Classic Space Color meanings

[Time77]

What do you think each of the colors of spaceman mean?

Starting off with what I think:

Red: Pilot 

White: Engineer

Yellow: Command

Blue: Science

Black: Military

But what do Orange, Green, and Pink mean?

[Mandalorianknight]

I mean they don't "mean" anything, it was just to provide different colors.

But that's boring. I've had a similar headcanon to yours, here are my ranks. I try to utilize the rarities, but I keep blue a bit more common just because of how frequent bennies are.

White: Pilot

Red: Engineer (used to be security, but I like your idea of having an engineer so I've altered these a bit)

Blue: security (used to be "mechanic", but again, I liked the engineer idea)

Yellow: Comms officer

Black: Captain/base commander

Orange: Fleet Admiral

Green (though we don't have proper helmets yet): Mining/material aquisition

Pink: Human Resources. Just kidding... I'll say medical officer

We have LBG and Purple torsos, so even though we don't have the corresponding helmets and airtanks, if we get the other parts for them I'd want LBG as a land vehicle driver and purple as a roboticist.

In addition, that lego ideas project I've made includes brown, which would be the scientist, and I'm currently asking for what color the Cartographer should be for my next update.

[Operacion Saturno]

Something I post a while ago.

 

According to the creator of the Classic space theme and mini-figures, Jens Nygaard Knudsen:

the Red astronauts were supposed to represent PILOTS, the White astronauts were supposed to represent EXPLORERS, the Yellow astronauts were supposed to represent SCIENTISTS, the Blue astronauts were supposed to represent SECURITY and the Black astronauts were supposed to represent SPIES.

 

Now, what represent the new colors is just opinions.

For me, Green is Mech Pilot, Orange is maintenance, Pink could be female astronaut, Grey could be senior astronaut, Dark Purple  could be an astronaut suffering asphixia for not having airtanks. (wink)

 

[Feuer Zug]

7 hours ago, Operacion Saturno said:

According to the creator of the Classic space theme and mini-figures, Jens Nygaard Knudsen:

the Red astronauts were supposed to represent PILOTS, the White astronauts were supposed to represent EXPLORERS, the Yellow astronauts were supposed to represent SCIENTISTS, the Blue astronauts were supposed to represent SECURITY and the Black astronauts were supposed to represent SPIES.

 

Now, what represent the new colors is just opinions.

For me, Green is Mech Pilot, Orange is maintenance, Pink could be female astronaut, Grey could be senior astronaut, Dark Purple  could be an astronaut suffering asphixia for not having airtanks. (wink)

 

I subscribe to the Jens Nygaard Knudsen listing. The other colors are definitely up for consideration. I don't like the idea of pink representing just females. I'd rather see it as more a position than anything. Pink is a good color for medical with red already taken. As light grey came from the little kid, I see it as more a cadet/trainee. Bland color until you graduate.

[danth]

9 hours ago, Operacion Saturno said:

According to the creator of the Classic space theme and mini-figures, Jens Nygaard Knudsen:

the Red astronauts were supposed to represent PILOTS, the White astronauts were supposed to represent EXPLORERS, the Yellow astronauts were supposed to represent SCIENTISTS, the Blue astronauts were supposed to represent SECURITY and the Black astronauts were supposed to represent SPIES.

However, we have something better than the designer's commentary: the actual sets themselves. As early as 1978 we have red spacemen driving buggies, and in 1979 we have white spacemen piloting space ships.

So the red & white job assignments go right out the window, pretty much immediately. It is true that the bigger spaceships from '78 to '81 were always shown with a red spaceman piloting, but that didn't last. And the red dudes were just as often grounded.

Yellow astronauts being scientists doesn't make a lot of sense considering in 1983 they were piloting the flagship, and the red spaceman was in its science lab.

And try to find any indication from the sets themselves that blue or black spacemen had any specific duty. There's none.

So while it's fun to hear the designers recollections, those job assignments didn't make it into the sets themselves, other than the reds generally piloting the bigger spaceships in the first couple years. Any job assignments, if they were even official at all, were lax in the beginning and abandoned totally pretty quickly on.

Edited August 8, 2022 by danth

[Mandalorianknight]

Yeah, I think the designer's comments don't match up with what's shown in sets. Though black as spies/stealth makes sense, it doesn't fit with classic space being overall nonmilitary. Like, I get security, but if you have dedicated spies it's either a full paramilitary organization or you've got some really nasty corporate competitors.

 

I think it really does come down to whatever you want them to be. As for me, I'll keep my head canon of:

White: Pilot, Red: Engineering, Blue: Security, Yellow: Communications, Black: Base Command, Orange: Fleet Admiral, Green: Mining/Resource Acquisition,  Pink: Medical, LBG: Driver (though I like @Feuer Zug's cadet idea), Purple: robotics

[Feuer Zug]

6 minutes ago, Mandalorianknight said:

I think it really does come down to whatever you want them to be.

This. Your world, your roles. If you're enjoying playing with them, that's what matters.

[Operacion Saturno]

6 hours ago, danth said:

However, we have something better than the designer's commentary: the actual sets themselves. As early as 1978 we have red spacemen driving buggies, and in 1979 we have white spacemen piloting space ships.

 

So the red & white job assignments go right out the window, pretty much immediately. It is true that the bigger spaceships from '78 to '81 were always shown with a red spaceman piloting, but that didn't last. And the red dudes were just as often grounded.

Yellow astronauts being scientists doesn't make a lot of sense considering in 1983 they were piloting the flagship, and the red spaceman was in its science lab.

 

And try to find any indication from the sets themselves that blue or black spacemen had any specific duty. There's none.

So while it's fun to hear the designers recollections, those job assignments didn't make it into the sets themselves, other than the reds generally piloting the bigger spaceships in the first couple years. Any job assignments, if they were even official at all, were lax in the beginning and abandoned totally pretty quickly on.

Well that's the "oficial" version of the colors. So I can't do anything about that.

Jens also said that originally the WHITE ones were going to be Astronauts and the RED ones Cosmonauts, like competing factions, but with the cold war going on, the idea was discarted and they change it to Explorers and Pilots.

 

[Operacion Saturno]

8 hours ago, Feuer Zug said:

I subscribe to the Jens Nygaard Knudsen listing. The other colors are definitely up for consideration. I don't like the idea of pink representing just females. I'd rather see it as more a position than anything. Pink is a good color for medical with red already taken. As light grey came from the little kid, I see it as more a cadet/trainee. Bland color until you graduate.

Asigning pink color for a job or divisions is a bigger problem. With my theory you could say there's women segregation, but with your option we have male astronauts forced to wear a color usually designed for girls, which I found this more denigrant thanthe only women color. This is an abstract of a study done in the matter. 

In many cultures worldwide, one stereotype emerges: Pink is associated with girls and blue is associated with boys. Based on the enclothed cognition theory, the present study examined the effects of men's pink clothing on gender-related self-cognition and sex-role attitudes. Male Japanese participants wore either a pink or blue coat and completed a gender stereotype Implicit Association Test, a self-rating scale, and gender attitude scales (a measure of egalitarian sex-role attitude and the Ambivalent Sexism Inventory). Results showed that among participants with low self-esteem, the implicit self–feminine association was stronger in the pink condition than in the blue condition. On the other hand, participants with high self-esteem explicitly associated themselves more with power-oriented traits compared with interpersonal-oriented traits when they wore a pink coat compared with those who wore a blue coat. Additionally, participants in the pink condition expressed stronger egalitarian sex-role attitudes and weaker benevolent sexism than those in the blue condition. We propose that men's pink clothing is a means of diminishing gender stereotypes and traditional sex-role attitudes.

[Axelford]

Although Black are listed as spies or as security by some, I like to think because one of them is in the back of Uranium detector and in the Astro Grappler, that they are geologists :)  As pink is a fairly new addition, perhaps I can suggest Xeno-biologist? Or maybe that's Orange. Might have taken Legoland people a while to come in contact with enough alien environments and peoples to warrant a special group. I say this as even in the old ideas books they run into aliens. 

But yes the whole role thing is a fun head canon and provides plenty of prompts for building. 

On 8/8/2022 at 12:51 PM, Mandalorianknight said:

Human Resources. Just kidding... I'll say medical officer

Even in space, you cannot escape bureaucracy/the corporate environment XD

[JekPorkchops]

I would like to note that the only known pink spaceman is called Lenny and is presumed to be male. 

I like @Mandalorianknight's designations except that I would call the red ones pilots and the white ones engineers or explorers.

[Mandalorianknight]

2 hours ago, JekPorkchops said:

I would like to note that the only known pink spaceman is called Lenny and is presumed to be male. 

I like @Mandalorianknight's designations except that I would call the red ones pilots and the white ones engineers or explorers.

No. You see, the very scientific reason I want the red ones to be engineers is that I'm an engineer, and my favorite color is red. Clearly, this means everyone has to agree that engineers are red spacemen.

9 hours ago, Axelford said:

Even in space, you cannot escape bureaucracy/the corporate environment XD

Maybe HR can be beige spacemen!

Edited August 10, 2022 by Mandalorianknight

[icm]

My take:

Red - pilots

White - scientists

Yellow - engineers

Blue - also pilots

Black - spies

Pink - medical staff

Green - also engineers

Light gray - cadets

Orange - I dunno

[Warbinator]

The Pink astronaut is clearly a spaceman who accidentally laundered his white uniform in the same load as the red astronaut's uniform.

[AmperZand]

1 hour ago, Warbinator said:

The Pink astronaut is clearly a spaceman who accidentally laundered his white uniform in the same load as the red astronaut's uniform.

Or maybe the pink one was a red one and a white one that got merged in a transporter accident like Tuvix in Star Trek: Voyager.

Edited August 10, 2022 by AmperZand

[Time77]

4 hours ago, Warbinator said:

The Pink astronaut is clearly a spaceman who accidentally laundered his white uniform in the same load as the red astronaut's uniform.

Space Zane; lmao

Edited August 11, 2022 by Time77

[Mandalorianknight]

4 hours ago, Warbinator said:

The Pink astronaut is clearly a spaceman who accidentally laundered his white uniform in the same load as the red astronaut's uniform.

How could we have missed this!

24 minutes ago, Time77 said:

Space Zane; lmao

I hate that I also immediately thought of this. 

[Umbra-Manis]

9 hours ago, Mandalorianknight said:

No. You see, the very scientific reason I want the red ones to be engineers is that I'm an engineer, and my favorite color is red. Clearly, this means everyone has to agree that engineers are red spacemen.

Maybe HR can be beige spacemen!

Full support on the Beige HR. I might have to make a MOC of this.

[Mandalorianknight]

1 hour ago, Umbra-Manis said:

Full support on the Beige HR. I might have to make a MOC of this.

I'd love to see it. Maybe he could be settling a dispute between the white and red astronauts about how they both laundered their suits at the same time and now the white astronaut is pink.

[Sir Dano]

Red: Cherry

White: Milk

Yellow: Lemonade

Blue: Powerade

Black: Coke

Orange: Gatorade

Green: Mountain Dew

Pink: Cream Soda

Wait, what was the question again? Their favourite drinks, right?

Edited August 11, 2022 by Sir Dano

[Feuer Zug]

Purple: grape juice?

[davebarrett]

On 8/10/2022 at 11:09 AM, JekPorkchops said:

I would like to note that the only known pink spaceman is called Lenny and is presumed to be male. 

I like @Mandalorianknight's designations except that I would call the red ones pilots and the white ones engineers or explorers.

More than that: he's suggested to be Benny's boyfriend with LEGO's share of this on Twitter and Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/Bt3cjscgWDo/

The book LEGO Minifigure: A Visual History suggests that his suit was white before some red astronaut threw their laundry in with his:

https://books.google.com/books?id=hAr0DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA235&lpg=PA235&dq=lenny+lego+movie+2+wash&source=bl&ots=96VyxkE_hd&sig=ACfU3U3W5nPt15NAy0gA2oWtj8F6iK3KuA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj2-9ml7cH5AhUwF1kFHYG9BLgQ6AF6BAghEAM#v=onepage&q=lenny lego movie 2 wash&f=false

[Operacion Saturno]

On 8/10/2022 at 5:02 PM, Warbinator said:

The Pink astronaut is clearly a spaceman who accidentally laundered his white uniform in the same load as the red astronaut's uniform.

agree

 

[Umbra-Manis]

On 8/10/2022 at 11:05 PM, Mandalorianknight said:

I'd love to see it. Maybe he could be settling a dispute between the white and red astronauts about how they both laundered their suits at the same time and now the white astronaut is pink.

I didn't build a dispute, but I did make an office: 

 

[Mandalorianknight]

Very nice. I like his plant.