Getting rid of a figure's smell

[Sim]

I've acquired a Papo animal lot which includes the gharial which I've been seeking for so long.  Unfortunately the figures smell of curry.  And I hate curry (and its smell).  Do you know of a way to get rid of a figure's smell?  I've currently left the figures out in the hopes the smell will go away, but I don't know if it will work.  Other options are to wash the figures or to use a product designed to tackle smells, but I don't know if the latter would damage a figure.  I welcome any thoughts or advice on this!

[Saarlooswolfhound]

Oof, curry might be a tough one. You could leave it out to air dry but it'll take a long time if it ever gets back to a neutral odor. I would gently wash it with soap and water too.

Two methods you could use is placing it in a bag with a container of baking soda or pumice stones. Both can help neutralize odors like from mold and should not harm the model. If you leave it in there for a month or so you should notice a difference but again, this is something that'll take time work. But all 3 methods have worked for models that had odd odors (like cigarette smoke) in more than a dozen models I own.

[MudpupWaterdog]

Coffee grounds might work as well - I've never had to deodorize a figure, but I have had a lot of success using a small bowl of coffee grounds to absorb other smells (I leave one in the fridge when I'm traveling, just in case something goes bad). Though, the figures may end up smelling like coffee instead, which could be equally bad depending on your feelings about coffee...

[triceratops83]

You could try vanilla essence. Get a container deep enough to fit the figures in, pour in a cheap bottle of vanilla essence from the cooking aisle of your grocery store and fill the rest with water. Then dunk your figures in for a while.

[Sim]

Thanks for all your replies!  Today when I picked up the gharial I could only smell the curry odor up close, in contrast to before when it was a much stronger smell.  I washed it with water and washing up liquid quite thoroughly, and afterwards... the smell was gone from it!  Thank goodness!  Now that I can keep it, I can say I have the Papo gharial!    Thanks especially to Paige for the suggestion of washing it which didn't occur to me.  I also washed and removed the curry smell from another Papo figure the gharial came with, still three more to do.