Tuesday, November 22, 2016

Another Mustang Oddity

From another grungy box lot arises yet another weird Buckskin Mustang I feel compelled to keep….


He’s another one of those plastic oddities from the early 1970s – the surface physically feels like chalk, the plastic looks bright white in places, and he has some paint flaking characteristic of an Opaque White Plastic Chalky.

But he isn’t a White Plastic Chalky – he’s not opaque enough. And he’s not simply an exceptionally white model that hasn’t yellowed one iota from the day it was pulled from the mold, because he doesn’t have the translucency of standard, garden-variety Tenite, either.

(Most exceptionally white vintage models, I believe, were molded from fresh Tenite that was completely unadulterated by any regrind. The more regrind there is in the mix, the faster and more deeply a model will yellow.)

No, this fellow is something in between.

He was found in a collection with a couple of genuine Basecoat Chalkies and at least one other piece that might be of the same “stuff” (that one’s still grungy, so I can’t tell yet).

So he fits in with my earlier hypothesis, which is that at some point during the Chalky era, Breyer started mixing the Opaque White Chalky plastic with the standard Semi-Translucent White plastic to get this – kind of plastic I still struggle to find a proper name for. (Milky White? Bright White? Partial Chalky?)

So now I find myself in the possession of not one, but two oddball Buckskin Mustangs from the 1970s. Of all the crazy things you can find in box lots....

5 comments:

SharonL said...

Thanks for this post! I have a couple of weird models just like this--a Texas Longhorn, and a dapple grey PAF.

Carrie said...

Hmmm, quasi chalky? Chalky hybrid? Chalky mix? Semi-translucent? I dunno, but I do commend you for taking a good picture of an odd plastic. Even in the mobile thumbnail you can instantly tell he's funky!

I know! Week-old milk chalky!

Anonymous said...

So weird! Very good to know though. I once bought one and was convinced it was a chalky based on photos. Showed up, looking much like what you're describing (dirty and all) and was definitely not chalky. Still looked "off" though somehow, not like other 87s I had seen.

Truson said...

At least we can all seem to agree on one thing: he isn't a basecoat chalky. I have one of those 87s.

Anonymous said...

Does he have the USA mark? My painted-over decorator looks like this.