Bye Purple

[Ikki o' Moopyville]

From here --

I would have thrown this in the Sets forum since it gets more coverage, but since this news covers both Bionicle and Lego, I decided to throw it here.

So here is the thing. The Quality Department Head was invited to Brickfair to be a speaker (He was the one who made the decisions regarding Blue Pins, Red Axles, and Bley). His presentation talked about the quality of pieces and colors and what basically makes the perfect brick. He did bring up the Lime Green piece issue.

But this is the bigger news. Each color brick has a different quality than the other, and sadly Purple has a very poor quality.

Which is why he officially said that Lego will no longer be using the color Purple (in any shade) in any sets, both Bionicle and Lego. Nothing with change his mind (meaning -no petition topics-), since the brick is just poor.

Purple is no more.

-Omi

Very sorry if this is old news, I'm not entirely up to date with the forum. Just thought it might be interestin'.

-Ikk

EDIT :

I was at the same presentation and that other guy's account is not entirely accurate. He did say that purple will be discontinued due to the inconsistent quality, but there was no indication that he was the "head" of the quality department or had any say in these kinds of decisions. Actually, one person asked why the gray/blay change was made and he didn't answer the question directly, but his response was something like "I've heard the top management privately admit that it wasn't the brightest decision they ever made."

I asked him a few questions about other issues and was pretty pleased with what he said. During the presentation, he specifically mentioned white, yellow, red and orange as the main colors that have been identified by TLG as being subpar, which are exactly the colors I have been complaining about around here. Apparently it takes them a very long time, on the order of two or three years, to readjust the color balance. He said that yellow has been fixed now while the other colors are still bad, but he expects them all to be back to their old levels in another year or so. Maybe I can finally start buying new Lego sets again in large quantities.

[Pencoin]

Oh this IS going to be intresting. And when they say 'poor' they mean 'expensive' .

[Ecto]

What an megablock.

I mean, they could AT megablocking LEAST try to make a sturdier plastic... I absolutlely hate everything this guy has done. Fire him, LEGO.

Edited September 1, 2008 by Ecto

[Ikki o' Moopyville]

Far as I remember, the old purple pieces were every bit as sturdy as any other color.

Then again, that statement comes from a guy who invented bley...

-Ikk

[Ecto]

...and from the megablock who made the red and blue pins a reality.

[VBBN]

Darn. I better stock up on dark panthers.

Oh dear, that lime green issue still remains. I broke a Lewa pahntoka joint.

[Siegfried]

Well I'm actually going to believe him. Different colours do have different strengths. I doubt it's a cost issue as TLG has never had a problem with overcharging!

[Patriot720]

NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!! purple was a nice color! too bad.....

[VBBN]

Well I'm actually going to believe him. Different colours do have different strengths. I doubt it's a cost issue as TLG has never had a problem with overcharging!

Exactly what I am worrying about. Brown was pretty weak in CC...

[hewkii9]

So what's this guy's business plan? Bother AFOLs with all his color-changing power, or drab up the palate? I don't own much purple [just from Dark Panther], but it's as sturdy a color as any other [except lime green, that bad batch must've been two year's worth or something]. Nothing will change his mind, because he's an idiot. Ecto's right. Get this Megablocker out of here.

Edited September 1, 2008 by hewkii9

[Siegfried]

but it's as sturdy a color as any other

How can you be so sure? It's quite possible that there are a large amount of failures in manufacture and thus we aren't seeing the full picture. The fact that purple has been rarely made does support this. Besides, why would he (or TLG) lie or even want to remove the colour for any other reason? It's in their best interest to have a wider colour pallette as it sells more sets.

[CP5670]

I was at the same presentation and that other guy's account is not entirely accurate. He did say that purple will be discontinued due to the inconsistent quality, but there was no indication that he was the "head" of the quality department or had any say in these kinds of decisions. Actually, one person asked why the gray/blay change was made and he didn't answer the question directly, but his response was something like "I've heard the top management privately admit that it wasn't the brightest decision they ever made."

I asked him a few questions about other issues and was pretty pleased with what he said. During the presentation, he specifically mentioned white, yellow, red and orange as the main colors that have been identified by TLG as being subpar, which are exactly the colors I have been complaining about around here. Apparently it takes them a very long time, on the order of two or three years, to readjust the color balance. He said that yellow has been fixed now while the other colors are still bad, but he expects them all to be back to their old levels in another year or so. Maybe I can finally start buying new Lego sets again in large quantities.

[Derek]

Aw, I like purple! Thats too bad.

Watch Megabloks release a purple brick pack...

R.I.P. Purple...

darthperson

[Siegfried]

During the presentation, he specifically mentioned white, yellow, red and orange as the main colors that have been identified by TLG as being subpar, which are exactly the colors I have been complaining about around here.

Are you talking about colour consistancy or piece strength? I've noticed some cracking with orange, but I've had no problem white, yellow or red.

[AgentRick]

Damn, I have very little purple in the first place. Watch as the prices on Bricklink soar.

[JimBee]

Aw, what a shame... Good thibg I have the Knight Bus, that's basically all purple. I hope they don't discontinue other great colors like lime green or orange.

[Norrington]

I hope they don't discontinue other great colors like lime green or orange.

I agree with you. This dissapoints me as I like the large variety of colors. What about the Penguin in Batman?

[Bundalings]

This is the worst thing to EVER happen to Lego.

~Bunda

Edit:

During the presentation, he specifically mentioned white, yellow, red and orange as the main colors that have been identified by TLG as being subpar

I've had trouble with all the colors of plastic recently, but these especially. Good to hear somethings is being done about it.

Edited September 2, 2008 by Bundalings

[Siegfried]

What about the Penguin in Batman?

True, but it's worse than that. This means we can't have any Knights Kingdom re-releases.

Er... on second thoughts...

[Faramir]

Isn't purple a relatively new color anyway? I mean, it wasn't around when the podrace sets were released, and instead they had to use that orange... wasn't that the reason? It's strange such a new color would have such a short life.

One question, though... would this include trans-purple? The prelim SW sets had trans purple cones...

If it includes trans, I'd love to see my Magna Guards staffs shoot up to $50 apiece

[fallentomato]

Nooo!

I was really hoping purple was on it's way up. The secondary colors have slowly been growing in availability. I remember the days when green was solely relegated to trees and baseplates. And then the StarWars line introduced orange and now it's pretty well represented. I thought purple was going to join them as relatively available colors. Alas.

[maiq the liar]

darn. my roger wilco minifig will never be perfect now. odd, considering i didn't have any purple woes with what little purple parts i own.

[Section8]

I started with Lego bricks when it was black, white, red, yellow, and blue (green only in transparent bricks). Needless to say, since purple came out during my dark ages and doesn't factor much in to my primary themes (town, pirates, and castle) I won't be missing it. I'd .rather Lego discontinue a color that doesn't live up to their high standards of quality than compromise it. The only set I can even think of that used it to a high degree is the Knight Bus from Harry Potter. I won't miss it, though I can understand if you guys do. Losing one of the six basic colors (other than white/black) is pretty big.

Edited September 2, 2008 by Section8

[JINZONINGEN73]

(Grabbed my post here from BZ... pay special attention to Darth's post)

What the... wait a minute... purple in ANY shade is gone now?

ANY shade?!?

I mean, I really grew a disliking for the Bionicle 2001 style purple, but these newer dark purples were VERY good to look at.

This is pure insanity, and tells me that one of my favorite colors will NOT have me going to the Lego aisle to see if any sets have it included.

Darth Vader

post Sep 1 2008, 09:10 PM

He said the problem was in getting the purple colours to match across the different plastic materials used in various pieces. They're not all just ABS plastic, and each different plastic and dye often comes from different outside companies. Matching them consistently was too cost-intensive.

He also did not know what the colour 'teal' was.

And apprently metallicly coloured pieces are hard to make, and he hates them....

.... So why do we get so many sucky silver pieces in Bionicle?

Lol... oh man.

So THIS guy... he's the one who made our sets look bad with the wretchedly-colored pins.

He's the guy telling us "purple is gone". (LOL?!?)

And I should somehow be surprised he also does not know what the color "teal" is?

What the... just... what... how in the heck did he get this far in such a big company that's INTENSIVELY about "colors"... ...without knowing WHAT THE COLOR "TEAL" is???

Lego, get this guy outta' here, turn our axles black again and bring back (dark) purple.

[CP5670]

Are you talking about colour consistancy or piece strength? I've noticed some cracking with orange, but I've had no problem white, yellow or red.

This was about consistency, specifically the color saturation varying between bricks that are supposed to be the same color. I don't think there was any concern with part strength, which apparently becomes a problem with over-saturated pieces, while the bricks in these colors right now are typically under-saturated. There were six or seven other, secondary colors that he also talked about having problems, but I don't remember which ones they were (purple was one of them though).

I also asked him about the situation with the slope surfaces. He said that the current, smooth slopes were due to an unintentional oversight by TLG originally dating back to 2003, and that all slopes will have rough surfaces again in another year or so, which elicited loud cheers among the audience.