Who had a better colour-scheme? Blacktron 1 or Blacktron II?

[Dannylonglegs]

I don't know it it's been asked, but I thought it'd be interesting to see what the Sci-fi community here thought of the different colour schemes from Blacktron I and Blacktron II. Which generation of the faction had a superior colour scheme?

Do you prefer Blacktron 1's wasp-y colour palate of Black and yellow, in juxtaposition to trans-yellow "glass" and trans-red blasters or lights?

Or do you prefer Blacktron Next Generation's palate of White, Black, and the spaced-out trans neon green for glass and blasters?

Furthermore, what are your thoughts in regards to the addition of lime green in neo-blacktron Mocs? Yay or nay?

I'm planning on doing something with Blacktron in the near future, and I was curious to see what others thought of the colour palates.

~Insectoid Aristocrat

[Murdoch17]

I have a lot of opinions on Blacktron colorschemes! Which is lame, because I don't actually have any Blacktron MOCs completed.

Mostly it boils down to: Black, and maybe yellow, lime, or white accents, but only accent color per division . No grey or Bley unless unavoidable. Trans-Yellow, while preferable, is rare, so Trans-neon green and Trans-bright green are pretty good, too. Trans-red for weapons.

However, these are just my guidelines, so your mileage may vary.

I agree with your guidelines 100%, and if i owned any Blacktron (I or II, or maybe a mashup of the good parts of each as III) that's how I would customize it.

[Elephant Knight]

I voted for Blacktron 2 (anyone who has looked through my MOCs, this should be a surprise) Black, white, and trans neon green is absolutely perfect in my opinion. Blacktron 1 is pretty cool, but I have had a hard time getting the colours to balance right. Others can do it, but I have yet too (Maybe I should actually build more, then)

As for lime, NO! I do not believe lime has a place in Blacktron 2. It really doesn't go well with trans neon green, in my opinion. Black, sure, everything goes well with black, and black makes everything look good (Especially when it comes to Bionicles). But no lime with Blacktron 2.

There, self proclaimed expert has spoken (Hey, I have a Blacktron blog, I can make that claim!)

EKnight

[Artanis I]

Blacktron 1 colour scheme is cooler. By far. (He says wearing a hoodie with B2 logo on the back. - Actually, disregard that, I'm also wearing a B1 t-shirt!)

Blacktron 2 just didn't look like bad guys - too much white. Especially the minifigs. The sets were a nicer design though.

[Space Police XVIII]

Blacktron I. No contest.

Except... does the yellow bother anybody else? I mean, that's skin tone. That's like me buying a Porsche and painting the doors pale Slavic pink.

Me, I settled on black and dark gray, with transparent accents.

[Dannylonglegs]

Awesome! Glad to see this inspired such conversation!

I've built two Blacktron spaceships in the past. Both small, and, arguably, not that good. one was B1 and the other was B2 coloured, so I go both ways in regards to preference. The B1 colour scheme is very agressive, which is a great choice for an antagonistic force. All that yellow and black reminds me of a hornet or other "animals to run away from". That said, I really don't like the Trans red blasters/lights. Especially on the Blacktron "communications interception base". I just don't feel like they mesh with the otherwise awesome two-toned scheme. Red and yellow are not good together in large amounts, IMO.

That is something that is very mush fixed in Blacktron 2, with the introduction of trans-neon green, one of my favorite colours for space! However, I feel like they overdo it with the white, diluting the menacing blacktron black colourscheme.

Both have their pros and their cons to me, which is why I can't quite make up my mind as to which I prefer.

Overall I love both themes! They serve as excellent villains for Lego space, and both have an awesome "Lazer tag" vibe to me that makes me feel a bit nostalgic, even though I was not alive when they first came out. (I still have quite a few of both figures and pieces)

I have a lot of opinions on Blacktron colorschemes! Which is lame, because I don't actually have any Blacktron MOCs completed.

Mostly it boils down to: Black, and maybe yellow, lime, or white accents, but only accent color per division . No grey or Bley unless unavoidable. Trans-Yellow, while preferable, is rare, so Trans-neon green and Trans-bright green are pretty good, too. Trans-red for weapons.

However, these are just my guidelines, so your mileage may vary.

I know how you feel in regards to opinions with few MoCs.

These guidelines sound excellent! I agree with your thoughts in regards to grey. One if the best aspects of both blacktron is their starkness. Black and yellow or black and white, no colours in between to muddle the effect. Trans red works well for weapons, I agree.

I agree with your guidelines 100%, and if i owned any Blacktron (I or II, or maybe a mashup of the good parts of each as III) that's how I would customize it.

I wonder what the colour scheme of a hypothetical 3rd reiteration of Blacktron would look like. I don't think yellow and trans neon green look good together though, so I certainly would not mix those. One or the other.... at least on a vehicle-by-vehicle basis.

I voted for Blacktron 2 (anyone who has looked through my MOCs, this should be a surprise) Black, white, and trans neon green is absolutely perfect in my opinion. Blacktron 1 is pretty cool, but I have had a hard time getting the colours to balance right. Others can do it, but I have yet too (Maybe I should actually build more, then)

As for lime, NO! I do not believe lime has a place in Blacktron 2. It really doesn't go well with trans neon green, in my opinion. Black, sure, everything goes well with black, and black makes everything look good (Especially when it comes to Bionicles). But no lime with Blacktron 2.

There, self proclaimed expert has spoken (Hey, I have a Blacktron blog, I can make that claim!)

EKnight

Awesome! Glad to hear this from an expert! I love the tran-neon-green, and agree that it goes shockingly well with bright white! I threw the lime question in there because I see that a lot in neo-Blacktron 2 mocs, and I don't necessarily think it's a bad addition. It's certainly present on the Blacktron 2 logo.

Blacktron 1 colour scheme is cooler. By far. (He says wearing a hoodie with B2 logo on the back. - Actually, disregard that, I'm also wearing a B1 t-shirt!)

Blacktron 2 just didn't look like bad guys - too much white. Especially the minifigs. The sets were a nicer design though.

Ooh! Merchandise!

I agree entirely with you on the figures. The B2 figures look far less intimidating or interesting that B1 figures! B1 figures are the absolute best, and I'm sure everyone here agrees with me!

I also agree with the sets comment to an extent. The pod ships were way cool!

Blacktron I. No contest.

Except... does the yellow bother anybody else? I mean, that's skin tone. That's like me buying a Porsche and painting the doors pale Slavic pink.

Me, I settled on black and dark gray, with transparent accents.

Awesome Moc! Love how you captured the feel of the theme! The black cockpit is nice!

Hah! I've never thought about it like that! I always look at the colour of minifigures as a kind of neutral element, not to conflict with stuff around them.

~ Insectoid Aristocrat

[Murdoch17]

I think Blacktron 3's color scheme could be something like this: black, trans-black cockpits, bluish grays and lime, with yellow and black bumblebee stripes. Blacktron split off from Classic Space, so why couldn't they take some parts of classic space technology / ideas with them?

I'll upload a Benny ssS! in concept Blacktron 3 colors in a couple minutes!

Edited August 4, 2015 by Murdoch17

[Umbra-Manis]

I personally prefer the Blacktron 1 color scheme. Although blacktron 3 should totally be the 2 logo on a black background.

I also rendered a cross generations meetup after i drew both decoration for the Mecabricks library.

[Murdoch17]

okay, here is my idea of Blacktron III with Benny's ssS!

I figured this would be the easiest color change for Benny's SSS.

When built in real life, this part should be where the classic space logo used to go on the nose: http://alpha.brickli...858p01#T=C&C=11

Edited August 4, 2015 by Murdoch17

[Spirit]

I vote BT1 and lime. Lime seems to work on some MOCs, especially when it's used the way yellow is used in BT1, only a few touches and lines. Trans neon green is probably my favourite LEGO colour, but I think it's way too bright for this theme.

The problem though, is that I don't like yellow, and white always seemed like a bad idea to me. Although it does look great with trans neon green, it just looks out of place. I'd rather see them replaced with more black, possibly dark grey.

So I essentially voted against white.

I really like Space Police XVIII's version of the blacktron theme here. Maybe I'd even get rid of the logo.

[Space Police XVIII]

The black cockpit is nice!

Hah! I've never thought about it like that! I always look at the colour of minifigures as a kind of neutral element, not to conflict with stuff around them.

~ Insectoid Aristocrat

The pilot raises his opaque visor... still can't see anything! WHAM, right into a planet!

Thanks. :D It's not actually my design, but the Invader, set 6894, somewhat modified. And I wish I could see yellow that way.. I can't get over it. The new Town Center set has a Lego store, with two Lego employees in yellow shirts. All I can think is, they're wearing the skins of Megablocks employees....brutal..

[Space Police XVIII]

I really like Space Police XVIII's version of the blacktron theme here. Maybe I'd even get rid of the logo.

Completely blacked out? I think you're right, that would look better.

And here's another argument in favor of black-on-dark-gray, the gray was a little unavoidable in this case..

Edited August 5, 2015 by Space Police XVIII

[dr_spock]

Voted for the original color scheme.

Day 053 of 365: Blacktron Pit Crew by dr_spock_888, on Flickr

[Brickthus]

Now that I'm getting back into Space, having got a new, fast and versatile monorail system to work well, Blacktron is one of the themes I can have a go at.

I missed the original sets as my pocket money couldn't afford more than the Technic I was buying at the time.

I prefer the original scheme - lots of black, a small amount of yellow, trans-yellow canopies and a few trans-red dots.

Here is the Blacktron train prototype so far. The symbol came out OK in SNOT, not too bricky.

The next question is how well black Technic would look as a significant part of the Blacktron zone models in a moonscape layout.

Perhaps lime green should be the trim colour of a new Space faction.

Mark

[-zenn]

I'm more a black/neon green guy... but don't dig the white so it's kinda hard, anyway B2 because of the connections to my childhood.

And lime, nah, it's more something for B3/NB.

Speaking of B3/NB; color scheme I'd used = totally blacked out (oldschool uniform look) + neon green highlights (example).

Edited August 7, 2015 by -zenn

[danth]

I prefer Blacktron 1. Black and yellow means danger, like a wasp or a leopard. Also the original minifig is just way cooler.

[obsidianheart]

Hm. My post is gone. Better go see what else is removed.

[Brickowski]

I think Blacktron I's colors are better than II's but a part of that is I feel like we ended up with too much trans-neon-green by the time the Space line wound down.

If it existed in a vacuum where it was unique and we didn't have trans-neon green used extensively in M:Tron and UFO, it might have fared better in my mind.

[mediumsnowman]

Blacktron 1's figures were cooler but Blacktron 2 had the better color scheme

[Rayskull]

Would love to see Blacktron II's classic ships again but Starwars is on a roll again so who knows. Maybe the next Lego movie can get us some Blacktron II

[danth]

Would love to see Blacktron II's classic ships again but Starwars is on a roll again so who knows. Maybe the next Lego movie can get us some Blacktron II

If I could wish away all the new Star Wars movies I would, just because I know we'd get better Space themes.

[M'Kyuun]

I like both, but my preference is for B1. Gotta love those black visors.

I also hope theres some Blacktron revival in the next LEGO movie. LEGO original space themed sets are far too few these days.