PSA: Color Fading

It pains me to write this one - but I think it's important to get the word out.

I've been collecting now for nearly 40 years and one thing that has never really been a problem for my collection has been fading. Yes, the pinking on hooves and noses is often susceptible to sun exposure, and so particularly if I'm going to be whitening my models in a window or out in the sun I make sure to cover their hooves and noses. But I have never had a worry about the rest of the paint work!

I started to become aware that there might be more of a problem in early 2022 when my Balthazar faded badly very quickly. Now, In this case I had him sitting directly in a window because I think clearware looks great with the light coming through it. However, in just a few months the blue color disappeared from him entirely. This was very unusual because, as with the pinking, normally red is the color most sensitive to UV. It also happened so so quickly and in the winter sun! This photo was taken in February, only a few months after I received him.

You can see the blue is almost entirely gone. I (mistakenly) assumed this was a problem specific to clearware. In the 1990s we started noticing that the new plastic stablemates were also having problems in direct sunlight. This plastic was prone to deep yellowing and color fading or turning green when exposed to sunlight. I myself had a shelf of them in my childhood bedroom that all turned yellow and green. This was thought to be the plastic in particular and so we all started making sure those stablemates stayed away from direct sun. I had also seen cases of St. Moritz models fading, so I figured this issue was with clearware, similar to the 90s stablemates, and so I immediately moved all my other clearware models to the darkest corners.

Not long later, however, came the curious case of Anthem in 2022. This patriotic Ethereal model had a similar paint scheme to Balthazar with red white and blue. By the end of the year people were starting to find some that had a very pale blue, while the majority of the release had a bright and bold blue color. There was much discussion in the hobby as to whether this was a variation (many claimed they had seen these NIB in stores this way, next to dark ones) or whether this was another case of blue fade.

After my experience with Balthazar I am in the fading camp. It seems like this shade of blue is perhaps particularly prone to sun fading. Here are two examples from eBay - the lighter one appears to have the full blue color on the top and other side from the photo from above which would indicate fading rather than a variation. The one on the right is the true color.

There were also reports of Old Glory losing his blue. Here a Facebook post, also from 2022.

I should have now been on the alert, but still I didn't give it much thought. It seemed limited to this particular shade of blue and primarily clearware. But now suddenly reports are starting to appear of OTHER models that are fading, and so soon. This Nikolas was also posted on Facebook as a PSA.

I have the majority of my collection out on shelves in relatively dark areas but the room does have a window. As I have been going through and reorganizing my shelves while packing up sales models for Breyerfest, I discovered that I too had been hit with fading! My glossy Hickory Hills Wall Street and my mini Dandy from the vintage club have faded on one side similar to the Nikolas above 😢

I am so sad! Especially that I let this happen to some relatively rarer models. So now we have bright blue and this shade of sort of orange that are known faders... but I'm not taking any more chances and I will be covering the windows and keeping it fully dark in my horse room. It's a bummer because I like having some out with me in sunny rooms, but I will have to be much more careful and selecting about who those are, because I don't want to cause any more sun damage.

Check your models - particularly blue or chestnutty ones from 2017 and newer - make sure they are out of any sunlight and watch for anything else that might be exposed to a window, just in case.