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Comments
A secondary reason might be giving that piece to the buyer for fun to use in MOCs, or maybe just because that piece is already on production in a primary color.
I'm not 100% sold on some of the reasoning (although you may be right, I don't know). The ease of building argument seems very unnecessary to me. Nowadays, with numbered bags and little boxes that tell you how many of each piece you need for each step, I don't understand who needs more simplification in the building instructions. But maybe that's just the crotchety old man in me.... (When I was a kid, we built the entire Black Seas Barracuda in 28 steps! You can't find Star Wars Battle packs with less steps than that! I kid...)
Someone mentioned the variety of pieces you receive. My initial thoughts went against this mindset. If I wanted to build some sort of a cohesive model with the pieces from my Angler Attack, I'm going to build something greenish. Now what am I supposed to do with these blue pieces? And maybe the 2x4 plates weren't currently in production in green, but black or gray seemed to fit the overall color scheme well enough. But then why not red? There were other red pieces in the set. It just seems so odd to add one additional color out of the blue for no apparent reason. So my initial thoughts were in the opposite direction. I find it hard to believe that the designers are thinking "let's throw them a curve ball in the color department and see what they can build with blue plates."
Maybe you guys are correct. But if you are, it still just doesn't make complete sense to me.
Thanks for the responses. (By the way, I'm a long time listener, first time caller, so I hope I didn't overstep my bounds with any of these comments.)
I can't find the article now, but I recall a LEGO designer talking about using pieces that are in production now in that color because it helps the assembly line keep running smoothly. It requires more steps to insert, say a 2x3 black piece than the blue, if the blue was already on the assembly line for other purposes and the black wasn't. We need to think of longterm efficiency for set manufacturing. That way they can make the most money effectively.
But in reality if it is hidden, it doesn't make any difference.
I don't know for sure obviously but I think this is unlikely, if only because production will be planned many months in advance, and the instruction books planned and printed quite early as well.
I can't think of any examples off the top of my head however I'm afraid. Maybe the Ewok village did a similar thing with the three trees where each tree had it's own colour so you knew which side of the main platform to place it? I can't remember, it's been so long since I built that one.
Either way, the use of hidden colours to assist building correctly is pretty glaring in some cases, so much so that I can't see that it's mere coincidence.
Best example I can think of for this situation is #852293-1 Giant Castle Chess Set: there are different color bricks in each of the four corners of the board, to guide you in placing the correct "fort" in the correct corner.