Identifying colors

[tomdobs55]

How does Lego Identify colors on the bricks? I have a blue 1x4 plate and on the underside is the model number. (3710) There's also 2 other numbers, in this case 2 and 58. Does anyone know what the numbers stand for? I looked them up on the official color guide on bricklink but they don't match. I'm cataloging all my bricks in a spreadsheet and want to use the colors from bricklink, but I'm not familiar with the differences between the sand blue, light blue, and just regular blue. Also the grays (bluish gray, dark bluish gray, old gray, new gray, yadda yadda yadda) Pictures attached for reference. If someone could tell me what the mystery color is and where to find what color a piece is i would be very greatful!

[Fugazi]

Part colours are not physically marked on the parts. That's because the same mould can be used to produce parts in any colour TLG requires. In your example, 3710 is the part ID (only the design and not the colour), 58 is the mould number (as moulds are replaced when they wear out, this number increases over the years) and 2 is the position in the mould (as a single mould can often cast a number of parts simultaneously).

In your photo the top plate appears to be (Old) Dark Grey while the middle one could be Dark Bluish Gray, the colour replacing (Old) Dark Grey around 2004. In LEGO parlance these are respectively called 27 Dark Grey and 199 Dark Stone Grey.

Your best bet to identify a colour is still BrickLink. Look up a part, and check the list of colours this part was ever made in. If you know the set your part came in, it's even easier to determine the colour by looking up that set's inventory. Keep a colour reference chart made of real bricks for you to compare any unknown bricks. With time you will be able to tell apart similar colours without even looking them up.

[Aanchir]

Part colours are not physically marked on the parts. That's because the same mould can be used to produce parts in any colour TLG requires. In your example, 3710 is the part ID (only the design and not the colour), 58 is the mould number (as moulds are replaced when they wear out, this number increases over the years) and 2 is the position in the mould (as a single mould can often cast a number of parts simultaneously).

In your photo the top plate appears to be (Old) Dark Grey while the middle one could be Dark Bluish Gray, the colour replacing (Old) Dark Grey around 2004. In LEGO parlance these are respectively called 27 Dark Grey and 199 Dark Stone Grey.

Your best bet to identify a colour is still BrickLink. Look up a part, and check the list of colours this part was ever made in. If you know the set your part came in, it's even easier to determine the colour by looking up that set's inventory. Keep a colour reference chart made of real bricks for you to compare any unknown bricks. With time you will be able to tell apart similar colours without even looking them up.

It should be noted though that the Bricklink color list is imperfect. One example I typically point to is how they list at least three distinctly different colors (i.e. colors you wouldn't confuse with one another in any side-by-side comparison) as Copper. If you want to know the exact color of a part, check the set it came in on LEGO Customer Service Replacement Parts. Not all parts are listed for every set (only if they have an image), but if the part is listed it will tell you the exact color according to TLG's naming scheme. And in most cases you can cross-reference this with other AFOL naming schemes on Peeron's color chart, though of course since there does not exist a perfect AFOL naming scheme, be wary that two color names listed as equivalents might not correspond 100%.

Your brick looks like it could be a very discolored Dark Stone Grey (Bricklink's Dark Bluish Gray) or a correctly-colored Sand Blue. Here is a chart comparing various LEGO blue colors.

[Darth Dino]

Hi

if you need help in identifying colors you should work on the whitebalancing of your images. E.g the top part looksbrownish to me although you named it dark grey.

Put down your parts on a white piece of paper and whitebalance manual in that paper. Most cameras, even the cheaoest can do so.

If not, force the flash. Then the camera knows the color tone of the lightsource - the own flash.

Flashed images are mostly bad looking because of hard shadows but they produce good color representation.

I also would like to ask you to put some other known colors on the paper, maybe red yellow and blue. That helps to "calibrate" the viewers eye, because we all are familiar with that colors.

Dino.

Edited October 19, 2012 by Darth Dino

[tomdobs55]

I can try that unfortunately thw only camera I have is on my phone (HTC evo 3d) but I can try to put all the known colors I have and try a picture that way. Thanks for the replies it's a big help.

[Darth Dino]

Hi

if you just have a phone, go into the sun and still use a white background. Those cams are preset to daylight.

Dino