I might be finding aspects of my LEGO® life a little chaotic at present. Some of this is of recent doing. Some of it relates to things I did over a decade ago.
I am quite excited by the new LEGO of The Rings: Rivendell set. I can’t wait to share my review with you. It will probably be the highest part count set I have ever put together. Before I do that, however, of course, I will have to build it. and I thought I might like to compare the minifigures with those from the initial release, a decade or so ago. And then one thing drove out another, as it were.
As I mentioned in the announcement of the set, Middle Earth has a special place in my LEGO MOC history. I came out of my Dark Ages and started exhibiting at back in 2010, but that was just a simple, somewhat quaint and primitive modular terrace house, built without enough time to get all the right Bricklink orders in before the due date. As such, it is decorated in the style of a student share house, somewhere in the 1970s or early ‘80s, complete with a poor choice in decor.
What a fortnight it has been. Last week began with the shocking news that the LEGO Group is poised to complete the buy out of Bricklink. Its big news. And its hard to believe that it is just to ensure this great resource has been purchased by the LEGO Group, just so they can keep close to Adult Fans. A bit, maybe, but there are so many questions that get raised: are they looking to identify resellers? Look at the purchasing habits of AFOLs around the world? Ensuring that community support programs are being used appropriately? Or just trying to work out what color bricks are popular?
But this was just the front end of the week. By the middle of the week we were getting our inboxes assailed by endless emails advertising shopping opportunities: Black Friday, Black Friday Weekend, Cyber Monday… What?
Pardon the pun: As regular readers will know, I have been working on sorting my collection of LEGO Elements. This evening I reached my ‘foliage box.’ I thought I would quickly share some of my ‘leafy’ elements.
I’m excited because, through natural accumulation, I have managed to accrue all known colours of Design ID 2417, the 5×6 foliage element. Skip past the break to see them. Continue reading →
Please do not consider this a complete color guide!
Here at Rambling Brick headquarters, there is a project looming. Not technically an immensely secret or important project. But I don’t wish to reveal it right now. Please don’t take it personally. It will enhance the element of mystery in weeks to come.
In the meantime, I need to be ready for it. Now, for the last couple of weeks I have been sorting elements in my spare time. My initial eight box sorting technique was a little optimistic. What was initially going to be a simple ‘bricks plates, modified bricks, slopes, plates, tiles, small bricks/plates, greebly bits and everything else’ . I found a few extra bowls to put go through on the way: minifigures; minifigure accessories; curves and arches; round bricks; round plates, long tube like bits, profile bricks and random technic elements; I have made it through the majority of the casual boxes of broken down models and unrelated parts lying around the house.
The smaller elements seem to be in different types: 1×1 cylinders; 1×1 cones; 1×1 square plates, square tiles, round plates, and round tiles. Possibly a few more different colours than I would have been happy trying to fit into a fifteen compartment tackle box. But if we double up colours in the same compartment, it should be easy enough to identify them. In principle.
The other thing that has become apparent is the need for adequate lighting. And reading glasses. Some of these things are just related to normal ageing. The light is more related to sensible purchasing decisions. Sometimes the white LEDE light panel needs to come out to help work out what I have. However, I have discovered is that perhaps I am a a little more colour blind than I realised. Some colours are a little difficult to identify on their own, without a reference. Color variations in LEGO are not unknown. Colours that seem to be particularly inconsistent include medium blue and flame yellowish orange. Especially if medium Azur or regular yellow are close by.
This has been a challenge when sorting cheese slopes, small plates and round studs. As you can see many of these colours are pretty close together on the spectrum, and if the lighting is a little unreliable, then confusion can abound.
One colour is especially causing me problems. When ever I see pale aqua on its own, I accidently put it in with the white parts. Then I see it has doesn’t match, and attempt to chase it. How is it that it vanishes to the bottom of the compartment, only to be visible out of the corner off my eye when I stop searching for it? Any direct questing seems to result in bitter disappointment. If only my visual acuity was a little more akin to the hearing of a dog?
But was it real, or just a trick of the light? So again, I come back to this: bright, white light is certainly more important than a nice moody warm light in your sorting space. What do you use to ensure appropriate color matching in your build area. I’m open to suggestions. It may save a few headaches. There are more important things to have headaches about!
Do I actually own pieces in this colour? According to the Brickset colour database, I should own some. I have a couple of sets with Unikitty in somewhere. There were some spare 1×1 plates included from what I recall.
I wonder where they went?
Why not share your colour matching challenges in the comments below, and be sure to follow the Rambling brick for casual musings, random thoughts and occasional reviews.
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