Has tan changed color?

inklingbricks

Hi everyone - I've bought some of the 10699 sand base plates and wanted to put them with some old tan 16x32 baseplates I had from the late 90s / early 2000s, but the colors don't match even though Bricklink says they're both 'tan'. Can anyone tell me if Lego has changed the color (perhaps when the grays and browns changed?) or is it ageing - in which case I'll give some of the deyellowing techniques a shot.

akunthita

Tan is not on the list of colors that LEGO changed, and they have been pretty consistent  with it (unlike for example dark-red, dark-blue or reddish-brown that has numerous hues even within the same set). However tan can definitely darken with age. I have gotten from BrickLink some really darkened/yellowed used tan pieces, where it was clear some sides were exposed to light. They were cheap pieces though, so just threw them away, or if the darkening was interesting, I kept them to use in detailing.

davee123

Additionally, we were also told by a LEGO designer that some elements (he used tan as an example) look slightly different in their color because of the finishing on the mold!  That one surprised me, but he told us that sometimes, the same colors being fed through different molds will look slightly different.

And as if that weren't enough, some elements use a different ABS mixture, or are even made of Polycarbonate due to the specific requirements for the part.  I think I recall hearing that elements with clips (for example) were slightly different than normal bricks.

But otherwise, no, as akunthita stated, the target color of tan hasn't changed, so it "ought" to match barring other issues.

DaveE

CCC

DrDave also posted some interesting notes on "brick yellow" here ... http://bricksetforum.com/discussion/comment/429295#Comment_429295

inklingbricks

Thanks everyone - looks like I'm going to have to give some deyellowing techniques a try! :)