Dark Red vs New Dark Red

[yanathin]

Hey there, I had a question. I noticed that there's a color on shop.lego.com's Pick-a-brick called "New Dark Red." On BrickLink, that color doesn't seem to exist and is just called "Dark Red." Are these two different colors, or is BrickLink just listing it as Dark Red instead of New Dark Red? If there is a difference, which color do you think looks better or richer?

A couple of other color questions I had are along the same line... again, LEGO calls these colors weird names on pick-a-brick. For example, "Brick Yellow" and "Sand Yellow." Are those colors the same as "Tan" and "Dark Tan" on BrickLink? I'm trying to use Brick Yellow as a Flesh tone and Sand Yellow as a shadow for the flesh tone. I'm going to be ordering hundreds of these pieces and I want to make sure they'd pass for that.

[Aanchir]

Hey there, I had a question. I noticed that there's a color on shop.lego.com's Pick-a-brick called "New Dark Red." On BrickLink, that color doesn't seem to exist and is just called "Dark Red." Are these two different colors, or is BrickLink just listing it as Dark Red instead of New Dark Red? If there is a difference, which color do you think looks better or richer?

A couple of other color questions I had are along the same line... again, LEGO calls these colors weird names on pick-a-brick. For example, "Brick Yellow" and "Sand Yellow." Are those colors the same as "Tan" and "Dark Tan" on BrickLink? I'm trying to use Brick Yellow as a Flesh tone and Sand Yellow as a shadow for the flesh tone. I'm going to be ordering hundreds of these pieces and I want to make sure they'd pass for that.

New Dark Red has the same material ID (154) as Dark Red has always had. So it won't be any significant variation from other Dark Red parts (and in fact is almost certainly the same Dark Red color you would find in any current sets) Chances are the only reason for the "New" in its name is that it may have been re-formulated, something that often happens with LEGO colors if they have significant problems but not significant enough for the color to be replaced entirely. Since Dark Red is known to have a wide range of variability in its appearance, this might have been a problem significant enough to warrant re-formulating the color.

Granted, I've never known TLG to use the "new" terminology at all for any colors, even ones that have been re-formulated a significant number of times like 131 Silver (a now-obsolete color that was replaced last year by 315 Silver Metallic, since the many times they tried re-formulating it weren't sufficient to solve the color's inherent problems with inconsistency). But this is just the best guess I have for why a color that was once known merely as Dark Red even by TLG is now called New Dark Red on Pick-A-Brick and LEGO Digital Designer.

Yes, Brick Yellow and Sand Yellow are the same as Tan and Dark Tan, respectively. The Peeron Color List is an excellent resource for learning which official names used by TLG correspond to the Bricklink names more frequently used by AFOLs.

[yanathin]

New Dark Red has the same material ID (154) as Dark Red has always had. So it won't be any significant variation from other Dark Red parts (and in fact is almost certainly the same Dark Red color you would find in any current sets) Chances are the only reason for the "New" in its name is that it may have been re-formulated, something that often happens with LEGO colors if they have significant problems but not significant enough for the color to be replaced entirely. Since Dark Red is known to have a wide range of variability in its appearance, this might have been a problem significant enough to warrant re-formulating the color.

Granted, I've never known TLG to use the "new" terminology at all for any colors, even ones that have been re-formulated a significant number of times like 131 Silver (a now-obsolete color that was replaced last year by 315 Silver Metallic, since the many times they tried re-formulating it weren't sufficient to solve the color's inherent problems with inconsistency). But this is just the best guess I have for why a color that was once known merely as Dark Red even by TLG is now called New Dark Red on Pick-A-Brick and LEGO Digital Designer.

Yes, Brick Yellow and Sand Yellow are the same as Tan and Dark Tan, respectively. The Peeron Color List is an excellent resource for learning which official names used by TLG correspond to the Bricklink names more frequently used by AFOLs.

You are awesome. Thank you very much for your input! I think it might be a safer bet for me to order new dark red from TLG. I'm going to be building something that would make it very important to not have different tones of dark red. I know exactly what you're talking about with variations of the same color. It was pretty noticeable on some Café Corner pieces. I called LEGO and spoke to somebody with some knowledge of the new dark red, and she told me that while she wasn't quite sure if the color was actually different from the original dark red, she did know that they re-introduced the color and some new pieces in that color for their new Pirates of the Caribbean set.

[Stardusty]

I have few Dark Red pieces that are obviously in different shades (I guess by mistake).

First Dk Red pieces I got in 2005/06 (I'm not sure), and before month or so I have ordered

some Dark Red pieces from BL.

Before two days I ahve noticed that new pieces are a bit darker, but it was easy noticeable.

I guess that's the same problem like with yellow.

I can make pictures of it tommorow (spellng?).