So I got a loose incomplete Bengali a few years back. I was never able to purchase his blue hammer as it always went for so much. Finally last week I got a loose complete Bengali off of eBay.
As I was cleaning them, and comparing them to see which of the two I would keep, so I could sell off the other, I noticed 2 very subtle yet obvious differences in the two figures.
One of the Bengalis has a very white face, and very blue striped accents on face and head, plus the eyes are painted a deep blue. The other Bengali has more of an aqua colored face, his head is a more yellowish white, and his eyes are a very light aqua.
It could be the aqua Bengali is a licensed knock-off because the “EL” makes me think that it might be. But that’s just my humble opinion. The guy who can really answer this question is MannyC; he seems to know just about everything there is to know about these things.
Yeah, the hammer is a light blue so it is likely the Euro version. Perhaps some of the other Euro version figures have that “EL” stamping as well?
As far as the feet, I thought the same thing, but then I took a closer look and found that it is normal. Bengalis right foot is long and thin, while the left is wide and shorter. Perhaps this was done so the figure could stand.
Hi! I always thought that EL stood for European Limited (but I’m not sure..). I’ve got a small collection of “EL figures”, the most common are The Snowman of Hook Mountain and Tuska Warrior. EL’s have slightly different colours and often have small differences in design. In the EL Snowmans case the “copyright LJN…” text is on the edge of the bottom of his feet, where a non-EL Snowman has the text on the inside. EL Tuska Warrior’s pocket on his left leg has a slightly different design, also he has 7 “wiskers” on the left side of his face, where a non EL has 8.The Tygra variant with the green bands underneeth his feet is also one of the more common EL figures. I also have a Cheetara w/ Wilykit with the EL mark..
The blue face & eye paint difference is probably a legitimate variation. My guess there would be that they came from two different production batches, where they had to mix the paint each time. Guessing they got the formulation slightly different each time, but it was still withing LJN’s quality tolerances.
As for the difference in the white and yellowish-white head, that also could be a run-to-run change, this time in plastic formulation. One batch may have had a little more white dye in it…or may have been a little more resistant to aging than the next batch. I dunno…this screams more of “I got handled by a kid with oily hands more than the other figure” kinda of scenario.
In terms of the feet…the “2” likely refers to the mold cavity number. While both of my Bengalis are the “right foot” version, one has the number “1” and one has the number “2”. AGain, this is a way the manufacturer could track issues/changes with specific molds used during production.
Finally, as for the “EL”…I would venture to guess that the text change from left foot to right foot was a running change, possibly made for legal reasons. Rather than being “Ted Wolf”, it was updated to be “Ted Wolf Enterprises Limited”. The “left foot” is likely the earlier version of the two.
More to offer on the topic, but I gots to run at the moment. =8^O
I have a Pumyra with the “EL” on her foot too. I think she looks fairly different from my other Pumyra. Her hair and dress are painted a lighter brown color IMO, and the face paint isn’t consistently as nice. Also, one of the red pupils in her eye is painted off center so she looks a little off… I will try to post pics. There are so many variations in the T-cats line. Makes it really fun to collect, but probably impossible to complete…
