There is hope that some combination of Lesser to something will produce a Platinum again (but as of now this hasn't happened...someone correct me if wrong )
OK, you're wrong.

From what I remember. Ralph imported the original platinum. He bred this male to some normal females and produced a fairly even split of normal looking babies and babies that were different looking. These different looking babies were similar to the original platinum but weren't as nice (I think the term he used was 'they weren't even in the same zipcode') These different babies he termed 'Lesser platinums'. Fortunatly he also kept all the 'normal' looking babies as well. When he bred the normal babies together, he produced nothing but more normal looking babies... HOWEVER, when he bred the original male platinum to some of his normal looking daughters he produced some more real platinums (ie: not lessers) So there is apparently a hidden gene in the platty daddy (the original male platinum) That doesn't show up in a first generation breeding. I believe that he has also produced platinums by breeding lessers to these normal looking siblings. I believe that Ralph now has a number of real platinums but I don't know if he's ever sold any.

The butters are very similar looking to the lessers and originate from another wild caught animal imported by another breeder. (whose name eludes me right now) Other people also have imported similar looking animals, I beleive that Sean at EBN imported a snake a few years back that he calls an 'African Lesser'. Interestingly Ralph bred a butter to one of his normal siblings and produced the butter version of a real platinum. So, it appears that the key to producing a real platinum is the normal looking offspring from the original platty daddy.

At least thats how I remember it.

Mark