Preserving a new SNES/SFC

I have a couple of yellow SNES consoles at home, one I bought when the system came out, the other one I picked up cheap to perform the 50/60hz and region mods on. I'm seeing some SNES consoles for sale, which are mint/new, and haven't turned yellow (yet). If a SNES hasn't turned yellow yet, can I assume that it will stay grey when preserved in box? I remember somebody posting in a thread that he had 2 systems he preserved, but only one turned yellow. I don't feel like messing around with retro-brite and such.

 

it should stay grey for very long. it was some of nintendo's plastic batch being awfully cheap... if you have a good batch you should be safe for very long. also being boxed it'll sit in the dark, a very convenient thing to avoid "yellowing".

 

Its nothing to do with the plastic "being cheap" it was the use of bromine as a flame retardant and used to be common practice. Most things from that era will go yellow.

The bromine reacts in oxygen (and sped up by UV) and turns yellow.

http://retr0bright.wikispaces.com/Ultra+Violet+Energy


Nintendo later stopped using bromine as far as I know - which is why you see some consoles with parts that are yellow and others that arent - a mix of the early and later plastics.

 

Now that would explain why my controller ports are yellow only....

 

Unfortunately it is possible to get yellowing on SNES's which is not bromine/UV related. Easy way to tell is to look inside the case and you'll see the yellowing/discolouration is quite uniform. I sadly have two which have dramatically yellowed outside and inside and Retr0bright does not touch them.

On the other hand I have successfully used Retr0bright on a SNES pad with great results!

 

Yellowing from bromine to due to reaction with oxygen, not UV.

UV just speeds it along

 

Might be able to seal the plastic from oxygen but I have no idea what it would be or how well it would work. If it hasn't yellowed by now it probably won't.

 

I've always thought it'd be a good idea to seal my SNES in a vacuum bag as its in perfect condition with no yellowing. I'd hate to open the box one day and find it all jaundiced.

 

Any way of getting a mold made up maybe with out flame retardant and bam case shell replacements for super famicom and usa super nintendo and make new shells.

 

Well you could try 3d printing but I bet it would be expensive.