On 8/30/2021 at 12:04 AM, Perifractic said:
Good points. The only point I’d politely pick a hole in is about the plastics colouring. Commodore were renowned for wildly varying colour mixes and had more than one factory. That’s why there has never been a defacto established commodore 64 bread bin colourcode.
Having worked in a plastics manufacturing plant, there is always "off-product/off-spec" made. Colour of the original plastic resin may have varied from shipment to shipment to Commodore. Plus the raw material used to make the resin would also have variation too. If the resin supplier had multiple factories that would account for variations as well. These variations can be minimized with a stringent quality-control program, but at a price.
The plant I was in would keep any scrap resin around and find buyers who weren't particular in physical characteristics so much as getting a discount deal on price. It cost money to make plastic, so selling recoups some of the cost and avoids making more plastic.
Does anyone know that the case molding wasn't outsourced to a sub-contractor?
If the prototype theory is correct, most likely it was made at a location that wasn't the main factory using perhaps a different supply of resin, and certainly not the operators on the main factory floor. Heat/bake anything for a longer time will most likely result in a darker colour. That might explain the differences in colouration from a stock machine.
As for the industrial use theory, perhaps it was a split unit so that the main electronics were in an enclosure for some reason (intrinsically safe?) , the keyboard external so that if something went wrong with it it would be easily and cheaply replaced.
Anyway just some information and speculation on this retro mystery. Take it for the entertainment value that it is.
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