Bye Purple

[Siegfried]

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.

Yay! It won't help my MTT, but yay none the less!

[Bundalings]

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.

"High quality standards"? The last time I got a set that lived up to my standards in terms of plastic quality was in 2004.

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.

Nooooooo. I like the smooth slopes. =P

~Bunda

[Shadows]

I wonder who this guy really was. Clearly he doesn't have the kinds of answers you'd get from someone in charge, but he's at least somewhat involved in the process.

Well, whatever the case, it's just one of those things, I guess. None of us is an expert in the field, so we can't really say whether or not the reason given is true, we pretty much just have to accept the reality that purple may be gone. Somehow, I doubt that trans purple will count, but who knows.

At least I finally understand why I had an urge to buy up purple parts about a year ago. Might have to stock up a bit more before they're completely gone, though I never have figured out what I'd use them for.

[JINZONINGEN73]

Nooooooo. I like the smooth slopes. =P

~Bunda

Yeah, I'm not lookin' forward to rough-surfaced 1x1s.

Those, at the very least, I hope remain smooth.

[CP5670]

I wonder who this guy really was. Clearly he doesn't have the kinds of answers you'd get from someone in charge, but he's at least somewhat involved in the process.

His title is "Quality Engineer," from the post on Lugnet about him. He was obviously knowledgable, but I highly doubt that he was personally responsible for the various company decisions he talked about.

"High quality standards"? The last time I got a set that lived up to my standards in terms of plastic quality was in 2004.

I'm hopeful that the last few years will be just a transient phase and TLG will return to their old quality standards, based on what he said. I have bought only a handful of new Lego sets during that period, first because of the gray change and later due to this color saturation problem. I didn't want to be spending a lot of money for sets containing bricks that essentially looked like Megabloks.

Yeah, I'm not lookin' forward to rough-surfaced 1x1s.

Those, at the very least, I hope remain smooth.

I think this only concerns the classic slopes. The 1x1s initially came out in 2005 while the other slopes were still rough, so my guess is that they will remain that way.

Edited September 2, 2008 by CP5670

[Pencoin]

He is getting rid of purple, which in my opinion is fine (no breakages). But this idiot isn't adressing the weak parts (yellow,lime green, black, amond others). To be really honest, I don't think this guy even works at LEGO group.

[iamded]

Oh dear. We'll miss you, The Penguin minifig.

I'm just glad I got that Life on Mars alien base, that has a nice amount of purple parts. I'd be interested to see what our resident Repentant Purple Pie thinks of this...

~Peace

[Shoc]

Noo! This is baaad...

We weren't getting enough purple parts as it is, and they didn't seem weak to me. Whenever there is a normal set with purple parts in, I usually try to get it, so I have most of both colour purple pieces. The only problem I ever had was a slight inconcistency in the purple colour of my Knight Bus, but that seems to have been fixed after then. The purple parts are very strong, this guy is being nonsencical like he obviously was when he did other colour changes.

So, we can't have The Penguin with purple trousers anymore, or The Joker with purple clothes. Or anything else that would look good purple, like most things (purple is my favourite colour).

This news is going to hurry me on to buy the Dark Panther, anyway!

Does this include the dark pink? It's kinda purpley...

Rest In Purpley Peace, Purple Parts...

:skull:

Edited September 2, 2008 by Shoc

[JINZONINGEN73]

Y'know, as I look through my parts bin and Brickshelf folders, I realize this actually hits my fun with Lego even harder than the gray / blay situation did.

WAY more so.

Yeah, clearly purple has been a big part of my enjoyment with Lego.

It is also CONSCIOUSLY one of the reasons I go into the Lego aisle at the toy store... JUST to see if any sets have got purple in them.

Bad move. Bad, bad, bad move...

[Fluyt]

Again just like with the bley and frown, very bad move

I really like the non-standard colors, like lime, orange, sandgreen/blue/red and purple even thought I don't have a lot of pieces in those colors, so this is even worse, because I wont be getting them in sets anymore . I don't believe it is a quality issue, since "in the old days" (like 80's and 90's) there weren't a lot of quality issues afaik, only since they started using clear plastic pellets and only later added a dye, the quality started plummeting. It is LEGO's own fault that there are quality issues now, they don't want to make less profits to get quality up (unless they milk European customers for the losses that LEGO has, as always).

TLG, fire that guy please.

[Tenorikuma]

Colour me disappointed. I love all the odd colours, including purple. In fact, I had a theme I was planning that would require a fair amount of dark purple.

Lego, it's not the 80s any longer. We need a comprehensive palette of colours to make our MOCs.

[Silent-Sigfig]

Again just like with the bley and frown, very bad move

I dunno...I like both of those colors.

It's sad that purple's gone...But I only had a few purple parts, most from MM.

[Joebot]

In spite of the bad news ... I'm just pleased that TLC is actually COMMUNICATING with the fans this time around. The Great Bley Fiasco was dumped into our laps with no advance warning. I still remember the first post on Lugnet where somebody posted pictures of a new set, comparing the new greys with the old greys. The whole situation was very poorly handled by TLC. It seems they've learned a lesson or two, and are now letting us know about these sorts of decisions. Sure, the reasoning seems flimsy, but at least we KNOW about it.

[Fluyt]

I dunno...I like both of those colors.

It's sad that purple's gone...But I only had a few purple parts, most from MM.

Yeah, they're not bad colors in itself, but the stupid thing is that the old colors where replaced with them, while there was nothing wrong with the old ones in my opinion.

And they don't mix that well with the old colors (although frown is nice to have as a variant in wood/mud), so people with a lot of old gray had to start al over.

I think the only purple part I have is a dumbledore minifig , nothing wrong with the quality on that one.

[Shoc]

It's sad that purple's gone...But I only had a few purple parts, most from MM.

By MM you mean Mars Mission? If there were pruple parts in Mars Mission, I would certainly be buying more Mars Mission...

Maybe we could get one of our Lego ambassadors to tell TLC what we think of this bad move from them...

:skull:

[Zarkan]

So, purple is being permanently discontinued thanks to a decision made by a guy that doesn't even know what Teal is?

Seriously, if you haven't even heard of that color, than you obviously aren't qualified to make color decisions for a construction toy company - or any toy company for that matter.

Edited September 2, 2008 by Grevious

[BryanKinkel]

Was there any other news that came out of the LEGO keynote speech?

[KimT]

It keeps surprising me how conservative LEGO-fans are.

They're removing a colour because it doesn't live up to the standard: "The best is not good enough" and you're all whining about it. If they'd choosen to keep it, then you'd all be whining about colour loss or cracking bricks within a year or so.

Is it really that bad? Purple may be out of production, but you can still buy a zillion purple bricks in Bricklink.

Just as you can still buy old light and dark grey.

This is turning into the usual colour rant.

Though I'd rather they stopped making white bricks - so darn difficult to keep them white.

So, purple is being permanently discontinued thanks to a decision made by a guy that doesn't even know what Teal is?

Seriously, if you haven't even heard of that color, than you obviously aren't qualified to make color decisions for a construction toy company - or any toy company for that matter.

And you are?

By MM you mean Mars Mission? If there were pruple parts in Mars Mission, I would certainly be buying more Mars Mission...

Maybe we could get one of our Lego ambassadors to tell TLC what we think of this bad move from them...

:skull:

It's not a question of this being a bad move or not.

It's a question of quality.

The colour could be fading too early or perhaps it cracks easily.

LEGO has high quality standards and MB hasn't - make your choice

[Zarkan]

And you are?

I didn't say that I was either - it's just that it's really ironic and almost scary that the guy in charge of the colors at TLC doesn't know about that color. I'm only 15, but that guy is an adult and making big decisions that affect lego as a whole - which is what gets on my nerves.

They're removing a colour because it doesn't live up to the standard: "The best is not good enough" and you're all whining about it. If they'd choosen to keep it, then you'd all be whining about colour loss or cracking bricks within a year or so.

Is it really that bad? Purple may be out of production, but you can still buy a zillion purple bricks in Bricklink.

Actually, I've NEVER complained about TLC's supposed color problems. I haven't even made a big deal about the grey change at all. This is different, however - we still have a form of grey, but now we will never have any sort of purple color in lego again.

Edited September 2, 2008 by Grevious

[CP5670]

The teal thing did seem strange. Someone asked him a question at the end on whether teal will also go out, but he didn't know what color it was. However, it's quite possible that TLG just calls it something different and he didn't recognize the word. I used to call it turquoise when it first showed up in Technic sets in 1998.

Personally, I only have a handful of parts in both purple and teal and finding places to use them is a challenge in itself, so it wouldn't be a big deal to me if they weren't available anymore. The gray change hit much harder since that was one of the six or seven main colors and had been around for almost 40 years.

They're removing a colour because it doesn't live up to the standard: "The best is not good enough"

I don't think the company lives by this anymore, at least not to the degree that they once used to, and their CEO implied as much in an interview I read on Lugnet a while ago. If this whole color consistency problem had taken place 15 years ago, I doubt the affected pieces would have ever made it into the market. They would have just eaten the loss and made it right as fast as they could.

Edited September 2, 2008 by CP5670

[Shoc]

It's not a question of this being a bad move or not.

It's a question of quality.

The colour could be fading too early or perhaps it cracks easily.

The thing is, I've never had a problem with the strength of any of my 'large' amount of purple pieces. I would actually say they're sturdier than some other colours. Sure, the pieces in [my] Knight Bus had some small inconsistencies in colour, but that was the only time I've had slightly awkward purple bricks. Also, I've never had experience of these pieces fading, even when I leave them out by the window a lot. Of course, this is my experience, but I have lots of sets that contain purple pieces, from nearby, from S@H and from another country, the Netherlands... Maybe I'm lucky, maybe TLC were just inspeecting a faulty batch of purple bricks.

:skull:

[brickzone]

Well, even if there is a loss of a colour (purple), at least we have good new ones such as dark brown.

I too am enjoying the greater use of "secondary" colours. Orange for example I now have a reasonable bit of. I can't get enough of dark green, dark blue and dark red - they are perhaps my favorites along with dark brown. Dark blue legs are so much more versatile than blue, dark green is more of a nature colour than ordinary green, and dark red is less abrasive than ordinary red, but more effective too (just look at Vladek sets, Skellies, etc). In fact, ordinary red, blue and green are more suited to being secondaries, with the dark colours as primaries! The old colours are more effective for highlighting!

I'm not too disappointed about purple - it's a difficult colour to work into anything, and although I'm collecting the Harry Potter sets, it's thus far meant I'm not willing to pay much at all for Knight Bus (even though I want to eventually get it for completeness).

[dviddy]

It wasn't about the fragility of the bricks, but about the difficulty in getting the purples to match across the different sorts of plastics used. The colours weren't bright enough, weren't dark enough, and settled differently in the twenty-or-so different plastic types TLG uses in their pieces. This is the reason we've had so many different purple shades these last few years.

At least, that's what he said in the panel. I was the guy who asked about teal.

[Shoc]

The colours weren't bright enough, weren't dark enough, and settled differently in the twenty-or-so different plastic types TLG uses in their pieces.

ABS and the stuff they used for Exo Force hair, and the stuff they used on the bendy Exo Force pieces are the only types of plastic they used for purple... Aren't they? Or is ABS not one type of plastic?

:skull:

[JINZONINGEN73]

I think the only purple part I have is a dumbledore minifig , nothing wrong with the quality on that one.

I've got purple parts from as far back as 2001 and have Bricklinked nearly every damn purple or dark purple part (heavily) off Bricklink since then.

Seriously, I haven't seen problems with:

--color anomalies

--plastic integrity

--aging of any sort

It's one of the reasons probably that I like building with it. These parts ARE more stable than the chronically ailing white and other colors.

This all has to be just the cost for "easy" quality and them not feeling the need to pay up. Maybe there's tons of errors that are thrown out that we never see, I dunno'.