9 replies to this topic

[Jipay]

Thanks to Geoffrey for the info :

(originaly from 1000 Steine)

von Ben®  am 07. März 2005 23:21:31:

Billund, February 28, 2005

Dear Ben,

Recently I received your letter sent on behalf of yourself and other members of the AFOL community who wanted to share their concern with the 2004 color change.

I apologize for the delay in responding, but I wanted to make absolutely sure that I had all the details and background about this issue.

First off, let me say that we have been aware of the issues raised by AFOLs concerning the change of specifically the colors light and dark grey as well as brown since the massive debate started in response to Jake McKee’s first posting on the issue back in November 2003. Unfortunately, at that time the decision was irreversible. The petition letter I received was not unexpected, but appreciated nonetheless.

Let me openly state that had the decision makers in this color change process been aware of the negative impact on the AFOLs at the time the decision was made, these three colors would not have been changed. On behalf of the LEGO Group, let me apologize for any problems this has caused the AFOL community. Certainly that wasn’t our intent. I believe the negative impact is well understood at all levels of the company now. As stated in the letter, “The relationship of LEGO Company to its fans has never been as good as today”, and I truly hope this color change doesn’t change that.

Not to provide excuses, but let me share some of the thinking behind why we made these color changes. From what I’ve seen, there has been a great deal of discussion about this, so hopefully I can help to clear things up.

Color Palette Clean Up
Over the years, we’ve added a number of colors that were only slightly different than other colors, or were only used in very specific scenarios. As a consequence our costs increased dramatically and it was decided that the number of colors that were in our palette had to be reduced.

Color Palette Consistency
While we were going through this process, we took the opportunity to evaluate the remaining colors themselves. Our color palette wasn’t very well aligned – meaning not all the colors “fit” together in the same color range. In our desire for quality, we decided it was important to fix this.

With these goals in mind, we developed some test bricks and tested them with kids to ensure that they:

 Claim no negative influence on the building activity
 Claim no negative influence on the play activity
 Claim no negative effects on the mix of old and new colors

Our consumer test results were very positive and so we moved forward. Of course, too late we realize that we missed a crucial step – discussing this change with the AFOL community which represents a significant group among our most loyal consumers.

In order to not make this mistake again, we agreed that we would create a list of “universal colors”, colors that will not be changed without serious and well informed debate. This debate would certainly include the AFOL community.

I know that there is a strong and understandable desire to change the three colors in question back to the original formulation. Unfortunately, because of the costs associated with the change, and our current financial situation, we simply are not capable of doing this. We hope for your understanding and accept.

Again, let me say on behalf of the LEGO Group, I am sorry for any trouble or upset we’ve caused. We’ve made a mistake and I’m doing what I can to ensure it doesn’t happen again.

Respectfully,


Jørgen Vig Knudstorp

[Bloody Jay]

I'm just astounded at how they managed to overlook the entire AFOL community in one of the biggest decisions in LEGO history.  I didn't think it would be possible.

Oh well, it's water under the bridge.  Good to hear they're sorry, at least.

[snefroe]

for this time, i have to agree with tlc. last few years i saw an inflation of new colors and the quality and quantity of bricks in specific colors were very often terrible. Some units of the HP bus, for instance, had three shades of purple instead of one and it's quite difficult to get a truckload of bricks in rare colors, so how can you use them in MOCs?
sure, they could have talked to the AFOL community? but this group is so diverse, the interests of the members are so different... you got people building space, trains, star wars, sculptures, mosaics,... who would you talk to?

[xwingyoda]

Thanks Jipay for the info ;)

It is interesting to see how they jus manage to say sorry, we should have included the AFOL community but its too late anyway and we're not to change!!

Come on when we were kids, there were not that many colors and it did not diminish our model building creativity ;) .
Who needs x shades of any colors anyway (sure this is nice but really not that necessary).
So talks with the AFOL community is "normal" even though it is a quite a diverse community.

[jonfett]

Like others have said, it is just too bad that they did not first consult with AFOLs :/
But it is good to see that they won't be changing anything else without first debating wth us! ;)

Jon.

[Assassin]

While on the subject of the Color Change, has anyone got a CONFIRMED list of colours that Lego are going to keep ?

What I would like to see (preferably from Lego, not an interpretation by others) is a list of the colours Lego intend to keep, and where there is confusion as to what each shade really is, then for Lego to give specific examples of which set contains items in that particular colour.

[Jipay]

jonfett, on Mar 8 2005, 05:12 PM, said:

Like others have said, it is just too bad that they did not first consult with AFOLs :/
But it is good to see that they won't be changing anything else without first debating wth us! ;)

Jon.

Won't they ? I agree with snefroe1 on that one. AFOLs should be consulted specificaly. We are consumer, our voices shouldn't overwhelm the voices of the kids just because we know how to speak more loudly. The AFOLs are still a small percentage of LEGO clients, even if ou number grows everyday

[Jipay]

Assassin, on Mar 8 2005, 07:42 PM, said:

While on the subject of the Color Change, has anyone got a CONFIRMED list of colours that Lego are going to keep ?

[Assassin]

It's all very well posting that article jipay, but it still does not show a list of the colours Lego are going to keep.

I repeat, I would like to see the list of the 56 colours and hopefully also see examples of which sets the various colours can be found in. I did see a partial list on Lugnet a while ago, but no-one seemed to be able to agree exactly which Lego named colours matched which AFOL/Peeron/etc named colours.

As an example, in the list I saw, Lego listed 2 colours, Nougat and Light Nougat, obviously these are internal Lego names for colours, but which colours do they match up to ? ? ? Do they match Dark Tan and Tan or what ? ? ?

So, I think a COMPLETE list of the 56 colours complete with translations for what we call the colours is now overdue.

Comments anyone ? ? ?

[Jipay]

Thats what we got so far

A message from Jake McKee (DoubleT)

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I always hate starting off a conversation with an apology, but I fear I must today.

For a number of months, I’ve been working with colleagues to get a final word on our “locked” or “universal” color list. I hate wading back into the color change waters, but I promised you a while back that I would deliver a list of which colors were locked/universal.

My deepest apologies for the length of time it took us to finalize this list. When you’re trying to decide things this far-reaching, it’s surprising how much discussion ends up happening.

First off, let’s define “universal color”.

Universal Color (aka Locked Color): An evergreen color that would not be changed, dropped, or modified without serious discussion that includes all stakeholders, including adult hobbyists and LEGO Company executive management.

Without further ado, the universal color list:

• Yellow
• Orange
• Red
• Blue
• Medium Blue
• Medium Green
• Green
• Reddish Brown
• Beige
• Nougat
• Light Nougat
• White
• Light Stone Grey
• Stone Grey
• Dark Stone Gray
• Black

• Transparent Yellow
• Transparent Red
• Transparent Blue
• Transparent Dove Blue
• Transparent Green
• Transparent Clear

To match these up with names you know, head over to Peeron)

Again, huge apologies for the delays.

Jake

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Jake McKee
Community Liaison
LEGO Community Team