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Personally I don't mind so much (I find stickers more offensive), but the idea discussed above regarding splitting builds into smaller bags rather than excessive colour coding, probably would be a nice way of going about Technic builds.

 

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2 hours ago, JimDude said:

I used to be in the "LEGO has gone too far" camp, but here's the thing I was missing:

[snip[ That's 3 to 5 times more pieces, and many of them are no longer 'easy to identify' System, but in stead are mostly pins, slightly different pins, oh, and even more slightly more different pins [snip]

[long and very good post]

To add to this (you should read the whole post): remember that there are many more types of parts than ever before. All those new cool pieces, such as pins with pinholes, 3L axle pins, new connectors, 1L "bush with round hole" etc. really expand our building options and has made MOCs endlessly more complex and intricate. But to make all this added complexity workable for the target audience (children), they (the children, I mean) will have to be compensated somehow. Hence, the color coding, to help them out. Similar parts are different colors. Perfectly understandable. So it's either more colors, or fewer different types of parts. And I take 2018's Technic parts assortment over 1998's any day :) 

What I have some issues with is what TLC seems to consider "similar". I completely understand if a set that has gray bushes, has its "bush-with-round-hole" in another color. And I'm also fine with blue pins and yellow/red axles. But I feel this is only needed for small parts. Large parts are usually quite obviously different (I would say), except situations like 13L vs. 15L beams, so color-coding large pieces (such as 5x9 bent beams) isn't needed from a ease-of-build standpoint. (It may be for ease-of-packaging or budgettary reasons though.)

I think AFOLs in general seem to readily understand this, and have plenty of tolerance for this fact, but what I think 42080 shows is that there is a limit and many of us have about the same tolerance level, and if a set goes over that level, everyone falls over it at once. Apparently, 42080 is a bit too much of a good thing, color-coding-wise. As a result, 42080 is, as a Dutch saying goes, "the bitten dog" (meaning, the subject that gets all the flak, even though it hasn't done anything particularly wrong).

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13 minutes ago, Omikron said:

I never understood the necessity of this part, what can it do that regular 4l axle can't?

4525-src.jpg

You can put a gear on it and after bracing it on both ends, it won't work itself loose. There are some other uses as well.

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11 minutes ago, Omikron said:

I never understood the necessity of this part, what can it do that regular 4l axle can't?

--IMAGE---

The right question is stated inversely - what can't this part do that regular 4L can? And the answer IMO is: It does not require additional bracing, when built right, to secure it from slipping out of the hole, or application from @Meatman 's comment.
And also to minimize friction in geartrain, and make portals in Crawler set nearly impossible to disassemble.

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I've also seen it used to support a 20 tooth gear that drives a differential. The axle will not work into the differential through the gear. Paul made a floating rear suspension and used them with the cv joints. It worked well because the cv joint has 1.5 depth of axle hole in it and the stop would not allow the axle to slide in anymore and pull out of the differential.

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31 minutes ago, Erik Leppen said:

Apparently, 42080 is a bit too much of a good thing, color-coding-wise. As a result, 42080 is, as a Dutch saying goes, "the bitten dog" (meaning, the subject that gets all the flak, even though it hasn't done anything particularly wrong).

Truer words have never been spoken *tears*

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That part can't have 2 gears instaIled in the middle. Very useful feature in confined space. Is bracing and slipping big problems? I've never had a slipped gear or axle. Ever. Seems more like a car MOC problem?

Parts of this color seem more soft and flexible to me. I wondered why did TLG choose that particular color.

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6 minutes ago, Omikron said:

That part can't have 2 gears instaIled in the middle. Very useful feature in confined space. Is bracing and slipping big problems? I've never had a slipped gear or axle. Ever. Seems more like a car MOC problem?

Parts of this color seem more soft and flexible to me. I wondered why did TLG choose that particular color.

It can be a problem with anything that has a motor. If you attach a motor to the 1L axle end of it and then a liftarm, then a gear, then a liftarm, the axle cannot work itself loose. See the front axle of the 9398 where the black 12 tooth gear is? that is how they are using it right there.

9398_main.jpg?1522086590

 

Edited by Meatman

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I personally don't mind colour coding that much. I think colour coded axles are growing on me a bit. I have built Jeroen Ottens' Aston Martin which used this to great effect, essentially creating a Blakbird render in bricks with coloured axles indicating a drivetrain for a function. Of course you can also go overboard, like 42070, but all black isn't helping anyone either. Some parts are good to have colour coded especially for younger builders, like pins and axles. 

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IMHO Colour Vomit is one of the major downsides with Technic Lego - it makes Technic models look awful and unrealistic.

I understand that Lego wants to make sets easier to build but if you can't distinguish between a pin and an axle without the help of colour difference then you shouldn't be buying Technic at all. Besides, I thought Technic was supposed to give people a challenge? I remember when I was younger refusing to let my parents help me build Technic sets because I stood by the doctrine of DIY - 'Do It Yourself'.

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I like to build my chassis and modules in various colors to make it easy for anyone curious about them to see how they are built...

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Colors give children natural groups by which they can sort and organize before building. As a AFOL, we sort into functional groups and by size more than by color. Imagine the seemingly daunting task of making sense of a pile of 2500 parts as a CHILD... where do you start? Especially if this is your very first Technic set you have ever built? Color gives them a very easy way of organizing the parts prior to building.  Which is what every Instruction manual pantomimes you to do when you open it... sort it out, then start to build. It’s about identifying and organizing a very complex task, possibly one of the hardest the child has ever faced for a toy.  This experience, this overwhelming task layed before them is what TLG focuses on. This is the core of their business, to satisfy the desires of the child and make their journey into Technic Lego as smooth as possible. I give TLG a lot of leeway because of this and accept the Disney Barf as just a minor annoyance. 

Edited by Bublehead
Typo

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If any you guys ever weighed any of the technic elements and the same part like a 5l lift arm would weigh differently depending on the color. Black seems to be the lightest and dbg is the heaviest from my observations.. its undocumented and it does show color does have certain properties     

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27 minutes ago, Bublehead said:

Especially if this is your very first Technic set you have ever built? Color gives them a very easy way of organizing the parts prior to building.  Which is what every Instruction manual pantomimes you to do when you open it... sort it out, then start to build. It’s about identifying and organizing a very complex task, possibly one of the hardest the child has ever faced for a toy.  

This is 100% my experience when I started my son on Legos. He can do modern City and Creator sets quite confidently, but when I share my 30 year old City and Space sets (all PAINSTAKINGLY sorted into bags by set with original instruction manuals) he tends to get frustrated and may abandon the set. I figured out it was not just due to physically sorting through the sea of same colored pieces but it was also the old instructions. Since they didn't have a picture showing what pieces were needed for each step he had a hard time figuring out what is new and knowing if he finished that step sufficiently or not.

Edited by thatrabidhobo
typo

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I bet if we'd get completely black model (100% no colour vomit), you'd complain anyway. "Cannot find parts", "2 hour set took me two weeks to build", etc.

Actually, once you get used to building recent sets you find hour cool (and little harder) build old sets which used to have all parts in just in a few colours, like 8880 - black, light gray and white (with few bits in blue and yellow). Sometime it is really hard to find the right part. However, since it was all designed with old Technic bricks in mind mostly, it has less parts than nowadays. While I would love same approach to be with modern sets, it would be a nightmare!

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going off what @Bublehead said, sorting; 

Having multiple colors of the same part is going to be interesting when it comes to sorting as well.  I use to sort by color, silly me.  Now I sort by the parts, so not I have bins that look like a rainbow sometimes and other bins that look like a LBG sea.  

 

Just now, zux said:

I bet if we'd get completely black model (100% no colour vomit), you'd complain anyway. "Cannot find parts", "2 hour set took me two weeks to build", etc.

 

That would be a bit extreme, don't you think?  I am thinking that a good example of a good color combination set is 42009.  The yellow/black/and greys everything flows very nicely.  

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Going back to color vomit... could this also have the benefit of making things more difficult for the Chinese knock-offs to mass produce every Lego set? If there is, say, I dunno, 500 different Lego colored pieces to manufacturer this season compared to the previous season then thats more factory set-up time, piece storage, etc. Perhaps it makes it difficult to copy every single set.

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10 minutes ago, aminnich said:

That would be a bit extreme, don't you think?  I am thinking that a good example of a good color combination set is 42009.  The yellow/black/and greys everything flows very nicely.  

Nah, that's the only option to stop complaining about colour vomit. But then someone would complain about the colour choice for such set anyway :grin:

Wasn't active here on EB for a while, so I find it a bit odd, people complain just for the sake of complaining. It is not a constructive feedback, but simply "I don't like, please me".

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Bottom line is that you can not satisfy everyone, and there will always be needed something what we can call 'acceptable compromise'. 42009 is great example of good color combination

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Don't forget about colorblind people, there's lots of them. I think different colors of parts may help them.

Is there actually somebody here to comment on this? 

35676194-bucharest-romania-january-20-20

vc_9js0_M6_sim.jpg

 

Note the beige and yellow parts

Edited by Omikron

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mixed assorted technic elements @ ebay ??

I just won a $5 dollar, 150 pieces on auction!!  seriously, I did win the auction !!   

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Lego-technic-mixed-lot-diff-colors-gears-arms-joints-lift-amp-hose-of-150-pieces-/282968922320?_trksid=p2047675.l2557&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&nma=true&si=eMKJbSas%2FtUzxJchn4808c%2Btr6g%3D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc

Edited by sirslayer

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4 hours ago, sirslayer said:

If any you guys ever weighed any of the technic elements and the same part like a 5l lift arm would weigh differently depending on the color. Black seems to be the lightest and dbg is the heaviest from my observations.. its undocumented and it does show color does have certain properties     

How much is the difference between colours in weight for a 5L liftarm?  

 

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it was very small, but with the 5 l lift arm, I almost got every color and not all parts have all the colors and i only have just over 7,000 pieces to work with!!... here is a few examples of the weighted items 

IMG_20180304_020013IMG_20180304_020001

these  2 colors black and light blue gray are the lightest weight and its about 0.015 grams difference and the heaviest dark blue gray?? or/and dark gray. I've noticed even the axles, pins lift arms, ect , ect do follow the same pattern as black is the lightest and dark gray is the heaviest.  the 5 l lift arms are small and its only 0.1 grams was the difference from lightest to heaviest but with longer beams, their will be a bigger difference by using black to save weight and i noticed certain colors like red which is always in the middle weight color have special properties which explains why gears and other elements  are tan black gray and red!!  dark blue gray/ dark gray are the heaviest and that is why differential and other special are in dark gray only!! i have a thread explaining more on my sirslayer chassis section     

Edited by sirslayer
grammar

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Composition of the ABS differs from part to part based on the needs of the part and how it is used. Some parts are not ABS at all, and I would expect the different colored parts to be different compositions based on pigment densities, or chemical property differences if they use dyes instead of pigments.  When I was doing R&D for strobe light lenses for Boeing 777 aircraft, the pigments and dyes could change the physical properties of the thin films we were depositing on the lenses or the properties of the plastics used to mold them. I am certain TLG has a small army or at least one guy (most likely a chemist) on the payroll to figure out the formula for each color and usage.  

Weight is not my biggest concern though, but strength and durability.  Which parts are the weakest links, and in which colors?

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