The plain Flat Silver dome gets the light blue color printed on it.
The dome is then tilted out of place a bit due to machine error and receives the Silver print at the wrong location.
The dome is straightened out but slips out of place downward due to the tilt, so the pad for the Dark Blue print does not come all the way down onto the dome, leaving the neck area nearly free of Dark Blue print and making the Dark Blue print look runny (or “melting off”).
The dome shifts slightly and receives the Black print and the Dark Pink print (not concurrently)
This sequence accounts for how the colors of paint are layered as well as the drift of print misalignment.
After studying the dome for a bit, here’s what I think happened:
Pad printing on a hemisphere seems to be done by dropping the pad directly onto the center of the hemisphere. Example here
Lego pad prints different colors at separate times and with separate pads. Example here briefly at 28 seconds
The plain Flat Silver dome gets the light blue color printed on it.
The dome is then tilted out of place a bit due to machine error and receives the Silver print at the wrong location.
The dome is straightened out but slips out of place downward due to the tilt, so the pad for the Dark Blue print does not come all the way down onto the dome, leaving the neck area nearly free of Dark Blue print and making the Dark Blue print look runny (or “melting off”).
The dome shifts slightly and receives the Black print and the Dark Pink print (not concurrently)
This sequence accounts for how the colors of paint are layered as well as the drift of print misalignment.
That’s some fine detective work, I concur!