Trans Clear LEGO Thru the years...

[LEGO Historian]

Trans-opaque light blue: Just how on Earth is that not an oxymoron? If you mix transparent and opaque, you get translucent. If that's not the case, then what part of the Circular Square Universe is this from?

It's the closest description I could come up with that describes a brick that you cannot see thru... but yet when held up to the light.... light passes thru it...

[antp]

"translucent" ?

http://www.wordreference.com/definition/translucent

[Fikko3107]

Gary, you are a fountain of knowledge. I want to raid a Lego model shop now.

I uh, actually recently got to visit a model shop in LEGOLAND Malaysia. And was allowed to take whatever I want. I didn't shamelessly take lots of rare pieces, just some Dark Blue here and there, but some of my peers made off with a trove of Cool Yellow Bricks, Lime Green Bricks, and Transparent Jumper Plates and Round Tiles. My point is, don't deny an opportunity to visit there. They literally keep all the "uncommon, rarely used pieces" (to quote the master builder.) at a single corridor...

Edited November 7, 2013 by Fikko3107

[Junpei]

You lucky bastard! If you were me, you'd be taking them all!

Also, what's cool yellow? Some color I've never heard about?

[Fikko3107]

You lucky bastard! If you were me, you'd be taking them all!

Also, what's cool yellow? Some color I've never heard about?

Cool Yellow (also known as Bright Light Yellow in Bricklink) is a color that I think was first introduced in a girl theme-Belville, perhaps? That is used rarely, including some minor appearances as hair (Thor's, The S1 Cheerleader and Chase McCain's hair is such a color.), in Spongebob Squarepants, in Cars and in Clikits. Recently though, it has made a comeback in Friends, particularly the Heartlake High set where the building is made up of them.

Edited November 8, 2013 by Fikko3107

[Gerechtigkeitsliga]

Found this rare part in trans light blue And it is not a Duplo brick.

Brick 2x4 trans light blue by Gerechtigkeitsliga, auf Flickr

Edited June 24, 2015 by Gerechtigkeitsliga

[LEGO Historian]

Trans light blue was produced along with a lot of other trans colors, but they appear to not be part of regular production sets. Some of these were recently sold. They are likely model shop parts. Older ones (without cross supports) may have been Bayer or BASF test bricks, along with other trans colors.

http://www.bricklink.com/catalogPG.asp?P=3001&colorID=15

http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=3001

Here's an interesting Trans-clear part that I've never seen before, likely a factory prototype, since it was never used in any LEGO set.... a trans-clear classic LEGO door. These (1958-79 doors are only known in red, white and yellow....

Another new addition to my Unofficial LEGO Sets/Parts Collectors Guide - Chapter 17- LEGO Prototype Sets/Parts Never Put Into Production!

[mpfirnhaber]

A few from my collection :)

[Gerechtigkeitsliga]

And now this one Brick 1x6 trans bright green by Gerechtigkeitsliga, auf Flickr

[mpfirnhaber]

Some of my recent acquisitions

[R0Sch]

And now we have cheaper, foggy transparent parts that get easily scratched. All for cost-saving and sustainability reasons.
Source: promobricks.de

[LEGO Historian]

Funny that this discussion about trans-clear bricks from 7 years ago got re-opened.

Recently on Brickset, I started a discussion on the latest plastic now used for trans-clear LEGO elements... called MABS... Methyl methacrylate-acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene.  Here is the discussion:

https://forum.brickset.com/discussion/33843/are-trans-clear-lego-or-all-trans-parts-now-made-out-of-a-different-plastic

[koalayummies]

From the link inside your link: https://www.newelementary.com/2019/08/review-lego-ideas-21318-treehouse.html

Quote

If you’ve ever put a load of transparent pieces together your fingers will have informed your brain that PC is harder and sharper than regular ABS pieces.

They are self-kragle-ing! Staking a bunch of transparent plates together is very audacious. Bonus points if you don't have a brick separator to remove them. Taking apart the ship in a bottle set definitely required more work than normal but I don't think I've gotten any of the newer-material transparent pieces discussed here yet.

Regarding the lightsaber pieces pictured above I think the matte ones actually look better, at least for lightsabers. Plus they don't seem to have nearly as many bubbles inside.

[Aanchir]

On 11/12/2020 at 12:26 AM, koalayummies said:

From the link inside your link: https://www.newelementary.com/2019/08/review-lego-ideas-21318-treehouse.html

They are self-kragle-ing! Staking a bunch of transparent plates together is very audacious. Bonus points if you don't have a brick separator to remove them. Taking apart the ship in a bottle set definitely required more work than normal but I don't think I've gotten any of the newer-material transparent pieces discussed here yet. 

Regarding the lightsaber pieces pictured above I think the matte ones actually look better, at least for lightsabers. Plus they don't seem to have nearly as many bubbles inside.

Yeah, for me, aesthetic considerations about new vs. old transparent parts are far outweighed by how liberating it feels to be able to stick pretty much any two parts together without having to fear that they'd be difficult to separate later on. This used to be an immensely frustrating issue even with non-transparent parts, since for several years polycarbonate was the go-to material for parts that needed more strength than ABS (regardless of their color) like 4081, 30374, and 48729.

We've already seen set designers taking advantage of these new possibilities in a few instances — particularly in the Ninjago Prime Empire sets, many of which contain transparent "health meters" which are attached to the minifigures by transparent lightsaber blades.

In another very overt example, next year's set 80106 Story of Nian features fireworks built from transparent snowflakes, cones, round plates with hollow studs, and magic wands, all stuck together without any solid-colored parts in between. This would have been an illegal connection back when all of these parts were molded in polycarbonate.

Perhaps most interestingly, while I don't have enough materials knowledge to verify it for certain, there's a chance this new material might finally make transparent minifigures a viable possibility. That has been a major desire among many AFOLs for over a decade for applications like ghosts or holograms, but was not possible in previous years due to the tendency of polycarbonate parts to bind together when used for high-friction connections. Interestingly, some clone brands, counterfeiters, and third-party customizers like Arealight have already used acrylic-based plastics for transparent parts, allowing them to bypass this limitation.

I understand that some AFOLs are concerned about transparent parts being slightly foggier, but from what I've seen of the new material, the change in transparency is barely noticeable on thin parts like windows, windscreens, and panels, especially in colors other than standard Transparent (Trans-Clear). It certainly doesn't create discoloration as noticeable as tinted or UV-treated glass like you'd see on many real-world buildings or vehicles. All in all, the color quality and transparency would have to diminish a lot more for me to see them as defective.

Edited November 13, 2020 by Aanchir

[TeriXeri]

2 hours ago, Aanchir said:

 and 48729.

I noticed that piece for me is impossible to take apart in set 31081: Modular Skate House.

While not transparent in this case, it's pretty much stuck in this little build : 

Maybe it's just a one off case  of combination of parts for my particular set,  as other bars have detached just fine .

Edited November 13, 2020 by TeriXeri