Subject:
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Re: LEGO Inside Tour (New theory on color change: stock dyes)
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.color
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Date:
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Tue, 24 Aug 2004 00:22:04 GMT
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In lugnet.color, Walter Walters wrote:
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In lugnet.lego, Jake McKee wrote:
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• Visit to the LEGO factory – LIT Special
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Maybe someone visiting the LEGO factory can shed some light on this theory
that popped up on FBTB about a month ago. (Actually, I’m surprised this
theory never made its way to LUGNET. I guess this just goes to show that
there are many *FOLs besides those that post here.)
In this post http://www.fbtbforums.net/viewtopic.php?t=2727, one of the
well-known FBTB members wrote
“I really, truly, honestly have a friend that works at LEGO company. She has
been with them a long, long time! (She is much older than me) I was asking
about what it was like when parts were made in the US and she got to see the
production factory. She was telling me about huge silos full of different
colors of ABS plastic, and how neat it was to see parts made. I told her how
I would love to go, but she said that it won’t ever be the same again. I
asked why. She said because they no longer have stock of color pellets, they
now stock only clear ABS and inject it with color before it is molded. She
has not told me anything about the color change when I ask her, but she
unknowingly gave me a huge hint.”
“So it seems like LEGO changed their manufacturing system, and couldn’t find
a stock dye that came in the old gray, yellow and brown colors. They took
what they could, and checked with the focus groups to see if there would be a
problem. If there would have been a problem, they probably would have had to
custom order for the right color dyes, but why spend extra money when the
focus group says it is OK?”
(I feel a little strange re-posting someone else’s post, but it was posted in
a public forum, so I guess it’s not too inappropriate.)
The above is of course only a theory, but it’s the first explanation (that
I’ve seen at least) that actually makes sense. Despite explanations to the
contrary, the color changes were most likely a cost-cutting measure by TLG.
Up until now, I couldn’t well envision how the new colors would save TLG
money, but the above explanation seems quite plausible.
Does anyone here have any thoughts or insight on this?
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Sounds logical to me.
Lego has been doing some things “that haven’t made sense” for decades!
Back in 1963 they switched from Cellulose Acetate to ABS plastic. Anyone who
has old red or yellow CA bricks knows that the new ABS color is way different
from the old CA colors. Even though TLG switched to ABS quickly (within a
year), in the USA they must have had a LOT of old CA red and yellow pellets left
over in inventory. In the case of yellow they had sooooo many pellets, that all
yellow bricks/plates were CA in USA Samsonite Lego sets as late as 1970!!!
(Mentioned in my upcoming new CD/book on Lego history).
Gary Istok
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