TOMY Murdoch Variation

Alongside the purplish and red bufferbeam variants we sometimes see on a olivers and Murdoch’s, I examined one of my Murdoch’s from a bulk purchase... the back on the tender has an unpainted bufferbeam.. has anybody ever seen a variant like this before?

https://i.imgur.com/EhI1eIX.jpg

[Super]

Thats interesting. Which brings up this question in my head: Was Murdoch only released as Trackmaster or were there others like Tomy or HiT?

I know Murdoch first came out in 2004/05, so these are Plarail/Motor Road and Rail. I think he got a somewhat limited Trackmaster release, but I never saw him in stores after 2007-8. He was never in the Fisher Price 2009-2013 Trackmaster era.

Thats interesting. Which brings up this question in my head: Was Murdoch only released as Trackmaster or were there others like Tomy or HiT?

Murdoch only ever had one model, but he was released in seven different styles of packaging, in two variations:

Asia only:

Plarail (2004 - 2011), numbered "T-22"

US only:

Motor Road & Rail (2004 - 2006), similar style packaging to the US HiT Toys Company three packs sold from 2007 to 2009
Motor Road & Rail (2005 - 2006), comes with only Murdoch and two short TOMY blue track straights, box is a taller and shorter cuboid than the standard three pack boxes

EU & AU only:

Motor Road & Rail (2004), old MR&R style packaging with a "new" sticker
Motor Road & Rail (2005), old MR&R style packaging
Motor Road & Rail (2006 - 2007), new MR&R style packaging
TrackMaster TOMY (2008 - 2009), TrackMaster TOMY style packaging, dimensions of the box are slightly bigger (the rarest one?)

[Super]

Good to know B'Stat, thanks for the information

Pleasure as always, I am always happy to help everyone out! And learning new info is exciting!

Factory error? Or maybe a prototype.