[deweyinthehall]

I have always been of the mindset that I would chase variations which were design based as opposed to print errors or differences.

At the extremes, this would mean I DO have the 1974 Washington variations but I have no interest in the 1990 NNOF Thomas because it resulted from a printing incident.

Looking at the 1971 set - the Boots Day light fixture seems to just be a matter of a slight difference in ink brightness all around during some passes. In other words, I don't think anyone tried to airbrush out the light fixture. Is that the common opinion?

What do we make of the Jim Nash and Jim Northrup black in blotches - do we think these occurred accidentally somehow during the printing process? They don't appear to me to me intentional or even left over printers marks. Thoughts?

As to the checklists, I do collect the variations where they were set up different on the different sheets - different spacing in type face, different placement of card numbers, etc.

The coloration differences in the helmets, faces and bats I chalk up to printing anomalies and don't care so much about.

As to the little black lines that are sometimes there and sometimes not on the helmet, it seems to me based on the application of black ink in other areas of the helmets that these are just by-products of printing - no one set out to have the black line on some versions, and forgot to place it on others.
Thoughts?