Odd colour Power Droid - another mystery

Following on from the previous Anakin mailer mystery, I have this little oddity no one seems to know anything about

I don't have many variants these days, got out of collecting the mover 10 years ago when most could be had for peanuts & there seemed to be little to zero interest in them, but it's great to see so much love going on for them now, I have one I have not been able to find anything out about so figured you guys maybe able to help??, so here's some photos, with luck someone can shed some light on my little mystery - it's a standard V but has different colour plastic to any other regular power droid I have ever seen & is also not the same colour as the Short V variant, standard is on the left, short V on the right & oddity in the middle, I highly doubt it's down to discoloration or degradation of the plastic as the stickers are not really faded & it's in fairly decent condition but by no means minty.
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some more photos -

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Good job spotting those differences, Chris.

Frank, could you provide some close up pictures of the area's that Chris has pointed out.

You are the 2nd person to pick up on the curves on the rear of the legs Chris,will get some better photos sorted, I also noticed the pimple on top, the short V one is very small, you can hardly feel it, whilst the regular one is very noticeable, but the light blue one is in between the two, not as pronounced as the regular one but not as minimal as the short V.

hold fast, I'll snap some more images off

Here you go, LMK if these are good enough as I don't have the best camera in the world

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more

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Odd Body
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Regular V
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Short V
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Another thing to look for is numbers on the inside.

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If you do not see one on this side, check the other side for stamped numbers.

That would be the mould cavity number, for QC purposes. Probably four cavities per mould. So you would expect to see, for example, numbers 1 - 4 in any of the gonks over both mould families.
So you should be able to find both a standard V and a short V with the number 2 inside. If this is a third mould family variation, it would make sense you could also find one of those with the number 2 inside as well.

What do the peg hole shape & locations on the bottom of the feet, in relation to each other look like? Like the ROTJ figures, this might be a tell tail sign as well.

chris.75 wrote:That would be the mould cavity number, for QC purposes. Probably four cavities per mould. So you would expect to see, for example, numbers 1 - 4 in any of the gonks over both mould families.
So you should be able to find both a standard V and a short V with the number 2 inside. If this is a third mould family variation, it would make sense you could also find one of those with the number 2 inside as well.

Yes and be interested to know what his has. I have one with "22" stamped on the other side. So the numbers go higher.

Also the numbers like the one above, are backwards and have more of a "European" look to the numbers.

I don't know if this is just the camera angle, but the distance between the top of the arch on the wire and the indent looks closer together on the odd one.  Does anyone else see this, or is it just me?

I just check some beater droids, that I had handy.  I found numbers 2, 3 & 5.  So 5 possible cavities with in a mould.

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I will get more photos together & post if I can see the numbers inside, will be tomorrow now as natural light is fading here, I'll also measure the gap Clint.

I will lay them all down flat facing forward on the next photo so the angle is the same on all.

Commander Clint wrote:What do the peg hole shape & locations on the bottom of the feet, in relation to each other look like?  Like the ROTJ figures, this might be a tell tail sign as well.

Never had so many requests for photos I usually get my wrists slapped for too many

No such thing as too many pictures here.

Commander Clint wrote:What do the peg hole shape & locations on the bottom of the feet, in relation to each other look like?  Like the ROTJ figures, this might be a tell tail sign as well.

great idea Clint

here is a pic of my three Gonks, the left and middle ones are long V sculpts, both have the same shaped peg holes.
The one on the far right is a short V sculpt, as you can see, it is different from the other two.

Frank, If you're lighter blue Gonk has different peg holes to both the long and short V's then it certainly would be a strong contender for a third mould varint



Edit:
Just as a side note of interest, I only just noticed that my short V Gonk, is a lighter shade of blue, compared to my long V's

frunkstar wrote:

Commander Clint wrote:What do the peg hole shape & locations on the bottom of the feet, in relation to each other look like?  Like the ROTJ figures, this might be a tell tail sign as well.

Never had so many requests for photos I usually get my wrists slapped for too many

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We like lots of photos here - there's no better way to get to the bottom of new mysteries

Great thread BTW

Ok Ok! I'll snap some now, if no good I'll try again in better natural daylight tomorrow - I get the hint

Right not measured the gap where the wavy line is, but looks to be about the same as the standard V, will measure tomorrow, peg holes also look to be the same as the standard V type & the number inside is 3

Not sure if it's just me, but the the 3 lines (grooves) in the section where the Ariel is seem to be deeper & more defined than the regular V but not quite as deep as the short V

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As there does not appear to be a difference in peg hole shape to other long V Gonks.
Could it be that these subtle differences in sculpt are the result of wear to the mould. That the lighter Gonk is a later produced figure, when 100's of 1000's of Gonks had been cast, by the time this one was produced?
That the difference in colour is just due to either batch to batch variation, or perhaps discolouration over time?

I have nothing to say but cool
I have never seen anything like him . very cool .

These are quite interesting details for the Gonk. Must check mine tonight ;-)