I'd say you could consider it such, especially the price and condition. Even though he was literally made from Duke (with Smudger's face) for the only episode he was in, the TrackMaster version used a slightly different mould instead of being a repaint.
You've reminded me: My Emily's tender has the same issue, and it initially made me so irritated that I once dismantled it to see what was causing the extra noise. Now I finally get why I couldn't find anything obvious all those years back, not even after I learnt how to spot mechanical problems (I never revisited that case since then). To think one microscopic gap in a gear causes such a nuisance when a device runs.
You've reminded me: My Emily's tender has the same issue, and it initially made me so irritated that I once dismantled it to see what was causing the extra noise. Now I finally get why I couldn't find anything obvious all those years back, not even after I learnt how to spot mechanical problems (I never revisited that case since then). To think one microscopic gap in a gear causes such a nuisance when a device runs.
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