Why no colored canopies in new sets?

[danth]

It sure is hard to come by a yellow or dark green or dark blue canopy these days. There are a ton of canopies in clear, light blue, or trans black. There are even a few in light green, but really nothing in old space colors. Other than in Benny's spaceship of course.

I guess we got a lot of dark blue canopies in Space Police 3. But I'd kill for this piece or this piece in yellow.

[VK-318]

I wonder if it isn't because the current Lego model designers think the old, brightly colored canopies are kind of garish, not to mention hard to see through. Imagine trying to see through the dark green canopies from older Space Police sets! Still, I am also fond of the colored canopies; that's part of why I've picked up so many Galaxy Squad alien vehicles: they've got lots of nice trans-red canopies.

[danth]

I wonder if it isn't because the current Lego model designers think the old, brightly colored canopies are kind of garish, not to mention hard to see through.

Yeah, that was my first thought as well, and it's understandable. But I still don't like it! I prefer the strong, vibrant colors of the past, at least for space sets.

I went through the 2015 sets on Brickset and it looks like there is one dark blue canopy and a few more red ones. Although I'm not sure about the blue one; is that actually light blue?

I really wish the Batman sets had yellow windscreens -- that would make them basically Blacktron sets as far as I would be concerned. There was one Batman car that had an orange windscreen...

[DPrime]

Well... Maybe it's as simple as the fact that all the SW sets have clear or trans-black canopies? Easier and cheaper since they are already in production, maybe.

I too would like more trans yellow and trans blue!

[Faefrost]

It's probably more a matter of part inventory control mixed with the designers hesitancy to use precious set change requests on theme wide color changes when the existing in stock canopy colors are sufficient to the immediate products. I do think with the success of the Benny's ssS and the Lego Movie we will see a push to get some of the classic colors back in play. At least the yellow. Some of it may also come from the simple color design aesthetics of the older vs more modern Space sets. In the older sets the actual ship colors tended to be muted or basic, with the pop coming from the more neon canopy colors. We similarly saw that with the Mars Mission and SP3 sets. With AC the pop was more the overall vehicle colors and the windscreens were just a dark accent. That deep smoke. Which looked really good for them. At least the human ships. For GS they were limited in what they could use for human canopy colors as the ship colors varied. So the windscreens needed to be very neutral to avoid clashing with Orange, Green Blue etc. So the aliens got the interesting trans color in red.

The only other lines that would really offer the opportunity for new colors like them are the action lines Ninjago and Maybe Chima, and possibly the Superhero stuff. In both cases it is probably more efficient to simply use what is already available from SW lines to suit the need unless a specific on screen example is required. Although Ninjago did give us your second styled canopy in Purple and Batman gave us the first in orange. We also have a ton of stuff in neon green from Atlantis and Agents 2.0.

[Backgild]

As a workaround, I assume that the canopies are photochromic and can change colors based on ambient conditions. I generally use trans clear as the "natural" state of trans yellow.

[Spirit]

What's sad about it is the lack of compatibility between existing collections.

It's really hard to create new vehicles (and bases to a lesser extent) for the old series with new part shapes when so few exist in the right colours.

I can only hope some good stuff will come during the second half of 2015 (although unlikely) and 2016.

Also, about rare colours, I'd really love to see fair amounts of trans-neon-blue again. There's only ever been one canopy in that colour, and not the most versatile shape unfortunately.

[Colossus]

I really miss the trans-yellow windscreens of Classic Space. I'm almost tempted to score a couple of Benny's @sS for parts since they're on sale at Walmart.

[Faefrost]

I really miss the trans-yellow windscreens of Classic Space. I'm almost tempted to score a couple of Benny's @sS for parts since they're on sale at Walmart.

They are great! Although the X Wing canopy, while a delight to have in classic trans yellow is a bit of a bitch to MOC with.

[danth]

They are great! Although the X Wing canopy, while a delight to have in classic trans yellow is a bit of a bitch to MOC with.

Yep, it's very large and flat.

[Tenorikuma]

70006 (Cragger's Command Ship) has two interesting trans-red canopies, though I guess that's part of the 2013 Chima lineup. (I only mention it because I saw it at the store today.)

[Faefrost]

70006 (Cragger's Command Ship) has two interesting trans-red canopies, though I guess that's part of the 2013 Chima lineup. (I only mention it because I saw it at the store today.)

Trans red is by far the easiest colored cannopy to find these days. They have a somewhat broader selection having shown up in Alpha Team, Galaxy Squad, Star Wars, and a host of others in fairly recent times.