Safari LTD Weird Colored Leopard

[TIGERR]

I have recently purchased this legit Safari LTD 2006 Leopard model off of eBay. The paint job was rather weird so I messaged the seller asking if it was painted or altered in any way, they responded saying not that they know of. So I purchased it and washed, scrubbed and closely inspected it to see if it had been painted in any way... Nothing came off. Dose anyone know if this was a genuine mess up by the company as I know some of their older models had drastic color variants.

[Saarlooswolfhound]

I am curious to see it, do you have any photos?

[TIGERR]

Sorry for the late response, but heres a couple pictures.
Not quite sure how to upload them properly so lmk if this works.

https://postimg.cc/TpC2mvJV
https://postimg.cc/LYKmR9mp https://postimg.cc/zyQJtwM3
https://postimg.cc/TLVf3zPW

[bmathison1972]

Sorry for the late response, but heres a couple pictures.
Not quite sure how to upload them properly so lmk if this works.

https://postimg.cc/TpC2mvJV
https://postimg.cc/LYKmR9mp https://postimg.cc/zyQJtwM3
https://postimg.cc/TLVf3zPW

@TIGERR - it's very easy to share images on Postimages:
1. Go to the link (above)
2. Click on Share
3. Click on blue folders on the right under 'Hotlinks for Forums'
4. Post in forum thread (control-V)

I did the first one for you here:

[Saarlooswolfhound]

Thanks for the photo. I am not an expert, perhaps @Shane would know better, but to me this looks legit. This is an old sculpt and it looks like a typical paint job from the late 90s and early 2000s (the colors, pattern, application). So I would say you probably got a very early version of this figure, and then also have a much more recent model with an updated paint color scheme with a more even application.

At any rate, this is a very interesting piece and thank you for sharing!

[Shane]

I did a little digging in older catalogs, and this figure first debuted in 2007, and it looks like the same photo has been in use since 2008.

The 2007 photo looks a bit different, and while it doesn't look EXACTLY like this, it does appear to have a darker upper body and fewer spots than later versions.

My educated guess would be that this is a "first run" 2007 figure, that was replaced with the current deco from 2008 onward.

[EpicRaptorMan]

Yeah that's definitely Safari LTD as I have that same mold but as a black panther. The paint doesn't look very good so my first guess would be that it was a repaint.