Bley question...

Sir Vincent · Post by **Sir Vincent** » Fri Aug 13, 2004 3:40 pm

I know the bleys are here to stay,but I want to know why lego changed the color of the classic bricks...does anyone know or does lego want to keep things quiet?

xxbattosaixx · Post by **xxbattosaixx** » Fri Aug 13, 2004 5:21 pm

I heard somewhere that TLC decided to dye clear ABS instead of using the colored pellets,whch would save money.
Thus,they couldn't get the dye right for those colors.

Sir Vincent · Post by **Sir Vincent** » Fri Aug 13, 2004 7:22 pm

xxbattosaixx wrote:I heard somewhere that TLC decided to dye clear ABS instead of using the colored pellets,whch would save money.
Thus,they couldn't get the dye right for those colors.

I knew it had to be about saving money...that's all TLC cares about these days...

xxbattosaixx · Post by **xxbattosaixx** » Fri Aug 13, 2004 8:52 pm

Here's where I heard about it,if anyone cares.

http://www.fbtbforums.net/viewtopic.php?p=29604
I'm not saying it's true,but I wouldn't put it past TLC.

Sir Terrance · Post by **Sir Terrance** » Fri Aug 13, 2004 9:21 pm

LEGO told me that they changed the colors since the old ones were too drab, and these new colors fit in nicer with the existing color pallete. I highly doubt that the dye in clear ABS is true, but then again you never know.

Emperor James · Post by **Emperor James** » Fri Aug 13, 2004 9:43 pm

Sir Terrance wrote:LEGO told me that they changed the colors since the old ones were too drab, and these new colors fit in nicer with the existing color pallete. I highly doubt that the dye in clear ABS is true, but then again you never know.

Do you think that they'd tell you that they switched to megeblox colors to ave money?

Lord Resta · Post by **Lord Resta** » Sat Aug 14, 2004 10:25 am

Battosai is correct. New production method.

Webrain · Post by **Webrain** » Thu Aug 19, 2004 4:35 pm

I think it's really simple. Gray is a very dull color for people and even more for kids. The 2000 kids looks for things that are more shiny. Metal attracts the eye much more then simple gray. I guess they are right about it and themes like Mindstorms and Space can even embrace the change, unfortunantly it's hard for a Castles to be shiny, what makes it even more obvious that Castles is not a top priority to TLC.

JasonSpears · Post by **JasonSpears** » Fri Aug 20, 2004 2:29 pm

xxbattosaixx wrote:I heard somewhere that TLC decided to dye clear ABS instead of using the colored pellets,whch would save money.
Thus,they couldn't get the dye right for those colors.

Jake McKee posted to Lugnet giving the reason.
http://news.lugnet.com/lego/?n=1791

Now some people argued that this wasn't the real reason, that LEGO was lying to us. Those people claimed that LEGO changed the color to save money, and/or couldn't match the color again after some cost cutting measure. That's ridiculous. Plastic's technology and color matching are well enough advanced that matching colors is routine. Just switching from a pre colored plastic to a natural plastic that gets colorant added at the plant shouldn't cause a color mismatch. Lego could easily tweak the formula for the colorant until they got the color spot on.

Assuming LEGO buys their plastic from a supplier and doesn't make it themselves, (I heard this weekend that they do make their own) switching from precolored material to one base material and many colorants would save money. But, there is more chance for variance of that color, because you would have to make sure that the colorant and base are throughly mixed. And sometimes there are problems, this might have been the cause for the different purple shades we saw with the Knight's Bus. But the difference between old dark grey and new dark grey is no accident, or mixup with the mixing, it is a delibrate change.

Clear ABS - Clarification: For most ABS, the natural color is sort of cream. If you wanted clear abs you have to mix in some additives. Expensive Additives.

Sir Vincent · Post by **Sir Vincent** » Fri Aug 20, 2004 3:05 pm

I'm seriously thinking about getting an army to join me and siege TLC after reading that...

TwoTonic Knight · Post by **TwoTonic Knight** » Fri Aug 20, 2004 3:38 pm

See Jake's quoted response on the subject of "cheapness" a couple of messages up. The charge may have a certain appeal for some looking to vent, but it doesn't have the slightest ounce of validity.

The color change for the grays was a matter of artistic satisfaction. Simply put, the old grays are "warm", or in this case, yellow shifted. They wanted a more neutral gray and didn't think through the ramifications of changing the color to the mass of people that have extensive collections (which I find singularly amazing that no one did, but there it is). Similiarly, they weren't happy with the brown, though I'm not sure the replacement was a step up.