Creamier Annie & Clarabel

[Super]

I wish they had more pictures. https://www.jauce.com/auction/q215830868

[Super]

Could this possibly be the answer in an Auction Listing in Japan? They look creamier...

Thomas the Tank Engine Basic Set? https://www.jauce.com/auction/p630578203

You may be right.
It could just be lighting, but it sure does seem to be blonder than brown to me too.

Very well played with. More than likely it saw time outside and therefore it's probably more sun discoloring.

[Super]

@T-Fanz

Yes that was one theory we had entertained earlier in this Thread but we thought that the overall color was too even where it would seem that the sun would only affect sides for the most part and one would be more affected by the sun than the other. Also one would assume that the stickered faces would not lighten at the same rate as the plastic. Plus, I always thought that that the sun darkens (dirties/burns) the plastic that to lighten it sort of like tobacco stained and not evenly.

@Muddy

That was my first thought but I thought that we would see a difference from each picture as the angle of the light hitting the coaches would be different. The thought also occurred to me that the face stickers would be affected differently that the color of the plastic.

At any rate, this auction listing shows the coaches to be the closest to the Blonde color mystery yet. But, then again...all the videos I have seen of this set shows Annie & Clarabel as their usual brown color............go figure...........mystery goes on.

Just found another blondie in a lot on eBay..

[Super]

I have seen several that looked to be creamier, some just had a creamier sticker, some were tricks by lighting and camera angles. The ones that looked to be an exact match and shown as both Annie and Clarabel didn't have enough close up pictures to tell for sure. At any rate they sure are odd with no explanation of where they may have come from.

I just went through my Annie and Clarabels and I only saw creamer colors in 2002+ A&C (aside from obviously sun faded/damaged ones)


Pre-2002, all normal brown


Post-2002, mostly brown but the bottom row is "creamier"


The range of faces on the "creamy" trucks... I think the faces might be more down to sun damage, or I just haven't come across that particular batch.

Here's the closest I have to the blonde faces (bottom, both on normal brown carriages) but these seem obviously damaged, I think they were brown originally.


For the record, none of my (admittedly limited) selection of made in Japan A&C are cream either, definitely seems like a post-2002 thing (if its a real thing at all)



I checked my boxed sets and none of them were creamy, for what that's worth.

I think the cream color is from the Sun's rays

To be honest, that's still what I think