PlaymoFriends
General => Report & Review => Topic started by: GrahamB on June 25, 2017, 17:42:47
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The basic design of the klicky changed little for the first 8 years of Playmobil’s history, but although there were 402 sets issued in that time, there are only
111 different klickies in those 402 sets;
1109 instances, an average of 2.76 klickies per set.
87 adult male klickies in 375 sets,
24 adult female klickies in 135 sets.
Male 921 instances (2.46 per set), female 188 instances (1.39 per set).
(By ‘instance’ I mean if you opened one copy of every set, this is how many klickies you would have).
Here they are!
(the caption below each picture gives the year of first appearance and a ‘k number’, mostly from PlaymoDB- those k numbers in square brackets are ones I have invented to suggest for inclusion in PlaymoDB (they aren’t in there at the moment))
(http://i1287.photobucket.com/albums/a621/GrahamB2013/Clip_6_zps36xv5tt5.jpg)
(http://i1287.photobucket.com/albums/a621/GrahamB2013/Clip_5_zpsqxhfoynm.jpg)
(http://i1287.photobucket.com/albums/a621/GrahamB2013/Clip_4_zpsa3ez4edl.jpg)
(http://i1287.photobucket.com/albums/a621/GrahamB2013/Clip_3_zpse2ofnizx.jpg)
(http://i1287.photobucket.com/albums/a621/GrahamB2013/Clip_2_zpsa08ibttj.jpg)
(http://i1287.photobucket.com/albums/a621/GrahamB2013/Clip_zpsu0obn3fn.jpg)
(http://i1287.photobucket.com/albums/a621/GrahamB2013/Clip_7_zpsluq5zghg.jpg)
And here is the data on which sets they can be found in: https://www.dropbox.com/s/s1rflbwvxqvbm6i/Early%20Klickies%2025.06.2017.xlsx?dl=0 (https://www.dropbox.com/s/s1rflbwvxqvbm6i/Early%20Klickies%2025.06.2017.xlsx?dl=0)
Here is the basic range of variation for each feature of early adult klickies
- Wrists: 2 types (fixed or free)
- Hair style: 3 types (male standard, male curly, female standard)
- Hair colour: 3 colours (black, brown and yellow; curly hair only appeared in black)
- Torso shape: 2 types (male or female)
- Torso colour: 11 different ones (Male: pale blue, pale green, pale yellow, chrome (silver), red, yellow, blue, green, black, white, orange. Female: red, yellow, blue, green, black, white)
- Arm colour: 10 different ones (Male: same list as for torsos, minus chrome, Female: red, white, yellow, blue)
- Leg colour: 12 different ones (Male: same list as for torsos, minus chrome, plus light grey and grey. Female: white, yellow, blue)
Extra features (all these only found on male klickies, apart from brown face/ hands)
- wooden leg on right,
- hook hand on left,
- clown face,
- brown face [and hands on free-wrist klickies],
- beard (black, brown or yellow),
- arms different colours from one another
There are other features which vary from klicky to klicky (such as printed or molded heads, coloured or white internal skeletons, details of underside of feet, heads shaped to accept beards or plain), but these are beyond the scope of the current descriptions.
Taking just hair style and colour (4 for male, 3 for female) with colour of torso (11 for male, 6 for female), arms (10 for male, 4 for female) and legs (12 for male, 3 for female), there are 5280 (4x11x10x12) possible combinations for male klickies (87 found, 1.6% of possibles) and 216 (3x6x4x3) for females (24 found, 11% of possibles).
A brief history of fixed-wrist klickies
1974
Geobra issued Playmobil sets with fixed-wrist klickies. Each arm and hand was molded as one piece, so the scope for a klicky to hold accessories was quite limited. In fact, some accessories were issued with extra handles on them to allow klickies to hold them in a more natural position:
(http://i1287.photobucket.com/albums/a621/GrahamB2013/IMG_8874_zpsfix6mu1e.jpg)
(http://i1287.photobucket.com/albums/a621/GrahamB2013/IMG_8875_zps48zfgf3r.jpg)
(http://i1287.photobucket.com/albums/a621/GrahamB2013/IMG_8876_zps93zfphu2.jpg)
1976
Female klickies were released; they differed from the males only in the shape of their torso (known as ‘flip-hem’ by some) and the hair.
1978
The appearance of male and female klickies with brown-skintone heads. The males with brown heads also had black ‘curly’ hair. Peg-leg klickies also appeared in 1978, as did clown faces.
1980
The first beards (on male klickies only!) in brown, black or yellow to match the hair colour. The first hook-hand also appeared in 1980, the left arm was a single piece with a hook instead of a hand.
1981
The first child klickies were issued, both boys (with standard torsos and short hair) and girls (with flip-hem torsos and a ‘girl’ hairstyle). All children had ‘free’ wrists; the arm and hand were not joined, the hand rotated freely through 360 degrees and was a different colour (pink skintone) from the rest of the arm.
1982
Adult klickies with free wrists appeared in sets from 1982 onwards. It seems that in some sets, klickies with free wrists appeared in production runs after 1982, even though the box art still showed fixed wrists. Some accessories were modified for free-wrist klickies which are much more versatile when holding objects. The advent of free wrists also allowed for hands with brown skintone, which also appeared in 1982 for the first time.
1983
The last set to be issued with fixed wrists was Version 3 of set 3265x, in 1983.
Well, not quite the last….
2014
40th anniversary knights set
(http://i1287.photobucket.com/albums/a621/GrahamB2013/IMG_8911_zps3mtgur6g.jpg) (http://i1287.photobucket.com/albums/a621/GrahamB2013/IMG_8912_zpstjykbbka.jpg)
2015
PCC birthday special 2015 rainbow klicky
(http://i1287.photobucket.com/albums/a621/GrahamB2013/IMG_8913_zpsdkv6ovny.jpg)
(those last 2 klickies are NOT included in the 111 total, by the way!)
How I arrived at the figure of 111 different types of klicky
By listing all the early Playmobil sets from 1974 to 1983 (using Collector as my basic source), I created a list of the klickies in every set (over 1100, including Version 2 sets which had different klickies from those in Version 1, as far as I could tell) and then listed the features of each klicky (gender, fixed or free wrists, torso colour, leg colour, arm colour, hair colour and extra features such as child, beard, peg-leg, hook-hand, hair style, skin tone, clown face). I used pictures of set contents whenever I could find them (Datenbank-Setinhalt at www.klickywelt.de of course, as well as Produkt-Arkiv at www.playmobil.de and other pictures online). From this, I came up with the statistics and pictures above.
I did all this a few years ago and sent the findings to Heather for inclusion in PlaymoDB. When I recently revisited the data, I found quite a few errors (some of which have found their way into PlaymoDB), so I need to send an update (sorry Heather).
Two problems I found:
1. The contents of sets were not necessarily consistent throughout the timespan of production. Sometimes Collector gives different Version numbers for a set, but information on how set contents differ between versions can be hard to come by. Because these sets are now OLD, in many cases there are few examples shown online, so it’s hard to know if one example of a set is actually representative of all.
2. The contents are known to have differed from the box and promotional pictures in some sets. In particular, hair colour shown on the box may have been completely different on the klickies inside (and if the set has been played with at some point, who can say that some of the hairs haven’t been swapped around?). In fact, some of the klickies are very consistent in the hair colour with which they appeared (47 klickies only had one hair colour) but it is in sets with, for example 5 all-blue klickies (such as some of the Fire sets) that the set contents might in fact include a random selection of black, brown and blond klickies, whatever the box picture shows. It also seems likely that box pictures are sometimes reversed e.g. 3657, 3513, 3390.
I made some guesses about klickies where the pictures were not very clear. For the following 25 klickies in these (http://playmodb.org/cgi-bin/your_set_list.pl?setlist=3221,3182x,3137x,3226x,3409,3441,3444,3445,3450,3158x,3176x,3641,3707,3194x,3133x,3535,3536,3589,3590;title=Sets%20with%20figure%20QUeries) sets, I could not be certain of all the colours because available pictures did not show enough detail. All but the first three klickies in this list have uncertainties about hair colour only. (5/7 means the fifth out of seven in the set, usually the 5th one from the left on the box picture).
| Set | Year | Klicky | Gender | Torso | Arms | Legs | Hair |
| 3221 | 1977 | 4/5 | m | blue? | white | white | black |
| 3182x | 1978 | 5/5 | m | blue | blue | light grey? | brown |
| 3137x | 1980 | 1/3 | m | yellow | yellow | yellow? | black |
| 3226x | 1976 | 3/5 | m | blue | blue | white | black? |
| 3409 | 1977 | 5/7 | m | black | red | red | ? |
| 3409 | 1977 | 6/7 | m | black | red | red | ? |
| 3409 | 1977 | 7/7 | m | black | white | white | ? |
| 3441 | 1977 | 2/2 | f | blue | white | white | black? |
| 3444 | 1977 | 3/3 | m | black | red | red | brown? |
| 3445 | 1977 | 3/3 | m | black | red | red | black? |
| 3445 | 1977 | 2/3 | m | black | red | red | blond? |
| 3450 | 1977 | 3/4 | m | black | red | red | black? |
| 3450 | 1977 | 2/4 | m | black | red | red | brown? |
| 3158x | 1978 | 2/2 | m | blue | blue | light grey | ? |
| 3176x | 1978 | 4/5 | m | black | red | red | ? |
| 3641 | 1978 | 3/3 | m | white | white | white | ? |
| 3707 | 1978 | 2/4 | f | white | white | white | ? |
| 3194x | 1979 | 5/5 | m | green | green | black | ? |
| 3133x | 1980 | 2/4 | m | black | red | red | ? |
| 3535 | 1980 | 3/3 | m | white | white | white | ? |
| 3536 | 1980 | 4/5 | m | blue | blue | blue | ? |
| 3536 | 1980 | 5/5 | m | blue | blue | blue | ? |
| 3589 | 1980 | 1/2 | m | blue | blue | blue | ? |
| 3589 | 1980 | 2/2 | m | blue | blue | blue | ? |
| 3590 | 1980 | 2/2 | m | yellow | yellow | yellow | ? |
8 klickies had different hair colour in sealed sets at Klickywelt from the box picture colours
39 had different hair colour from unsealed sets at Kw
7 had different hair colour in other sources
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WOW....interesting!!
work of dedication and love....like a playmo-museum curator :love:
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GRAHAMB, PROFESSOR OF PLAYMOBOLOGY
Brilliant work as always.
One question:
2.76 klickies per set
Does anyone have pictures of one of these .76 klickies?
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Thank you Graham - someday I will need to see which ones I am missing... ;)
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I love how thorough GrahamB is! Great info, thanks!
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8 klickies had different hair colour in sealed sets at Klickywelt from the box picture colours
39 had different hair colour from unsealed sets at Kw
7 had different hair colour in other sources
Please keep in mind that it was NOT uncommon for the klickys to have different hair color... Examples.. Our blonde indian chief (the large 7 klicky set - 3406 according to playmodb), the blonde cav (7 klicky set 3408 - playmodb) AND the commander+soldier+horse set (3582 - playmodb) - all blonde.
Cowboys (3484 - this ref I remember!), besides having no bull, only the yellow klicky had black hair - all the others are blonde (including the mexican!)
That was very very common. I remember we bought a set SPECIFICALLY for the blonde hair, and the guy had black hair. Either the individual policeman or postman...
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Thanks, Tahra. I guessed this must be the case, but I have never seen any discussion about it (I guess there will be mention on Klicywelt, but my German is not that good...). The fact that you cannot rely on the box picture to tell you what is inside (especially for hair colour, especially on early sets) is probably taken for granted by many Collectors, so it isn't discussed. And therefore your first-hand knowledge from having these sets as a child (with quite a few disappointments, it seems) is VERY useful. Thanks :wave:
Would you like me to send you a couple of blond hairs? :lol:
But perhaps my list of 111 is not complete if there are possibly other hair colours for some of them. Your examples include two all-red klickies with blond hair (Indian chief in 3406 and Cowboy in 3484) which I hadn't included in the 111. I personally think there is a case to be made for disregarding hair colour when cataloging these early klickies, which would mean there are only 74 (the number of photos in my first post).
Could your policeman or postman have had free wrists? I could only find 3338, 3564 and 3309 single figure sets showing blonde hair on the box picture and all three have free wrists.
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PS and a bull?
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The old boxes even have written that "colors may vary". And they did.
At the time we didn't have ONE extra hair.
And we never traded the existing klickys hair.. though.. thinking.. when we got the indians (xmas 83, btw), we had.. THREE klickys. And a horse. The mexican with horse and the nurse (both with brown hair) and the indian woman with caldron - black hair. So... even if we WANTED to.. there would be no black hair for Adama (those are all named from Galactica). Later.. well... we wouldn't know him if he had black hair :P
PS and a bull?
Our set had three cows, and the little one - no bull.
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Thanks again, Tahra. I modified my post (third paragraph and added fourth) while you were responding.
'Colours may vary' seems to have applied mainly to hair colours. But I cannot even make a statement like that with any certainty as one would need to look at many MIB examples of the same set to be certain... Frustrating!
...when we got the indians (xmas 83, btw), we had.. THREE klickys...
Three klickies! How many have you got now?
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Could your policeman or postman have had free wrists? I could only find 3338, 3564 and 3309 single figure sets showing blonde hair on the box picture and all three have free wrists.
Policeman and postman did not have fixed wrists.
Three klickies! How many have you got now?
Have no idea. ;D
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I've grown up with many of these clickies since my brother and sister are 10 and 14 years older than me. It took a while before the free wrist clickies outnumbered them.
It's a curious thing that they did produce a second hairstyle for men when black clickies where released, but not one for women. Men got beards too.
The female clickies remained quite bland untill they received their new shape and where no longer limited to flip up skirts.
I feel like especially the classic knights still look pretty good to this day. Weird that they did not reissue the classic knight sword for that anniversary version, I quite like the model myself. I mean they did give him the classic helmet and fixed wrists. Might also have been nicer if the new knight was a modernised version of the same figure.
With the new dome helmet, heather shield, red pants, red sleeves with some nice boots and moveable wrists. And either a printed chestplate or removeable chest armor.
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Great list.
Playpeople had some different colours like the nurse having blue arms and black legs but are they counted as klickys or is that reserved for actual playmobil?
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I didn't include Playpeople, Schaper, etc. It's a good point though, when is a [non-]Playmobil set, figure or part accepted into a list? For me, I would like to know whether the parts were manufactured by Geobra (or perhaps whether Geobra supplied the molds) and the "allied companies" (Marx toys, etc.) merely assembled, packaged and marketed them, or whether the whole manufacturing process was handed over by Geobra. No-one has yet been able to answer this question, though I suspect the former is true, at least for Playpeople.
BTW, I showed all 'unique' Playpeople klickies back here (http://www.playmofriends.com/forum/index.php?topic=12751.msg238053#msg238053), but I did miss one; male, black hair, white torso, white arms, green legs, fixed wrists.
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BTW, I showed all 'unique' Playpeople klickies back here (http://www.playmofriends.com/forum/index.php?topic=12751.msg238053#msg238053), but I did miss one; male, black hair, white torso, white arms, green legs, fixed wrists.
Correction: I did include the male with white top and green legs, fifth from the right on the picture of male Marx figures in that older topic.
I have recently worked out how to distinguish ALL Marx Playpeople from German-made Playmobil klickies, even those with the same colour combinations as the German counterparts. I will share this soon.... One of a number of projects 'in the pipeline,' as they say.
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I have recently worked out how to distinguish ALL Marx Playpeople from German-made Playmobil klickies, even those with the same colour combinations as the German counterparts.
Is it the tiny hammer and sickle stamped on the bottom of the foot? ☭ ;)
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Great Job Graham, i`m not sure, maybe is off totic, the modern Klicky ( from collector book) with special arms is missing;D
gassy
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I don't suppose anyone knows who produced the klickies with dark blue legs and light blue torsos? I've seen these come up in second hand lots here in New Zealand and I have some myself from when I was a child. They were union soldiers from what I recall but the body colours were different to the normal playmobil/playpeople colour of aqua colour legs and blue torso.
Like playpeople though they had blank feet and were slightly smaller.
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I don't suppose anyone knows who produced the klickies with dark blue legs and light blue torsos? I've seen these come up in second hand lots here in New Zealand and I have some myself from when I was a child. They were union soldiers from what I recall but the body colours were different to the normal playmobil/playpeople colour of aqua colour legs and blue torso.
Like playpeople though they had blank feet and were slightly smaller.
Here they are usually the other way around... :picsplz:
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You guys! Cinemano has just made a short film about fixed-wrist klickies! Everyone has GOT to watch this!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-yI4JhURjQ
:)9 :munch:
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Great Job Graham, i`m not sure, maybe is off totic, the modern Klicky ( from collector book) with special arms is missing;D
gassy
Thanks gassy. Are those fixed wrists, or just blue hands on blue arms?
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You guys! Cinemano has just made a short film about fixed-wrist klickies! Everyone has GOT to watch this!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-yI4JhURjQ
:)9 :munch:
Oh my, that's just great! So romantic. And funny.
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Thanks gassy. Are those fixed wrists, or just blue hands on blue arms?
Blue hands on blue arms.
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Here they are usually the other way around... :picsplz:
I could only find one and that's in poor condition though you can see the colours, particularly on the arms. Accessories were the same. I have no idea who made these, as in licensed or not. Hands are a different shape and slightly smaller.
The dark blue of the legs is not a regular playmobil colour is it?
Regular playmobil for comparison.
(https://i.imgur.com/bkYf9ti.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/Yag4Ufa.jpg)
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A couple more of that type showing other colours in the range:
Regular klicky on right for comparison
(https://i.imgur.com/8c0kpvZ.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/BaUhoVV.jpg)
There were also chromed ones. These ones all came in second hand lots so I assume they were shiny originally and have degraded over time. "Klicky" on right is typical for how the chrome has broken down. It only affected the torsos, helmets are identical to other chromed ones from the time. Helmet on right is just more playworn.
(https://i.imgur.com/2O3ODOP.jpg)
Another example of these guys from an auction:
(https://i.imgur.com/DN8kgS1.jpg)
The queen is a regular klicky.
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(https://i.imgur.com/Yag4Ufa.jpg)
The one on the left is definitely older (printed face, flattened edges to soles of feet). I can't see the details on the soles of the feet on your picture, unfortunately. For some Trol, Famobil or Lyra figures, the licensee's mark is branded on the sole. In the case of Famobil, this is an 'f' in a circle on the left foot (where Geobra klickies have a 'b' in a circle- see page 426 of Collector 3rd edition).
There is a post on Klickywelt ( http://www.klickywelt.de/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=59969&p=813390&hilit=Anfang+figuren+Loch+fuss#p813296 (http://www.klickywelt.de/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=59969&p=813390&hilit=Anfang+figuren+Loch+fuss#p813296)) showing an intermediate blue klicky from 1974, but I have never seen one in real life. Playmorache says the intermediate blue klicky was from 1974 construction sets. They had flat feet (no ridge around the edge) and either a single hole (loch) or a single b on each foot.
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These klickys have no markings on their feet, just the ridge around the edge.
The one on the right has the usual geobra and 1974 markings, the one of the left is plain.
The markings you mention were like stamps on the feet, no ridge lines from what I've seen (online) just a single letter.
At first I though they might be playmopeople as they were sold here, but the klickys I know are playmopeople that I have have the usual geobra and 1974 on them.
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They aren't like any of the 200 or so Playpeople klickies (Marx toys, UK licensee) I have, none of which has unmarked feet. So, perhaps some other licensee? Eleven licensees produced fixed-wrist klickies (based on set box pictures in Collector); Antex, Kenbrite, Trol, Lyra, Japan, Irwin, Korea, Aurimat, Famobil, Marx and Schaper. They could be one of those or knock-offs!
I have Trol, Lyra and Famobil fixed-wrist klickies, all of which have lettering with a ridge around the edge of the sole, but the ones you have are perhaps earlier examples before lettering was used.
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Interesting!
I don't think I saw one like that before - I don't remember if the schenk ones have ridges on the feet..
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Graham, were there no males with blue bodies & legs + fixed red arms? I have one with this combination, he's an 11a type (head M, skeleten O, foot R, bottom SOS, male, blonde hair).
I was looking at which ones I have from your list (21 of the 74 pictured, not inc any Playpeople only colour combinations) & couldn't see this combination, so thought I'd ask.
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I have double-checked and found no klicky with that colour combination in either German or Playpeople sets (as far as I could tell, mostly from small pictures of the set boxes!). The nearest is blue torso, red arms, red legs in 19 PM sets and 6 Playpeople sets (hair colour varies). So I think someone has assembled your klicky from parts of other klickies (i.e. its a 'custom' or 'recombinant'). Such creations show up from time to time, though less often than you might expect. I don't think many children who own PM pull klickies apart and reassemble them in new combos. Collectors like tahra, customizer, cheng and many others do this all the time and I'm sure there are a few children like that one in ToyStory1 who dismembers his toys for fun...
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I have double-checked and found no klicky with that colour combination in either German or Playpeople sets (as far as I could tell, mostly from small pictures of the set boxes!). The nearest is blue torso, red arms, red legs in 19 PM sets and 6 Playpeople sets (hair colour varies). So I think someone has assembled your klicky from parts of other klickies (i.e. its a 'custom' or 'recombinant'). Such creations show up from time to time, though less often than you might expect. I don't think many children who own PM pull klickies apart and reassemble them in new combos. Collectors like tahra, customizer, cheng and many others do this all the time and I'm sure there are a few children like that one in ToyStory1 who dismembers his toys for fun...
Thanks. I figured that must be the case if you hadn't run across one like that in all your research.
The blue of his torso & legs looks the same, but am I right in thinking that there seems like there is less variance in the classic blue over different years & productions than there is in some of the other colours? (I can see subtle differences in some of the colour in red & yellow fixed wrist klickys I have) + it seems like there were plenty of all blue guys made, so he could have had his arms replaced with red ones, OR legs with red.
I think he's feeling quite special now & is going by the name of "The Impossible Man" (at least impossible without being a Frankenklicky), I might need to get him a special cape. :lol:
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:lol:
I notice that sometimes blue legs have faded more than blue torsos, but all parts fade or discolour with age.