Keypers ~ Discolouration (not variation)

[Ghost Of The Doll]

I was recently asked by a lady called Maike, the owner of http://www.keypers.de/ if she could use some of my Keypers and MLP pictures in her forum. I joined said forum and posted a few of my old Keypers collection and noticed that she had separate topics (there's one for each character) for toys that I am 100% certain are just discoloured by the sun (or by time) as "UK Variations".

I dug around within my old eBay photos to find proof of the discolouration and posted them too, but Maike is adamant that they are variations. However, I have owned quite a few copies of the same characters and some were only discoloured in places, not all over. I tried to show this with the images below as it's a German site and I don't speak the lingo!

It's bugging me now (to say the least!), so for the sake of fairness I thought I would post the question here: discolouration or variation?

The main characters in question are Princess, Shelldon/Mishell and Joyful.

Princess (swan) - her wings are pink, but can discolour to a yucky orange colour:



Shelldon & Mishelle (turtles) - their shell is purple but can discolour to a yucky brown colour (even his bum has discoloured in the right image!):



Joyful (rabbit) - her dress is white but can discolour to a yucky yellow colour (the discolouration is very apparent on this toy):

[Rider of the storm]

I say they have discolored with age or sun light exposure two good articles on this are


http://www.vintagecomputing.com/index.php/archives/189

explains why some plastic yellows and why some does not


The other explains what types of plastic does when it ages

http://web.archive.org/web/20061015204042/http://www.plastiquarian.com/survey/survey.htm

[KrystalTips]

It's definately discolouration on the ones you posted as I have all of them and they have gone the same way and I had mine from new as a child. Try babelfish if your translating? Xxx

[mouse]

Yeah definantly discolouration - if you manage to be able to explain you could also point out that their is discolouration on the body parts too (not just the bits that are supposed to be a variation) Also if the colour isn't uniform all over (though it can be) that's another pointer that it is discolouration.

[Coma]

Discolouration; sunlight, dust, atmosphere - look at the inside to see the original colour!

It's especially easy to see with the different types of plastic used - the main body has discoloured, but the lock has remained the original colour, especially visible in the Princess picture. Joyful looks like a smoker

[Ghost Of The Doll]

Thanks for your replies guys. I'm in no doubt that the toys I posted have discoloured because you can quite clearly see it happening. I was just surprised to find someone so adamant that their own toys were special variations they would dismiss photographs of the same toys in the process of changing from one colour to another. Oh well!

[KrystalTips]

she is probably convinced hers as worth more or something by believing they are uk variations.
hmm mine have been in a box under the stairs for over 2years now i think i need to dig them out to get photos done as i know princess has yellowed and sheldon too xxx

[AngelBear]

Polystyrene discolors easily in the sun, where as poly-vinyl chloride is prone to migrating plasticizer which is eaten by bacteria. This is why hard plastic things "age" and become brittle over time and discolor as a part of that aging and PVC (the softer plastic) gets cancer, or dots or spots. About eight years ago I talked to a chemist that explained the whole thing to me. Therefore, I do not believe these are variants because keypers have the rigid plastic and not the soft kind. If it was the soft kind of plastic (which can also fade a bit but is much less prone to it) I would think it was a variation.

[EmBee]

The only thing I can say is that since that line is so old by now different color variations would have been spotted; maybe even advertised on the box like the Starcastle line.

-Em

[Angelchen]

Hello all

my english is bad, but i hope all understand me

Im register her,because ghost of the doll is not believe me

Swan in orange serie 2 is very RAR , and its a orange swan, the swan have white and purple hair and the scarfe is silver..( the rosa swan have pink and purple hair and pink scarfe)
shelldon serie 1 in brown has not glittery eyes.. and in serie 2 he has glittery eyes.. same mishelle..
joyful is not discoulerd because the yellow is uniformly
(discolouration look different)

I have informed the world about Keyper, I even phoned the production company because the name of my page, copy right and all that

[Coma]

Angelchen

Have you looked at the inside of Princess, behind the wings and in the body, to see what the colour is?

The pink Princess I had came with the silver scarf.

[Angelchen]

the colour is orange..
and swans hair is white and purple..
its not the pink swan..
the pink swan has pink and purple hair.. 

 

[mouse]

The pink hair of the swan could have faded from pink to white along with the body disolouration

[AngelBear]

I still argue it is discoloration because I have seen MANY other toys like that discolor, namely the She-Ra Swan. Also, why would the company make a sickly yellow body to go with pink?

[BattySparkles]

I guess it's possible that they're variants, but I'm not convinced.
I know pink hair can fade to white. I see it all the time with Wicked Lady dolls from Sailor Moon.
The bunny looks like she's supposed to be a bride. Yellow doesn't make sense for a bride dress.
Furthermore. The sleeves of her dress are painted white.
If the dress was made yellow they'd probably paint those yellow as well.