With the Sugar/Calico and the Lesser/Butter things, both are the same mutations on the same allele--they're just different lines. Although they were probably independent happenings, they're pretty much indistinguishable from each other; if a new line were to come from Africa, it would really be at the importer's or the buyer's discretion to decide which they'd like to call it, but more than likely they couldn't get away with calling it something else. In the case of Lessers and Butters, if it weren't for the original Platty Daddy having another gene affecting it, they might have been called the same thing--but I really don't have the information needed to say that for sure.

Anywho! As for Vanillas, look for a nice head spot, an aberrant pattern, and a generally lighter and more opaque looking color. Vanillas are very variable, but tend to look similar-ish to Fires--though the homozygous versions of both are very different. Fires also tend to have more 'blurring' in their pattern; the usually sharp lines that distinguish pattern seem a bit faded and 'blurry.' That's the best I can describe it using just words.

Cheers,
-Matt