weird issue --- any suggestions?

see attached image. on the left is an assembly comprised of five parts and three subassemblies. all appearances are applied at the part-level.

on the right is how the assembly appears as it is imported as a sub-assembly into a higher-level assembly. the appearance state of the 90d connector is not displayed. it appears as a standard part with no appearance properties applied to it.

none of the other parts exhibit this behavior. every part in this assembly has a custom appearance property (whether it's the library's "Satin Finish Copper" or a custom appearance used for printed circuit boards). none of these parts are missing their appearances. only that one connector.

logically this would indicate a problem with the appearances of that connector, but i cannot figure it out.

this part was imported from a manufacturer's model.

*** i just opened the part file for that connector. "re-applied" the appearances, making the body "white" and the faces of the leads "copper". now in the higher-level assembly, the entire part is white including the leads.

clearly i have an ability to affect how that part is displayed, but it's not displaying in this higher-level assembly as it does as a part. in the lower level assembly it does appear as it does as a part.

jeez this even sounds confusing typed out.