MMM Restoration - Removing Plastic Scratches and Melts in Plastic by David Benz

Star Seeker with severe plastic melts

David Benz is the perfect example of what it takes to be a true Major Matt Mason geek! This collector has spent hours perfecting simple (yet time-consuming) ways of restoring vintage MMM parts. This one is pretty easy, just takes some patience and a lot of time.

In my opinion, the absolutely best way to get scratches and melts out of Matt Mason items is to sand them out.

First, start with a 400 to 600 grit sandpaper, use the grey/blue wet-dry stuff. Then move up to a 1200, and finish with a 1400 or 1600. Now, what you'll have on a clear plastic piece is a nice, solid hazy finish. But don't worry! We'll bring back the shine.

You bring back the shine by using Novus plastic polish, available at motorycyle shops to polish helmet visors, windshields, etc. Start with number three, then use number two, and finish off with number one.

You'll have a very, very shiny finished product! The only difference will be that, especially on the clear items, you'll have a multitude of very, very tiny finish scratches, like you see on an automobile finish when the light hits it at the right angle.

In a way, this is good, because it allows you to distinguish a polished item from a mint item.

This process works perfectly for scratches, but one caveat when using it on melts. Remember, as you sand pieces of the toy away, the stuff you sand away is gone forever. Many melts go very deep, and I actually have a few pieces in my collection that, if you look at them very closely, you'll see they have some depressed areas where I sanded the melts out.

Finally, bear in mind that this takes a lot of time, so if you don't enjoy restoring things like I do, I'd just pony up for a better quality item the next time it shows up on eBay.

Good luck!

-- David Benz

Oh: One more caveat. This only works on the HARD plastic items. The soft items, like the Uni-Tred top, the power limbs, the white base of the Space Powersuit, etc., are too soft for sanding and polishing. But the good news is, these softer plastic items don't seem to acquire melts like the hard plastic items do!

As stated above, we make no guarantees of any of these cleaning and restoration techniques and provide a listing of what's been tried as a service only. Try these procedures at your own risk.

Finally, should anybody reading this have any similar information, additions or corrections, then we would very much appreciate hearing about them.

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