime figures are having the same stickyness issue, but im scared to use a cleaner that might take off all the teeny details....

  I use goo gone on my nendoroids and vintage Sailor hgif figures who tend to have plastisizer issues with age. Clean them gently with cold water and dawn soap then soak in a goo gone and water solution then clean again with soap. I no loss of paint on mine, but be gentle and test with small part first. It takes a few times soaking and washing off to see if it fixes the issue. Make sure to let your figures breathe and dont get too hot especially for nendos or other vinyl figures.