[perezfan]

Thank you, Chris! They have somehow disabled that feature for us, here in the US...

Now that I look at it closer, I think I see a few revelations...

The white that's "caked" into the grooves is actually dried silver polish. Someone just didn't have the time/patience to dig it all out. Endless number of grooves, with that Chest Protector, and all. But it should look infinitely better, if properly cleaned up.

Best way I've found is to use a toothpick to scrape it out. Yes, it takes forever, but pays huge dividends if you have the patience. A wood toothpick is rigid enough to scrape out the dried polish, yet soft enough not to scratch/damage the metal plate.

As for the base... it looks like maybe the black paint was flaking off. I am guessing they sanded off the flakes/loose paint, and polished it up after sanding. It's really kind of a cool "marbled" look!