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WhiteHexagon

The color of Lego

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Hi All,

I found two references for Lego brick colors:

LDRAW Color Chart

Peeron Color Chart

Seems to me like the two are not in agreement... Anyone know which is considered the more accurate (color reproduction wise)? I can see the Peeron list looks more complete, but I guess the LDraw list came first?

here's an example of what I mean for red:

red_color_compare.png

Any help or opinions appreciated!

Peter

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That's a tough one, as apparently LEGO themselves cannot decide which shade of red they consider as red (anybody who's bought multiple 10183's know what I mean, and I'm not talking about the dark red pieces)!

Criticism aside, colors and contrast differ from monitor to monitor, so there really isn't any correct answer. Not any that I can come up with, anyhow.

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Yup

I've seen that red issue come up in a set...

Tiny Turbos Road Hero, with different shades of red on each mudguard; looks, really bad :-X

I figure, with quality going the way it is nowadays, they cant guarantee that each batch of bricks will have the same color as the next one.

But they could At Least make sure that multiple copies of a brick in a given packaged set come from the same batch! This way you couldn't get wierd mis-matches on models that are supposed to be symmetrical...

This relates to the problem of roof slope bricks with different texture....

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in my opinion lego has over done it in terms of color

it used to be just black-white-yellow-red and blue

then came green baseplates and grey which was great

and ofcourse brown for speares and pirate guns and the boats..

but now come on!

there is too much its even hard to find a brick of the same color shade let along enough of the same color to build something!

whats with all the pinks and purples?

why so many blues? and green-blue? and purple-blue?

and why oh why make orange?

the only color i was happy to see was tan..and green bricks

other than that its getting out of control!

its lego for gods sake not a paint catalogue..

i cant keep up with this!

im a bit old-fashioned i guess...(or just old)

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Criticism aside, colors and contrast differ from monitor to monitor, so there really isn't any correct answer. Not any that I can come up with, anyhow.

Good point, because so far I've been holding up bricks to my monitor to try and see if they match :) The problem with that approach is I don't seem to have all the colors in brick form. In fact I'm suspicious that many of these colors don't exist as bricks! But I know people here have much much bigger collections than myself, so maybe Ill just post the color chart of the bricks I intend to include in my little project.

At the moment I'm thinking to use this color chart (LDraw with some mods and filtering):

colors1.png

Rather than the following (because there are just too many and also the Ldraw seems to match my collection better):

Peeron

But the first chart I think has too many colors that I haven't even seen. eg I only have a RED and RED_DARK in my brick collection so I think I could remove [8] and [10]? Or do those bricks exist in the wild? I'm not thinking of all the exoforce etc funny colors here, just regular city / castle / train / creator type basic building bricks. I'm also not considering to include all the variations due to production quality issues, otherwise I'd have at least 20 grays :) But if you think a color is wrong or missing, or can be removed, I'd like to know.

Your help is appreciated in this, I'd like my game to have colors that people are happy building/playing with :)

Cheers

Peter

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Well, I find Peeron's colour chart to be pretty reliable. Yes, quality control issues do cause slight variations in colour from time-to-time (red and purple being frequent candidates). Peeron and Bricklink both have very comprehensive colour guides. Also, the peeron chart is based on LEGO's officia colour chart. Its fairly accurate. The on-screen colours for both Peeron and LDRAW may be a bit off, but the colour identification from Peeron can't be beat. If a colour is listed on Peeron, you can be pretty sure that there is a LEGO brick somewhere that uses that colour.

As for the colours themselves: there are TOO MANY!! Some colours have only been used for a few pieces, making them relatively useless. Others are simply too similar to another colour. Do we really need 20 or so shades of blue, red, or yellow? The thing is, with so many colours to choose from, it becomes a real chore to collect the needed bricks in a specific colour.

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this is a great topic, i wish it were getting more contributions.

for me, because i strive for a seamless blend of official LEGO products with my MOCs, matching colors is a very important endeavor in creating my MOCs. i have literally spent weeks worth of hours trying to compile a comprehensive list... its really a downer because these MOCing efforts usually go unappreciated in the online communities, because color matching is so hard to differentiate on screen.

in any case, i have been looking for an all-encompassing tell-all chart also... what makes this task even harder is that there is no standard naming guide either *wacko* so not only do you have to define what a color's composition is, you also have to determine what color to are defining *wacko* *wacko* *wacko*

as you have mentioned there are plenty of sources, but none are compatible with each other... the one i find the most entertaining (for its obvious errors) is the MCN chart :-D

At the moment I'm thinking to use this color chart (LDraw with some mods and filtering):
hmmm... im not sure i would use the LDraw chart. as BaW has said, the peeron chart is going to be your most accurate source, since it comes from the official LEGO CMYK compositions and even includes the pantone codes. even if it doesn't match with your output device, its still the most accurate.

i have compiled my own chart based on some of the most common(basic?) colors used by LEGO. basically its the peeron chart, compared to a pantone color guide, and a bunch of LEGO 2x4's. it was like putting a big puzzle together...

lego_color_chart01_official.jpg

it gives the official LEGO name and the BrickLink name along with the CMYK composition.

also, notice how the name "earth orange" jumps around, depending on who's naming guide you are using.

- Brick Miner

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i have compiled my own chart based on some of the most common(basic?) colors used by LEGO. basically its the peeron chart, compared to a pantone color guide, and a bunch of LEGO 2x4's. it was like putting a big puzzle together...

That's the sort of chat I was looking for :) not too many colors but all the basic/popular ones at least :) Maybe I'll base my game colors on this if you don't mind?

Cheers

Peter

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Maybe I'll base my game colors on this if you don't mind?
yes, of course... though, is this game a screen game or physical game ???

because im not really concerned with monitor output (as you will be if this is a computer-type game) i didn't included any of the RBG color values that you will need... however, if you do want to try my research/chart above, i would just take the peeron chart and match the names to my list above... then just use the corresponding RBG values in the peeron chart.

anyway, i hope that helps.

- BrickMiner

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yes, of course... though, is this game a screen game or physical game ???

Congrats on 1000 posts :)

Actually it's the game in my sig. ie onscreen colors. I'm busy trying to expand the brick choice and color choice, that's when I hit the 'which colors to support' question. Maybe I'll even use a shorter list for now otherwise I think I might have too many blue ish colors :)

Thanks

Peter

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Congrats on 1000 posts :)
:-D im at 1002 now !!!

--------------------------------------------------

Actually it's the game in my sig. ie onscreen colors.
gottcha... i'll have to take a look at that sometime.

--------------------------------------------------

also, i don't want this thread to be over... so, if anyone else has experimented with either screen or print LEGO color matching please contribute... id love the mystery to be unraveled in its entirety.

- BM

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Well this is my first post here ever..... but LEGO colors is one of my specialties, especially for the years 1949-1980, since I wrote a book (Unofficial LEGO Sets/Parts Collectors Guide) on CD on the history of LEGO...

The first LEGO colors of 1949 were red, white, orange-yellow, and light green.

These were followed in the early 1950's by several other colors.... peacock blue, yellow, green, dark green, dark blue, light blue, blue, gray and clear. From 1949-53 these parts were available in Automatic Binding Brick (LEGO) sets. From 1953-56 they were available in LEGO Mursten sets.

Then in 1956 TLG decided to put a brake on LEGO colors. Most of these colors were discontinued, and the only colors remaining from 1956-62 were red, white, blue, yellow and clear.... with baseplates also available in gray and green (as well as red, white, blue and yellow).

Then in 1962 black was introduced as a LEGO color. In 1963, with the introduction of small LEGO plates, gray and green were once again introduced, although as regular bricks, they had to wait until nearly 1980 for them to be produced (later for green).

Brown and Maersk blue were introduced in a few select specialty LEGO parts in the 1970's, with dark gray coming into production in the 1980's. But it took until the 1990's that a true explosion of many different LEGO colors really started to happen.

And now today we are inundated with colors of so many shades, that folks on Bricklink and elsewhere are complaining about ordering what they think is one color, only to get another color in the mail.

Besides all of these colors, there are a few other colors that are material related... namely to the Cellulose Acetate material which LEGO elements were made from from 1949 until the mid 1960's. There is CA red (a red-orange shade), CA blue (a brighter shade of blue than ABS blue), and CA yellow (a lighter "lemon chiffon" shade of yellow).

So besides the naming system variations of LEGO parts, there are also this historic assortment of LEGO colors that aren't even addressed today!!

It gets downright mindboggling! *wacko*

Cheers,

Gary Istok

P.S. My UNOFFICIAL LEGO SETS/PARTS COLLECTORS GUIDE is still available on CD (1,265 pages, with over 1,700 picutres) on my website:

http://www.geminisystems.net/lego/

Be sure to visit it to get some free downloadable chapters, as well as a LEGO Timeline, and a photo gallery of rare sets and parts!

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P.S. My UNOFFICIAL LEGO SETS/PARTS COLLECTORS GUIDE is still available on CD (1,265 pages, with over 1,700 picutres) on my website:

http://www.geminisystems.net/lego/

Be sure to visit it to get some free downloadable chapters, as well as a LEGO Timeline, and a photo gallery of rare sets and parts!

Hello and welcome, Prof. LEGO Historian! *y*

A very fascinating site.... thanks for your work! *sweet*

Automatic Binding Bricks on!

abb.jpg

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Hi Gary,

Welcome to the site. Thanks for the interesting post and link! Brought back some memories :) And nice to see how simple things were with less color's. I think there are far too many these days, and dont even get me started on the vast number of brick shapes now. I'd forgotten about alphabet bricks though! shame on me. I shall have to add them into my game for sure now :)

Peter

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...nice to see how simple things were with less color's. I think there are far too many these days, and dont even get me started on the vast number of brick shapes now. I'd forgotten about alphabet bricks though! shame on me. I shall have to add them into my game for sure now :)
for some reason a LEGO world without minifigs musters no interest for me :-D these old bricks and HO scale stuff doesn't seem to have the same life and expression...

i guess because it's not the LEGO i know and love.

none-the-less, interesting information you have LEGO HISTORIAN... and it is great that the history of LEGO is being remembered and has been captured... i would like to see this type of project continue into the modern (and more captivating ;-) )era LEGOs... and continue all the way through into the AFOL hobby aspect of the toy...

i guess, in a way, we are writing some of that "to-be" history today, here on EB X-D

kinda of a cool thought.

- BrickMiner

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for some reason a LEGO world without minifigs musters no interest for me

Fully agree with that! If I had my way everything would be minifig scale! :-)

But for example, do we really need so many shades of blue? If I had halve the number of colours in my collection I'd have a lot more bricks available for moc ing. Same goes for funny shapped bricks. But I guess there is something for everyone this way.

Peter

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