(2) However, no MUSCLE Tree was made in all 9 colors.
(3) The only color to be applied to all 235 sculpts was flesh. The other, non-flesh colors were interestingly each applied to approximately 145 of the 235 sculpts. (Purple and Dark Blue were each applied to about 180 of the 235 sculpts.)
(4) So, on the one hand, we see that Bandai failed to make all 235 in each of the 8 non-flesh colors, and on the other hand, we see that they did a pretty good job of making sure the non-flesh colors each got applied to about 145 of the 235 sculpts.
(5) The MUSCLE Trees can be found in 4, 5, 6, and 7 of the 8 non-flesh colors.
(6) It has been proposed that the reason Bandai did not make all 235 sculpts in all the non-flesh colors was because the 235 molds for the sculpts were divided up between 3-4 factories (not individually, of course, but via their Trees). Furthermore, it is proposed that each of the 3-4 factories only had a portion of the 8 non-flesh colors. Thus, if "factory A" had Trees 1, 2, and 3, and only had colors red, dark blue, purple, and orange, and no other factories had Trees 1, 2, and 3 -- Trees 1, 2, and 3 would only be found in red, dark blue, purple, and orange.
With all this in mind, I decided to take a closer look at the Trees containing the lowest number of colors, which is 4. No MUSCLE Tree was made in fewer than 4 non-flesh colors. I wondered: Was it possible that the 4-color Trees would reveal the different factories and the colors they had? In other wrods, since no Tree has fewer than 4 colors... maybe that means each factory had at least 4 non-flesh colors to use. By looking at the 4-color Trees, we might be able to determine how many factories there were and what color combinations they had.
I found that there are 12 different 4-color Trees (all with different combinations of 4 non-flesh colors). This discovery immediately made the above hypothesis seem unlikely. I doubted that there were 12 factories, each with four colors, making MUSCLEs.
If we assumed that the 4-color Trees were the result of being produced in a factory that only had those 4 colors, we would then assume that Trees having 5, 6, and 7 non-flesh colors were the result of being made in 2 or more 4-color factories. Thus, if this were the case, it should be possible to combine the 4-color Tree combinations to match the color combinations of all 5-, 6-, and 7-color Trees.
For example, Tree 27 has the following 7 color combinations: salmon, purple, dark blue, light blue, red, magenta, orange.
If the above hypothesis is correct, we should be able to find a combination of 4-color Trees that "equal" this above color combination. And we do! By combining two of the 12 four-color Trees -- numbers 24 and 25 -- we get the exact color combination of Tree 27.
[Factory A] Tree 24: dark blue, light blue, magenta, and orange
+
[Factory B] Tree 25: salmon, purple, dark blue, and red
=
[Factory A & B] Tree 27: salmon, purple, dark blue, light blue, red, magenta, orange
+ 
= In other words, Tree 27 was made in two different factories. However, neither of these factories happened to carry the color "green." Therefore, Tree 27 was not made in green.
So far, so good! I decided to pick a 5-color Tree at random, and to try and find two 4-color Trees that could be combined to make the 5-color combination. I chose Tree 37: salmon, purple, light blue, red, and orange.
I needed to find two 4-color trees that would combine to have salmon, purple, light blue, red, and orange, but not have dark blue, magenta, or green.
I couldn't do it.
Unfortunately, every 4-color Tree that had light blue -- which I needed -- either had dark blue or green, colors that I don't need. I tried another 5-color Tree and had the same problem. It was impossible to get a color I needed, and not include a color I didn't need.So, in conclusion, it looks like the 12 4-color Trees do not represent 12 factories each with unique combinations of 4 of the 8 non-flesh colors. I don't think any of us really believed they did, but personally, I had always assumed we could combine the 4-color Trees to create the other Trees with more colors. We can't, at least not for the 5-color Trees.
Note: The reason I post this in a new topic is for easier future reference.
