Atari Lynx I questions, color models

[evan-amos]

I'm taking pictures of the Atari Lynx for Wikimedia as well as a book that I'm doing. One of the things that I noticed is that there's two different colors for the Lynx, which you can see here:

 

Does anyone have any idea which of the two colors came first? Or the reason for two colors? I haven't seen two colors mentioned before, and I didn't even realize it until I had them side by side.

 

The other question is does anyone know what the body of the first Lynx is made of? It seems that the body is machined and anodized aluminum, but I could be wrong. I also couldn't really find any official source or info about the body building material.

[Rybags]

It's plastic - I don't think anodized aluminium came into common use for everyday small electrical goods until 10 or so years ago.

 

Not sure they even changed the colour - camera settings, lighting, the aging of the plastic can make older gear look different to what it originally was.

Possible of course that they might have done limited editions in other colours but I don't recall ever hearing of it.

 

Unless you want one for collecting/completion reasons you're probably better off with a Lynx II - smaller, better battery life and probably more reliable.

[Michael David Morsette]

Well one reason for color differences is dye vs paint. I believe first models where grey dyes plastic and later paint painted over with grey. Open the battery compartment and peek around, you should be able to tell if the model is painted or not. Also the paint chips off on units that have been used leaving the white plastic showing through. Rygar would probably have better info though if you message him.

[evan-amos]

I highly doubt that it's plastic. This is the interior of the unit that I have, which is the dark gray one on the bottom of the picture above. The casing shows that it's been machined out, which shouldn't be the case if it was made out of plastic. Also, where the casing could possibly meet the board there are thin plastic washers attached, likely to prevent shorting the board.

[evan-amos]

Here's a view of the motherboard from that unit, if anyone wants to get an idea of its production run based on the board. The Lynx II board actually had a date printed on it, but this one doesn't.

[Rex Dart]

It's plastic. I know because I had to drill a hole in mine to install a new power jack.

Edited April 16, 2014 by Rex Dart

[evan-amos]

Looking at past auctions, it seems that there was at least three color combinations for the original Lynx. There is the light gray, black buttons model, which I'm guessing that is the first model based on some of the advertisements I've seen. There's also two dark gray models: one with black buttons and one with matching dark gray buttons. You can see the dark gray, black button variants on these ebay listings.

 

It might have been a case of mixing old/new stock for the dark gray body/black buttons.

Edited April 16, 2014 by evan-amos

[Guitari]

This may help!

 

[phantomwalker68]

Not to try and bump and old thread but I have two lynx 1's and one has a half plastic metal case and the other one is full metal. The paint has scratched off in places and is shown silver metal. Will work out soon photos for you.