Wrong colours with Lego Star Wars models

[Samppu]

Hello,

I wonder if anyone else has been wondering why Lego has rather often made some
clear colour misconseptions?

One example would be the reddish brown Desert Skiff, but that is not a severe mistake.

Instead the everlasting idea of white in every vehicle that are supposed to be grey
such as X-Wing, Y-Wing, A-Wing etc. has irritated me sometimes. Ok, we can argue
whether the X-Wing should be white or grey. At least the A-Wing looks more grey than white.

And then we have the ultimate case of white colour x)





Thoughts?

- Samppu

[khatmorg]

In the particular case of that shuttle I would imagine they chose to add more color because it would look very boring otherwise. Kids don't generally care about super accurate color palletes. The thing about building in accurate colors is that they tend to look very bland and/or fresh out of the factory.

Most Star Wars vehicles are grimy/dirty and beat up. But instead of shipping sets with dirt, TLG chooses to use highlights in less accurate colors. Like for example sand blue highlights in the recent year(s), less accurate but they give life to the models. 

And sometimes parts just aren't available in whatever color is most accurate.

 

Edited November 25, 2016 by khatmorg

[VaderFan2187]

Leia's vest is too bright purple in this [awesome] set, but it was probably due to the limited color palette

[Flandy]

And then there's Kylo's shuttle......

[brobert]

  On 11/25/2016 at 8:29 AM, Flandy said:

And then there's Kylo's shuttle......

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Exactly what I wanted to say, and there's no excuse for that, especially after they just released Krennic's shuttle in the correct black color....

[Samppu]

  On 11/25/2016 at 2:05 AM, khatmorg said:

In the particular case of that shuttle I would imagine they chose to add more color because it would look very boring otherwise. Kids don't generally care about super accurate color palletes. The thing about building in accurate colors is that they tend to look very bland and/or fresh out of the factory.

Most Star Wars vehicles are grimy/dirty and beat up. But instead of shipping sets with dirt, TLG chooses to use highlights in less accurate colors. Like for example sand blue highlights in the recent year(s), less accurate but they give life to the models. 

And sometimes parts just aren't available in whatever color is most accurate.

 

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Î guess you are right about the idea to make them look fresh.
And about the fact that kids dont care or understand the right colours into very much detail anyway.
Now that I have made MOCs in right colours e.g. TIE-Interceptor that is highlighted with grey not blue,
the kids have been puzzled in Lego events looking at my MOCs and asking why it is not blue.
(this was before the grey line became standard)

However, I personally would wish that Lego would use the right colours and make the highlights in other
manners. Would it be interesting to see AT-ST or other attack vehicle highlighted with brown parts to represent
rust instead of random colour bricks?
It shouldnt necessarily be the standard of making things, but e.g. in a Force Unleashed or similari kind of subtheme
set, it would look very accurate and make some realistic and gloomy feeling to it, would it not?

- Samppu


 

[brobert]

  On 11/25/2016 at 12:37 PM, Samppu said:

Î guess you are right about the idea to make them look fresh.
And about the fact that kids dont care or understand the right colours into very much detail anyway.
Now that I have made MOCs in right colours e.g. TIE-Interceptor that is highlighted with grey not blue,
the kids have been puzzled in Lego events looking at my MOCs and asking why it is not blue.
(this was before the grey line became standard)

However, I personally would wish that Lego would use the right colours and make the highlights in other
manners. Would it be interesting to see AT-ST or other attack vehicle highlighted with brown parts to represent
rust instead of random colour bricks?
It shouldnt necessarily be the standard of making things, but e.g. in a Force Unleashed or similari kind of subtheme
set, it would look very accurate and make some realistic and gloomy feeling to it, would it not?

- Samppu


 

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Sure, I think we all would love that :) In an ideal world, TLG would release a line specifically for AFOL-s with right colors, and maybe even some weathered look. But then lots of the guys with their awesome MOC-s would be out of their hobbies :) 

But that's the beauty of LEGO. You can do almost everything with it. If you have shitloads of money, time and energy to buy the right parts and design/build it ... 

[Calanon]

The thing with the x-wings is that they're a dirty white/very light grey. There is a light stone grey which might be suitable, but that's only used for technic pieces really. Medium stone grey, aka light bley, is a bit too dark for x-wings. There will always be slight colour inaccuracies when it's something like that as it's more of an inbetween.

In the case of Kylo's shuttle, however... that's a bit more obvious. Nothing really springs to mind other than that, perhaps some older sets. The imperial officers having tan uniform in Rebels sets is annoying and canonically wrong, but there are many cases where it does look somewhat tan.

Edited November 25, 2016 by Calanon

[Robianco]

If there's an instance of a colour being wrong it's invariably down to the concept art that the design team are given. We can go back to the first Black Widow figure and how it had blue stripes etc. The figure was identical to the concept art. Kylo's Shuttle was white in the titanium black series so there was obviously some difference between the concept art shared to the toy companies and the final release.

[Draxx]

Han's Blue / Brown Hoth coat.

White Boba Fett with a grey rangefinder.

[Samppu]

  On 11/25/2016 at 2:12 PM, Calanon said:

The thing with the x-wings is that they're a dirty white/very light grey. There is a light stone grey which might be suitable, but that's only used for technic pieces really. Medium stone grey, aka light bley, is a bit too dark for x-wings. There will always be slight colour inaccuracies when it's something like that as it's more of an inbetween.

In the case of Kylo's shuttle, however... that's a bit more obvious. Nothing really springs to mind other than that, perhaps some older sets. The imperial officers having tan uniform in Rebels sets is annoying and canonically wrong, but there are many cases where it does look somewhat tan.

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I agree with the white/grey issue. It is a matter of decision really for there is no version of "sand white".
The original X-Wing model was, actually, grey:

 

The tan imperial uniforms on the other hand were a blessing for me in a sense that they do exist in EU,
thought they are not present in the movies. In Jedi Knight: Jedi Outcast, for example, the ranks are specified also
by the color of the uniform where dark grey is lietenaunt or equal (platoon leader), dark tan "officer" aka captain or similar (company officer)
and black major or similar aka the base commander (battalion commander). Here is a pic of the dark tan officer:

 

- Samppu

 

 

 

[Robianco]

  On 11/25/2016 at 3:59 PM, Draxx said:

Han's Blue / Brown Hoth coat.

White Boba Fett with a grey rangefinder.

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Well the brown and blue coat thing is something that's been discussed widely in SW circles for a while. Hot Toys even released their scale figure with both colours... I'm actually disappointed they didn't put a blue variant in the Assault on Hoth set.

The range finder is simply down to them not making that part in white.

[Tariq j]

  On 11/25/2016 at 8:59 AM, brobert said:

Exactly what I wanted to say, and there's no excuse for that, especially after they just released Krennic's shuttle in the correct black color....

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Well actually as stated above there is an excuse since Lego (and other toy companies) were given concept art in which the shuttle was depicted white/grey and presumably stationary wings hence why the set looked like it did. 

[bootz]

The original A-wing was grey and IMO it doesn't look as good as the white ones we've gotten since then. For my MOC A-wing I used a touch of grey on the front/side slopes with the rest in white and blue.

[TheBeeze]

This is a huge deterrent for me from buying Star Wars sets these days. I would love to buy sets and use the parts to create better accurate versions of ships. Now, that's essentially pointless with the colors. I've often wondered if they just don't want to flood the market with certain color pieces. 

[Only Sinner]

What about that poor Luggabeast in 75148?

 

I know the Movie has it with a dusty, blueish patina, but not this gaudy, bright blue! Too much color for the scene it's supposed to represent, I think.

[ProvenceTristram]

The good news, at least in the case of the shuttle, is that it's not that hard to swap out the parts (and while you're at it, you may as well update the cockpit, which is completely wrong).

My pet peeve relating to color is when Lego goes and uses red or blue or yellow bricks on, say, a TIE Fighter to "mix things up," and then places them within view on the exterior. 

[Artizan]

another case is phantom menace sets, vulture droid in brown tan, whereas it should've been dark green-olive, and gungan bongo sub, with grey and regular blue! (sand blue) I understand these when they first released in 1999 there weren't many colour choices but later releases continued the same palette...

Also agent callus in black?

[ProvenceTristram]

  On 11/26/2016 at 8:51 AM, Artizan said:

another case is phantom menace sets, vulture droid in brown tan, whereas it should've been dark green-olive, and gungan bongo sub, with grey and regular blue! (sand blue) I understand these when they first released in 1999 there weren't many colour choices but later releases continued the same palette...

Also agent callus in black?

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Agent Kallus has been borked to high heaven since the get-go. While he looks nice in black, it's obviously wrong... but his weapon is ridiculous, too. Two carbines bonded together? How does one even arrive at that from this?

[brobert]

  On 11/25/2016 at 9:42 PM, Tariq j said:

Well actually as stated above there is an excuse since Lego (and other toy companies) were given concept art in which the shuttle was depicted white/grey and presumably stationary wings hence why the set looked like it did. 

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As you yourself say: presumably. I don't buy it. I've seen some very early concept arts and all of them were black. (The ones that resembled the final form of the shuttle anyway) I have to check in the Art of the Force Awakens, but I think there's only one concept shown there, which is pretty much the final ship, made at least one year before release, and all of it's black glory. Besides, how would they know that the wings extend, and not know that they open wide as well? Even if you don't see any proof, it's common SW-sense: almost every ship -allegiance aside - has folding wings in some way (and I just realized this while typing this comment :D), but granted, this one moves in more than one way. 

[dr_spock]

There are probably some business constraints that designers have to work under such as, costs, certain colors/parts have to be used to maximize parts efficiency with other themes, etc. Like software development, every components and features carry a cost.  When management budget you with X amount, you more or less have to work within, unless you can convince them to budget you more.  Some times you have to prioritize and drop features.  Once a while word doesn't get to marketing and you see a feature listed on the website product description that is not in the actual set like coins, cups and scarves in the LEGO Friends Mia's Magic Trick set. 

 

[Magmafrost]

The thing about the x-wings anyway, is that while they are grey, they're also a lighter grey than the death star, and I think we can all agree the death star is medium bluish grey. Light bluish grey would be the perfect colour (well, maybe its a bit too blue), but clearly Lego really doesn't like using it, presumably with good reason that we'll never know because TLG never tells anyone anything.

The issue of Kylo Ren's shuttle is quite a simple one: presumably the design of the ship in the movie hadn't been finalised while the set was being developed. It takes a year minimum for most sets to go from the start of the design phase to being on shelves, and the first wave of TFA sets were released 2 months before the movie, production would've started substantially earlier. So yeah, believe it or not lego can't make a super accurate model of a ship before that ship's design is finalised, and it just so happened that Kylo's shuttle changed more than the other ships lego did

Edited November 30, 2016 by Magmafrost

[brobert]

  On 11/30/2016 at 5:57 AM, Magmafrost said:

The thing about the x-wings anyway, is that while they are grey, they're also a lighter grey than the death star, and I think we can all agree the death star is medium bluish grey. Light bluish grey would be the perfect colour (well, maybe its a bit too blue), but clearly Lego really doesn't like using it, presumably with good reason that we'll never know because TLG never tells anyone anything.

The issue of Kylo Ren's shuttle is quite a simple one: presumably the design of the ship in the movie hadn't been finalised while the set was being developed. It takes a year minimum for most sets to go from the start of the design phase to being on shelves, and the first wave of TFA sets were released 2 months before the movie, production would've started substantially earlier. So yeah, believe it or not lego can't make a super accurate model of a ship before that ship's design is finalised, and it just so happened that Kylo's shuttle changed more than the other ships lego did

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I think we can all agree that there is no perfect lego color for X-wings. The models we've seen so far are all weathered and filthy, hence the mostly grey and sooty color. Actually if you could "clean" an X-wing it would be closer to white than to any other grey lego color. Definitely not LBG. At least not for the main color. You can see some MOC-s here in mostly white with LBG accents, that might be the sweet spot. We just have to accept there's no way to replicate that weathered "eggshell" white color in lego atm. The T65-s that is. The T70-s, there you might be right with the LBG.

[Magmafrost]

  On 11/30/2016 at 9:20 AM, brobert said:

I think we can all agree that there is no perfect lego color for X-wings. The models we've seen so far are all weathered and filthy, hence the mostly grey and sooty color. Actually if you could "clean" an X-wing it would be closer to white than to any other grey lego color. Definitely not LBG. At least not for the main color. You can see some MOC-s here in mostly white with LBG accents, that might be the sweet spot. We just have to accept there's no way to replicate that weathered "eggshell" white color in lego atm. The T65-s that is. The T70-s, there you might be right with the LBG.

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Ok, there's a difference between what the Lego community calls LBG, and what Lego calls LBG. I was referring to the latter, the colour a lot of parts in the mindstorm sets are

[brobert]

  On 11/30/2016 at 9:57 AM, Magmafrost said:

Ok, there's a difference between what the Lego community calls LBG, and what Lego calls LBG. I was referring to the latter, the colour a lot of parts in the mindstorm sets are

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Maybe it's my fault, honestly I have a hard time keeping up with these something-ish something Lego colors :D especially all these kinds of greys....