ugnaught blue apron / purple apron variant

just to dispell the myth there is no such thing as a purple variant smock

it is fade over time

this below image i found on ebay proves the turn in colour (save this image before its taken down)

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Thanks Chris.  Here are a couple more pictures that I've saved, of other well known capes that discolour.  It's funny that both of these were from the same lot of figures.

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Yeah that Purple smock is utter crap. Can't believe some collectors insist that it is a variant.

So for that Luke and Squidhead the top colour is closer to the original?

the89thchris wrote:So for that Luke and Squidhead the top colour is closer to the original?

Yes, the brown is original. Though the other colours are cool. But not worth big money.

Good to know that my squidhead is in nice shape, still missing that Luke robe atm.

The first Ugnaught I got, in the late 1990's, had an apron, that looked blue in daylight and dark purple in electric light. I then bought a "true" purple apron Ugnaught on eBay (back then, we thought it was a real variation) and a bright blue one here in Denmark. Sold the first one to a Danish collector friend some years ago. Now the one, that once were bright blue is dark purple. This proves to me, that purple apron is a result of discoloration., but a bit strange, that some had already turned purple in the 1990's.

Well I've heard of even more "new" collectors than me (perhapse a host on the podcast known as "first order transmissions" who put a near complete loose run of Kenner figures on a shelf near a window and much of it went yellow within a couple months so it wouldn't really surprise me that some of that fabric could be degraded less than 10 years from its release, especially with sufficient sunlight.

I just wanted to add that recently I met and purchased from someone who you might call a "black hole collector" who had a complete collection (the likes of which I hardly knew existed in Ontario) and he was very convinced that there are two different aprons lol there are some hardcore believers out there who have otherwise encyclopedic knowledge.

There is too much evidence showing the colour change. We know sunlight is a factor in the change, but still need to know the other environmental factors that trigger the changes.

Very interesting, weird that the fabrics change colour over time, cool though

Commander Clint wrote:There is too much evidence showing the colour change.  We know sunlight is a factor in the change, but still need to know the other environmental factors that trigger the changes.

could the fabrics be going back to there original state. could they of been factory dyed when they in fabric making stage before kenner bought the material to cut?......stupid suggestion just a thought

yes like everyone else I had a blue and a purple apron uggy and now they are both purple .

There's a debate going on right now about this issue in one of the FB groups. I'm surprised people still consider the purple smock as a variant...

Thanks for providing that pic, Chris.
It clearly shows that the apron can degrade from blue to purple. Environmental factors like temperature, humidity, light exposure (and fluctuations of all forementioned factors) are determing chemical reaction rates in general so this will also apply to the dye molecules in the fabric as well.

Purple apron, rose cape, leather head, green limbs, metallic hair, etc. The list tend to grow. Maybe because by now the transformation reactions had decades of time to cause notable visible effects.

Yet, for all the evidence, there are lots of cases of people dropping silly money on these "variants".

A couple of years back, I had one of those faded Squidheads, and it ended up somewhere around $50 at open auction on ebay...

Ian

I'd like to join in the discussion to add probably another point of view.  

1. I don't want to discuss what is called a "true variant" and what is not Christian C. Simply doesn't bother me to much.
  If I see Luke FB collectors with so many shades of hair and pants colours taken "seriously" as variant collectors and not to forget about pbp/poch collectors looking for the right shade of pale Hands or face to distinguish between poch/pbp or not .... and of course the red colour pigments of Skin colour cannot fade away in the spanish sun leaving a grey pale shade of skin colour as it is for sure with green limbs chewie or green snake Yoda e. g. So this discussion sounds a little bit ridiculous to me.

2. I don't want to discuss if faded/ degraded figures are worth any money and if - how much.  Totally useless discussion IMO  Ian C.
   Well I wouldn't pay $500,- for a pbp 4-lom red armor, but a lot of people would. Or look at those almost totally stripped Meccano DSD sold for $100 and more.  That is there buisiness/ focus of collecting. And if there are at least two collectors having a similiar focus prices on ebay will rise. Following these trends sellers on FB pages take similiar prices when offering those figures.  Pretty simple market reaction. So if nowaday a green snake Yoda will sell for about $100 - $150 that is simply it's collectors market value no matter if it is called a "true variant" or degradation.

What I really would like to contribute to the Ugnaughts apron discussion is the point that your picture for proving the fading from blue to purple is really bad chosen Poncho
If you look closely at your pic you will recognize that there is actually no blue colour at all on this apron! It is simply a dark purple apron fading to a lighter violet. This can be found on many purple aprons, no question.
IMO fading should ever result in a lighter colour..... (not darker! and purple aprons are sometimes darker than blue ones) and logically a true blue colour should fade to a lighter blue not into purple. As blue is a primary colour it is pretty difficult to explain where the red colour comes from (Magic?) But of course there are a lot of aprons out there showing the fading. In my opinion this is (... and can only be) the fading from a dark purple (blueish purple) to a light purple by degrading the blue pigments.
Leaving the question: is there an original blue apron Ugnaught? Or are all the apron colours to be found a kind of purple/ blueish purple in different stages of degradation?

I really cannot answer this question. I just can state that there are a lot of very "pure" blue looking aprons to be found IMO.

Further I can say - and I know this is no proof at all, just a witness quote - that I remember pretty well being a kid and my brother and me urging our mum to buy us a second Ugnaught because of the different apron colours.  In fact the Ugnaught was the first "Variant" I learned to know. The brown snake Yoda I got from  a friend later on. Until then just had an orange one. Other variants - even the common ones - (like big head/ small head Han Solo) I learned to know far later in my collectors history.

Finally I want to say I really do not insist on the purple Apron to be seen as a "true variant" or whatever. Actually I love my Uggies anyway and just collect what I like, as all the other collectors do.   ..... and as far you stay looking down on the Ugnaught - collecting keeps cheap for me

I think it really depends on the light source.  Some look blue, and in another light source, it looks purple.  It even looks different through the camera.

I just saw this one for sale on ebay, that's in mid change, and captured a screen shot.

Lavender is definitely discolouration. I think we have to differentiate between the terms "purple" & "lavender".

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You are right Clint, it is very difficult to judge by pics. I'd judge the spot in the middle of your apron to be purple, although it seems to be blue because of the lighter purple/ lavender around it.  In my pic are all the different shades of degradation shown I could find in the wild over the last years. Only the two top left are "pure blue" IMO. The one in the middle is purple even it looks dark blue. The two top right are dark purple and this purple seems to be darker than the blue on the left IMO. Talking about "fading" I can't imagine a light blue colour "fading" into a darker purple colour. This makes simply no sense IMO. Beside the question where the red colour comes from needed to achieve purple? But on the other hand vice versa it probably would make sense. Purple could degrade to blue by loosing it's red particles which are already known to be less stable (green limbs Chewie, green snake Yoda).

Akial wrote:

2. I don't want to discuss if faded/ degraded figures are worth any money and if - how much.  Totally useless discussion IMO  Ian C.
   

Oh, don't get me wrong.

If anything, I agree that anything that appears different due to degradation "should" be considered damaged, and therefore, if anything, worse less.

I was just pointing out that despite all of the information out there suggesting it is indeed degradation, there are some silly collectors who insist on believing they are legit variants, and are willing to drop absurd money on them.

Threads like these help educate the community, which is what we need, but unfortunately I don't think we reach a wide enough audience, and for those that do, if they want to consider them variants it's unlikely going to change because of what we type.

Ian

Yeah I stress again, I buy from a guy who has the best collection I've even seen photos of and he believes the Ugnaut is a true variant lol it's interesting. I assume there are semi equal numbers of carded examples of both?

I had what I thought was a legit variant being one blue and one purple now they are both purple .. so annoyed about it I wont buy a blue again ... oh well its not like there isn't 10 million uggies out there