Figures with magnets deteriorating?

[DarkKnight07]

The other day I was rearranging my figures, and I noticed something strange with my Saga Anakin figure (#43), it's the one with the magnet in his hand, and he comes with the basket and stuff from the Tusken village. I was stunned to see a black powdery substance inside the bubble, with a glob of it on his hand, where the magnet was. Okay, I just went and checked it, and I believe the glob in his hand IS the remains of the magnet, and the black powdery stuff is the residue from the disintegrating magnet. What the heck? I didn't even know that was possible. I'm pretty sure it's the magnet because I noticed the same powdery residue on a loose Bespin Luke that had the magnet.

Anybody else experience this? I expect some kind of deterioration with this stuff, but not a magnet, and not one that's not even 10 years old.

 

[PizzatheHut]

With the impending Vintage Zam Wessel right around the corner, I pulled my Saga Zam Wessel from storage in preparation to dump her on ebay, only to notice that her magnet has also deteriorated somewhat. The magnet has turned black and is beginning to disolve into a metal powder.

I believe that's the reason Hasbro pulled the plug on including magnets as action features. The magnets just weren't manufactured with any long-term repercussions in mind.

 

[Revanfan1]

With the impending Vintage Zam Wessel right around the corner, I pulled my Saga Zam Wessel from storage in preparation to dump her on ebay, only to notice that her magnet has also deteriorated somewhat. The magnet has turned black and is beginning to disolve into a metal powder.

I believe that's the reason Hasbro pulled the plug on including magnets as action features. The magnets just weren't manufactured with any long-term repercussions in mind.

I noticed this on my Zam as well, and also the Deluxe Yoda's feet and Hangar Duel Anakin's hand.

 

[DarkKnight07]

Hmm. I take comfort in knowing that this isn't just some weird mold growing in my figure, and that it's happened to others. Well, I don't take comfort in knowing it's happened to others, but at least the mystery is solved. I had absolutely no idea a magnet could deteriorate into powder like that.

 

[Obi_Wan_Kaboozie]

I bought and opened a cheap Zam Wessell from a comic shop a few months ago, and she had some of that powder right out of the package.

 

[DarkKnight07]

I just noticed another figure with the magnet that has a surprising issue. The first Obi-Wan they did for the Saga/AOTC, with the spy droid (or whatever the proper name is) has the whole palm of his hand, where they painted over the magnet, peeling away from his hand.

Hasbro must have really cheaped out with these magnets.

 

[yodashizzle]

I've had exactly the same thing happen on the figures you guys mentioned, I thought it was weird or just me too. At any rate, I really love the idea of magnets for things though, not so much with the push button gimicky things some of those Saga figures had, but just a cool way of holding those real metal hilted lightsabers. The Vader I have seems to be okay, though I haven't checked on him too recently, maybe if those magnets were stuck in under the plastic more (or just like embedded) things might retain their integrity. The Bespin Luke also seems to have faired better, those Zams and that Obi Wan with the assassin droid are the worst I've seen, it's like the magnet somehow becomes powder and then adheres to what is left of the remaining magnet, wipe it off, it comes back, I guess the magnet truely is deteriorating, it's definitely funky and makes me sorta disappointed.

 

[CMDR_Appo]

I've had none of my saga figures do this. I bought them and opened them when they first came out, and they all still have decent magnets on them. Perhaps it's some reaction with keeping them in package.

 

[DarkKnight07]

I'll have to double-check, but I'm pretty sure some of my loose ones did the same thing.

 

[pohatu771]

Mine aren't terrible, and hold, but there is a lot of dust around them. The Coruscant Chase Obi-Wan and Zam Wessel are the worst.

I thought the magnets were a bad idea at the time (for holding things, at least)... and now it's proven.

 

[Master_Fisto_91]

yeah the same thing with my Obi-wan and count dooku, theres absolutly no magnets left at all in the obi-wan, its just black powdery stuff

 

[ThallJoben]

This is very good to know - I hadn't dug out my Saga Toys for a while, but was inspired to after reading this thread. From a brief perusal, it looks like the figures with magnets that were taken out of the package have less of a problem than figures that were left in the package, but that may just be coincidence (since I haven't tested them all); My Aayla Secura (a great figure, BTW) is still in the package and it looks like her magnet is deteriorating - however, the Bespin Darth Vader's magnet (another great figure) works fine.

Though this is unfortunate, I am glad that the deterioration of these magnets isn't necessarily affecting the appearance of the figures too much - this is a good thing, especially if the figure has a great sculpt to begin with.

(Conversely, I had a great Darth Maul latex mask I got back in '99 and this eventually deteriorated completely, to the point that I had to get rid of it - I posted more on this in another thread on this board).

 

[jabbabon]

That same thing happened to my jar jar mask! I WAS REALLY BUMMED OUT CAUSE IT WAS REALLY COOL, BUT IT JUST TURNED TO STICKY MUSH

 

[GNT]

yeah the same thing with my Obi-wan and count dooku, theres absolutly no magnets left at all in the obi-wan, its just black powdery stuff

Surprisingly that happened to me as well, I think it was the Tusken raider with the magnet head did the same thing for me.

 

[JVM]

I remember the magnet gimmick with mixed fondness - Hasbro did a good job making it look like magic on the packaging, and it looked like the ycould pick up lightsabers from a couple inches away. They were really disappointing in practice and on top of the removable blades being so loose to the metal lightsabers, my loose SAGA figures are all very incomplete now. I never noticed the black dust but I found a few figures when I took them out of storage with holes in their hands :/

edit: On the opposite hand, my Jango Fett with removable head still seems to work fine.