The packaging and car appears to be new. No signs of it being repainted. My guess is that during production they forgot to apply the red paint and the words "Polar Express". It works just fine. Hard to believe quality control let it slip by. Will ask the store if they have a guess on what happened. Thank you for your reply. Much appreciated.

I just purchase a Polar Express Conductor Announcement car 6-83437 at a local hobby store. What attracted me to it was that the roof is black and the body is blue with no red paint by the windows and the words Polar Express has been omitted. Has anyone else seen or heard about this? Any info would be appreciated. Thank you and regards to all.