Sets with mixed old and new colors?

[SirChrispy]

I've just spent some time rebuilding my old 4483 AT-AT (the later 2004 version in the blue box), and I'm noticing that some of the parts are consistently in the new Blue-Gray, while the majority are still in the older Dark Gray shades. Is this just an oversight on my part (mixing up the parts over time) or were there sets that actually ended up with mixed parts when LEGO started the color transition?

EDIT: Sorry about the title, I'm quite new to all this. Could a mod perhaps shorten it to something like "Sets with mixed old and new colors?"? Thanks in advance for the help.

Edited July 27, 2014 by SirChrispy

[Peppermint_M]

Sorted.

Can't help with the Question though, I wasn't able to buy all that much during that period.

[SirChrispy]

Sorted.

Thanks!

[Faefrost]

As far as I know no sets were released with a mix of old and new colors. If you are seeing both could you have mixed the set with 8129?

[SirChrispy]

As far as I know no sets were released with a mix of old and new colors. If you are seeing both could you have mixed the set with 8129?

4483 is the only AT-AT I have, and the reason I ask is because the assortment seems oddly intentional, in the sense that for any given part ALL of that piece are always old or new, not just some. Perhaps it was some other mixup on my part, but I thought this might be the cause so I came here to see if anyone knew anything about this.

[opn2]

Edited September 27, 2014 by opn2

[1974]

As far as I know no sets were released with a mix of old and new colors. If you are seeing both could you have mixed the set with 8129?

10030 came mixed up :

http://www.bricklink.com/messageThread.asp?ID=172296&nID=832422

Cheers,

Ole

[Sid Sidious]

Old dark gray, light gray, brown, and purple were changed to the new versions in January 2004. Lego still had a supply of pieces and raw plastic in the old colors. This meant parts in the new colors would be molded if there were no reserves of that part in the old colors, but existing parts in the old colors would be put in sets to avoid throwing out thousands of perfectly good bricks. This caused sets released around this time to include both new and old grays, brown, and purple. Although 2004 had the most mixed color sets, I believe this issue occurred until 2008.

[SirChrispy]

Thanks to all for the help.

I've looked into this a bit more at noticed a few things. The largest offender that I noticed in Dark Bluish Gray in my 4483 was Technic, Brick 6X8 with Open Center. Looking at Bricklink, the part was first released in 2001, so it was conceivably new enough that LEGO might not have had a large store of them by the time the color change happened (as per Sid Sidious's post). Further, looking at the sets the part was in, the brick was only ever produced in 4483 in Dark Gray, and only in 7260 Wookie Catamaran and 8769 Visorak's Gate in Dark Bluish Gray.

I do have both the sets in which it was produced in Dark Bluish Gray, but unless the ones in my 4483 were originally that same color I simply wouldn't have enough to have both 4483 and 7260 built (which I currently do).

In short, my question has been answered and it looks like the Dark Bluish Gray pieces are original to the kit. Thanks again for the help.

[TheLegoDr]

That's very interesting. Although it does seem plausible with the color changes LEGO went through back then.

I don't know what I would have made of that had i opened a box and had different shades of the same color, e ven though I wasn't supposed to. Does it change the look of the set at all? Does the mixing make it look bad?

[SirChrispy]

I don't know what I would have made of that had i opened a box and had different shades of the same color, e ven though I wasn't supposed to. Does it change the look of the set at all? Does the mixing make it look bad?

The appearance really doesn't change much at all; the pieces that my particular copy has in the newer colors are all interior or structure related parts, with the exception of the two lightsaber hilts on the tips of the front guns.

There is a noticeable difference, more so in the two shades of dark gray than the lighter gray, but since so few of the parts are in the newer colors the overall effect is really minimal. I don't know how it would look if more of the larger plates had color issues, though.

[Emaline273]

I am so glad I am not crazy!!! I pulled out my old AT-AT set (4483) and was certain that the new dark grey's were a mistake, but I could not find the same pieces in old dark grey anywhere. And I do not own the sets those new dark grey's come in. I had to accept that the new greys were part of the set, even though I thought lego would NEVER mix greys. Thanks for posting this so I know I am not crazy!