Old Brown Pieces

[Redav]

Peeron lists OldBrown as the colour used for some of the pieces (like arches and walls etC) in the Castle range but what colour does that match in Bricklink (i.e. just Brown, Reddish Brown, something else or are they the same)?

[Blueandwhite]

Old brown is just plain old brown on Bricklink. New brown is reddish brown on bricklink. The same rule applies to light and dark grey/bley.

[Redav]

Brown is probably the most common brown? Dark brown wouldn't be as common, would it?

[Bluesecrets]

Brown is probably the most common brown? Dark brown wouldn't be as common, would it?

Brown is probably more common for now. It is retired so I suspect that reddish brown will over take it in just a little bit of time. Dark brown is the baby of the bunch. It doesn't have near as many types of pieces as the others.

[Blueandwhite]

Brown is probably the most common brown? Dark brown wouldn't be as common, would it?

Right now reddish brown is probably the way to go. While there are some pretty cool bricks only available in brown, reddish brown is a colour that will continue to grow in terms of availability. Like old dark and light grey, the prices on old brown bricks will only continue to climb making it an expensive alternative to reddish brown. Dark brown is very specialized and is limited to only a handful of elements. While it is incredibly cool, dark brown is just not common yet.

Bricklink has a great feature where you can look at the LEGO colour chart and determine what parts are available in each colour. The first column tells you how many distinct elements are available in each colour. The second column tells you how many sets featured elements in that colour. If you look at the chart you'll find that reddish brown and old brown are very similar in terms of parts offered. You'll probably find that there are more useful reddish brown parts available though as old brown hasn't been available for nearly a decade. Elements such as 1x1 plates and round plates for example are nearly impossible to find in old brown at a good price.

[davee123]

Brown is probably the most common brown? Dark brown wouldn't be as common, would it?

It's tricky to say whether "Old Brown" or "Reddish Brown" is the most common. I'd probably say Reddish Brown is the most common brown at this point.

"Old Brown" (AKA "Brown" on BL) was the most common brown until 2004, certainly. However, LEGO didn't really start using it very much in sets until roughly 1999ish. It appeared in castle and Wild West sets here and there (and a few other places), but not in great quantity (log bricks in Fort Legoredo being a HUGE boon of brown) or in great variety. Brown started being more common around 1999 or so, starting to become available in a lot more "normal" parts.

But when 2004 rolled around, and it was replaced by "Reddish Brown", there still wasn't very much Old Brown on the market-- it was basically just made a mainstream color for a few years before being replaced. But now, Reddish Brown's been around for almost 8 years, and has been a mainstream color all its life.

As for Dark Brown, it's pretty new (started use in 2008 according to BL), and still isn't a mainstream color. There are very few brick or plate elements in Dark Brown. So it's definitely not as common as either of the other two browns.

DaveE

[davee123]

After writing a quick script to go through BrickLink inventories:

LEGO didn't really start using [Old Brown] very much in sets until roughly 1999ish.

Looks like for its early life, Old Brown was mostly used in things like minifig hair, brooms, treasure chests, and so forth. Not really "standard" elements. It first started getting used in more building elements in 1986, but only rarely. For instance, a 1x2 brick and 1x2 plate were used with brown horses (sometimes a 1x2 tile instead of a plate).

In 1993, Dragon Masters used more standard elements in brown (still not very much) for a few trees and natural landscape. Mostly a small blip on the radar, and Brown was still very much a fringe color.

In 1996, mostly with Wild West and Dark Forest, Old Brown started being more common. Probably sort of the same way we might view Dark Brown or Dark Tan today-- not very plentiful, but in existence.

Then, in 2000, brown's usage took off, and kept increasing through 2003, when it was discontinued.

Reddish Brown, starting in 2004, took over where Old Brown left off (as a common color), and has since increased in use. A lot of that increase in usage may be due to the fact that more sets are released these days than they were historically-- but regardless, Reddish Brown is now a pretty common color.

DaveE

[Redav]

Good bit of reading there, thanks. I shall check out that Colour Guide too.

I think someone posted in another thread that dark brown looks pretty good for tree trunks. Between Brown and Reddish Brown, which do you think looks better?

[Handar]

I think someone posted in another thread that dark brown looks pretty good for tree trunks. Between Brown and Reddish Brown, which do you think looks better?

I don't think you need to choose. Just as there is colour variation in a forest, it's more realistic for you to have to have variation in your Lego tree trunks. In my opinion, therefore, both look better.

[Redav]

Yup, agreed. At the moment I'm looking into this idea (as an exercise) so here I'd stick with the single colour but you're right - I'll get varying colours for trees stuff and wood stuff.

[Handar]

Yup, agreed. At the moment I'm looking into this idea (as an exercise) so here I'd stick with the single colour...

Ah, I see now. In that case, I'd suggest going with Reddish Brown. Dark Brown would look better in my opinion, but it's missing key pieces for recreating sets. For example, while there are 1x2 bricks in the colour, it's missing 1x1, 1x3, and 1x4 bricks. The smallest plate is 1x6, and the selection of slopes is quite limited too (source). So, for your purposes, I don't think dark brown would work.

Would mixing the colours work and using the Dark Brown as a highlight colour work?

In any case, I'd be quite interested to see what the finished project looks like.

[Redav]

Ah, I see now. In that case, I'd suggest going with Reddish Brown. Dark Brown would look better in my opinion, but it's missing key pieces for recreating sets. For example, while there are 1x2 bricks in the colour, it's missing 1x1, 1x3, and 1x4 bricks. The smallest plate is 1x6, and the selection of slopes is quite limited too (source). So, for your purposes, I don't think dark brown would work.

It certainly is a limited colour at the moment and I hope the speculation above is right and that it increases in number. I've been spreadsheeting (bit of a slow process) six colurs (four browns and two dark greys) vs the black pieces that all the sets use. Brown is the most prolific but even it misses a couple of key pieces.

Would mixing the colours work and using the Dark Brown as a highlight colour work?

I probably wouldn't do that with the brown but I was also going to include some gark grey for some highlights to remove black completely. Although, the darker ones might look better up giving the impressing that there's shadows from the branches and it makes it darker?

In any case, I'd be quite interested to see what the finished project looks like.

Me too, if I get around to doing this. I've purchased a set through BL before but still have to wrap my head around purchasing individual pieces. I'm sure it's not hard and something to get used to.

[Redav]

Any chance anyone can post a picture with brick of these colours together? I'm trying to see how they compare to each other.

Dark Brown
Dark Stone
Mid Stone
Old Brown
Old Dark Grey
Old Grey
Red Brown

Thanks

[Bruce N H]

Any chance anyone can post a picture with brick of these colours together? I'm trying to see how they compare to each other.

This pic has new (reddish) brown, old brown, dark tan, and tan:

This pic throws in dark brown, and I think what Chris called 'chocolate brown' is what Peeron and BrickLink call 'Dark Flesh' and what LEGO calls 'nougat':


This pic shows all the grays together:

including the 'very light gray' that was only in 1x1 plates in the mosaic sets (and, I think, some accessories) that was discussed in another thread.

And, of course, no discussion of color change is complete without a little bit of griping, so here's this from Jojo:


Bruce

[Redav]

Wicked. Thanks for those links.