Question about new LEGO colors

[Erica Woodhull88]

Does anyone know why Lego decided to change some of the colors of their bricks? My biggest complaint is the new shade of brown because the new barrels, treasure chests, etc do not go well with my old ones from the 90's. Could this be an attempt to try and make people want to replace their old brown pieces with these new ones?

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Edited August 9, 2011 by Rufus
Spam removed

[MstrOfPppts]

Yap, that is the best reason I can think of. But what do you mean they don't go well with the older ones. I really like different shades of brown for MOCs. It makes the world more colorful and realistic. Wooden things are rarely exactly the same color.

[Sebeus I]

The new colors are cheaper, that's the reason I think,

Take the new grey for example, they combined with blue because blue is a cheaper color.

Personally I'm a big fan of the old brown, it has this "wooden" aura

(and the old grey has a "stone" aura while the new grey rather has a "metal" aura )

[dr jones]

Didn't Lego do this because the composition of the old colors wasn't good enough?

Or something like that?

[Sebeus I]

Didn't Lego do this because the composition of the old colors wasn't good enough?

Or something like that?

I liked the old colors better,

But they also introduced dark brown, maybe that's the reason they changed the old brown.

[Aanchir]

The change in many of LEGO's colors between 2003 and 2004 was a part of a general "re-structuring" of the color palette. The color palette had basically exploded out of control prior to 2004. Many colors were eliminated during this time, and meanwhile people at TLG decided to eliminate some of the colors that were considered dull or lackluster compared to LEGO's typical vivid colors like red, blue, etc.

Brown (25 Earth Orange), light grey (2 Grey), and dark grey (27 Dark Grey) were replaced with newer, more vibrant versions: 192 Reddish Brown, 194 Medium Stone Grey, and 199 Dark Stone Grey. There were other colors that got replaced around this time-- for example, 105 Bright Yellowish Orange (Bricklink's Medium Orange) was replaced with 191 Flame Yellowish Orange (Bricklink's Bright Light Orange)-- but since these colors were rarer there wasn't remotely as great an uproar over these as there was over these three commonly-used colors.

AFOLs quickly realized that the colors had changed-- brown had become redder, and the greys had become bluer. There was a bit of an outcry at the time-- I don't know much about it since I wasn't a part of any online communities at that time, so I mostly took the change in stride, but there are many accounts of how some AFOLs, feeling betrayed, swore off LEGO bricks or at least stopped buying new sets that used the new versions of the colors.

TLG has since acknowledged that they failed to anticipate how strong the AFOL reaction to the color change would be, but they have never expressed any intent of returning to the older colors. They have, however, added the new versions of these colors to a list of "core" colors that they never intend to change significantly, so that this problem doesn't arise again.

Personally, I prefer the new greys and brown without question. They feel less "dirty" than the old versions did, instead having the same vibrant look as TLG's brighter colors. But I can see how some people who prefer to MOC gritty, realistic-looking castles, military vehicles, spacecraft, etc. would prefer the older, dingier colors.

[TheLegoDr]

Since I had such a long dark age and still don't have my old legos in hand, I will say I like the new colors. But I am one to like things to match. Granted, the world around us doesn't match everything, so different shades of brown/gray will help with MOCing. It can be a little upsetting trying to buy more bricks for a project and none of the colors match to do so.

[blackpyre]

Aanchir has it right. TLG was getting financially in trouble because of all the expansions they made. The condencing of the colors was just one change they made. I believe they went from roughly around 150 colors to around 80.

I personally like both colors since it looks much more convincing of a weathered look with multiple shades than simply a single color.

And as far as I know that promise not to significantly change certain colors goes both ways. They will neither make further changes nor go back to an older style.

[Warhorse47]

Also, consider what colors will bring new Lego'ers into the world of ours. These new colors were probably chosen to attract more folks.

[Captain Grog]

This is may or may not be related to the color changes, but has anyone noticed that pieces are starting to have stress marks on them? (I am referring to the lighter colored spots that appear on some pieces)

[Norrington]

This is may or may not be related to the color changes, but has anyone noticed that pieces are starting to have stress marks on them? (I am referring to the lighter colored spots that appear on some pieces)

Do you mean, when they arrive fresh out of the box or do they develop time?

And do you mean actual stress marks or more, discoloured spots from poor quality control or something?

[blackpyre]

Actually there have been a rash of lower quality parts produced by LEGO.

Many of these complaints are seemingly traced back to the production plant LEGO subcontracts with in China. The process costs them much less but the overall quality has been noticably worse by fans.

Just remember, if you get any pieces you feel are bad or just plain wrong LEGO will replace those pieces. For example, the gold pieces in the POTC sets are shown as chrome gold. In addition, there are supposed to be different numbers on each of the four coins.

What originally came out was peral gold pieces with a number 10 on all the coins. I talked with my local LEGO Ambassador and LEGO admitted to some people that this was a mistake they were aware of but decided not to correct when releasing the sets.

So, if you're one of these people who have Pearl Gold treasure you can ask for chrome.

This is just the easiest example I can think of where LEGO has no intention for you to get stuck with defective parts.

Hope that addresses your question.

Will

[MstrOfPppts]

I think Captain Grog meant the lighter spots of the same color as the piece is almost going to white. They seem to be marks of machines - like places where plastic comes out of the molding machine and is than cut of later. just like if you bend plastic things. I have quite some such parts from the newer sets but never noticed anything like that on the older parts. I think the overall quality has been quite worse lately.

[Captain Grog]

I think Captain Grog meant the lighter spots of the same color as the piece is almost going to white. They seem to be marks of machines - like places where plastic comes out of the molding machine and is than cut of later. just like if you bend plastic things. I have quite some such parts from the newer sets but never noticed anything like that on the older parts. I think the overall quality has been quite worse lately.

This is exactly what I meant. I've never seen imperfections like this on my sets from the 80s/90s. Personally, when I see things like this it makes me feel like I'm playing with a cheap plastic toy from China rather than the quality toy I grew up with.

[blackpyre]

Well, in some ways you are playing with a cheaper version from China since LEGO is subcontracting to make some of their elements over there.

Not all the sets will be like this though. They still make a large amount of pieces in Denmark, but I understand what you mean.

A model builder may advise you to take a light sand paper to it, but that would most likely mess with the clutch power of the stud where many of these imperfections are found.

I would advise to contact LEGO about this issue. Even if you don't ask for replacement pieces you can still lodge a complaint. This is the type of information they use to help run their company. If they know generally where your pieces are being manufactured based on where you purchase your sets, they may be able to isolate some quality issues on their end.

Will