Pearl Light Gray Color Variations

[Sir Bricksalot]

Hello, everyone!

I have noticed significant color variation among pieces that Bricklink labels as Pearl Light Gray. These differeces have been most noticeable among shortswords, flails, spears, etc. The pieces in question are definitely several shades darker than what I believe to be normal Pearl Light Gray, but they are not Pearl Dark Gray either. I know colors can vary slightly because of different production runs, but I'm not sure if this falls into that range. Does anyone have information concerning the normal range of color variation for Pearl Light Gray?

Another possibilty that I have considered is that some of the pieces may be Flat Silver, but my experience with that color is limited.

Thank you,

Sir Bricksalot

[Lego Otaku]

Bricklink is not the best source regarding colors. I'd check Peeron first for color.

[Aanchir]

Even Peeron isn't always totally accurate with colors. But then, it's hard for any site to be, given how TLG only began publicizing their color palette just last year.

There have been three official LEGO colors I know of which Bricklink has classified as Pearl Light Gray. The first, 131 Silver, was introduced in the 90s. Its first appearance in System (as far as I know) was in the cars for the Santa Fe Super Chief, but I'm told it had previously appeared in Duplo sets.

Unfortunately, 131 Silver suffered from a great deal of internal inconsistency. Its formulation has been adjusted several times over the years to compensate for this, but unfortunately this may have caused as much inconsistency as it helped prevent. In 2006, the first attempt was made to completely replace the color with a new color-- 296 Cool Silver. BIONICLE, Knights' Kingdom, and Vikings sets made heavy use of this color. It was slightly lighter than 131 Silver, and evidently didn't do a good enough job to replace 131 Silver for good. Instead, 131 Silver came back in 2007 and 296 Cool Silver was discontinued.

In Summer 2010 a new color, 315 Silver Metallic, was finally introduced to replace 131 Silver once and for all. This color is significantly darker than 131 Silver, and has been labeled extremely inconsistently on Bricklink-- as either Pearl Light Gray, Pearl Dark Gray, Flat Silver, or Metallic Silver, depending on the person who inventoried the sets. However, Bricklink has recently become a lot more consistent in labeling parts in this color as Flat Silver. Not all Summer 2010 sets used 315 Silver Metallic, as some continued to use 131 Silver for a short while. Early 2010 sets from later production runs also use 315 Silver Metallic rather than 131 Silver. And you can count on any Pearl Light Gray or Flat Silver parts from 2011 to be 315 Silver Metallic.

Since your problem is with Pearl Light Gray parts being too dark, is it possible that these are from the Kingdoms theme? If that is the case, then they're probably 315 Silver Metallic rather than 131 Silver like the same weapons would have been in the Castle theme. And thus they will be darker than any pre-2010 Pearl Light Gray parts.

Overall, pearl light gray has been an extremely inconsistent color-- partly because it refers to more than one official LEGO color, and partly because one of those LEGO colors was inherently inconsistent. In general, it's not usually a good idea to blindly trust Bricklink's color names with respect to metallic colors-- just take a look at their Copper parts, which include up to three different colors that don't even bear a passing resemblance to one another. I hope this information is helpful and not too confusing.

[ziljin]

Thanks for the info. I was wondering why my crown knight/lion knight weapons looked slightly different in color

[Sir Bricksalot]

Many thanks, Aanchir. Your information is both helpful and interesting.

[Mythos]

one thing i've noticed is it looks like LEGO is playing with their color pallette since i'm getting bricks that are supposed to be the same color but are not, with a variation of differance in coloring, most notably in the greys.