Cleaning NES Plastic on System, Zappers, Game Carts...

[racketboy]

So I just bought an NES and a bunch of accessories and games on eBay
http://tinyurl.com/6l8pko

If you look at the pictures though, you'll see the NES, the NES Advantage, one of the Zappers, and the Tiny Toons game has some gunk on them.
Since I don't have the stuff yet, I'm not sure how bad the stuff is and if its stained, etc.

But I was wondering if anybody had thoughts on the best way to clean the plastic?

My experience tells me rubbing alcohol, goo-gone, and maybe brasso (?)

Anybody have any other ideas?

[peglegs]

goo gone is a great product but there is a chance it may hurt the plastic depending on what strength you have. but you should try very hot water first since if it is just kind of gooey gunk that should get it off the safest just dont get the water so hot it melts the plastic but you already know that i'd hope.
best thing i've found to do is get a rag really wet and microwave it for about a minute or two (make sure its wet or else you've got a fire on your hands) then just take the very hot rag (it will still be wet) and go to town on the gunk. this also works very well to clean your microwave to just wipe it down with a paper towel or a differant rag when you take it out of the microwave.
but if you do this for god sakes wet the rag microwave fires are no fun
hope it helps

[xraydash]

I've had best results with baby wipes and elbow grease.

[racketboy]

Yes, fire = no fun

Thanks for the tip -- I'll try those first

Any other ideas are still welcome

[obi-shawn]

I have cleaned a few consoles and I usually use a rag with lukewarm water and a mild soap. It seems to work pretty well. I actually just cleaned up a SNES yesterday that I picked up at a thrift store. It had some brown gunk like the NES you won on ebay and it came right off with the water and soap. It also had some writing in black marker which I gently used Comet soft scrub on those areas and it came right out. I decided to give it a deep cleaning so I took the whole system apart and cleaned all the plastic pieces using the above method and then also used some compressed air to clean the dust off the main board. I'm going to give the system to one of my friends for his birthday. We racked up a lot of hours on our SNES' when we were kids, so I think he will like it. Here is a pic of it after I was done. I should have taken a before picture to go with it.

[racketboy]

Yours looks quite nice -- I'll definitely take these more "normal" measures before getting into the chemicals

[Scooter]

A little 409 spray cleaner and some paper towels have never let me down yet.

[ott0bot]

A little 409 spray cleaner and some paper towels have never let me down yet.

It works ok, but it leaves a residue that i ended up cleaning off with....soap and water. A can of compressed air and soap and water are the best. Rubbing alcohol works great, just don't use it on labels because it can remove color.

[extrarice]

Rubbing alcohol works great, just don't use it on labels because it can remove color.

And totally dissolves the adhesive. But I highly recommend rubbing alcohol for gunk on the plastics. I've heard rumors about the Mr. Clean Magic Erasers, but I haven't tried those myself yet.

[Lodestar]

How would you guys go about cleaning off residue from using isopropyl alchohol to clean carts? I've done this in the past, and the games I've cleaned look shiny-ish instead of dull. I've compared the cleaned carts to carts that didn't need cleaning and I can tell the difference.

Any suggestions?