This is one of those who would have thought about it as a problem stories. It's great to read because it helps you think about the problems most of us already have solutions we take for granted. At the bottom it does have some AI sprinkles... Use an AI tool to figure out the colors of bricks to fill in the missing link.
The top comment on the article itself has a great idea to map colors to textures so the blind could identify the colors as well. With the rise of cheap knock offs of LEGO these days, I wonder if one of those could do that.
Lego bricks are injection moulded, so if you put a texture on the sides of the bricks, it will either be impossible to get them out of the moulds or you'd have to have a complex moving mould to release them, which would probably massively slow down production
1. The texture on the top slope of roof bricks is a standard mold finishing (acid etch?) that works fine with mold release.
2. Headlight grille bricks in the 70s used to have texture, along with printing. I'm not in the know but I suspect the texture could be a byproduct of the printing machine that was used then. (I've only seen 2000s era trade machines that used inkjet printing post-moulding.)
3. The 1x2 brick with vertical grooves on one face, horizontal grooves on opposite face... this has been common since the 80s! 1979's Galaxy Explorer had two of them (I think).
"Corrugated Steel" or spaceship "greebling" texture.
Trying to puzzle out that mold, I imagine you need a moving insert textured with the horizontal grooves.
Some sets have had dozens or hundreds of that brick (Star Wars), without a noticeable impact on price/piece?
16 comments
1. The texture on the top slope of roof bricks is a standard mold finishing (acid etch?) that works fine with mold release.
2. Headlight grille bricks in the 70s used to have texture, along with printing. I'm not in the know but I suspect the texture could be a byproduct of the printing machine that was used then. (I've only seen 2000s era trade machines that used inkjet printing post-moulding.)
3. The 1x2 brick with vertical grooves on one face, horizontal grooves on opposite face... this has been common since the 80s! 1979's Galaxy Explorer had two of them (I think). "Corrugated Steel" or spaceship "greebling" texture.
Trying to puzzle out that mold, I imagine you need a moving insert textured with the horizontal grooves.
Some sets have had dozens or hundreds of that brick (Star Wars), without a noticeable impact on price/piece?
A 1970s ad from Lego played up how kids don't see a problem making their beautiful truck out of whatever pieces were available.
I would have been a color snob, but all I had in 1979 were red bricks.