50 Shades of Brown

bricksinbins

Ok, not quite that many but I'm going crazy with the various shades of brown. I have regular bricks, 2x4, 1x4, 1x3 and others, in three different shades of brown. I'm quite convinced the lightest of the shades is the reddish brown. But there are two darker variations that I'm not sure about. I believe one of them is the old brown or Earth Orange but what about the third one? I have learned there was a new brown used 2004-2006 but I'm not sure it was ever used for regular bricks.

So what could this third shade be? Or is it simply just another color variation? They seem to have become more common over the years. I would think the old Earth Orange didn't have different variations, yet it seems too different from the reddish brown to just be a variation of that one.

So in short, three shades of brown. The darkest could maybe be old brown, the middle I don't know and the lightest is the reddish brown. So what could the middle one be? Anybody has some more insight into the brown colors?


I could take a picture but the colors never show properly on screen anyway and I don't know how to include a picture in a post.

Thanks,
Ken

brennans bounty

if you go to the bottom of any page the are some help links one is for colours click on that and it will show you the different shades etc

bricksinbins

if you go to the bottom of any page the are some help links one is for colours click on that and it will show you the different shades etc

Yes, believe me, I have looked over every color chart and pictures I have found and it's quite many. But I have not found anything yet that would explain these three variations. Two shades would make sense, it's the third one I can't find anything that would remotely match. It's too dark to be any of the tan or flesh looking colors. It's darker than reddish brown but not as dark as a Dark Brown I have seen in the charts.

Markyd7

Dark Red?

Hoddie

Check out https://www.flickr.com/photos/126975831@N07/15188260567/sizes/l

D2 is Reddish Brown, E2 is Brown (Earth Orange) and F2 is Dark Brown.

Reddish Brown and Dark Brown are both still in production so you could purchase a new set containing both and be certain of these two. Brown (Earth Orange) sits between the two shades. If you have the cash you could always buy a sealed set on the aftermarket that's known to contain one of these pieces too.

bricksinbins

When going through more of my parts I discovered I have some distinct parts that are labeled as Brown in the set they came from. They indeed match the brown variant I suspected to be the Earth Orange. So at least I have that one confirmed now. The one in question is very close to the Earth Orange but slightly more yellowish I'd say. This makes it slightly lighter than the Earth Orange.

Problem is I have yet to find a chart or image showing a color that would sit between the Brown/Earth Orange and the Reddish Brown. Unless it's that new brown I saw mentioned on one site it looks like it must be a color variation of either brown or reddish brown.

Thanks for all your input. Maybe one day I can mark this one as solved.

Hoddie

On the link above there is a brown at A3 that Lego calls simply Brown. This on BO would be Dark Flesh - perhaps this one?

bricksinbins

On the link above there is a brown at A3 that Lego calls simply Brown. This on BO would be Dark Flesh - perhaps this one?

The Dark Flesh is too light to be a match unfortunately.

bricksinbins

I found this very interesting thread on eurobricks.

http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?/forums/topic/44678-why-the-colour-changes-of-2004/

It both explains and confirms a lot about the different shades of some colors, like brown for example. Looking closely at and comparing the brown bricks side by side that I have, I can see small variations Bottom line, one specific LEGO color can be found in many various shades these days.

Hoddie

Indeed, I think it affects all colours these days, in particular Reddish Brown, Dark Blue and Yellow in my experience.

brennans bounty

hello I used to work for a company making pvc pellets and we had a request from lego once for samples of colours and the limit of difference in the colours was minute our company could not keep within the limits required by lego so never got the order ,the company I worked for was one of the leading companies in this field so whoever is supplying lego must have been given a certain tolerance to work with maybe lego have given them a wider limits to work within so supply is kept constant regards brennans bounty

Hoddie

The tolerances have definitely slipped in recent years, probably as a cost-cutting measure. In fairness it's entirely reasonable - Lego is primarily a toy after all

brennans bounty

yup just like toblerone

bricksinbins

I love Toblerone!
The fact that they started to buy clear pellets and inject the color themselves and from what I understand, having production at different locations, it's not surprising there are variations. And I have no doubt cost cutting is the ultimate reason.

I don't mind some color variation too much, it's just that it can make it difficult to know where a brick belongs like these browns. Then I have some mystery blues too...

Graham

I enquired several years ago regarding these slight color differences,

One of the changes was a cost and efficiency saving measure. This was from someone close to TLG.

Whereas in "the old days" the raw beads were colored in one place (Denmark - I understand) then the pre-colored beads were shipped to the various production locations (eg.. CN, CZ, MX...)

Now the raw material - the uncolored beads - are sourced from local supply and colored on site at the production locations, using a reference color chip guide - Pantone or similar.
As the raw material will have some slightly different qualities, even with the exact same colorant added there will be slight variations.

This is different from the bigger changes from "Brown" to "Reddish Brown" etc.

"Reddish Brown" certainly seems to have suffered worse, however even White has at least two shades now!

Just my 2 ¢

Jay37

When I started adding to my inventory I deliberately left browns (and grays!) to one side for when I had the patience to go through them. I kept aside a 2x4 plate of dark gray, dark stone gray, medium stone gray, light gray, reddish brown and brown, which I use as my control palette. This was before I had pieces in dark brown, earth orange, medium orange, medium blue, bright light blue, sky blue.... Basically, anything I'm not sure about doesn't get inventoried until I am reasonably certain. Occasionally if I'm still not sure, I'll mention it in the public note so that a customer can request further evidence.

robernat

@Jay37
I assume you mainly sell used? You clearly started on a color pallete, your next option/move is to compare those parts to 'unique' parts, that do not exist (or hardly) in another color. If you go trough a lot of bulk, and you find 'big parts' of a set with unique colored items, then obviously the color of some parts are 'certain', you match those with your color palette and you have your reference...
Another option is to simply buy the reference part from sellers who mainly sell 'new' as usually the color on partouts is provided by TLG.

As a side note: the 3001 brick is one of the items that has most 'different' colors, if you combine that with easy to get 2x4 plates and you can virtually build a pretty cheap 'reference palette'.
I've been into LEGO for more then a decade now, but just to be on the safe side on the growing amount of colors TLG produces these days, I actually started to make a color palette myself a couple of months ago (far from being finished) even tough I'm quite familiar with most colors, I think in the long run it will become 'crucial' to have such as a seller...

Cheers, Eric

PS 'shades' is a very different matter, sometimes hard to detect, for instance some newer medium stone gray technic parts almost match the older 'light gray', the amount of shades on some colors is 'rising', but a colorpalette should still help you out in 99% of cases.

Graham

leads to a question :- I have quite a few new reddish-brown bricks (from more recent sets) that are closer to old brown, but not quite.
I took them out of inventory. How should I (or would you) list them?

Thanks! G

bricksinbins

leads to a question :- I have quite a few new reddish-brown bricks (from more recent sets) that are closer to old brown, but not quite.
I took them out of inventory. How should I (or would you) list them?

Thanks! G

Sounds exactly like my situation. I believe they are supposed to be reddish brown but are close to old brown also. When I get around to it, I will look for reddish brown parts that I know the set they come from and do some comparisons. Until that I set uncertain colors aside.

Jay37

@Jay37
I assume you mainly sell used? You clearly started on a color pallete, your next option/move is to compare those parts to 'unique' parts, that do not exist (or hardly) in another color. If you go trough a lot of bulk, and you find 'big parts' of a set with unique colored items, then obviously the color of some parts are 'certain', you match those with your color palette and you have your reference...
Another option is to simply buy the reference part from sellers who mainly sell 'new' as usually the color on partouts is provided by TLG.

As a side note: the 3001 brick is one of the items that has most 'different' colors, if you combine that with easy to get 2x4 plates and you can virtually build a pretty cheap 'reference palette'.
I've been into LEGO for more then a decade now, but just to be on the safe side on the growing amount of colors TLG produces these days, I actually started to make a color palette myself a couple of months ago (far from being finished) even tough I'm quite familiar with most colors, I think in the long run it will become 'crucial' to have such as a seller...

Cheers, Eric

PS 'shades' is a very different matter, sometimes hard to detect, for instance some newer medium stone gray technic parts almost match the older 'light gray', the amount of shades on some colors is 'rising', but a colorpalette should still help you out in 99% of cases.

Hi Eric,
Yes, it's mainly used parts for me. I'm starting to build up quantities of the rarer or less frequent colors, so it's becoming easier to compare. Also being able to tell the difference between the grays and browns is now becoming less of a chore. Unfortunately with the nights drawing in for winter, I find it tough to distinguish certain colors in artificial light, so they get left for a sunny day!

Like the idea of the palette. I'd started with 1x1 plates, but if the 2x4s and 3001s are available in most colors I may well go for those.

Thanks for the advice!

James