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So I've tried to forget about the color change and focus on sorting my LEGO and
building some new models. While sorting, I've been keeping in the back of my
mind what many have said: that LEGO has always had color variances in the
pieces.
Well after parting out a couple dozen sets, I've gotta say that I just don't see
this. Sure, baseplates have always come in a couple shades of green, and I've
even noticed that some of my tan baseplates are very slightly darker than
others. But with regular brick I only found one piece that was a noticeably
different hue than the rest, and it turned out to be a Tyco brick that somehow
got mixed into a bin of loose brick. (Not counting bricks in the new 2004
colors, of course, which are just different enough that you only notice the
difference AFTER you drop them into a bin of supposedly same-color pieces.)
Now granted, the vast majority of my LEGO collection was purchased new in the
last five years, and has never been abused with direct sunlight. But I have a
small amount of brick that is at least 20 years old, and the colors are still
the same.
So what are you guys talking about?
- Chris.
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"Chris Phillips" <drvegetable@attbi.com> wrote in message
news:HpKu81.oGE@lugnet.com...
[ ... ]
> Now granted, the vast majority of my LEGO collection was purchased new in • the
> last five years, and has never been abused with direct sunlight. But I • have a
> small amount of brick that is at least 20 years old, and the colors are • still
> the same.
>
> So what are you guys talking about?
>
> - Chris.
I have seen the biggest color variations with blue. Most of my blue bricks
are the same hue but many of the other elements are noticably different.
These two parts in particular come to mind as being a very different color
blue:
Plate 1x2 with Arm
http://guide.lugnet.com/partsref/search.cgi?q=4623
Bracket 1x2 - 1x4
http://guide.lugnet.com/partsref/search.cgi?q=2436
I have quite a few of both of these parts and they are a noticably different
color of blue when placed adjacent to other blue elements. There is one
more piece that is also a different hue but I can't recall off the top of my
head which one it is.
Mike
--
Mike Walsh - mike_walsh at mindspring.com
http://www.ncltc.cc - North Carolina LEGO Train Club
http://www.carolinatrainbuilders.com - Carolina Train Builders
http://www.bricklink.com/store.asp?p=mpw - CTB/Brick Depot
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In lugnet.general, Mike Walsh wrote:
| |
These two parts in particular come to mind as being a very different color
blue:
Plate 1x2 with Arm
http://guide.lugnet.com/partsref/search.cgi?q=4623
Bracket 1x2 - 1x4
http://guide.lugnet.com/partsref/search.cgi?q=2436
I have quite a few of both of these parts and they are a noticably different
color of blue when placed adjacent to other blue elements. There is one
more piece that is also a different hue but I can’t recall off the top of my
head which one it is.
|
Perhaps this one, I have a bunch of these in blue that are a shade too light:
Brick 1 x 1 with Handle
I have many of these in yellow with a sickly green tinge:
Technic Liftarm 2 x 7 with
2 Ball Joints
And, here’s an example of opaque and translucent dark blue:
I had a hard time convincing anyone at BrickLink that translucent dark blue
existed, so I am led to believe that I had a bad lot of the opaque dark blue
(and not just one type of part, mind you, several types of parts exhibited the
translucence).
Mark
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In lugnet.general, Mark Riley wrote:
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In lugnet.general, Mike Walsh wrote:
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These two parts in particular come to mind as being a very different color
blue:
Plate 1x2 with Arm
http://guide.lugnet.com/partsref/search.cgi?q=4623
Bracket 1x2 - 1x4
http://guide.lugnet.com/partsref/search.cgi?q=2436
I have quite a few of both of these parts and they are a noticably different
color of blue when placed adjacent to other blue elements. There is one
more piece that is also a different hue but I can’t recall off the top of my
head which one it is.
|
Perhaps this one, I have a bunch of these in blue that are a shade too light:
Brick 1 x 1 with Handle
I have many of these in yellow with a sickly green tinge:
Technic Liftarm 2 x 7
with 2 Ball Joints
And, here’s an example of opaque and translucent dark blue:
I had a hard time convincing anyone at BrickLink that translucent dark blue
existed, so I am led to believe that I had a bad lot of the opaque dark blue
(and not just one type of part, mind you, several types of parts exhibited
the translucence).
Mark
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Mark,
Would you believe that I have multiple of the same part ( Technic, Liftarm 1 x
7 with Fan, p/n 32177) which came from R2-D2 that exhibit both of the shades
that your picture shows above. I’m not convinced that both colors exist so much
as the quality control on the dark blue (or navy blue) was all over the place.
Without question, it was the widest variation I have ever seen in parts coming
from the same set in the same year.
The best way I characterize the difference between these two colors is like
this... I just held one of each part up in front of a light bulb. The more
translucent one allowed light to pass through while the other one (the darker
navy blue) allowed no light to pass. There is that much difference. Perhaps they
really are two colors and someone at the factory used the wrong ABS.
Ray Sanders
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In lugnet.general, Chris Phillips wrote:
> So I've tried to forget about the color change and focus on sorting my LEGO and
> building some new models. While sorting, I've been keeping in the back of my
> mind what many have said: that LEGO has always had color variances in the
> pieces.
>
> Well after parting out a couple dozen sets, I've gotta say that I just don't see
> this.
I have to agree. If you are looking at new brick from around the same time
period, then I think LEGO tends to have a very high color consistency.
> Sure, baseplates have always come in a couple shades of green, and I've
> even noticed that some of my tan baseplates are very slightly darker than
> others. But with regular brick I only found one piece that was a noticeably
> different hue than the rest, and it turned out to be a Tyco brick that somehow
> got mixed into a bin of loose brick. (Not counting bricks in the new 2004
> colors, of course, which are just different enough that you only notice the
> difference AFTER you drop them into a bin of supposedly same-color pieces.)
>
> Now granted, the vast majority of my LEGO collection was purchased new in the
> last five years, and has never been abused with direct sunlight. But I have a
> small amount of brick that is at least 20 years old, and the colors are still
> the same.
>
> So what are you guys talking about?
I can't speak for anyone else, but something to came to mind when looking at the
discussion is that LEGO bricks do tend to change color when exposed to various
elements. I have a lot of yellowed white brick from when I kept my Rebel
Blockade Runner out on my desk at my office. There it was exposed to florescent
light, which I now understand is a no-no for LEGO. (It really looked like it
got a tan, too, as the underside was still nice and bright!)
Also, in my collection there are a lot of well used bricks. I often buy used
brick from bricklink, and I also have a large collection from my childhood.
These pieces are in good shape, except for the color. Some of my red has an
orange tint to it, and some grey has yellowed a bit as well. I even had to
bleach some of my bricks, as I inherited my brothers' mold filled boxes of lego.
(This didn't change the color nearly as much as florescent light!) However, I do
have to say that these color variations appear to be slighter than the official
color change. I don't really know, thoa, since I haven't bought any sets with
the new color, yet.
> - Chris.
-Alfred
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In lugnet.general, Alfred Speredelozzi wrote:
| |
However, I do
have to say that these color variations appear to be slighter than the
official color change. I don’t really know, thoa, since I haven’t bought any
sets with the new color, yet.
-Alfred
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I bought a 2004 mini Star Wars set at the Imagination Center at the Mall of
America last week, just to check out these new colors.
There is a big different between the ‘classic’ dark grey and the new dark
blue-grey, and a smaller difference between the ‘classic’ grey and the new grey.
Just to test it, I took about 30 pieces of the old colors, put one of the new
colors into the pile and shook them up. I could pick out the new pieces
basically instantly.
The GMLTC will be sorting the new dark blue-grey (my term for it, since it
definitely looks blue) separately from our supply of the old dark grey. The
light grey I don’t know what we’re going to do, since it’s closer to the old
color it might end up sorted into the same bins.
Once you see these new colors next to your existing colors, you WILL see the
difference!
JohnG, GMLTC
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In lugnet.general, John Gerlach wrote:
> I bought a 2004 mini Star Wars set at the Imagination Center at the Mall of
> America last week, just to check out these new colors.
Ditto here last week (well, ok, not at the Mall of America). I'm on the 'Xmas'
rule right now, which states quite clearly that I'm not to buy any Lego for
myself until AFTER Xmas, but this was obviously an exception, since I NEED to
see the new colors :)
> There is a big different between the 'classic' dark grey and the new dark
> blue-grey, and a smaller difference between the 'classic' grey and the new
> grey.
Yeah, the new grey isn't all that bad. I think I even like the new grey better
than the old one. Not that I think they *should* have made the change, given its
subtlety, unless there really were other factors behind the scenes besides pure
looks... But I'm not up in arms about it. Anyway, I don't think I'll mind mixing
the new greys in with the old. It's significantly less of a variation than on
some of my older, yellower greys anyway.
The new dark grey? Much bigger difference. I prefer the old dark grey, I think--
this new one really does seem blueish, especially when next to a 'classic' dark
grey. Makes me think a nice gradient now exists from classic dark grey to the
new dark grey to sand blue to regular blue, though I haven't tested it out. I'm
rather sad to see it go, since we were finally starting to get a nice mix of
dark grey slopes and arches...
> Just to test it, I took about 30 pieces of the old colors, put one of
> the new colors into the pile and shook them up. I could pick out the new
> pieces basically instantly.
Oh yeah. No contest. Especially with the dark grey. It's oddly similar to going
through a pile of Lego mixed with MegaBloks-- you can spot the MegaBloks a mile
away, just because it's an "unfamiliar" color or something.
> The GMLTC will be sorting the new dark blue-grey (my term for it, since it
> definitely looks blue) separately from our supply of the old dark grey. The
> light grey I don't know what we're going to do, since it's closer to the old
> color it might end up sorted into the same bins.
Heh, probably exactly what I'll be doing :)
> Once you see these new colors next to your existing colors, you [WILL] see
> the difference!
Heck, even just by themselves you might be able to tell! :) [at least with the
new dark grey]
DaveE
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Alfred Speredelozzi wrote:
> In lugnet.general, Chris Phillips wrote:
>
> > So I've tried to forget about the color change and focus on sorting my LEGO and
> > building some new models. While sorting, I've been keeping in the back of my
> > mind what many have said: that LEGO has always had color variances in the
> > pieces.
> >
> > Well after parting out a couple dozen sets, I've gotta say that I just don't see
> > this.
>
>
> I have to agree. If you are looking at new brick from around the same time
> period, then I think LEGO tends to have a very high color consistency.
>
>
> > Sure, baseplates have always come in a couple shades of green, and I've
> > even noticed that some of my tan baseplates are very slightly darker than
> > others. But with regular brick I only found one piece that was a noticeably
> > different hue than the rest, and it turned out to be a Tyco brick that somehow
> > got mixed into a bin of loose brick. (Not counting bricks in the new 2004
> > colors, of course, which are just different enough that you only notice the
> > difference AFTER you drop them into a bin of supposedly same-color pieces.)
> >
> > Now granted, the vast majority of my LEGO collection was purchased new in the
> > last five years, and has never been abused with direct sunlight. But I have a
> > small amount of brick that is at least 20 years old, and the colors are still
> > the same.
> >
> > So what are you guys talking about?
>
>
>
> I can't speak for anyone else, but something to came to mind when looking at the
> discussion is that LEGO bricks do tend to change color when exposed to various
> elements. I have a lot of yellowed white brick from when I kept my Rebel
> Blockade Runner out on my desk at my office. There it was exposed to florescent
> light, which I now understand is a no-no for LEGO. (It really looked like it
> got a tan, too, as the underside was still nice and bright!)
>
> Also, in my collection there are a lot of well used bricks. I often buy used
> brick from bricklink, and I also have a large collection from my childhood.
> These pieces are in good shape, except for the color. Some of my red has an
> orange tint to it, and some grey has yellowed a bit as well. I even had to
> bleach some of my bricks, as I inherited my brothers' mold filled boxes of lego.
> (This didn't change the color nearly as much as florescent light!) However, I do
> have to say that these color variations appear to be slighter than the official
> color change. I don't really know, thoa, since I haven't bought any sets with
> the new color, yet.
>
>
> > - Chris.
>
>
> -Alfred
I have yellows (produced within the same year) that are not the same
shade. When the bricks are snapped together the color shift becomes
obvious to me but not to my wife... although, I don't think she even
looks when I ask :) I just recieved some LEGO where the blue 1x4x1 panel
doesn't match any of the other blue bricks. So, I think there has been
some variation in the color of LEGO bricks not a lot, but some.
As for discoloration, I haven't figured that one out yet. The latest
puzzle was when I got my Twin Tank Transport out to build it. All of the
pieces were stored in the same Ziploc bag in the original box that was
place in a large cardboard box. One, and only one, white ldraw part
number 2463 was somewhat yet uniformly beiged. All of the other white
parts were still nice and uniformly white. A big part of me wants to
design an experiment to test what environmental factors play a roll in
the discolorization of LEGO, another part of me thinks that there is no
way that I could control of the factors that cause discoloration.
Chris
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I bought 5 5230 Explore tubs from Boscov's. They are supposed to have 10 orange or
med yellow orange 2x2 duplo bricks in them.
One tub had 10 all the same color.
The other 4 tubs ALL had 8 "light orange" and 2 "orange".
What was worse was when I put the 2 "orange" from those tubs in a stack, there were
at least 2 distinct shades. I really don't know which is the "real" orange and
which is not.
QC on those tubs SUCKED. I have no problem with them all being orange even if the
label shows med yellow orange. I have a problem with 2 shades when the tub sticker
shows one.
I decided not to inventory the tub for BL because the colors were off too much - the
green bricks were sorta "bright green", definitely not "green" (WAY lighter than the
green from a different Explore tub). But it was the orange that killed any chance
of inventorying it.
I often stack bricks from tubs to save room (compacting 70 tubs when you don't even
have room for 10-20 is kinda necessary). When I stack them, the dark grey and grey
almost always have variations. Yellow sometimes does too.
Chris Phillips wrote:
> So I've tried to forget about the color change and focus on sorting my LEGO and
> building some new models. While sorting, I've been keeping in the back of my
> mind what many have said: that LEGO has always had color variances in the
> pieces.
>
> Well after parting out a couple dozen sets, I've gotta say that I just don't see
> this. Sure, baseplates have always come in a couple shades of green, and I've
> even noticed that some of my tan baseplates are very slightly darker than
> others. But with regular brick I only found one piece that was a noticeably
> different hue than the rest, and it turned out to be a Tyco brick that somehow
> got mixed into a bin of loose brick. (Not counting bricks in the new 2004
> colors, of course, which are just different enough that you only notice the
> difference AFTER you drop them into a bin of supposedly same-color pieces.)
>
> Now granted, the vast majority of my LEGO collection was purchased new in the
> last five years, and has never been abused with direct sunlight. But I have a
> small amount of brick that is at least 20 years old, and the colors are still
> the same.
>
> So what are you guys talking about?
>
> - Chris.
--
Tom Stangl
***http://www.vfaq.com/
***DSM Visual FAQ home
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In lugnet.general, Thomas Stangl wrote:
> I bought 5 5230 Explore tubs from Boscov's. They are supposed to have 10 orange or
> med yellow orange 2x2 duplo bricks in them.
>
> One tub had 10 all the same color.
>
> The other 4 tubs ALL had 8 "light orange" and 2 "orange".
I encountered one of these tubs at a CVS store today and picked it up. All the
'orange' 2x2s and 2x4s are the color that BL calls 'Medium Orange'. A few other
parts in this color were found in the recent Walgreens boxes.
> What was worse was when I put the 2 "orange" from those tubs in a stack, there were
> at least 2 distinct shades. I really don't know which is the "real" orange and
> which is not.
>
> QC on those tubs SUCKED. I have no problem with them all being orange even if the
> label shows med yellow orange. I have a problem with 2 shades when the tub sticker
> shows one.
>
> I decided not to inventory the tub for BL because the colors were off too much - the
> green bricks were sorta "bright green", definitely not "green" (WAY lighter than the
> green from a different Explore tub). But it was the orange that killed any chance
> of inventorying it.
The greens in this tub match to a 4x10 plate that I have from 7128 Speeder
Bikes. BL calls this color 'Bright Green'
>
> I often stack bricks from tubs to save room (compacting 70 tubs when you don't even
> have room for 10-20 is kinda necessary). When I stack them, the dark grey and grey
> almost always have variations. Yellow sometimes does too.
Interesting parts selection. Duplo plates, 45-deg 2x2 slopes, and eye bricks :)
Ray
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Now granted, the vast majority of my LEGO collection was purchased new in the
last five years, and has never been abused with direct sunlight.
|
This causes a big difference. Do not be fooled, this is the most annoying
thing about building white models for me. A lot of my Lego is 20+ years old and
has been in direct sunlight. The white is a totally different colour, it’s
really annoying. I have a seriously reduced number of useable white bricks, as
so many of them have caught a bit of a tan. I had Lego set 6594 out in the sun
for about one year. The pieces that were facing towards the light are unusable,
they are such a different colour. However, the section of the bricks that was
underneath the stickers is fine (even thought the stickers were transparent).
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In lugnet.general, Peter Roberts wrote:
| |
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Now granted, the vast majority of my LEGO collection was purchased new in
the last five years, and has never been abused with direct sunlight.
|
This causes a big difference. Do not be fooled, this is the most annoying
thing about building white models for me. A lot of my Lego is 20+ years old
and has been in direct sunlight. The white is a totally different colour,
it’s really annoying. I have a seriously reduced number of useable white
bricks, as so many of them have caught a bit of a tan. I had Lego set 6594
out in the sun for about one year. The pieces that were facing towards the
light are unusable, they are such a different colour. However, the section
of the bricks that was underneath the stickers is fine (even thought the
stickers were transparent).
|
Peter I agree. I too have a lot of old bricks. Many of the white mint bricks I
have from the 1970’s have “tanned” as well, due to sunlight. Interestingly
enough, I think that Cellulose Acetate white bricks keep their whiteness better
than ABS white bricks. At least those from the 1960’s do. For some reason many
white CA bricks from the 1950’s turn a putrid yellow or orange.
Gary Istok
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