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Topic: Question of the week... To bley or not to bley?

BrickPoor
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Question of the week... To bley or not to bley?
Posted on: 02/18/08 at 11:53:03 AST

Well it’s that time again, Monday morning, wake up and put your thoughts to keyboard.

Has Bley, dark bley bricks, and/or flesh coloured minifigs ruined your life?

Please feel free to rant as much as you want, I know peoples feelings run strong in this subject.

If you don’t know what bley is I’m sure it hasn’t ruined your life but to bring you up to speed I’ll tell you this… Circa 2004 Lego changed the dyes it used to make certain colours to reduce cost of production. The most infamous change was to grey which changed from warm and having a yellowy cast to cool and having a bluish cast. (Blue + grey = bley) This made old collections not match the new bricks. On top of this Lego didn’t consult the AFOL community in any way so some AFOL are a bit bitter about this…. But we already knew this.

I have every confidence that someone will correct me if I have any errors in my facts.

Brick foolish

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Chris
(getsome2027)
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Re: Question of the week... To bley or not to bley?
Posted on: 02/18/08 at 14:54:46 AST

I have more newer sets that I use so I am all for the bley, and all of my train track is now bley (Thanks Gail), so I am prolly one of the few who does not mind it... now wait for the angry mob to start....lol

http://www.moclug.com

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Gail

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Re: Question of the week... To bley or not to bley?
Posted on: 02/18/08 at 15:43:59 AST

I'll rant more about this later, but a few bits of info first.

As well as all the greys going from yellow hued to blue, the other major colour to be changed at this time (sets dated or made in 2004 and forward) was brown. Purely as a colour change this one upset me more than the greys. It is difficult to acquire brown elements, and I didn't like the change. Plus the new red-brown doesn't look as good for plants.

At the time, the 'official' word from LEGO was that the change had been made as a result of focus groups preferring the warmer colours. At the time they just looked like the shades of grey that MegBloks uses!

greedier

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Chris
(getsome2027)
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Re: Question of the week... To bley or not to bley?
Posted on: 02/18/08 at 16:38:45 AST

I agree with the browns, as this was a bad bad color choice... red is another color that is not the same either which is bad too although it is a lot closer then the others, there is still some very noticable variations... and if I had a lot invested into the old grey track / plates then I would be very upset as well...

http://www.moclug.com

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FREDDIE
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Re: Question of the week... To bley or not to bley?
Posted on: 02/18/08 at 16:49:18 AST

well i noticed today that i have some black bricks that have the LEGO words on the top that are not right. the O at the end is huge compared to the other letters, its a 2x4 brick. check out yours and see if any of yours are the same. mine were in the batcave sets. Quality control, huummm well.. ill put up a pic after abit.

LEGO my Lego EGGO!! PAB Florida COOOL.

My Brickshelf folder

freddies videos

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Lawrence
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Re: Question of the week... To bley or not to bley?
Posted on: 02/18/08 at 19:28:25 AST

Not my life, just my lego collection. It's madning to be working on something & not notice until you're almost done that some bley has worked it's way in. Happened a few times on the Town Hall build.

Wanted: A Round Tuit. No, wait. I'll get one later.

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Lawrence
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Re: Question of the week... To bley or not to bley?
Posted on: 02/18/08 at 20:09:57 AST

Ben said it best: http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=1286321

click up for a few more.

Wanted: A Round Tuit. No, wait. I'll get one later.

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Marc

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Re: Question of the week... To bley or not to bley?
Posted on: 02/19/08 at 11:36:40 AST

I noticed the difference in the elements... and was disturbed initially... but now I have so much of both it isn't such a big deal. And the 9v tracks I have are both too... but no big deal, will keep them separate and disguise them both eventually with 1x1 mixed as gravel.

LEGO Lifer
MOClug.com / Flickr / Brickshelf

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Brent
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Re: Question of the week... To bley or not to bley?
Posted on: 02/19/08 at 16:56:40 AST

Did you see this pic of the minifigs head???

http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=122402

When am I ever going to sort???

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legomotive
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Re: Question of the week... To bley or not to bley?
Posted on: 02/19/08 at 22:59:26 AST

Brickpoor...

You like to stur... and turn the knife in the wound

(just a tease!)
Like the majority or the AFOL in the community, I was quite upset about the change. I still don't like the new colors, but I understand that it is useless to be upset about it, because their decision will not change or be reversed. So there is always a few choices to make...

adapt to changes and be flexible
quit the hobby
buy only older sets and pieces to stay with the old colors tones
go with the flow and be happy
be mad and miserable alone in the corner
and many more...

I am more concerned about the quality control of the elements AND their color which mismatch more often than ever.
Then again, should one be hooked on perfection? Is life perfect?

Like anything material, it can vary easely. There is so many factor of variation, that is only normal to find what we like or dislike...

I came to realize that Lego is a toy first, and the way we look at it may vary so much from each other's perspective.
I like to believe that playing with Lego comes first, and that the interaction with other AFOL is so much more satisfying than the actual quality of our so "loved" product.
For me, politics around Lego will discourage more people than its quality. Look at how Megablocks are so popular.
Politics will/ -ARE- creating tensions in the community (I have been to many events like brickfest and more) or what we can read on lugnet, just because of the different point of views of AFOL.

Lets look at the fun of Lego and its endless possibilities!

Leg godt, JM

Life's good!

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BrickPoor
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Re: Question of the week... To bley or not to bley
Posted on: 02/19/08 at 23:58:47 AST

Well I hope no one is thinking of going postal over this. It's just a question.

I haven't had the same level of interaction with the AFOL community as you have JM, so maybe I'm underestimating how tender a subject this is.

Brick foolish

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Michael Burke
(PepeLepew)
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Re: Question of the week... To bley or not to bley?
Posted on: 02/20/08 at 10:05:10 AST

I have not been able to purchase enough in the last couple of years to notice the difference.

However, that being said, I am of two schools of thought:
1) I would prefer all the colours to match
2) As long as the colours are not too much out, it will not bother me.

MEB

My generic signature...

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legomotive
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Re: Question of the week... To bley or not to bley?
Posted on: 02/20/08 at 11:53:13 AST

BrickPoor said:
Well I hope no one is thinking of going postal over this. It's just a question.

I haven't had the same level of interaction with the AFOL community as you have JM, so maybe I'm underestimating how tender a subject this is.

It is just a joke that I made (or a tease like I said)...
I like the question very much, so that we can express our feelings on the matter.
The subject is VERY tender for some, some AFOL quit over it and sooo many others are furious...
Like I said, Politics and fanatism is what is putting a shadow over the Lego product.
Lego is a toy for kids first. And kids don't care at all about what we do care.
The new bley is hard to match with the old grey, and, for MOCing, it creates a problem for the look we want to achieve.

If you look at kids's MOC, they use whatever piece in whatever color. That's the whole idea. We, as adult, take the hobby too seriously and it creates conflicts in our vision for it.
I can understand that AFOL invest thousands of $$$ in this hobby, but that is one's choice and responsability.

I guess that it can be found in any hobby or activities. Hockey is a great one. Kids want to play and their parents want them to perform and compete, and even fight... Go figure...

Life's good!

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legosam
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Re: Question of the week... To bley or not to bley?
Posted on: 02/20/08 at 16:57:04 AST

Hey guys:
Bley , shmey. Once we get enough pieces, we will have enough bley to build in bley. Lego seems to favour bley
in the majority of their new sets.

one day.... I will do something BIG

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FREDDIE
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Re: Question of the week... To bley or not to bley?
Posted on: 02/20/08 at 21:20:32 AST

I was building/prototyping my new train car yesterday when i realized the plates were Bley and the joiner plates i used were the old grey you can surely see the difference, but for me i dont care unless you turn it upside down you can't see it. I think ill leave so it clearly shows the difference.

LEGO my Lego EGGO!! PAB Florida COOOL.

My Brickshelf folder

freddies videos

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