MOCability of themes heavy on the old grays (and browns)

[Xfing]

How do you approach the idea of MOCing for themes that relied heavily on old grays? Do you stick to the old color, replace what you can with the new grays or just mix them without worrying about the consequences?

Sadly the old grays do not extend to any new moulds released after the transition (around 2003), so if you want to moc without colors clashing, you need to restrict yourself to old parts. 

On the other hand, many of those specialized parts that permeated those sci-fi sets were made in the old grays - for example the entirety of the UFO line including the X-wing parts, the saucers and all that.

That's why for example Aquazone is a great theme to MOC for, since none of its subthemes ever relied on either of the grays to any significant degree... except the Stingrays, which did, unfortunately.

[MAB]

It depends on what parameters you want to set yourself. The majority of my collection is "new" in the sense that it is from 2005 onwards so I tend to MOC with new colours and not use the old. In that sense, my MOCs tend to be neo Classic Space or neo (insert theme name).

If you are building MOCS for a theme that is no longer and want to restrict yourself only to colours that existed at the time, then personally I think you should restrict yourself also to only using parts that existed at the time.

[Xfing]

10 minutes ago, MAB said:

It depends on what parameters you want to set yourself. The majority of my collection is "new" in the sense that it is from 2005 onwards so I tend to MOC with new colours and not use the old. In that sense, my MOCs tend to be neo Classic Space or neo (insert theme name).

If you are building MOCS for a theme that is no longer and want to restrict yourself only to colours that existed at the time, then personally I think you should restrict yourself also to only using parts that existed at the time.

Yeah, except as Aquazone MOCs have proven over the years, some new moulds and building techniques that have arisen over the years can really benefit those old themes. It's a bit of a conundrum, since you can really be tempted to want to use new pieces, but not if it could come at the cost of having to discard theme-defining specialized moulds.

[Slegengr]

It is all a matter of personal preference and chosen constraints.

As a child of the 90's, I've got deep-seated nostalgia for the original LEGO themes of that era, so I enjoy collecting and sorting out sets from themes such as Castle, Pirates, Space, Adventurers, Rock Raiders, Aquazone, Alpha Team, etc.  Right now, my focus is more on original sets so my nephews can learn building techniques in a more-direct manner while they are young.  For each theme, I keep a tub of theme-related parts for MOCs some day, all parts in original colors and types of parts used in the sets.

Since I have such nostalgia and a preference for the 90's aesthetic while also liking some of the newer pieces that allow for interesting shapes that were not possible with the 90's parts palette, I tend to go one of three ways with this question:
1. Build period-correct MOCs with colors & parts available at the time of the original theme release, which has my preference from nostalgia and majority of parts/colors already in my collection.
2. Build MOCs from 90's themes using new colors (where they do not clash terribly with my nostalgia for the theme) and new parts, but sometimes limiting the color to the originals wherever feasible.
3. Build MOCs from 90's themes that could be modern sets so I can make instructions for them and source parts to gift the custom sets to my nephews to share my favorite themes without the higher prices of the retired sets/colors/parts.  Some of these are modern remakes of original sets and some are new designs with aesthetic reference to the original themes.  Some work well with color updates, such as light-bluish-gray in place of light-gray for M:Tron and Unitron (I think this exchange works well here), but some require the use of original colors, in my opinion, such as Rock Raiders (I think this theme benefits from both original colors and, for the most part, originally available parts for the angular 90's aesthetic).  I find that the color update works well enough for my preference for all of Castle and Pirates even though I would tend to prefer the older color palette for rock/stone.

Since the color change has already happened long ago, I am resigned to choosing from these 3 options.

Oh, and I will mention that I pretty much never mix the new and old unless one version is hidden from view and was only included for mechanical/structural reasons within available part/color limitations.  I think the case could be made to include new and old together for some variation in stone color, but I personally do not really like this idea, both from an aesthetics perspective and physical part-sorting consideration.  I essentially have 2 collections of loose pieces: original parts and colors from the 90's and parts and colors from about 2005 and newer.  This keeps it easier to make the above distinctions, especially when I am sorting an exact set from the 90's since I refuse to use new parts here (even down to different mold iterations across the years).

Edited November 3, 2025 by Slegengr

[MAB]

2 hours ago, Xfing said:

Yeah, except as Aquazone MOCs have proven over the years, some new moulds and building techniques that have arisen over the years can really benefit those old themes. It's a bit of a conundrum, since you can really be tempted to want to use new pieces, but not if it could come at the cost of having to discard theme-defining specialized moulds.

But if you are using new moulds and techniques that were not around when the theme was current then your designs do not look like they could have at the time, so is it the same theme? This is why it is sometimes better to call it neo-theme and use whatever parts and design styles you want. Different people do it in different ways. So do what makes you happy.

[Xfing]

21 hours ago, Slegengr said:

but some require the use of original colors, in my opinion, such as Rock Raiders (I think this theme benefits from both original colors and, for the most part, originally available parts for the angular 90's aesthetic).  I find that the color update works well enough for my preference for all of Castle and Pirates even though I would tend to prefer the older color palette for rock/stone.

Hah, gonna be an unpopular opinion, but I actually think Rock Raiders is one theme that would have benefited greatly from the new grays. Old gray was decidedly superior for Castle and other non-sci-fi themes, but this one practically begs for these colder, fresher looking grays haha

But regarding keeping things period correct, I was always fascinated by mixing eras and techniques. For example in Technic, I've always greatly appreciated models that combined studless and studded rather than going full studless - same goes for MOCs that use modern parts, but also incorporate long-retired moulds. Check out this little thing for example - almost all modern pieces, but tastefully incorporates key Aquazone parts. I really like it. 

https://rebrickable.com/mocs/MOC-47760/Sylon/aquanauts-aquahawk/#details

[SpacePolice89]

I use the old grays for all my MOCs except large buildings and landscapes. Yesterday I built a small fort for the Imperial Soldiers and I used only old gray for the gray parts. I plan to build a large office building for my town display for which I need a lot of pieces and there I'll use bluish gray because of availability and cost. I also prefer to use the old brown when building MOCs but sometimes I have to use reddish brown if I don't have the piece I need in old brown. When I built the fort I ran out of muskets in old brown so I had to use reddish brown ones instead.

[Peppermint_M]

I prefer a "Neo" approach with more detail and new shapes to create a build that reflects what I saw in my imagination. Like the contrast between a colouring page and something by Moebius. So I use new colours and new parts without mixing the grey shades. 

I do use varied shades of grey where the build is supposed to be stone, or something in nature, or a build that does not need me to use modern parts. Otherwise the old grey is consigned to the role of filler with stained/scratched bricks. Old or new, a 2x4 brick will always be a 2x4 brick!

[anothergol]

On 11/3/2025 at 1:29 PM, Xfing said:

How do you approach the idea of MOCing for themes that relied heavily on old grays? Do you stick to the old color, replace what you can with the new grays or just mix them without worrying about the consequences?

If you're thinking classic space, new grey is better anyway, it really is the "spaceship grey". I don't think anyone MOCing classic space stuff bothers with old grey.
I don't know the story behind LEGO's change to LBG, but I'm assuming it was already "the standard" back then. If you buy a Star Wars kit, generally it comes by default in a perfectly matching LBG. I had read it matches a specific popular Tamiya paint, I don't know more about it. And even in brands that don't match LEGO's colors, LBG generally matches perfectly (except for Cobi!).
If you're thinking castles, old grey did make sense but new is as good.

Old light grey isn't that far from new and can sometimes blend, but old dark grey is pretty different and doesn't at all.
And one may think it's a good idea to mix both for a "dirty" look, but something's just not right when you blend old & new, I've never had luck with that and never saw much where it did look good.

And for old parts that don't exist in new colors, well sometimes they do! Other brands have preserved the system better than LEGO has, so you can definitely find old-style 2-3 prong hinge plates in pretty much all modern colors. They even embraced & extended that hinge system (which definitely had advantages).
Old-style hinges and roller skates are my 2 go-to parts for extra details, while officially only 4276 ever made it to LBG (& isn't cheap). 
I've never found the iconic 4476b in LBG though. That's one part that survived over 40 years!

 

Edited November 8, 2025 by anothergol

[SpacePolice89]

On 11/8/2025 at 9:03 AM, anothergol said:

I don't think anyone MOCing classic space stuff bothers with old grey

I prefer old gray for Classic Space MOCs

[anothergol]

On 11/10/2025 at 9:22 AM, SpacePolice89 said:

I prefer old gray for Classic Space MOCs

It's frankly not that different, I have (genuine) parts in LBG with more variation than between LBG & old grey.

And dark grey.. did not exist for classic space, so..