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In lugnet.general, Richie Dulin wrote:
> The "it's grey, folks, but not as we know it" change has certainly provoked
> comments ranging from thoughtful through irate, and ultimately to the
> ludicrous and downright bizarre.
>
> Lego's apparent disregard for its fans is nothing new, and many complaints
> have been made on LUGNET over the years. The following, apparently copies of
> correspondence with Lego, by one LegofanX, recently came to my notice, and I
> submit it as evidence of Lego's ongoing disregard for its core fans.
>
> Or not ;-)
<snip>
Well this is funny, and it did make me laugh, but most of these changes that you
mention are improvements to the product line. Very few of these represent a
step backwards in the consistency of the product. I know that you are mocking
some of the more hysterical responses that have been posted here today, but I
think you underestimate the impact that this change has on a lot of serious
builders.
Eliminating a color like Brown that is so useful in representing real-world
objects has a definite impact on those of us who use this product to create
semi-realistic models or scenes. Changing the color of 9V train track has a
very definite impact on the many LTCs that might want to expand our train
layouts someday and will have to either (1) acquire old track at a steep
mark-up, (2) replace all of our existing track, or (3) have a crappy-looking
layout with mismatched colors of track.
I guess I should go clean out the Pick-a-Brick of all discontinued colors so
that I can sell it to you at an extreme markup when you realize how true this
really is.
- Chris.
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In lugnet.general, Chris Phillips wrote:
> Changing the color of 9V train track has a
> very definite impact on the many LTCs that might want to expand our train
> layouts someday and will have to either (1) acquire old track at a steep
> mark-up, (2) replace all of our existing track, or (3) have a crappy-looking
> layout with mismatched colors of track.
Chris, I feel your pain, I really do. But I have never seen real train tracks
that are a uniform color. Some of the ties are black. Some are brown. Others
are faded in a non-uniform manner. It would seem to me that some color
difference in a LEGO train layout would make it more realistic as opposed to
"crappy-looking". Expand your layout with new track. Nobody will look at a
LEGO train layout at a GATS show or at BrickFest and say, "that layout is
crappy-looking since some of the track is a darker gray then the rest". They're
looking at the trains and the buildings - not the track.
IMHO,
John Hansen
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In lugnet.general, John Hansen wrote:
> In lugnet.general, Chris Phillips wrote:
> > Changing the color of 9V train track has a
> > very definite impact on the many LTCs that might want to expand our train
> > layouts someday and will have to either (1) acquire old track at a steep
> > mark-up, (2) replace all of our existing track, or (3) have a crappy-looking
> > layout with mismatched colors of track.
>
> Chris, I feel your pain, I really do. But I have never seen real train tracks
> that are a uniform color. Some of the ties are black. Some are brown. Others
> are faded in a non-uniform manner. It would seem to me that some color
> difference in a LEGO train layout would make it more realistic as opposed to
> "crappy-looking". Expand your layout with new track. Nobody will look at a
> LEGO train layout at a GATS show or at BrickFest and say, "that layout is
> crappy-looking since some of the track is a darker gray then the rest". They're
> looking at the trains and the buildings - not the track.
The more likely solution is that our club will simply stop buying new track. If
we decide to expand our layout, we will probably just borrow track from our
members. (I'll lend all of mine if necessary.) When you consider the
significant marketing function that LTCs provide to LEGO (NELUG alone handed out
hundreds of S@H catalogs last weekend and our layout was seen by thousands of
people) I wouldn't think they would want to have inconsistent ABS colors to be
so obvious. It will appear to most people to be a quality issue, not an
intentional change.
Although many have suggested that these color variations will add to the realism
of their models/layouts, I would prefer that this effect was voluntary and not
dictated by an arbitrary change to the colors.
- Chris.
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John Hansen wrote:
> Chris, I feel your pain, I really do. But I have never seen real train tracks
> that are a uniform color. Some of the ties are black. Some are brown. Others
> are faded in a non-uniform manner. It would seem to me that some color
> difference in a LEGO train layout would make it more realistic as opposed to
> "crappy-looking". Expand your layout with new track. Nobody will look at a
> LEGO train layout at a GATS show or at BrickFest and say, "that layout is
> crappy-looking since some of the track is a darker gray then the rest". They're
> looking at the trains and the buildings - not the track.
Actually, there's very good point to this.
But it also got me thinking that if uniformity is what is really
desired, you can still achieve a very nice effect by cycling through a
small set of colors in a fixed order... say alternate between the new
gray and the old gray throughout the whole track, and it'd actually
probably look kinda cool.
As I said elsewhere, I'm unhappy about the loss of these colors, but I
think I'll live.
>> Mark
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