Bley or Grey

[Lt. Veers]

Grey and Bley is one of the greatest conflicts in Lego history. Now the final battle.

Which do you prefer? Do you like:

Grey, being Lego's classic color?

Bley, being a realistic color?

Neither, hating the color in general?

Both, loving them all?

The climax is now.

[Turaga of Force]

Definately the original gray. Both because its the original and it looks better.

[Commander Andrew of 501 st]

Bley all the way! X-D ;-)

[Tarfful]

I like them both so I voted for both.

General Tarful

Edited February 17, 2008 by GeneralTarful

[Brickadier General]

Right after the color change happened I was pretty burned about it. But since then, I've come to tolerate Bley, and I don't think it's as horrible as I did during the first year of the change. I'll keep it and use it in MOCs, but I still like using the old grey too. In some circumstances, mixing them works for a great effect.

[CP5670]

I like gray better because I have far more of it. I treat blay like a separate color and use it in models, but don't mix it with gray.

To be honest though, I don't use either color a whole lot anymore since gray stuff is hard to come by and I don't have enough blay yet to do much with it. Technic models are an exception though, for which I have no shortage of gray parts, and I will probably start using more blay in the future as I collect more of it.

I don't understand how blay is more "realistic" though. *wacko*

[Stealth Hunter]

I like both bley and old gray so I voted for I like both. *y*

[Inertia]

Bley because it's new X-D

[legotrainfan]

I usually prefer using old gray bricks. I think you cannot say that bley is a more realistic colour. I believe that bley looks terrible when used for castles, but it is quite good when you want to build train waggons or locomotives with it. Maybe it's good to mix the two greys for some MOCs. Some of you have tried that and created some pretty good stuff. Still, I don't like bley that much and tend to avoid it.

[Barbossa]

I want both *y*

[Holodoc]

My current grey/bley rate:

6085/3439

So I had to vote "I like both".

It was annoying to see TLC had sets that came with both shades. :-|

[captaintau]

I don't care which, as long as there's only one or the other.

On that basis, I'd have preferred that Bley hadn't come into existence, though I have nothing against the colour as such.

[Vimes]

I have to admit that I like the new bley better. The old grey looks a little bit "washed-out" in comparison.

[Shadows]

Grew up on classic space and castle in old grey. Came out of my dark ages and they were still there, but with a lot more dark grey, no problem there.

The transition was a bit of a shock at first, but honestly, life is far too short to hate a colour change, and I can't work up the annoyance I once had about it.

Basically, each of the grey shades has a purpose, and I'll use them accordingly. If someone hates their old grey or bley, maybe they just need to try using it differently.

Now brown/reddish-brown, that's a whole different story. >:-( :-| :-D

[blueandwhite]

I have over 30,000 grey bricks. Needless to say, I can neither afford or wait for my collection of bley to catch up. Any castle builder who has been collecting since the early 80s had a very difficult time with the transition. For younger builders this simply isn't a big issue, but when you've already got a small fortune invested in classic grey, the change will always be a sore spot. The size of my castles will always be limited by the colour change, and working a large MOC has become quite frustrating as piece shortages can cause huge delays/problems.

Old grey for me. New grey broke my heart :'-( .

[Captain Green Hair]

I like them both, they just don't mix that well :-/

[Lord Of Pies]

I like grey more, I have far less bley, so old grey gets used in my MOCS more.

[Starwars4J]

Bley, being a realistic color?

Eh? It's the least realistic color they have besides reddish-brown :-D The thing is, they each have their uses. Bley is useful for spacey MOCs, as it looks slightly metallic. However old grey was useful for both rocks (stone) in castle MOCs as well as spacey MOCs. bley is limited to space, even though it looks slightly better. It just looks out of place in castle MOCs :-X

So I voted both, as even though grey did both while bley can only do one genre, bley does that one genre better.

[Icesaber]

I think each color has its purposes, so I voted both.

[Lasse D]

I have finally bought enough bleys to be able to build something useful out of them and I like both.

Old gray goes very well with white while Bley looks better with red. The two will rarely be combined in the creations I make and the change has been quite expensive.

Bottom line: OK, but please don't do this again!

BTW. Try to compare the new (barely trans) whites with some old white bricks. :'-(

[Dadster]

Wow. When that new colors were introduced, I went into a bit of shock. What to do? Hunt down old sets or aquire a slew of the new (I don't like them mixed...)?! Finally, I decided to go with the newer grays and browns. I love the flesh coloring, but still utilize the classic yellow for my castle minifigs.

I was actually contemplating throwing out the question of whether or not any folks created armies of classic castle with flesh colored soldiers face/ hands, etc onto the forums.

[CP5670]

BTW. Try to compare the new (barely trans) whites with some old white bricks. :'-(

I got some of those too through Bricklink orders over the last year, along with some similar looking yellows. It's a result of their cost cutting moves during the last year.

I'm honestly surprised more people haven't complained about this, given the huge uproar there was over the grays. This color "change" is more noticeable to me than the grays, but since it's unintentional and caused by quality problems, there are also a couple of intermediate shades between the two extremes. *n*

Anyone know if this has been fixed in recent sets? They were supposed to have fixed the problems a while ago, although it would take some time for the existing bad bricks in their inventory to clear out. I haven't bought anything from Lego S@H recently for precisely this reason.

[Lasse D]

I complained directly to LEGO about this as soon as I saw the flaw in the 2007 City service station. They said it was because of issues in the production, but I still see the problem in the new Town Plan, so I guess it will take some time before the color quality is up to pre-outsourcing standards.

[Svelte]

I prefer bley - mainly because I have so much of it now having only come out of my dark ages in 2003 and only really starting to buy a lot of sets after then.

Mixing bley and old grey just looks wrong though, as the shiny bley makes the old grey look yellowed, which is never a great look for lego bricks!

Now that there a lot of great castle parts in bley it's much harder to go back to old grey at all for MOCs.

BTW, what's the issue with the white/ 'trans' white colour? Just different shades? I didn't notice any huge discrepancies in Town Plan. I though the dark red/ ordinary red colour variations were much worse.

Market Street's varying shades of dark blue were a huge disappointment, and for the price point, Cafe Corner's tan and especially frown colour problems were a real eye-opener. Did TLC ever officially respond to complaints about this?

[CP5670]

I complained directly to LEGO about this as soon as I saw the flaw in the 2007 City service station. They said it was because of issues in the production, but I still see the problem in the new Town Plan, so I guess it will take some time before the color quality is up to pre-outsourcing standards.

I'm hoping the 2008 sets will have the fixed bricks. I guess it's a question of whether TLC has any of the bad ones still left in their own unpackaged inventory, and not just in the sets currently in circulation.

Now that there a lot of great castle parts in bley it's much harder to go back to old grey at all for MOCs.

BTW, what's the issue with the white/ 'trans' white colour? Just different shades? I didn't notice any huge discrepancies in Town Plan. I though the dark red/ ordinary red colour variations were much worse.

Market Street's varying shades of dark blue were a huge disappointment, and for the price point, Cafe Corner's tan and especially frown colour problems were a real eye-opener. Did TLC ever officially respond to complaints about this?

Yes, they're basically different shades, although it's seemingly caused by a difference in the density of the plastic. Unlike the blay and gray parts, I can tell the difference right away without having them side by side. You know how the studs normally cast small shadows on bricks and plates? The shadows on these bad parts look quite a bit lighter than usual. Also, if you hold them up to a light, especially the plates, you can clearly see that they are translucent (very much like Mega Bloks in fact) while the older bricks remain opaque. They also don't seem to snap together as firmly as usual.

I would take some pictures but don't have a camera with me right now (should have one in a week or two though). If you have any of the "milky white" axles from those old Samsonite gear sets, they look like that color.

This affects a variety of colors, mainly white and yellow, as well as some that are not very common like dark blue. Black has no problems (good thing for me, since I use that by far the most :-P), and I think normal blue is okay too.

Edited February 19, 2008 by CP5670