Blog of Josh Hall

Here’s the best part about those yellowed Legos:  You’re able to turn them back to their original color cheaply and easily!

I had just googled for a solution (pun intended) on getting all my discolored bricks back to normal.  All that playing in the sun really did a number on them.

As it turns out, all it takes is some Oxyclean and some hydrogen peroxide (H2O2).  I went to Family Dolllar, picked up 5 32 ounce bottles of 3% H2O2, and Kallie already had a box of the oxyclean powder for the laundry  (pro tip: oxyclean does wonders when your husband leaves chapstick in his pocket and cycles it through the washer and dryer).

Now, I’ve got a couple thousand of newly acquired white bricks that have been yellowed.  I sorted them by shape and then into shoe box sized plastic containers.  I poured in the H2O2, then a scoop of the oxyclean.  Give it a good stir and shake to start the reaction, and you’ll start seeing bubbles.  Now, let that sit in sunlight for a few hours.  I let mine sit for 6 hours total.  I stirred it around every 2 hours to make sure all the pieces got some sun light.   Depending on how many pieces you have, you might want to just get them to lay flat and leave space around them so you don’t have to stir.  The other obstacle to think about is that these plastic parts float!  I put enough hydrogen peroxide in so the whole clump of pieces floated about an inch above the bottom of the container, so sunlight could still get to those bottom pieces.

Here’s a before and after of some of the worst pieces I hand selected to test:

WOW, right?  No washing or scrubbing or anything.  Notice the 1×1 didn’t change much.  I realized afterward that it’s not a LEGO brick, but some imitation, so maybe that has something to do with it.

I’m super satisfied with how well they turned out!  Apparently, this can be done with any of those white plastic devices around your house that turn yellow over time, like printers, air filters, etc.

If you don’t like the results, add more oxyclean and let it sit in the sun longer.  It will work for all those discolored bricks too, not just white.  Let me know if you found this helpful and you end up doing it too!

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Tags: aged, brick, catalyst, chemical, chemistry, dirty, discolor, discolored, h2o2, hydrogen, LEGO, old, oxyclean, peroxide, plastic, solution, sun, sunlight, white, whitening, yellow, yellowed