Old klicky head moulding error (eyes/mouth), how common?

[core]

Picked up 15 blue chaps (non rotating hands), and it turns out 5 of them have moulding error in their heads, either no eye/mouth, or missing one or the other.  Haven't seen any in the new style ones.  So, just wondering how common is this issue?

[Martin Milner]

In collecting terms this would be "extremely rare" because Playmobil's quality control should have spotted them and removed them.

I've only had a couple of clickies with moulding errors in the heads out of several hundred in my collection, plus one whose body had not completely filled, but the hole was covered by his collar so it wouldn't be easy to spot.

[core]

Hmm, my thots were of early QC issues.  Quick correction though, it's 10 out of 15 that had moulding errors!  Popping off their hair piece, one can see that brown plastic had been injected in, but the eye/mouth voids are not opened up.  From the pic you can see that 3 of them almost have their eye colour showing thru; the bottom right spots a smaller right eye.  fwiw they'll soon be starting their duty as fanfare buglers along the castle wall at the next tournament ...

[arab warrior]

I have several klickies like these, the first klickies didn't have moulded eyes and mouths but it was printed on.
It looks like yours have been rubbed off.

[core]

It looks like yours have been rubbed off.

Thanks much for the info!  Any idea as to when they switched over from printing to moulded?

At any rate, this made me go and remove ALL their hair piece to take a peek inside each clicky's head; here the report:

5 of the complete faces are moulded eyes/mouth (you can see the 2 tone plastic inside)
4 of the totally blank faces do not have the 2 tone moulded plastic
6 of the partial faces HAVE the 2 tone moulding, but the dark brown plastic never made it thru (ie, eye/mouth voids in face missing)

I also popped off a couple of chrome-body clickies I have, and they don't have 2 tone plastic on the inside (ie, printed on eyes/mouth).  Learned something new!

p.s. - added pic of klicky's head interior

[Sylvia]

Before I saw the photo, I was thinking the same thing as arab warrior - that they were figures with printed faces which had rubbed off through extensive handling over the years.

I've never seen figures with no faces at all. Usually you can still see a little bit of paint where the eyes or mouth were. It seems odd to me that some of your figures have no eyes but still have a well-defined mouth. One would expect all parts of the head to have the same amount of wear.

[Martin Milner]

I can't believe this is wear, the klickies are in otherwise excellent condition.

Where did yu get them from, Core?

[core]

Where did yu get them from, Core?

This was an ebay lot from the past month (anyone know which auction?  - fwiw my main interest were the table/benches and chrome helmets, and I did pay a tad too much imo).  Pic from the auction attached.

Overall the blue chaps don't look too worn at all, and to reiterate, for the heads with mouth only (or partial features) I can clearly see that the eye 'sockets' of the face part did not open all the way thru and allow for the darker plastic to flow thru; you can make out sub-dermal eyes on closer inspection.  Oh, the internal 'skeleton' is moulded blue and not white.

Peter

[Tiermann]

I am wondering if they might have been from a secondary manufacturer - Antex or Lyra?

[core]

I am wondering if they might have been from a secondary manufacturer - Antex or Lyra?

Any way to tell?  Under feat printing has the usual 1974/geobra printing.