Interesting, thank you for sharing. I had a feeling specials weren’t really ‘rare’ necessarily, I should have phrased more as “how common are they” as I just had never seen one before. And for those snakes I said were the higher quality ones (imo) I was ignoring butter/lesser and bamboo because I know very little of bamboo and I avoid morph combos like super butter that have genetic issues like bug eyes. And I do know they start to show yellow as they age and become very dirty, but from the babies they seem the brightest to me and personally I see less yellows and browning from them other than like a Mojave butter (the original BEL combo that I currently have a pair for) but that might just be my personal eyes. I was always the odd one out when it came to the black and blue or gold and pink dress that went around the internet lmfao. And the breeder (while being very very nice) probably was just promoting his gene. However he was right when he said it pairs well with clown. Some of them are absolutely STUNNING. Even just a banana special clown is so so pretty. And once again thank you for your post, it was very helpful and informative.
Yeah, the Kinova spotlight may be bringing in a lot of new special projects. Not necessarily a bad thing, but can be a bit odd in some cases like you had.
Although I forgot to ask… Is it NOCO line special? I don’t personally work with the line but I will say they do turn out some very nice animals. As far as I know ATM it’s a polymorphic line of special, but with the discovery that Barnhart black pastel is a different gene from black pastel, we might have new info if someone actually sponsors a study into it.
If that’s what they were talking about, they still do sound a bit overblown, but NOCO is harder to find for sure.
I actually have zero clue, I will see if I can contact the seller and find out. I guess NOCO would be cool if it’s rarer lol?
If you don’t mind, could you explain the difference a bit or let me know how many different lines there are? I’m having a bit of trouble googling it unfortunately
As far as we know right now it’s a line bred version of special. It’s like how Orange Ghost is still the hypo gene, just line bred to bring out more orange color in the offspring
Interesting, it’s really hard to tell in this snake as it also has banana and cinnamon in it. So it has orange sides and a yellow stripe which I’m going to guess is from the cinnamon and banana. And then the rest of the snake is a blueish purplish gray sort of color. Very very pretty but I think the only way I can tell what line is by getting an answer from the breeder
This is incorrect, more below
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There are three lines of Special, each was imported by a different breeder:
- Baker
- NOCO
- TCR
Baker is the more common line because it was the first to be found and had a lot of hype around it after the first Crystal was made
NOCO was not line bred, it is its own thing and there is some small indication it is genetically unique from Baker
I can assert with a high degree of certainty that TCR line is genetically different from Baker
It is unknown if TCR and NOCO are the same but they resemble each other (both in single gene form and superform) more than they resemble Baker line. Crystals made by TCR and NOCO also look different than Crystals made by Baker line. The “super” made from Baker x TCR also looks different than the homozygous of either
I believe Marshal got out of breeding and that is a major reason NOCO line has kind of faded from the hobby. Baker line was pretty well established so NOCO was written off as “the same thing” so he did not make a lot of them.
TCR has has been pretty consistently propagating their line over the years, but they are not big vocal out there sellers so you really do not see them. They are also a very low-key couple and do not feel the need to play the hype game so they are happy to just make and sell their own and just let buyers know at the time of purchase that their animals are not the Baker line. Unless you have bought the morph directly from them then it is very unlikely that you would acquire one by accident
I suspect there may be a fourth line as well, but it goes by a totally different name and is also not particularly well know.
Oh thanks for the clarification!
In this case I was misinformed by a breeder as well. I hate how much of that is in the hobby. Barnhart I think just said the same thing was happening to people asking about his Blk pastel line as well. x_x;
I got the info from the breeder. He says he does not know that he is NOCO so is assuming that he is not. But interestingly enough his father is a special Enchi yellowbelly clown from Kinova himself. And to be even more interesting than the snake having MY birthday, I watched Kinova’s video a few years ago the day that it came out when he showed his brand new special clown clutch. I was thinking how pretty they are and how I wished I could have one, and it turns out I ended up with either one of those snakes babies or the baby of a slightly more recent clutch. However, that clutch was born roughly 2-3 years ago (that’s if I’m correct on the date the video was released) and this baby hatched 6 months ago meaning the male was bred another 4 months prior to that. Which would make that exact clutch between 1.5 and 2 years old. That’s just so crazy to me how likely I could have one of those snakes babies.
Edit: @t_h_wyman
I’m pinging you as I’m curious, if Baker was earlier like you said would it be more likely that Kinova has NOCO or Baker assuming I very likely do not have a TCR line. Reading this post you’ll find that the father was from Justin at Kinova and was a Yellowbelly Enchi Special Clown. I know of Kinova’s first time posting about his Special Clowns that he had been working on and it was only a few years ago. What do you think? I am going to assume Baker line only because that’s more logical and less rare.
Given how obscure NOCO and TCR are, I would posit that in this case the misinformation was down to pure ignorance and not malice. And I can understand the same mistake happening with Barnhart, prior to RGI’s discovery that they were different
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If I were a betting man, I would put money on Kinova’s animals being Baker line
Eh, doesn’t matter. I still love the little guy 
thank you for your input though!