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Subject: 
Re: Nicely now. What do you think of the new colors?
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.lego, lugnet.general
Date: 
Mon, 19 Jan 2004 02:10:36 GMT
Viewed: 
13246 times
  
In lugnet.lego, Jake McKee wrote:

SNIP

   As both my duty as the Community Development Manager, and as an AFOL, I’m interested in helping to make sure that the LEGO Company fully understands the issues you have as well. I’m looking for your help to deliver the message. To be totally clear, this is me asking in order to have answers ready if and when my colleagues ask.

SNIP

   Jake

---
Jake McKee
Community Development Manager
LEGO Community Development

Overall, I like the new colors INDEPENDENTLY, but I don’t think they are better than the old colors, and I do NOT like the fact that the old colors aren’t going to be produced any more. Per color, my thoughts are:

new light gray: I can see the difference , but to me, it’s not enough to severely clash with the old version. to me it is a cleaner, fresher color, but gray is gray, so it’s not really much ‘better’ overall.

new dark gray: WOW; severe clashing all over! DEFINITELY a noticeable difference. I personally like blueish-gray, but I think that’s really where the new color fails-it should have been a new color: ‘bluish-gray’, & NOT replace the VERY useful warm, earthy dark gray.

New brown: Hmmm...a little more reddish, kinda wierd, but relatively closer to old brown than old dark gray is to new ‘blue gray’ (see above.) I like the old rich chocolatey brown, so, the new reddish-brown should be just that; a new color: ‘reddish brown’ & NOT replace the deep old brown. Overall, I don’t see why the change was made; it seems really useless: different enough to TECHNICALLY be a distinct, separate NEW color (along with maintaining the old brown), but not different enough from good old brown to be ‘better’. It almost looks like a color-mix accident.

I don’t know what the 4th color is, so I don’t know what to tell you.

I really hope the color change does not foretell brick plastic or stud changes. This is a very important point, which I think gets at the heart of the matter. I think those of us who do not like the color change feel betrayed by LEGO. The following statement is my attempt to sum up these sour feelings: “LEGO didn’t seem to care about compatibility of the look/color of the brick, so why trust them to maintain the quality of the plastic, or strength, or shape of the core brick design?” I’d like to drive that request home:

PLEASE DON’T CHANGE THE BRICK PLASTIC (UNLESS IT’S STRONGER, MORE DURABLE, MORE COLORFAST ETC & FEELS THE SAME WITH SAME ‘WEIGHT’)

PLEASE DO NOT CHANGE THE STUD/TUBE DESIGN TO MAKE IT EASIER FOR YOUNGER KIDS TO USE; THEY HAVE DUPLO & JUNIOR LINES. I will add, that within my lifetime, I’ve seen the holes in the studs (like in the top of a 1x1 round brick):



get ‘squarer’ to insrease the strength. That was a good change, which is acceptable, but only if it does not affect the continuity of form or function of the piece.

While you’ve graciously given your attention, I’d like to add that the ‘new’ click-hinges are great in some applications, like basic 1x? hinge-brick/plate to 1x? hinge-brick/plate when they’re solidly connected within the overall construction OR, used as a simple arm or langing ‘foot’ etc. The click-hinges are TERRIBLE in the panel uses, like the back of the new X-Wing:, or panels on the new cargo train(or even cockpit windows sometimes); they have large ugly gaps at the hinge area, and the hinge tends to be stronger than the stud connection, so the hinge-piece comes off when you try to use it:





The solution to the hinged panel problem is NOT to weaken the hinge; rather, on panel pieces, stop using the click-hinge & go back to using the older ‘fingered’ hinges:



keep the other old hinges too:



since they also are better for some applications like non-standard angles, changing stud direction (SNOT), etc.

thanks for your time & listening

Jeff



Message is in Reply To:
  Nicely now. What do you think of the new colors?
 
It's only a couple of weeks in the new year, and it looks like it's going to be an interesting 2004! I have a request, but before I go any further, let me say that personally, I understand the concerns surrounding the color changes. I know many of (...) (21 years ago, 15-Jan-04, to lugnet.lego, lugnet.general, FTX) !! 

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