5th Edition of the LEGO Color Guide

Now with more than 200 colors

I am happy to announce that the fifth edition of the The Unofficial LEGO Color Guide is now available. The book is available as a paperback and hardcover from Amazon.com. An eBook (PDF) is available from Lulu.

The LEGO company introduced several new colors in recent years and while most of them will remain exotic outliers, it is still worthwhile to include them in this catalog. A notable exception is the Medium Brown color, which is a welcomed addition to the spectrum of skin colors.

It is also important to notice that since the LEGO company took over Bricklink, some changes to the nomenclature have been made. Six colors were renamed. Most of these changes included the word “Flesh”. For example, Medium Dark Flesh was renamed to Medium Nougat and Light Flesh was renamed to Light Nougat.

Around 26 colors that are in this catalog have now also been adopted by Bricklink and hence their meta information has been added, such as their rarity and their Bricklink ID. In addition, the color proximity scores between the different colors are now included. A low score indicates a similar color.

Another improvement to the book is the rarity indicator. It is now being calculated based on a decimal scale. Colors that occur in more than 1000 parts are labeled “Many”, colors that occur more than 100 times “Several”, more than 10 times “Some” and more than 1 time “Few”. Colors that are not listed as an official brick are considered “rare”.

An important update happened behind the scenes. In the past I exported the color database to Adobe InDesign and then create the catalog from there. This process was complicated, labour intensive and error prone. The database has now been changed to create the catalog pages directly. Unfortunately, not all the design tricks possible with InDesign can be replicated with the database. The visual design was therefore modernised and extended.

Sample Pages

Here are some sample pages that show you the main section of the book.

sample-from-the-unofficial-lego-color-guide-fifth-edition

I would also like to address one of the major criticisms that have been voiced. The ink colors in the book do not match the plastic colors of LEGO bricks. Printing is typically done with four colors: cyan, magenta, yellow and key (black). The mixing of these pigments opens a certain color space and many of LEGO’s colors are outside of this color space. Some LEGO colors cannot be printed on paper. You computer screen or your mobile phone screen, however, have a much bigger color space and they are capable of approximating the LEGO colors much better. For identifying colors I would therefore recommend the eBook PDF and for lexical use the books. I hope you enjoy this updated and extended fifth edition.

New LEGO Color Guide Published

The fourth edition of the Unofficial LEGO Color Guide is now available.

I am proud to announce that the fourth edition of the Unofficial LEGO Color Guide is now available. The printed book is available as a paperback and hardcover from Amazon and other resellers. An eBook (PDF) is available from Lulu. The paper printing process has a limited color space and hence I recommend the PDF if you need to have best possible representation.

The book many new features and updates:

  • New Colors: the book contains the latest LEGO colors and several historical colors. The number of colors has grown to 196.
  • Improved Typography: the headers and footers are now automatically adjusted to offer an optimal contrast to the color stripe in the background.
  • Universally Unique Identifier: each color has now been assigned an Universally Unique Identifier (UUID). This removes any ambiguity in the identification of each color.
  • More Color Definitions: for several non-solid colors it has been impossible to make accurate measurements. New references from the LDraw library have been added to provide color definitions for those unmeasured colors.

Sample Pages

Here are some sample pages that show you the main section of the book.

sample-from-the-unofficial-lego-color-guide-forth-edition

Third Edition of the LEGO Color Guide available

I have been able to create the third edition of the Unofficial LEGO Color Guide. The LEGO company released two new colors in 2019: Rose Gold and Vibrant Coral. They are now included. I also took the opportunity to tweak the layout and typography of the book to make it easier to use. I am now finally happy with the product. The only problem remains with the limitations of the printing process. The plastic colors cannot be completely reproduced using Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black ink. The printing color space is just too small for all the light green colors. If you want a better color reproduction then you should try the PDF version of the book. Your color monitor has a wider color space than the printer.

The Ideal Order – Episode 12

Rob and his AFOL friends present at their first LEGO show and it is a full success. The kids and their parents enjoy the show. Rob has to handle Maki, the kids and Daisy during the exhibition. Professor Smith and Rob conclude with their thoughts on relationships.

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The Ideal Order – Episode 11

Rob meets his LEGO friends and they continue to plan their show. Maki returns to Rob but their differences cannot be mended. Rob admits to Camellia that he has a new girlfriend. He meets with Daisy in a cafe and they enjoy their new romance. Rob and his daughters spend quality time together in the comfort of their peaceful home. Professor Smith and Rob discuss taxonomies.

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The Ideal Order – Episode 10

Professor Smith explains to Rob how to have a career in academia. Maki and Rob negotiate their new roles as parents after their separation.

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The Ideal Order – Episode 09

Rob and Maki clash again and Maki leaves the home. Rob’s identity in his experiment is being found out and he takes off for a walk. His walk is being wrecked with a most embarrassing incident. Maki and Rob decide to seperate. Building the LEGO Space Explorer gives him some hope. Professor Smith his helping Rob to handle the crisis at work.

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The Ideal Order – Episode 08

Rob and his academic friends destroy Adam’s strategic speech to the department. One of Rob’s papers get rejected and he comes up with a devious plan to expose the insanity of the academic review process. His plan fails and his identity is about to be discovered. Rob’s meeting about his promotion application is also a complete failure which leads him into a complete breakdown.

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The Ideal Order – Episode 07

Rob escapes into the mathematics of classification systems before falling asleep in Professor Smith’s office. Maki tries to reconnect but they cannot find a common ground. The AFOL group continues to plan their show.

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The Ideal Order – Episode 06

Rob meets with a group of AFOLs and they start planning their first LEGO show. Professor Smith and Rob discuss Greek philosophy and the best strategy to have a career at the university. Maki pushes Rob to his limits and their fight erupts into a true tragedy.

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