colours

[matty33]

Sorry if this has been posted before.

I have been sorting out my lego and putting it into containers by part and colour and putting them in rebrickable and also excel

my problem is that I have bought lego from bricklink and also bought models

both parts I am looking at are dark bluish grey, Technic, Liftarm 1 x 11 Thick. when I came to put them together and in the container I noticed they are not the same shade one is slightly darker

is there different shades of one colour? slightly confused on this

[CopMike]

Hi!

They been made in both the dark grey colors, Dark Grey & Dark Bluish Grey:

https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=32525#T=C

 and 

[matty33]

Hi CopMike

both the ones I have, have different lego codes but both come back as dark bluish grey

4534914 (bought from bricklink shop)

4603472 (from 42055 bucket wheel excavator)

I am trying to work out if they have different shades of a colour, I always presumed the number next to the lego code was to say the code has been verified by x amount of people but now I am thinking there is a different shade of that colour, there is 3 codes for dark bluish grey and im now thinking that each one is a different shade?

[AmperZand]

@matty33 It could be that the BrickLink seller made a mistake and, as @CopMike suggested, one is dark grey and the other dark blueish grey.

Alternatively, depending on the age of the pieces, how much sunlight they they have been exposed to and the additives in the ABS, one may have darkened or gone slightly brownish just as some white parts do. 

Can you post a colour accurate picture of both parts?

Edited January 17, 2018 by AmperZand

[matty33]

HI AmperZand,

I am going to go with it and say that I was sent the wrong colour via the seller on bricklink and I will re number them as dark grey

im not to worried as I can use both colours at some point and will order more of each in the future, I think I just confused myself with this lol

[Johnny1360]

I also noticed in set 31074, that I recently purchased,  a very slight shade difference with the lime green pieces. The snot plates and plate 1x1 with clip are definitely shaded different, like they have more of a brownish tint to them.

[weeble1688]

Another possibility is that they are indeed slightly different shades of dark stone grey. If you plug those 7-digit codes into Brickset.com, you get two different entries for the same type of part, one spanning 2005-6 and the next 2004-2018, with no sets in common between the two.  Though it is uncommon it does happen in my local Lego store, usually in the Pick-A-Brick wall contents - two boxes of the same color piece but varying slightly in shade or color density, like Johnny 1360 noticed above. I have also seen it in pieces that are from either different countries of origin or from different years (but still being the same type of color - i.e. that part only exists post-2004 and therefore must be dark stone grey rather than dark grey).  I hope this helps you somewhat and does not lead to more confusion!

[anothergol]

There's a much bigger difference between dark grey & DBG, than between light grey & LBG, though. Dark can't be mistaken, while the LBG ones can be hard to tell apart.

& I have LBG parts that are noticably darker than normal, so yes that can happen.
Look at the LBG wedge plates that make the "grille" at the back, the middle 2 ones are noticably darker, they came from BL & are legit, and aren't yellowed.

 

[fred67]

anothergol's picture seems to be way off - I've never seen color variations that bad.  I know you know what you're doing, but it almost looks to me like the "darker" ones are LGB, and lighter ones old light gray.

For the record, though, I was buying brown from the PAB wall at a LEGO store, and putting "reddish brown" plates together - these are all new from the LEGO store - and was pretty surprised at the huge, very noticeable color variations.

IOW, it happens.

 

[matty33]

cant decide now if they are just a darker shade or if the seller on bricklink sent the wrong colour

thank you all for you help in trying to solve this :-)

[anothergol]

Trust me that for old dark grey vs DBG, you know. The difference is simply obvious, if it looks brown (it's not, but it really is grey, it has no blue tint at all), then it's the old grey.

Here, top-left are LBG, because they're blue. Leftmost is slightly darker (less drastic for this one. Also interesting that the stud with the injection mark says "L O"), but it's the correct blue. Rightmost is old grey, and the difference isn't that striking, it definitely often confuses sellers, like for this one since I had never ordered an old grey one. This is also the old version of that part that you can't fully put on a plate, that's the reason I got an old grey one, there are much more chances for those parts to be old grey.

But for the dark grey shovels there is just no comparison, one is a lot more blue. If you put your part next to a proper DBG and one looks brown, then it's old grey. If not, it's just darker by mistake.

Of course parts can also yellow, but they never do from all sides so you know when they are. And then there is also "very light bluish grey" which is a legit color. And you also have old 4mm pneumatic tubes that many sellers sell as "DBG" which are actually black with a blue tint and nothing like proper DBG.

Edited January 18, 2018 by anothergol

[fred67]

I also often get out a bright (not "warm") LED light to help tell the difference - it becomes glaringly obvious when you have natural or bright light.

[Captain Dee]

I have noticed significant variation in color in numerous sets bought new off the store shelf. Some of the most obvious variations were light bluish grey (for example, all the 1x2s in a set were a completely different tone than some of the other size bricks in the "same" color) and also medium dark flesh, which has been all over the place with my sizeable collection of 4x4 round plates with 2x2 center hole. I don't think they'll ever make everything perfectly consistent, but as long as it's not too noticeable I can live with it.