General Colour Discussion

[paupadros]

Colour and Recolour Awards 2017! (I've thrown in some pieces there too)

The year is ending... And as we see new bricks and recolours coming in 2018, it's nice to look back and see our favourite recolours (odd ones and obvious ones, too!). Hateful recolours are accepted too!

1. Cool but somewhat odd recolours of the Year:

I'll say two:

1. First, the SNOT brick with adjacent snotting points in Medium Blue that appeared on the Carousel.
2. Second, the "tooth 1x1 tile" in Cool Yellow in Joker Manor (as Joker's teeth)

 

2. Colour of the Year:

The vast improvement of the Medium Nougat range (mostly thanks to Clayface). Honorable mention to Copper Metallic (dark turquoise is for next year!).

 

3. Favourite recolour of the Year:

A subtle one from one of the sets that I fell less for this year. A set which doesn't click anything (although I comprehend why some people love it) in me but has a trully wonderful and magical recolour.

The medium nougat scroll in Winter Village Station.

 

4. Most useless recolour of the Year:

Who hasn't dreamt of having golden Lego bananas!? Now a thing.

Also rather pointless the expansion of the "flower stud" range knowing there's a new mould next year.

 

5. Best usage of a super specific piece:

An easy one, the Beetle's arches in London Bus (where I think look even better for what they were originally meant for)

 

6. Worst usage of a super specific piece:

This one is more of personal taste than anything else. I'll have to say an Elves set that uses the same Beetle's arch (in my opinion) horrendously

 

7. This is gone too far and it's cringy award:

We'll make an entire castle out of Spring Green! They should've known that Spring Green is one of the toughest colours to mix, along with Cool Yellow and Aqua.

 

8. Piece (and colour) I've built with most this year (or I've enjoyed building with the most):

Last year, I had an odd crush for the telescope, this year, it's the egg! While I've not moved much further from its white variant, it has been the highlight for crowning buildings (along with Thor's Hammer as well ). The egg, by the way has an extremely strange dark azure recolour... Lego might've been drinking something when choosing that recolour.

And the colour... This year, I've regained my love for orange! A colour I'd (for some reason) neglected totally since now.

 

Now say your candidates for some of the categories or invent some!

Lookinf forward to hearing from you guys!

[koalayummies]

50 minutes ago, paupadros said:

4. Most useless recolour of the Year:

Who hasn't dreamt of having golden Lego bananas!? Now a thing.

 

And the colour... This year, I've regained my love for orange! A colour I'd (for some reason) neglected totally since now.

 

Agreed, the golden banana is a bit odd. Its thrown randomly in a drawer of the crab restaurant in Ninjago City (what it it supposed to be in that context?) but will probably become more useful as a decorative facade element even if gold is a bit tacky in that usage.

And also agree about orange, especially Dark Orange which has become quite a favorite of mine along with the Nougat colors.

Nice end of the year list highlighting colors. 

[Aanchir]

Nothing useless about a golden banana. Besides being used ornamentally in two sets so far (and possibly more in the future), it's perfect for Donkey Kong 64 MOCs.

I'd also disagree about the Goblin King's Fortress being at all cringy. In general, the use of Spring Yellowish Green across the entire goblin series is delightfully haunting, and contrasts well with past castle-ish sets. The castle looks quite nice in the animated series Secrets of Elvendale as well.

The dark azur recolor of the egg piece is not really all that surprising. For starters, it was introduced in the Angry Birds Movie line, since a blue egg plays a role in the movie itself. But furthermore, blue eggs are far from unheard of in real life. I've actually got the shells of two blue robin eggs on a shelf next to my bed after finding them on walks around my neighborhood.

[Digger of Bricks]

There are probably a vast number of recolored parts from this year I could mention, but for me, the one particular standout recolor from this year is canopy part 21849 recolored in Trans-yellow. 

And, even though we didn't see much usage of it during its introductory year, Copper Metallic is definitely the color of the year for me. Here's hoping we will see much more usage of it for 2018! 

[paupadros]

16 hours ago, koalayummies said:

And also agree about orange, especially Dark Orange which has become quite a favorite of mine along with the Nougat colors.

Dark Orange has also become my got-to colours when it comes to browns. Hope they'll expand it a little in the future (you know, reddish brown is very nice but is a little less personal to me )

 

12 hours ago, Aanchir said:

Nothing useless about a golden banana. Besides being used ornamentally in two sets so far (and possibly more in the future), it's perfect for Donkey Kong 64 MOCs.

I'd also disagree about the Goblin King's Fortress being at all cringy. In general, the use of Spring Yellowish Green across the entire goblin series is delightfully haunting, and contrasts well with past castle-ish sets. The castle looks quite nice in the animated series Secrets of Elvendale as well.

I was just having a little fun with it. It is a nice set and beautiful colour that deserves a little push in the future, and Elves is the only theme that seems to be making the nicest pieces in the nicest colours, so... Totally welcome for me!

 

12 hours ago, Aanchir said:

The dark azur recolor of the egg piece is not really all that surprising. For starters, it was introduced in the Angry Birds Movie line, since a blue egg plays a role in the movie itself. But furthermore, blue eggs are far from unheard of in real life. I've actually got the shells of two blue robin eggs on a shelf next to my bed after finding them on walks around my neighborhood.

I had never ever seen or thought an egg could even be blue. Thanks for letting me know. I saw the Angry Brids movie, but can't remember the blue egg. Something to do with that big eagle, maybe?

 

9 hours ago, Digger of Bricks said:

There are probably a vast number of recolored parts from this year I could mention, but for me, the one particular standout recolor from this year is canopy part 21849 recolored in Trans-yellow. 

And, even though we didn't see much usage of it during its introductory year, Copper Metallic is definitely the color of the year for me. Here's hoping we will see much more usage of it for 2018! 

A colour I also look forward to greatly. As I love all the Art Nouveau architecture here in Barcelona (which is full of wrought copper-coloured iron everywhere), I hopw I'll be able to use it as fencing and things of that sort!

[x105Black]

On 12/22/2017 at 11:30 AM, paupadros said:

6. Worst usage of a super specific piece:

This one is more of personal taste than anything else. I'll have to say an Elves set that uses the same Beetle's arch (in my opinion) horrendously

 

I have to disagree with this.  The piece looks great here, and makes for a nice top to the little booth or whatever it is on the side of the building.

On 12/22/2017 at 11:30 AM, paupadros said:

7. This is gone too far and it's cringy award:

We'll make an entire castle out of Spring Green! They should've known that Spring Green is one of the toughest colours to mix, along with Cool Yellow and Aqua.

I absolutely agree on this one.

[antp]

17 hours ago, x105Black said:

I have to disagree with this.  The piece looks great here, and makes for a nice top to the little booth or whatever it is on the side of the building.

Ditto

Also, I'm not sure it counts as "super specific", that part is still rather multi-purpose.

I think that in Ninjago City it is possible to find more good usages of specific parts, for example the decorative side for 9V train motor used here as architectural ornament on the ground level

 

[Mr Bill]

My responses to the 8 questions:

1 - I don't really find anything too odd in recolours... As a LL Master Builder I welcome more pieces in more colors as they enhance what we can do... The snot brick with stud on two adjacent sides has been a blessing! Hopefully it will become available in more colors in the coming year(s).  I am still waiting for a green 1x1 with one stud on the side. It is the only one of the "10 regular" colors that does not yet have this piece. If we need it we have to figure a way to use a "headlight brick (real name: angular brick) or go with another shade of green and hope it is sufficiently hidden.

2 - Agreed. Medium Nougat is becoming a more versatile option to regular brown! It (along with dark orange #38) is becoming a fave of mine.

3 through 6 - I don't really have an opinion on. The more colors a piece becomes available in, the happier any builder should be. Our boss often hands us a part for each project and gives us the chjallenge on incorporating it into our build. Sometimes it's fun, sometimes it's a pain.

7 - I personally like Spring Yellowish Green... That Elf castle works well for what it is within its theme. The one color I absolutely despise is Aqua (#323). While I have used it (Queen Elizabet's gown in my Wax Museum build) I stay away from it. If I made a replica of Baskin Robbins dacquiri Ice ice cream cone it would be an exact match... I wasn't a fan of either Azur when they appeared either but I have warmed to them over time. I first noticed them with the 2011 Sponge Bob sets and Alien Conquest sets (also 2011). There are few short-lived colors from the early to mid 2000s I'm not crazy about, but that's mainly because there are not a lot of parts available in those colors.

8 - My favorite color to work with lately has been (as I mentioned) Dark Orange (#38). I recently built a Tiki Restaurant for a new area of the park using it and a roof of Sand Green. These two colors look absolutely gorgeous together. The Tiki Mask motifs I built out of Dark Tan (sand yellow #138) accent the walls very nicely. I will post more pictures as soon as I am allowed to do so. I also like Bright Green (#37), but alas, we have more regular elements available to us than are in most (any?) commercial sets.

--Mr. Bill

Edited December 24, 2017 by Mr Bill

[paupadros]

On 24/12/2017 at 10:00 PM, Mr Bill said:

8 - My favorite color to work with lately has been (as I mentioned) Dark Orange (#38). I recently built a Tiki Restaurant for a new area of the park using it and a roof of Sand Green. These two colors look absolutely gorgeous together. The Tiki Mask motifs I built out of Dark Tan (sand yellow #138) accent the walls very nicely. I will post more pictures as soon as I am allowed to do so. I also like Bright Green (#37), but alas, we have more regular elements available to us than are in most (any?) commercial sets.

--Mr. Bill

Really nice tikis by the way! They remind me of those in the first Lego Indiana Jones game on the very first level. Good memories that brings.

I also welcome new colours, but it was just a fun thing to doom some design choices now that's the end of the year. Don't you worry, it's not too serious.

 

Bright Green is also my favourite shade of green (the Sand family resides on another part of my holy mountain!). Cool you're a Master Builder, maybe you could show us or tell us some challenges they give you and all that kind of stuff.

 

Greetings!

[Digger of Bricks]

While out on the road today, I saw this Jeep Renegade in a unusual yet striking shade of green. I can't say it was necessarily beautiful, because what was striking about it instead was that it had a plastic Lego-esque quality about it, kind of a darker take on Lego's own Olive Green in a way. I've always wanted Lego to introduce a darker shade of their current Olive Green, and come to think of it, I guess I'd like to see it done just like this:

[Still Raindrop]

The discontinuation (and subsequent expensive/hard-to-find nature) of Sand Red is a huge bummer to me. However, this is largely because it almost perfectly captures the look of Pikes Peak granite--a local type of stone that I really love. I'd like to be able to use it in MOCs, but I don't have the funds necessary. It would be nice to see that come back--or, as mentioned, a reddish-orange.

[paupadros]

Hadn't been on my own topic for a while!

15 hours ago, Still Raindrop said:

The discontinuation (and subsequent expensive/hard-to-find nature) of Sand Red is a huge bummer to me. However, this is largely because it almost perfectly captures the look of Pikes Peak granite--a local type of stone that I really love. I'd like to be able to use it in MOCs, but I don't have the funds necessary. It would be nice to see that come back--or, as mentioned, a reddish-orange.

Sand Red is (I think) one of the number one "on the want list" to be remade in the way Teal was. It's funny how there are (if I haven't miscounted), 8 shades of blue and 8 more of green (and 50 shades of grey), but only two variants of red. Salmon would be also an interesting colour to get back (aside from the Mustard colour we debated some months ago which would totally blow my mind)

[Digger of Bricks]

9 minutes ago, paupadros said:

Sand Red is (I think) one of the number one "on the want list" to be remade in the way Teal was. It's funny how there are (if I haven't miscounted), 8 shades of blue and 8 more of green (and 50 shades of grey), but only two variants of red. Salmon would be also an interesting colour to get back (aside from the Mustard colour we debated some months ago which would totally blow my mind)

I'd much rather see the return of Sand Purple over Sand Red personally, but yes, we have so little variety in red on Lego's color spectrum, so Sand Red is a better candidate for reintroduction in that respect.

[koalayummies]

In my opinion Bright Purple, Light Purple and Bright Red Violet are all more on the red-side than purple while Medium Lavender, Lavender and Medium Lilac are all definitely purple. This might be because I'm a guy and guys 'supposedly have issues telling proper color', but still wouldn't mind seeing Sand Red again even if it meant adding another red. Or another Olive though I quite like the Olive-drab-like color that we have currently.

Here's a Lego 'color checker chart' I've been slowly building up over the past year, by no means complete as I'm restricting the build to only 1x2 plates (so no doubling up 1x1s as substitute) and not strictly in the official order but more in rainbow form and where I prefer colors placed better (as Brick and Sand Yellows, Dark Orange, Olive are all better suited near the browns IMO). Each color progression goes from its lightest form to darkest and onto the next color.

Edited March 7, 2018 by koalayummies

[x105Black]

I still say that there should be a darker purple.  LEGO's dark purple color is called "medium lilac" officially.  Let's get a dark lilac, please.

[Anonknee Muss]

3 hours ago, x105Black said:

I still say that there should be a darker purple.  LEGO's dark purple color is called "medium lilac" officially.  Let's get a dark lilac, please.

^Ooooo

[Digger of Bricks]

3 hours ago, x105Black said:

I still say that there should be a darker purple.  LEGO's dark purple color is called "medium lilac" officially.  Let's get a dark lilac, please.

So, like a blackish eggplant sort of purple?

[x105Black]

31 minutes ago, Digger of Bricks said:

So, like a blackish eggplant sort of purple?

Yeah, that'd be fantastic.

[Aanchir]

8 hours ago, koalayummies said:

In my opinion Bright Purple, Light Purple and Bright Red Violet are all more on the red-side than purple while Medium Lavender, Lavender and Medium Lilac are all definitely purple.

I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of kids think that way too. When I was growing up and learning colors I was always taught that red+white=pink. This might be why LEGO hasn't released any lighter reds lately — looking at parts in Light Salmon/Light Red and Salmon/Medium Red online, they still sort of feel like a really old, discolored, kind of gross pink parts.

Sand Red is better, IMO… richer, I suppose? It doesn't give me that same feeling of a faded or sun-bleached old advertisement. I think the main reason LEGO didn't keep Sand Red around and hasn't brought it back might just be not having a lot of sets or themes that need it. Even when Sand Red was around, it wasn't used nearly as widely as Sand Blue or Sand Green were. Even Teal was used in over a dozen sets in some years prior to its retirement — whereas aside from the bulk brick and roof slope packs, Sand Red never appeared in more than five sets a year, and hardly ever in quantity or as the main color in a set.

[MAB]

On 07/03/2018 at 3:15 PM, paupadros said:

Sand Red is (I think) one of the number one "on the want list" to be remade in the way Teal was. It's funny how there are (if I haven't miscounted), 8 shades of blue and 8 more of green (and 50 shades of grey), but only two variants of red. Salmon would be also an interesting colour to get back (aside from the Mustard colour we debated some months ago which would totally blow my mind)

2

Some of those counted as blue are to blue what the pinks are to red though.

Although I'd like sand red again too, it makes a lovely faded brick colour and is also good for pink marble.

 

[paupadros]

I know I called my own topic "Rambling on about Colours + some ideas for new colours too!", but since we discussed pieces in specific colours some time ago, I'd like to share a little thought about a new piece I had. A year ago, they came up with this piece, which is just amzaingly versatile. I was wondering if Lego would release a similar piece but cutting to a perfect diagonal, to form a right triangle.

I'm unsure they would realase such piece. On one hand, they've released this piece, a 2x2 version of the one I've mentioned and this other one, which just happens to have a gap fillable with the piece I'm talking about, but on the other hand, such piece would leave the stud holding it half exposed and might have clutch power problems ie. not sticking up tight enough.

Just wondering, what are your thoughts?

Edited May 2, 2018 by paupadros

[NathanR]

1 hour ago, paupadros said:

Just wondering, what are your thoughts?

A 1x1 version of 35787? Sadly I don't think this is ever going to happen.  When I played with a 2x2 triangle tile, the "corner" was the only solid connection point.  The other two connection points, which only half-cover the studs, had literally zero clutch power, they wouldn't stick to a stud at all.  Now, I grant you that the clutch at these points is reduced because the only connection is a barely contacting wall and a half circle (where the full circle ion a 2x2 tile would be), but I think a 1x1 tile would be just as weak.  

In fact, in my experience, the 1x1 quarter circle tiles barely hold on to a stud.  Their clutch comes from two 1L sides and a tiny bit of circle wrapping around the stud.  With a diagonal 1x1 tile, that tiny bit of circle is gone and the tile could just "slide off" a stud.

[MAB]

I agree, the clutch on a 1x1 right angle triangle would be next to nothing. I would like another variant of the 2x2 right angle though - a plate version. Of course they could do one full stud, but I'd really like a version with one full stud and two half studs where they have been "cut" in half. They would be a great addition to the existing wedge plates for landscaping paths and so on.

[paupadros]

Well, as much as sliding off, I'm not so sure. You also have to think that a 1x1 triangle piece would have two entire 1L sides, while the 2x2 triangle has a single 1L side on the 45º angles. Call me dummy, but the "Lego" text on the stud the 1x1 triangle would stand on, would actually provide friction. In the end, the 1x1 quarter circle has practically no side on the curve. Besides, as two could work together, that would stop them from falling off as well.

2 hours ago, MAB said:

I would like another variant of the 2x2 right angle though - a plate version. Of course they could do one full stud, but I'd really like a version with one full stud and two half studs where they have been "cut" in half. They would be a great addition to the existing wedge plates for landscaping paths and so on.

A studless version of this? I would definitely have more appeal than the current studded version. And, looking at the image, if we completely removed the two studs, leaving a 1x2 with an entire wedge crossing it, that would be a heck of an interesting piece, even more, it having more clustch than the 1x1 triangle I mentioned.

[MAB]

For me, no. I like studs on plates :-) . When doing winding paths with wedge plates, it annoys me a bit when there are missing studs where the wedge plates join.