Managing the Various Shades of "Grey"

greekmick

I have just purchased a large amount of loose bricks which are all mixed up. The box came with 43 manuals included and was told most of the pieces are there, so trying to work out how many are complete. I am in the process of sorting the bricks by colour but am sure I read somewhere here that there are many different grey colours. I have only sorted light grey and dark grey at the moment. I want to make sure I have the correct brick for the correct set when putting the models together. Is there a marking on the brick to tell me I have the same colour as the manuals insist? I would like to sell the non SW sets when complete but don't want a problem having the wrong parts attached.

princedraven

^ I had a simular issue with a bulk lot I got, in reality you are looking at 4 different greys. Light grey, Dark grey, Light Bley (bluish grey) and Dark Bley.
I found it best to sort light and dark and then seperate old from Bley, till you end up with 4 different colours.
As to knowing what should be used for what set, I think the best way is by age of set. Someone far more experienced than me can tell you the year that Bluish Grey was first used, so you will know earlier sets use the old grey.

Hope that helps at least a bit.

greekmick

@princedraven - thanks, I thought it was you who had posted the question before but couldn't find it again after first coming across it.

princedraven

^ Think it was part of this discussion: http://www.bricksetforum.com/discussion/comment/11929#Comment_11929
In the end my answer was to seperate all the old light and dark grey pieces, and .........
well that was about it.. they are all in a box somewhere :) didnt get around to working out which sets they were from and piecing them together, but glad they are out of the way. I have a similar dislike for the Brown/Reddish Brown's....

greekmick

I did think it would be fun, but 3 days into sorting it I can say the excitement of getting so many sets for a bargain price is starting to disappear. I guess it will come back once i start separately the sets and ticking off the completed ones from the list. When I bought the set the picture had 8-9 manuals showing but the box seemed too big to just hold that many sets. Imagine the smile on my face when I collected the box and found 43 manuals.

princedraven

^ Sounds like you got a right result. Grats.
The whole sorting thing ground me down pretty quickly, was buzzing about what I would find, but that changed after the first 10 hours or so.....
Think you need a decent sorting system, so that when it comes to finding all the relevant parts per set it is like pick'n'mix. If you need to find a number of black slopes in a sea of black bricks it is amazing how your enthusiasm will disappear in a flash!

greekmick

I guess its a bit like decorating a room, the preparation stage is painful but once you start splashing on the paint it starts to get exciting.

So once I have sorted the colours, you recommend sorting the types as well?? Blimey, I had better go to poundland and get a few more plastic tubs and washing up bowls!!

princedraven

Well as per the other topic there are 2 schools of thought:
Sort by type
Sort by colour (and then realise that doesn't really work and sort by type!) :p
I was the second type!

So in the case of the Greys I would weed out the old greys first, but in general when you are looking to piece together sets you will want to sort mainly by part.

I currently have a box for 2x bricks, one for 1x bricks, one for 2x plates, one for 1x plates, one for slopes (with various ziplocks in of the different types), one for arches and wheels, etc, etc...
I use the 'Really Useful Boxes' which are great as they stack nicely (even without lids), and have flat sides, but they are expensive..

caperberry

Wonderful bargain. What age are the sets from?

Separating small pieces from big... LEGO make an expensive thing to do this, but all you really need is a very coarse sieve. I spotted one in a gardening centre, used for sifting earth and it was great for separating all my pieces smaller than about a 1x1 brick. Sadly I broke it and haven't come across another since! I should look on the interwebs I suppose.

As for separating gray from blay... good luck! Take respite in the knowledge it's worse to be separating brown from reddish brown, or 'greenish' trans-clear from the new crystal-clear trans-clear!

princedraven

Oh, another tip with regards to seperating grey and bley, try to do it in as few sittings as possible as your eyes kinda get used to the differences, if you keep stopping and going back to it its like your eyes have to re-adjust.
Think 3D Stereogram type thing, takes you a while for you to see, but once you can you see it fairly ok, but go away for an hour and you have to learn to see it all again :)

Of course it may just be my eyes :s

Oldfan

As far as which colors belong to which sets: you can use the inventories on peeron.com and bricklink.com to help you. In general, the new "bley" colors came into being in 2004-2005, but be aware that there was a transition period here. Also be aware that the inventories on these sites are fairly accurate, but not 100%, so a little judgment will be required. Note that the new colors are named differently on the two sites ("md stone" and "dk stone" on peeron, "light bluish grey" and "dark bluish grey" on bricklink). There is a chart on peeron that lists the different colors and their different names for both sites, and there may be one on bricklink but I'm not certain.

I know there are several topics in this forum that have more detail on this subject.

And I agree with several posters above, you need excellent lighting to determine the shade of light grey (old vs. new). The difference between the two dark greys are a little easier to spot, according to my eyes anyway...

starfire2

Also, if you go to Bricklink and enter the lego ID number under the picture of the part, it will tell you what color it is.

davee123

In general, the new "bley" colors came into being in 2004-2005, but be aware that there was a transition period here.

Yep-- if you've got a set from 2003 or earlier, it's one of the old colors, almost definitely(*). If you've got a set from 2004 or later, then it's very likely to be the new colors, but there ARE a scant few exceptions in 2004 and 2005. I'm not aware of any since then, although I know that some Pick-A-Brick walls contained older-color elements a few years later.

Fluorescent lighting or sunlight generally works better for spotting the difference between old light gray and new light gray. Incandescent lighting (or other "warm" lighting) seems to mask the color difference such that it's very difficult to tell.

Generally speaking, the differences between browns and dark grays are relatively easy to spot compared to the light grays.

DaveE

(*) I'm aware of ONE exception to this, which is the UCS ISD, which had later runs in the newer gray colors. Are there others?

DadsAFOL

Regarding the lighting, invest in a "daylight" flourescent bulb, not a regular. These are specially designed to produce a broad spectrum of wavelengths. That makes the light gray and light bley much easier to distinguish.

If you don't have access to one, the next best thing is indirect sunlight, not direct sunlight. Stand outside in the shade, or inside next to a window where the sun is not shining directly in.

princedraven

^ and if you squint it helps, also best to balance on one leg and if at all possible hop!
:)

starfire2

Sometimes you can still miss a piece. I had a dark grey mixed in with my dark bluish grey tiles.

madforLEGO

I did think it would be fun, but 3 days into sorting it I can say the excitement of getting so many sets for a bargain price is starting to disappear. I guess it will come back once i start separately the sets and ticking off the completed ones from the list. When I bought the set the picture had 8-9 manuals showing but the box seemed too big to just hold that many sets. Imagine the smile on my face when I collected the box and found 43 manuals.

That is a good feeling, but I like it more when I find Manuals that have the sticker sheets still in them

IO used to think sorting Bley (I STILL hate that term) and gray was difficult, but even under a regular good old light bulb you can tell which has a bluish hue to them and which don't. To be honest the other way to tell are the pieces look kind of 'cheap' compared to old Gray color

peterlinddk

Greekmick, are you me from a month ago? :) I just purchased three large collections of LEGO bricks, and have been sorting for the past five or six weeks ... I have to break it to you - it'll take you a lot longer than you anticipate. But you will probably end up with a system that you can use again.

I started sorting by color, and have later on realised that I couldn't find anything in a bucket of red bricks, so now everything is sorted by type. However, it isn't entirely futile to sort by color, because it'll be easier to sort one color into several types, than many colors to many types, and it'll also give you an idea of how many types you may encounter.

But when building, I still have to distinguish between bley and grey, and it is a nuisance. To assist me, I've built a rainbow - a stack of LEGO-bricks in most of the colors I have present - and hold it up against the bricks to determine their color.



I always know that the colors in my rainbow are (from the bottom up) black, old dark grey, dark bley, bley, old grey, white, tan, old brown, new redbrown, etc. etc.

And it works in most lighting-conditions, since if I can't distinguish between grey and bley on the rainbow, then I know that the light isn't sufficient where I am.

greekmick

what a simple but brilliant idea. I will build a rainbow tonight to help me. Thank you very much.