Subject:
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Re: Weren't we all expecting this??
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.general
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Date:
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Mon, 22 Oct 2007 10:37:22 GMT
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Viewed:
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4036 times
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In lugnet.general, John Neal wrote:
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In lugnet.general, Brian Pilati wrote:
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In someways I knew this would happen and I have been expecting this day.
Hopefully, it means the downfall of MegaBloks forever!
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Now, now, let’s not be too hasty. Remember, competition is GOOD; it keeps
TLG on their toes.
On a different note, I saw this quotation in the article and it made me
wonder:
“Lead is sometimes added to plastics to give them yellow or red color, Mr.
Mays said.”
Now, the discontinued colors of dark gray, gray, and brown were “warm”; that
is, they contained yellow and/or red in their pigment. The replacement
colors are markedly cooler, presumably without as much yellow/red (if any).
Could this change reflect a lead concern? Possibly. And if that were the
case, I could see why TLG wouldn’t necessarily want to come clean as to their
rationale for switching.
Just a thought.
JOHN
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John:
Yes, various heavy metals are commonly used in the plastics industry as
colorants. Heavy metal pigments tend to provide very bright, vivid colors and
are usually more heat stable than other organic pigments. The bright/bold
colors are also usually harder to achieve with more conventional (organic)
pigments. However, there is a general industry trend moving away from heavy
metal pigments as many companies such as Clariant are coming out with new
pigment technology negating the need to use heavy metals.
As for the LEGO color change, I have my own theory as to why the change was
made. If you look at old gray bricks, they have a distinct tendency to yellow
when exposed to UV light (including fluorescent). Most of this was due to the
degradation of the butadiene in the ABS (acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene
terpolymer). Butadiene is very susceptible to UV degradation. This coupled
with the more yellow/red tone in the coloring led to some pretty yellowed bricks
with the old gray.
Now, if we assume that the color of the base resin (ABS) is going to shift
yellow over time due to UV exposure, we can do a couple of things. We could try
to stabilize the resin using a radical scavenger, but this can only do so
much...especially in ABS. Since yellow is opposite blue in the CIE LAB
colorspace, the other option is to bias the color initially on the blue side so
that as the base resin yellows, the color shifts more toward neutral gray. My
suspicion is that this is what LEGO was after. Over the years, I suspect our
“bley” pieces may gradually shift to a more neutral gray. But that’s just my
own postulation.
Okay...I’m out.
-Dave
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | Re: Weren't we all expecting this??
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| (...) Now, now, let's not be too hasty. Remember, competition is GOOD; it keeps TLG on their toes. On a different note, I saw this quotation in the article and it made me wonder: "Lead is sometimes added to plastics to give them yellow or red color, (...) (17 years ago, 19-Oct-07, to lugnet.general, FTX)
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