Do you miss soft and durable inflatables?

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  • lilolover82
    Senior Member
    • Mar 2014
    • 196

    Do you miss soft and durable inflatables?

    I know I've been talking about this issue, but I am old enough to remember squishy soft vinyl inflatables, with lovely pinch valves. The amount of leaks in inflatables were considerably less, and tended to be less catastrophic and most patchable. Most tiny slow leaks. Now days it's hard vinyl and a lot of seam splits, or leaks the start on the inside of the inflatable and deflates it reasonably quick. How many of you miss the soft, and durable inflatables. What are your stories about playing with them, and your experiences with the latest inflatables?
    11
    Yes I miss them a lot
    0%
    10
    No what we have now is okay
    0%
    1

    The poll is expired.

    Washington State, United States
  • craggy2012
    Senior Member
    • Jan 2012
    • 824

    #2
    Re: Do you miss soft and durable inflatables?

    I do miss the old softer vinyl, but most of my collection is made up of old pre NP regulations vinyl anyway. I purchased plentifully during the nineties and still have items new in their packets and boxes..... but, if you know where to look new old inflates are still around. I buy a lot of inflatable gear from wholesalers (the folks that supply shops in the beach resorts) they always have small quantities of old stock, long forgotten about inflatables- and they're often reasonably priced.

    Last year I picked up ten late nineties- early millennium era coloured lower and clear top upper 47 inch swim rings by Sunco for just £1.99 a piece via a vendor dumping some old stock on EBay.

    Comment

    • Vicci
      Blown to bits
      • Oct 2009
      • 655

      #3
      Re: Do you miss soft and durable inflatables?

      Originally posted by craggy2012
      Last year I picked up ten late nineties- early millennium era coloured lower and clear top upper 47 inch swim rings by Sunco for just £1.99 a piece via a vendor dumping some old stock on EBay.
      I had one of them! Picked it up in Spain, it was really nice. Don't have it anymore though as the entire inner seam blew
      Vicci x

      Comment

      • craggy2012
        Senior Member
        • Jan 2012
        • 824

        #4
        Re: Do you miss soft and durable inflatables?

        It's funny how swim rings n tubes blow, when they blow. You'd think the pressure inside would tear the outer seam apart first, but it's that negative curved inner seam always is the one that splits!

        Comment

        • craggy2012
          Senior Member
          • Jan 2012
          • 824

          #5
          Re: Do you miss soft and durable inflatables?

          To be honest modern PVC's just don't appeal to me. I'm only really into gloss inflatables so I very rarely buy matte or embossed vinyl items. But yes I don't like the feel of modern gloss much now either. It's not so supple but I wouldn't say it's harder to get a decent weld. I've welded this type of PVC with an electric hand sealer and the welds I've created have never blew apart even when inflated tightly. I think it's probably to do with poor production methods. There's actually quite an art to RF welding- There's a lot of variables to get absolutely spot on to make a good, sturdy weld.

          Comment

          • lilolover82
            Senior Member
            • Mar 2014
            • 196

            #6
            Re: Do you miss soft and durable inflatables?

            Getting a leak sucks, but when you get that leak where you can hear her completely deflating,with your ear to the inflatable. Those are difficult to patch, and they deflate quickly or in some cases at a moderate rate but steady deflation.
            Washington State, United States

            Comment

            • Jkloon
              Senior Member
              • Aug 2013
              • 357

              #7
              Re: Do you miss soft and durable inflatables?

              I never got to experience the old inflatables in a 'memorable' way because of my age. I was too young to appreciate them pre-ban, and actually only got my first inflatable toy in 2009. (intex puppy ride on. Still have it, despite a 2-3 foot long seam split and countless holes that cost a fair bit to repair)

              Comment

              • lilolover82
                Senior Member
                • Mar 2014
                • 196

                #8
                Re: Do you miss soft and durable inflatables?

                Originally posted by Jkloon
                I never got to experience the old inflatables in a 'memorable' way because of my age. I was too young to appreciate them pre-ban, and actually only got my first inflatable toy in 2009. (intex puppy ride on. Still have it, despite a 2-3 foot long seam split and countless holes that cost a fair bit to repair)
                Does it hold air now?
                Washington State, United States

                Comment

                • Jkloon
                  Senior Member
                  • Aug 2013
                  • 357

                  #9
                  Re: Do you miss soft and durable inflatables?

                  It does! I had to run internal reinforcement along the entire seam under the chin and then go over it again from the out side. After that I went over every inch of the other seams with a spray bottle. I got it to the point where it had been tightly inflated for a week when my (now ex) girlfriend and her friend came over and gave it a good run for its money. It survived and still holds air

                  Comment

                  • lilolover82
                    Senior Member
                    • Mar 2014
                    • 196

                    #10
                    Re: Do you miss soft and durable inflatables?

                    Will at least you can have some fun with it.
                    Washington State, United States

                    Comment

                    • Q24heaven
                      Junior Member
                      • Nov 2016
                      • 15

                      #11
                      Re: Do you miss soft and durable inflatables?

                      Yes, it's getting very difficult to find PVC inflatables that have that certain softness, and with the NP regulations they are becoming close to non existant to find.

                      However that's not to say that it's impossible; it just takes a little patience and being a bit naughty. I don't so much go out of the way looking for inflatables, however will check what a store has to offer if I happen to be there.

                      Recently I had to go to a variety store for buying some greeting cards for wishing family well, and happen to pass the toys / inflatables section. I noticed that the store had a new range of inflatables, so spent some time checking them out.

                      I first saw that they had large swim rings and thought that I'll open up one of the packs to see how soft the plastic is. It felt nice, soft, and gummy, and immediately ten of them went into my shopping basket. Next thing was a inflatable tire. Again one of the boxes were opened, and the plastic was of a matt, thick, and hard texture, so bang, it went back onto the shelf as fast as lightening.

                      lastly I checked the inflatable sharks, measuring around 184cm. Again another package was ripped opened for feeling the plastic, and though a little thicker, the PVC was shiny, gummy, and smooth, so five of them came flying off the shelf.

                      So, though still nowhere as desirable as the olden days, they are inflatables that are still made of plastic that's reasonably soft if one knows were to look.

                      However one would be curious to find out where or if they are still any phthalate based plastic inflatables somewhere for sale.

                      Comment

                      • craggy2012
                        Senior Member
                        • Jan 2012
                        • 824

                        #12
                        Re: Do you miss soft and durable inflatables?

                        You can still get vinyl made from phthalates- most PVC rainwear is still made from this stuff, it's mainly if the intended use of the item is to be in kids toys like pool toys where it can end up in the mouth it must be of NP vinyl. Most of the newer vinyls these days are hard, less supple purely down to cost, good vinyl is still available but most toy manufacturers in the Far East make items to a given cost and aren't too fussed over the quality of foil material they use. If you specify a given grade of material like 0.20mm gloss manufacturers will easily allow for this- if you're prepared to pay extra for it. As fetishists after something fairly specific it's easy to find a manufacturer that'll either have, or can get what you want but a roll of vinyl sheet can cost thousands of pounds if it's something specific you want but they don't hold stocks of it. Then you've got to ask if it's financially reasonable to make the item.

                        Three years ago I had a load of giant 96x96 inch 0.20mm (pooltoy grade) gloss red valentines decorations made. They could have made them much cheaper but I wanted something really sturdy and tough that could take a person(s) combined weight from old phthalates based vinyl. The manufacturer I chose could do this (but at a higher price compared to using new NP vinyl- but that's another story).

                        As is though, you can still easily buy new-old stock 48inch beach balls in the US that date from the 80's- look for Challenge Sport's 48 inch beach ball on places like Amazon. The only problem(s) are prohibited shipping costs to places outside of the US, and small 1# sized valves. They can take ages to orally inflate!
                        Last edited by craggy2012; 12-11-2016, 16:25.

                        Comment

                        • Q24heaven
                          Junior Member
                          • Nov 2016
                          • 15

                          #13
                          Re: Do you miss soft and durable inflatables?

                          @craggy, interesting, I didn't know that, I thought the NP was a part of some world wide enviro treaty or trade thing whatever, and just part of the fun (sarcasm) of living in the 21st century.

                          So if I understand correctly, one can stipulate phthalate base plastics, like for example a product design request on Alibaba, and they would be manufacturers that would oblige?

                          A few years ago, I posted a request on Alibaba for getting some custom bop bags and specifically asked for the thinnest PVC. Upon getting the sample set of five, they still felt rather hard to stiff, which was somewhat disappointing.

                          Idealistically, I'm looking for plastics that are very thin, and for giving an idea of the texture I love, one just has to moderately press into the plastic with the thumb, and you could see the plastic bulge in that spot - that for me is the bees knees for knowing if something is going to really turn me on. Nothing like the sensation of feeling that plastic melting under ones fingers, I do like; what one could say is gentle clawing.

                          I used to claw with my Q24s but was to affraid that they would unexpectedly pop. Doing such with PVCs seems to be the more safer way.

                          Comment

                          • craggy2012
                            Senior Member
                            • Jan 2012
                            • 824

                            #14
                            Re: Do you miss soft and durable inflatables?

                            Commercially speaking it's easier (and cheaper) to add non phthalate plasticisers to the vinyl monomer than run two separate costly production processes just to satisfy demand for vinyl foils. As your probably aware though there's a few safer alternative NP plasticisers on the market these days, but they don't have the longevity or provide the stretchy, softness of the nastier prohibited substances now band in places like the EU, but then again manufacturers also know inflatable goods are inherently weak and within a timespan of a few months, to years, the item will simply end up 'land filled' as the plasticisers used make the PVC, also leave the PVC as non recyclable!

                            So, there's little to no incentive for manufacturers to make PVC that'll either last, but to also biodegrade and break down more quicker and be safer to ecosystems once in the environment sadly.

                            Comment

                            • Q24heaven
                              Junior Member
                              • Nov 2016
                              • 15

                              #15
                              Re: Do you miss soft and durable inflatables?

                              That's what I thought, the lack of incentive is what's drying it up, but within such a large place like China, I would think they would be at least a factory or two rolling off at least some phthalate based plastics. I just hoped that China being a large market that this could still be the case.

                              Hyperthetically speaking if I requested such on Alibaba, one would like to think that obtaining it wouldn't be a problem. I'm suspecting that if any is still available, yeah, the choice in colours and tones might not be much, maybe the basic colours of black, blue, red, or yellow, but to me colour doesn't matter that much.

                              Then if a manufacturer took my offer of a custom design, they would (I would think) need to obtain a roll of the raw plastic that will be cut, and then stitched and binded together. This would be MUCH MORE expensive if for example I'm asking for an item that would be made of three or four colours; this means they would have to source four seperate lots of plastic from (probably) more then one location. I guess this is where the expense would come in. This is where NOW I emphasise that one would be out of luck of getting the item made of 100% phthalate plastic...... however......

                              If I just (for argument sake) requested a custom bop bag to be pure blue, and the factory was able to source a role of that blue plastic from a phthalate based source then to me, this is fine.

                              So am I understanding this right?, or is it zip, nothing, zilch impossible for obtaining any phthalate plastic world wide, even if I have to pay more for it.

                              Also straightening out any confusion, we are talking PVC plastic here, as you did mention foil, which I talked about in the other thread. The beverage wine / spring water / orange juice cask bladders are made of the same very thin aluminium as you find with oven bake foils, the same stuff that's on rolls one would buy at a grocery store. When foil is so thin, lack of phthalate is not as noticable compared to PVCs, as generally PVCs are made of much thicker guages then oven baking or cooking foil.

                              Just for the non aussies on here, a beverage bladder is basically two sheets of very thin cooking foil sealed together. If inflated, think of an inflated pillow made of this foil. Then in the corner there is a valve sealed into one corner of the plastic where the beverage is dispensed. When completely emptied, these things then can be inflated into blow up foil pillows. In Australia, the cheaper wine is sold in these, and more commonly they are used for spring water.

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